Okay. Title of this message this morning is construction and light of the Bible.
I believe that the Bible, nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental,
or accidental, right? And I don't know if you've noticed,
if you've ever read the Bible cover to cover,
there are lots of examples in the Bible of construction projects.
What does it mean to construct something? What it means to build something?
It's simply that to build.
It's a lot of what God wants of us as Christians is to build things for Him.
Now that's not to say a physical structure.
We're trying to build up spiritually people's, you know,
salvation and their walk of Christ and other things like that.
But there is a physical manifestation of that as well through things around us
that we see.
And I believe that there is a lost art of construction going on.
Did you know that there are some 500,000 missing people in the trades across the
continental U S today? Like take that number in for a second right now.
500,000 that's half of a million people that we need.
We need to help build things. Electrical,
plumbing, framing, roofing, masonry,
all these different trades that are needful,
that we are lacking today's world.
People are trying to make a lot of money,
but they don't want to do physically anything demanding.
And let me tell you this, construction is physically demanding. It's hard.
It's not easy. It's, it's, you have to use a lot of your brain.
You have to know a lot of math and there are people who are trying to do as
little work as possible, but to make as much money in the process.
I'm not saying you have to be in construction to be right with God.
I'm saying that he would do you good to know a general,
a little bit of construction skill for let alone your personal life,
but even potentially your church or your friends. For instance,
I grew up in Hawaii and if you grew up here in Hawaii,
what are the two major fields that most young men find themselves getting
involved in? Construction and the restaurant.
These are two fields that people always gravitate towards.
Now understand this here in Oahu is a way bigger area.
There's way more building going on here in this island.
The island I'm from in Kauai has way less projects.
Maui is starting to grow and Big Island or Hawaii doesn't nearly have as much
construction as well going on. But nevertheless, if you grew up in Hawaii,
you have some general understanding of construction because your grandpa did it,
because your dad did it because someone's uncle did it and everyone just kind of
knows a little bit about it.
But nowadays the future generation,
they are losing it. They're, they're running into new trades.
They're running into new skills, skills like computer engineering,
skills like, you know, white collar work, you know, lawyers and doctors.
And once again, it's like I said,
there's nothing wrong with looking into something like being a doctor or being a
dentist or a veterinarian or whatever it is.
But I'm just trying to help us to understand God wants us to build him things.
Now I'm not saying like we need to build a temple physically,
but the Bible does want us to know that construction equals good.
It's okay to, as the Bible says, to have,
to subdue the land as it says in Genesis. And we'll go there in a moment,
but look down at your Bible. If you would at verse four, it says,
but now the Lord my God have given me rest on every side so that there is
neither adversary nor evil occurring. Pause.
At the time of King David's rule and reign,
King David was a man after God's own heart.
King David is one of those characters in the Bible that we can look to as a
great godly man. He was a Psalmist. He was a musician.
He was a warrior. He was the king of Israel.
He was one who was a captain and he fought the Lord's battles,
but he also wanted to build a temple for God.
Now, God did not ask David to do this.
God did not ask Solomon to do this. He was in David's heart to do this.
Why?
Why would David want to build a physical structure that people can look to
associate with the God of Israel?
He wanted to do this because ultimately at that time,
God was in a tabernacle and it was mobile,
but the nation of Israel was growing and God promised if David did his part,
that he would be able to have this section of land that, you know,
the rest of the world could look to and associate to for the Lord himself,
where he would reign, how a government is supposed to run.
So David wanted to make sure that there is a centralized place that people can
go to, to offer their sacrifices, to make, you know,
prayer unto God and so on and so forth. Now here's the thing.
God did not allow David to build the temple because he was a bloody man.
He had made mistakes in his life and we're not going to go into David's
mistakes, but this is a good thing that God said,
I never told you to do this, but because you want to do this,
I'm saying go right ahead and do it. You won't do it because you failed.
Have your son do it. And like it said in verse four,
there was peace in the land.
There was no longer enemies coming from all sides.
So this should tell us as Christians that first in our Christian lives,
we need to fight the Lord's battle and gain ground,
draw lines in the sand and tell people like, this is who we are.
This is what we believe. And this is,
we are not going to change because the Lord doesn't change. The Bible says,
the Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever. He changes not.
We don't change.
So once we fought the Lord's battle and we've gained the ground at that point,
let's build up. I preached a sermon not that long ago, right?
About tilling and sowing.
When you go somewhere to evangelize a new place,
we need to establish who we are around others around us.
We need to separate ourselves from other Christian churches and denominations.
And so other people can say that is a people who are trying to draw nigh unto
God. So look down if you would at verse nine,
actually let's keep reading in verse five. It reads,
and behold,
I purpose to build in a house unto the name of the Lord my God,
as the Lord spake unto David, my father, saying,
thy son whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room,
he shall build an house unto my name. So basically what I just mentioned,
David wanted to do this. He couldn't.
So God says, your son will do this. And you kids can understand this,
that if your parents are trying to bestow upon you wisdom and a skill,
you may your,
your parents may have a goal in their life that they will never achieve and they
can't achieve, but they expect you to help them achieve their goal.
Their goal may be to build a family dwelling, let's say a family house.
I mean, before, not that long ago in the seventies and sixties and fifties,
there were family estates, right?
Where grandpa had an estate and there was a property where grandpa had a house.
And then there were other little houses on the property where the kids lived and
your grandparents or your parents may be trying to establish the same thing.
Like we're trying to build in my case would be the keifer estate.
I'm trying to have the, my family cared for.
So I'm going to look to do my part to establish a house for my wife and me.
And then if ever we have children or my siblings or my parents needed a place
to live, we can work on it together and build this up.
And David wanted to do this, but couldn't. So God said,
Solomon will do this.
And that's a blessing that you kids could potentially fulfill your parents'
dreams through whatever it is they want to do. But look down,
if you would at verse nine, the Bible reads,
my servants shall bring them down from Lebanon under the sea,
and I will convey them by sea and floats under the place that thou shalt
appoint me and will cause them to discharge them and thou shalt receive them
and thou shalt accomplish my desire in giving food for my household.
So let me pause there really quickly.
What's being emphasized at this point is Hiram, the king of Tyre, right,
is working with Solomon.
Solomon needs material to do this job because anyone knows if you've worked in
construction, you need material, you need wood, you need concrete,
you need fill in the blank.
There are lots of materials you need to construct, to build,
to fabricate things. Now understand this,
there is a difference between modern and ancient construction.
And I'm going to go on into that in just a moment because you got to realize
that at this time in history, right, there are lumber,
there's wood from Lebanon that they need to get into Jerusalem,
which is a far distance away.
They're not about to haul all this lumber on the shoulders of all these men had
marched it all the way down.
So what they did was they floated it down the river.
And this goes into my first point, the lost art of construction.
Construction is different today than it was in the past.
Construction used to be a lot more, it was better.
Let's just face the fact guys,
it was they focused on the quality of the work before.
Now we are not focusing on the quality of the work where people are money driven
in their construction projects.
The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil.
So you want to find the problem,
follow the money because if you have to find yourself getting
material,
you're not going to go for the best material because it's most expensive.
Most people who are building houses or commercial estates or whatever these
things are, they're trying to build a profit.
They want to make money on the other end.
So therefore you must drop the quality of the work so that you can raise your
profit margins.
But let me explain to you the simple process of any general
constructing project, whether it's commercial,
whether it's residential or whatever it is,
here are some simple things you can understand.
Number one is securing funding.
Solomon had all the funding in the world that he needed to build the temple.
Solomon arguably was one of the wealthiest man who had ever lived.
So acquiring a site, he needed to survey land.
He needed to go and find an area to do this at.
Appointing consultants.
Look,
any man who's in construction knows this,
that if I as a trade,
a skilled plumber have to do something that I'm not good at,
let's say hanging doors or windows or framing.
I can figure it out.
I know as a construction minded person,
I can figure out how to do those other skills,
but it is better that you have a professional do it.
And this is a pet peeve of mine because like I said,
I grew up doing a lot of construction and you've ever heard the term fake it till
you make it, especially here in Hawaii.
There are too many people faking it until they make it because there are so many
janky projects and janky buildings and janky problems that we end up correcting
over time.
And let's just say it's better in life to put your hands back and say,
I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm going to hire someone who does know what they're doing to do this right.
You've heard the saying, right? If you want something done right,
do it yourself.
Or basically if you're trying to save money by doing a project on your own,
but you're going to have to fix it or there's going to be a problem,
you may as well just spent the money in the beginning to get it done right the
first time. Because at that point, you don't need to worry about it. It's done.
It's secured. You can, I'm that person. I personally,
though I've done a lot of different construction skills,
if there's something that I don't know what I'm doing,
I'm the first to be like, I don't know. I know kind of what to do.
I understand what you're trying to do. I've never done this. Therefore,
I don't know. You can't necessarily just hand me a blueprint,
drop a bunch of lumber off and nails and all these things and say,
build this house because I have never built a whole house on my own.
But remember your grandparent used to say,
I've hammered each nail into this house.
Every single nail was hand driven by your grandpa. I mean,
I don't know about you,
but everyone's grandparents seems to have been really construction minded.
And that's a blessing. We'll get into that in a moment.
But the next thing would be to complete designs, complete the design stage.
So like I said, blueprints, right? Every house, every building,
every thing has to have start off in your mind. Someone has to think of it.
They have to fabricate it onto a piece of paper and translate it into
what you see in front of you.
So this is a big part to construction is to see it in your mind's eye first,
to see it, envision it, and then build it.
And then the next thing would be client approval, which is just getting,
you know, the approval of the owner, like, yeah, this is how I want it.
And then after that is securing permits.
And this subject is going to get very critical because
to me, this is very important to understand that we today
do not know. We believe in private property ownership, right?
But let me tell you this private property is a lost thing of the past.
We don't necessarily own really anything anymore to an extent of,
let's say you own a house, right?
And you want to paint the walls green because you're the owner.
You can do that, right?
But if you have to ask someone permission
to paint your walls green, do you really own the walls of that house?
If you have to ask someone to build something in your house,
do you really own it?
And that's a point of discussion that you really got to think about.
What's the word permit from who I thought I own the house?
Another subject for another time.
But like I said, it's important to understand these things.
And another one would be
tendering the construction contract, just like making sure everything
as the project moves forward, you're agreeing like, yeah, that's good.
Do this, do that.
And the last thing is appointing a contractor,
someone you know and believe can do the job.
So this isn't unique to our modern day construction.
This is Solomon doing the building of the temple.
All these things, all these elements are also found in the building
of the temple and all these other projects.
So let's talk about the securing of a permit really quick.
I do not believe
that if you truly owned something, you need to ask permission
from anyone to build.
Let's say I wanted to build something
that arguably would be unsafe,
arguably would be considered dangerous.
I want to make a staircase into a loft in my house,
but I'm not going to follow the standard way of a staircase
because standard needs to be like six inches in height
by like three and a half in and depth.
But I want a very steep stair set.
And if you think I need to ask,
what if I just want to stick a ladder up to it, is that all right?
Can I just put a ladder up to my loft?
If you have to ask someone for this, then you don't necessarily own it.
But the Bible does point out building codes.
Did you know that?
Because what's the title of this message?
Construction in light of the Bible.
So once again,
if I have to ask someone for permission to build something on my house,
I don't necessarily own it
because that person is the one who tells me what and where I can build things.
Right.
But God does show us an example of bad constructing practice.
And if something occurs on your property, you are held liable as the owner.
So back to that stair set that I'm talking about, right?
Let's say I want to build it not to code or not to standard.
I want to do it unique, different, spiral, whatever.
I want to make one landing pad five feet wide,
and I want to make another super steep.
If someone gets hurt in the process, climbing up my stairs,
I, David, am held liable.
That is a biblical principle when it comes to building permit.
Deuteronomy chapter 22, verse eight is
a good example of what I'm trying to say.
Deuteronomy chapter 22, verse eight says,
when thou buildest a new house,
then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof,
that thou bring not blood upon thine house if any man fall from thence.
What's a battlement?
It's basically a blockade, a fence,
something preventing someone from falling over the railing.
So you've got to think about it, right?
What's the spirit of the law?
Because we believe as Bible believing Christians,
we need to take the passage first, literally.
But not only that, we don't just follow the letter of the law.
We also follow the spirit of the law.
What is this trying to tell us?
And if you build a house
and you don't put a protective railing on your roof
and someone falls off of it, you are held liable.
You have to make this right.
And the Bible makes that very clear that it's not like the Levitical priests
walking around in Israel and in Jerusalem
and looking around for people building houses and being like, hey,
you didn't build a battlement, a battlement.
You have to you can't do this.
No, it was up to the individual to disregard this rule.
So if I as a homeowner in ancient Israel decided not to build that
and I did and someone fell off, I would be held liable.
But it's in the law of God to say you must do this.
And if you decide to disregard God,
you know, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.
So I don't think it was like forced upon the people.
But there was a criminal code that if you
the spirit of this law was if that if someone got hurt in your house,
because of your lack of construction skill, you are held liable for it.
That's what the Bible clearly teaches.
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Right.
And as it says right here,
when thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement
for thy roof that that thou bring not blood
upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.
OK, so what are the differences in modern and ancient construction?
And trust me, this may seem boring right now.
This may seem like a sermon that's not that important.
Like I'm not going to get into construction.
This doesn't apply to me.
What does this matter?
You know what?
Anyone can take something home from what we're going to go into,
because like I mentioned before, everyone should have a level
of constructing or fabricating in them.
I mean, ladies, it should be good for you to know how to sew fabric, right?
It'd be good for even ladies that know how to do house projects
like building a cabinet or something simple.
I mean, building a dog house for your dog,
like just simple construction can apply to anyone.
I'm not saying you ladies need to build your house for your family.
Men, we should step up and do that type of stuff.
But if you don't know what you're doing, it's OK to ask someone else
because they do know what they're doing.
But let's us try to learn these skills such as plumbing,
water, electrical and must it also saves money in the long run.
The major thing that I want to point out to the differences
of ancient and modern construction has to do with tools.
I think that's pretty obvious, right?
We have different tools today.
We have electrical tools, mechanical tools, tools that can do a lot of work.
And we people don't do a lot of the work.
The tool does the job for crying out loud.
Think about like how much time a saw saw really saves you
because you need to cut through something.
You just pull the trigger and it does the work for you.
Back in the old days, you had to have a two person saw
and one guy's pulling and one guy's yanking
and they're just going back and forth, back and forth,
way more physically demanding.
And like I mentioned earlier, remember your grandpa when he says,
I built this house with my bare hands.
He did. Your grandfather probably built the house with his bare hands,
drove every nail with his hammer, each nail.
And I'm not saying your grandpa was the best construction worker.
I'm just saying it was common practice
before to know how to construct, to how to build.
But one of the major tools that is lost in today's world
that we used to use a lot of are chisels
what are called slicks.
So once again,
we just have a saw, wang, done.
Next one, wang, done.
Next one. Right. Or like,
you know, there's so many other ways to get the wood into a certain
shape and size and different angles and stuff like that.
But we used to back in the day, take a chisel,
which a chisel is basically a steel piece of
like it's like a mouth with a flat edge like this.
And you would take a hammer, a mallet, and you would cut the wood
into certain shapes and sizes.
If you needed it to be thinner or wider and all these different things,
you would actually take the chisel and chisel
the shape of what you needed the wood to be.
I mean, for crying out loud,
even the concept of a nail is obviously all the way back to the Bible.
We see nails in the Bible, but people were so good at their job
in lots of cases in ancient buildings.
They didn't even need to fasten wood together with nails.
They just the woods, they fit perfectly together.
And people were so keen to their math that it would just lay
right onto each other like a Lego piece, for crying out loud.
But slicks were like that, but you didn't take a hammer to the end of it.
You just slid the the the the sharp end on one end
and it shaved off the wood as you went.
OK, what about the two man saw that I pointed out or like pulleys?
Think about today, right?
We have bobcats and we have like excavators.
We have things to pull heavy items and drop them off.
How did you think you were going to get a rock on the top layer of the temple?
How did you think you're going to get it up there?
You probably had a pulley system where a bunch of people can pull the weight
of this huge, massive stone all the way up to this to a second, third, fourth story.
And then one of the more
sentimental things to me is knots, rope.
Crying out loud, I know nowadays I'm spoiled and I use a ratchet strap.
I just ratchet strap everything that I want to.
But I mean,
you got to have at least like five different knots under your belt, guys,
to to help you out for the future.
Slip knot, square knot, box knot, you know, friction knot.
Just have like three or four different knots that'll help you.
I mean, for crying out loud,
you may not always hit the ratchet strap to help you out.
So just kind of broaden your eyes and go to the boys,
the boys club and learn how to do a knot or two, you know,
because it's only going to help you in the long haul.
Sailors know a lot of different knots.
And I only have really like five down in my belt.
So I just stick to those five.
But OK, we get it.
The tools are different.
They had different tools before.
But understand this.
Ancient construction was better than modern construction.
What do I mean by that?
I found this article and it talks about the differences
between ancient and modern construction, and it basically says
the basic difference between the houses of ancient time and current is space.
Earlier, the houses were made
more spacious and covered large spaces to be built.
But with the increased population,
the houses are more are in smaller spaces.
And the number of houses is on the increase.
Old buildings are constructed using minimum energy
they use to create less waste than modern buildings.
So think about this house that we're currently in or most plantation
style homes here in Hawaii are single level.
The single level design is a very simple, basic building type.
And before we didn't stick houses right next to each other.
People had space and property and like you didn't want someone
right less than a football field away from you.
Sometimes you didn't see another house for quite a bit of ways.
Now, I'm not saying there weren't areas that were more dense,
but by and large, construction of the ancient world
had a lot to do with your space.
You wanted bigger space.
And I know me, I like elbow room.
I don't know about you guys,
but I don't like when the walls are closing in on me.
And, you know, it's like
vaulted ceilings are a little bit more common back in the day.
Now we have ceilings that are shorter.
And just that your neighbors weren't just immediately right next to you
because everyone had their own little properties and stuff like that.
But not only that.
Old buildings are built with thicker walls,
which makes them stronger and durable.
Old buildings comprised a strong base
and they are built with better quality of materials.
Traditional style homes, not surprisingly, are usually made
of traditional material like brick, wood, plaster, stucco and stone.
And very are very common.
Modern designs take
new approaches with new technologies with like plastics
and concrete and these other things.
So basically.
Think about it like this pre Industrial Revolution, right,
because before the Industrial Revolution,
people had to figure out how to build amazing monuments
that to this day have stood the test of time.
And back to what I keep talking about.
There's a lost art to construction.
I believe there is a form of construction
that we don't know anymore because it's not been practiced.
And actually, it's actually considered
wasteful or it's considered not important
because you can build a house faster, cheaper.
And they would say it's better.
But let me give you an example of a couple of amazing structures
that were before the Industrial Revolution
that are still here, that stood the test of time.
The obvious one is the pyramids of Giza.
I mean, for crying out loud to this day,
that we have no idea how the pyramids were built.
We have speculations, we have theories, we have ideas,
but we don't know how they built those pyramids.
They were amazingly built.
And do you think they had an excavator
to pick these rocks up and drop them off on each layer?
No, they had a different methods to their constructing to the.
I think they cut stone that was taller than this house.
I don't know.
And there's, I believe, a lost art to construction.
What about the Great Wall of China?
The Great Wall of China is one of those you can see from space.
If you look on a satellite down in China,
you see where the Great Wall, it's a line sitting there.
So it goes to show that engineering and and constructing
before was just mind boggling.
What about Stonehenge?
We're Polynesians, right?
Polynesia, I mean, a Stonehenge sits in Eastern Island.
These rocks that are just gargantuan
piled onto each other in a certain perfect pattern,
that's unfathomable, we look at and we're like, how did this happen?
People have built many, many miniature versions of Stonehenge,
and it's still not as good as how those ones were built.
And it's just like mind blowing to us, like, how did they do this?
And the last one I'm going to point to is the Great Colosseum.
That one, we can kind of understand,
you know, because just the way it's constructed, but it's still there,
which goes to show like they're constructing, constructing was way better.
What about post Industrial Revolution?
Because that's what changed everything when it comes to construction.
Once again, just think about the word Industrial Revolution,
you're trying to produce a lot more quickly, right?
And there's goods and bads, pros and cons.
Number one, what do you think outside of water,
the planet's number one commodity is outside of water?
It's lumber, timber,
that is one of the commodities that anywhere in the world
you can acquire and achieve wood.
Remember log cabin homes?
Remember how it said a moment ago that they used to have thicker wall bases.
So just picture today's modern single wall style home, right?
You got, you know, an exterior plywood, you got an interior plywood,
you have a wooden frame with two by fours, four by sixes and four by fours.
Then you put insulation in between it, drywall it, paint it.
There's so much material in that drywall to create is not easy and it's dangerous.
And the same thing with, you know, the fiberglass found in insulation.
You ever put insulation in and you're like all itchy when you're done,
you breathe that stuff in, it's no good. And like.
Your old style, you know, log cabin home actually insulated heat better in ways
and could handle a hurricane and could handle crazy winds and things like that.
I knew a guy, I know a guy in Kauai.
And you know, the rock home or rock wall buildings
that you see all around here in Hawaii,
like rock walls that like celebrities get and just like nice estates.
One of the rock wall designers in Kauai, this huge Samoan guy that I know,
and he has a big family of like 10 of them
and they own one of the major rock walling companies on Kauai.
And he built his whole home with rock wall.
And just think about the story of, you know, the three little pigs,
one built it out of straw, one built it out of wood and one built it out of the rocks.
Guess what stood the test of time? One built out of rock. So.
Once again, ancient building material was better, less waste and so on and so forth.
But let me give you an example of some modern,
good construction types.
Think about the Eiffel Tower, right?
The Eiffel Tower is a very amazing achievement.
We look at that and it's like, wow, that was after the Industrial Revolution.
It's still there today.
People go there and visit all the time and look off of it.
And it's quite amazing. It's like, wow.
We've just entered into the Industrial Revolution.
And here's this amazing structure they built.
What about the Golden Gate Bridge?
The Golden Gate Bridge is a pretty amazing,
you know, bridge.
I don't know the exact length of it, but I do know that there's a painting crew
that annually paints the Golden Gate Bridge.
So at the beginning of the year, they start at one end
and throughout the whole year, they work their way to the very end.
By the time they get to the very end, they go right back to the beginning
and they paint it. And it's just an annual paint job.
Every year. Talk about job security.
Get in on the painting crew of the Golden Gate Bridge.
What about the Sydney Opera House
in, you know, Sydney, Australia?
I'm not actually like, you know, I've never been there, obviously,
but like that's a very famous building.
It's very amazing.
It has to do with how they designed it for the acoustics and the singing
and interiorly. It's like it's like an amazing structure.
It was after the Industrial Revolution.
And the last one I'm going to point in point
at is something that's going to be obvious in light of what I'm talking about.
What about the World Trade Center?
The World Trade Center is was a new building.
Now, let me ask you this. Did it last?
Did it stand the test of time?
No, that thing went down like a ton of bricks.
And this is what I'm trying to get at.
Modern construction is different than ancient construction.
Modern constructors try to build vertically, not horizontally.
Even the pyramids go up pretty high. Right.
But before they went up, they went out and they came and they crawled up. Right.
The Great Wall of China is pretty tall, but they understood it.
After a certain point, I'm going to leave it at where it is.
The Eiffel Tower is shaped like a pyramid.
So I don't know whose bright mind it was to build a building
vertically up 20 plus stories and think it was going to last
and stand the test of time.
This is a philosophy behind modern day construction, because
they would rather save money and build their profits and build vertically.
Natural disasters, bad design
have taken out so many skyscrapers.
It's not even funny.
But like, this is what I'm trying to get at.
Let's us men realize.
The blessing it is to know how to build, how to construct,
how to fabricate things, because I'll even go on to say this.
You're not too good for construction.
Are you? You know, like I
I've done everything from roofing, framing, masonry, plumbing,
epoxy pipe restoration, solar panel installation,
wiring, low voltage, high voltage,
you know, painting, tree and all these different trades.
I never got into flooring and I never got into finished carpentry.
And there's a reason I didn't get into that,
because that's your your fine detail stuff.
But if you think to yourself,
let's say you want to be a lawyer, you want to be a doctor, right?
You're not better than and what is a doctor?
I mean, you're constructing the human body in ways it's broken.
You got to fix it.
Or what does it mean to be a vet?
The animal's dying and you got to find ways to fix it right now.
A lawyer is different.
Obviously, that has to do with legal mumbo jumbo, but
ultimately, you can find forms of building and construction in every field.
So we need to realize that you're not too good for construction.
Turn, if you would, to Genesis Chapter one.
Genesis Chapter one.
The Bible tells us right off the bat first chapter in the Bible
what God expects of us, mankind.
Genesis Chapter one, verse 25.
It reads, And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind.
And the cattle after their kind and everything that creepeth
upon the earth after his kind.
And God saw that it was what it was good.
And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air
and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth.
So basically, the Bible's saying we're to have a dominion over these things,
but not only that, we're supposed to also subdue it.
So God created man in his own image and the image of God created him.
Male and female created them.
And God blessed him and God said unto them,
be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it.
These animal activists, these climate change weirdos
that are trying to worship the land, worship the earth, worship animals.
The Bible says in Roman one
that they worship and serve the creature more than the creator
who is blessed forever. Amen.
He's known as the creator.
He creates things.
And we have built inside of us this mind to build, to create,
because Jesus Christ is known as the great master builder.
And he tells us to subdue the land.
Now, we also have dominion, as in we reign over animals
and fishes and birds, and we are also to build things to be honor and glory to God.
So right off the bat,
Genesis one tells us to subdue and have dominion over the earth
and everything that's in it is so.
Let me point out some amazing structures in the Bible,
because I pointed out some pretty amazing structures that mankind has made, right?
Well, let's point out a couple
that the Bible, that God has helped man to build.
Number one is the obvious, the ark.
The ark is a boat that no one has been able to duplicate.
People are trying and people have made duplicates of the ark.
They don't know exactly how it was built.
We have dimensions, we have material type,
and we have different, you know, explanations of the ark.
But we do not know exactly how the ark was built.
And I think that's on purpose.
I don't think God wants man to recreate this because it was a miraculous event.
God explained it in the Noah, build it this way with these things.
The ark is an amazing building.
What about like we pointed out earlier, the tabernacle?
Obviously, the tabernacle could be considered less amazing.
And like it's like a tent system with, you know,
it's a simple portable tent, movable thing.
But nevertheless, it was coated in gold and there is jewels
and there are all these amazing like fabrics that were built all within it.
What about the Ark of the Covenant?
What about the altar?
What about the temple, the wall of Jerusalem?
These are amazing structures that the Bible points out.
Because like I was mentioning before,
we're talking about construction in light of the Bible.
There are people that we look to as famous builders in the Bible
that are great godly men, for crying out loud.
Jesus's mother, Mary's husband, was a carpenter.
Joseph was a carpenter.
The Bible says in Matthew 13, 55, is not this the carpenter's son?
They thought Jesus was the son of a carpenter.
Now, he was the son of God and God is the great master builder.
But he wasn't the son of Joseph.
And you got to remember this.
Jesus Christ came from the line of Judah,
which the the genealogy and Matthew goes all the way to Joseph.
So Joseph, who is of the king's succession, of the king of Judah,
who was a carpenter, was not too good for this.
And neither should we. We're not too good for this.
Joseph wasn't too good for it.
And he was under the lineage of the of of the kings of Judah.
What about Second Kings, chapter 20, verse 20 says,
and the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might,
and how he had made a pool and a conduit and brought water into the city.
And they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.
So King Hezekiah built a pool and a conduit,
which is a system of bringing water from one place to another place.
This is mentioned four times in the Bible.
It's mentioned in Second Kings 18, 17.
It's mentioned in Isaiah 7, 3, and it's mentioned in Isaiah 36, 2.
So remember, we believe that the Bible emphasizes things.
So if it points out four times the constructing of this conduit
and the pointing of this out, God's trying to tell us that, like,
this is important.
This is an amazing thing that Hezekiah did.
Hezekiah made many mistakes in his life.
But building that conduit was not one of them.
Solomon made a lot of mistakes in his life,
but building that temple wasn't one of them.
David made a lot of mistakes.
He didn't build nothing physically,
but he was also a man after God's own heart.
What about in Second Chronicles 26, verse 14?
And Uzziah prepared for them throughout all the host's shields
and spears and helmets and heberghans and bows and slings to cast stones.
And he made in Jerusalem engines invented by cunning men
to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks to shoot arrows
and great stones with all.
And his name spread far abroad, for he was marvelously helped till he was strong.
King Uzziah was a guy that people look to, and they're like,
this guy was cunning. He was smart.
Why? He invented engines and he was able to shoot arrows.
And basically he built catapults and and these structures to shoot
and defend the wall of Jerusalem.
And this is what the Bible is trying to point out.
To build, to construct is a good thing.
You're not too good for it.
God uses blue collar people to get his work done.
He's not always picking the savant or the wise like scholar.
He's most cases using the foolish things of this world to confound the wise,
the weak things of this world to confound the mighty.
We as blue collar construction people are pointed to
by the rest of the world as dumb, degenerate, low life idiots.
And don't get me wrong, a lot of construction people
help paint that stereotype because they are bumbling, dumb idiots.
But not everyone.
The Bible says construction skill is what if you're wise, you're cunning.
You are smart if you can fabricate and build and do all these things.
And it's just it blows my mind that it's so downplayed
and so made fun of according to the rest of the world.
But let's us as Bible believing Christians understand construction
in light of the Bible.
Turn, if you would, to Exodus chapter 31.
A couple of books to the one book to the right.
Exodus chapter 31.
What does it say in Exodus chapter 31, verse one?
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
See, I've called by name Basilil, the son of Uri,
the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled in with what?
The spirit of God in wisdom and an understanding
and in the knowledge and in all manner of workmanship to devise cutting works
to work in gold and in silver and in brass and in cutting of stones
and to set them in carving of timber
to work in all manner of workmanship.
And I behold, I have given with him a holy book,
the son of Ahizamak of the tribe of Dan, and in the hearts of all
that are wise hearted, I have put wisdom
that they may make all that I have commanded thee.
So the Bible is pointing out this person, Basilil, as a
God says, I've instilled in this person wisdom to build
and all these different materials and those who are with them.
I've instilled wisdom. So.
Like I was pointing out, I keep pointing out my grandparents, our grandparents,
because.
I mean, you remember your grandparent could build anything, I don't know,
but like you just give him lumber and he's like, I can.
Build the house, I can build, they'll build a car engine,
and this is a lost art that we are coming dumbed down as a society.
They want you guys fixated on phones.
They want you fixated on technology.
They want you fixated on Internet.
They want you fixated on technological advancements, which
I personally am not a big fan of.
I'm not like.
You know, I know we're in the technological era
and I know technology kind of has changed everything.
But I have a saying and it's kiss, keep it simple, stupid.
Sometimes it's better to just know, like
simpler skills or skills that are, I guess,
considered by others as primitive or less important.
And I'm not even going to sit here and say that.
You will make more money if you know how to do more construction.
I guarantee you, that's not true.
I don't doubt you can live a very comfortable life as a master builder,
as they think about the guy who is an engineer, who can engineer a skyscraper,
who can engineer a plane or someone who can actually fabricate the plane
and then the steel and and rivet all those things together.
Like, that's not easy.
And there are levels in every trade.
So obviously you have your master builders,
your sub masters and your apprentices and all of the chain.
But
we can have a general understanding of how to build and to construct.
Maybe you're not Basilio.
I know I ain't Basilio.
I can't just you can't just hand me anything and say, build this.
But I think it'd be wise to know how to fix the toilet when it's running.
I think it'd be wise to know how to switch the light bulb when it's burnt out.
I think it's good to know how to do,
how to patch some drywall because the kid poked a hole in the wall.
I mean, I know growing up, me and my brothers,
we busted a lot of holes and a lot of drywall.
So we had to learn really quickly how
to patch drywall, you know, and that's one person.
Turn if you would to Nehemiah chapter two.
Basilil was a great man of God.
Joseph
was a was a blue collar guy.
Solomon build the temple.
But what about Nehemiah?
If you want to look to any book of the Bible
for constructing, construction or building, it's Nehemiah, Esther and Nehemiah.
The amount of building and constructing that's going on the second temple
building, the wall of Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem is being rebuilt.
And in Nehemiah chapter two, verse 12,
you can see an example of a good example of a builder.
It just simply says in Nehemiah chapter two, verse 12,
it reads, And I rose in the night and
saw few men with me, neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart
to do at Jerusalem, neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I wrote
upon, and I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon
well and in the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem,
which were broken down and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.
Then I went on the gate of the fountain and to the king's pool.
But there was no place for the beast that I was under that was under me to pass.
Then went I up in the night by the brook
and viewed the wall and turned back and entered by the gate of the valley.
And so return and the rulers knew not whither I went or what I did.
Neither had I as yet told it to the Jews nor the priests, nor to the nobles,
nor the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work.
Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in,
how Jerusalem lieth waste and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
Then I told them of the hand of my God,
which was good upon me, has also the king's words.
He had spoken unto me and they said,
let us rise up and build so they strengthen their hands for this good work.
Nehemiah was able to encourage people to look at Jerusalem and say,
God has put it on my heart to rebuild this.
The king allows us to do this.
Let's stir you guys up and build you up and get you excited to rebuild the temple,
the wall in Jerusalem, because this was a blessing.
It had been in Babylonian captivity for the last 70 years.
And God promised that after the 70 years are expired,
he's going to let them back in the land.
He's going to bring back the good figs and he's going to discard the bad figs.
So Nehemiah and the whole entire book of Nehemiah is a lot about him.
I built this. I built that.
This guy built this. This guy built that.
I'm not going to go into all of it for sake of time.
But look down, if you would, at chapter four.
Verse 15.
Chapter four, verse 15, the Bible reads,
and it came to pass when our enemies had heard that it was known unto us,
and God had brought their counsel to naught,
that we return all of us to the wall, everyone unto his work.
And it came to pass from that time forth that the half of my servants wrought
in the work and the other half, they them held both the spear and shields
and the bows and the hebregons and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.
They which builded on the wall and they that bear burdens with those
that laid it, everyone with one of his hands wrought
in the work and with the other hand held the weapon for the builders.
Everyone had his sword girded by his side and so builded.
And he that sounded the trumpet was by me.
So take this symbolically.
You have people that are building with one hand and fighting with the other.
This is the life of Christianity.
This is the life of the servitude of God.
We need to go out and fight the Lord's
battles and do our part to defend doctrine,
to defend our brothers and sisters, to defend God himself.
But on the other hand, we're to build, we're to show people the gospel,
invest in our brothers and sisters, show them doctrine and all these things.
And this spiritually is the life of Christianity, of us as Christians.
Fight the Lord's battles and help build up the kingdom of heaven.
And we as New Testament Christians are not told to build a temple.
We're not told to build a physical nation.
We are told to build a spiritual nation.
We're told to build the hearts of the unsaved, to build the hearts of our
brothers and sisters, to bring into the new heaven and the new earth.
We want to build the kingdom of God.
That's what we are to do by going out and preaching the gospel.
And when we do this, the Lord will direct
our paths, if in all our ways we acknowledge him, he'll direct our paths.
And I just think it's very important that in your life you realize that you're not
too good for construction and I'm not too good for construction.
For crying out loud, I've been living in a garage for the last two weeks
and I have been doing a work trade for my landlord, helping them to build
a section of our living quarters from their garage.
And they're nice enough to allow us to do
a work trade so that I can on my own time invest more in this church, because this
is the primary objective, to invest in this church and build up this island for God.
But praise the Lord, he decided in his
foreknowledge to guide me into my new landlord.
And he says you can live in their garage,
build a physical structure for you and your wife to live in.
And I just see that as a blessing in disguise.
Some may look at this and be like, oh, what a lame living situation.
The Bible says,
I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread.
If I do the work like we talked about in our bulletin, six days shall thou labor
and one you will rest and do all your work.
God promises he will take care of you.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And all these things shall be added unto you.
He didn't promise me an AC unit, two bedroom house with vaulted ceilings.
He promised me a place, a dwelling, the man I serve, the man I follow,
the God I serve and follow, says the foxes have holes in the birds
of the nest and the heirs have nests with the Son of Man and nowhere to lay his head.
So you think I'm too good for that, right?
We think we're too good for that.
We're a little too comfortable in 21st century Hawaii, America.
Let's remember the importance of struggle, of building, of constructing.
And when we get these things right,
when we understand these things and we translate them into our spiritual
walk, we will understand the importance of constructing.
The title of this message this morning is
Construction of the Light of the Bible. Spare our heads and have a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this morning.
Thank you so much for your word, salvation, for allowing us to gather together,
help us to understand the importance of spiritually doing our part to help
construct, to help build up the kingdom of heaven.
We understand that you're the one who builds the church,
but you use us as tools to do it.
And we ask that,
you know, even in our physical secular life, that if people come on hard times
or they have issues that they don't ever think to themselves that they're too good
to build, to construct, to fix things for people in the process,
we understand that there's a foundation that we are laid on.
And that's you, Jesus, and that we're founded upon you.
And anything that is built upon that wood, hay and stubble will be burned up.
But gold, silver and precious stone will make it all the way to the end.
And we ask that you help us throughout
our week and to just bring you more honor and glory in Jesus Christ name.
We pray. Amen.