Sons Are Builders (3 of 4)

1) God, as a father, initiates the plan of building a family, building a house, that He can come and dwell in.

2) He speaks into the hearts of sons who love him, in relationship with him, to become builders, and to work with them in that building.

3) He brings revelation of the pattern of how to build, so you will build according to what He wants, the way He wants, motivated by love, not by self-centeredness.

4) God will supply and provide everything you need to build.

5) He will fill it with his presence. Introduction

We've been doing a series on Sonship. People get all kinds of ideas, but we never stop to think: do the ideas we have, and the concepts we have, align with what God says or not? If you want to build, one of the things about building is alignment - you must make sure things are aligned. If they're not aligned, it doesn't look so much so different at the beginning, but by the time we get to the end of the building, it's really, with messy, gaps and cracks and all kinds of things. It's a real mess of things aren't aligned properly. Builders always make a lot of effort to make sure everything's aligned.

Each year of our life, we need to ask the question: have I even inquired what God is looking to build in that part of my life? Is that part of my life aligned in any way with God's plan, that he wants to bless? Once you start to think that way, then you relook at everything you have, instead of looking at the media and the culture which is broken, and defiled and corrupt. Instead of looking to the culture to guide you, how you build, you begin to build from the principles of God's Word.

Jesus taught, in Matthew 7, about this. He talked about two men building their house: one built on a rock; and one built on the sand. The storms came on both the houses, but the one that stood was the one that was built on a rock. It was built by people who listened to what Jesus said, and applied it to their lives. You don't have to look far around to see marriages and businesses failing, financial collapse, destruction, in all kinds of ways. The foundation is not right, so when the pressure comes, it collapses. We need to be people that inquire and search God's word, to put the patterns and principles into place in our life.

Main Message

I want to share a message called Sons of Builders. First of all, let's look again at a passage in the Bible where Jesus explained how we're designed to function. He revealed sonship design. Design is just a blueprint or a pattern. In these three verses, God gives you just the basics of the pattern He wants you to apply in your life. If you leave one part out, it's a problem. When we're looking for a pattern, we're looking for something to model upon. We're looking for a blueprint. The Bible tells us, Jesus, and the way he lived his life, his values, He forms the blueprint, to follow. People, they can help to some extent, but there's always some character lack somewhere.

John 17:3 - "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent".

John 17:4 - "I have glorified you on earth. I finished the work you've given me to do".

John 17:6 - "I have manifested your name to the men, whom you gave me out of the world".

We saw in there, God's threefold design, three areas we are to function in, that when you apply yourself to each of those areas, they cause you to grow into maturity and become productive.

The first is Relationship; relationship with God. If you want to build something that will last, build through a relationship with God. "This is eternal life, that they know you". So relationship is a connection. It's a union between two people; and relationship is characterized by the sharing of lives, one with another. If you're a son, a child of God, you become a child of God, not by the process of adoption, but by God imparting his life into you when you receive Christ. But that just makes you a child, you still got to grow.

The second is Representation. Verse six - "I have manifested your name to the men you gave me". That means Representation. We're called not just to have relationship, which is an ongoing, growing thing; we're also called to Represent what God is like. We're called to reveal to people the nature and character of God, which means the fruit of our life. Instead of being self-centered, we become a loving people, a kind people, a patient people. We begin to demonstrate in our relationships what the life of God looks like. It's in how you deal with people.