Church Is a Panel Shop: Called, Repaired and Built on the Rock

Sermon outline

When your heart is persuaded that God Himself called you, and your life is built on doing His word, you will stand through storms and suffering while He repairs, establishes, strengthens and settles you.

1. The wise man does the word and builds on the rock

   Jesus likens the person who hears His sayings and does them to a wise man who built on the rock, and the one who hears and does not do them to a foolish man who built on sand. The same rain, floods and winds came to both houses. Jesus never said life would be free of storms, only that the doer's house would stand, so building on the rock simply means becoming a doer of God's word.

   Illustration: You cannot look at a Christian whose house has fallen and assume the devil attacked him for serving the Lord. You do not know whether he was building on rock or on sand.

   “A man or woman who builds their life on the word of God just cannot fall.”

   • Matthew 7:24-27
   • James 1:22-24

2. After you have suffered a while, God makes you what you ought to be

   Reading 1 Peter 5, he notes that humbling yourself is the way up and that we cast every care on the God who cares for us. He settles on verse 10: there is a suffering, but it has a purpose, to make you perfect and entire, lacking nothing. In the Amplified Bible God Himself will complete you and make you what you ought to be, which means He is committed to finishing the work He began.

   “He is the potter. You are the clay.”

   • 1 Peter 5:1-11
   • James 1:4
   • Isaiah 64:8
   • Hebrews 12:2
   • Philippians 1:6

3. Today I am exposing your foundations

   The week before he had taught on the transfer of wealth, but you will not simply become wealthy if you are building the wrong way. So he takes the church back to foundations and asks each person to shine the torch on their own house, not their neighbour's, and ask why it is not prospering, being healed or advancing in the things of God.

   Illustration: He once bought a house that kept shifting because the soil was bad. Engineers did soil tests, exposed the foundations, and had to jack the house and underpin it to stop it moving.

   “You want to know why you're shaking? Check your foundations.”

4. You are called: get that into your foundation

   Grace, charis, is divine favour and divine influence on the heart, and the God of all grace has called you. It was not a pastor, your parents, your circumstances or the church that called you, and God did not need your permission. He runs through scripture after scripture on being called, defines the call as a strong inner urge to follow and as being invited by name, and warns that you can run like Jonah but you cannot hide. So do not look back, and do not let people's opinions move you from your place.

   Illustration: There were many flowers, but He chose you. Your petals may be broken, there may be thorns in your stem, and every rose around you may say you are the worst rose, but He called you.

   “If God approves you, no man can disprove you.”

   • Philippians 3:12
   • Romans 1:1
   • Acts 9:5
   • 1 Corinthians 1:26-27
   • Genesis 21:17
   • Genesis 22:11
   • Exodus 3:4
   • Isaiah 49:1
   • John 15:15
   • Romans 1:6
   • Romans 8:28
   • Galatians 1:6
   • Galatians 1:15
   • 2 Timothy 1:9
   • 1 Peter 2:9
   • Revelation 17:14
   • Hebrews 13:5
   • Jonah 1:3
   • Jonah 2:1
   • Genesis 3:9
   • Luke 17:32

5. You received the Anointed One and His anointing

   Christ, Christos, means the Anointed One and His anointing. After knowing you are called, the second thing to be established in is that you are anointed: anointed in the middle of sickness to cast it out, and in the middle of lack to call forth provision.

   “When you receive Christ, what did you receive? The anointed one and his anointing.”

   • 1 Peter 5:10

6. Suffered a while: painful experiences and the school of hard knocks

   The word for suffered means a painful experience. These do not come because God wants to punish us but because He is making us. 'A while' can be a brief or a long season, depending on how quickly you learn. So adjust your expectations: being saved does not mean everything will be hallelujah, but God is with you in the valley as much as in the victory shout, and joy comes in the morning.

   Illustration: A pastor from Lesotho he met on a flight to the UK described how mules are broken in: a pack goes on its back, it kicks the load off and is struck, and this repeats until it stands quietly and takes the weight. The clever one submits quickly and the stubborn one keeps getting knocked down.

   “There's two ways to learn. One is by the word of God, which is teaching. And two, the school of hard knocks.”

   • Proverbs 20:30
   • Psalm 23:4
   • Psalm 30:5

7. Made perfect: you are under repair in God's panel shop

   The Greek word for perfect means to complete thoroughly: to repair, adjust, frame, mend, join together, prepare and restore. God can only repair what is broken, so nobody should walk around church as if they have arrived or make newcomers feel unwelcome, because everyone came in for repairs. People arrive saved but fragmented by divorce, broken homes and hard upbringings, and the word of God by the anointing of the Spirit puts them back together.

   Illustration: Church is a panel beating shop: body filler, spot putty, sandpaper, primer, first and second coats and clear lacquer, a bake in the oven and then the showroom. He also calls George and Craig up to stand apart as one man's mind, spirit and body, then brings them together to show how the word joins a fragmented person.

   “The devil thought that you were fit for a rubbish heap. God thinks that you are fit to be framed.”

   • 1 Peter 5:10

8. Four things God wants to do for you

   From 1 Peter 5:10 he draws four things: number one, God wants to perfect you; number two, establish you; number three, strengthen you; number four, settle you. He stops at the first and promises to define each word the following week. Meanwhile you are rooted and grounded in love and attached to the vine, with God's life, strength and wisdom in you.

   Illustration: Do not run away from church when He has only just started the panel beating. A little buffing and a little sanding, and one day you are going to shine.

   “God's not finished with you yet.”

   • 1 Peter 5:10
   • Ephesians 3:17
   • John 15:5
   • 1 Corinthians 1:30
   • Philippians 1:6

9. Be strong in the Lord when the evil day comes

   He prefers teaching because teaching establishes and settles people. Humble yourself under God's hand, then turn and resist the devil and he will flee. In Christ your weakness has been replaced with strength and fear with boldness, and a righteous person may fall seven times but gets up every time. Ephesians 6 says there will be an evil day, so do not be confused when it arrives.

   Illustration: He calls Wesley forward to play the evil day, greets him with the words that he has been expecting him, tells him he has been building on the rock, then turns him around and sends him away.

   “God doesn't give birth to wimps.”

   • Ephesians 6:10-18
   • James 4:7
   • 1 Peter 5:6-9
   • 2 Corinthians 5:17
   • 2 Timothy 1:7
   • Proverbs 24:16