Church is all about the decorations and the building.
Let me tell you something.
In the New Testament, the emphasis is not on the building.
It's not on the windows.
It's not on the stained glass.
It's not on the artwork.
It's not on the facilities.
The emphasis is on the preaching and the spirit
and the work and God's people, not a building.
But we have churches today where what do they emphasize?
The building program.
Building fund, that's what it's all about.
And they measure their success in buildings.
Bigger building equals success.
Cheap building, you haven't arrived.
Keep on trying.
Whereas I would measure it the way God measures it,
I know thy works.
He didn't say I know thy building.
I know thy facilities.
I know thy building.
I know thy campus, right?
Okay, here's another thing.
You go to a lot of churches, what's it all about?
The Christian school.
Is that what the New Testament emphasizes?
Not even one mention.
But if we look at the budgets today of churches,
if we actually looked at their bank statement,
where the money's going, huge amounts of money
are going to the Christian school.
And people wonder, how do you afford giving away CDs,
giving away DVDs?
How do you afford to do these soul winning marathons
and take all these trips to Indian reservations
and buy hotels and buy meals and have 100 people out
soul winning and furnish them and equip them and feed them
and lodge them and do a great work for God on the mission
field in Arizona or in the outermost parts of the earth.
Where does the money come from?
Are you being funded by Hamas?
Are you being funded by, you know,
where's the money coming from?
And you know where the money's coming from?
The same place the other church's money's coming from,
except we didn't spend it on a window.
We didn't spend it on a building.
We didn't spend it on Bale Shaft up on top of our building.
We didn't spend it on a Christian school.
We spent it on soul winning.
We just have a different priority of spending our money.
It's that simple.
We didn't dump a bunch of money
into this black hole called a Christian school.
We didn't dump a bunch of money into a black hole
called building a building from scratch.
We didn't dump a bunch of money into artwork
so that our church could look like an art gallery
or a palace.
No, we have a building that's functional.
And it's all about the work, all about getting the job done.
Why?
'Cause we wanna emphasize what God emphasizes
and God says, "Ye are God's building."
He doesn't say, "Get building."
He doesn't, you know, a pastor told me
that his favorite book was Nehemiah,
and I found that disturbing.
Look, I love the word of God.
I love the whole Bible.
I love all of God's word.
Obviously, I would never be down on a portion of God's word,
but I found it disturbing that this pastor said,
"Oh, my favorite book of the Bible is Nehemiah
because, you know, I just love building,
and our church is in this multi-million dollar
building program, and we were in a building program
before, and we're gonna be in another building program."
You know, you know what?
Why don't you pick a favorite book that talks about Jesus?
It's sad today when it's just all about the building,
the building, the building, and Nehemiah's my favorite book.
You know, my favorite books are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
and I'm not criticizing you whatever your favorite book is.
If your favorite book's Genesis, great.
Great, find Jesus in Genesis.
You know, he's there, he's everywhere.
Hey, if your favorite book's Revelation, great.
It's all about Christ, but it's pretty sad today
when somebody's favorite book is Nehemiah
because they just love pulling another building permit
and putting up another thermometer
and let's build, build, build.
No, I wanna build the kingdom of God.
I don't wanna build a kingdom on this earth.
Look, I'm not trying to build a wall around Jerusalem.
I mean, okay, I like that part in Nehemiah too
where he's chasing people and ripping their hair out.
That's a good, I do like that part.
Look, I like the part where he rips the hair off their head.
I like it where he's chasing them.
I like it where he says, "Hey, come back one more time
"and I'll lay hands on you."
I like that too, but you know what?
I'm not gonna emphasize that.
You know why?
'Cause God didn't call me to rip the hair off anybody's head.
God didn't call me to lay hands on anybody
except to ordain them for the gospel ministry, amen.
God didn't call me to curse people
for speaking the wrong language
or for lodging outside the wall of Jerusalem.
You know what?
I'm not gonna emphasize that
because you know what?
We ought to emphasize what God emphasizes.
And it's not a physical battle.
It's not a physical wall.
You know what it is?
It's a spiritual battle and it's Jesus.
Let's emphasize Jesus.
Let's emphasize the gospel.
Let's emphasize soul winning.
Let's emphasize His second coming.
Why don't we emphasize the importance
of having every word of God?
That's something the Bible talks a lot about.
And we need to emphasize not a building,
not a school, not a window, not a steeple.
We need to emphasize what God emphasizes
because all that stuff's gonna burn someday.
The sanctuary is gonna burn.
That steeple's gonna burn.
That church building's gonna burn.
All of it's gonna burn.
It's all gonna become nothing.
But you know what's not gonna burn is my soul,
your soul, and the souls of every person
that we win to Christ.
That's all we can take with us.
It's the only thing that we can take with us.
There's nothing else.