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
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.