Are You a Builder?

Below you will find the sermon notes from Pastor Mike Frazier’s sermon entitled “Be a Builder” that was shared on January 31st.

As someone has well said, there are only two types of people in the world – builders and maintainers.
Builders come in all shapes, sizes, ages and from different backgrounds.
Builders are those who have a vision from God, and then set out to make that vision a reality.
I believe God wants us to be builders.
I want you to think with me about some builders in the Bible.
And as we look at each example, I want us to think of a different aspect of building.

1) Noah and the Building of the Ark

In Genesis 6:14a God tells Noah, “Make thee an ark of gopher wood…”
After explaining to Noah how to build the ark and why he was to build the ark, we read these words in Genesis 6:22, “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.”
And then again in Genesis 7:5, “And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.”
The lesson we learn from Noah is “Be Obedient.”
God called Noah to build an ark, and Noah was obedient to do exactly what God called him to do.
By the way, so should we!
Whatever God has called you to do, be obedient to His calling upon your life.
If God has called you to pastor, be obedient.
If God has called you to be a youth pastor, be obedient.
If God has called you to be a minister of music, be obedient.
If God has called you to work with children, be obedient.
If God has called you to be an assistant pastor, be obedient.
If God has called you to be a missionary, be obedient.
If God has called you to be an evangelist, be obedient.
You say, “But, Pastor Mike, what we’ve been through over the last year and a half has not been easy.”
And I would say to you, “No, it certainly hasn’t been easy, but can I remind you that it wasn’t easy for Noah either.”
We don’t know exactly how long it took for Noah to build the ark, but according to Dr. Ken Hamm, the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, it took anywhere from 55-75 years for Noah to build the ark.
I don’t know about you, but that’s a long time to be involved in a building project.
My guess is that somewhere along the way Noah said to himself, “I’m sick and tired of building this ark! When is this project ever going to be over?”
We’ve been involved now for 2 years in building our Family Life Center, and I can tell you we’re ready to be done!
Building the ark was a long project, but Noah was obedient and faithful to what God has called him to do.
II Peter 2:5 tells us that Noah was “a preacher of righteousness.”
For decades he preached repentance and warned the people that God’s judgment was coming.
But when all was said and done, the only ones to get on the ark were Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives – 8 people – that was it.
You talk about discouraging!
And yet Noah didn’t quit!
Year after year, Noah just kept on preaching and kept on building.
Hebrews 11 tells us that Noah was a man of faith – he believed God!
He took God at His Word, and he was obedient to what God had called him to do.
Folks, with the COVID pandemic it’s been a rough year and a half, but tonight I want to remind you of God’s calling upon your life.
I want to challenge you with these words – “Don’t quit!”
Be obedient and trust God even when you don’t always understand what He’s doing.

2) Moses and the Building of the Tabernacle

In Exodus 25 God gave specific instructions to Moses as to how the Tabernacle and the items in the Tabernacle were to be built.
We’re not going to take the time to read all of these verses, but one thing is very clear, God wants His work to be done His way.
The lesson we learn is to “Follow God’s Pattern.”
God gives the exact measurements for length, breadth, and height of different items.
He gives the exact number of items to be made.
He gives the exact material that He wants used for certain items.
He talks about the exact colors He wants to use for certain items.
God even talks about where He wants those items in the Tabernacle.
Our God is a God of precision!
You can’t read this passage of Scripture and not see that God had a pattern, and He wanted Moses to follow that pattern.
As a matter of fact, Hebrews 8:5 says, “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.”
Again the emphasis is that God’s work has to be done in God’s way.
And can I tell you where you will find God’s way? In God’s Word!
Folks, we’re living in a day and time when a lot of substitutes are being offered to us as options to build God’s work.
But let me point out that Moses was to build the Tabernacle according to the Word of God.
He couldn’t say, “Well, I don’t think I want the Ark of the Covenant that long or that high.”
He couldn’t say, “Well, I don’t think I want the Table of Shewbread to be overlaid with gold. I think it would look better in silver.”
He couldn’t say, “You know, I don’t think I want the curtains in the Tabernacle to be made out of linen, and I don’t think I want the curtains to be blue, purple and scarlet.”
Moses wasn’t allowed to replace God’s authoritative Word with his own ideas and concepts – and neither are we.
Folks, stay faithful in building your ministries on the firm foundation of God’s Word.
What people need is the preaching and teaching of God’s Word.
It’s the Word of God that teaches us what is true and what is false.
It’s the Word of God that teaches us what is righteous and unrighteous.
It’s the Word of God that teaches us what is moral and what is immoral.
It’s the Word of God that teaches us that God created male and female.
It’s the Word of God that teaches us that God defines marriage as a covenant relationship between one man and one woman.
It’s the Word of God that teaches us about the sanctity of human life.
It’s the Word of God that teaches us that He will bless those who stand with Israel.
Folks, we might be living in 2021, but God’s Word has not changed – follow God’s pattern.
Build your ministry on the firm foundation of God’s inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word.

Acts 20:32

“And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”

What our culture desperately needs is men of God who will stand up and say, “Thus saith the Lord!”
It’s not our place to twist and manipulate the Bible to fit the culture in which we live.
I’m greatly concerned that the culture has influenced the church more than the church has influenced the culture.

3) David and the Building of the Temple

As you already know, the original idea of building the Temple was King David’s idea.
But according to I Chronicles 28:3 God didn’t allow him to build the Temple, because he had been a man of war and had shed much blood.
Instead his son Solomon would be the one who would build the Temple.
In I Chronicles 28:10 David tells his son Solomon, “Take heed now: for the LORD hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.”
But David didn’t just step back and say, “Well, if I can’t build it myself, then I don’t want to have anything to do with it.”
No! Instead he did everything in his power to prepare for the building of the Temple.

Read I Chronicles 29:1-5

The lesson we learn from David in regards to the building of the Temple is that we must be “Willing to Sacrifice.”
I’m sure you know this, but nothing of significance is built without sacrifice.
If you’re going to build a ministry for the glory and honor of God it’s going to require sacrifice.
I want you to know that long before I Chronicles 29 David was a man that understood something about sacrifice.
In II Samuel 24:24 when David was purchasing the threshing floor of Mount Moriah from Araunah the Jebusite he said this, “…Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing.”
David was willing to pay the price and make a sacrifice in order to purchase the land.
And now here we see in I Chronicles 29 that he was willing again to pay the price and to make a sacrifice in order to build the Temple.
Keep in mind that it was at that same site in Genesis 22 that Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac upon the altar.
And then thousands of years later it was at that same site that God sacrificed His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ for the sins of all humanity.
My friend, wherever we’re serving ought to be labeled as our Mount Moriah.
We ought to be willing to lay our Isaac on the altar being reminded that God not only sacrificed His Only Begotten Son for us, but that Jesus willingly went to the cross and made the greatest sacrifice for the people that we serve week in and week out.
We ought to be willing to make sacrifices in order to build our ministries – the sacrifice of time, the sacrifice of energy, the sacrifice of money, the sacrifice of popularity, etc.
David Livingstone gave his life to serve Christ in the exploration of Africa for the sake of creating access to the gospel.
He was the first European to cross the width of Africa, and the first to set his eyes on Victoria Falls, which he named after the queen.
He also laid his eyes on the horrors of the East African slave trade, and devoted himself with passion as an abolitionist.
Many doubted Livingstone’s sincerity as a missionary, since he spent so much of his time exploring.
But his own perspective was clear: “As for me, I am determined to open up Africa or perish.” He said, “The end of the exploration is the beginning of the enterprise.”
A year before he died in 1873, he wrote in his journal on his 59th birthday, “My birthday! My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All. I again dedicate my whole self to Thee.”
On December 4, 1857, he addressed the students of Cambridge University with these words:

“For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa…Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment.

All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.”

I believe one day we will stand before Jesus and we will repeat those words, “I never made a sacrifice.”

4) Nehemiah and the Building of the Wall

When I think of a builder in the Bible, I think about Nehemiah.
When you read the Book of Nehemiah you quickly see that Nehemiah had a lot of enemies and opposition to the work that God had called him to – the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem.
If there’s any lesson we can learn from Nehemiah it’s the necessity of “Commitment in Opposition.”
Nehemiah faced opposition in three ways.
Number one, the enemy despised him.
In Nehemiah 4:4a he cries out, “Hear, O our God; for we are despised…”
The world around us despises those who are committed to the work of God.
We have certainly seen that hatred over the last year and a half – in certain states more than others.
Ministry has become more challenging because of those who despise what we stand for.
Number two, the enemy tried to discourage him.
In Nehemiah 4:1 we read that Sanballat “mocked the Jews.”
In verse 2 he says, “What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?”
Oh, there’s a lot over this past year and a half that has discouraged us.
The enemies of God have been working overtime to destroy churches across the world.
But I believe we need to do what Nehemiah did and what David did in I Samuel 30:6b, “…but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.”
Number three, the enemy tried to distract him.
In chapter 6 the enemy said, “Come, let us meet together,” but in 6:3 Nehemiah responded with these words, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?”
Don’t get distracted from what God has called you to do.
And, folks, can I tell you something?
We are involved in the greatest work in the world!
What a privilege it is to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
As builders we need to be obedient like Noah.
We need to follow God’s pattern like Moses.
We need to be willing to sacrifice like David.
And we need to be committed in the face of opposition like Nehemiah.
Be a builder!