Be Built Up

Intro

House build? Minecraft?

House Build

Have you ever watched or seen pictures of a house being built?

I know Canaan has, because it’s currently happening

Before a house can start to be built and look like a house, a foundation has to be in place, right?

And that’s what we talked about last night, being rooted in Jesus, and making sure our roots are going deep

Because without deep roots, without a good foundation, even if you build up, your only one strong wind away from being blown over

Burj Khalifa - 164 feet deep foundation - 2,722 feet tall, half a mile

That’s massive…but the truth is if they hadn’t built a deep and strong foundation, when those desert winds come in, it’d be gone!

So in order to be built up, foundations must be present

But once that foundation is in place, the building, in our example, the house shape can begin to take place

Paul tells us here that we need to have salvation through Christ, and we need to be rooted in him....SO THAT, we can be built up in Him.

So what we want to look at today is, what does it look like to be built up in Him?

My buddy Jordan is a project manager for a pretty big construction company in the D.C. area....

And I remember we were at a wedding back in 2010, and he was making all these phone calls the whole time…organizing this guy to show up with concrete, this guy to have equipment there at this time, etc......

#1 - God is the master builder

There’s no other way around it to be honest with you. If you want to grow, if you want to be built up, then you have to rely on Him

You have to let Him orchestrate your growth

Patience Illustration

But God often will use things to help build you up into who He wants you to be

And we talked yesterday about the personal responsibility we all have to make sure our roots are going deep so we can be built up:

Reading, Praying, Church

But God will use other outside influences in your life to mold and shape you and build you into who He longs for you to be:

And two of those things are others, and circumstances

#2 - God will use others to build you up

Unintentional

Bullies/bad relationships

Intentional

Unintentional

Youth Leaders/Parents/Godly friends

#3 - God will use circumstances to build you up

Good

Youth Group

Bad

K-rae

Not Always Roses and Gumdrops

Just like on a construction site, nothing ever goes perfectly to plan

Liberty Dorms

The same will be true in our walk with Christ

But if we are truly rooted and wanting to grow, we will be able to find the grace in each situation

We’ll be able to see God molding and shaping us to turn us into a more perfect image of Him

But as verse 6 says, we have to keep walking with Him to be able to see that

Time in God’s Word

Prayer

Church

Godly friendships

And putting aside

Gossip

Anger

Things we know that are wrong