The Key To Building A House That Lasts

Well, good morning, everyone, how are you today? Great to see you, so nice to be with you this morning. If we haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Paul. I had the privilege of being the tool Jesus used to start the church 40 years ago. It's been a pleasure watching God work. So it's a pleasure to be here and be able to speak this morning. Thank you, pastor, for another opportunity to share and invest into the congregation. We love and appreciate you so much. You're doing a great job. Thank the world of you. Lord bless you. Amen. Well, for those of you who do know me or know us, just wanted to say a quick thank you. Thank you for all the meals, cards, gifts that you've sent our way over the past few months, been challenging. Forgive me for not writing personal notes to each of you, but we have appreciated every single gift card, thought, prayer, meal that you've delivered. Thank you so, so much from the bottom of our heart. We appreciate it. And things are better, things are looking up. Praise the Lord. He's faithful. All right, so I was sitting here Wednesday night. It was awesome.

And I'm just sitting there watching and just glorying in what was going on. And 33 people, baptism after baptism, baptism after baptism. And I said to myself, what I've been saying to myself for quite some time now, and that is that it is nothing short of a sovereign move of God, what's going on here at Calvary Church. I don't know if you really know that or not. You know, I've been around, I've been in the way for a long time, okay? So, and I can tell you, and Pastor Dan is a great leader doing a great job, not taking away from that at all. But there are great leaders around the country, good men that have faithfully served for years and years and years, and don't see the kind of things that are happening here at Calvary Church. It's just amazing what God's doing. And it's actually the fulfillment of three prophecies that have been spoken over this church in the last several years. Going way, way back, we used to meet over in the, what is now the Kids Chapel. That was our building originally. It was the first building we built. And one Wednesday night, I had a great speaker. His name was Dr. Mark Rutland.

He was with us on a Wednesday night. We had maybe 40 people there. And I'll be perfectly honest with you, it was pretty much all white. Just telling you the truth. A bunch of white, boring people. Just who was with them? Because they had a white, boring pastor. I mean, it's how it works, right? And so Mark got up to speak and just, he paused and he just kind of looked up and prophetically said, you know, the kingdom is like a great net that's thrown out. It catches all kinds of fish. Wouldn't it be wonderful if this church reflected the kingdom with multiple ethnicities? How many of you know God's fulfilling that? Are you with me? Isn't that awesome? That's a sovereign work of God. I didn't make that happen. I didn't know how to make that happen. Had I been, had that agenda, I wouldn't have made it happen. God wanted to do that. Are you with me? And then a few years ago in this building, Sharon Cattell, one of our ladies, was sitting right over here.

And one Sunday morning gave a word of prophecy. And the Lord says, the latter glory of this house will be greater than the former glory. And at that time, we were probably running 300 or 400, something like that. It was a healthy, good church. But how many of you know the latter glory is much greater than the former glory? Four Sunday morning services and 1,500-ish in attendance. It's a sovereign work of God. Don't miss that. And then the last over, I think it was about four years ago now, I think, maybe three, that on a Saturday night before Easter, I was in this room praying and the Holy Spirit spoke clearly to me. This has only happened in my life about two or three times. The Spirit spoke to me and said, I'm gonna cause the church to grow exponentially, just like that. I was like, cool. I don't know what to do with it, but that's awesome. So then I started a series on building bigger people. We need bigger people to disciple, people are coming. And so back then we were running 400,

something like that. Two years later, I retired and we were running about 650 in two years. And now in two years after that, 1,500, the church has doubled just like that. Amen. I'm wanting to emphasize to you that this is the work of God. And again, it's not taken away from any of the leadership. And the reason I wanna emphasize that is sometimes that comes with a danger. Sometimes, when you and I experience the unbelievable grace and mercy and blessing of God on our lives, we begin to take it a little for granted, and we get all caught up with the celebration and the emotion, and if we're not careful, we can kind of drift from really living out our faith. I know that sounds like a misnomer, but that's kind of how it works. And so, I want to speak for a few minutes this morning in as grandfatherly a way as I know how, because my intent this morning is not some heavy-handed rebuke or correction, not at all, nor was it Jesus' intent when He first spoke these words. When Jesus spoke these words that we're going to look at today, what He was doing was encouraging and challenging religious people of the time to truly have faith and to live by faith. He's encouraging their faith to really enjoy the blessing of God on their life and all that God wanted to continue to do. Now, I don't know about you, but God has blessed me in ways I absolutely do not deserve. Absolutely, I don't deserve many of the blessings God's given me. I failed along the way, made some mistakes. How about you? Isn't Jesus good? But Jesus says some things here in this text that we just want to highlight to you this

morning. It's kind of like Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5, Paul put it like this. He said, examine yourself to see if you're in the faith. Test yourselves. Kind of take a look. Am I truly exercising faith? Because the implication of that text is I may not be in the faith or I may not be really exercising my faith the way I should be. Does this make sense? So He invites us to let the Holy Spirit kind of search our hearts. Now, I don't know about you, but here's what I know. If the Holy Spirit truly searches us, here's what I know to be true. There's going to be a gap in every one of our lives between what we know and what we're doing. Come on, somebody. There's always a gap. I know way, way more than I'm actually doing. Come on, somebody. But I'm closing the gap. That's the key. Are we closing the gap? Are we making the effort toward what Christ has called us to? Are you with me so far? Kind of jumping ahead a little bit, forgive me. So I want to read some verses to you because we've received some excellent teaching over these last few weeks. Man, we've talked about dating. We've talked about marriage and sexuality and conflict and communication. I mean, we've had some excellent, excellent teaching. So the question today is, are we actually using the teaching we've received?

Are we using it in the everyday challenges, relationships, responsibilities, blessings? Are we actually using the stuff we're learning or are we defaulting to old ways even though we shout hallelujah on Sunday morning? That's the question for me and for you today. You with me? Oh, I know it's not fun, but we're going to do it anyway. You okay? Okay, here we go. So stand with me. Let's read what Jesus had to say about this. It's in Matthew chapter seven. So we started with the Beatitudes. That's the beginning of what we call the Sermon on the Mount. And as Jesus concludes the sermon, he says this in verse 21, as he wraps up his sermon that day, he said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father is in heaven. Not everyone who says, but only he who, not everyone who says, but only he who, the will of my father in heaven. And he will say, hey, Lord, we preach great sermons in your name, drove out demons, performed miracles. It's a little bit of a mystery, isn't it? How somehow the spirit of God used them or the power of the devil or whatever it was claiming Jesus as Lord. And yet in verse 23, it says, Jesus says, I'll tell them plainly, I never knew you. The word knew in the Bible, in the Old Testament is used about to describe sexual intimacy. So when Jesus says, I never knew you, what he's saying is I did not know you in an intimate relational way. We are not close, you with me? I don't know you. And so what did he say?

I never knew you. So away from me, you evil doers. It's way more practical for me is the one that reads like this. for me, you who practice lawlessness. You call me Lord, but you continue to practice morally ways that don't let me be Lord. And so the reason for that is, there's no intimacy between us. Are you following me? And so Jesus says, that's the problem. So he wraps up then with these words, verse 24. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man, built his house on the rock, the rain came, the stream rose, the winds blew, beat against the house and it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock, the bedrock underneath the sand. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, the rains came, the streams rose, winds blew, beat against the house and it fell with a great crash. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowd were amazed because he taught as one who had authority, not as the teachers of law. Lord, thank you for your word. Quicken it to our hearts, minds and souls and wills today in Jesus' name.

Before you're seated, turn to somebody and say, what foundation are you building on? You can be seated, thank you. So the next service is 11 o'clock, right? I just got a glitch there, yeah, gotcha, okay. So I'm gonna preach to 1101, no, I'm kidding. No, I'm just kidding. Well, like I said, we've received some really, really good instruction, amen? So are we using it? Are we using what we've learned? Because here's the point, the first point on your note that I wanna make is that we're not just using the word, here's the point, the first point on your notes there, hopefully you are taking notes. If we're going to build a Christ-centered home that lasts, we have to start by building a Christ-centered life. Because when Jesus talked about building a house in these closing verses, what he was talking about is how we live, you follow me? And so what he's talking about is the choices we make and the actions we take based on the ideas, values, desires, beliefs, motives that we're trusting in. So the building material are the choices we make, the things we do, the foundation is what ideas, what beliefs and values are we making those choices and actions on, does this make sense, with me? And so Jesus is saying, what foundation are you building on? Because regardless of what these good materials are up here,

if the foundation is wrong, you're not building an indestructible life. Hear the heart of Jesus, he wants us to build an indestructible life. And when he talks about the storms, he's not just talking about the difficulties and the problems of this life, which we all have when we all go through, he's talking about the ultimate storm because in verse 21 and 22, he talks about the day. On that day, he said, what day? The day of judgment. So the question is, am I building an indestructible life based on the teaching of Jesus and the scriptures, am I choices and actions based on that foundation or am I defaulting to old ways or the ways of the world while shouting hallelujah and calling Jesus Lord on Sunday morning? Are you with me? And the heart of Jesus is, he wants us to be blessed. He wants us to experience the abundant life that he came to give. And the building materials need to be built on the foundation of his teaching. And so when I was a kid, we used to sing an old song. When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. How many of you know this old hymn? You right? Yeah, a few of you do.

What a day of rejoicing that will be. I think we could probably sing, when we all get to heaven, what a day of surprises that will be. I can't believe he made it. Can you believe he's there? Oh my goodness. Wow, I thought, where's so-and-so? Where's so-and-so? They had such a powerful ministry, where are they? Are you with me? What a day of surprises it will be. And what Jesus is doing is encouraging us. Live it out. Give yourself to it. Trust me and build. And Jesus gives us three practical lessons here on building a house or a life that is indestructible. How many of you like to have an indestructible life, not just through this life, but into eternity? The first practical name Jesus says is practicing God's word is the foundation of an indestructible life. In verse 24, the man who practiced Jesus' teaching laid an indestructible, unmovable, solid foundation. So when the storms of life came or when the day of judgment came, it was indestructible. He went on into the glory of eternity. And he was able to weather the difficulties of this life because of the intimate relationship and trust

that he had in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can tell you, having lived now 72 years, that life's got a lot of curve balls in it. And it is the grace and the strength and the wonderful love of the spirit of God that lives within us, that helps us carry through those times. Can I get an amen? Indestructible because of the Lord's presence in our life, not because we're great men and women, we're not. We're all fallen until Jesus lifts us up. And so practicing the word of God, using it in our daily responsibilities and relationships, that is the foundation. Acting on it and practicing it is what gives us the equipment that we need, the flow of the spirit and the help that we need, the wisdom that we need to have an abundant, indestructible life. Jesus said it like this. In John 13, the night he was betrayed, he washes all the disciples' feet. You remember this? And then he washed their feet and says, I'm your master, that's true, but I'm showing you how to live as a servant, not as a boss over other people. And then he said this. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

You see, the blessing of God follows the doing of faith. I don't know if you've noticed this, but it does not always feel good to obey the Lord initially. Sometimes it doesn't feel good initially to do what God says to do. Later on, the righteousness and the peace and the joy begins to flood. Anybody know that, seen this? Like for instance, the Bible says you've got something against somebody, go directly to Facebook and tell everybody how much bad it turned out. And that just feels so good, doesn't it? And I saw what Jesus said. He said, go to that person. And that's hard sometimes, it doesn't feel, we don't feel like doing that. Can I get an amen? But are we gonna build an indestructible life or are we gonna build a destructible one? Indestructible relationships or destructible ones? The foundation is critical. So God's blessing follows doing what we know to do, practicing and using it. The second principle here in the text is that practicing God's word is the evidence of genuine faith. Jesus says that not everyone who calls him Lord actually lets him be the Lord, the boss, the director,

the determiner of their choices and actions. Am I letting Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Colossians puts it like this. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. How many of you ever watched a baseball game? Anybody in the room ever watched baseball? And there's an umpire behind the plate and the umpire calls strikes and balls. They call the determination. That's the idea of Colossians 317. Let the peace of Christ, the Holy Spirit's presence, let him call the shots on how you respond. You with me? Not everyone who says Lord, but those who are letting me call the shots and are living out those things. And this is the truth. My brother-in-law says it like this, it's on your outline there. The power of truth is action. You never truly believe until you act on the truth you've received. Jesus said it like this in John 14, whoever has my commands and keeps them, that's the one who loves me. When I am caught up with the love of God, when I'm captivated by the grace and the love of God, when there's an intimacy between me and Jesus and the Spirit is revealing to me how much God loves me, I am much more likely.

to use the principles that I'm learning. Are you with me? And so Paul prays in Ephesians chapter three, verse 16. He prays for the church. He says, I pray, they're Christians. He says, I pray that you will be strengthened in your inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That Christ would dwell, that He would live in your thoughts, your motives, your ambitions, your choices. I pray that you'll be strengthened by the Holy Spirit so that you will live in faith. Are you catching that? Which brings me to ask the question, well, then what exactly is faith? Well, faith is the key, actually. Next point on your outline, faith is the key to building an indestructible life. And faith is a right now issue, active right now, today, in this circumstance, in this problem, in this opportunity, in this challenge, in this decision. Are you with me? It's right now, today. What is faith? It's a little bit like this apple. I brought an apple with me today in case I got hungry. Many of you in the back may not be able to see it, but this apple has a stem.

And if you said, what is an apple? And you said, well, it's a stem. How many of you know, you'd partially be right, but you wouldn't totally be right. That stem is critical. Did you know that? If that stem wasn't there, that apple would not have become an apple. It has to have the flow of the nature of the tree in order to become an apple. Are you with me? So the stem's critical, but that's not all an apple is. No, an apple is red or yellow or green skin. Well, that's part of what makes an apple an apple, that and the wax they put all over. Oh, it's the white and yellow stuff inside, it's the meat. No, it's the core, it's the seed. Well, the seed is critical because it continues life. But an apple is not a stem, it's not the skin, it's not the meat, it's not the core, it's not the seed. An apple is all of that. All of those characteristics are what make an apple an apple. What is faith? Well, the Bible says faith is a gift from God. Number one. Part of the characteristic of faith is it actually is given to us from God. We all have a measure of faith to get saved and to do ministry. Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine.

It is by grace you are saved through faith and this not of yourself. It is a gift of God. Romans 10, 17, faith comes. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, by hearing the message of Christ. Faith comes from the scripture. As we hear, read, study the word of God, faith comes. That's why pastor encourages you to read the word of God. It's a gift to us and the spirit quickens faith. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12, three, no one can say Jesus is Lord. Not truly, they can say the words, but no one can truly say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit actually gives us the perspective change. He convicts us to let us know we need to change and that we need Christ. Are you following me? Am I losing you? I feel like I'm losing you. I'm gonna lose you. So it's a gift. Are you with me so far? But that's not all faith is. Well, Hebrews puts it like this. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The confidence of things unseen. It is that deep inner conviction that the spirit puts in us

when we open our heart to him. When we come to the word, when we pray. Are you with me so far? But that's not all faith is. Faith is also a declaration. It's a proclamation. It's a confession with our speech. If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that you're raised from the dead, you'll be saved. Romans says us nine and 10. And Jesus said, if you say to this mountain, be uprooted and thrown into the sea. But what did he say before that? If you pray and believe and the Lord puts it in your heart, then you can speak and see it happen. Because faith is a confession. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1 20, no matter how many promises God has made, all of them are yes in Christ. Aren't you glad for that? Every promise God has made is available to you and me. But it's a lot like the gift cards that you've sent me. If they're just laying in the drawer and I don't use them, they do me no good. And so 2 Corinthians says, no matter how many promises he's made, they are yes and the amen, the so be it. Yes, that's true is spoken by us to the glory of God We speak it. Yes. Lord. Your word is true. I choose to believe this get behind me Satan for it is written

Are you with me? Yeah, faith is a confession, but that's not all faith is it's a gift. It's a confession. It's a profession and faith is even more faith also has the characteristic of being a Decision of our will Faith is not a feeling it's not a warm fuzzy When Jesus showed up in the room on the night of the resurrection and Thomas had said I won't believe unless I see Jesus said to him Stop doubting and believe What does that tell me it tells me as a decision you have to make? Stop doubting and believe choose to believe it's an act of our will Having conviction from the Lord the confidence the conviction that comes from the Spirit having spoken it. Yes I know that it's true. I agree with it now I choose by an act of my will to say I will accept it I will believe it and then number four genuine faith is always an action It's always an act. There's always something concrete in faith because faith without works is James chapter 2 faith without works is not real faith. Remember the parable of the soils The farmer sowed the seed and some fell on a path and it didn't get didn't get received some fell on the Soil and oh, it was just a mole. Hallelujah. Yes But there was no root There's no There's no follow-through of intimacy with the Lord and Therefore it didn't last or the one who received the word initially and started out good but just the problems and the cares and the needs and the desires of life and we default to the old ways Instead of following through but then Jesus said the fourth soil in in the gospel of Luke it says it like this and with perseverance Perseverance Produces crop faith requires perseverance life throws curveballs We have to choose we go back to the Lord we go back to the word We let him plant faith and perspective in our heart. We speak. Okay, Lord, I believe Lord work it in me I receive it and then we choose to believe by an act of our will and then we act on it

Even though it may not feel good at the time Because it is faith that overcomes the world. It is faith that brings the blessing of God It is faith as you and I trust the Lord and continue on listen to me I know some of you are in difficult difficult times and circumstances and relationships. I feel your pain. I know But you gotta look past Jesus look past the cross To the glory that would follow You and I have to do that sometimes And I love that little phrase in the old King James Bible and it came to pass I've lived long enough to know that stuff comes to pass. It doesn't come to stay It'll pass You got to hang in and keep believing. Are you with me? principle number one Practicing using the Word of God is the only foundation of an indestructible life Principle moment two. It's the evidence of genuine faith test yourself. Are you in the faith? Are you exercising faith? and Thirdly, it's the only appropriate response to the authority of Jesus Jesus teaches with authority Because he is the ultimate authority He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Jesus is going to split the eastern sky and he's going to come back and he's going to set up his kingdom and we're gonna Have a glorious wonderful future eternity with a new heaven and a new earth But between now and then you and I got to live by faith. We got to believe the Lord We got to step out and do what we know We ought to do because it's the right thing to do and the Holy Spirit's going to help us do it Because he lives within us the will and work according his good pleasure, but he never removes my responsibility He never removes my responsibility. I still have to believe and Use what he's given me. Are you with me today? Come on stand with me and let's close out Would you be in an attitude of prayer? Let me ask you two simple questions and we'll close

but would you just bow your heads for a minute? Let me ask you, as you are standing in the presence of the Lord today and the Holy Spirit is here, you're opening your heart to the Spirit of Jesus. Are you currently building a life that lasts? Are you currently using the truth that you know the Spirit is showing you? And if not, listen to me, what one thing, what one step do you need to take? Just one, not 10, not five. What one step do you need to take today to begin to close that gap, exercising your faith, so that you grow in intimacy more with the Lord and experience the flow of His blood? What one thing? You got it? Would you just talk to the Lord about it one minute? Tell Him what you're thinking, go ahead. Right there in your heart, in your mind, just talk to Him, Jesus. Today, I hear your voice and I don't wanna harden my heart, I wanna trust, I wanna believe. Strengthen me in my inner man that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. If you're here this morning watching online, you've never given your life to Jesus. Maybe you've never actually accepted Christ as the Savior, as the sacrifice for your sin and as the Lord of your life. And if that's you, that's the step you need to take

is to believe and confess, turn from self-righteousness to trust Christ this morning. I'd like to give you an opportunity to actually do that right now as the Spirit of God is working. If you're here, you're watching and you need to trust Christ. I'm gonna count to three, I'd ask you to just lift your hand and say, yes, I don't wanna receive Christ today, I wanna make him the Lord of my life. If that's you, do it now, one, two, three, go ahead, shoot a hand up. Thank you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you. There are others, you can put them down. God bless you, others today. God bless you all across the room. Would you pray something like this? Dear God, thank you so much for sending Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for coming, for living the perfect life I can't live, for taking all of my punishment, all of my shame, all of the condemnation on you so that I could have your righteousness and your freedom and your forgiveness. Thank you, Jesus, I receive you now as the Lord of my life. From this day on, I wanna follow you in Jesus' name. Amen, amen, amen. God bless you, church, glad you're here today.