“I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH”
SELECTED SCRIPTURES

I. Introduction
Agatha Christie was the best-selling novelist of all time. The Guinness Book of World Records states that over four billion copies of her books have been sold since she began writing in the 1920s. That number has been exceeded only by Shakespeare and the Bible.

I have particularly enjoyed the exploits of her famous character, the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. Poirot has a brilliant mind. He is able to solve the most baffling cases using by “the little gray cells,” referring to his brain’s enormous powers of deduction.

All of Poirot’s success has fed his ego, which has become nearly as enormous as his powers of deduction. As wise as he is, he does not at all seem to recognize his ego as a problem. Only when one of his associates, Captain Hastings, points out to him that “In England gentlemen are called to be humble,” does Poirot come to the conclusion that he should learn humility. So he determines to become humble. And, of course, he will do so by the exercise of his own wisdom and his own great strength of character. And he says, “No one in England shall exceed Hercule Poirot in his ‘humbility.’”

Poirot is a fictional character. But how many believers, convinced that “humbility” is a virtue to be desired and pursued, try to attain it in their own strength? How many believ-ers, knowing full well that ego, conceit, and vanity are not conducive to their personal testimony or to the Christian life in general, actually pride themselves on their humility?

But isn’t that an oxymoron – proud of humility? Have any of you ever said, like Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, “I was conceited and vain until I was told those things were faults. So in my great ‘humbility’ I have put away conceit and vanity. And now that I am no longer proud, I have become perfect.”

What Christian would ever say such a thing about himself? But do we sometimes think such things? Worse still, do we sometimes act like we believe it? We make jokes about pride, but when the jokes are over, pride remains one of the biggest hurdles we face in our daily lives. We say we give God the credit for all the good things in our lives, but do we really mean it, or does it just make us feel better to hear ourselves to say it?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

II. Text
This morning we are celebrating eight years of God’s grace and mercy, and the blessings He has poured out on us, His children, here at LIGHTHOUSE. It’s a good time for us all to remind ourselves to be humble before our God.
1 Peter 5:6
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, (so) that He may exalt you at the proper time.

It’s a good time to remind ourselves that all good things come from God.
James 1:17
17 Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…

Our eighth anniversary is a good time to remind ourselves that we have nothing that has not been given to us by the grace of God.
1 Corinthians 4:7
7 And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast…?

And in the same vein, on the occasion of eight years of blessings here at LIGHTHOUSE, it is a good time to remember that God stands against the proud.
James 4:6
6 God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble…

Our eighth anniversary is also a good time to remind ourselves that pride – both indivi-dual and corporate – will eventually destroy us.
Proverbs 16:18
18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.

I am concerned about this issue of pride this morning because it’s something we all must fight on a daily basis. When we see where our church started and where it is today, there is a strong tendency in us to congratulate ourselves as though our goodness and our wis-dom and our strength had something to do with it. That kind of thinking is a snare for all of us, but it can be destructive for those of us in leadership. God help us to humble our-selves before Him! God help us to remember that Jesus never said you and I would build His church, did He? He said, “I will build My church… (Matthew 16:18)”

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he describes the church Christ builds as a holy temple.
*Ephesians 2:19-22
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,
20 having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord;
22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Every believer is a stone, and when the building is complete, Jesus will come for His church, pictured in The Book of Revelation as the Bride of Christ. When the last stone is put in place, when the last person to receive Christ does receive Christ, His church, His
Bride, will be complete and we will be taken into His presence at the Rapture.

Look again at v. 20. Paul is not saying that the apostles and the prophets built the church. He is saying that the church is built upon their testimony of Christ. He builds it!

But do we try to take some of the credit for the work God does? Do we point to our-selves as the builders of the church? Do we think that God is using us because He needs us? When any of those thoughts creep into our minds and we begin to embrace them, we are stepping out on very thin ice. We are wandering out onto spiritual danger because “God is opposed to the proud…” and, “Pride goes before destruction…”

I believe that pride can be the most subtle of sins against God. It seeps into our being in ways we often don’t even realize. A little pride, a little vanity here and there, are boosts for our egos. After all, since we’ve done well, why shouldn’t we take a little credit for it? Besides, it makes us feel good, doesn’t it? And don’t we all want to feel good about our-selves? Isn’t that good for our self-esteem? The world just loves self-esteem.

But was the Apostle Paul concerned about his self-esteem? Listen to what he said about himself.
*Romans 7:15-25
15 For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with (God’s) Law, confessing that it is good.
17 So now, no longer am I (my new nature in Christ) the one doing it, but (the) sin which indwells me (my old nature in the flesh).
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing (to do good) is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
19 For the good that I wish (to do), I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish (to do).
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish (to do), I (my new nature) am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me (my old nature).
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in the members (of my body).
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind (my new nature) am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh (my old nature) the law of sin.

Having read Paul’s self-evaluation ask yourself what he thought about self-esteem.
What did he think about a little personal pride, a little vanity, and a little boost for his ego? If Paul was proud of anything, he was proud of His Lord and Savior, wasn’t he?
Just like Paul, you and I have nothing to boast about except the One who has saved us and given us new life. By the way, He is the one who has also given us a church these past eight years. The leadership has not done this. And to be clear, neither have the founders, the membership, nor those who attend.
*1 Corinthians 1:26-31
26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
28 and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that (by them) He might nullify the things that are,
29 that no man should boast before God.
30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
31 (so) that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the LORD.”

“God has chosen the foolish things and the weak things to shame the world…” That’s us. We’re all foolish. We’re all weak. What does that say to us about personal pride? What do we have – personality, a level of intelligence, parents, a spouse, children, grand-children, extended family, friends, food, clothing, shelter, health, wealth, possessions, position, some level of temporal authority, personal integrity, a church wherein is found fellowship and the love of the brethren – what do you and I have that we did not receive?

True Christians know better than to pat themselves on the back. However, true Christians hear the siren song of self-esteem, self-aggrandizement, and personal pride just like the world hears it. It can be very subtle. It sneaks up on us like Satan sneaked up on Eve. He didn’t tell her, “Your God is a liar!” No, the devil is far more crafty and subtle than that. At first he didn’t tell Eve anything. He slithered up to her and asked, “…has God said…?” It was, “Really, are you sure, is that what He means, might you be misunder-standing Him, maybe He hasn’t make Himself clear, isn’t that a possibility?”

Satan planted doubt. And only after the doubt was planted, only after the bait was hung out there, did Eve nibble. Then Satan knew he had her. Then it was easy. All he had to do was set the hook. Only then did Satan call God a liar. “You shall surely not die!”
Genesis 3:6
6 When (Eve) saw that the tree was good for food, and it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

And you know the rest of the story.
The big lie about God only got to Eve after she had begun to doubt God’s Word. This is one of the ploys Satan uses to deceive. For example, consider the Bible itself. The devil rarely says it’s all lies. He seldom needs to do that. He only needs to plant doubt. He says, “Sure, the Bible is true…except for the first eleven chapters of Genesis. That can’t be accurate history. The earth can’t be six thousand years old. Science knows that.”

So our children are taught that the very beginning of God’s Word is a myth that can’t be trusted. And if they can’t trust God’s Word when it speaks to them about creation, the fall of man, the origin of sin, and their need for a Savior, why should they believe any-thing about Jesus? After all, didn’t He believe the first eleven chapters of Genesis?

Think of the way Satan gets to you. And so as not to give the devil more credit than he deserves, think of the way your flesh (your old nature) gets to you. “I can take a little of the credit for the successes in my life, can’t I? I promise I’ll always say, ‘God gets the glory,’ but I’ll reserve just a bit of the praise for myself. And why not? Haven’t I worked hard? Haven’t I paid my dues? Don’t I deserve it? God won’t mind. There must be something good in me or God wouldn’t have been so kind to me. So I’ll just take a little credit for that. I’ll just boast about that. Surely that can’t be a problem, can it?”
Romans 7:18
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh…

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

Remember the old story of the frog in the frying pan? If you put a frog in a pan of hot water it will jump right out. Likewise, if someone tells you God is a liar, a true Christian will “jump right out.” You won’t allow yourself to swim around in blasphemy and bla-tant lies. But if you put a frog in lukewarm water it will swim around and enjoy itself. Then, if you raise the water’s temperature a degree or two every so often, it won’t notice the change and sooner or later the frog will die. You will have boiled it alive.

I hope the analogy is clear. You and I, as Bible-believing Christians, will not swallow great gulps of prideful thinking because, quite frankly, we know better. We’re on the alert for such things. We won’t stay long in a pan filled with boiling water. But that’s seldom our problem. Our real problem is more subtle that that. Our real problem is when we hear, “The water’s fine. Come on in!” That’s when we can be had. That’s when those little tiny doses of pride can, figuratively speaking, begin to boil us alive.

What is pride doing in your life? You can easily recognize the big traps, but can you see the small ones. Listen, I honestly believe that personal pride is at the heart of all sin. Sin can be defined in four ways…

1. Sin can be defined as breaking God’s Law.
Romans 2:23
23 You who boast in the Law, through your breaking of the Law…you dis-honor God.

2. Sin can be defined as failure to conform to God’s standards.
Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

3. Sin can be defined as rebellion against God.
1 Timothy 1:9a
9a …the law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane…

4. Sin can be defined as wrongful acts against either God or man.
Romans 1:18
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress (God’s) truth…

All of these verses define sin, but it’s this last one that relates directly to The Ten Com-mandments. Ungodliness speaks of man’s lack of a proper relationship to God, which is described in the first four commandments. Unrighteousness speaks of man’s lack of a proper relationship to his fellow man, which is described in the last six commandments.

If you are humble before God, you will be obedient to Him and to His Word. Obedience and humility go together. But if you are prideful before God, you will disobey Him. Either you won’t believe Him or you will believe what He says but somehow think you know better, or can “get away with it.” When you and I break a commandment our per-sonal pride is involved every time. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit (goes) before stumbling (Proverbs 16:18).”

Let’s take just a brief look at how personal pride and disobedience to God and His Law go together. God gives us His commandments in Exodus 20.
1. (vv. 2-3) “I am the LORD your God…You shall have no other gods before me.”

When we place anything above God, when we value anything more highly than we value God, when we love anything or anyone more than we love God, we do so because we want to. We say, “I will have my way.” Thus we break the first commandment.

2. (vv. 4-6) “You shall not make for yourself an idol…You shall not worship them or serve them…”

When we worship anything or anyone other than God, we break the second command-ment. We say, “I will love what and whom I choose to love.”

3. (v. 7) “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain…”

This is not simply referring to cursing and/or blasphemy. It’s certainly that, but it’s also much more.
When we treat God’s name – which encompasses His character, His attributes, His holi-ness, and His very Person – when we treat any of those things lightly, we are taking His name in vain. But we say, “If I curse once in a while it’s no big deal. Besides, God is my pal, my buddy. And so, we break the third commandment.

4. (vv. 8-11) “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

This is the only commandment not repeated in the NT. Why? The Sabbath day was a day of rest for the Jews. It was a shadow of God’s true rest, the Jewish Messiah. When Christ came there was no longer any need for the shadow because Christ was the sub-stance. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. So we don’t honor one day. We honor Christ seven days. I believe it is fair to say that if we dishonor the Person of Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath, then we have broken the fourth commandment.

5. (v. 12) “Honor your father and your mother…”

There are all sorts of reasons and excuses for not honoring parents. But God’s Law does not recognize any of them as legitimate. His command is simple, straightforward, and without exception. No matter who they are, what they have done, or not done, we are to called to honor them as those whom God chose to bring us into this world. But we say, “Do you know who they are? Do you know what they’ve done? There’s no way I’ll honor them.” If we choose to dishonor our parents, we break the fifth commandment.

6. (v. 13) “You shall not murder.”

There’s no need for explanation here, is there? But men say, “I will take that life because I want to.” And so the sixth commandment is broken. At least I’ve never murdered any-one. But don’t forget how Jesus spoke about this. If you merely hate someone you have broken the sixth commandment (Matthew 5:22).

7. (v. 14) “You shall not commit adultery.”

There’s no need for explanation here either. But women say, “I will have him,” or men say, “I will have her.” And the seventh commandment is broken. And again, remember what Jesus said about this? Have you remained faithful to your spouse but wanted some-one else? Then you too have broken the seventh commandment (Matthew 5:26-27).

8. (v. 15) “You shall not steal.”

Again, there should be no need for explanation. But we say, “I will have that.” And we break the eighth commandment.

9. (v. 16) “You shall not bear false witness…”

We know that lying is sin but that seldom stops us from “stretching the truth” every now and then. We say, “I will say whatever I need to say to accomplish my purpose.” And in that, we break the ninth commandment.

10. (v. 17) “You shall not covet your neighbor’s…(anything).”

But that doesn’t stop us from an inordinate desire to have what others have.
In 1989 the rock group Queen recorded an album entitled, “I Want it All, and I Want it Now.” Their song (of the same name) became a huge hit. You can still hear it used in some television commercials. “I Want it All, and I Want it Now.” When such thinking creeps into our thoughts and gets hold of us, we break the tenth commandment.

Pride! Pride looks at self and sees far more than is really there. At the same time it looks at God and sees far less than is really there. Pseudo-Christianity looks at God’s com-mandments and sees ten suggestions. Most people seem to think they may have “bent” a few every now and then, but haven’t really broken them very often at all. And if they have, they assume God will overlook it and let it pass.

But what they fail to realize is in their sinfulness they have, without exception, broken every one of them. They fail to realize that God’s commandments are really a reflection of His character and His absolute holiness. And God’s absolute holiness is not compati-ble with sin and the sinners who exalt themselves and denigrate God.

Where does all of this come from? It comes from the fall of man. It comes from Eve who was enticed into believing she was smarter than God. Then it comes from Adam who should have known better. It comes from two prideful human hearts.
Genesis 3:6
6 When (Eve) saw that the tree was good for food, and it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

It’s here in this v. 6 that we first see the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. What did the serpent say to Eve after he lied and said, “You surely shall not die”? He said, “…you will be like God (Genesis 3:4-5).” The devil appealed to her personal pride. It worked with Eve and then it worked with Adam. They thought, “It doesn’t mat-ter what God says, I will have what I want. I will have all I want. I will have it when I want it. I will, I will…” That’s the heart condition of an unsaved man or woman.

Where did you and I get our pride? We got it from our first parents who sinned in the Garden of Eden, but it originated somewhere else. Did you ever wonder what the serpent was doing in Eden? How did he get to Eden in the first place? From where had Lucifer come? He had been in heaven with God, and to put it simply, God threw him out.

Lucifer was a cherub, one of the highest ranking and most powerful of all the created angels. Beyond that, he was among the most beautiful of them all (Lucifer means “shining one”), and his pride took over. He knew no humility before his creator. He wanted to be like God. But God has said He will not give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8).
*Isaiah 14:12-14
12 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations!
13 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.
14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High (God).’
15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit.”

So do you see? Satan’s ultimate end will not be glory. It will be hell. Does that shed new light on Jesus’ repeated teaching that those who wish to be the first will be last?

It was personal pride, a desire to usurp God’s glory that turned Lucifer into Satan. It was personal pride, their desire to be like God that turned our first parents into sinners and gave you and me our sin natures. It is personal pride, our failure to take God’s Word seriously, that causes us to break His commandments. It is personal pride that destroys human relationships.

And it is personal pride that can ruin a church. It doesn’t matter whether that pride resides in the leadership or in the body. It is sinful and it is destructive. Oh, how we need to humble ourselves before God because, “He is opposed to the proud, but (He) gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).”
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

III. Conclusion
All of this has been on my heart this past week because we have seen God’s grace for eight years now. And I have been reminded how strong is the desire among us to appro-priate for ourselves some of the credit for God’s marvelous work here at LIGHTHOUSE.

Last week we talked about what the Bible is and we talked about who Jesus is. In Matthew 16 Jesus asks the disciples who they think He is. Peter’s answer is one of the great testimonies of faith to be found anywhere in the Scriptures. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16).” With that Jesus affirms Peter’s answer, tells Peter that he is right, and upon that testimony, that confession of faith in Christ, Jesus will build His church.

In Matthew 16 humble recognition of the deity of Christ is directly connected to the building of His church. You and I cannot build the church any more than the apostles and prophets could build it. We don’t build His Church – HE does.

We just need to get our pronouns right. Jesus did not say, “You will build your church” or “You will build My church.” He didn’t even say, “I will build your church.” He said, “I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).”

On this the eighth anniversary of God’s grace at Lighthouse, we would be wise to heed the words of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. Let us put away pride and excel in our “humbility.” ~ Pray ~