Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Download MP3 (right click to save)
This is going to come as a surprise to my friends who know my handyman abilities or my lack of handyman abilities, but my sons and I have built several houses together. Uh-huh! Yeah. Now, don't expect to see a pickup truck around town that says Hutchcraft & Sons on the side; that's not going to happen. See, our houses...well, they haven't done too well.
It wasn't because we didn't work hard. We did. And it wasn't because they didn't look good; they looked great. It wasn't because they weren't big; we built them pretty big. But they literally collapsed within hours of the time we finished building them. It might have had something to do with the fact that we built those houses out of sand on a beach near the ocean.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about, "So What Are You Building?"
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew 16:16. "Simon Peter said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by My Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.'" Did you get that? "And on this rock I will build My church."
That's what Jesus is building, and the tide is not going to affect it, the gates of hell He says will not overcome it. Now, there's no doubt about what Jesus is building. He's building His church. Are you? What are you building? We're all working on some structure; some kingdom of some kind. It's that in which you are putting your dreams, quite a bit of your money, the best of your time, a lot of your daily conversation revolves around whatever kingdom you are working on.
Maybe you're building a reputation for yourself. Maybe you're building a romantic relationship, and that relationship is actually getting most of your best. Maybe you're building a business; I will build my business. I will build my income. I will build my personal dream. I will build my retirement. I will build my own little kingdom, maybe even within Christ's church. It's all sand castles; it's all going to collapse.
Jesus is calling us to focus what we have on building His church, and that means reaching the lost and building up believers. So, is that where your best is going? Someone has said in order for us to pray, "Thy kingdom come," we first have to pray, "My kingdom go." All these other things are all right if they're around the periphery and Christ is at the center and calling the shots in all of them.
I wonder if you'd stand back and take a candid look at your motives; at what is really your great passion right now; your great focus; your great obsession. Where are your energies going? Is it getting people to your Jesus? Or has Jesus' building program taken a back seat to something you're building; something out of sand; something a strong tide is going to wash away.
Jesus said, "The gates of hell will not wash away what He is building." Don't waste your few years on earth on a building that's not going to last. Jesus is building His church. What are you building?