Whose Builder and Maker is God

Title of today's sermon, Whose Builder and Maker is God. Very good. Whose Builder and Maker is God. Like you turn with me to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 verse 10. Most of you know this scripture. You've heard it many times. I wanted to explore it, especially in the light of what happened in Miami this week and the condominiums that you can be thankful that you did not live in or have anybody live in. Hebrews 11 verse 10 said, talking about Abraham, For he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. Builder and maker is God. He waited. Are you waiting? Are you waiting for that holy city? Supposedly our eternal home said he waited and he's waiting now in the grave. Right? It's definitely not here. I don't know that Abraham wants to be resurrected today or next week because Abraham's been waiting over 4,000 years in the grave. Waiting for a city which has foundations whose maker and builder is God. Abel, the first one he mentions in this faith chapter, which Hebrews 11 is faith chapter, mentions him first. He's been waiting over 6,000 years for this city whose builder and maker is God. How long will you wait? Will you have the patience to wait while you're 6 feet above ground rather than 6 feet below ground? It's a question we all have to ask ourselves. I have another one for you. Who in here has built a house or has had a house built for them from the ground up? Anybody? One. Somebody's got her hand up. I didn't even know you were married, young lady. A coy got married and I didn't even know it. Look at what happened in a week since I've been here.

Well, it is different. You may have a house. And from the ground up, it's very important. Typical average house here in Florida. I would say. But I understand that house. Since I used to live in that house, well, I understood after working on it how it was built. But the one thing that we must understand about a house is just how important the first step is to have a house that's going to stand. And that is the footer. Footer. I don't know if any of you have ever had the opportunity or, may I say, the blessing of digging a footer by hand. I have dug a few in my lifetime. I prefer a bobcat to help me. But a footer is what is laid first as part of the foundation. Here in Florida, they have a most of the houses are built on slabs. Concrete. Well, this footer here with the rebar that is coming up out of the footer, which this footer is solid concrete. And it also is supposed to have rebar running through it like this. Right, Mike Hamill? But that isn't always the case. Sometimes, if somebody is in a hurry, they'll leave the rebar out, which makes this footer less stable. And these pieces of rebar tie into the block that's laid around the perimeter. And then a concrete pad is poured inside. In Tennessee, you dig a footer like this. And then you lay block on it, and then you build the block up, and then you build a wood floor. So you have a crawl space. Some houses even do now. Annie, does yours have a crawl space? Not that you've been under, so probably not. Gives you something to do. Come on.

Yes. How important is this? It is so important. I think you'll find out when the full investigation is done. And this thing that a lot had to do with the collapse is a footer. Whether it was on too much sand, whether it didn't go deep enough, pilings didn't go deep enough, is it so solid that they have rebar going across and the rebar tied to each other? These are all things that are by code. And they have code so you can get what you pay for. So there's a standard that's supposed to be done in housing.

But the footer and the foundation is the most important part. We used to dig around footers, pour them, the inspector would come out. I had many of them come out and go, well, you didn't have to make it that you're only required to have it 16 inches deep and 24 inches wide. And you got 24 inches deep and 28 inches wide. He said, didn't have to be that big. I said, yeah, didn't have to. But I'd rather make sure that there's no problem down the road, because I've seen problems down the road. And it was worth a little extra because the concrete was going to be in the truck anyway.

You have to buy two to three yard minimum. So it was important, and it's important to most builders. I had a few really good builders that would throw the concrete to it and the rebar in it at the very bottom. And I remember talking to one, and the rest of the house wasn't built that well. But the footer and the foundations were built extremely well. His answer to me was, they can always repair the other. But you don't go cheap on the footer and the foundation. Not easy to repair. And then after you have this, then you have framing.

You have to frame the building or structure, whatever you're doing. And it is so easy to frame on something that a foundation or a footing that is level. Plum, square. There is a difference between level and plum. And if the foundation's laid out perfect, you can lay that very corner. If you lay in block, it's called the cornerstone. Lay that very corner first, and everything, if you get that level, plum, square, then everything else goes like clockwork.

Your framing can all be cut the same length. You can lay everything out if it's square, and plum, and level. And then, of course, after you're framing, you're dried in. You have a dry end. And as you're dried in and you have the windows in, you have the doors in, you have the roof on, then you have an inspection by a code inspector. Well, there's one there.

You might recognize this one. That's what his job is. He works for the codes department. He's an enforcer. He enforces the building codes. He goes out and inspects the footers that we looked at to make sure that they are up to code, or even supersede code. Then he has to come along and check the framing. Make sure that the framing inspection is done.

Then you have an electrical inspection. Then you have another inspection for the final, so you could get your COP certificate of occupancy. So people move in. And you can't move in the house unless the codes department gives you a COP. Many people will cry and moan because they've already moved out of their house. They need to move into it.

Well, they want to make sure it's inspected. And I don't want to leave out the roof because they do really check the roofs here. And you want them to... being we get visited by at least one or two hurricanes or winds off from hurricanes every year. So it's very important. Foundation. Footer. Block. If you build even by the ocean or other places like in Hawaii, they even have post and pier. They have some of that here. They have it in the Caribbean where you have to build post and pier. It is so important. The foundation of footing is everything. It's the core to stability for your house.

You're hoping your house doesn't settle. Well, every house settles. But it's the amount of settle that makes a difference. So why am I going into... We're not building a house. Well, let's go with me to 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 10 and 11. Paul is talking to the church of Corinth, and he says in verse 10, According to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder. He's taken on a new title, besides Apostle. As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds upon it.

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

So what about your foundation? Oh, wait a minute. He's talking to the church of Corinth, and this is read all through the church. Is he talking here about... When he said, I have laid and let another build upon it, but let each one take heed? Is he talking just to ministers? Is he talking about to Timothy or to Titus or anyone who's out there building churches, Apollos? Is he talking about church building? No. He's talking about the church. And he's talking to us as individuals.

Where is your foundation? Who? Who is your foundation? Right here he says Christ. But it's interesting that he uses the word take heed. Take heed.

Which means to observe, to pay attention. From the Greek, this word was meant to guard or to protect.

To be on guard. So let's be on guard. So let each one be on guard how he builds on it. So he's talking to us about how we're building our lives on the foundation of Christ. He's talking about how we are going to build this church on the foundation of Christ. And everybody goes, amen, amen. Right? Take heed.

No other foundation than Christ.

Is that you?

Which brings us to the question that I want to ask today. All of you had to ask myself this question. I was building this sermon. What am I doing? And the question is, is Christ your foundation? Is Christ your foundation? Now if I had to raise their hand, everybody'd shoot their hand up. Yes. Yes. Yes. Of course. We're also pious and righteous and in church.

Well, sometimes we need Christ outside of church.

And we need to have that foundation. So my question, I guess, to you starts with, do you know him? Jesus Christ. Do you know him? Is Christ your foundation? If he is, you better know him. Do you know his word? That's the thing. Do you know his word? Well, yes, I read it once a month. No. I read it once a week when the Sabbath comes. Do you know Christ?

Do you know his word? Do you know his life? We've been given in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John the account of Jesus living on this earth for 33 years. 33 and a half.

We heard how he worked with the lepers at his time. We see through his word how he worked with everyone. The widows, the poor, the sick, those that needed help. We saw how he even worked with those that couldn't stand him. And how he preached, how he taught, and those lessons. Have you ever done a Bible study and just went through? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John go, I just want to write down every lesson.

You're going to be there a while. That's the purpose. And you get four different people's accounts of different stories. And John even says, there are enough books!

Jamie, remember, can you imagine that library? Maybe that's what you'll be doing in the kingdom. Here's the books that you're all going to check in and read about all the things that Jesus Christ did in 33 and a half years. And so she's got a whole city of books.

Do we want to study about his life? I know, I know, I'm going to hear this. Well, wait a minute. It's about his message, not about him. Really? You can't separate the messenger from the message. Did he have a wonderful message? Yes. But we're not told to live like the message, are we? We're told to live like the messenger. Live like Christ. Learn like Christ. And when you do, the message is definitely not a problem. You can't contain yourself. Even Jesus Christ couldn't. He was a fanatic for the kingdom of God.

And he asked us, seek it first.

But his life and his example, is it something we really, really know? Do we know it so well we can get up and talk about it anytime?

Now, we have sisters in here. Annie, Evelyn, Grace. They can, anyone can sit up there and talk about Lily and their sister up in Vero Beach. They can sit down. They don't need notes. Why? They lived it. They lived with her. They lived with each other. They know. This is called our elder brother. And it's given for us to know him. So that we don't need the Bible. Because I tell many people, most of my teaching, say 50-60% of my teaching, I don't have the Bible with me. People ask questions. I ask things. But I'm supposed to know it. Still, learning. But boy, should we know Christ. It's hard to know all the books of the Bible. But is it that hard to know the four Gospels?

When some of it tells the same stories time and time again, I want us to know him, to know his words, to know his life. I want you to know his example for each and every one of us. For these children here.

The oldest person in here. I'm going to raise my hand in case I'm him. But we need to. We need to have our focus in the right place. On the right things. That's why we need to read the book. Again and again.

That's why Paul wrote his book to the Philippians. And Philippians were way, way different church than the Corinthians. The Philippians were people who dove into the Bible. They were not as worldly as a Corinthian church. And he was writing to encourage them to continue what they're doing. He was so inspired by their work, as people all across the Gentile city that they were in, knew the church of God in Philippi.

He didn't have to correct. He just said, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You ever thought about the Philippian church? They didn't have four books telling about the life of Christ, did they? They didn't have it. The Corinthians didn't have it. Galatia didn't have it. Colossae didn't have it.

Brethren, we have it. Should we be thankful, Maurice? You are kidding. Now we know. We've got this example laid out for us. I remember. High school. High school. Coming into practice basketball on a Monday. And our coach, everybody just shot, ran around and shoot baskets for the first 10 or 15 minutes to loosen up. And the coach goes, Don't tell me! I can tell already. Dr. J was playing. Because you had people trying to do what he did the day before. Looking like, trying to be like Dr. J. Brethren, we've been given this to try to look and act like Jesus Christ. You imagine a bunch of Christ's. In Antioch, they were first called Christians. And if you look it up, they were called Little Christ. Little Christ! Like little mini-me's. Can we be that? Can we? Do we? Let our house, our lives, our families be built on Christ. Is it? Because it is important. Can we do it? Will we do it? I hope so. I hope we can. Go down that road. Build on the foundation of Christ. Build your house on how Christ lived. Set the example for your family of how Christ lived.

Neil, Wensom, and a responsibility of raising four kids to be like Christ. To be like Christ. Neil has a responsibility to act like Christ. And Wensom has a responsibility to tell him when he is it.

And him to her also, because that's the house!

Build that house.

Thought that was you, Maurice. It wasn't. Wow. Feel good. Let's go with me. Go with me to Ephesians 2.

Book of Ephesians.

Incredible book.

Get back. I didn't mark this one. Ephesians 2.

2 and verse 19.

Verse 19. New King James. Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. We're tied in this thing together. You get that? You just can't say, All right, I got my house over here. Me and God, we're good. Stay away from my house. No. Say, we're all tied in this together. We're here to help each other. We're building on Christ's foundation, this church. Having built on the foundations of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. He's it! That's who we look to. That's how we build our house. That's how we build the church in Fort Lauderdale. We build it on Christ. We build it on the belief of God and the Word of God. And we're there to help each other. Not, Oh, look, somebody's acting like this. They got problems. Glad it's not me. No. They're there to help each other. That's what they're there for. I'm a shepherd, not a sheriff.

It's my job to help. Lead and do. And then verse 21, in whom the whole building being joined together. That means all of us, we need to get along. And I think most of us do. You know, I was talking to my boss not long ago when I got my evaluation. And he's talking about no real problem. They said, no, most of the problem people left. He said, how that happened. I said, they didn't like me. So it was easy for them to point them somewhere down the road. They might be happy. Because they weren't happy. With our wonderful church. Where people care about each other.

Where I had to get rid of people because they were racist. I had to move them down the road. Told them it was not a good thing. I had to move them down the road. Told them it was better off for them. When people just wanted to teach other doctrines.

But I'm a shepherd because I take care of the sheep. Help the sheep. I'm on call for the sheep.

Brethren, we're joined together. And this church does. Incredible things. Incredible examples. We have people go check on people. I don't know. I didn't even know that I'd just show up and check on. Oh, they've already been here. Or this person's been here. Or they've already called. Let's join together. Let's look at that. In verse 21. In whom the whole building being joined together grows into a holy temple of the Lord. I want us to enter a holy temple. In whom you also are being built. Incredible word. Built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. See, built for a home. Habitation is our home. So God wants to dwell with us. Habitation, that's what we're being built for. So that he can, through his Spirit, live in us and our homes. He chooses to dwell. It's a beautiful thing. Being fitted together, are we? Do we always look and sometimes say, well, I don't really agree with that. But I ain't tight. Married how many years? 36 already. I thought it was 35. So you're already counting time before it's due. 36, we don't always agree.

Okay? But we're fit together. So we're going to work it out. Any of you, knowing as families, you work things out because you care about each other and you pray. And you know you're not alone. Right, Barry? You're not alone out here. We know that. Daphne? You're not alone. That's who we are if Christ is our foundation.

Because the Scripture says God is love, and that's who we are to be. Cities! Hmm. And they're... He's looking for a city. It's a foundation whose maker and builder is God. Pretty city, right?

I don't know what city that is. Maybe you could tell me. Mary just pulled it up for me, so I don't know. It's not Deerfield Beach. I can tell you that. It's not Miramar. It's not Miramar. But, I want you to think about that. Anybody here been to Dallas? In Dallas, Texas? You know Dallas is named after a man named Dallas? Does that shock you? Fort Lauderdale? You know where you got his name?

Huh. After a major Lauderdale. A military man. We've had... Maybe you think of cities. You look and you see cities out here. They're named after people. They're named after their founders.

Or somebody they considered to be important. Their own way. Have entire countries. Bolivia. You know your South American history. Even America. Maricovasputius. I spell that right. That's a mouthful. Named after a man. The Philippines. You know who that's named after? Oh, very good. You're so smart. Hanging around with this guy. Yeah, King Philip of Spain named it after himself.

Cities. Even entire countries have been built by ungodly, evil men.

And the world is the way it is today, because it's been built on terrible foundations. Study your history. Go back and look. It didn't get that way overnight, but it just progressed because of the foundation it's built upon.

That's why Abraham wasn't looking for this city. He wasn't looking for this city as pretty as it is at night. There's some things at night not very pretty in big cities. If you don't believe it, go hang out. At two in the morning.

Go with me. Go with me back to Genesis 4. Don't make me of Genesis 4. Let me make my point here. Genesis 4. Verse 17. Genesis 4.

Verse 17. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore him Enoch. And he built a city and called the name of that city after the name of his son Enoch. She meant dedicated. Okay, Cain did this, and then he named it after his son. What kind of city do you think it was to grow up in? With Cain as the founder?

Am I my brother's keeper? Hmm. I want that to be my founder. Right? You can see how it evolved from there. Go with me to Genesis 10. Genesis 10. Genesis 10. Verse 10 through 12. Talking about Nimrod here. And it says in verse 10, And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel. Oh boy, how would you like that one? Who started Babel? Me. I don't think you'll see that in the kingdom at the second resurrection. We have anybody here who started the kingdom? No. Iraq. Aqad. Qalna. In the land of Shinaar. And he went on, and it says to Assyria and these other nations, and just built city after city after city. I don't think any of us would go back. Let me go back. You want a foundation built by Nimrod? And some of those things carry on even the end. And it talks about even in Revelation, when you get to the end time, the whole problem is the Babylonian mystery religion. It's carried on. It's going to show up where it's at the forefront because of the founder. I could go with me. I don't have a slide for this because I came across this just yesterday. I could go with me to book a Psalm. Psalm? Psalm 49.

Back here. Quick enough. Psalm 49.

Verse 10 and 11. It says, Their inner thought is that their houses will continue forever and they're dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their names.

Really?

And you see, their names were not good names. So who do we build our city? Who do we build our homes after? It's someone with a wonderful great name.

The city whose builder and maker is God. Is that something you would put down? Something that you said, yes, I'll build my home. And Proverbs after Psalm after Psalm just talks about the home and the family and having God in the center. How this nation would be different if that was kept today. Oh, would we still have problems? Yes. But my, oh my. When God's nowhere to be seen in a house, in a street, in a city, in a country.

There are terrible problems. And year after year after year, in my 62 years, each year, God is pushed further away from this country. Don't need Him! Don't want Him! We got this figured out. The last thing we need is somebody telling us what to do. You know, that's exactly what this does. This tells us what to do. And it's simple. It's for everyone.

Brethren, this world needs us. This world needs you. Your street needs you. Have you ever thought about that?

Your family needs you. And it's not because of you. It's because of Christ in you. When we personify Christ, when we're away, the world, the city, the street, it's all a better place to live.

Do we have a responsibility? I think so. I think God wants us.

Remember Napoleon saying, as they were talking about religion, and he said, if it wasn't for religion, we'd all get our heads cut off tomorrow. Talking that there has to be some moral law between what is good and what is bad. Brethren, some people out here don't know.

Scripture-eating talks good for bad and sweet for sour.

We need to help where we can, who we can.

You know, because of his foundation, this world is a better place right now. Is it going to be better down the road? Yes! When his kingdom's here, that's it. There's not. That's a no-brainer. That's what this teaches us. But we're not there yet.

And we look for a city whose builder and maker is God in the kingdom of God. But till now, till that time, right now, brethren, we're it. We're it. We're it. Whether you want to accept that or not, God expects us to be a temple, a people of God.

It was over 30 years of building experience that I had foundations matter. Oh, boy, did they matter. I've seen a lot, but so has God. He continues to see. And what does he see? He sees a nation.

A lot of them don't want him anywhere near. We see a city. People don't want anything about him near. But he also sees people saying, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Oh, it's all about Jesus. Right? Yet they don't know the man. They just know all they had to know is one scripture. I give my heart to Jesus. Now I can go do anything I want to do because I've been forgiven. And now I'm going to heaven.

That's not in here.

Jesus, Jesus. Self-proclaimed Christians with an ungodly foundation.

Somebody had an award show. Singing Grammys or something came up there. She barely had any clothes on. First thing she had. I want to thank my Lord, Savior Jesus Christ. For allowing me to dress this cheap. That's what she should have said, but she didn't. She said, Forgive me the talents and abilities.

Does that line up? Brother, we have to line up with this. We have to stay plumb with this. We have to stay level with this. We stay square with this. We're okay. And some people just need a little points on that.

Jesus is the answer. For most of us, most of the time.

The Greeks had the habit of, when someone passed, they never asked how they died. They asked, how did they live? Isn't that for us? People need to say, this is how they lived. They lived like Christ. Not just flash across and think, I got this cross on, all about Jesus. I can go do all I want.

What if he got his head cut off? People are going to start wearing an axe around with blood on it. All right, can we hang nails with blood coming off, hanging off of our body? It's about Christ. No, it's not. Not that way. What should be remembered is how he lived and how we need to have him living in us and with us.

And we try to live for him. Wrap this up today.

You know, I've turned there. There's a Psalm. We've seen, I think it's in page number 76. Chris can correct me if I'm wrong. In Psalm 127 verse 1, he says, Unless, what? The Lord builds the house. They labor in vain. Who built it? Scripture says. We sing about that.

That's us. We don't want to labor in vain. We want to build our house. We want to build that house so God can dwell. And we want to build this one because we all come together. So, brethren, I don't want to be a self-made man. I want to be a man whose builder and maker is God. And I hope and pray that you feel the same way.