Building God's Way

My name is James Bunrock, I'm an associate pastor here at glorious way church and it is my privilege To bring you God's word tonight, and I have a message for you.

The title of tonight's message is building God's way, and so we're gonna dive right into the word tonight and get started.

Our first scripture that we're gonna start with is Proverbs 24, verses three and four, and it says this.

It says through wisdom a house is built, and by understanding, understanding it is established.

By knowledge, the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches, and In Proverbs 2 it talks about all three of these things wisdom, knowledge and understanding and how all three of them come from God.

Wisdom is given by God, but knowledge and understanding, it says in Proverbs 2, comes out of God's mouth.

And so you know God speaks his word.

The word was written so that we can read it and speak it again, and so we got to listen to his word and meditate on his word if you want to have the knowledge and the Understanding that to go along with the wisdom.

In Proverbs 14, 12, it talks about two ways.

It says there there's a way that seems right and demand, but its end is the way of death, and so we could do things man's way, and Therein lies destruction.

Or we can do things God's way and you'll have great success.

And so you know.

Proverbs talks about getting wisdom, talks about.

It says in Proverbs 4, 7 Wisdom is the principal thing.

Therefore, get wisdom and in all your getting, get understanding also.

So all throughout Proverbs it talks about wisdom and knowledge and understanding.

And and Proverbs is important.

It mentions these things lots of times, and so God wants you to pay attention to these things when he mentions it more than once.

Pay close Attention to it.

How do you get wisdom?

That's easy.

James, chapter 1, says in verse 5 if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally, without reproach.

James 1 · chapter mention

So God's not gonna hold back if you ask.

So the easy way to get wisdom Is God, give me wisdom.

You're facing a certain situation or a challenge in life.

God give me wisdom and he will give you wisdom.

But it says but let him ask in faith, not wavering, not doubting.

You won't get anything that way.

And so you know the God's word works by faith and we apply it and then it can work for us in our lives.

And so ask for wisdom and get wisdom.

Now we're gonna turn over to Second Timothy 3 16, but I'm gonna read this out of the English standard version.

Most of the time I read out of the new King James or King James, but there's a Particular translation here that reads a little differently.

Second Timothy 3 16 English standard version says it this way all scripture is Breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.

And so the scripture is breathed out of the mouth of God, is breathed out of God.

It's profitable for teaching and for reproof, correction and for training in righteousness.

So teaching, you know we gain knowledge by by teaching.

You can gain knowledge by reading something and being taught by your reading.

We can, we can read God's word and gain knowledge about God's word.

You can come to church and hear God's word preached and ministered and you can gain that knowledge.

But training is applying.

It is learning how to apply it, how to use it, how to put it in into practice.

And so you've got the knowledge of it.

But when you have A good understanding, then you can apply it in life.

So there, you've got the knowledge of the word and Understanding working together in your life.

You know we're talking tonight about building Building your life, building the world around you.

We'll talk about building the church Also building your, your kids, building your children.

You know it says that we should train up a child in the way they should go.

When they're old they will not depart from it.

Doesn't say teach a child in the way.

It doesn't say let the child child teach themselves, let the child raise themselves.

It doesn't even say to just provide supervision for the child Baby, sit your child.

No, it's, it's training.

And so there's an active role for parents to build the life of their children, to build God's word and principles into their kids, and when they're old they will not depart from it.

So it's not a passive thing to train.

Matthew 7 chapter.

Chapter 7, verse 24 Jesus talked about Building on the rock, remember we?

I mean we just talked about get wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

So let's go to Matthew 7, verse 24.

Matthew 7:24

It said there for whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to be a wise man, a wise man who built his house on the rock.

I just preached a message, jesus the Rock, and so part of this message comes right out of that.

But the wise man built his house on the rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat that house and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

But everyone who 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 and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell, and great was its fall.

Two different foundations here, gods, are yours.

You can be a doer of the word or you can be a hearer only and not a doer.

And so you know, jesus is saying whoever hears and does the things that I say is like a wise man.

You're operating with wisdom and you're building your house on a strong foundation that will not be shaken, and so we've got to have a strong foundation.

Another place where it talks about building a house we're going to turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter three, and I'll read this one out of the message Bible.

So let me set it up just a little bit in context.

1 Corinthians, chapter three Paul is accusing the Corinthian church of being carnal and babes in Christ, because they said in verse four says one of them says I'm of Paul, the other one says I'm of Apollos.

And Paul is saying this is a carnal practice.

You know, I've got this teacher.

Well, I've got that teacher.

Paul is saying none of that matters when we're talking about God's word.

And so he likens it to Apollos watered.

And you know, I sowed in Apollos water.

But God gets the increase.

So he gives one analogy related to sowing, but then in verse nine he gives a second analogy there and I'm gonna pick that up in the message Bible.

So 1 Corinthians, chapter three, verse nine in the message reads this way, or to put it another way you are God's house, using the gift of God that God gave me as a good architect.

So God gave Paul a gift.

He's calling himself an architect assigned by God.

He said I designed the blueprints and Apollos is putting up the walls.

Let each carpenter who comes on the job to take care to build on the foundation Remember there is only one foundation, the one already laid, jesus Christ Take particular care in picking out your building materials.

You know, if you ever built a house, you go to a builder and you've got some blueprints.

You might thumb through those and decide what floor plan you want and then you get to pick out the finishes and the paints and all the goodies on the inside of the house.

But he's saying take care on picking out what your building materials are.

Eventually there's going to be an inspection and if you use cheap and inferior materials you'll be found out.

No shortcuts when you're building your house.

The inspection will be thorough and rigorous.

You won't get by with a thing.

If your work passes inspection, then fine, and if it doesn't, your part of the building will be torn out and started over.

But you won't be torn out.

You'll survive, but just barely.

That comes out of the message right there, and so it matters what you put on that foundation.

We got a build on the rock on the foundation.

We don't want this structure coming down.

But if you're using inferior building materials, if your cabinets are being put up and they're made out of the cheap particle board, at the lightest spill they swell up and start to come apart.

That kind of stuff just needs to be torn out Now.

We need to have some quality building materials when we're building our life here.

I'm gonna take you back.

I've quoted this before but our first constitutional convention in 1787, so this nation had declared its independence.

We fought a war for independence.

And now we're creating our constitution.

And our founders could not settle on what that document should say and how it should read, and it said that that.

They had been at this for weeks.

They were arguing back and forth.

They'd looked to other countries for the type of government that should be set up, other constitutions, and they could find nothing acceptable, nothing fitting for this very precious and very special nation that we have.

It's a gift of God.

And so Benjamin Franklin is recognizing the trouble where we were at, and our founders were just about to throw in the towel and give up on this.

And he recognized gosh.

We forgot to pray.

And so he's giving this famous address to George Washington, who is the president of this convention.

And a little bit later, in the speech, he said "'Sir, I've lived a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs the affairs of men.

And if a sparrow can't fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid".

He said "'Sir, in the sacred writings, except the Lord build, they labor in vain that build it'".

And so all this time these men were struggling to do something that was impossible, and they were toiling and struggling and about to throw the towel and give up.

But, thank God, the most heathen of them all, benjamin Franklin, remembered that they should pray and they should ask God for help.

And so they did, and they got God's help.

We have a constitution, we have a nation with laws, because they asked for God's help.

But Benjamin Franklin was quoting scripture.

There he said "'They labor in vain'".

If God's not part of this, we're laboring in vain.

The ruin of this house will be great if we don't put it on the right foundation.

And so our founding fathers recognized that.

He was quoting out of Psalm 127, verse one "'Extremely, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.

Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain'".

So if God's not part of what we're doing, if he's not part of our efforts, it's just toil and it's in vain.

It's a wasted effort.

You know A we can't build anything that's gonna withstand against all the trouble that it's gonna face.

But with God's help and God's wisdom and the knowledge and understanding of God's word, then we can build something and put it on a solid foundation.

We're not even equipped to protect ourselves, but if we do it God's way, we can have His protection too.

So that's what Psalm 127 is saying.

When I was in college I was in my senior year of college and I was working my way through college I didn't have enough money to eat off of.

I was buying things on credit cards, buying my groceries on credit cards.

I ended up selling some school books.

You know, before the semester's over I was starting to sell my books.

I didn't get to the point where I was willing to sell my bodily fluids.

I didn't sell platelets or anything like that, namely because I didn't like needles, and that's a different issue.

But I was in a bad way.

I was in debt.

I had creditors calling me.

I was not making enough money to pay rent, buy groceries, go to school, buy gas.

I didn't have enough gas to get to and from school, driving just across Corpus Christi, and so a few times I ended up selling some music CDs just for a couple of dollars on the way to class, so I could have a couple of dollars of gas, so I could get back home.

And nothing I was doing was working.

I was toiling, I felt like I was treading water and still I was just, my head was going under.

I was drowning and it was.

I was unsure if I was gonna make it to the end and graduate from college or if I was gonna not be able to even finish school because I was just drowning in trouble financially.

I just I was at my wits end right there, and I remember sitting on the edge of my bed, head in hand.

I was depressed, I was sad about a situation that I really didn't have the answer to, and I knew I had messed up.

And so I did the only thing that I knew to do, and that was just tell God, I'm sorry, I've done wrong.

And I repented right there at the edge of my bed, and I didn't feel anything.

Nothing happened in that moment.

I just I gave up on everything that I had done.

I gave up.

Nothing I did worked, and so I gave up on all of that.

The ruin of that house was great.

Everything that I had built and tried to build just failed and fell apart, and it was at that moment that I turned to God and I had just recently started going back to church and trying to get things right and it was finals week, and so I don't remember it was a couple of finals, but it was a midweek church service and I just decided I needed to be in church more than I needed to be in school, and so, rather than show up in class and take two finals on a Wednesday evening, I went to church instead and I skipped those finals.

You don't do that in college unless you intend to fail, but I didn't have any other way out and so I just went to church and I honored God and I gave God the last of what I had it was about $500 in my account, I think I left about $5 in the account and I honored God with my tie that I hadn't been doing before and an offering over and above that, and just gave up on myself and rolled off everything that I had done, rolled it off onto God and said God, I just I need to do it your way.

My way is not working.

And I showed back up in class that Thursday and I see my professor in the hallway and he said James, you missed your final.

I said, yes, sir, I did.

And he said well, what happened?

I said I just needed to be in church more than I needed to take a final, and he said would you like to take the finals you missed in my office today.

I said yes, sir, and so he let me have those finals.

I took those finals, I passed those.

He showed me mercy, god showed me mercy.

Long story short, I graduated from school.

I did not die of starvation, I did not drown.

Creditors were still calling me.

But then I landed a job right after I graduated from school and there was no way I could get there under my own.

But that company paid for my way to get from Corpus Christi all the way to Florida to start that job.

They gave me a company vehicle, they gave me a place to stay until I could get my feet under me and they gave me a pay advance to get there.

And I didn't deserve any of that, I didn't ask for any of that.

God just gave that to me.

He gave me a way and I met my wife on the way to that job and roughly a year later we were married after that.

And so my whole life turned around in a moment, as soon as I turned around and ran to God and not away from God.

And so what I had done.

The ruin of that house was great.

And since then we're doing things God's way and our house is building and growing and we're on a solid foundation.

And so I'm not bragging, I'm just reporting there's my way and it failed, and then there's God's way and it's pretty awesome.

And so you know, I look at Psalm 34, verse four and this kind of reminds me of me.

Psalm 34, verse four says I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears.

They looked at Him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed.

The poor man cried out.

That was me, I was the poor man and cried out and the Lord heard him.

He heard me and he saved me out of all my troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers them.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good, that our heavenly Father is good.

You know, we just had Mark Hankins here and he made the point that a lot of people are familiar with Jesus and they love Jesus, but they don't know God and they're a little bit afraid of God and they kind of think God is mad at them.

Like you know, I don't think God likes me too much.

He'd probably like to come at me or punish me or do something terrible to me, but Jesus is looking out for me.

You know he gets me.

Pastor's gonna love that if he hears it.

Jesus gets me.

But that's not the case.

Our heavenly Father loves us and he wants us to turn to Him.

And so this scripture's saying in David experience this.

Go taste and see that our Father, the Lord, our Father, is good.

Blessed is the man who trusts in Him.

Oh, fear the Lord, you, his saints.

There is no want to those who fear Him.

To fear God is to put Him first, to care more about His way of doing things than your way.

And so the young lions lack and suffer hunger.

But those who seek the Lord, who turn and go after Him, will not lack any good thing.

And so that's part of my testimony.

I started building my life God's way, and since then I haven't lacked for any good thing, because I have a heavenly Father who loves me and who's not mad at me and who heard my cries and rescued me, and so I'm just so grateful for that.

You know we're talking about building our life there, and so let's also talk about building His church.

God cares about building His church.

In Matthew 16, verse 13,.

Matthew 16:13

This is where Jesus is asking His disciples who do men say that I am?

And they responded, said some say John the Baptist or Elijah, or maybe Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

You know, we're not really sure.

They say all kinds of stuff about you.

And Jesus said yeah, but who do you say that I am?

And Simon Peter answered and said you were the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus said to him blessed are you, simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven.

And on this rock, he said to Peter, on this rock, so Peter's little stone, or a chip off or a broken piece off the big rock.

But Jesus said on this big rock, on this foundational cornerstone, we're building a foundation here.

On this foundation I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

They will come against it, but they just won't prevail.

So we're not guaranteed no opposition.

We're just guaranteed that if we do things God's way, we can have a structure that's gonna withstand all opposition.

And so, on this rock, what was that rock?

That was the revelation knowledge.

He said Peter, flesh and blood, did not reveal this to you.

Well, where did he get it?

My Father, who was in heaven, revealed it, and so God gave him special revealed knowledge about this that Jesus Christ was the Christ and the Son of the living God.

So that's the revelation knowledge that this church is built on.

Jesus is building His church on that foundational cornerstone.

So hold your place on that scripture right there.

So that's Matthew 16.

Hold your place there.

We'll come back to the rest of that scripture in just a minute, but we're gonna look over in Ephesians, chapter four, verse 11, and this is talking about spiritual gifts.

And these gifts have a purpose of, yes, building.

I know you were gonna say that.

So Ephesians 411 says and he himself gave some to be apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for this purpose, the edifying of the body of Christ.

The word edifying means building, and so God gave, he put in the church some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints.

So we've got a body of believers.

Looking at this church, there's a body of believers that are here, the pastoral ministry, the ministries that come through this church to minister to this body of believers, is for the equipping of the saints, for the purpose of building the body of Christ or edifying the body of Christ, and so I'm gonna keep reading there.

So it's for the building of the body of Christ till we come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

So we believe the same thing.

We have the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine.

There's a lot of doctrines out there, a lot of winds of doctrine, and if you listen to all of them you're gonna be like a yo-yo.

Don't be like a yo-yo.

Plant yourself where God's called you to be and feed on that doctrine.

Tossed about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men and the cunningness and craftiness of deceitful plotting.

But it says, speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supply is, according to the effective working by which every part does it share causes growth of the body or building of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

And so all through here, where it's talking about building and growing and edifying, that's building.

We're building the body of Christ.

But in there it says that we're being fitted together and that we're edifying itself in love.

And so if you're, you know, here we've got a foundation, we're building on the foundation the revelation knowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

We've got this revelation knowledge.

Now we're building a building on top of that, a body of believers that are gotta be fitted together, connected together.

What's the one thing that connects us together?

The unity of Christ.

But we're fitted together in love.

And so we can't have a building without love.

Without love, your structure will fail.

So there's another important part to the building right there.

So tell me this what is a house good for?

We live in a house or you live in something.

Hopefully you don't live on the street.

A house is good for what?

It's good for shelter.

It's also a safe place.

We hope it's a safe place.

It's a place of protection.

You don't have wild animals come in into your home because you've got windows that close and doors that close.

You don't have thieves that come in unless they break in, and then I hope you meet them with the appropriate force on the other side of that door.

But a home is a place of shelter and protection.

And then how many of you who have a house have a house and as soon as you step outside your doorstep you're on somebody else's property?

Of course not.

So you've got a house that sits on property but it's not on the very edge of the property.

You've got some distance between your house, the wall of your house and the fence, the property that you own.

And so we're talking about where you build a house.

You might live in a neighborhood, that's part of a city, that's part of a county, that's part of a region or a state, and so Jesus told us in parable form that we are to occupy, until he comes, adam.

When he was first planted on this earth, when God created Adam, he charged Adam to subdue the earth and to have dominion over it.

Jesus, of course, bought back what Adam lost.

Adam lost his dominion and Jesus bought it back and gave it back to us in the form of the Great Commission when he gave the assignment to his disciples.

He started out by saying all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go, therefore, and so we're to occupy some land and we're supposed to do some stuff on our land.

We're supposed to have a house, a place to dwell, a place of protection, a place of safety, and so that house has purpose and we've got a responsibility to the land that that house is on.

So go back to Matthew 16.

So Peter's just got this revelation.

Knowledge.

Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, but my father, who is in heaven and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

So verse 19,.

And Jesus said I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

In other words, jesus is saying I'm going to show you how to operate according to kingdom principles.

I'm gonna give you authority on binding and loosing, and that's.

You know that right?

There is something that the church at large doesn't know about, doesn't operate in.

They think that God does everything and God is sovereign, but we have a part to play in that role here on earth and we've been given this authority.

So Jesus is telling him whatever you bind in heavenly places, whatever you bind on earth, will be bound in heavenly places.

Well, that's not in heaven, you know.

We're God and angels and it's not heaven, but it's spiritual places, or heaven in the heavenlies or in the spirituals and the places where spirits move and do things.

So when we bind things on earth, we can, it binds things in the heavenly realm or the spiritual realm, and when we loose things on earth it loses things in that realm too.

So we've got an authority in both places and in effect what we do here has in effect in the spiritual places.

Whatever you allow on your land, your property or your neighborhood.

You know how many neighbors you see, some strange character walking through your neighborhood.

You'd be watching them and seeing where they're going and maybe reporting what their vehicle looks like and what the license plate is.

If you see something going on in your neighborhood that's not right, you might report that.

If you see a crime committed, you might report that crime.

You don't wanna allow this stuff in your neighborhood.

You don't wanna allow evil to come into your neighborhood, do you?

Well, we have a role to play in that.

We have a role to play in our region.

What we allow, whatever we allow, we'll have more of.

And yeah, we live in a house, but then that danger comes to our house and we're to occupy until it comes, and so that's not occupying our land.

We can allow or disallow predators and thieves, squatters, poachers, people who come on our land without permission, trespassers.

We can allow or disallow that.

We have the authority to disallow these things.

We can disallow this stuff in our schools, in our communities, in our state, in our nation.

Whatever we allow, we'll have more of.

Whatever we disallow, we'll have less of.

And so we're building a house, but that covers the development of your land and the area around.

And so, again, we've got two ways to build.

There's the way that seems right to man, the mental thinking.

We can have some good ideas about stuff, but therein lies destruction.

We need to take on God's way.

You can build your house your way, but oftentimes that requires toil.

There's a difference between work and toil.

Toil is just fruitless labor and it's relentless and it's endless and it's weary-some and it'll wear you out.

If we build a house without the right stuff, without the right building materials, without love, that structure is gonna fail.

The foundation is subject to erosion, it's doomed to fail.

But building God's way has gotta start with getting wisdom.

Again, going back to Proverbs get wisdom, make that the principal thing, get wisdom.

So back to our first scripture, proverbs 24,.

It says through wisdom the house is built and by understanding it is established or fitted together.

That word established means to be fit together by knowledge.

The rooms are filled with precious and pleasant riches.

God wants you to have a house full of good stuff.

He wants your life to be full of good stuff.

He wants the structure of the world that you live in, that you're building with your words, that you're building with really his word, implementing his word.

He wants you to build with his word and have a house that is precious, filled with precious and pleasant riches.

And so the encouragement that I have for you tonight is to get wisdom.

And we do that by asking Get knowledge.

How do you get knowledge?

Knowledge is information.

We get knowledge by reading his word, by listening to his word.

We get the understanding of his word by meditating on it, and so you don't just hear it once, but you hear it and you speak it and you mull it over and you consider it and consider how to apply that.

We've got to study, to show yourself approved and to God, a workman who needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing God's word of truth.

And so study his word, meditate on his word and you'll have the understanding to go along with that.

Build on the revelation knowledge that God gives you.

There's revelation knowledge that comes right off the pages of this Bible.

You can read it one time, but you can read it again and get something entirely new out of it, because it's a living word and when you read and the Holy Ghost breathes on that word, you get revelation knowledge or God's understanding about that word and how to apply it in your life.

Don't leave out the love part.

That's how your structure is gonna stay together.

Love is the fascinating part of it.

It's fitted together.

Don't forget that you'll have more of what you allow.

And so bind and loose, bind and loose.

It takes work to build a house, to build a structure, to build a life, to build your kids, but it's not fruitless toil, it's not in vain.

The work is worth it because after you've built God's way, when the storms of life come, they'll beat against your house, they'll beat against your structure.

The gates of hell will come against everything that God's word is and stands for, but it will not prevail.

And when the storm subsides and the waters recede, your house is still there.

You're still in it.

Your life is not destroyed.

Those who have built on something else.

The ruin of that house is great.

To the degree that this country is built on God's word and it is.

It's founded on God's word.

We've allowed some things over the course of history that we need to disallow, and so we need to get back in there and clean those poachers off our land, clean those squatters off, trespassers, get them out, run them off.

We've got some work to do to clean up, but this nation is built on God's word.

It's founded on His principles.

Your house, your family, make sure it's built on God's principles.

Your children make sure you're training them up in the way they should go on God's principles, god's words.

And again, when the storms of life come, god's word never fails.

Your house will stand strong.

You're not guaranteed no storms, but you're just guaranteed a successful structure that won't give into any of that.

So I hope that's an encouragement tonight.

My goal was to build you up, help build the kingdom of God by building you up with these nuggets out of God's word.

So I hope that encourages you tonight.