I Will Build My Church

Good morning. I just see what the title was. I

didn't write on my notes. So this morning is the

last set in the season, Foundations of Faith. All right, oh,

one next week. I'll got it wrong one next week.

I'm just praying about this. The Lord gave me a

foundational scripture, which was Matthew seven twenty four through twenty seven,

and they also gave me a children's story, which is interesting.

I don't retually get children's stories. Thank you, well, hold

this bit. We welcome you. Take these words, use them

for your glow. Sory touched people's hearts and life this

morning him. So let's have a read of Matthew seven

twenty four through to twenty seven, reading from the new

King James version. Therefore, whether he hears these sayings of

mine and does them, I liken him to a wise

man who built his house on the rock, and the

rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat

on that house, and it did not fall. It was

it was far. It's founded on the rock. But everyone

hears these sayings of mine and does not do them,

will be like a foolish man who built his house

on the sand and the rain descended, the floods came,

the winds blue and beat on that house, and it fell,

and great was its fall. Jesus previously in Matthew seven,

had talked about not judging others, doing to us what

he wanted you to do to them. It's about the

narrow way, how to live and will know people buy

their fruits. Yeah, then they said, if you do these sayings,

you're good. If you don't do these sayings, it's don't

going to work out for you. So from a building

point of view, I know a lot about this, so

that's an advantage. When you build on a rock, isn't

going anywhere. I could ask Day to come and talk

about geology for twenty minutes, but I won't do that

because they have studied geology. Rocks are foundational. They do

not move. When we build on the sand that will

shift when you eat. Some commentary it talks about people

that actually build on the river beds in the summer,

and obviously in the river beds in the summer it

was dry, but in the winter, when the rain came,

the floods would wash what they built away. Jesus said,

I will build my church and the gates of Hell

will not prevail against it. You know, in life, sometimes

we build on the sand. We build relationships on the sand.

We build our plans on the sand. We take no

care or no thought should I say or what the

Lord is saying. Yeah, Jesus said, I will build my church,

and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.

Jesus builds on the rock. It's a lot harder to

build on the rock because you've you've got to chip

things away to get a level foundation. On the signs,

you can hike it out or dig it out quite

quickly and get a quick result. Fyi, Jesus is not

interested in getting quick results in our lives. He's interested

in building on revelation, knowledge and getting to the point

where we can be successful. Jesus said, if you hear

and do the sayings that I have said, you'll like them.

How builds his house on the rock. Yes, Jesus speaks

to us today. It speaks us through the word of God,

the living Word of God. I've heard many times Dave

talk about this is my handbook for life when he

did the assemblies for the school children. And God wants

to remind us that anything we do in life. We

need to base it on the word of God or

else it will not be successful. You know, the higher

that you build, the better the foundation and the more

complex structure. Nay, two story dwelling. The foundations are typically

I think about a meter deep for a strip foot

in at about six inches deep for people who are

no met no imperial. When you build a skyscraper, those

foundations are piled and they can go down meters. Yeah,

that's had all like to say this. God is building

a complex structure when he builds us. So the foundations

are deep. So let's talk about the three Little pigs.

Does anybody know the three little pigs? Yeah? I'm not

sure that if that translates to Indian or African, I

don't know. I didn't check, does it? Yeah's Jonathan? They

translated the three Little pigs? No, okay, okay, So I'm

just going to summarize this rather than read it all out. Okay,

So we have three little pigs who built houses of

different materials, and there was a big bad wolf in

this story who came to huff and puff and blow

the houses down. Okay, that's the that's the basis. The

first pig was lazy, and impatient, and he quickly built

a house of straw so he could go and play.

The second pig was more careful, but still lazy, and

he built a house of sticks. The third little pig

was wise and hard working and spent his time building

a sturdy house of bricks. So the hungry, big bad

wolf came along looking for dinner, and he approached each

house one by one. So obviously he huffed and he puffed,

and he blew down the house of straw. So the

pig from the house of straw pegged it to his brother,

and they both huddling in the house of sticks, and

of course the big bad wolf came again, and he

huffed and he puffed, and he blew that house down

to So then they pegged it again to their other brother,

who was the wise guy who built his house out

of brick. And obviously, guy guy, the wolf puffed and

he puffed, and he couldn't blow that brick house down.

So I thought, I'll go down the chimney and I

would say the bright pig put a big pot of

water on the fire, so that the wolf landed in

the pot of water, and I say that was the

end of him. So why do they share that. I'm

not used to telling stories in the preach, but it's

what the Holy Spirit game is, so I went with it.

That's the best thing to do. In the Kingdom of God.

It's important what we build on, how we build with

what we build when it comes to our spiritual development. Okay,

when we're born again, we're all brand new and it's

all very nice and lovely. But God's aim is to

make his church without spot or wrinkle or any such

thing Asians five twenty seven. So that means that we

are his workmanship. He works us, He shapes us, he

molds us, he chips away at us, he belts away

at us sometimes if he needs to to make something

which is fit for purpose. So he deals with our

hard hearts. He deals with the challenge that we've had

in life as a journey. Everyone has their own journey

in life, and everyone starts somewhere and everyone ends somewhere.

God's plan is that we run our race that day,

said a couple of weeks ago, finish our course. So

to do that, he's got to shape us. He's got

to mold us. He's got to take us on that journey.

So today I was going to talk about three principles,

how God does what God does, and then depend how

it plays. We'll see what the Holy bit wants to

do with us as individuals and as a collective. Is

that okay? That was just the introduction three or four pigs.

So what we build on simple answers, we build on

the living word of God profits for twenty to twenty

two says my son, give attention to my word. Inclineate

here to my sayings. Do not let them depart from

your eyes, keeping them in the midst of your heart,

for they are life to those that find them, and

their health to all their flesh. Proverbs from twenty to

twenty two. Attend to his words, do not letting them

depart from your eyes, keeping in the midst of your heart.

It's a well known scripture that I just shared their.

I guess the Lord that's to reinforce today. The word

of God is true. It does not return to him void,

but it will accomplish that which He pleases and prosper

the thing whereunto he sends it, as are fifty five eleven.

You there are many occasions when he has to deal

with something when the people involved haven't spent the time

and given attention to his word. As a consequence, they

get into a situation and they don't know how to

get out of it, and he has to deal with

it graciously. His preference is that we attend to his word,

apply his word by faith, and deal with the situation. Okay,

that's his preference. But God is a gracious god, and

he will do what he needs to do. So it's

a reminder for us to attend to his word. Yeah,

so that when we get into a situation, we know

how to deal with it because the word inside has

comes up and comes out of our mouth. Okay. Proverbs

for twenty to twenty two. My son, give attention to

my words. Incline your ears to my sayings. Do not

let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the

midst of your heart, for their life, to those that

find them health or medicine, to all their flesh. Other

scripture which say is the same thing. So, Joshua, this

book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth.

It shall not return to you. This book oft not

prought to your mouth. But you shall meditate only day

and night, that you may observe and do according to

all that's written in it. But then you shall make

your way prosperous, and then you have good success. Joshua

was a man who had to step in somebody's big shoes.

Moses by all the council as a big boy, a

big tall guy, and Joshua had to take on the

responsibility of leading Israel people who had their own ideas,

wanting to make golden calves and do it their own way.

God's abjunction to joshuas don't let this book of the

Law out of here, out of your arm, but it

on in day and night. They may be prosperous and

sexual to do what I want you to do. So

the Lord was encouraged this morning to just do that.

Don't wait till something comes around the corner where that's stress,

that's tension, or that sickness. He wants us to be prepared. Yeah,

so wants us to use the word of God when

we build. John fifteen, verse seven says, m hmmm, if

you abide in me and my words, abide in you,

if you will ask what you design, and it will

be done for you. If you abide in me and

my words, abiding you, you will ask what you design,

it will be done for you. That's Jesus speaking. So

I picked up some scriptures of those show me through

through the Bible. But there's a thread if you go

from Genesis to Revelations, a thread about we should prioritize

the word of God to be successful, to overcome. Let's face,

we've all got challenges in life. I'm not going to

have a show. Go for a showhands. We've all got

stuff we need to deal with. Which nests you don't

actually talk about with people because it's something that's sometimes

ongoing and long or complicated or not easy to talk

about to share with you. You know, you maybe your

your your prayer partners you hang with. But God wants

us to prioritize his word. Yeah, it helps him to

build when we prioritize the word. Yeah, it helps him

to build. God builds with us. You know, we are

the material he builds with. If you prioritize the word,

he can shape us and molders, He can smooth off

those rough edges. How we build. How we build we

build guided and directed by the Holy spirituals, as Holy

Spirit who teached us all things to Crinton's three verse

eighteen says but we are all with unveiled faces, beholding

as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are

being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory,

just as by the spirit of the Lord, we are

being transformed from glory to glory. It's like a sculpture

takes a block of marble and he sees in the

marble what he's going to create, and then he takes

the hammer and the chisels and he shapes the marble

to get the rough shape, and he starts to go

into slightly more detail, and he creates the curves and

the shapes of the I think he wants to create,

and then he starts to polish and shape it so

that it's not smooth, and jagab, it's a nice smooth curve.

It's like that when a thought takes us. We have

a big block, and he sees in his mind eye

what he wants to create, because he shows us before

the foundation of the earth, and he knows what your plan,

he knows what your purpose is, and he shapes us

for that plan, and he shapes us for that purpose

because he wants us to ruin our race. The stone

doesn't have to surrender because it's just it's a block

of stone, so it's not going to it's not going anywhere.

But we need to surrender. We sing lots of worship

songs about I surrender all etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, and it

comes out of here, but sometimes not in here. Take

the mask off today. Yes it is war warning, isn't it. Yeah,

he just needs to take the mask off today and

recognize that God doesn't look at the outward appearance. He

looks at the heart. We may be able to who

converse with the people. Everything is good, I'm cool here, right, yeah, yeah, good,

thank you lovely. But in you know, God sees our

heart and God works with our heart, so we need

to surrender to allow him to shape and toom mold us.

You know. Typically speaking, we deal with things like the rejection, anxiety, loneliness, pride, inferiority, rebellion, hurt, insecurity,

all that sort of stuff, depending where you've come from,

can need to be dealt with. Unlike the statue, God

deals with that a lot of these things are heart conditions,

which means that we've got to do something. We've got

to forgive, we've got to surrender We've got to see

things from God's perspective so he can change us. And

that can be quite challenging. That can be some ouch moments,

but you know that's the way he does it. So

want to hurt us, but he wants to transformers so

that we have good roots with good fruits. Jesus talks

seeing John fifteen about abide in the vine and how

we dick clip the vine, got it right back so

it bores more excellent fruits. Sometimes God's got to go

down to the root and root the issue so it

doesn't manifest. Yes the game. Yeah, if we've got a

root of hurt or bitterness, only he can deal with that.

I bet he needs his our cooperation to do that.

Typically everyone can be fine for a while and then

God brings something. Look to us, Hey, I just want

to talk to you about this. We talked about two

years ago, and hey, we didn't deal with it. Then

I thinks about time we deal with it. Now it's

like it goes around the mountain again. It's like we're

not going to go anywhere. Do we deal with this

particular issue, simon what we're going to do about it?

And then and then you said, am I ready to

do with that issue now. I'm not going to just

put it behind me, so I don't see it. God

wants his body to be healthy. Yeah. The title this

preach was I will build my church. Yeah, I will

build my church. Jesus interested. He's not interested in embarrass anybody.

What is interesting is getting people to where they need

to be, to be successful, to be a whole. What

do you like to do with to say, Hey, this

is Dave as an example, this is how it was,

this is how he is. Now look what I have

done in this man's life and his family. Go. That

is not the same person we grew up with. Yeah,

David is a man of God that God has shaped

and mode as an example. Yeah, he's not the same man.

I would suggest that Jull you are married because has

been shaped and moldered. So in terms that could just

sit into my am. I right. So he wants us

to be healthy and without spot and about wrinkle. So

we've got to do our bit. We've got to say yes,

I surrender Seasian five twenty seven. I've re mentioned this

before that it might present her to himself as a

glorious church not having spot or wrinkle. Or any short thing. Well,

that she should be holy and without blemish. So we

as a collective need to be holy and without blemish.

And each step is a miracle. Right, we are the

sort of like the substance. He takes, He shapes and modes.

So how we build, we build with the Holy Spirit.

He helps us, He works with us. He's there constantly

twenty four to seven with us, going through all the

stuff that we go through. And if we surrender our

lives to God and walk with him, he gets us

through those situations and circumstances. Because we have a choice

of how we react to a circumstance and a situation.

We can react by faith, or we can react by fear.

As an example, we can be gracious, or the old

man can raise up and we can have a moment

of canality. So what we build with we build with faith,

hope and love. Faith, hope and love, these are all

spiritual forces, and therefore they come from God. We don't

go down saying bersin and by them they are from God. Remember,

faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

It's a spiritual force. We receive revelation as we apply

our faith to the word of God. It's like using

the muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes.

The less you use it, you know it's not there

when you need it. God wants us to apply our

faith to every situation. He wants us to persevere. Do

we get the manifestations of what we are believing for? Okay?

Because he wants that church without spot or wrinkle or

any such thing. Hope is like earnest expectation Hebrews eleven.

Now faith as a substances things. Hope for the evidence

of things not seen. For by it, the elders obtained

a good report by faith. You understand, the worlds were

framed by the word of God, so that things which

are seen were not made of things which aren't visible.

This is how God does stuff. Haven't got time today

to talk about that. You can read the scriptures yourself.

I haven't look at the podcast later. But God wants

us to understand these principles. He wants her to apply

these principles. Yeah, He wants to take a step back

and look at the bigger picture, where we are as

an individual and where we are in His body. Right,

God's got a lot of stuff to do it's not

difficult for him, but it makes a lot easier for

him when we are doing our part. We all have

our part to do. Everybody. Nobody's excluded Love and now abides, faith, hope, love,

these three. But the greatest of these is love one

Corinthians thirteen thirteen. Without love one Crintain's thirteen wance is

without God. Without love, we're like a sound in brass

or a clanging symbol. Possibly one of the most preached

about topics, Jus said that you'll know, they will know

that you are my disciples if you love one another.

For God's loved the world. He gave his only begotten son.

There were believes in him shall not perish, but have

everlasting life. For God so loved the world. So it's

a bit like God straplin, isn't it. I loved you

a lot, so Jesus came. But I want you to

walk in love to love suffers long and is kind.

Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. It's

not puffed up. It does not behave rudely, does not

seek its own. It is not provoked thinks no evil.

Does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoice us in the truth,

braying all things, believe in all things, hopes in all things,

endures all things. Love never fails One Corinthians thirteen four

to eight. We can't walk in love until goes down

with our heart, because otherwise we're walking with a limp.

A little while ago, I was going from our kitchen

into our living room and I got there some lights,

some glass doors, and I kicked it with nothing on

my feet and jumping up and down because it was

so and he went black and he went blue. H

and uh, it's hard to wear no a pair of shoes.

And I had to put my foot down. I thought,

I'm just gonna go on with this, just get on

with it, put my foot down and walk on the sofa.

It was uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable. Sometimes I said that

to say this. Sometimes God wants to do something that's uncomfortable.

You know, walking in love sometimes isn't comfortable. Yeah. Sometimes

we've got to lay that song. Do you see that

song this morning? Later down? Yeah? Good choice. It's like

I got later down and just get on with him.

I got to crucify the flesh wherever you want to.

How we're going to put him all these things that

I'm talking about this morning are potentially ouch moments for us,

you know, but you know it's good to get the

mask off, good get the reality. God wants us to

succeed in what we do in the world, right, He

does not want us to fail. Rich Gowers here last

week he talked about a finishes anointing. So you'll finish

your race. Yeah, you finish your race. You see those

things on the TV. Don't wear. Some blokes running to

ours ennything marathon and his legs have just gone. It's

like all over the shop and it just tries to

go to thee and then people run past him. And

then there's one clip I saw where some bloats stopped

literally helped him over the line. God wants us to finish.

He wants us to finish well. He doesn't want us

to wobble. He wants us to run our course with purpose,

all right, So that means that he's got to do

some open high surgery. He's got to deal with some

stuff in our lives. And we're all different. We are

all different, and nobody here is the same. No to

the carbon copy for you've got twins. I used to

school with twins, and they used to be. The two

lads are the same, but they had different characters. So

after all you knew who was who because one wouldn't

say what the one said. Because you get to know

the person, not the image. God sees past what we

project to who we really are. You cannot HiPE from God.

That's FYI. And news flash, you cannot hide from God.

You cannot HiPE from God. Yeah, some people in this

room want to need to hear that today you cannot

HiPE from God. God is here today, and if you

want to do business with God today, he will do

business with you. If you don't, he won't. That's the

way he works. He sets up I wouldn't say God sneak,

because that'd be that be unreasonable. But he sets up

circumstances and situations to be able to deal with something

in our lives. And it's to us to go and

press the button and then it just plays. We can go, yes,

I'll deal with that. Now we can go oh no, no, no,

I don't deal with that. That's just too soft, too

uncomfortable with me. Right now, everything is built on love.

I was just friended the Holy Spirit. He'll work in

our lives. He'll move in our lives. H I've asked

him Maniger, just to come and play. I've talked about

a lot of difficult things. To be fair, I didn't

choose us such a matter. I just did as I

was asked. I'll do what got Tom to do. I'll

go go out times to go. That's what I signed

up to. So that just bring this to a close now.

Consciously at the time. If God's been speaking to your

heart today and you know you want you want He

wants to do with something, and you're open to deal

with it, I invite you to deal with it. I'm

asking you to come to the front. I'm not trying

to embarrass anybody. That's not what I want to do.

I just wouldn't want to do that. God might do that,

or I don't do that. I'll let you ask me.

But what we'll do if you God's wants, if goes

working your life and you want to stand up, I

will pray for you. And other than them people they

assume God is speaking to and you know if that

see you, if you want to go for it. People

are interested in you. They just want you to receive

what God wants you to receive. And to move forward.

So we'll play for a few minutes, a couple of minutes,

and then I'll pray. I'll pray anyway. If you're not

standing with me, not standing up with that's spitching you

and God. Okay, m