Keep Building - Made for More Series

It's not enough to just start building, you need to keep building. Keep building your faith and your calling and remember God is building you in the process.

On this episode, Pastor Jon continues in our Made for More series. We are encouraged to keep building when enemies try to stop us. Don't let challenges, tiredness, or boredom distract you but keep your hand on the plow. Just keep building!

We pray this message encourages your faith, deepens your prayer life, and helps you gain a greater vision for life in Christ. Share this episode with someone who wants to grow deeper in God’s Word.

To learn more about Vision Church or discover how you can partner with our ministry, visit www.ourvisionchurch.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Everybody got their Bible ready? Nehemiah chapter 6. Nehemiah chapter 6. Okay. I'm gonna give you some context. You're like, we'll read and I'll give you some context. Now when Simbalah and Tobiah and Jeshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and there was no breach left in it, although up at that time I had not set up doors in the gates. Simbala and Geshem Jeshem sent to me saying, Come, let us meet together. Pause. Why are these guys happening in John? What's going on here? What's the story here? Uh this is back in the Old Testament in a period of time where uh the Jewish people are rebuilding the um the nation of Israel, essentially. And so what's happening is uh Nehemiah, who's the book's name after, finds out that the walls of Jerusalem have not been built back up. And uh I want you to picture if you built a house and didn't put any walls in it. Like you go to work one time, when you come back, your TV gonna be gone, y'all. Like your couch gonna be gone, your dog gonna be gone, your cat gonna be gone, your plant's gonna be gone, all your stuff is gonna be gone. And that was the situation that they were in was because there was no walls, there was a lot of potential inability for people to take advantage of them, for raiders to come in, steal things, items, people. Uh, and so Nehemiah hears this, it breaks his heart. He moves back, he asks the king, enter Xerxes, can I go and do this? And the king's not a believer in God, but the king, ooh, the king really isn't a believer in God. Uh, and so the king sends him back, and so he shows up, starts rebuilding the wall. And so we catch Nehemiah at the tail end of him rebuilding the wall, and as he's rebuilding, these guys, these uh Sambalat, Tobiah, and Jeshem, they've been messing with him the entire time. They've been lying about what he's doing, they've been trying to get the king to recall Nehemiah, they've been uh coming in and attacking people at night. Uh, and this is that Nehemiah is about to wrap up the work, he's about to finish building the wall. So he comes in and he says this they say this to Nehemiah, come let us meet together at Akiphrium in the plain of Ono. I just want to take a second and pause and say, if you've ever felt insecure about what how what how things should be pronounced in the Bible, can I tell you that's one of the conversations I'm gonna be having with Jesus when I get to heaven? Is um oh hey, okay, cool. I'm being I'm getting given orders to right one, two, three. Can you hear me now? It's like the old Verizon commercial, right? Can you hear me now? Hey. Uh and so they get they get a command, like um I'm gonna be talking to God like Jesus, I need things to be much simpler pronounced. Um but Nehemiah senses, I said, but they intended to meet hard, and I sent messengers to them saying, I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. They can they'll tell Nehemiah, hey Nehemiah, I want you to come and have a meeting. I want you to come hang out with us, I want you to uh why don't you come and like meet up with a Nehemiah senses? This is a trap. This is them trying to bring him into a situation where they can destroy him, and he says, I'm not coming down. And he continues and says this, why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? And Nehemiah recognizes that the thing that he's doing is a work of God. He recognizes this isn't just about building up some walls and renting and renovating a house. This isn't about us making it pretty. This is about restoring the people of God for such a time as this so that the hope of the world can come. Nehemiah recognizes that there is a calling on what he's building, and because there's a calling on what he's building, he refuses to come down. But they're still doing that. And so today I want to talk to you for the next few minutes as we get into God's word on this subject, this subject, this subject, a keep building. A key to the building. Let's pray together. Our Father who is in heaven, holy is your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today your daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, Jesus, not into temptation, but would you deliver us from the evil one? For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Um, Kia and I recently came from vacation on vacation, and um uh I say vacation, we went to a church conference and then we watched my brother graduate. Most of the vacation was honestly spent in the car because we drove all the way down to Florida. Uh, it's a 12-hour drive where we were going. Uh, but we got to stay in a hotel every night, which is one of my favorite things to do. Uh, the reason I love it is because they have channels that I don't have in my house. Like for some reason, we're a streaming family, so we don't have cable. So if we're not streaming it, we don't have it. And uh we I have a guilty pleasure, and I'm gonna need y'all to pray for me uh because this is something that I watch in the hotels that uh man, it honestly stirs up sin in my heart, it stirs up jealousy in my heart, it stirs up coveting in my heart, and I just need you to pray for me that the Lord would keep me pure. Uh, because when I'm on the road, I love watching HGTV. And when I watch HG TV, y'all, some of them houses on HG TV that I see, I go, Lord, anytime you want to send your boy those keys, I will move right here, right now to that city. Uh, I'll watch the, and my favorite isn't just like the house, the house hunting ones are fun where they go with a realtor everywhere. My favorite ones are the ones where they do the house renovations. Where you show up and you're looking at the house and you're like, I don't even know if people should be allowed to move into that place. Like they, they're they're peeling back walls and carpet and like things are skittering out. You can, I'm like, this is nasty, looks nasty, feels like it smells nasty. I'm glad I'm not there. Uh and I love the renovation stories because at the end of the renovations, you get to the end and it's a beautiful house, and nobody knows that there was a dead body in the corner a couple weeks ago. Like it's just like it's just great. And um, man, that could preach by itself about God wanting to renovate some things in our lives and how he wants to shift things. And it doesn't matter what your life looks like now, but God, if you're allowing him to renovate your spirit, renovate your home, renovate your heart, there are things that God can do in and through you that you will be amazed what you look like on the other side than what you look like right now. And that would be a good sermon. But that's not what I'm preaching today, so y'all calm down. I want to preach about building here here here here's the difference. One of the differences between my wife and I is uh my wife's family is very like construction-y, like my wife could rewire the electrical in your whole house. My grandfather, my my father-in-law has every tool. It was my father-in-law's birthday a couple of days ago. Y'all wish him happy birthday. Um he turned 34. Uh, this every single time I see him, the the date gets younger and younger. It's uh and and Keo was like, let's get a renovation, we'll save money, and I'm not a renovation kind of guy. I'm like, I work really hard. I just want to go home, put my feet up, and I'm a big like turnkey. Like, I just want to show up and go, here's your house. And so when me and my wife were looking at a house in Dinwiddie County, and I really wanted something that was turnkey, and she really wanted something that was a renovation, so we talked about it, we compromised, and we got something that was a renovation. I'm teasing. We love our house. It's a blessing and a crazy story from God. And here's what I know when I whenever God is calling me to something, what I would love is for God to just hand me my calling. I would love for God to just go, John, here's the church five years from now, the way it was gonna be. Here it is. John, here are them kids. Like they're 18, they're ready to come out of the house right now. You are gonna be have your house back, your TV back, your couch back, your living room gonna be clean for more than 15 minutes in a row. Praise God, hallelujah. All the parents of toddlers said amen. Man, John, John, I I I want to have my. Can I tell you, we we really want to have our our turnkey result. We really want to show up. I love like I love showing up at the end of that TV series, but how many of you know you're never gonna get what God wants for you unless you build it? See, there are some things in life that God gives us for free. I think God gives us the keys to heaven for free. I think God gives us a relationship with him right away. But everything else that comes after that, the faith that he's asking us to build, the community he's asking us to build, the impact he wants to make through your life, God's not just gonna hand that to you, God's gonna actually ask you to build it. Building, can I be real? Building starts slow. That's one of the reasons why I love the HGTV shows, is because within an hour, you go from trash-tastic to fantastic. You go from I would live there to praise God, I want to move in right now. And can I tell you that's that's easy to joke about for a house on HGTV, but can we be honest that there are situations in all of our lives that sometimes we look at and we say, God, this needs a little bit of renovation. This needs a little bit of change. My my my family needs a little bit of change. My my community needs a little bit of change. Lord Jesus, this church needs a little bit of change. Our community needs a little bit of change, our nation needs a little bit of change. I need you to, and here's what I want to tell you. You just you can't just receive it, you need to build it. You need to get in the habit of going, man, like I just gotta, I just gotta keep building this thing. And that's what Nehemiah starts doing. Nehemiah gets in the place and he uh he shows up and there's been blessings given to him, but he's gotta literally like brick by brick by brick by brick by brick by brick by brick, he's gotta keep building this wall, he's gotta keep building this wall. And what I want you to encourage you to go read Nehemiah, because the moment he starts building this wall, people start attacking him. The very first thing they start attacking is his reputation. They start lying to him, they send back the words to the king, man, Nehemiah is out here raising an army against you. Don't you see that he's against you, King? That's why he's building this wall. And and it doesn't work, and when that doesn't work, when their words don't work, their violence starts showing up. And so that Nehemiah literally has to get people to half the team gets split, the team gets split in half, and half of them have to hold on to a sword and patrol the perimeter while the other half builds. And so they literally have to go on this rotation of you're on defense while I'm building, but you gotta, no matter what you gotta do, you gotta keep building. Because the thing that God is building, we're in the series called Made for More, and I want to encourage you. There are things in your life that God is asking you, calling you, stirring in you to have and to do. And it's not something that you're just gonna possess from day one, it's something you're gonna have to build. It's not, and here's the other thing I tell you it's not enough to start building, you need to keep building. Like, wouldn't it be crazy? Like, this is this is the state my house is in right now. My house is in a state of we started building and we haven't finished building quite yet. So if you show up at my house, there's a couple of holes in the wall. Wouldn't it be crazy if in one of those renovation shows they handed somebody a hammer and they're like, we need to renovate this house. They took the hammer, stuck it in the wall, pulled out a piece of plywood, and went, All right, well, that was it. Cool, I'll see you guys later. No, for you to get the result that you are looking for, you don't even just need to start building, you need to keep building. And it's not just that you need to start building uh in a house. I want to I want us to take a second and just ask ourselves, God, if you have made me for more, what are the places where I'm even afraid to start? Can we talk about this first? Sometimes we don't start building because we're afraid of the start. We're afraid of the work. We're afraid that if I get started on this thing, if I go and have that conversation, if I stir up that thing, man, I feel like I'm gonna get stuck in a reno. That's the way I am. I don't want to get stuck in a reno, so I want turnkey or nothing at all. And some of us are missing out on the blessing of God because we are not willing to step into the arena and build the blessing of God. I want to encourage you, the thing that God has called you to, you may not feel like it's in front of you yet, but can I tell you, if you keep building, eventually you're gonna start seeing some progress. Eventually you're gonna start seeing some growth, eventually you're gonna start seeing some things happen. See, if you if you don't just start building, but you keep building, that teenager that you've been struggling with, trying how to try to trying to figure out how do you parent them, how do I talk to them, how do I have a conversation? I feel like I'm saying all the wrong words. But can I tell you, if you keep showing up, if you just keep building, you may not have the answer today, you may not even have the answer tomorrow, but if you keep building, you can start seeing a change. It may not be tomorrow, it may not be today, but man, you gotta keep building some of us in this in this season, we're trying to we're trying to build our our community and our relationship. Some of us are single and we're trying to date, and you're going out there and you're trying to figure out you're like, I want to date, but everybody out there is crazy. Can I tell you, you'll never get to the picture of a family that you have unless you keep building. Oh no. Here's the other part too, because when we're building, sometimes stuff goes wrong when we're building, doesn't it? Issues start popping up. Things like like right now, some of y'all are stressed, some of y'all are OCD, you're like, I need him to fix that corner right now. But can I tell you, if you're building, things will go the way not the way that you expect them to. If you are building in the right direction, you're gonna experience trouble. If you are building in the right direction, you're gonna experience opposition. If you're building in the right direction, you're gonna experience issues and mistakes and things that are happening. And even when you experience them, what's your what are you supposed to do, vision church? You need to keep building. Some of y'all are like, it's your first time, you're like, I don't know if he knows how to say anything except for keep building. Like, did he okay? Here here's some things that that get in the way of us when we start building. Uh, one of the things that gets in our way is trouble. Somebody say trouble. Man, I uh here's what I here's what I recognize. Anytime you start building something in your life, the people that used to benefit from the dysfunction in your life, those people will start getting real loud out of nowhere. Like you start coming to church, the spirit of God starts moving inside of you, you start recognizing life and death is in the power of your tongue, and you used to hang out at the water cooler and gossip about everybody. Like, if anybody wanted the tea, they could go to you, and now you're going, God is convicting me that that's not the way He wants me to use the words that are coming out of my mouth, that I can't praise him and pray with the same mouth that I gossip and cuss, and so I gotta change some things. And you're making this positive change, and you know what's crazy about that positive change? Nobody has more trouble with it than the people you used to gossip with. Man, they're looking at you going, What, you think you're better than us now with your keep-building mentality? Like, I don't even know what church you go to. I don't want to go there. Like, yeah. Some some some of us, it's uh you used to walk in a spirit of depression, you used to be low and down, you used to think very little of yourself, you used to not have any, like you're just used to walking in that spirit. And now when you get in the presence of God, something shifts inside of you, and what used to be a depressing spirit is now rising on the mountaintops. You used to talk about how bad it was, but now you start talking about how good he is. You start walking into school, you start walking into your job, you start walking into your friendship circles, and you're talking about how great God is and how good he's been to you and how faithful he's been, and you are building your faith. But now you don't complain anymore like we used to complain. Now I got a problem with you because how come you're positive all the time? Positive and encouraging, Caleb. Keep building. And when that happens, when you start getting the critics in your life, and and they're they're looking at your family, and uh they used to enjoy because like you could go out to some of y'all fellas, you could go out hunting and talk trash about your wife, and some of you ladies, you could go to, I don't know where women go to, the hair salon. Oh, get your nails done. Okay, get your nails done, okay. Well, get your nails done. You talk about your your husband, but now God is restoring your marriage, and you guys are doing better than ever, and you've been building a foundation for your family, and so now they're like, Well, you've changed, and you're just a simp, and you're just doing what he does. You're like, I'm sorry that I'm happy with my marriage. Because I have been building that thing. That's what happens in our biblical account here is Nehemiah starts building the thing that God's called them to, and all these people show up, and they have an issue with him building it, they have an issue with him raising it up, they have an issue with him setting up foundations, they have an issue with it. Not because they they not because they mine the wall, they mine what they used to get when the wall was down. They mind that I used to feel good when we were in the pit together. I used to feel good that I could take advantage of your sorry mental state. I used to feel good that I could use you however I want, I could manipulate you however I want, I could take advantage of you however I want. But now you've been building a new person. God's been building something inside of you, and because you are different now, because you've been building now, oh, I can't, things have changed, the walls are going up, and that's what happens here. So you gotta have you, they're facing opposition, they're facing enemies, they're facing trouble. And here's here's what I here's how I know if somebody uh is is opposing me. If they would rather go into the comment section than have a conversation, they're my enemy. If they'd rather just talk about me instead of talk to me, then you have a problem with what I'm building. You don't have a problem. We're not connected enough. Can I encourage us to not allow all the voices that are coming in to with a comment with a feedback? Well, hey, while you're building that thing, can I just tell you while I'm on the side supervisor mode, how you could build that thing better? Can I tell you the bricks are heavy? If you have a comment, then you have enough hands to get in this thing with me. Man, I don't want to just be a comment on people's lives. I want to be able to serve people's lives. You're gonna face trouble when you're trying to build it. The second thing that you're gonna that's gonna happen to you is you're gonna get tired. Somebody say tired. Here's what I know about building. How many boxes does he have in there? Like that's like it's like a magic little, it's like a map. I found like a magic church. That's what this is. I get I get I get tired. Y'all, like, praise God, these boxes are empty and they're nothing like it. But can we be real? Anytime, anything that God has called you to build will have weight to it. Anything that is worthy of the calling of God will have the weight of God on it and will be difficult and you'll have tough days. Can I tell you, I've been trying to grow my faith, and here's what I figured out about being tired. When I need to grow my faith, if I want my faith to look away a year from now, it's not about just a year from now. I need to show up not just next year, I need to show up every day from here to next year. But for me to do that, I need to wake up early in the morning, and ain't nobody got time for that. Jesus, why? Like, the best time for me to get into the hand into the word of God is in the morning. And you know what else I can do in the morning? Snooze. I we have my wife and I have two kids and we love them, and they're they're super fun. And um y'all, you know what I didn't know when I was holding my wife's hand on our wedding day, and I was thinking about how beautiful she was, and uh, I was like, I didn't know that at some point I'm gonna have a seven-year-old that's gonna be looking at me going, I don't like chicken nuggets. And when that happens, what do I need to do? I need to, hey buddy, I know I know you don't like chicken nuggets, but if you don't eat them right now, you're not gonna have lunch. And we all know how you get cranky when you don't eat them right now. You you gotta you gotta keep building. Uh sometimes uh this will surprise some of y'all because you you're new to church and you think the way I got to be a pastor is by being perfect, but I'm gonna be real. Uh, my wife is perfect, I am not, so when we fight, it's typically my fault. That's how you do that when you're holding a microphone. Um uh all the ladies said amen, all the gentlemen said amen as well, because um uh but every once in a while, me and my wife will be fighting, and my wife and I have a rhythm in our life where uh every Friday we go on what's called date day and we hang out and spend time together, and it's a lot of fun. Uh, but you know what's always what's annoying because it happens every once in a while, is we'll get in a fight on Thursday night, and then I'm like, I don't want to go on date day. To be fair, I want to go on date day, I just don't want to go on date day with you today. Like, y'all ever been there where you're you're there's a relationship that you need to work things out in and you're trying to make things right, but you just don't feel like it, you just don't want to do it. I'm tired of building, I'm tired of apologizing, I'm tired of having the conversation, I'm tired of clarifying, I'm tired of da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And even when you're tired, if you're gonna have the thing that God wants you to do, what do you need to do? You need to build to keep building. Because you'll never have the end that you are looking for unless you keep building. The only thing you'll have, the only thing you can do is if you stop building, it stops right here and looks like that. So some of us have a relationship with a sibling that we haven't talked to in years. Uh, there's a friend of mine this week that passed away that I was super close to back in college. And can I tell you, we left the relationship in this state, and because we haven't talked to you, he passed away. And this is the state of the relationship as it is. I don't know how he's doing, I don't know how his family's doing. I can't reach out because we never kept building. I want to encourage you to. keep building. You get tired because uh man the things that you're building is heavy, but you know another way that we get tired, especially in America, another way that we get tired is we get bored. Like something like, couldn't you have at least like a put a picture on the like like or have different colors? So it's like a new color and we can go, ooh, but they're all white. Okay, like what's going on? We we get bored. We are passion addicted in our nation. We need something to be new, something to be flashy. Do the next new thing. Dance, dance, dance. Can I tell you there are things that God is calling you to build there things that don't have a lot of depth for that to them can be grown in a microwave. But the things that matter in your life you need to plant in a garden. And when my wife plants in a garden I look at it and I go this is the most boring thing I've ever seen because you're watering dirt. Just watering dirt I'm like just watering dirt. Put a little seeds in there and water some more dirt. And then three weeks later oh little sprout comes out that's great. Does the sprout do anything? Like does it like does it like but but when I'm eating dinner and she pulls out that salad and it's delicious I'm like I'm really glad that you kept building no you can't buy more cucumbers because of all the plant analogies. You gotta you gotta keep building even where you're bored. I I wanna I want to talk to our our people that are on our serve team there's a verse in the Bible that says do not grow weary and well doing because at the right time somebody saved the right time the right time you will yield a harvest if you do not give up and one of the things that can be so easy especially in church work is we we start we start seeing this and we go God I'm tired of building I'm tired of showing up I'm tired of being weekend and week out I'm tired of what like when when is it gonna come to an end can I tell you the honest truth is until Jesus comes back we keep building because the thing that we're building is not this church the thing that we're building is not our platform the thing that we're building is not our brand the thing that we're building are people people that need Jesus people that need salvation people that need hope people that need purpose people that need life and that's why we gotta keep building we're gonna keep building we're gonna keep building some of y'all right now you're like okay seriously like is is that the whole message like just keep building like is that is that why I came to church today here here's something I want to encourage you to build you gotta you gotta keep building your faith you gotta build your faith and your faith is not built overnight but it should be built every night you won't have the faith that you want tomorrow but you need to show up for your faith tomorrow man the person that God is calling you to be a year from today starts today. There are things that God wants in your heart and you got to start building your faith you got to start letting the Lord move in and through your life. Romans 8 says this Romans 8 and 5 those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death but letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. And 2 Corinthians 5 and 17 says this this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone a new life has begun I wonder how Nehemiah might have felt Nehemiah showing up and every single day there's people complaining every single day there's people attacking every single day he's carrying bricks and Nehemiah used to be the cupbearer to the king that was not a that wasn't like he was a server the cupbearer to the king back in those days if you had a king the king be stopped being the king for for for three reasons. One natural causes they passed away two another king showed up with a bigger army and the third was somebody managed to get some poison into the cup of the king. So being the cup of bearer to the king was a big deal. So cupbearer shows up so the fact that he was he was in a good job like y'all ever meet a friend of yours that has a good house and a nice car that's Nehemiah and he gives that up to pick up this construction job in his hometown and all he's doing is he's building some of you need to fall in love with building because here here's what I want you to know here's what I want you to know I want you to know that while you're building it God is building you while you're showing up for your family God is building your patience while you're showing up for those kids God is building up your faith while you're showing up at church God is building up your spirit and you may not like you ever see your kid and I was hanging out with my son my son turned seven a couple days ago and I just thought to myself man look how big he is and how tall he's got and I'm thinking all this cute and then my phone did one of those little like let me show you your memories from way back when and it showed me a picture of how big that Joker was when I first got him from the hospital and he was the size of a football and now he's skinny like a football my daughter my daughter my daughter is like both our kids were six pounds what three ounces when they were born however yeah we'll call it six pounds three ounces my daughter's so fun because um that girl is so sweet and she she she's she will eat everything that's not nailed down like she is my like mean I'm looking forward to daddy daughter dates. It's gonna be so fun. My son pizza the size of a like he wants pizza that's burnt till it's crispy like a cardboard like that's what he wants. My daughter like likes filet mignon she likes uh is cargo I'm like girl I don't even like that food like what you uh she just comes home is like daddy can we go to this restaurant I'm like okay like uh I don't even know what that had to do with the sermon that's just me complaining to y'all that my kids have very different food tastes but you need to while you're building them kids God is building you while you're building your finances God is building you while you're building your faith God is building you while you're building your community and your friendships God is building you here's what I know about my kids every single day I'm with them and you ever meet that person that comes along they go look how tall they've gotten and you go oh yeah I guess so just like that how many of you know you're growing your faith is growing your interactions with other people are growing some of you are more patient than you used to be some of y'all would be like man if they cut me off in traffic you used to cuss at them and now you start praying for them the reason that you're there is because you have kept building anybody want to play some Jenga after service here's the second thing you gotta do you gotta keep building your calling Romans 8 says this so you have not received the spirit that makes you fearful slaves instead you receive God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children and now we call him Abba Father for his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. I want you to hear this verse and since we are his children we are his heirs together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory If we share in his glory we must also share in his suffering everybody wants the glory not everybody's got the guts to build everybody wants the marriage that lasts 50 years and not everybody has the guts to apologize. Everybody wants the kids that are close to Jesus not everybody's willing to bring them to church regularly wants to be able to pay for their kids college but then not everybody's willing to say no to the dinner out or that new car. Everybody wants a faith where you can close your eyes and feel the presence of God and say that I heard God speak to me about this situation or that person but not everybody's willing to open up their Bible on a s on a Monday morning here's what I know about you vision if you're in the room I I know you are already building you showed up man like that's half the battle you showed up you started building here's what I don't want you to do I don't want you to think to yourself well I'm gonna build one Sunday at a time I'm gonna show up next week and Pastor if you got something for me then I'll see you. No because because you get to oh I I was done with the notes anyway so praise God you can keep building every single day you can keep building every arena of your life there's we're a multicultural church so and we're a multi-generational church. So right now my biggest fear is that there's a six year old in the room that doesn't have impulse control and they're thinking about running into the stage and knocking this thing down. But my other fear is that there's a couple of y'all that are 60 years old and you're also thinking about rushing the stage knocking this thing down. Like I feel like I could raise so much money if I raffled off a ticket to come knock this thing down right now. I'd be like give me 10 give me 20 I'm about to let y'all go but isn't it crazy how 30 minutes there was not a go there was nothing on that table. See when Nehemiah gets the call to go back to Jerusalem and to build a wall and he starts doing it the wall's been laying empty and desolate for decades generations like to the point where people had gotten used to this is just how it is and sometimes that's the way we get we get used to this is how it is like we've always been filling the blank fill in the we've always been addicted we've always been broken we've always been messed up we've always been poor we've always been divorced we've always been and what if the way it's always been isn't the way it has to stay if you and I would commit to keep building see a year ago the picture I showed you Teresa if you find it can you that picture from us at the middle school can I show you can I show you that a year ago that was just us it was me and my wife like trying to put together because there was six to eight people on our team and we're like okay everybody's got work so we can't like a year ago this is all that our church could do and we are grateful for all that we did but since that picture we've baptized 30 people we're about to see 30 kids get dedicated to the Lord we've seen dozens of salvations we've seen hundreds of people come into our house for church we've seen our team grow and it didn't happen overnight it but all we could do was we could just keep building don't let the enemy punk you out here's I want to talk to two groups of people as we close today because the Bible says do not despise the days of small beginnings and some of us are walking in this house and we're looking and we're going John all I have is one brick I can't even read a like can I tell you if all you have is the first break start with the first break if all you have is the beginning is a faith start at the beginning of faith if all you can memorize is one verse memorize one verse if all you can do is have one conversation have one conversation if you have a relationship that you're trying to figure out man you've been you've been saying like they need to send the text message you send the text message what if they don't say no then you send another one and you keep building you keep chasing you keep doing the thing that God's called you to and at some point maybe it'll look like that see a year ago our church looked like this and now because of you our church looks a lot closer to that and I'm not talking about the size of it man that's talking about the stories in your lives I'm talking about what God's done I'm talking about your kids that keep walking up to me and going I'm interested in getting baptized what do I have to do to do that talking about some of you that a year ago your marriage was here and now you're walking in the church holding hands being kissy kissy face I need to rebuke you because we're in the house of God and y'all need to stop it. Some of us are walking in and there are situations in our lives that are causing us great brokenness and we wish our life looked like this can I tell you it won't happen overnight but it can happen every night keep building you won't change it tomorrow but you can start tomorrow keep building because here's what happens a year from now two years from now ten years from now you can look back and go man look what the Lord has done here's what I love about the story of Nehemiah the walls look like this and not like that for generations. Nehemiah shows up and he just says I'm just gonna start building I'm gonna gather some people add some influence starts building you know how long it takes Nehemiah to rebuild a wall that had been broken down for decades if not generations you know how long it takes them? 52 days two months in two months the people go from we're taking everyone's taking advantage of us to we have a safe place to go to we have no faith I don't know how God's gonna provide to look what God has done in our lives they've gone from where we're the victims of everybody to go we are surrounded by victory on every single side look what the Lord could do in your life if you would commit to keep building I encourage you to do that today. Vision would you stand to your feet as we wrap up our service and I don't know where you are today I want to take a couple seconds to just pray for two two categories of people two categories of people the first is those of you that are saying I got to start building God's gonna give you the guts to do it but you got to be willing to say yes and then there's some of us that you're halfway through building or you've been building but something's happened you're tired you're exhausted you're tired of people talking you're just saying man I'm tired of being the only Christian in my family like keep building anybody know what the title of my sermon was today? Gotta keep building because a year from now you'll be glad you built instead of staying on the sidelines this help anybody today encourage anybody today Father we love you Jesus I'm reminded today that we have salvation because you came and you died and you made a way where there was no way you it literally says in the scriptures you're preparing a place for us and God you're you're calling us in to build your church and to be a part of what you're doing. God I pray for for two two groups of my friends today I pray God for those that are listening to my voice right now and they're saying John I I don't know if I I don't even feel strong enough to get started can I tell you one small step is bigger than no step at all Father give us the boldness and the courage and the wisdom to take the right first step. God if there's somebody that's addicted and they're saying I've been addicted my whole life what's the point man one day of freedom is better than no days of freedom some people that are disconnected relationally can I tell you one text message is better than no contact at all some of us that are feeling far from Jesus today one prayer is better than no prayers at all and God also pray for those who have been building and it feels like we're building almost in vain like we're trying to invest into our family and invest into that way we're child invest into our coworkers into our friends at school and we're trying to build but God it feels exhausting and we're tired. God I pray that you'd give all of us a picture of what you're trying to build through us you say that there is more that you want to do in and through us. So God build in us so that we can build our community we can build our church we can build our nation but God as you're doing all that would you build us to see you and be closer to you God help us to keep building in Jesus' name amen let's sing together