Preparing To Build - 5

Preparing to Build - Part 5

Seeing The Vision…Seeing The Cross

We continue our series today…PREPARING TO BUILD, SEEING THE VISION, LIVING THE DREAM. We started this series on July 8 for the purpose of getting ready to see God move in our lives and our church.

We chose the builder, we talked about the foundation. Last week, we talked about CONSULTING THE BLUEPRINTS before buying the nails. All of those sermons focused on the first phase of our series…PREPARING TO BUILD.

Today, we move into PHASE II of our series. SEEING THE VISION. You see, now we are ready to start seeing some results. Now, we’re ready for this building to go up. Now we’re ready to move forward with God in our lives and in our church.

Seeing the Vision has everything to do with understanding where we are going…and doing what is necessary to get there. That is what we begin talking about today.

Last week, we focused on the importance of Consulting the Blueprints. That the most important part of starting to build is to look at the plans and see what it is we must do to build things right.

We talked about our Biblical Blueprint for our lives and church. About what we need to do and how we do it.

We read these two verses over the past two weeks as well. These verses are so very important in our lives.

Col. 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

These two verses focus on our SALVATION, our SUBMISSION, and our SANCTIFICATION. We handed out that card two weeks ago that helps us remember what is important, what those basic truths are that we must understand in our Christian walk.

Today, we move on to talk about the building process. We’ve been PREPARING BUT TODAY WE START DOING!

And, everyone knows, that an important part of a building are the LOAD BEARING WALLS. You see, the load bearing walls are that part of the structure that holds up the house, that holds up the upper floors, that bear the weight of what’s above.

And, those load bearing walls must be built correctly and exactly to plan in order for the house to stand. Those load bearing walls are what the rest of the house depends on to help it stand.

As we build our lives and our church, we too have load bearing walls. These are the walls that will secure the rest of the structure. That will hold up the rest of the structure. That will carry the weight of everything above. These are the walls upon which we build.

Today, I want to share with you what those load bearing walls are and why they’re important. These are the foundational truths upon which we build.

Our theme verse for this series is 1Cor. 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

I shared with you a few weeks ago the importance of this verse. How we are to be anchored in Him. Locked in place, so that nothing can move us from the Will of God.

But I can tell you with no doubt, that you and I will never be steadfast and immovable, anchored in Him, unless we hold firm to the load bearing truths that I will share with you today.

1 Peter 2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 22 “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; 23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

There it is in verse 24, it says he “BORE” our sins. In other words, he took the weight of our lives, the weight of our sin, all of the ugly things in our lives. He bore them for us.

Is. 53:4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.

Is. 53:4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! (NLT)