Building Successfully, Part 2

A child entered the world. It was you. When you were born, you were born with five senses. Amazing ability to perceive, to feel, to think, to sense, to taste, to touch. Five senses that God made that put you at the top of anything on earth as far as quality of experience, quality of perception, quality of sampling what is in life today. God also gave you a mind that is more capable than supercomputers are. It may not think as fast, but it can do a lot more than any other known thinking thing that is in the physical world. And as that baby, God placed you in an environment.

That environment teems with opportunity. If you move from one environment to another environment to another environment, the environments around this globe present a plethora of opportunity ready to just reach in and reap success from. All of this amazing potential came along with people. You didn't come into the world alone. You came with people around you that could help you, could assist. And not only that, the most important thing is you came into this world with a God ready to help you and to bless you in reaching a very high pinnacle of success and fulfillment in this life. The question I'd like to ask you today is, how are you doing and building the most important features in your life? How have you been doing with that incredible potential that awaited you at birth and with those resources and opportunities and helpers that have been available from that time until now? And how well will you do in being successful by the time that your life is over? In the first installment of this sermon, we reviewed three points that really would help you begin to base a success, to build into your life those fundamental principles that will make this life successful. Considering your ambitions, why is preparation for achieving your goals and laying the right foundation to build those goals upon? Today we're going to examine the fourth principle.

And this fourth principle is one that will make or break all of your life's goals. It's that basic, it's that fundamental, it's that important. It is so important that all of your ambitions and all of your desires will either be fulfilled using these four points or they will crash and literally burn, as we all know. The title of today's sermon is Building Successfully, Part Two. And the fourth point today is Build with Godly Integrity. You might think, well, that's a bunch of words. Build with Godly Integrity. So I think, well, that was interesting, chosen, but let's stop and consider each word of this single point, this fourth point of building successfully. If you look in the dictionary, you'll find the first of those three words. Build means to construct, to form, to create, or to engage in. And this is what your life's ambitions are focused on. They're going to either construct, they're going to form, they're going to create, they're going to engage in something. You can be excited about that.

The next word is Godly. Build with Godly. Godly means, from the dictionary, conforming to the wishes and laws of God. A synonym or synonyms include holy, righteous, and good.

And the last of the three words in this point is integrity. Integrity means solid condition, unimpaired, undiminished, and perfect. So this point means to construct or engage in something that conforms with the laws and wishes of God, that will have a sound, unimpaired state.

That's what you really want. That's what you want in your relationship, in your marriage, that's what you want in your career, that's what you want in your spiritual development, that you want in your employment, that you want, that's what you want in, if you're building a house or building some building, you want it to be constructed in a way that conforms to the laws and wishes of God and that stands, that remains, that's unimpaired or undiminished in any way that is perfect. These are the goal of what you and I put our hands to do, put our minds to do. This is the goal that we need to have. It's the product of the marriage, the spiritual growth, the building, the employment. It's to be solid. There's a proverb in Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 25. It says, when the tornado passes by, the righteous has an everlasting foundation.

Jesus told us the winds are going to blow and the rains are going to come and the floods are going to come. You want whatever it is that you build in your life to be able to withstand those things and to be according to the will and the commandment of God and to be strong and remain.

Now, what if we build with human devised principles that don't quite fit building with godly integrity? What if we build with human integrity? There's a lot of good manuals out there for human integrity. There's some good comedy shows on TV at night that tell you some good integrity, some good ideas about how to plan your romance. There's some movies out there and some books. A lot of people are sampling and trying things today, building buildings, building lives. There's lots of religions telling you what you can do and what you can't. There are courts of law. There are lots of things. What if you build with human integrity? Let's go over to Ezekiel chapter 13 and verse 34. You might think we could get away with that one. I attend church on the Sabbath and I work during the week so I can have my Sabbath integrity on the Sabbath and I can go pursue my building, whatever it is in life I want, with human integrity during the week. That works.

Sabbath righteousness, weekday carnality. Well, human integrity. Sometimes we play that game as humans. But in Ezekiel chapter 13 verses 13 and 14, let's notice what God says. Therefore says the Lord God, concerning things that are not built with godly integrity, I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in my fury, and there shall be a flooding rain in my anger and great hailstones in fury to consume it. And so I will break down the wall you have plastered with untempered mortar. It's not godly mortar. It's not solid mortar. It's not something sure. It's untempered. And I will bring it down to the ground so that its foundation will be uncovered. You'll realize it's not built on God or the principles of God. And you shall be consumed in the midst of it. You're going to die. You see where these things, these plans of ours, would go. And this is very serious. This isn't some sort of a pep talk. This is reality. You know, Jesus' parables speak to this over and over and over. If you construct your life this way, when I return, I'm going to separate the wheat from the chaff, and I'm going to burn you if you're not the fruit that I'm looking for, if you're not based on godliness, if you haven't built into your life the godly integrity that he's taught us.

So on the Sabbath we're taught to love, love God, love our fellow man, to obey, to sacrifice, to be of the mind of Christ. But we get on the job and we're taught, go get people's money. You know, that's pretty much what your employer's going to teach you. Let's sharpen it up here in the Monday meeting and let's go get that money. I bought a book at an airport the other day. I had some time to kill on a flight, so I saw this little book. Actually, it wasn't an airport. It was before we went to the airport. And the book was entitled, It's Not About the Coffee. And it was written by the former president of a big coffee house chain. That's kind of neat. And I thought, well, wonder what this is about? And look on the flyleaf. It's not about the coffee. It's not about what you can get from people. It's about people and serving people and helping people. Well, that'd be a good read from a CEO of a company here, you know, inspiring. The author quickly confesses, of course, it really is about the coffee in the book. He says, in fact, one of his favorite jobs in life was helping people by annual weeks at nice resorts. He was a timeshare salesman. He was lying to people, helping get people's money. You see how the human mind can begin to switch things around?

And in the carnal world, and even in your mind and my mind, it's easy to think, oh, yeah, I'm a helping person. I'm helping do something here, but I might be dishonest in some aspect. I might be self-serving, or I might be generous in helping others, but it's a kickback for me somehow. Are we likewise going about constructing whatever goals we have in life with some self-focused intentions? It's quite possible. I find in my life, it's quite probable. And it's something we have to look at, search for, and say, am I really in line with the integrity of the God family, or is what I'm doing or hoping comes my way very self-opportunistic?

It's a good question to ask, because in Job chapter 8 and verse 13, it says, the hope of the hypocrite will perish. There's that word, perish again. Jesus is very, very absolute about life and death. It's not sort of, well, you can play the game, and somehow you'll get away with it because he's soft-headed and soft-hearted, and when he gets back, you know, he won't really close the door in front of people. He'll let all ten virgins come in. He won't really burn up the wheat. He'll let the goats into with the sheep.

You know, we kind of have that soft side of Christ thinking. And yet, going on in Job, whose confidence shall be cut off and whose trust is in a spider's web. You know, we're hoping we're trusting in something that's no more solid or no more substance than a spider's web. He leans on his house that he's built, but it does not stand. He holds it fast, but it does not endure. What kind of things are you and I constructing in our lives? What are we basing our lives upon? Are we serious, or are we sort of playing games?

It's easy to convince oneself that our building is okay. I mean, it's pleasing me. It's feeling good. It's working out. It's profitable. But the reality is, anything that is self-centered is ungodly. Bottom line, you know, of any business, the bottom line, when you really scale it down and you look at the bottom line, is this successful? Well, if it's self-centered, it's ungodly, and God must bring it down eventually. It will, as Peter talks about, you know, the end of all things is coming. God's going to burn it up, and the earth and all the works in it will be burned up.

So what manner of person ought you to be in godly, holy conduct? That's the question. We need to continually ask ourselves, God has opened your eyes spiritually, and my eyes spiritually. We can see, but do we do? We can hear, the ears are open, we can hear, but do we apply what we hear?

The Bible is very clear on, it's one thing to hear and to know, it's quite another thing to do. And if we want to be building successfully our marriage, our job, our spiritual life, our physical constructions, or those those ambitions that we have, and all that goes along with it, they must be built and constructed with these four points. Otherwise, we put ourselves into a position with God of it being something He's got to burn up. You don't want to burn up, I don't want to burn up.

So it's good that we examine what we're doing, consider whether we're really in the faith, the Bible says, and then make adjustments. God says very clearly in 2 Peter chapter 3 and about verse 9, He says, not my will at any would perish, but all come to repentance. And that's what we are to be doing during the period of time between the wave sheaf offering of Jesus Christ, the first of the first fruits, and the harvest festival of the first fruits, when the last in-gathering of the first harvest is complete and the door is shut.

We want to be in that room, we want to be in that kingdom, we want to be there for the wedding festival with the bridegroom invited in. In Romans chapter 15 and the first six verses, we find the mentality that you and I are supposed to have.

The thing that should really drive us in our marriage, in our jobs, in building whatever it is we're going to build, in our relationship with God, our spiritual development, the whole concept kind of breaks down to what Paul says in Romans chapter 15 verses 1 through 6. And if what you're doing and what I'm doing doesn't fit this, we need to make it fit. We need to stop, change, back up, and make it fit. Romans chapter 15 and verse 1, we then who are strong, now who is that?

Well, that's you and me. We all consider ourselves to be strong and right. We've got the right knowledge, the right ideals, the right goals. We tend to think of ourselves as the ones who are doing it pretty well, and it's those other people that are not doing so well. The Bible plays on this once in a while. Paul says, we then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak and not to please ourselves. So whatever it is we're doing, we should please others, not ourselves. Help them with their challenges. Help them with their dreams, their goals. Bear with them not to please ourselves.

Notice verse 2, let each of us please his neighbor for his good. Who has a marriage based on that? We say, oh, I think that gal would be great for me. I think that guy would work out in my life. Who thinks the other way? Who says, oh, that gal, I could really help her life.

I could really improve her. I just want to devote myself to making her life better. Or look at that poor guy. He just needs me. He needs a helper. I could help him so much. He doesn't even know it. But I could help his life be so I'm going to just devote myself to him. That often doesn't happen. What person goes in for employment says, you know, I was going through the want ads and I think your company is the one most needy of what I can offer you. And I'm just really hoping to contribute to your company.

That's what I'm going to dedicate my life and career to, is helping you be successful. Usually it's how much do you pay? How soon do you pay it? How little do I have to do? How much vacation? How many days do I get to be out of here?

Sick leave and vacation, etc., etc. But it's to please a neighbor for his good. Notice leading to edification. The word in the Greek is okedome, and it means structure or building.

Pleasing a neighbor for his good is a positive godly construction. It's the building that that really is good. Verse 5, Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth, let's just pause right there, one mind and one mouth. There's no room for individual sort of do-it-yourself or self-focus, or I'm going to go out and have a great life.

This is pleasing your neighbor, leading to growing up with one mind and one mouth, you and your neighbor, neighbors, glorifying God, the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The purpose is about family. It's about body. It's about oneness. It's about working together and helping. Ephesians 4, 16, helping stitch together and help the edification or the building, the body, the structure of those around you in love. And so, as we think of building, as we think of a happy, fulfilled life, there's no room for one individual to be focused on or self-focused, or that baby to come out and say, oh, the world's my oyster. What do I want to do for me?

Paul warns, be careful how you build. That's an interesting warning he gives. If we go over to 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 10, he warns us, watch, be careful how you build. We would tend to build differently than God wants us to. He is speaking to the ministry, but the principles he gives here apply to all of us. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 10, according to the grace of God, which was given to me, a wise master builder. We're talking about building, and he's not talking about just physical houses. He's talking about the house of God. He's talking about spiritual principles. Paul was a wise master builder, not because he was wise, but he had God's wisdom. He says, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it. Now you can insert yourself here. You know, the church of God is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself, the chief cornerstone. Your marriage should be built on the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone. Your physical goals in life, including your career, your employment, whatever building or addition you're putting on somewhere, should be built really, truly, on the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone. Everything should be built on that, and anything not built on that is coming down eventually. It's being built for the wrong reasons.

Paul goes on, let each one take heed how he builds on it.

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now, if anyone builds on this foundation, now he's going to use materials here, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear for the day, the day of the Lord.

Resurrection will declare it because it will be revealed by fire. There is a time coming when the end of the physical realm, the end of the physical age will terminate and things will become spiritual. They're going to burn up. Each one's work is going to be very clear that day. If it's built on godly principles, it'll go forward. If it's not, it says fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on endures, he will receive a reward. You know, God's rewards are wonderful. They're really fantastic. They're amazing. We come here free. We get to live here free. We die. The reward is free. All we have to do is make our life and work at our goals with godly integrity and build with that. Paul here is talking about the things that we build our life with. We can receive rewards simply by having a great life now. Consider these components that Paul states here. He begins with wise.

What kind of wisdom? Human? Divine? You know, human wisdom is not according to God.

Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 23 and 24 reads this way, thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches. We tend to do that, though, as successful people. We think, oh, I did this. It worked great. Look at me. I have certain results from it. I have a certain life from it. Be careful. The Keelan, Delich commentary says of these verses, The delusive objects of confidence on which the children of this world are want to pride themselves, their own wisdom, their own strength, their own riches, these do not save from ruin.

They're the things that are getting burned up. If you're building on those things in your life, they're going to get burned up. And you and me, if we build on those things, are going to get burned up with them.

And verse 24, But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord. That's what we can glory in. Exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For I delight in these, says the Lord. So he says, don't glory in your wisdom or your might or your riches, those things that you will tend to consider to be success. But rather, notice, glory in this, that you understand and know me. Exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, which is loving God and loving your neighbor in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord. God will back that. He'll get involved in that if you do it. Keelan DeLeach says, he who is attained to this knowledge will seek to practice these virtues.

Not just say, oh yeah, God's that way. No, he will seek to practice the loving kindness, judgment, righteousness.

Because only therein has God pleasure. God is only going to delight in people who do those things.

And he will punish all peoples that do not practice the same. That's what Keelan DeLeach says. Now, they're not even in God's church while they're dead now, but they didn't have God's Spirit at the time, so far as we know, but they could see that clearly.

We need to remember the foundation of the Western Wall, often called the Wailing Wall. We here in this building can be reminded of it every Sabbath because we have a copy of it in the lobby. And the Western Wall is the last fragment of a buried foundation from the Temple Mount in the temple area that Herod built. And it was really a testament to being religious without practicing God's Word. Jesus said, you know, yes, these buildings and stones look great, but everyone is coming down. Because they were not built as a testament to God in His glory.

Oh, they were religious, kind of like you and me. We're religious. We pray and we study and we fast and we give tithes and we read the Bible. We're religious. But is our life and everything that we do in life about glorying God? Is it about being built upon the integrity of godliness?

Or do we, like Herod, build a religious edifice in our life but dedicate it to ourselves?

See, every stone that Herod made said Herod on it. Oh, it didn't have his name exactly on it.

It had a beveled edge that only Herod used, and it was his little signature. And wherever you looked on the huge walls around the temple, you just saw Herodian stones. Herod, Herod, Herod, Herod, Herod, Herod. And you saw people who were there being religious, but they weren't being religious with godly integrity. They were being self-directed and self-devised, and so it all had to come down.

Paul next addresses the quality that God accepts or that he rejects.

In verse 12, you notice he uses gold and silver and precious stones and wood hay and straw.

Gold, if you look in the Bible, you'll find that pure gold was used in the tabernacle, the temple, that it refers to those who will be first fruits in the kingdom of God.

And it also is used by God in constructing New Jerusalem, that heavenly city.

God only builds with pure gold when he uses gold. He doesn't use corrupt gold or partial gold. It's always called gold tried in the fire or gold that is refined, refined in the fire, that's heated. In other words, you heat it up, you melt it, and the stuff comes up to the surface that is not pure, and it's skimmed off. Pure gold. Jesus counsels his church to buy from him pure gold that's refined. That comes from Revelation 3, verse 18.

The words of God are related to silver. Another of the building elements that Paul mentions here. Silver is a precious material, and in Psalm 12, verses 6 and 7, it says, the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace, purified seven times. You know, God, when he wants something, he wants the real, genuine item. Not something that's fake, it's not something that's corrupt. Talking about silver, like his word, we're amazed sometimes at the word of God. He said it's like silver tried in a furnace. Heated up, once again, it's melted, the impurities come to the surface, you skim it off, and then you let it cool.

And you do that seven times. You know, God was very careful to make sure that his word was pure as it was delivered, as it was written, as it was inspired. He wants you and me to be pure. He had 7,000 talents of refined silver put into the temple that Solomon built.

Paul also mentions precious stones. We find in Revelation 21.19 that precious stones are going to adorn the base of the wall of New Jerusalem. These are things, in other words, that are indicative or representative of the quality of the pure things that you and I are to build with. Paul says, be careful how you build in your life. You know, you can build with pure gold. You can build with pure silver. You can build with the type of things that God made his temple out of, that he'll make New Jerusalem out of, or you can use hay and stubble.

What about building with hay and stubble?

Going on, verse 13, each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire. Fire is going to test everyone's work. Verse 15, if anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss. It's not going to hurt the gold. It's not going to hurt the silver.

It's not going to hurt the precious stones, but the hay and the stubble.

Proverbs 27, verses 24 and 25, it says, riches are not forever.

You know, they seem like they are. Even this gold that everybody's saying is so valuable. It's over $1,500 an ounce, you know. Buy gold! They're selling it so hard. You'd think, wow, if it's that valuable, they'd keep it and shut up. No, they're on TV pumping it at you, trying to sell you gold. Someday, the Bible says people are going to throw gold and silver in the streets, so much for it having eternal value. Riches are not forever, or the things that riches buy are not forever. Going on, when the hay is removed, the term hay here is referring to the riches and the person who has the riches. When you get rid of this stuff that's impeding growth, when the hay is removed and the tender grass shows itself and the herbs of the mountains are gathered in, the lambs will provide your clothing. Just think about that. Here you've got all this stuff, this materialism today, and once Christ returns and that is removed, the hay is removed and the tender new grass and the lambs can flourish. Now you're talking about something a lot more valuable than riches.

Stubble and chaff, Jesus talks about. This is in Luke 3, 17. When he comes, his winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. He's going to separate the stuff that is straw and chaff. He's going to gather the wheat into his barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. You can't put that fire out.

It's going to burn up the universe and the things in it.

So the key to building successfully is what? I've held this one. Are you ready? Here's the key. No, A key. This is the key. Ready for the key?

Are you sure? This is big. You really want to know the key to building successfully?

Goes right along with point number four. It is this. You don't know how to build properly. So, form a mentoring partnership with God. When humans come to understand that, they can finally be successful. You and I don't know how to build successfully. God does.

He knows all about it. He's capable of it. He can instruct us in it. He can mentor us in it. He can correct us when we don't do it right, if we want Him to.

He can partner with us. He can bring along His miracles and make things that just don't sound like they would work, work great.

There's a psalm in Psalm chapter 127 written by Solomon. It's called one of the song of a sense. It was a song that was sung on your way to Jerusalem to keep the feasts. It begins this way.

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.

You see the point? You and I don't know how to build. God does. Now, if you get Him involved, if you get Him to mentor you and partner with you, then you know how to build. You know what to do.

Otherwise, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It's useless for you to rise up early, stay up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, to try to do this on your own, to try to figure it out, to start and fail in your relationship, in your marriage, in your career, in your employment, in your spiritual life. You need a partner who will mentor you. You need someone to lead you who is the light, who has the way, the truth to life.

And so, when thinking about your marriage or your career, pray. Ask God to direct you. Ask Him to take you on as a project. That's really what we're asking for. We're saying, God, I have not done it right. I have sinned. I am wrong. Please put me under water. Wash away all this stuff. Bring me up and let's have Your Holy Spirit to lead me and guide me, because I don't know how to walk. I've proven that. I don't know what to do. The choices I think are right turn out to be wrong.

That's what I think is wrong. It turns out to be right.

So, we have to really believe what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 10.23. It is not in man who walks to direct his steps. O Lord, correct me.

A young child that's born begins to see and sample all the possibilities.

He uses the five senses to get excited about things that are possibilities for himself or herself as an individual. All that environment out there becomes just a rich thing to mine and to take from. We see our world just being denuded by people who just take and take and take for themselves, little thought for others. Beautiful women that God created and handsome young men are exploited by members of the opposite sex that are trying to get something and enhance their own lives. So even people come to religion wanting to take and do little or nothing for God or other people but show up and do the least possible and reap the greatest reward.

It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way.

We find that if God, though, takes us on and we have a mentor who will become a partner, we can be led out of that darkness and into light and into fulfillment and into joy, which is a byproduct of love and harmony, which is a byproduct of God's mind and his integrity.

Now, if you think about God as a mentor and a partner, does that sound a bit far-fetched? Does it sound just a little bit heady? Does it sound like, well, how do I get him to be my partner and mentor? Well, isn't that what the new covenant is about, actually? Is God being your partner and your mentor? That's kind of the description of this covenant. Let's go to John 14 and verse 16 and see if this isn't what Jesus is offering us if we want it. Let's get back to John 14 and begin in verse 16.

Let's back up to verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments. Do what I say. I will direct you. I will mentor you. But you have to do what I say. And I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper that it may abide with you forever. Now, this helper isn't going to sort of show up and be around you or be in your house or whatever. It's going to abide, which means to dwell in you. This is really the mentor that's going to partner. It's going to become one with you if you will let him. It's going to guide and direct if you will submit to his direction.

Verse 16, it's going to reside with you, how long? Forever. God's Spirit, if you will take him on, allow him, permit him, humble yourself, request him, submit to him, he will do this forever.

He will make your life prosper for all eternity. Verse 17 now, it's the spirit of truth, not fiction, not fantasy, which the world cannot receive. Self-focused people won't receive this truth because it neither sees it or knows it, this helper, but you know it, for it dwells with you, it abides with you and will be in you. It would be in them after the Feast of Pentecost came, and the Holy Spirit then was given to them in a permanent sense.

What is this Holy Spirit about? Verse 18, I will not leave you orphans without father and mother.

I will come to you. God wants to be part of your life. He wants to lead you. He wants to mentor you. He wants to guide you. He wants you to be successful. We expected to build on our own, hardly. Are you expected to build your marriage on your own? No. It's ridiculous.

God wants to partner with you in that. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 5 verses 30 and 31.

Sometimes we might think, oh, I think I'll just choose a mate for myself, and then I'll try to be happy, and we'll work on it, and we'll try, and you know, on and on. It's not what God wants.

Notice here in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 30. For we are members of His body, of His flesh, of His bones. You see how much He wants to mentor with you and me? He wants to be one with us. He prayed to the Father in John 17. He wants us to be part of His body, and His flesh, and His bone. And for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. God wants to be involved in your marriage.

Verse 25, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her.

He wants to be the loving one. It's His love. It's His faith. It's His direction.

It's His example that He wants us to imitate, and He wants to partner with us in making fulfilled, happy marriages. But will we let Him? Or do we say, oh no, no, I've got this one, got this one handled. I think I've figured out how women think after all.

I think I know what they really want.

You know, God knows what women want and what men want. He made us.

He made us in His image. He put these things in our heads. And God wants to help us. How about our ambitions, our careers, our businesses?

He can help us with the money. Just pray and ask Him. He'll give me anything I want.

Well, God is not into a health and wealth gospel.

People preach that, you know. They try to use the Bible. It attracts a lot of people, because, oh, health and wealth. Yeah, I'm all for that kind of religion. If it helps me feel better and it helps me have more, that's for me. But that's really not what God's about, is it?

Jesus said, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. What does that mean? It means you're going to be family with us, and we're going to lead you, we're going to guide you, we're going to mentor you, we're going to partner with you, you're going to be part of the family, we're going to do all of this together. Let's go to Luke 11. We'll read parts of verses 2 through 13 in Luke 11.

The whole passage goes together here, you'll notice. You can't just sort of clip out one thing.

In another place, I believe it's Matthew, Jesus said, whatever you ask of the Father, he'll give you. And this is the same passage here, Luke 11.

Sorry, it's the same event, same time. Only Luke records a little bit differently. If we look in verse 2 of chapter 11, he said to them, when you pray, say these things, are our Father inclusive? It's not about me, it's our Father.

Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Hey, guess what? God wants to partner with us, but he also wants us to partner with him. He wants us to help out his son. He wants us to come and be the bride of Christ. He wants us to help his children in the millennium and the second resurrection. This goes two ways. We're family, we're together. Be about his kingdom and about the family name and about his will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

And give us this day our daily bread. Teach us, feed us, lead us, and forgive us our sins as we forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not allow us to be led into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And he said to them, Which of you having a friend?

Oh, wait a minute. This is an interesting context, isn't it? We just talked about a partnership with God. And Jesus said, You are my friends. Which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves? And in verse 7, he will answer from within and say, Don't trouble me. The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed. I can't rise and give to you. I say to you that though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give to him as many as he needs. There is a relationship that begins to be born out of friendship. And so I say to you, verse 9, Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. But what are you asking for? Well, we go back up in the context. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Asking for those things that will be given to you. Give us this day our daily bread, the bread of Jesus Christ and his body. Forgive us our sins. Don't lead us into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one. Ask and it will be given to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?

Verse 12, if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? What should we be asking for?

He defines it in verse 13. If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

We need to be about godliness, having godly intentions, godly aspirations, building with godly integrity. We should desire more of God living in us, more of God directing us, more of God correcting us, more of him lighting the path, the helper that brings to mind and writes in our heart his laws and commandments, and he will be there if we want him to be.

But we say, but I wanted the money. He's offering us something that is not chaff, that's going to burn up. He's offering us something that lasts forever and brings happiness.

Paul gives us a lesson overview on building successfully, and it involves God, and it involves putting godliness in our life. It's found in 1 Timothy 6, verses 6 through 12. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 6 says, now godliness with contentment is great gain. The right ambition, then, is godliness.

Godliness is what our marriages should be about. It's what our jobs should be about. It's what our spiritual growth should be about. Godliness. For we brought nothing into this world, and it's certain we can carry nothing out. Materialism is very short-sighted. Verse 9, but those who desire to be rich, you're on your own, God will be against you. That's the basic lesson. Those who desire to be, they put themselves on a different track, in a different way. It's on a different, God can't support it, he can't mentor it, he can't teach it, he can't be part of it. And so, God has to be part of it.

God has to be against it. And we're not talking about just gobs of money. Rich just means to have a bunch of things coming your way.

And these fall into temptation and a snare. Does that sound like something God can help with?

Temptation, snare, to many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. God's going to kill you and me if we build with that kind of ambition.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith. Do you think God can support that?

In their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows, it's unhappy, unfulfilling. When you make your life about you and you go off, I want this, I want that person, I want this house, I'm going to slap this thing together, make it look real fancy on the outside, people will be real impressed.

Oh, I think I have this Christian life or something, and I'll throw it together, and I'll impress God and people, and maybe I'll get some title or something, and I'll be good to go. Just life in the fast lane. And then, they will pierce themselves through with many sorrows. Verse 11, But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, pursue godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness, pursue the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

As we find them in Galatians 5, verses 22 and 23, pursue those things, and God can support you. Oh, God can really support you.

God can help. God can make miracles happen in your life.

Fight the good fight of faith. Faith is deep trust in God with works, followed up by, yes, I'm going to obey, I'm going to love, I'm going to do what He says. I'm going to let Him not only mentor me, I'm going to be a really grade A apprentice here.

I'm going to learn from the Master.

Lay hold on eternal life to which you are also called. That's pretty good. It's all good with God. Marriages are happy. Employment is great. Respect is on the job. What you build is built to last. Its quality is also built to serve. It wasn't a little personal palace somehow. It was built with, oh, hey, this can help other people.

I can be an agent of assisting people, encouraging people, helping teach people, being a light to people if you build in the right way.

God will mentor you in all good things. He will partner with you.

He will never leave you or forsake you, and you will succeed.

You know, when building something involves God as a mentor and a partner, He had always succeeded. Just like Solomon's temple did. Let's go back as we finish this up in 1 Chronicles 28, verses 19 and 20. 1 Chronicles 28, verses 19 and 20. You know, David sort of designed the temple. Solomon built it. God mentored them. God partnered with them. Notice how this works. 1 Chronicles 28, verses 19. All this, said David, all the plans. The Lord made me understand in writing, by His hand upon me, all the works of these plans. See, the plans come out great.

If you try to involve God in the process, from the first consideration to the planning stage, to digging deep and building it on the foundation, and then you bring in God as the mentor, as the director, as the helper, as the partner. And David said to his son Solomon, Be strong and of good courage, and do it. Do not fear or be dismayed, for the Lord, God, my God, will be with you. Wow! Can you imagine doing something in life and you have God with you?

He will not leave you or forsake you until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord. That stands as a great example of how you and I can bring God in and submit to Him and make Him the one who gets all the credit and the honor, because we really don't know how on our own. But with Him, all things are possible. So, in conclusion, building successfully, it involves many things, considering what we're doing according to God's way. If it doesn't fit, don't do it. Lay your plans using God's wisdom.

You've got to make sure the project is going to be a blessing to all. And thirdly, dig deep. Lay the foundation on the bedrock of Jesus Christ and all that He stands for, all that He's about.

And fourth, build the project together with God. Ask Him to mentor you and partner with you.

Second Timothy 2, verses 19-21, says, The Lord knows who are His.

Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house, they are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good word.

So, brethren, let's get close to God, and He will get close to us. And if God is for you, you will succeed.