Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
But welcome everyone. And I also want to mention the men's breakfast coming up in a couple of weeks
and our very own Ken Bailey will be sharing about prayer. If you know Ken, you know that he
prays with purpose and he keeps records and he knows he could see the evidence of the prayers.
And so it's important to remember when God actually answers prayers and provides those things that we
ask for. So men, make sure you show up for that. It's going to be a great time.
And now let's open up to Hebrews chapter three. We're only looking at six verses today.
And we'll only be stopping once. I'd like to kind of give you a forerunner of how it's going to look
so you can predict a little bit about the flow of the morning. Jesus, the master builder.
You know, it's interesting, as you know, as a Calvary Chapel, we go through the Bible
pretty much verse by verse or chapter by chapter and stop where certain themes start to shift,
you know. And as we do that, from time to time, we'll do topics, but typically not.
And I just love when something happens that is an obvious alignment with the topic of today.
And Danny and Tara spoke this morning about really building healthy households, right?
Healthy homes, raising children to know the Lord. And what's amazing is that's what our
messages about this morning is really having a healthy home, a Godly home. And that's for
all of us because we all are the house of God, aren't we? In fact, well, let's pray.
Father God, we ask your spirit to move powerfully here this morning, Lord God.
We thank you that you have chosen us to be living stones, Lord God.
Part of the construction process of your house, of your home, Lord God.
You say that we are vital parts of that home, Lord God. If you've called us to invite others
into that household of faith. And so, Lord God, we ask you to cut through any confusion that I
might present this morning and that your spirit would bring crystal clear clarity to everyone's
heart and mind, Lord God, that we would hear only from you. We would take out of here only what
you want us to receive so that it can empower our lives and that we can live like you. We can
walk in the full stature of Christ. So we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
As last week, if you can recall, the message was to Jesus, family is everything. Remember we talked
about how we are his brother, we are his friend, we are the children of God, we are the household
of God. And it was all about family. And it's interesting that the next chapter now goes into
the house of God and that he's building his house. And as we talked about before,
the Lord likes to use metaphors or analogies in scripture to compare the church to. Remember we
talked about that the church is like the bride of Christ. The church is like the body, you know,
how each one of us have a significant role in our bodies. Right now, I am highly valuing my lungs.
Some of you know some of the things I've been going through and it's interesting how much you value
things when they're threatened, you know. You realize how much of an impact they make on the
rest of your body when something isn't working quite right, even like a sore big toe. Suddenly
that's all you're thinking about because it affects everything. You know, our bodies are meant
and to be working together and they're all, it's every part of us is very significant,
but of course Christ is the head of the church, right. And then we talk last week about the family.
Today we're going to talk about the building, the house of God, the household of God. And as we
talk about the household of God, lots is we use analogies of literal construction, but we know
it's not about a building, right. God is building a household of not bricks and stones and
construction material. He's building a house of his saints. You know, he's building his house
in the church of God. That's what we are, his building, his house of God.
And you know, as a household, as a member of a household, okay, the head of the household,
what do they provide? What should they provide? Some of us didn't necessarily grow up in tremendous
households, but the head of a household, and in this case, the father of God,
you know, he provides protection. He provides resources. He provides the priorities of the
household. What's important, right? He provides education. He provides shelter. He provides many
things that make that household a place that is dependable, that you aren't insecure,
that you can know that the head of the household has everything under control. We're not threatened
in the household of God, right? And that's our father, God. He's the head of the household,
and he knows how to care for the members of his household. And the most important thing
that God the father provides in his household is unconditional love, that environment of always
welcoming in. He's always welcoming in to his family, you know? And that's what the Lord wants
us to know, is that no matter where we go, the prodigal son is an obvious, easy picture of that,
but really, he's always welcoming everyone to come back home, to live in his household,
where we are safe, where we are protected, where we are loved, where we are provided for,
where we have the priorities needed for success and to thrive in our lives, all those things. The
head of the household, Father God, is providing all those things for his house, and we are the
house of God. Amen. Amen. So let's dive into Hebrews chapter three. Like I said, we're going
to start, we're going to stop abruptly, and then we will continue. But chapter three, verse one,
therefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. Now, you know, we just should stop right
there, and this is the only stop we're going to make, but partakers of the heavenly calling,
you know, that word partakers, medicas, it means having a share in or being partners in.
So we're really partakers and have a share in the heavenly calling. When he called you,
you have a share in what is going on in heaven and your destiny in heaven, and not only a share,
but also to be provided from God, for living here on earth, from the gifts from heaven.
So really, we are partakers in that heavenly calling. We are called. Amen. The Greek word
clasis means that we are called. Is everyone called? Is everyone called? I think he's calling
everyone. That's my personal opinion, is that he is calling everyone. In fact, his gifts and
calling are irrevocable. Perhaps the Lord just keeps on calling out, calling out to the world,
and yet they're not hearing it or knowing the call is for them. It reminded me this morning of
when Samuel, remember, was being called in Samuel chapter three, and the Lord called him and he
woke up, and back then nobody was hearing from the Lord. It was very rare. And here's Samuel,
this humble kid, just serving in the tabernacle, and the high priest Eli was just really not hearing
from God, not serving God properly. And suddenly Samuel hears, and Samuel, Samuel, so Samuel gets
up. Who's calling me? He runs to Eli, and he says, you called me. No, I didn't. Go back to bed.
Again, second time, you called me. No, I didn't. Go back to bed. Third time,
runs to Eli. Finally, Eli is catching on. Uh-oh. Somebody else is calling Samuel, and it isn't me.
And he says, go back and say that your servant listens, your servant hears. Here I am, you know?
And so that's when finally the Lord spoke to Samuel, giving him this information that he probably
had wished he hadn't heard, but that was the Lord's calling, because it was a rebuke against
his mentor and master, Eli. But nonetheless, he didn't know who was calling. I think people go
through life sometimes hearing kind of like they think they're being called to something,
but they're choosing every one other than God, because they think something's calling. I mean,
I was watching this strange documentary called The Shark Whisperer. I don't know if you've ever
seen it, but this lady that literally swims with great white sharks and tiger sharks,
and it's just crazy to see this person underwater. Her husband's filming the whole thing,
and this shark's swimming right up to her. She just reaches out her hand and touches the
nose and steers this 20-foot tiger shark away. It's like nuts. How does that happen?
But so she thinks that her calling in life, and she said it again and again,
is just to know these aquamarine predators better. Well, that might be part of her calling,
but her true calling, everyone's true calling, is to know the creator of that beast, right?
Is to know our creator. We might think, oh, I was called in life to be a carpenter. Well,
so was Jesus, but was that his inevitable calling? Of course, that was to save humanity, right?
We may have low priority callings, but our true calling is to hear from heaven
and to be aligned with that heavenly calling. Amen. In fact, I love, we went through the book of
Romans a few months ago, and in Romans chapter eight, which to me is probably one of the most
fan, amazing chapters, right? But it talked about how we are foreknown and we are predestined,
okay? And then we're called, and this is kind of like the process of God calling. And then when we
listen to that calling, when we respond to the calling, which is really an invitation,
when we respond and come to him, he justifies us. He says, you can come in. You responded. You heard
the call and you responded. Maybe everyone, to some degree, the Lord is preparing things for them,
yet in his foreknowledge, he knows they'll never respond. You ever think about that? Like,
some people have great things, great things that God prepared for them to do, but they're never
going to know them because he never knew the one who prepared them, right? And so he calls and
he justifies. He says, you can come in. And then he glorifies, meaning you are to carry
me throughout the world. You are my glory on earth because my glory is upon you.
And so that's the stages. But what's interesting is that that word called, okay?
That word called, when you're called, if everyone is called, when do they become chosen?
I believe it's when they respond to the call. They say, yes, I want to come. And they receive
Christ and now they are chosen. You can come in because you came. You responded to the calling.
You know, two times Jesus said that many are called, but few are chosen. You remember that?
He said it two times in Matthew. And both times he said it, we're at the tag end of a parable.
One time he said it was about a landowner who went and he hired workers to go out in the field. He said,
I will pay you a denarius, a day's work and you can work. So they went because they were given a,
or they would be given a denarius. So they worked for the denarius. But then three hours
later he walked along and he saw these others just stand by and he's saying, you know what?
Listen, go work on the field. I'll give you what seems right.
They responded to him saying, I will give you what seems right. They trusted the landowner
would take care of them. So they went on the field and started working. Six hours later,
he sees others. You go work. I'll give you what seems right. The ninth hour, the one hour left.
He saw people standing around. He says, go to work. I'll give you what seems right.
And at the end, when he was paying them all, and the last one to come forward were the ones that
were hired for a denarius came and they saw the other ones getting a denarius and like, wow,
we're going to make out good here. You know, we sweat the whole day and they finally get to
the landowner. He says, here's your denarius. And he's like, what? Wait a minute. You know,
they got the same as us. Well, why are you angry? Because are you evil? Because I am good.
Don't you see you agreed to work for a denarius? And then he said, many will be chosen. Many will
be called, but few will be chosen. The point was that they were trusting the denarius. They
worked for a denarius. Everyone else was trusting the landowner. You see that? That's why they
were considered chosen because they trusted the landowner. The others were working for wages.
They trusted the denarius, right? And then he said at a second time, when he was talking about that
King who was having a wedding banquet for his son, and he went out and he told everyone who
was previously invited, okay, to this wedding and nobody wanted to come. Then I got other things to
do. Well, go send more. Finally, they were so irritated that the King kept inviting them
to a wedding that finally they actually killed the servants. So Jesus says, what do you think that
master did? You know, he went and he destroyed them. And then he invited everybody to come.
Anyone, anyone, anyone, just come in, come in. And then finally, he's having a blast with all
these people who never thought they would belong in the palace with the King. I think that's us.
That's me. Like, I'm like, what am I doing? When I get there someday, I'm like,
what in the world am I doing here? I don't belong here. I know some of you might, no, I'm kidding.
None of us belong there. But I know I don't belong there. And yet this one man he comes across
was not dressed in the wedding garb. And he says, how did you get in here? You know,
he was dressed like the street clothes. He was dressed in the old life. And he says,
take him out and they bound him up and threw him in the outer darkness where there's weeping
and gnashing of teeth. But the point there, and then he says, you know, many are called,
but few are chosen. That man came in the way he came, the way he was outside. Everyone else
came in wedding clothes. And the whole picture of that is really, we are dressed in Christ,
right? The only way we can enter that wedding is because we are dressed in Christ. We are
dressed for the whole ceremony. And so the point in all of this is that we need to trust the
landowner that who will take care of us. And when we go in, we have to go all in. We can't go in in
our old life garb. Here I go. I'm just going to wear my old stuff. You, you, you, you called me
like this. This is the way I'm going to stay. No, he's saying, no, I have far more things for you.
Take those old garments off, those grave garments, like Lazarus, and put on a new garment, put on the
new life, right? And that's why we can walk in the newness of life. So that's the picture we go from
called to chosen when we respond. And so this is the idea that the Lord wants us to see in this
verse is that we are all called from a heavenly calling. And it's so important for us to always
remember that, you know, the apostle Paul always realized I was called for so much more than,
than anything I ever realized until I received Christ. I responded to the calling and I was
chosen. Peter said the same thing. I have two back-to-back verses stuck together.
When Paul wrote to the Philippians in Philippians 3, 14, he says, I press toward the goal for the
prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You know, you are, you press into that.
You have an, you have an upward calling. Everything you do is building dividends for
eternity, but blessings for here, underneath heaven, you know, for earth. When you respond
to him, you will be blessed. Peter says this in second Peter chapter one verse 10. He says,
therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you
do these things, you will never stumble. You know, if we realize how important that calling
that God has on our lives is, the decisions we make down here are always weighed against eternity.
Not for salvation, but for now, if I engaged in this lifestyle for a season,
what am I losing from heaven's standpoint? What am I losing in terms of not going to heaven,
but in terms of the rewards, in terms of the legacy, in terms of the testimony for Jesus Christ.
That's why it's so important for us to be aligned with our calling in heaven, the upward call.
And so this is why I'm making a big deal out of this is because once you know that
and you realize that we are called to be in the household of God, then it's important for
us to really embrace that and live in it. Amen. Okay, let's move on.
Still in verse one, but that's the last stop. Consider the apostle and high priest
of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him, who appointed him,
as Moses also was faithful in all his house. For this one, meaning Christ,
has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who built the house
has more honor than the house. Verse four, for every house is built by someone,
but he who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant
for a testimony of those who which would be spoken afterwards, but Christ as a son
over his own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm to the end. So here we see that the Spirit wants us to make a connection between
Moses and Jesus. Now, Moses was given a blueprint for the household of God, wasn't he? Remember the
Lord led him up on Mount Sinai after they escaped Egypt and there they were in the Sinai Peninsula
and he was up on Mount Sinai and he began to receive the plans God has. And it was a
household plan. It wasn't just someday you're going to, you know, make these clothing for the high
priest and someday you're going to make a tabernacle and carry it on poles. And I mean, that was the
ark and you're going to do all these functional things. It was more than that. It was actually
the household rules and laws, right? He was laying out the whole social structure,
who's in charge, who's, you know, guiding my people and all these household rules and regulations,
you know, and it is important to know the household rules. You know, some of you may have been
raised in homes that you really didn't have many chores. Mom and dad were pretty lax and,
you know, and maybe sometimes at least I was that way. It's like, oh yeah, somebody's got to do
that. Zach, do that. But, you know, but some households runs like machines and very, you know,
you know, methodical and no scenario is wrong. It's the household rules and regulations,
once you know that. So the Lord was laying out all these rules and regulations for Moses
to the point of even exactly what the priest should wear and actually the tabernacle, what
it should look like, what it should be made of, all these specifics. And we went through all of that
as we went through Leviticus over the last several months. And then he gave a plan for,
like I said, the tabernacle, which was actually a foreshadow of a type of structure, the temple,
that the Lord would one day assign the king to build for him, right? And so as time went on,
the Lord had given David a vision for what materials to use and so forth. And David was told,
but you're not the guy because, you know, you are a man of bloodshed, but your son will build it,
right? And so Solomon was assigned the role to build this temple. Now, God's not going to
literally live there, okay? He doesn't live in the ark, okay? He doesn't live in a house.
Nothing can contain him. He contains everything, right? He is above and beyond and bigger. He holds
all things together as we sang in that song. He's holding all together or something like that. But
anyway, he holds it all together, right? So he's not going to live there, but he's going to visit
from time to time. But you know, he chooses to live in you. Isn't that amazing? He lives
outside of you too. He's not limited to you. Thank God for that. But he chooses to also live in you.
You're like a mini tabernacle of his, right? That he resides in. So he can live lots of places,
but he chooses to live in us. So when Solomon was given this tremendous assignment
of building the temple of God, he said, you know, can you imagine that huge weight to build
the structure? And so they complete it. You can read about it in 2nd Chronicles 7. And as
they were praying and thanking the Lord for this tremendous temple, the fire of God came down
and just consumed all the offerings. The glory of the Lord was so thick they couldn't even
enter the temple. Do you remember that? And so when Solomon was so humbled and he was really
just starting off, he was only a few years into his kingdom when he had asked for wisdom,
he was such a humble king starting off, right? But what's sad is he forgot whose house he was
building because he built a temple which took seven years, lots of resources, lots of planning.
But you know how long it took him to build his own house? Any of you know his own palace?
13, almost double the time. Then he built the house of God. So what started off like,
oh, you know, just humble, like, you know, fear and trembling became like, all right,
we're done with that. Now it's time to build my house, right? And we know the story of Solomon,
how his pride carried him away, his lust, his idolatry, his polygamy, everything, just
took him away, right? And as a result, he built his palace and he just kept building.
I think some of us forget whose house we're building because he lost sight of why he was
given that task. It was to build and to govern God's people. That's the house of God, right?
But he was building his own kingdom, right? But when he was humble in his days, he wrote
Psalm 127.1 and it was a song of ascents. The song of ascents, there's 15 of them.
And only two psalms in all of the psalms were written by Solomon, but this was one of them.
And it says, a song of ascents, as they would ascend to Jerusalem, because, you know,
Jerusalem is built so high, no matter what north, south, east, west, you're coming from,
Jerusalem is always up, okay? It's so high elevation. So the song of ascents was,
all the pilgrims, when they would come back for the three feasts of Israel, they would come up and as
they would ascend whatever direction they are coming from, they would just celebrate and sing
and remember, we're going to the house of God, right? And so Solomon wrote this psalm and he said,
unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the
city, the watchman stays awake in vain. And we still use those verses quite often, don't we? When
we talk about building our home, because really it has to be the Lord who is building it. We could
put so much effort into our families, but if we're not leading our families to God, we're
leading them in the wrong direction. I can remember being part of that ministry
that was a global mission and hearing from these various kids that were from South Korea,
or at least from their parents were, and their family's whole goal was education, education,
education, education. And I think that, I mean, that's not a bad priority to have in your home,
right? I mean, education is important. And so they were teaching their kids,
you gotta be a doctor, you gotta be a lawyer, you gotta be, you know, whatever. You have to be
educated. You have to, because then you will be successful. And those aren't bad priorities,
unless God is a second priority to those goals. And I'll never forget some of those,
how they decided instead to go on the mission field and leave school or leave the doctorate
program or leave these things to actually serve on the mission field, and their parents
literally stopped talking to them, literally almost disowned them, at least from their testimony.
And it's like, wow, they really started building the wrong palace, didn't they? They really went
in the wrong direction, building the wrong priorities. But we as families are building
towards God's purpose. Amen. And so we still read that verse to remind us that it's God's
palace. It's God's temple that we're building for his purpose. We are the house of God and
the apostle Paul realized, can you imagine being him? Here's a guy that just wasn't even a
tremendous speaker according to him and perhaps others too. And how he was a religious zealot,
and he was judgmental, he was critical, and he was all these things, probably hard to get along with
the apostle Paul, if you read, you know, different aspects of his personality. Yet when he got saved,
the Lord used him to do things that no one else could do, right? And as he's, and he's,
and he was even, even the Jews didn't like him, and he was a very religious Jew. So he was going
into new areas and everything. And he was seeing a wink of, well, God is doing something like behind
me. And it's not me, it's God. God is building something. And he was so overwhelmed that he could
do this. And then how God could build up behind him and backfill what was missing. And he said
this to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 10 to 11. He said, according to the grace of God,
which was given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds on it,
but 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, the firm foundation, the chief cornerstone.
I mean, we need to be building upon him. And I know this is to a believer. We've heard that
message from when we first believed, but it's still so significant to realize that only the Lord is
level. Only the Lord is a right line with heaven. I love that verse it talks about Zerubbabel,
the builder of the temple, and his plumb line is lined up. And it's a great picture of when we have
the right cornerstone, Jesus Christ, we can build on that. And no matter what direction we're going
in, we are on solid ground, we are level, and we are pointed towards heaven, right? So that's
the chief cornerstone. And it's so important that Paul even reflects on this and says, you know,
I wasn't building anything for me. I was building something for the Lord. You know, the Lord
tells in the Sermon on the Mount, or one of the Sermon on the Mount, sometimes people say those
Matthew five, six, seven could have been multiple sermons. But, but in there we look at Luke's
version of this. And he was talking about how building something that lasts that the enemy
can't tear down. And I love these verses because it reminds us how important it is for us to,
to come to the Lord, to hear him and to do what he says. And he says, whoever comes to me and
hears my sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house
who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock, which is Jesus Christ, of course. And when the
flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against the house and could not shake it,
for it was founded on the rock. You know, he's telling us to come to him, you know,
he's calling us, we come to him, we hear him, and then we don't just hear. You know, the worst is
don't be a hearer only, but a doer of the word and actually doing the things. And I'll just say,
as a parent, sometimes doing the right thing wasn't always easy because we, we, we don't,
we, we want to, in a sense, nurture our children's feelings over God's purpose for them. Have you
don't want to go to life group or a youth group? Oh, I don't want to go there. Nobody likes me there.
You're going, you're going. One guy one time said to me, he is funny because I was the youth pastor
at our old church. And I can remember getting up saying, you know, it's important for your kids
to go to youth group. And suddenly this, this spirit of authority just overpowered me.
And I just said, you know what you parents don't give your kids a choice. You're the parent,
make them go, make them go. And to me, it's like, it's elementary, right? Of course, right. But you
know, this one guy who heard me and his kids were, you know, there sometimes not the others,
and they were always fighting with them to get out the door and you know, and he said, when I
said that, he told me this years later, believe it or not, when I saw him at this pastor's
conference, he said, well, you said that it was like a light bulb. I suddenly realized,
and I turned to my wife, I said, yeah, we are the parents. Like, you know, like, we don't have
to let them decide. We decide. We know what's best for them. They don't. Right. And you know,
what's so cool about that story is he started making them come, of course, within two or
three times. There was no longer a debate. They were going. That's it. You don't talk about it.
Don't discuss it. You're going. Right. And they continuously went and this guy was an amazing
guitar player. He actually majored it in California in school and he was a musician. He was a songwriter.
He ended up being the children's coordinator of music and had three squads of youth worship teams
in that youth group. And he led it all. All because I just got up there and said, make them go. That's
the fewest words of a sermon that you can ever have. Make them go. What is that? Three. Three words.
And that really impacted him. And he was so grateful from then on. And it was so funny
because you think it's such a nothing. It's common sense. But you know, sometimes we have to
remember that we are the stewards of our children for on behalf of God. And it's not just about
children. It's about all of our relationships. Right. We are stewards of those relationships.
You know, we can't take them for granted. We need to love people on behalf of God because
he loves them. Right. And so this is the idea. You know, we are the house of God and
and the Lord is going to build your house, my house, his house with quality, with purpose,
with with glory. Joe and I live just on the northeast side still of Doylestown. We tried
a few times and move over here and it didn't work out. Bidding wars and things like that, you know,
some of you can relate. But so but sometimes we go from our house down to like peddlers village. You
ever been and New Hope area just, you know, so like nice and scenic. And we drive through these
few roads and you're coming across like just wow, look at that house. But one sign you see
sometimes and it's a sign it's it's the Zavida builders. Okay. And some of you who are from
over here might not know that sign and I'm not here. This is no promotion for Zavida homes.
I'm just telling you that much. But I just want to give a real practical example. So and whenever
you drive by a Zavida home sign, you know, something spectacular is going to be built there.
Something magnificent. Okay, from a worldly perspective, right. So we drove by these few
lots with these signs for years, nothing built yet. You're like, well, something's going to
be built there eventually, right. And so recently we drove down that road and that next slide shows
the house. Okay, that's not a string of townhomes. Okay, that's what it looks like to me. That's one
house and it doesn't even incorporate all of it. The camera couldn't get it all in. And then as
you drive around, you see in the back, there's like two or three more structures on the other
side of the courtyard, which has eight to 12 garages, which probably fit other families that
live above that. I don't know. But this is like, you know, the servants quarters. I don't know.
But like, you're like, what? You know, I knew it was going to happen. I knew it was going to
happen because the sign is there. I have just for kicks and giggles. I have a couple more slides.
The next one is another Zavida home. That looks like Magic Kingdom. Walt Disney, okay. Just waiting
for the fireworks above it. The castle, right. And then there's one more there. So these are just,
yeah, a Zavida home. So again, if they ever watch this, like, why is that guy promoting our houses?
But thank you. But I'm not. But the point is to me, that sign means quality, means earthly glory,
means luxury, means riches, you know, it means wealth. It's always the most pristine land.
But how much more is God's label upon you? His, you belong to him. You are his house. You might
not see it built yet. You might say, what kind of house is this? You know, so many things aren't
luxurious or prosperous looking to others. So many things still seem out of line. There's still
so much strife and disagreement, perhaps in my home or even in my life. I'm not feeling very
Zavida-ish right now, okay. But you know what? The Lord is building something in you that you
haven't seen yet, but you're going to see it someday. It's a magnificent house that he's
building. And you're just a part of it. You're just a part of it. You don't have to be all that
on the hill by yourself, because no one is. In fact, I promise you the people that live in those
homes, unless they're being built in the house of God, they're going to either be miserable
this side of heaven or on the other side of life. Because if you don't have the chief master
builder in your life, building his house in your life, you're missing the whole purpose.
Imagine just living in this prosperous, wealthy house and being miserable. And you can't get
happy. You can't find joy because nothing is going to give you joy like the Lord Jesus.
They can't have things from heaven because they haven't pushed through yet. They haven't
laid hold of the upward call of God. They haven't received that heavenly calling. They don't know.
They still think it's down here. And I'm not putting rich people down at all because you know
what? The kingdom uses wealth, filthy mammon on earth to win friends and influence enemies,
even in heaven, right? He can use it all. So, you know, in fact, if you know some people that
owns the meat of homes, invite them in, we'll get them saved. And we'll really
blow, you know, just bring the kingdom all around the world, right? So we're not against wealth,
but it's not wealth that brings joy, happiness, and peace. It's the kingdom of God. Amen.
I love what Jesus said just before he departed. He was talking to his disciples and you know,
he started to see him going away and you know, but you'll find me eventually and I'm like,
what is this? You know, he is our life. Imagine this, the person you followed
for three and a half years who to you was your identity. Like the fact that you were a friend
of Jesus, that you traveled with Jesus, that you served on behalf of Jesus,
that was the only identity that mattered to you, right? Well, that's still the case today.
He is our identity, right? And then they said, you know, where can we go? You have the words of life.
I have no life apart from you, Jesus. So when he's talking about leaving,
they were pretty broken up, okay? But you say, no, take it easy. I'm building something in you.
I'm preparing you for that place. And I'm preparing that place for you. And he said this,
it's so beautiful in John chapter 14 verses two and three. And my father's house are many mansions.
If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
And I love the put in there that he's preparing us for the place, isn't he?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself
that where I am there, you may be also. Amen. As the worship team comes up,
I just want to say, you know, what house is the Lord building in your life? Are you letting him
knock out walls? You know, sometimes the Lord knows the best floor plan. Okay. And we might say,
I don't want to tear that down. I don't want, he knows. And perhaps it's time to just hand him the
hammer. Say, Lord, have at it. Tear down the walls that don't belong there. Lord God,
just take out the old stuff that reeks of the old stench of the old mold and the mildew,
the things that are just dirty, Lord God. Just demo. Demo my life. If that's what I need, Lord God,
bring in the dumpster and start demoing. Okay. And just let him do it. Just say, Lord,
what am I hanging on to? You know, I feel bad. Sometimes I speak, you know, quite often to
hoarders and, and so forth. And they're hanging on to things that, you know, they know deep down,
no one cares about after they go home with the Lord. It's, it's not going to matter to anyone,
you know? It's not, they'd rather hold on to things than let the room be open for people to
actually be there. You know, people are what's important, you know? And so maybe we have to
ask the Lord, Lord, get rid of this stuff. It's time to clean house, Lord. I want a clean house
so I can allow you to move fully and vibrantly through my life, Lord God. I just want you to
demo and clean out. But most of all, Lord God, I know that you have the best insight into design.
Lord God, design my house that would most glorify you, Lord God. You know, you color my life,
Lord God. You bring the brightness into my life, Lord God. You bring in the, the, the, the, the,
the lines and the, and the form that my life should look like, Lord God, because I obviously
at times make a mess of my own life. And Lord, I just need you to come in and decorate me,
Lord God. Decorate me with your goodness. Decorate me, Lord, with your gifts and the
fruit of the Spirit, Lord God. I just want you to come in and have at my household, Lord God,
my heart, Lord God. I want you to just clean me out so I can truly be a tabernacle, a tent,
a temple for your Holy Spirit. So Father God, we ask you, Lord, today,
as we sing this last song, Lord God, and just remember how important it is, Lord,
for us to be aligned with our heavenly call. To never forget, Lord God, that we belong to your
household. We can never go too far away to another land, to another place that, Lord God, we still
don't belong to your household because your calling and your gifts are irrevocable, Lord God. May we
never forget whose household we belong to, whose family we belong to, Lord God. And Lord,
we ask you to just clean us out, to use our house, your house. May it be your house
that you live in, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's all stand and let's give the Lord a round of applause.
God bless you guys.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His word. Don't
forget to join us for Worship Lives Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day!