Unless the Lord builds a house,
    the work of the builders is wasted.
Unless the Lord protects a city,
    guarding it with sentries will do no good.
It is useless for you to work so hard
    from early morning until late at night,
anxiously working for food to eat;
    for God gives rest to his loved ones.

Children are a gift from the Lord;
    they are a reward from him.
Children born to a young man
    are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.
How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!
    He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates.

Psalm 127

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On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

Acts 2:1-4

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This Pentecost Sunday, Pastor Josh Kelsey challenged us to examine what we're truly building in our lives. Are we laboring in vain, or are we allowing God to build through us?  Our human ambition can never compare to divine purpose empowered by the Holy Spirit. Just like the first disciples waited on the Holy Spirit, so we can seek God's rest and guidance in all our endeavors. Through four key takeaways, we see that the Old Testament concept of building God's house aligns with the New Testament reality of us as living temples of the Holy Spirit.

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1. The Futility of Self-Building

• Have you ever built something that didn’t last? More dangerous than failure is succeeding at what doesn’t matter.
• Psalm 127 is written by King Solomon, the great builder who constructed the Temple. But even Solomon knew that the most spectacular accomplishments are nothing without God.
• New York City is a mecca of building to manmade glory, but every human empire has crumbled to dust. God’s kingdom is eternal.
• “Then they said, ‘Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.’” Genesis 11:4
• The Tower of Babel was meant to be a testament to man’s glory, but the day of Pentecost is a reversal of Babel.
• At Babel, humans strived to build up their own names without God, and God scattered them by confusing their languages. At Pentecost, God revealed his glory by building his church by the outpouring of His Spirit and unifying people’s languages.
• When we die, if we're not building with the Spirit, we are building with wood and straw, and everything that is not eternal will be burnt up on that final day (see 1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
• This isn't a call to laziness, but rather a reminder of our own futility without God.

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2. The Gift of Rest

• Rest is a sign that the Holy Spirit is at work in you. God's spirit can do a lot more in your waiting than in your striving. 
• On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were waiting on God. The Spirit was poured out while they trusted, not toiled.
• Often we toil and don’t start with prayer because you're anxious that God won't do it. But as you trust, as you wait and pray, He will speak.
• In Exodus 32, God is giving the law to Moses, but the people become impatient and make their own idol, the Golden Calf.
• Many of us want the blessing without God. Do you seek to justify your own ambitions, forming idols because you don’t want to wait on God? 
• Biblical principles work whether or not you follow Jesus. For example, the principle of generosity and the tithe are modeled by successful businessmen who donate charitably to live expansively.
• Both sides are problematic: to pursue the blessing without God means the blessing will be empty, but to demand the blessing without following God’s ways shows an impatience to move on without God.
• Whatever you start in the flesh, must be maintained by the flesh. But if you start in the Spirit, it will be maintained by His Spirit (see Galatians 3:3).
• Jesus tells a parable in Mark 4 of a farmer who trusts the power of the seed, allowing it to grow although “he does not understand how it happens.” 
• If you’re moving in the flow of the Holy Spirit, you can trust that the seed is going to work and that God brings the growth (see 1 Corinthians 3:6).
• We don’t need to eat “the bread of anxious toil” but rather rely on God’s daily provision, his manna.

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3. The Gospel of Family

• The second part of the Psalm focuses not just on physical building but on the legacy of future generations. 
• Do you build just to meet your own needs or for your entertainment or are you partnering with God’s vision of a heavenly harvest to come?
• In the Old Testament, children were your future, and at Pentecost, God redefines family—not by bloodlines, but by Spirit.
• Known as the Spirit of Adoption, the Holy Spirit creates spiritual sons and daughters, a household of faith (see Romans 8:15-17).
• Our city is full of sons and daughters, of God’s children, if only we will have heavenly eyes to see them as new creation.
• When Fount Church started, there were two keys for how we would build: It will be by our prayers, and one divine connection a day.
• This became a heavenly strategy: to pray and trust God’s vision for the church and to allow God to orchestrate the growth by connecting one person at a time.
• Instead of being overwhelmed by saving the entire city at once, we can have eyes for the one.

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4. Jesus Is the True Builder

• “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2:19
• Jesus shows that any human building can be destroyed, but He is the true temple and builder of the church.
• “Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” Matthew 16:18
• Nothing can stand against the church that Jesus builds.
• “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16
• With the Holy Spirit, now you are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells within you— the only one who can satisfy your temple is the one who built it.
• Because we are the church of the living God, we are called not just to survive in this city. We are called to bring his glory and his presence.

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Dinner Party Questions

• Taking an honest look at your life, are there areas you’ve been building without God? How can you surrender and invite Him into those areas?
• How do you typically handle stress and anxiety in your life? How would waiting on God and seeking His presence change your approach?
• How does the idea of “one divine connection a day” change how you interact with people in your everyday life?
• You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. What does this mean to you personally, for your purpose and your actions?

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