Unless The Lord Builds The House Series

INTRO.- ILL.- Some house builders drove into their local lumber yard. One of the men walked into the office and said, "We need some four-by-twos."

The clerk asked, "You mean two-by-fours, don't you?" The man said, "I'll go check," and went back to the truck. He returned and said, "Yeah, I meant two-by-fours."

"All right. How long do you need them?" asked the clerk. The man paused for a minute and said, "I'd better go check." After a while, the customer returned to the office and said, "A long time. We're gonna build a house."

How could any builder be that dumb? I don’t think you’d want that guy to build you a house. And obviously, you need lots of lumber to build a house, but what about a spiritual house? What does it take? And how long does it take to build a good, solid spiritual house?

Even if we never build a house, we all are building a house in this world! We all are building a life.

ILL.- When I was a kid the First Baptist Church of Webb City, MO, gave me a Bible in Sunday School. It had a poem in the front entitled, “Live to Make a Life.” I don’t have that Bible anymore nor that poem. And I can’t find it on in the internet. Essentially, it read: Live to make a life, not a living. And you get the idea.

There are many in life who only set out to make a living, but they never make a life, at least, not a life that is pleasing to God. And that should always be our goal as His children.

I Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Whatever we do in life we are to live for His glory. That means to honor God in all we do; work, play, raising our children, etc.

II Corinthians 5:6-10 “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

That’s it! We live to please the Lord in life! And since we will eventually appear before the Lord it only makes good sense to seek to please Him in all of life.

Ephesians 5:15-17 “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.”

How do we live? Very carefully. Using every opportunity to honor and serve the Lord. There is much evil in our world and the best way to avoid contributing to that evil is to serve the Lord. We fill our lives with doing good and doing the will of God.

Colossians 1:9-10 “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God...”

We must live a life worthy of the Lord. We belong to Him and we must seek to please Him in every way: marriage, children, work, relaxation, etc.

ILL.- A carpenter walks onto a job site of a large company and hands the foreman his application. The foreman begins to scan the sheet, and notices that the applicant has been fired from every job he has ever held. “I must say,” says the foreman, “your work history is terrible. You’ve been fired from every job.” “Yes,” says the carpenter. “Well,” continues the foreman, “there’s not much positive in that.” “Hey!” says the guy as he pokes the application. “At least I’m not a quitter.”

Many people act like quitters when it comes to building a life. It’s like, “Why work hard? It never pays.” That may be the mentality that some people have. However, everything do in this life does have an affect on eternity. We must not quit. We must not be lazy. We must work hard in order to build a life that is pleasing to God. And that’s what this text is all about. Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.