If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

This poem by Rudyard Kipling is called “If.” In it we see winning and losing, triumph and disaster, hurt and healing.

But within are lessons that are incredibly important. Keep your cool, believe in yourself, be patient and kind, don’t let others’ opinions define you or let your dreams and thoughts take you over. Don’t let money or possessions ensnare you, keep giving even when others are taking, don’t give up, don’t let go, have integrity. The result is that you have a life built upon good things.

I want to know what you’re building. Whether you like it or not, you are building something. So what are you building?

I don’t know about the faith or lack of Rudyard Kipling, but I do know this poem actually utilizes a lot of biblical ideas. His point is to build your life upon things that are considered virtuous and honorable.

Yet God has a better plan for our lives than just virtue and honor. Relationship with him is the goal. Godliness, Faithfulness, Purpose, etc.

God wants you building a godly life. So again, but now with some context: what are you building?

We are currently engaged in a pretty huge buildout at our new campus. It is a lot of work, but there’s a reason why the process is so strenuous and long. If it isn’t built correctly, it isn’t sound, and if it isn’t sound, it isn’t optimally functional.

You are building something. You may not be an expert craftsman or experienced builder, but there is a metaphorical hammer in your hand.

What are you building, and furthermore, will what you are building last?

I want to share some correlations today that will help you understand the nuts and bolts of building, but first, I think it is important to quickly list some things you need to be building.

Your life.
Colossians 2:6,7
Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Jude 20–21
But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

We’ll spend the rest of the message talking about this, but you need to know that nothing in your life is going to work to potential if the building that is you is in shambles. I said a moment ago that if a building isn’t built correctly, it isn’t sound, and if it isn’t sound, it isn’t optimally functional. The same goes for your life.

If it isn’t built correctly, it isn’t sound, and if it isn’t sound, it isn’t optimally functional. And just to clarify: When I say optimally functional, I mean something that is able to be used as intended to its potential. So your life might be functional in that you are operating at whatever capacity, but that doesn’t mean you are optimally operating. Reaching optimal potential, to be super clear.

Your relationships.
I mean first with God.
1 Corinthians 3:9
For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.
God has a plan for the building that is us, and if we are not engaging with him on a constant and meaningful basis, we will never effectively live out that plan.

Nothing in this world matters more than Jesus. Not the riches you gain, the relationships you have, the success you experience. The ONLY thing that is eternal is your relationship with Jesus Christ. You won’t even be married in heaven! The only kids that will be there are God’s kids! Family is important, but your relationship with Jesus is first!

I mean second with others.
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
We are commanded to build each other up! How have you been doing with that? Typically people fall into one of three categories on this:
- we avoid people limiting our ability to build them up
- we don’t build because we don’t think people are building us
- we are terrified of what building others might require of us
- honorable mention: we think we’re already built and don’t need to.

Your family.
Husbands love you wives. Wives love your husbands. Train up a child in the way they should go. There are tons of verses about building your family and how important that is. In fact, the reason you see such a huge onslaught against the traditional family within our culture is because the enemy knows how important the family is. I am no Catholic, but Pope John Paul II said it correctly: As the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live.

Proverbs 24:27
Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.

What in the world does this mean?

Matthew Henry:
We must prefer necessaries before conveniences, and not lay that out for show which should be expended for the support of the family. We must be contented with a mean cottage for a habitation, rather than want, or go in debt for, food convenient.

Are you building your family to crave instant gratification and conveniences or delayed gratification and necessities? This is not a poor man’s Gospel. God doesn’t have a problem with you having nice things. Just don’t let the nice things have you! But this verse is telling you a portion of how to build a family!

I know you want to build well, so let’s talk about three parts of a building that will help you build a godly life, godly relationships, and a godly family.

1. Start with a good foundation
Every building that lasts has to start with a good foundation.

Matthew 7:24-27
24 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock (Luke says, “because it had been well built.”). 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

The best way to know the quality of your foundation is to gauge how it responds to a storm. Note: The houses looked the same until the rain and winds came. If the foundation is bad, the building crumbles.

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Why is the training up so important?
Because the solid foundation provides stability even when the building that is being erected isn’t God’s plan. I often hear stories of people who have come back to Jesus after having been raised in church. They stray, they rebel against faith or religion, God, really, yet they are drawn back. But I’ve often heard stories as well of people who were not raised in a godly home who have come to Jesus. But the foundation matters in both scenarios.

The foundation is so essential. Everything you build on top of the foundation is at the mercy of your foundation.

How’s your foundation?

I know I have life long Christians in here. I know some of you are new to faith. Some are so perfect you smell like Heaven. Some are so broken and flawed you almost questioned coming today.

But here’s what I want you to hear:
The foundation upon which you walked in is not the foundation upon which you have to walk out.

You have an opportunity today to allow God to come in and wreck that broken, sandy, ungodly foundation and build something new. Whether you backslid and ruined everything. Whether you’ve never known Jesus. In spite of your sin and doubt and brokenness, God is committed to building something beautiful from your life if you’ll let him!

If you want a godly foundation, it has to start with Jesus and God’s Word.

What does that mean?

First, you have to give your life to Jesus.
You have to embrace the person of Jesus Christ through salvation.

Romans 10:9-10
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

But why this first step?
1 Corinthians 3:11
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

You have to chase him harder than you are chasing anything else.

Matthew 5:33
Seek first God’s Kingdom

Second, you have to be willing to obey what the Bible teaches. That means you have to read the Bible to see what it teaches. You have to hear and then do the Word. You have to read his promises and precepts and then embrace completely its direction for your life. And not just the verses you like!

Do you believe God’s Word is true?
Do you believe God has your best interest in mind?
Then you have to believe it all!
If you can’t believe one verse, you can’t believe any of them!

How do you do this?
Read the Word. Meditate on it. Ask God for wisdom and courage. Talk to your 5 about it (know you, know God, etc) Then overcome your flesh by obeying even if you don’t get it yet. Worrying. Forgiving. Doing a good job. etc.

But why is this step so important?
2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

You have to adjust your will to his, your plans to his, your life to his.

And you can’t do that in your own power or in isolation! You need the Holy Spirit. Good news is that God promises to not only give you the Holy Spirit,
but the Holy Spirit will remind you of what Jesus taught, what the word says, and he even empowers you to supernaturally do what you need to do.

I pray you can see the why behind this: Your foundation has to start with Jesus Christ and obedience to his Word. Good foundations only happen when Jesus is the cornerstone, and the Word is its substance.

2. Build a solid structure
Now that you have a solid foundation, or at least you understand what you need to do in order to have a solid foundation, it is time to build.

From the jump here I need to ask a question: Are you building something of your life that honors God?

One of two things are happening:
Either you are building a life that pleases God, or one that pleases yourself. Now, you might think that this idea that your life needs to be lived to please God alone means that you have to put up with something you don’t want. Does this mean I’ll never be happy? Never get what I want?

If this is your mindset, I think you have some foundation issues. Do we really think that we know what is best for ourselves?

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

One of the most beautiful aspects of your relationship with God happens when you begin to realize that your wants are shifting to be what he wants. You may not understand the circumstances or seasons. You may not have ever thought you’d do this or that, but when you are in God’s plan, God’s will, you find your desires begin to mimic his desires and you find yourself in the midst of God’s pleasure.

Psalm 37:3-4
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and feast upon his faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Notice the desires section of this verse comes after trusting him, doing good, dwelling in his land, and feasting on faithfulness. Why? Because desires that have not gone through godly filters actually lead you away from God, not to him. Is there anything better than God? And if not, how could there be anything better than obeying him?

I struggle with this. I am a human, too. You can easily tell when I’ve kept my desires form godly filters. I have negative emotional reactions.

Building your life doesn’t mean you become a mindless robot doing what you are told. But it does mean that you have to allow God to change who you are, what you think, how you act, so that you can not just build something incredible that honors God, but something that makes a Kingdom impact as you delight in him.

And this is the nuts and bolts of building a solid structure.

This is development. This is discipleship. This is the process of becoming more like Jesus.

As we’ve been building the new facility, I’ve noticed there are really great pieces of lumber, mediocre pieces, and some really bad ones.
In fact, at one point we actually separated a bunch of 2x4s into 3 piles: best, mid, and derp.
We did this because as you build a structure, there are certain parts that need good quality, straight, strong lumber.
But how did I know which ones were good, mid, or bad?
Because I know what the standard is.

Knowing the standard helps you choose the right material as you build.
As an example, sin. Sin has devastating effects on the building that is you. How do you know what is sinful? Paul unpacked this beautifully in Romans 7:7
…am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.”

When we say that Bible engagement is the best way to be discipled, we mean it. The Bible shows you what is right and wrong.

How that applies to building a solid structure is in the fact that everything you input is having some effect on you, good or bad. It is lumber that is either good or bad. Sin is sin! Partial obedience is disobedience! There’s no “mid grade” in this scenario!

How do you think your relationships would be impacted if rather than responding with a negative emotion, you passed that situation through a godly filter, allowing Jesus to take the brunt of the problem, giving you an opportunity to choose a godly response rather than a defensive one?

How do you think your relationship with Jesus would improve if you rejected an instant gratification, temptation, and instead chose godliness and faithfulness?

How would your family change if you actually made Jesus the focal point in your home?

All of these things are the results of building a godly structure on a firm foundation.

So how do you build that structure?

Dive into the Word
While I’ve touched on this today, and almost every Sunday, you engaging with the Word will change your life.

James 1:22-25
22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

So many people get caught up in this lie that they just can’t understand the Bible. If this is you, I want you to know that while there are parts of the Bible that are complex and hard to decipher, the vast majority of it is easy to digest! Try the New Living Translation. Get a kid Bible. Read with friends. Add a commentary like Matthew Henry. But get into the Word!

Eliminate sin
Novel idea, I know, but remember, we are on a journey here, and that journey is going to have good moments and bad one. You are going to succeed and you are going to fail. A journey is the act of traveling from one place to another. You HAVE to keep moving forward.

When you realize a sin in your life, you do this:
Confess it. Repent of it. Don’t do it again. If you do it again, get someone involved to help keep you accountable. “I don’t know if I want someone in my business!” Then you don’t want to build something eternal.

Colossians 3:5
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

A sub category to eliminate sin is to embrace corrective behaviors. Don’t just try to not do something. Replace it with something godly. Ex: If lust is an issue, when you feel like lusting, pray.

Reject compromise
AW Tozer: One compromise here, another there, and soon enough the so-called Christian and the man in the world look the same.

When you choose bad building materials, you get a poor quality building. Furthermore, even if it is just one board, the structure may be fine, but you find yourself having to deal with the ramifications of that one compromised piece of wood.

I’ve said it constantly while building, “I can use a board that bows but not one that snakes.” If it has a slight bow on the thin edge, no big deal, I can fix it. But if it moves side to side on the fat side, I can’t fix that. The result of a snaking board is a seam that isn’t flush. The same happens in your life when you compromise.

James 4:17
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

If you are currently compromising, first, stop, and second ask the question:
“What is it that made me willing to compromise?”

Proverbs 28:20
A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.

Lead with faith
There are going to be moments as you build your life or relationships or family where you aren’g going to know what to do, where you will have doubt, where you have to step into the unknown to get where you know you need to go. It is going to require faith. But the encouragement here is to LEAD with faith.

2 Corinthians 5:7
For we walk by faith, not by sight.

When we face problems, we typically reach first for the thing we trust the most. For some it is our own ability, maybe money, maybe emotion. When we do this, we make a god of that thing. Idolatry!

How would your life change if you led with a faith response rather than an idolatrous one? One thing for sure would happen: your building would be better built.

Constantly consult
Don't’ tell my wife I said this, but I don’t know everything. In the process of building out our new location, I knew a lot. I have worked hard to absorb everything I can over the years, but even with a lifetime of learning how to build, there are still plenty of things I don’t know. I’ve had people ask, “How do you know how to do all of this?” Some from experience. A lot from YouTube.

We’d planned on building out stud wall all around the walls, which would have been a ton of work and material. We’d consulted with a well known builder in the area named Billy at the beginning of the process. He’d stopped by one day to look over the erected building and while he was there, he said, “Don’t build stud walls. You already have a structure. Just take 1x4s or 2x4s and affix them to the purlins with TEK5 screws and call it a day.

Proverbs 15:22
Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.

If your building isn’t building too well, you clearly don’t have the expertise.
Get help. Consult. Listen to advice. Talk to an expert.

Proverbs 18:1
Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire
Isolation is not God’s desire for you. Talk to someone.

Lastly, Follow his plan
The second hardest part about following God’s plan is actually doing it. The first is knowing it. I don’t presume to tell you what I think God wants you to build in your life. Just like he has given us all gifts, he has a plan for each of us.

BUT I do know that God has a plan that applies to all of us. Have a thriving, deep relationship with Jesus. Grow in your knowledge of God and his Word. Be led by the Spirit in every aspect of our lives. Make disciples by sharing the Gospel with people. Encourage and build each other up. And a thousand other things.

The closer you get to God the clearer the plan becomes.

Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Purpose: this word in Hebrew means prudent counsel.

Stop focusing so hard on discovering his will and purpose. Start focusing on getting close to him. When you seek him first, all these things - like will and purpose - you’ll find.

Ok what do I do?

Foundation.
Let’s pray that God would deal with your foundation.
God, I have sinned and my foundation is ruined.
God, I love you but I’ve chased my own things, and my foundation is cracked.
God, I don’t even know where to begin.

Structure.
Maybe you’ve been building what you want and not what he wants.
Perhaps you’ve spent so much effort trying to figure out what God wants you to do that you haven’t done anything.

What I believe God wants for you today is for you
to be aware that you are building SOMETHING and it matters
to get your foundation sorted
to ask the Holy Spirit to help you as you build your life.

Let’s pray

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

How does he want you to respond?