WORKING ON THE WRONG CHURCH MATTHEW 16;18
Intro: "A pastor came home one day to find his daughter arguing with her friends in the bedroom. From the front hallway he could hear them yelling and calling each other names, so he quickly made his way up the stairs.
"`What’s going on in here?’ he asked as he entered the room.
"His five-year-old looked up at him and smiled. `It’s okay, Daddy. We’re just playing church!’"
We laugh at a scene such as that, but the reality is much darker and far more serious that we often realize. A sad but true fact is that the church is often thought of as being out of touch and insensitive to what is going on in the world. Often, the church is seen as being so wrapped up within itself that it has no compassion on, or time for a world that is perishing. In fact, there are many outside the church that would rather turn anywhere for help but to the church.
I don’t know about you, and I cannot speak for your church, but my heart’s desire for MT. Pleasant Baptist is that we become the kind of church where lost folk can come and find help, a place where the saints can come and find home and hope fro their lives. I believe you want the same for the church you call home as well. Therefore, we need to hear the lessons that are laid out in these verses. This morning, as the Lord gives liberty to stand and speak, I would like to preach to on the thought, working on the wrong church..
Psalm 127-1 says, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it, in other words [ own words]
Jesus said Matthew 7’24-27
Jesus said if we are going
to build a Church on your moral existence, if you’ll going to build a Church in which you are going to live in all your life, you better build it well.
For he that heareth these sayings and doeth them is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock, and Luke says dig down until he finds the rock.
The man that doeth them not, is like the foolish man, who builds his house on the sand.You see we build our lives and our character homes as a carpenter, a builder builds a building.
When we come to the level of existince where we are impressive and conscience of those impressions, we begin to lay the foundation.
Every emotion, every ideal, might be a brick on our character. So the foundation ought to be deep. Each time we acquire an attitude, each time we develop a disposition we’ll reaching and getting another brick on the building.
There are important things about a bulding;
[1] foundation
[2] girdles and pillows.If that house can stand depends upon it’s building, it’s foundation, it’s pillows and girdles.
If those are not strong, it can’t stand to much of a load, I don’t believe you know what I am talking about.The walls the pillars and the rafters ought to be strong.The reason why so many lives go to pieces, the foundation is bad, so many lives crumble because the gutters are not strong enough to stand the load.
While we are so busy working on this[point to church] church building ,we need to be working on this[point to self] church building. We need to build strong character. If your church is frail,that’s the way you built it.
You can’t least it and get another one, can’t sublease it and let some body else work on it for a while. It’s yours because that’s the way you built it.
The foundations may to shadow and the walls maybe flimsy and the girdles maybe weak and ther pillars maybe frail, but if that is the way you built your character home, then you have got to live in it.
And if there is any repairs that need to be done, then you will have to do it for your self. Working on the wrong church.
You know in this kind of church that we build, these human churches, on the outside they all look alike.You can’t tell a good house from a bad house. Outwardly they all look alike. And some weak and some strong.
You can’t look on the outside and tell the difference. ...can’t judge the book by looking at the cover.When you go inside into the basement and look at the foundation, you’ll say this house was built well.
But some good looking churches will crumble in the first wind, so you can’t tell from outward appearce, it takes the windstorms of life to test the kind of church you are building.
Let the thunder growl and rumble in the distance, let life’’s thunder that’s what I am talking about, start growling. Let life’s lightening start streaking the skies of life, let the rains of life pour down, let the floods of life, fill the river beds of life and flow out into where your church is.
And then we will know if it is built to stand the test of time. I t takes life to test what kind of church you are building.
You ought to see men building house, they know according to their training and according to ther building code that it is necressary to dig down a little bit. Not just a short ways , nut go way down until the kind of solid earth has been discovered and start there pouring the concerte footing.
You ought to see these men building up the walls, making them strong, pouring the floor solid, making the walls substanial including steel in the wall sometime so that , if a rock set in and the concerete fail the steel would insure.
It takes a long time but the men know if it;s going to be a substaniel building, youo got to put a little time in it. So that life would be a successul life, that life ought to be built well. It ought to dig down into life before it gets to its foundation, every life ought to dig down.
And if you dig down deep enough you’ll find that rock. Jesus said upon thisrock I will build my church , For Jesus is the rock of our lives, and if you dig down far enough you’ll find him. Working on the wrong Church.
And when you find him, you ought to start building right from there, you ought to pour the footing of faith, so when you make your foundation, you got a strong footing.
You ought to put the steel of prayer and hope thoughtout the wall, so when faith can’t see, you can hope on anyhow. Working on the wrong Church.
The walls ought to be strong with good will, neighborness, kindness, mercy and truth.
honesty ought to be in your Church. And if you build by this code, everything will be alright.
If truth is there, if faith is there, if love is one of your walls, the winds may turn loose against ya, and they will, but stay there anyhow.
You ought to cover that old building with prayer, yes you oughta, you ought to have ther window of the soul in your building
so that the soul may look out on life sometime and help you make some decisions.
I remember hearing a story as I come to my conclusion.
The story is, that up in Lebedon, there are cedars on the mountainsside and they tell me those cedars grown down
they are not so tall, but they’ll strong and dependable. Those roots go down into the mountain, they go down until they strike a rock.
And then those roots wrap around the rock and go underneath the rock and tie themselves together. So when the winds and the storm let loose, those old cedars just rock from side to side, but when the storm is over they stand up again strong
We ought to have our Church bult like that, let the roots of our faith go down in the mountain of salvation until it strike a rock o salvation, and as you go on into this old world and experiences in life begin to rock you from side to side stand there
Stand there because Jesus said I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Working on the wrong building.
