I Am Building For A Lifetime
September 14, 201 Isaiah 28:16 1 Corinthians 3:5-17 Matthew 7:15-28
Have you ever purchased an item that looked great in the package or on the advertisement but when you got it, you said, “this is nothing but a piece of junk, it so flimsy, I want my money back. You made two mistakes. First of all you thought what you paying was actually worth the item you were receiving. Second, you thought they created the item to do what you wanted it to do. The item was created to last, just long enough for them to make a dollar off of you.
Sometimes when this happens to us, it makes us angry and upset, we can simply throw the thing in the trash can and go on about our business. There are other times though, when what we got can’t easily be gotten rid of and we’re stuck making payments such as that great deal on the car that we didn’t know had been underwater in a flood. We still have to make the payments. There are still other times, when our lives are severely damaged or maimed. We see this when people think they are purchasing a good time with a high with drugs not realizing they are actually paying for an overdose that will kill them. What we see is not always, what we get.
Whether you know it or not, you are both a builder and a building and what you’re building is based on how long you expect it to last. Each time we eat, we’re deciding to build and on what we plan to look like in the future as well as how far out that future is going to go. Each time we think or we act, we are using materials to build our spiritual body or our temple of the Holy Spirit as the bible describes it.
In our New Testament reading the apostle Paul told us we build ourselves spiritually with different items that will have a different result for our lives. In Corinthians 3:12 He said some lives are may be built using gold, silver, costly stones and others with wood, hay or straw. What we build with is going to determine how long - we think something is going to last.
If you’re dating someone and you decide to take it to the next level with an engagement ring, it is going to have a tremendous impact what the ring is made of. If it is made of gold, silver and costly stones, you may indeed take things upward to another level. But if that ring is made out of wood, hay and straw, that relationship is going to another level.
Usually when builders build their own homes, we expect a spectacular result. Why? We assume they will want the best and they have the skill to make it happen. But what the building is made up of and the skill with which it is built not nearly as important as the foundation upon which it is constructed. We have seen what happens when houses and bridges are built on the wrong foundation. There are basically two reasons that we build on the wrong foundation. The first is by honest mistake. We that we think something is something that it is not. The second is we’re just lazy, in a hurry, and willing to take a short cut. We get one shot at life, so the sooner we build on the right foundation, the better.
Jesus talks quite a bit about building on the right foundation. Jesus tells us that it is an absolute necessity to build your life on the right foundation. . Because the foundation is what holds everything up, it’s what holds everything together. No matter what quality of materials you use; no matter how carefully you join the frame together; no matter how skilled your craftsmen may be – if the foundation isn’t solid and stable, your “house” will lack integrity. Over time, cracks will develop in the walls. The windows will stick. The roof will leak. And sooner or later, the storms of life will bring it crashing down, and everything you’ve worked so hard to build will be lost.
In our Old Testament verse, God’s people had rejected God and the lifestyle He was calling them to live. Even the priests and the prophets were getting drunk and thinking nothing of it. They had no foundation, so everyone was doing what they pleased. God said in Isaiah 28:16 (NIV2011) 16 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic. The stone that God was promising to lay was a prophecy of the coming of Jesus. Jesus was and is the foundation upon which a person can properly build their lives for a lifetime.
Do you know why Jesus said “Follow Me?” Jesus knew that all of us are following someone or something. In Matthew 7:15, he gave us a stern warning, in Matthew 7:15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Our problem today is that we think we know who the false prophets are. We are looking for either somebody that looks as though they were John the Baptist or a preacher ion a street corner, or an evangelist in the church constantly taking up an offering .
Jesus is not warning us against these people because they don’t even look harmless to us. They are not a threat to us because we are not going to their churches. The false prophets that we readily accept because they come to us in sheep’s clothing are the voices of our society. The loudest voices come to us through our entertainment and political world. Social Media comes at us and we often accept things as true that are not. We can read a post, get filled with anger and send it off to 50 people asking them to post it and we don’t even know if it true. The foundation of our lives should not be built upon what facebook or twitter or instagram sends our way. It should be upon Jesus Christ. What happens to the spiritual temple we are building for a life-time when we spend more time on Facebook than we do in allowing the Holy Spirit to work the changes in us that are found in God’s Book.
Our entertainment industry is a huge false prophet. We eagerly soak in stuff that is contrary to Jesus Christ, because it is a part of our favorite program or movie. We will tell how people how good a movie was even though it was filled with a glorification of sin, but it left us feeling good inside. Hollywood wants us to believe we can joyously sin and still have everything turn out all right in the end. It’s goal is to replace the foundation of Jesus Christ in our lives, with a foundation that says, as long as it feels right, it can’t really be that wrong. The message is no different than when the serpent told Adam and Eve, if you disobey God, then you can decide for yourself what is good and what is evil.
Our political system is a huge false prophet. We don’t even expect people to keep half the promises they make. We even acknowledge after the election is over, well they said some of those things just to get elected but nobody really expected them to carry them out. Every believer needs to ask am I affecting the foundation of my political party more for Christ, than it is affecting my foundation on Christ. Whatever political party you are a part of, the reason you are there is to represent the cause of Christ in the discussion. We are to never stop being ambassadors for Christ. That’s why Jesus tells us, if you are ashamed of me before people, then I will not acknowledge you in the presence of the Father.
Not everything in the entertainment world is bad, and not everything is the political world is bad, but we do need to be discerning and recognize what is of God and is good for my foundation in Christ and what is not. You are attempting to build a life for a lifetime. The entertainment industry wants you to build only for the next 30 minutes so that they can sale you their advertisers products and their own hidden agena or the next 2 and ½ hours to make a profit at the box office. The political industry only wants you to build for the next 2 year, 4 year, or 6 year term. You however are attempting to build for a lifetime for the cause of Jesus Christ.
God created us with the desire to be loved, to be accepted, and to be liked by others. That’s why we are called the body of Christ. That desire was created for us to be in fellowship with God and with others. Sin however has pushed God out of the picture but the desire to want to belong is still there. We look for opportunities to belong with others even if its not always healthy. That’s why more personal false prophets are able to enter our lives. They are the likeable college professors who tell us that the bible is nothing but a piece of literature full of myths and fairytales.
They are the friends who convince us that God can’t be real or that God is simply trying to keep us from having a great time. They are leaders who tell us we are all worshipping the same God regardless of what we believe. Or Everybody is to be free to follow the desires of their own heart and there is no right or wrong and Jesus can be whatever we want him to be for us.
Why is God concerned about false prophets? Because God is concerned about us and our relationship to him. All the systems of this world and all false prophets are designed to lead us away from God’s call on our lives. Jesus says, please hear me. Listen to this. Don’t be surprised.
Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV2011)
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
How many of us have said Lord Jesus, while having something else far more important to us than obeying God at the moment. We have to see that although good works are important, they are not what God is after from us. God is more interested in how we serve the people we live with than he is the class we taught or the sermon we preached.
We mistakenly believe we are becoming more like Jesus when we cast out demons or do some miraculous work, when God is saying, “I want you to forgive him”, “I want you to let that go”, “I want you to look at how selfish you are, and where demanding your own way is getting you.” “Look at the building you are building and see all the shoddy work you’ve done.” When my wife comes in, I am usually busy doing the Lord’s work on my computer.
The other night, I got up went out to the car and asked what I could bring in for her. She saw that I had also fed her cats. I heard her say, “Who is this man and what has happened to my husband.” Although she said it in jest, I was convicted by the Holy Spirit, of not loving my wife as Christ loved the church, all because I was doing things in the name of Jesus.
I don’t think anybody wants to spend a part of their lives in a church and then hear Jesus say, “I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers.” What is an evil doer. It’s anyone who says, “I am in control of me and nobody has a thing to say about it.” We are such proud and arrogant creatures. That’s another way of saying, “Jesus, you didn’t need to die for me, I got this.” As God said to Adam and Eve, “Who told you, you were naked?” God is asking us, “who told you, you got this? Can you really see what this year is going to bring in your life?
But the day we recognize we are not in control of what happens around us or to us, is the day we recognize a need for God in our lives. I can’t even determine how much pain will shoot in my body today. It would be foolish of me to write God off and go build on another foundation.
Jesus went on to tell us about how to build something to last for a lifetime. Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV2011) 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
It is possible to accomplish a great deal in this world without Christ. You can build a business or a career. You can make money. You can have a reasonably good marriage. You can develop a wide circle of friends. You can do good things – give money to charity, coach Little League, be a Big Brother, adopt a third-world baby, do pro-bono legal work for the poor, volunteer at a retirement home. You can have a good time and enjoy life. You can do many big, important, impressive, and admirable things. But eventually, a storm will come along which will bring it all tumbling down.
Now, for some people, the storm never comes along in this life. They have little or no interest in religion, and yet they do things, and have things, and enjoy life and go to their grave happy. For them, the storm that finally destroys everything, including their souls, will be the final judgment. And when that judgment comes, the only thing that will matter to me or you is whether we are in Christ, whether by faith we have received his forgiveness and his righteousness. If you have, then you will stand. If not, then you’ll be swept away into everlasting punishment and destruction, along with everything you’ve ever done.
Your life is like a house. You’re building it 24/7 whether you want to or not. It looks pretty much like all the other houses around it. It is made from the same materials. It is also attacked by the very same storms. Storms of sickness, storms of sin, storms of temptation and storms bearing any of 10,000 other names all attack the house you are building.
The greatest storm our houses face is that of standing before God to give an account for our sin. Some houses in this room are going to weather the storm, others are not! Some builders here can be called wise while others are fools. Some houses will stand in the judgment and others will fall away into Hell. What makes the difference?
The foundation of Jesus Christ. The quality of the foundation upon which the house stands! The foolish man took no time to plan or to think about his house. He just built it where he was and left everything to chance. He built upon the sand! The other man took the time to dig into the soil, exposing the bedrock. There he built his house and when the storm came and washed away the sand from the foolish man's house, the bedrock never moved, but it stood strong!
We are able to stand against the judgment of God because Jesus has paid the full price for our sin. Accepting Christ is the way to build a life that lasts a lifetime. Keep in mind that a lifetime includes eternity.
Special thanks to Alan Perkins of First Baptist Church and Dr. Alan Carr for some of the ideas and passages in this message.
