Building Your House | Pastor Ashley Garza

We're going to start from Matthew 7, it says.

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I

will liken him to a wise man who built his house.

On the rock, the rains. Ascended the floods came, and

the winds blew and beat on the House, and it did not fall.

Why? For it was founded on the rock.

These scriptures that I just read to you from Matthew.

We're. From what we now call the Sermon

on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5-6 and seven are a collection

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

of teachings that Jesus, he ascended up onto a mountain and

he was teaching and preaching these words to basically anyone

who is willing to hear. It wasn't like he had this

teaching for select few. It wasn't like it was just for

the powerful. It wasn't just for those who

were designated for this time, but he allowed this sermon to be

for anyone who would hear. So a lot of people came and they

stood at the bottom of the mountain and they listen to all

these teachings that he had. And if you read chapters 5-6 and

seven, you're like, you're probably going to know all these

scriptures that you're reading because these are really awesome

scriptures that he was teaching to these people who are willing

to hear. But what happens is as after he

preaches all these scriptures to them, he wraps it up with this

collection of scriptures right here, and he says basically all

of them. Listen, all of you guys, you can

sit here and you can hear these words and that's great.

But if you do that, you're going to be like the foolish man who

built his house upon the sand. But he said, if you can stand

here and hear these words and you can leave from this place

and do these words that I just taught you, you will be like the

man who built his. House on the Rock, he says the

winds will come. The rains going to beat against

your house, but your house will not fall because your house was

built on the rock. So we have to understand how

powerful is it that we have this understanding that we are all

houses. I'm going to talk about us being

houses today and how our lives have the ability to reflect

that. But when you're building a

house, you have to have that solid foundation, naturally

speaking, you know, when you're building a house, you look at it

and you look at the foundation, you're like, man, I hope that

they had a solid foundation, right?

That's the base of the building of a house.

Yet somehow what happens to us as Christians is we like to see,

you know, the, the part that starts going up and we're not

really concerned about the foundation.

I know I I call it the Castle house.

There's a house that's being built down the road from us.

I think it's already done, but there's even another one just as

big as it in its backyard at this point.

And when they? Started digging.

I was just. Like, oh cool, you know, another

house going up, not a big deal, but man, when the wall started

going up, I'm like, Oh my gosh, I was like super invested at

this point, right? But as the foundation was being

laid, I wasn't like, oh, I wonder what foundation they're

laying, right? I wasn't thinking about like,

oh, what material or materials are they using?

Right, Because we like that second-half of it, but this

script scripture goes to show us how important our foundation is

because that's going to be the base for every choice that.

We make that's going to be the base.

For the lives that we. Live, you can't just stand at

the bottom of the mountain. And hear his words, but it says

you have to go and do those words.

So this is the foundation that this that we're built on, this

is the foundation that's going to hold us up.

This is the foundation that's going to sustain us.

If we don't, I don't have a solid foundation.

Like the scripture says, our house is going to be blown over

or it's going to be beaten down. How many?

Of you, well, if you live in Michigan and around this area,

you probably experienced. But the winds this weekend were

insane. I was like, I don't know if I'm

going to wake. Up with the house around me,

right? The winds were crazy this

weekend, naturally speaking. And I'm like.

Man, I'm so glad my house is secure, right?

But how many of you know that when we go through life,

spiritually speaking, we're going to experience some wind,

some strong winds. Spiritually speaking, you're

going to experience some thunderstorms in your life and

you're going to experience rain just beating and thrashing

against your house. And it's at that moment.

That you're going to be like, I'm so thankful that I built my

house upon the rock. But there's two MMM, but there's

2 steps. In order to have that solid

foundation, we cannot just stop at step one that says you hear

the word. We have to go on to Step 2 that

says you do the word. It's easy.

For. Should be should be easy to show

up at church on Sunday. Just throwing it out there

should be easy to show up at church on Sunday, should be easy

to hear the words of the Lord, easy to open up your Bible,

right? Just open up your scriptures in

the morning and and read the word.

But when God's word is like, love your neighbor as yourself,

and then someone comes up. Against you.

You're like, oh man, now I actually have to do.

The word of the Lord. So in order to ensure that your

foundation is solid, not only can you hear the word of the

Lord, but we have to put God's word into action and start doing

God's word. I love the story of the

Pharisees when it says they. Honor me.

With their lips, but their hearts are far from.

Me. We can't have what I call the

Pharisee condition where we just stop at step.

One we know. God's Word, but we don't allow

God's Word to really transform our hearts and transform our

lives in order to not just know His Word, but do God's Word.

We are people who we want that solid foundation.

We hear His Word and we do His Word.

Amen. Man, that's hard.

For that first step. We've only started with step

one. You're ready to keep moving on.

On the building of our house, Proverbs 24, three to four says

through wisdom, a house is built.

By understanding it is established and by knowledge,

the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

OK, so now we have this, this solid foundation and now it's

time to like allow our house to start getting built up.

But what happens a lot of times, like I was mentioning the castle

down the street from my house is the foundation part I wasn't

super invested in. But once the wall started coming

up, I'm like, oh, a lot of times as Christians, what happens is

we want the part that we can like, see.

Or the part that we can feel everyone's into their feelings

these days, right? We want the part that's like,

oh. We want the wisdom and we want

the knowledge and we want the understanding.

But if you don't start with step one, the foundation, you're

never going to have that solid structure of a house that God

has called us to. So again, now we have the solid

foundation, we start building up.

We have to be built on that solid foundation or else our

house is going to fall. So here we are.

How is the house built? Through wisdom.

How is it established by understanding and how are the

rooms filled by knowledge? I want to go over a couple

definitions of these words because I think a lot of times

what happens. Is as we read the scriptures.

You know, we, we generally speaking no wisdom, we generally

speaking no knowledge and generally speaking no

understanding. And a lot of times those those

three kind of get lumped together into one understanding,

if you will. And, and I want to go into this

so we can really know how our house is built, established, and

how the rooms are filled. Knowledge is a gathering of

information about God through Scripture and experience.

Knowledge is something that as we.

Read the Scripture. We are going to learn God's Word

as we read it and we walk out our walk with God.

There are things that we're going to learn about Scripture.

There's things that we're going to learn about God.

But wisdom is the divine practical ability to apply the

knowledge of God to everyday life, ensuring decisions align

with His will. So wisdom is kind of taking the

knowledge that you've learned and now putting it to action.

In your everyday life. As I was, you know, just

studying these scriptures, I wanted, I was thinking of like,

what's an easy way to explain the difference between knowledge

and wisdom in it, in it, in Google or chat or whoever I was

using created this really great analogy and I was like, I like

that it said knowledge is knowing what a tomato is.

Wisdom is knowing that it doesn't belong in ice cream.

And I'm like, OK, right, simple, simple enough to understand, but

here we go. So we have to have the

knowledge. We have to have God's word by

reading it and by experiencing our walk with God.

But then we need to get to a place where we're able to now

take the word of God and say, OK, how do I apply this to my

life? That I can apply it to my life

and allow my life to align with His desire for my life.

How can I apply this to my heart so that now my heart is in

alignment with the heart that God wants?

Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge to make godly

decisions. And as we know, the fear of the

Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We have to start with that fear

of the Lord that says Lord you are.

All powerful Lord, you are all knowing, and God, I Revere you

to the place that I know that your ways are not my ways, but

they're better. Your thoughts are not my

thoughts, but they're better. And Lord, I know that you have a

plan for me. So we get to this place where we

fear the Lord. We know all these things about

the Lord and now we start to align ourselves with His vision

and His plans for not only us as individuals, but as the Kingdom

of God. So we start operating in a way

where we can now want what God wants.

We can start doing the things that we know that God wants us

to do, and now we know how to apply it to our everyday lives.

And then it says understanding is a part of building your

house. This is the spiritual ability to

discern and interpret and apply God's truth to life.

Here we go moving beyond mere intellectual knowledge to a

heart aligned with divine wisdom.

So this is the why behind why we do what we do.

Understanding takes us from just the people who are doing you

know what we're we're operating, you know, like our operation

system is just telling us the Lord says to do this, so you do

it to now saying, God, I believe I might not understand why

you're asking me to do these things, but Lord, my heart

believes you and it wants to do this not because I was told to

do it because I love you and I trust you and I put my faith in

you. You know I.

Amen. Yeah, so I was talking to a good

friend of mine the other day chat.

And I think it's funny because like, I'm like, man, I gotta,

I'm asking this thing everything all day, every day.

It's like my husband and I, every time we have a

conversation we end up asking Chad a question about it.

But what I have? Learned is it is not a friend.

It is an operating system, right?

Or I don't know the technical word for it, but I was trying

to. I'm sitting with Delaney.

We were working on something for social and I was like, I'll just

ask Chad to make it like, how easy is that?

So I gave it very simple directions.

Step one, I'm going to send you a photo that I want you to use

as inspirations for the colours Only, only colours of this

photo. 2. I'm going to send you what I

want the photo to look like. So basically make photo B be

exactly the same but use the colours from photo AI said it

much simpler than that right? Even if I didn't.

Chat's supposed to be pretty awesome.

This picture that it gave me, I was like, you didn't do what I

asked you to do. That was like my response back

to chat. And it was like, oh, I'm so

sorry. You're right.

I didn't do what you asked me to do.

I'll try again. And I'm like, let me just, I'm

typing back. Let me just tell you my

directions again, even more simpler than before.

And it's like, thank you so much.

Yeah, I totally understand what you're talking about.

And it gives me the same photo. I'm like, you just gave me the

same photo as before and I'm so sorry.

You're right. I'm like all I'm learning from

this is I'm right chat and you're wrong.

That's all I'm gaining from this conversation.

We don't want to be chat who just like operates out of just

like, Oh, I don't know what to do because God says to love, but

I don't love this person. So I can't right.

We have to have an understanding where we can now apply God's

knowledge into wisdom, which creates a heart aligned with his

word. Because when we can get heart

behind it, it's like, you know, like you don't want to just my

kids, like I'm teaching them. My mom always reminds me you're

teaching them. I know I'm teaching them.

It's crazy, but I am my kids. It's like, oh gosh, you got to

go to the bathroom. What?

I have to go to the bathroom. You know, they're like throwing

themselves on the ground and they're like, not our older 2

are not like this anymore. It's just our younger one.

You would think the. World is falling apart because

we asked him to go to the bathroom, right?

So he goes to bathroom, to the bathroom out of service to what

we've asked him to do. Like, all right, I'm going to

the bathroom. But just so you know, I don't

need to go, right? And as Christians, a lot of

times that's what we do. We're like God, all right, We'll

do your word just because you asked me to do it.

But I don't want to do it. When you love God, when you have

his knowledge, wisdom, and understanding and you love him.

You don't have that hard attitudes like I don't want to

do it anyway, but I'm going to do it because you're like, I

know that your ways are better. So I might not understand God

what you're asking me to do, but I want to do it because I know

it's going to work out. I know it's going to be awesome.

So we have to get to that place where we're building our house

on a solid foundation. And as our walls are going up,

they are built with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

Lord God, your ways are better than my ways.

Your thoughts are better than my thoughts.

Amen. Ephesians 2, it says having been

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus

Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole

building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the

Lord, and whom you are also being built together for a

dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

There is an importance to the cornerstone.

And see, a lot of times when we're building our house, we

think about, you know, every choice that we make is kind of,

you know, every choice is like a brick, right, going into the

building of our house. But we forget.

How important that first brick being laid?

Is Jesus Christ the cornerstone, the most important stone, the

first stone laid? The reliable stone.

He sets the. Alignment for our entire house

and he provides stability for the house that we are building

and every brick that comes after that cornerstone that we lay is

a choice that we have made and we have to make sure that every

brick that we are laying goes into the.

Correct. Alignment for building that.

House. We have a brick house and when

we moved into the house it was just like a regular reddish

brown color brick. I'm great.

Sure, it's great. For some, but I wanted a White

House, so we decided to paint the house white and all of a

sudden we're like not we, I'm not painting my house.

Someone's painting my house and it's getting painted white and

on the side of my house. I kind of stepped back and I'm

like, what in the what is happening right here?

I thought they painted it like the different.

Shade of white, but. What I noticed when I got up

close to the house is 1 brick was not set in the right

position, which caused the next brick to not be in the right

position, which caused the next brick this way and this way to

not be in the right position. So now you're all going to drive

by my house meal. I see you now.

So now what happens is the whole side of the house, there's this

like whole section of brick that just kind of sticks out from the

whole rest of the house and then goes back in the alignment's not

right. And So what we do as Christians

is every choice that we make, we understand that that's a brick

in building our house. But we're like, I'm just, it's

just like a the the. Choice I'm going to make.

Is just like, just like slightly.

Off Not that big of a deal. And you you decide to lay that

brick. But then what happens is you you

lay the next brick after that choice, and then the next brick

after that choice. And all the sudden you realize

that your house is not in alignment.

So we have to be so in tune with the Holy Spirit and the choices

that we have to make for our house and making sure that those

choices are in alignment with the word of God.

And I can say this and most Christians can sit there and be

like, of course, we know that that's God's word.

You just got to do it. Even even to this day.

I I called my dad when he was in El Salvador and I was like, I

need your help for a choice that we have to make.

And he's like, here's what you got to do.

You got to pray about it, right? And it was like, my mind was

like, I texted my husband, we got to pray about it.

You know, it's like, that's like, obviously.

But yeah, I was trying to operate outside of asking God

what he wanted for my life, for my house.

So we have to say, Lord, you are my cornerstone.

You set the alignment for my entire life.

Lord, let every choice that I make be a brick that goes in

alignment with you so that I can build a solid house.

Because we have a mem, you can have this solid foundation.

And then as we start building our house, right line upon line,

precept upon precept, brick here, brick there.

And as you build that, what happens is if we get out of

alignment now our house is just kind of like right?

And we have to understand that we don't want our, we have to

put, right? If if our.

House is being built and it gets out of alignment.

What is the longevity of that house?

I don't know anyone who's like, yes, please build me a cheap

house. Please build me a house that my

bricks are out of alignment. So every time I look at it, I

think it's painted the wrong color.

Please. That's the kind of house that I

want to build, right? No one wants that.

But why do we do it for our lives?

We have to hear the word of God and do it and keep in tune with

him every single step of the way so that every choice we make

stays in alignment to Him. So that worry, we're not

building a cheap house that's just going to fall over, but

we're building a house for the longevity of it.

They're houses, man, that I have seen.

And I'm like you, you hear about them, They're like, OK, I was

going to say they're like historical monuments.

So we don't want to be like the historical one in Clarkson that

it's definitely not stood the test of time.

I'm so sorry if you're like, I'm on that team who's restoring it.

But we want to be like the ones that are like standing the test

of time so that when people look at our house, they say, Oh my

gosh, that's the kind of house that I want to build.

But if they see a house out of. Alignment.

They're like, I don't know what you're doing wrong, but that is

not the kind of house that I want.

We represent Jesus with everything that we.

Do in the house that we build, let's build a house in alignment

with him. Amen.

First Corinthians 3 it says. Now if anyone builds on this

foundation with gold, silver, precious stones.

Good, Hey Straw. Each one's work will become

clear why for the day will declare it because it will be

revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work of

what sort it is. We understand as Christians that

when we. Walk through life.

We know that trials. Are going to come we know that

just because you become a Christian doesn't mean that it's

smooth sailing all the way because what happens is then God

asks you to do something that is totally aligned for his purpose

for you, but it just doesn't look maybe the way that you

thought it would look. It didn't come in the right

timing that you hoped it would be.

And then all of a sudden you're Jonah, who's like, I don't.

Want to do that? And you're in the fish's belly,

right? We have to understand that we

are going to go through things. Your house is going to take a

beating. Just laying it out there.

The winds are going to come, the storms are going to come, the

floods are going to come. The fire, just talking about a

fire. The other day I tried cooking

something in my oven and I heard, I didn't hear it.

I smelled something and I was like, not a big deal.

And then it was like real strong.

And I was just about to text my husband.

If you come home from work and I'm laying on the floor, just

know it was the oven. Right when I had that thought,

all our alarms start going off. I'm like, Oh no.

So I had to call 911. Thankfully, my house didn't burn

down. I'm OK, house is OK, we're all

OK. But just imagine things like

that happen naturally speaking, things like that happen

spiritually speaking. We have to have a house that now

because your house might look great, you might have moved on

to Step 2. You forgot about the foundation

part. You have a beautiful looking

house and then the floods come, but you don't have a solid

foundation. So your house may look awesome.

Floods come, swoops out your house from under and now your

house is crumbling down. We have to understand that what

we build our the foundation is important.

And what you build your house with is important.

So you again may have this great looking house.

There's a lot of Christians. From the outside it looks great,

but when the. Fire comes when the testing of

times comes. It says what materials you use

will be revealed. It will be revealed if you have

used wood, hay or straw. So it might look good from the

outside, but God says, I want your heart.

He says, I don't care if it looks like you're a great

Christian. I want your heart.

I want you to have a heart that is after me, right?

I want you to have a heart that when the fire comes and the wind

comes that you're like, man, I built my house on the solid

foundation, the rock, which is Jesus Christ.

I used him as my cornerstone. I use wisdom, knowledge and

understanding to build my house up.

And now as it says here, I've also used gold, silver and

precious stones. And when the day declares it,

it's going to be revealed by fire and my house is not moving.

My house is going to stand because you have built the

house, just like God has asked us to build that house.

And you want to know what is so important?

About all of this is your house represents God.

So everything that it looks like every the location that it's at

all of these things are this opportunity to use for a shining

light to represent who God is. So people see your house.

And they're like, that's the kind of house that I want.

Amen. Another scripture in first.

Corinthians it says, do you not know that you are the temple of

God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, for

the temple of God is holy. Which temple you are We in 2010

we were starting the young adult group 412 and I just had I was

reading in First Timothy 412 and it was just really sticking out

to me to be an example in Word, conduct, love, spirit, faith,

impurity and I. Really had this?

Burden. For the young.

Adults at that time, and I know that it's not just a calling for

the young adults, it's for the body of Christ, but that's the

ministry that I was in at that time.

I really had a. Burden for people to live wholly

consecrated lives and not just a burden for people to live a

wholly, wholly consecrated life that we are called to do, but

that it was possible because I know so many times when you're

going through life, sometimes it feels impossible.

It feels impossible for us to, you know, just make certain

choices that are aligned with what God would want us to make.

So I met with Pastor Rich at the time and he was the previous

young adult pastor and I just was like, you know, he's like

the, he's so good at this kind of stuff.

So you know, he's just like he has his, Oh, I was going to say

he has his pen, but he's left-handed.

He has his pen in his paper, right?

And he's like, just just say it all.

And I was like, you know, I want holy consecrated lives.

And I went younger and I just like gave him all the stuff and

he's writing it down and we're coming up with a slogan and we

came up with how we live matters.

How we. I was, I was waiting for like a

big clap for that. I thought that was like, so

awesome. How we live matters.

It's so important what we do that matters that we're not just

outward exterior Christians, but the interior of our house

matters. How many of you know what you

put in your house makes your house a home?

Can I get an Amen? That's why staging houses are so

important. They're going to sell a house,

so they stage it and they're like, oh, I can totally imagine

my little girl sleeping in this room.

Oh my gosh, this is where we're going to do movie night.

I'm going to potty train my right.

They're like. People get all.

Crazy when they stage houses because they want to be able to

imagine their family in that home.

So we have to have an understanding that what we put

in our house to make it a home matters.

That's why here. Do you know that you are the?

Temple of God, we are the temple of God.

We have this opportunity to walk around making our house a home.

And not only do we have this opportunity of making this house

a home, but now we get to represent Jesus Christ in

everything that we say, in everything that we do.

We could spend so much time on our solid foundation.

We could spend so much time on building our house with the

right materials and having the alignment, all to have a filthy

house right on the inside, all to have things inside of our

house that do not belong. And it's so important that not

only do we have that firm foundation and we.

Build that house. But what we put in our house is

a representation of God. Every choice that you make, what

you allow into your heart, what you allow into your mind, what

you allow your eyes to see, all of that goes into the interior

of your house. This scripture says here defile,

this means to ruin through corruption or seducing, false

teachings, pride and morality. What are we sowing into our

heart? What are we allowing into our

houses? You know Jesus Christ when you

know the Old Testament, it was all about the laws and following

the laws. And then Jesus Christ comes here

and he's like, don't you know that if you look on a person

with your heart, you're committing adultery?

And everyone's like. What are you talking about?

Because he's making a point to say what's in our heart is just

as important as what we're doing externally.

And it's very easy. We've seen this time and time

again as we, if you follow any Christian news news, but

Christian news specifically, you see people who their lives look

like very promising, right? Oh man, they're like hearing

from the Lord and doing all this stuff.

And all the sudden you find out through the testing of fire,

their heart has been revealed. And great was its fall because

they said a foolish man built his house upon the sand.

And when all the storms of life come, the house comes crumbling

down. So we have to understand the

gravity of what we're putting inside our house.

And this is the the the best part about all of This is why

the building of our house is so important.

And as I was just getting ready for, you know, this Sunday in

the past couple weeks, I'm just like praying about it.

And what I saw was a neighborhood.

I saw this, this neighborhood of houses, beautiful, beautiful

houses that were all built on a foundation, the rock all having

that cornerstone. All.

Having this alignment that follows the heart after God and

and all these beautiful things. And I thought, why is it so

important what we do with our house?

Because we are a part of the Kingdom of God.

We're not just a house that's over beyond Yonder, you know,

living all you can be, you can be.

But God hasn't called us to do life alone.

God has called us to be a part of the Kingdom of God.

So the importance of us building a house says, listen, my house

now represents the Kingdom of God.

People are going to see my house.

And if they see my house and it looks like everyone else's

house, why would they want my house?

Why would they want what I have? Our kids school is in a

neighborhood. It's kind of like when you get

those kids, like you go to a restaurant and they hand your

kids a piece of paper. And it will have like 6

different things and they all look exactly.

The same and it's like, which one is different?

You drive through the neighborhood and it's like,

hopefully no one owns this house.

It's beautiful, but it's like lime green and I'm like, you

drive through this neighborhood and it's like beautiful.

And then you're just like, they built a lime greenhouse.

It's like, which one doesn't belong?

Oh, we don't want to be that house, right?

We don't want to be in the Kingdom of God and we spend so

much time building a house that doesn't fit in God's Kingdom so

that they say, oh, right, I don't want that.

We need to be building. We need to be thinking about the

house that we build and knowing that it's it's a part of God's

Kingdom. Can I get a Amen?

Your. House is a part of God's Kingdom

and that is something awesome that is not something to take

for granted. Your houses affect or your house

effects all the houses around you.

In Matthew 6 it says therefore do not worry, saying what shall

we eat, What shall we drink, what shall we wear?

For after all of these things the Gentiles seek for your

heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

So what do we do? Seek first the Kingdom of God

and His righteousness. All these things will be added

to you. I have the question for you.

Whose Kingdom are you building? And I know it's easy to, it's

easy to want to know what the right thing to say is.

Of course I'm building God's Kingdom, but what are your

actions saying? Are you building your Kingdom or

are you building the Kingdom of God?

This is a popular phrase amongst people who are my age, and maybe

it was popular when I was a child.

I just didn't really know the lingo for the parents of that

time. But a lot of people say, oh,

we're just doing what's best for our family.

If you tell me that, I will not roll my eyes at you.

I'll just do it this time. And then just know if you ever

say that to me, what I'm thinking inside, we're just

doing what's best for our family.

It's like, so going to church is not what's best for your family.

We're just doing what's best for our family.

So allowing them to spend all this time with people who are

not planted in the House of God is what's best for your family.

What if we remember that we were building the Kingdom of God?

That we're not building. Our Kingdom, our children are

not our children. They're His children and we are

equipping them for the Kingdom of God.

We have to get to this place that says I'm not doing what's

best for my family. I'm doing what's best for his

family. And when we do what's best for

his family, I will tell. You.

That sometimes it's not easy. Sometimes it is a struggle.

Sometimes you're the odd one out, but I would rather be the

odd one out in his Kingdom than busy building my Kingdom.

So we have to understand that we can go through life seeking all

these things that the Gentiles seek, but all we're going to do

is just represent the Gentiles. God says if you want to be a

part of my Kingdom, seek first the Kingdom of God and then all

these things. He's like, I know what you need.

Do you not know I created you? I know everything that you have

need of, Don't worry about that. Let tomorrow worry about itself.

He says, don't worry about that, seek first the Kingdom of God,

and I will Add all these things to you.

But when you thus sin against brethren, and moon their weak

conscious, you sin against Christ.

Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never

again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

If you are a part of our Bible studies, you will know that we

just use this scripture. The other week we've been

studying First Corinthians and I'm like, gosh man, I love this

because you dive deep down like. You know it's.

Easy to just read through First Corinthians.

It's another thing when you study it and I'm like, Paul is

awesome. Like I knew he was awesome when

he said imitate me as I imitate, imitate Christ.

I was like, gosh, what a guy. But now that I'm diving into

these Bible studies, if you're not a part and not too late to

sign up. We're talking about Paul, right?

And he basically comes to this place that he's like, listen, I

like meat. I love.

Meat, it's great for me. I love it.

But if it causes you to stumble, he says, I just won't eat it

again. What if as Christians, we

realize the influence that we have on other people and we

said, listen, if this causes you to stumble, I'm not.

I'm not attached to this. It's OK if what I have put in my

house causes you to stumble. I'll throw it to the trash.

We can't be so attached to the things that we put in our house.

That we're not. Willing to let it go if it

causes our brother to stumble. We have to realize not only do

we get to influence other people around us, but we have the

privilege to influence other people around us.

I just think that mindset shift of like an opportunity to do

this for people to now a privilege to influence people.

God has called us to be the salt and light in which we live.

And we have that opportunity to say, listen, if it causes you to

stumble, how much? If we're building our Kingdom,

we're not going to be willing to say I'm not going to eat meat,

but if we're building God's Kingdom and we place people

first before ourselves, we'll say, listen, I love it, but if

it's causing you to stumble, I get rid of it.

We have this opportunity to influence other people through

the building of our house and we have the opportunity to walk

with them through the building of their house.

So when we have this opportunity and they're getting ready to lay

that brick and you're like, wow, that's slightly out of

alignment. What a opportunity we have to

get to help influence in the building of other people's

houses. Amen.

In this last Scripture I have it says, And he himself gave some

to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some

pastors and teachers. For the equipping of the Saints,

for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of

Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what

every joint supplies according to the effective working by

which every part does its share, causes growth of the body, For

the edifying of itself in love for the body.

We are the body of Christ. It does not say for the edifying

of yourself, it says for the edifying of the body.

And I mentioned this a little bit, but I just think about like

this neighborhood, the Kingdom of God, and all these houses are

being built on the solid foundation.

They're all built with the precious stones and the gold and

the silver, and they stand the test of time.

Every house is filled with things that glorify the Lord.

An outsider looking in can say, I want that.

If our neighborhood looks exactly like every other

neighborhood, why would anyone want to come in?

They would say, well, I've already got that over here, I

don't need that, but we have the opportunity.

I just believe we are a city set on a hill which cannot be

hidden. We are the light of the world

and we can glorify God as we collectively come together for

the edifying of itself in love. As we collectively come

together, as we bring our houses together and as we make our

houses a home, we come together. And now we have the opportunity

to function as the body of Christ, which is the Kingdom of

God, which is able to represent heaven on earth.

What an amazing, amazing testimony we're able to be a

part of. Amen.

By. Faith.

This is talking about Abraham. It says by faith he dwelt in the

land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with

his children, that heirs with him of the same promise.

For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder

and maker is God. As we are building our house, we

are a part of a city who the entire city, its foundation and

builder is God. How incredible.

How blessed are we to be a part of what God has for this world.

And when we are in the Kingdom of God, it's not about us, but

it's about building His Kingdom. This is Pastor Lauren Coverbius

from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us

today and invite you to connect with our church family by

visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media.

God bless you.