Three Houses

Ps 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.

Today’s message is about three houses we have in our lives.

1. Your house or home this place where you physically live.

2. Your church house; the place where you regularly attend church services.

3. Your body which is where the Spirit abides.

1. Your house

In Joshua 24:1 “Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel, Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD has done”; and for the next 13 verses Joshua spoke of how God had led them for generations. When we get to verse 14 Joshua challenges the people:

Jos 24:14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

Jos 24:15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

What if Joshua were here now, what might he say to the people of our nation?

In the past our ancestors of the faith suffered under cruel dictators, kings, rulers and self-serving religious leaders. God sent courageous founders to pioneer and create a nation that would allow freedom of religion and worship. Through the generations, many have tried to overturn these foundational God given freedoms. The New Testament ideals opened the doors to free speech, freedom to assemble, freedom to criticize government, freedom to fight in wars, and to stand in protest of these same wars. Freewill is a God given attribute that established the basis for this government’s freedoms. Because of these freedoms this nation has generated more general wealth than anyone could have ever image and we are benefactors of the blood, sweat, tears and the very lives of so many who have gone before us. Now at a time when the secular humanist, the sexually immoral, and laissez-faire politicians and lawyers are attempting to overthrow our heritage, it is time to drive a stake in the ground and I don’t know about you, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

The Bible teaches us that when the patriarchs encountered God they built an altar to Him. The next person that came walking by may not have known exactly what happened there, but he knew somebody had worshipped in that place. The person who built the altar would give the place a name, mark it on his maps and tell the story without apology or scientific explanation to every generation that followed.

We need to cultivate that mind in our homes, that when we have a testimony it is our testimony and when we testify of the goodness of God we need to be driving a stake in the ground, building an altar, marking our maps and telling our family and friend. Because

Rev 12:11 They overcame [satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

We need to make certain that the house we live in reflects the love, care, politics, and whole view of the God we serve.

2. Your church

Within the universal church, we are faced with the daunting task of keeping every single person on the planet informed about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The New Testament church that God has asked us to operate within is organized with a bizarre structure. It is this circular format where the leaders are recognized because of their ability to follow, and from within the followers, God raises up people who can only be recognized by their willingness to serve those from whom they have been raised up from. Now this does not imply that the leaders follow the followers, but rather that they lead by coaching and setting an example for those who follow. Leaders in the church are volunteers; they set aside personal gain and invest countless hours without tally or expectation. They do it out of love and service as the Lord Jesus taught them.

Consequently, when a local church, like this one here, embarks on the mission to communicate the gospel message; we wind up doing many things that good business people just would not do. We build buildings with the intension of wearing them out. When we do, we build a new building that is bigger and better than we need. We build it that way because we are not building it for ourselves, we are building it to make the past generation proud, the next generation functional, knowing that if Christ tarries in His impending return, that the generation after that is going to criticize us for our lack of vision, tear it down and build a new better building.