You Didn't Build That! (Part 1)

During his campaign tours in Roanoake, VA last year, President Obama was making the point that those who were successful in business weren't successful through their own efforts or ingenuity.  They had to receive help somewhere.  He stated that businesses weren't built solely by entrepreneurs.  In other words, he was saying that they had to have the helping hand of Big Brother, which is the federal government.  The president was once again making another case for big government in one of campaign stops last year.  During that stump speech, he used the phrase, "You didn't build that!"  He said that on July 13, 2012. 

Anyone who is not blinded by ideology or blinded by political party affiliation will recognize that he was saying that Big Brother needs to have his hand on everything that takes place in our daily lives.  He's a socialist who was schooled in Saul Alinsky's book, Rules for Radicals.  Anyone who knows American history recognizes that it wasn't the federal government that built this great nation or America's great economy.  America's economy was built by private businessesmen who were willing to take a risk and use their capital to start a business.  They created businesses through private initiative.  The economy grows through private sector businesses.  The government doesn't grow the economy.  As I've stated a number of times in numerous posts in the last couple of years, wealth is created through the private sector.  The federal government doesn't create wealth.  The government uses America's taxpayers dollars sent to them to disburse to certain sectors such as the military, the nation's infrastructure, or social programs to fund those things that are too big for the private sector to fund alone.  (I will add that I don't believe it's the federal government's job to spend taxpayer dollars on social programs.)  However, the nation's defense system and the infrastructure need to be funded through the federal government.  Anything else should be funded through the private sector. 

Now I'm going to the heart of the matter.  The focus of this post is to flip that statement around (You didn't build that!), in a spiritual setting.  Mat:thew 16:18 says, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."  When it comes to the private sector business, we can say rightly so that President Obama is wrong in saying that businessmen didn't build their business without government help.  Numerous businesses have been created and thrived without the help of government.  However, when it comes to the church, which is a spiritual organism comprised of God's people, man didn't build the church.  Jesus pointed that out to Peter in Matthew 16:18 when he told Peter that He would build His church.  Man doesn't build it.  God's church isn't built by man.   What do I mean by that?  Am I referring to the physical edifice that we meet at each Sunday and refer to as the House of God?  No.  I'm not talking about the physical structure of the church.  However, I believe God wants the physical structure to be built and shaped in a certain way.  God was very specific in the Old Testament how he wanted the Tabernacle adorned.  It is true that men build churches in regards to the place in which we meet every Sunday for church.  Ephesians 2:10 states that we are his workmanship.  God uses men as his vessel when it comes to the church.  However, the New Testament church can't operate and function through the energy of the flesh.  The church can't function and fulfill its mission to the world unless it's empowered by the Spirit of God.  I'll finish this though in next Sunday's post, Lord willing.