Let Jesus Build You | Pastor John Greiner

In this Wednesday night message, Pastor John pulls from Hebrews chapter 3 to lay out what it really means to let Jesus build you. Drawing on his 25 years as a home builder, he connects the construction process to how God works in our lives, clearing out the mess, laying the foundation, and adding structure over time. He walks through five keys to cooperating with that process, keeping a soft heart, banishing unbelief, staying connected to people who will speak truth into your life, resting in genuine faith, and holding fast to your confession. The bottom line is simple: Jesus is still building, and the question is whether we are going to let him.

Transcript

Hebrews 3 And Jesus’ Glory

What It Means To Consider Jesus

Miriam’s Criticism And God’s Correction

How Jesus Builds Through Gifts

Hardened Hearts Block God’s Work

Daily Exhortation And Getting Help

Rest, Peace, And Steady Confession

A Homebuilder Picture Of Renewal

Final Prayer And Commitment

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Let's just lift our Bibles up and make Jesus glad and the devil mad. We've got an Amen corner here tonight, and we're glad they're here. Let's say this together. Say, Heavenly Father, I'm glad for Wednesday night. It comes at the right moment. I'm here to top off the tank. Fill me to overflowing with your revelation upon which my faith is built. And at the same time, fill me with the Holy Ghost. In Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, let's look at Hebrews chapter 3, please. Hebrews chapter 3. And in verse 1 it says, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him, that appointed him, or that made him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath built the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is builded by some man, but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. But Christ and was faithful is understood there. It's not in the in the text, but it carries over from the previous verse. But Christ is faithful as a son over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end. And so the message that I want to share with you tonight is entitled, Let Jesus Build You. Let Jesus Build You. Jesus is a builder. And the word, you know, notice at the very first, it says, Consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Consider Jesus. Consider. And, you know, it reminds me of the word behold. Remember when we talked about in Revelation 5, where, you know, Jesus verse 21:5, he said, Behold, I make all things new. Behold means pay attention, you know, to get your eyes fixed. It's a very similar word. It means to fix your mind and eyes on, to perceive and understand. And what? That he's a builder, that he is building something. He's constructing something in your life and in our life. And he's faithful over his house, whose house are we. Well, you know, we means you and I individually, but it also means us corporately. Because Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. There in Matthew 16, 18. So he's doing something of great importance that we should pay attention to, fix our eyes on, uh, to build us and construct us. And uh so it says that Jesus is counted worthy of more glory than Moses, and more glory than the house that Moses built. You know, you know, he built Israel. He was he was a builder of Israel. You know, he had a lot of trouble building it. There are a lot of folks that didn't go along with him. But nevertheless, he did as best he could. And of course, Moses being the greatest prophet in the Old Testament, I mean, is and so the whole theme, as you've heard me say before, if you've been here any length of time, the whole theme of the book of Hebrews is Jesus is better. And so, you know, the Jews held Moses in great high esteem and Abraham and all that. And so, you know, the book of Hebrews written to uh Hebrew-type Christians. These are Christians that were Hebrews and now they've they've converted. So they hold on to a lot of the traditions, and he's there to break these traditions off of them and to let them know that Jesus is greater. He's greater than the angels, he's greater than Moses, he's greater than Aaron, he's greater. And so uh, and we're to honor Jesus. I mean, he gets more honor than what he built. That's why we have to consider him. We have to look at him all the time. We don't look at ourselves, we don't look at even look at the church that way. We honor people, honor the church, but we honor Jesus most of all. And so Jesus is faithful to teach and to shepherd and to correct and to preach and to guide and to establish and to build. And uh and how does he do that? Well, I like in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, if we can flip over there real quick. I like what Paul said about that. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, he's he's uh he's teaching the uh uh he's teaching the Corinthian church, which is a carnal church. They're body ruled. They've got a lot of dysfunction, a lot of sin in the church. There's a lot of correction that needed to be made. And uh he goes on to say in verse 6, I have planted, Apollas watered, but gave God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that waters, but God that gives the increase. And he goes on to say, uh in verse 10, according to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another builds thereon. So, how does God build the church? Well, Jesus himself is not here, he's using the five-fold ministry. I count myself as a wise master builder. I'm gonna call myself that even if I have to call the things that be not as though they were. Maybe I'm not so wise all the time, but you know, I try to be, I want to be. Well, where is the wisdom? Well, the wisdom of God is in his word. So we see then that we ought to consider Jesus if we want him to build us. How many of you want God to build you? Want Jesus to build you bigger and stronger. And so uh here uh now he compares Moses with Christ. Moses really was a type of Christ. Moses in the Old Testament, because you know you pick that up because uh in Acts chapter 7, uh uh Stephen was preaching to the to the Jews there in Jerusalem, many of whom had been the ones that said, crucify him, crucify him. And he was preaching Jesus to them, and he did many wonders, great wonders and signs and miracles among them. And uh God God backed him up. But when he told them to repent, when he told them that they were just like their fathers, they got mad at him and they they stoned him. But during that preaching in Acts chapter 7, he called Israel the church in the wilderness. So you can kind of see how Jesus was the type, I mean, Moses was the type of Jesus who's the head of the church. Moses was the head of Israel. So you can see there's a type there. Let's look at Numbers chapter 12. I want you to see this. We're not going to read the entire thing, but I want to get your. This comes under the heading of considering Jesus. We need to consider him. We need to fix our mind and eyes on him and perceive and understand what his role is in our life, and he's a builder. But it says in here in chapter 1, in chapter 12, verse 1, that Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman, whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. In other words, a woman of color. He was a Zipporah. And they uh she wasn't Jewish, of course. Her father was a priest at Midian. Her father was wise, but uh she's a she's a dark-skinned woman. I mean, she's out, and you know, she's out with the flocks, and she didn't, you know, she she's dark and not Jewish, she's Midianite. And so they had this uh snooty attitude, and they they started criticizing. And then they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. You know, you've got to be careful when you're criticizing someone that God's anointed. And so God heard it and he got mad, he was angry. And then uh verse 4, the Lord spoke suddenly unto Moses and unto Aaron and unto Miriam, and he said, Come out, ye three, unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. So they went over to the tabernacle in the congregation. That's what they built in the wilderness. That's where the Shekinah presence was locked up behind the curtains. And that Shekinah presence moved out in the form of a cloud, a pillar of cloud, right in the broad daylight, with the three of them standing outside. And uh he said, verse 6 Hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto you him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. Now see, God himself calls Moses faithful. See, the Hebrew is not a new thought. I mean, God is the one that called him faithful. If God doesn't call you faithful, you're not. I don't care what man says, God's the one that's keeping the books. And so with him, verse 8, I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches. And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Woo! Man, you'll find when you study your Bible that a lot of times the Shekinah presence of God showed up when he was angry, when he was about to do correction, when he was about to bring judgment. And uh the anger of the Lord, verse 9, was kindled against them, and he departed, and the cloud departed from off the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us wherein we have done foolishly and wherein we have sinned. Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when she cometh out of the mother's womb. And so Moses cried out for her for healing. And listen to what the Lord said. Verse 14, and the Lord said to Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? I mean, you know, this is a lot worse than that. Shouldn't she be ashamed seven days? Shouldn't she bear some consequences for what she did? I'm not, I'm I'm at a loss as to why Aaron didn't have any consequences. But anyway, so uh let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again. And uh, and of course, when she was shut out of the camp, the camp came to a halt. She held up all the journeys of Israel for seven days while she waited outside the camp. Somebody said, Well, what's so bad about that? Outside the camp means she was outside of the covering of God. See, God was a covering to the children of Israel. He covered them uh uh from the cold desert uh chill, he covered them from the fierce desert heat, he protected them from the wild animals. She was leprous outside the camp walls, and she suffered. She suffered by being out there, not only just being humiliated and shamed and humbled, but you know, I mean, it's it's pretty scary out there when you're away from that protection. And so, uh, and you know who Miriam is. He she's the one who drew Moses from the River Nile. I mean, you know, she's been connected to Moses her whole life. She's a little older than him, 10 or 12 years older. Aaron's a little older. I don't know. Sometimes uh older siblings can cannot respect a younger sibling. Somehow they allowed themselves permission to judge their uh their leader and look at him as just like their brother rather than the leader of and the they didn't consider Moses. See, they just didn't let themselves think about who he was and what he was called to do. And uh and so they they paid the consequences. I want to point that out too, that they neither one of them made the promised land. They died in the wilderness, not ever seeing the promised land. And so there was another issue there that they that they failed to receive the promise because of this uh lack of honor toward uh Moses. And see, Jesus is greater than Moses. You know, amen. And he's faithful over his house, whose house are we? And he said, I'll build my church. Well, you know, we're his church individually and collectively. And so how does he build the church? Does he come down here himself? Well, no, he's got his ministers in Ephesians chapter 4. Let's go back over there, talking about let Jesus build you. You know, you can either let him or not let him. Some people just they they they get, you know, we're gonna get into this later, but sometimes, you know, they quit letting Jesus do the improvements and build in the strength and build in the structure of a person's life. Ephesians chapter 4, he uses the five-fold ministry. He said, Verse 11, he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, pastors, and teachers. For what purpose? For the perfecting or maturing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, which is the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So that's the goal, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We're to consider Jesus, our builder. He's a wise master builder, but he has under-shepherds, he has underbuilders of whom the fivefold ministry are part. I mean, you know, yes, the pastor, but also the apostle, the prophet, the teacher, the evangelist. All of them have a part in building the church and building the individual and the collective church. So uh let's cooperate. Let's cooperate and let's let Jesus build us and let's consider Jesus. Let's consider him. And so uh I've got one, two, three, four, five. I've got five things. I like to usually just give you three, but it's you know, it's almost summertime. Let's just take a little, let's let's go a little deeper to that. What do you think? I've got five things. All right, let's go back to Hebrews chapter three now. Everybody say, I'm letting Jesus build me. Amen. I mean, you know, being a home builder for 25 years, this message means a lot to me. I think about how rewarding it is to see something that you've built. You know, an accountant, uh a lawyer, uh uh, you know, you know, thing, people that deal in and and things that are not concrete, uh, you know, it's hard for them to to look at something, uh, you know, that it's it's not visible. It's it's advantageous, but you know, you take a builder and he builds a building, well you can see that. I could go by and see every house I ever built. They're still standing. Every now and then I do that. I go by houses that I built 50 something years ago, and and they're they've all they're all still standing. Pray that means something. All right. So uh the first one, Hebrews 3, verse 8, harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of the temptation in the wilderness, when my when your fathers tempted me and proved me and saw my works forty years. So, in other words, they kept provoking God to wrath, they kept doubting God. See, don't harden your heart. Sin hardens the heart. And uh, you know, you you just, you know, you take they didn't consider Moses and they didn't consider God. They forgot about his wonders in the wilderness. They they I'm not saying they had amnesia, I'm just saying they weren't persuaded by. They remembered it, but it didn't mean anything to them. They had hardened hearts. And God always gets angry with hardened hearts. He never pleased with hardened hearts. Thank God God doesn't always act on his anger, but it, I mean, I want to please him. I'm not trying, I'm not looking to make God mad, you know. But uh, but we we've already read Ephesians 4, that God has sent the five-fold ministry to help us, to prepare us, and uh and he wants us to uh have a teachable, humble spirit. A lot of times uh, you know, we just uh think that we have arrived, that we've heard something over and over again, and we have no more need, you know, of teaching. I I'm reminded of a couple that in my early days at Lakewood, I would go and do a little brief interview of everybody that he would send out. He had ministers that were recognized ministers in his church that had a little gold badge on, and some of them would teach the auditorium class before the Sunday morning service. And that's how you knew that they were, you know, kind of his uh approved ministers. And from time to time they would be, they'd hear from God, they'd get sent out to go start a church. And so whenever that was the case, I would always try to, you know, find out from them, you know, what how did you know? What was the, you know, what was the, how did God lead you to stop what you're doing here and go out and risk everything and start some work somewhere. So I remember uh interviewing this couple and and I knew that they had, I think they were in charge of one of the ministries, I forget which one, maybe the young adults. And uh and one Sunday he called them up and he said they're gonna be starting a church in little South Texas town. I knew that town. We used to play them in football. I won't mention the town. But we're they're gonna go and they're gonna start a church. And uh so after the service, I got a home, you know, got them together and I said, Look, I I hope I'm not gonna take along, but I'm just curious. I I try to do this. I'm I have a call on my life, and I want to find out. How do you find out? How'd you find out it was God's time? I mean, you're being used here. And the and the wife took over. Husband didn't say a word. And she said, Well, you know, we've been here, we've done everything there is to do, we've heard everything Brother Osteen has to teach us, and uh, you know, what's left except for us to leave and go start a church? And I thought, oh my God. I knew I knew better than that. I mean, I knew I knew that was no reason for them to leave. And when they said that they had heard it, they had heard it all, I knew they were blowing smoke. I mean, you know, talk about deceive, talk about not considering a wise master builder, that you you need every bit of pre uh proper preparation before you go out and start a church. So as as uh as God would have it, I was invited to go minister with a friend of mine, Jim Scalise, was invited to go to this little church, and it was in a it was an old water burger. That's how big it was, about as big as a center section right here. It seated about 20 people. And they still had the counter in there, you know, you had to stand in front of the counter and just use, just all crammed up with a few chairs, and it man, it was it was bleak looking, you know. And I was doing the singing and and and he's doing the preaching, so I get up and and sing a few specials and and kind of you know do that, and then he preaches and and then I left. And they they la they lasted less than a year before they came back to Lakewood, beat up, lost everything they owned. They they just they were a complete failure as far as the ministry is concerned. You know, later, many years later, he became an associate pastor somewhere, but he never had his own work. And I keep thinking about what what happened. Well, you didn't, you didn't, you didn't consider Jesus. You didn't let him build you to the sufficient stature that you need to be before you started. You you left for the wrong reasons. I mean, there's always more to learn. There's always more none of us have gotten to the fullness of the stature of Christ Jesus. Neither have I. See, so I'm still learning. I'm still learning. I try to keep learning all the time. I want to know. I want to learn more and more and more. All right. So the first one is don't harden your heart. They had hardened their heart to staying around a little longer. Number two is found in verse 12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. So banish unbelief. It's evil. See, I mean, you know, whenever you come up against something that looks like it's impossible, you just start saying, I'm a believer, not a doubter. I am a believer, not a doubter. I don't pay any attention to what something looks like, feels like, seems like. I, you know, I the word of God is my final authority. I'm a believer, not a doubter. If God said it, I believe it, that settles it. I mean, you know, sometimes you've got to talk to yourself. Sometimes you face circumstances that look impossible. Sometimes you face things, and maybe sometimes those circumstances are a result of your own, you know, doing. I mean, I've been there, I've done things that I shouldn't have done, you know, and then I'm reaping the consequences. But you know, God didn't give up on me. And God would always make a way. He'd always make a way out for me. So uh banish unbelief, it's evil. Oh. And then in verse uh 13, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So there's that hardened heart again. Sin will harden your heart. But what? Exhort one another daily. Exhort one another daily. That's one reason why I'm so excited about our new grow and go that we're about to initiate. And then this Friday night we're gonna have the first uh uh Discover uh dinner and class, Discover night, and that's for the new, and then they're gonna go into uh uh a class for them for the new, and then they will be able to go into the rest of it, to the grow, and eventually the go. We haven't got the go all organized yet. We don't have all the grow organized, but we do have the first part. So we're gonna start with what we have. But here's where you get exhorted, and and and you can exhort others. I just think back on my life as a young Christian, I had I was surrounded by people that had the permission to tell me the truth. I and if if I when I got friendly, when I trusted someone, I'd say, look, if you ever see anything, you just let me know if I'm off base. I mean, I'm glad to hear any kind of improvement I can make. And I had people that took me up on it, you know, and I didn't get offended. It's not always fun to have somebody correct you, but you need it. And it can't always be the, I mean, Pastor Osteen, I'm one of 5,000 people. He's not gonna even know my name, much less correct me except through the word, through the, you know, and I would, I would let his messages correct me too, but you still need other Christians. You need the body of Christ around you. You need a network of people that will exhort you, and then someone that you can exhort. You know, you can always, God can use you to exhort other people. You know, I remember one time I had a partner who was a good friend of mine, and then we became partners, and we went to the same church, and he was under pressure, and he had a humongous lawsuit filed against him by the UF by the federal government. And uh this is what we're correcting right now. A lot of this kind of stuff is getting taken out into the hollering, you know, a lot of the a lot of uh politicians are screaming and hollering because they don't want all that to go away. That's where they get their money. But the government has been very, very abusive, in my opinion, toward small businessmen and regular people. They've been uh very permissive in uh Wall Street and the big corporations and very hard on small businessmen. So that he was a small businessman, made up made a bunch of money in a certain profession. It was nothing wrong with what he did. But then they they figured out a way to get him, and they and they they came against him with a huge lawsuit, it was massive. And uh he was almost in tears one day, and and he said, I've just got to find a Christian attorney. John, do you know anybody? And I said, No, I don't. I said, this sounds like a pretty serious lawsuit, it's huge. And so uh no, I don't uh know any Christian lawyers. And so uh uh the next morning, early in prayer, I was praying and I was reading my Bible, and I was uh reading the story of David and Goliath. And uh I got to the part where David bends down and picks up five smooth stones. And uh the Holy Ghost interrupted my my reading and he said, Did you notice that David didn't pick up any Jewish stones? And I said, What? And I thought, Jewish stones? And I thought, well, what were the stones? Well, the stones were just ammunition. The stones were just ammunition for David's sling. They were just a rock in his sling. He didn't need a Jewish stone, he needed a stone. And I had a word for my partner. I said, you know, you're looking in the wrong direction. I said, you don't need a Christian attorney. You need a junkyard dog. You need somebody that's of equal stature that can fight the U.S. government. And I'm just praying that you hadn't waited too long, waiting for some Christian. Because not all the Christian attorneys are gonna be hard enough and mean enough to face what you're facing. You're facing the devil. See, I exhorted him. Praise God. It was a major man he did, and he found somebody, but it was too late. It wound up being too late because the train had gone down the tracks too far, see. So I'm talking about then exhort and be exhorted in the church. Put yourself in position. No man is an island. I mean, I still run across people that have terrible problems, and everything blows up, and then we become aware of the damage. And if they would just come, come to the altar, make a phone call. Pastor, I'm going through this. You're not a baby, you need help. We are here to help you. I've got gifts of the Spirit that are at your disposal. Don't be an island, don't be uh ashamed when you're going through a major problem, see? Let yourself be exhorted and helped and encouraged by the gifting in the church. That's how it's designed to operate. And uh and so no one working alone, amen. No man is an island, somebody said one time. All right, are you getting anything out of this tonight? All right, Hebrews chapter 4, verse 1 is in that last one here, next one. Let us fear, therefore, uh, lest a promise being left to us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. And so, my fourth point about uh lett Jesus build you is believe and enter into rest. Faith does not strive, faith does not sit on nervous, you know, you're not a nervous Nelly when you're trusting God. I mean, you have a peace. Faith and peace fit together. When you have a lack of faith or a lack of peace, that's a sure sign that your spirit is not agreeing with your decision you just made or what you're about to do. Because there's foolishness and presumption instead of faith. Foolishness and presumption look a lot like faith. They can sound a lot like faith, but they're not faith. Why? Because they're not built on God's word. Faith is built on understanding and revelation of God's word. And anything else that you call faith is just foolishness. I mean, you know, just like that couple said, Well, we just feel like it's time, we've done everything here in the church and we've heard everything Brother Osteen taught. There's nothing left for us to do but just go start a church. What was that foolishness? Because they didn't have a word. They they just they put they ranked themselves up here in the high, you know, stratosphere when they really needed a lot more work. And it proved out. I, you know, I'm not I'm not ever going to tell you their name. I'm just using that as an example. Something I saw up close and personal. All right. So believe and enter into rest. Faith has a rest. See, consider Jesus. Consider the fact that he gives you peace along with your faith. You always know faith is working when you've got peace. You sleep at night. You don't have a, you don't, you're not up at the walking the floor and all of this business and tossing and turning about your decision you made. I mean, when you've got that, you have not entered into rest and you're you're going to come short of the rest. And uh, and and he preaches that. You know, rest is part of Shabbat. That's why they, you know, God said, you know, you work on six days, and the seventh you rest. And so the Jews of this day, they they they rest on Shabbat. It starts on Friday night and ends on Saturday night. That's how they they go from night to day. That's how they do it. And uh they don't hit a lick at a snake. They they get together and eat and they have fellowship, but they do not work. They do not, I mean, you know, some of the really hardcore Jewish people, they won't even push an elevator button. And so they got to have an elevator operator. That's what that's where you got elevator operators in New York, because New York's got a large concentration of Jewish people. And they they just don't, they're real, real strict about not working. Well, what does that mean exactly? Well, it's really a it's it's it's pointing to the rest of faith. That's what it's pointing to. That you have a perfect peace in your heart about your decision that you're making or you're about to make, and you follow that peace, your faith will engage and it'll come to pass. So believe and enter into rest. The last one we find over in uh Hebrews 4 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, there's that mention again of Jesus being our great high priest, that has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Now, what are we doing with him? We're considering him. See, what does consider mean? Well, it means that you fix your mind and eyes on and you perceive and understand his ministry. He is what? He is the high priest, uh, the great high priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus, Son of God. Let us hold fast our profession or our confession. He is watching over your words to perform them. He watches over his words, he watches over your words. To carry them forth, to execute them, to fully demonstrate them. What are you saying? See, you've got to hold fast to your profession of faith. You can't speak unbelief one minute and faith the next and expect anything from God. He's just, you're double-minded. James said a double-minded man, double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let not such a man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord. Because you won't. You're going back and forth, back and forth. That's a lack of rest. That's also uh you're not holding fast your confession. Who held fast to her confession? The woman with the issue of blood. Man, I mean, she held fast to that confession all the way until she touched the hem of his garment. And so uh we're we're to consider Jesus. Let Jesus build you. And, you know, since Jesus is the word of God, then consider the word and let the word build you. See, we're a word and spirit church, and I mean this this message right here will keep you on the on the straight and narrow when you drift a little bit. It's good to refer to some of these kinds. This is meat that you'll have to chew on, it's not milk. And uh and you you can you can chew on this and benefit from it, and you can be uh someone that Jesus can say, look, I built that one right there, and he's he's under construction and he's doing so good. He's just doing so good. Hallelujah. Glory to God. I wanted to make one more connection before I close. Uh I was thinking about this year being, behold, I make all things new. And the the way that that is compared to a house and being a home builder. Uh, let me just run through this real quick. I think it'll help you. But uh my job was to conceive of what plan and what it was going to look like. I had to conceive of the architectural look of it, the floor plan, and then I had a lot that I had that I had bought, and usually it was fully treed. It was in a forest with a concrete street port in front of it, but the lot was still a forest. And you're standing in front of that, and you can't even imagine a house on it because it's full of trees and vines and uh little tangles, and I mean it's messy. So, you know, get a guy over there with a bulldozer and he clears out the middle of the lot, leaves trees in the front, trees in the back, and in the middle you've got room for a house and a garage and a driveway up one side, and it looks totally different. It's amazing. It's brand new just after a few days. You just can't even recognize the lot. A lot next door, still like this one. It's all bushy and filled up, and how yours is cleared and ready for construction. It looks so new, it smells good, it smells different. The dirt or dirt has been overturned, the trees have been cut, you still hear it, you smell the pine, the pine uh dust and all of that from the pine the chainsaws and the oak. So then you get the slab poured and then you start building the house. You get the house all the way up with the framing structure. And now you can walk through the house. And I have my plans in my hand, and I'm walking through the and when I first started, I didn't, I couldn't even really, I didn't even know what room I was in. I couldn't tell the kitchen from the dining room. I couldn't tell the living room from the, I mean, I just didn't know. I had to have a set of plans. And I, and because you're looking through the studs, and you're looking all the way through the house, and so you don't really pick up the rooms because your eye is not stopped. It just goes all the way through the house, and so you can't. So after a while, then I get the hang of it, you know. So the house is progressing, and so it's new. I mean, I've got this house, and man, it's all looking brand new. It's looking more like a house now. That's good, it's exciting. And so then the roof goes on, then the electrical and the plumbing and the air conditioning goes on. Now it's time for the sheetrock. Insulation goes on, and now it's time for the sheetrock. So I take one more look at it, make sure it's ready for sheetrock. And uh, you know, you're still looking through the walls, you're looking, you don't, and then the sheetrocker gets there and puts the sheetrock up, and it's amazing. I walk through the house. I never forget how breathtaking it was to walk through this house after the sheetrocker had left because now every room is delineated. You can't look through the wall. You see the living room, you see the dining room, you see the kitchen, you see, and there's nothing in it. It's just an empty box. But what I'm trying to say is God is doing the same with you, and he's delighting in the new things that you're allowing him to install in your life. And it's bringing him glory. It's bringing Jesus, who's the wise master builder in chief. Yeah, he's got underbuilders and under shepherds, but he's the wise master builder in chief, and you're bringing him honor every time that you let him do something new and permanent in your life that brings him glory. So I just thought I would give you that little tidbid tonight. Let's lift our hands. Father, we thank you. We're letting Jesus build us. And uh we thank you that we're growing into the fullness of the stature of Christ. None of us have arrived yet, but Lord, we're we're not what we used to be. We're not where we want to be. But Lord, we just thank you that we're making progress. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Amen.