I'm Working On a Building
Pastor Harold Warner
Hah! When I read it, something between groan and a laugh escaped my lips.
Sue Maakestad, who is the editor of our Bullseye publication had emailed me and said, “And [gentle nudge...] is your article almost ready for this year’s issue? Deadline is 2/28 and it hits the page 3/9, Lord willing.”
No, not really. In fact, I haven’t even started it! Not just because I was too busy, or because somehow I was above contributing to the publication (which is read by thousands of people). No, it was because I don’t consider myself an expert on child-rearing, and to write something meaningful and helpful is not something you can turn on and off like a switch. Sue, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to write something, because I don’t really have anything on my mind.
Then one line from Sue put me over the top, and it got my inspiration motor up and running! She wrote: “We’d love your reminisces and Mona’s on the ‘day of small beginnings’ history of this ministry, to honor our 40th.” Okay, okay, I give in! I can’t speak for my wife, Mona, since I’m sitting on an airplane and she’s not here with me – although, if you could get some of her thoughts it could be a tremendous article and contribution to forty years of ministry here in Tucson, and worth reading.
As a young disciple in the Prescott church, I can remember singing the chorus: I’m working on a building/it has a firm foundation/and I’m holding up the blood-stained banner of my Lord/And I never get tired, tired, tired/ working on a building/and when I get to heaven I’m going to receive my reward.
A couple of things you should know. First, you don’t want to put a hammer in my hand, because I could become dangerous. I am the furthest thing from a craftsman when it comes to construction work or finished carpentry.
However, I can relate to working on God’s building, His house, which is the church.
Like the apostle Paul says, “Because of God's grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have – Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 3:10,11).
The building is God’s, so you and I must be careful how we build on His foundation, and the only materials that will work are called “living stones.”
The image of building or re-building is a decidedly Biblical one. The entire book of Nehemiah recounts the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls, and is meant to be a picture of God’s greatest masterpiece: you and I.
One chapter that stands out as a “building chapter” Zechariah 4:1-10. It is dealing with the re-building of God’s house, the Temple.
Three things stand out in this passage, and all three have helped me in co-laboring with God over these last forty years.
The Source of Everything!
It was sort of like “jet lag” sleep, where you wake up and it takes you a few moments to recollect where you are?! This is how Zechariah felt as the angel asked him, “Do you know what these are?” and he responded, “No, my Lord.”
It reminds me of that time on the Sea of Galilee when Peter and six other apostles had spent the whole night fishing. Far more than fish was on their minds. They were trying to make some sense of all that had happened to them in the last couple of days. They wished for clarity on everything.
It was there that Jesus inserted Himself and asked them a question: "Fellows, have you caught any fish?" and they had to reply, “No” (John 21:5).
This is all so critical because the starting point with God is the admission of our sense of inadequacy. Throughout the Bible, when God calls a man to do something great for Him, it is usually accompanied by the revelation that, in ourselves, we do not have what it takes.
We’ve all felt this: that sense of inadequacy, the impotence, the lack of any kind of ability when it comes to God’s calling and purposes.
Think about Moses, when he was called to take on Pharaoh, the most powerful and influential man of his time! First he says, “They will not believe me or hear my voice” (he won’t buy into the fact that this is a “God thing”).
Then, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent” (persuasive words don’t come naturally to me).
Then he crossed a line by presumptuously suggesting that God find someone else for the job!
In all of these cases, we’re not dealing with man’s rebellious nature, but with people who happen to see things clearly. They know one thing is certain: “God, if you don’t help me (us), then there’s no way forward!”
Zechariah knew all this; he was under no delusions. This is why the Lord spoke to him in verse 6, saying, “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord of hosts.”
How this promise must have encouraged His worker, Zerubbabel! These words have crossed my lips countless times in prayer and in relation to the work of the ministry, working on that building!
The witness the world needs to see can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit’s power working in and through us.
The Holy Spirit is not just acting here in a “supporting role.” No. Without His presence and power and working, we are at a total loss. The source of everything is: “by My Spirit says the Lord.”
The Great Commission found in the last words of the Gospel of Matthew contains this promise that we must lock on to: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
The Place of Small Things!
Every young pastor-pioneer learns to love this verse. That’s because when he looks around him at his congregation, “small things” is what stands out!
There was a pastor of a mega-church in Brisbane, Australia who once told Pastor Mitchell, after listening to his vision, “If you’re running 2000 people, then people will listen [pay attention] to what you have to say.”
The Bible is certainly not afraid of numbers, but size does not automatically determine legitimacy!
God’s word to Zerubbabel was clear: don’t despise or look down upon those small beginnings.
It is usually here that God is fashioning something in us that will bless and benefit us years later. It is also a truth that communicates this truth to people and workers: Your value is related to who you are, not the size of your church.
I’ve told many workers down through the years that our investment is in them, not in church size.
Don’t get me wrong. This doesn’t mean I don’t want to see the church grow and reach its full potential, but there will always be small beginnings.
That’s one reason I love the Christmas story. Because we find that God broke all the rules – at least the marketing rules. The central, pivotal prophecy emphasizes this:
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.”
Bethlehem was not on the radar screen of happening places. Yet, when Herod inquired of the priests where the Messiah was to be born, they pointed to this fact of small beginnings.
There’s a truth here that we need to grasp and appreciate: God uses the few, the small, and the insignificant. When God was selecting a man after His own heart, He chose David, the runt of the litter, to be anointed to one day become Israel’s benchmark king.
When talking about Solomon’s wisdom in I Kings 4:33 He says, “He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall.” God’s working included the majestic cedars of Lebanon as well as the lowly hyssop bush.
God chose tiny Israel, not some great world power, to be the caretaker of His covenants and promises, to pave the way for our Redeemer Jesus Christ to come. Even today, when you look at a world atlas, there is small Israel as the center of the earth.
What is the take-away truth in all of this? The reason we don’t need to despair is that the kingdom of God advances by means of small things and small victories.
The overwhelming message of Jesus’s life from His birth, His teaching and discipleship, and His death and resurrection is this: small creates big!
This is why, in God’s economy, some of the smallest things have the greatest impact.
Skye Jethani captured this truth: “Consider: God’s plan to redeem creation (big) is achieved through his incarnation as an impoverished baby (small). Jesus feeds thousands on a hillside (big) with just a few fish and loaves (small). Christ seeks to make disciples of all nations (big) but he starts with a handful of fishermen (small). Even Goliath (big) is defeated by David with a few stones (small).”
This truth was also illustrated by historian David Hackett Fisher, who pointed out General George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware. The men of the Continental Army and militia accomplished this on Christmas night 1776 and marched to Trenton, New Jersey. This surprise attack and victory set the stage for the subsequent victories that would follow.
Overall, it may not rank up there as one of the great or epic battles of history, but it proved to be a tipping point in the Revolutionary War and cause.
Listen to how Jethani described it: “From the time of the crossing of the Delaware River to within the next ten days, the fate of the colonies changed. The army survived and grew stronger. The British and Hessians almost instantly saw their enemies, these ‘rebellious farmers,’ turned into a formidable foe. And it all began here, by the McKonkey Ferry Inn, when a small band crossed a tempestuous river, because they could see, hear, and conceive a new future.”
It became known as the Ten Crucial Days – a campaign that saved Washington’s army from defeat, allowing them to fight another day and achieve ultimate victory.
Strength to Carry On!
Every honest pastor and church pioneer has wrestled with these thoughts and feelings: Do I really have what it takes? Strength to hang in there, strength to see it through until the end, strength to pick yourself up after a fall.
God gave Zerubbabel a word he could hold on to. In verse 7 he says: “Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain; and he shall bring forth the capstone with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace to it.”
We know from Jesus’s teaching that a “mountain” is a picture of an obstacle; in this case, an obstacle met and overcome by God’s grace. The purpose and promise is that you might know the Lord will finish His work (i.e., the capstone, which was the finishing aspect of the rebuilt Temple).
It is during the hard and difficult seasons of life that our perspective is made clear. Psalm 73 is a masterpiece of honesty, as the psalmist reviewed the things that almost knocked him out of the race.
The conclusion that all of this taught him was: “For me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.”
Simple, yes. But also practical and profound. It is good for me to stay near God so that He is my refuge and my strength. Staying near to God is the exact opposite of where sin will take you, and that is not a good place for you to be.
One of the premier passages in this context is Isaiah 40:31: “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.”
Zerubbabel is given a promise for strength to carry on, even in the face of real opposition.
There is a quarry by the side of the I-10 freeway leading to and from Los Angeles, located in Colton, California. It has been there for years and years, and is almost a kind of landmark in the area as you travel through.
The striking thing about it is that it keeps getting smaller and smaller. It is minuscule compared to what it used to be. “Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain.”
God will give you strength to do His will and to finish His work. What is the outcome of this promise? “You shall bring forth the capstone with shoutings of grace, grace to it!”
It’s the finishing piece of this great endeavor. Strength to finish, oh yes!
Jesus said in John 4:34: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” This is success in God’s eyes: glorifying Him by completing the work He gives us to do. Like food, this will sustain your soul! No, we’re not home yet; none of us has crossed the finish line. But, O glorious day! One day, by God’s grace, we will be. Until then, keep working on that building!
T. Austin Sparks wrote: “Men of the world look upon Christians and, for the most part, do not think much of them. They measure them by the standards of the world and say: ‘Well, they are rather a poor lot; their caliber is not much!’
“But men of the world are unable to measure spiritual and heavenly forces. They are unable to see what is happening when a few of those poor, weak, foolish, despised things get together and pray... and the powers of heaven are being brought into operation.”