Just outside Knoxville, Tennessee, in the town of Alcoa there is a very unusual stone house called Millennium Manor. The house was built over a nine-year period from June 1937 to December 1946, by William Andrew Nicholson and his wife Fair.

The Manor was built using Roman architecture. This was important because it was built to last a thousand years--thus the name Millennium Manor.

The Nicholson's did all the work on the house themselves, without the aid of machines.

Wow! How the Nicholson's had the strength to carry and lay all that marble remains a mystery.

The thinnest inside wall of this 14-room home is 19 inches, and the thinnest outside wall is 25 inches. The roof is more than three feet thick, and the floor is more than four feet thick. The roof alone supposedly weighs 423 tons. Over 4,000 bags of cement were used. In theory, however, it should be possible to remove all cement from the entire building and it would remain standing, since the only function of the mortar was to fill gaps and not to bear a load.

Why did the Nicholsons build such an imposing structure?

The Nicholsons were very religious people who believed in a literal interpretation of Revelation 20:6, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."

The Nicholsons truly believed that, if they had enough faith, they could live a thousand years on earth with Christ. Millennium Manor was built to survive Armageddon and a thousand years beyond.

They built a house that they thought could stand up to all the huffing and puffing that comes from the big bad wolves in life.

In 1950 Mrs. Nicholson died of cancer at age 72. Fifteen years later, at the age of 88 and nearly blind and deaf, Mr. Nicholson joined his wife in the Clarks Grove Cemetery.

The Nicholson's had a rather simplistic interpretation of the Bible, but there is absolutely one part they got right, everyone builds a house and it’s wise to think about what kind of house you are building.

Everyone builds a house!

Everyone builds a life.

Every decision you make, you are building a house that you will live in.

Our character is the house we live in, the house that matters, and we build it, every one of us, one day at a time, one choice at a time.

We build it, every one of us, on purpose or by accident for better or for worse.

We build it, every one of us, every day, by how we spend our time, by the words we speak and the words we hear, by the people we love or the people we ignore, and especially the thoughts we allow to occupy our minds.

I am building my life, and when I cut corners, when I compromise my integrity, when I build, as I do sometimes, with resentment or ego or pettiness or self, I am creating a future that will become my destiny.

You are building your house.

How is your house going?

Paul writes, "For we are co-workers in God's service; you are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be built with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple." (1st Corinthians 3:9-16)

Paul makes this amazing statement. "You are God's building."

You.

Look in the mirror, you are God’s building.

My wife loves a show called House Hunters International. It will feature somebody or some couple who wants to relocate from Abilene, Texas, to Switzerland. They'll struggle over what kind of home or apartment they want to live in.

In this passage, it's almost like God is house hunting and he wants to move from up there to down here, and oddly enough, his dream house is you.

Of course, we're not fit to be God's dream house yet.

You are a fixer upper, and so am I.

We are under construction.

You'll choose the materials that will be used to build your life.

You will do this.

Not your circumstances, but you.

Paul lists six different materials in this passage, but they can really be divided essentially into two groups.

Gold, silver, or precious stones. Those are materials that will stand up to the fire.

Doesn’t this whole thing remind of you of the three little pigs and each little piggy had to decide what to build their house out of?

The key part of that story is the big bad wolf shows up to everyone’s house. No one can build a life that is free of problems or free of the big bad wolf. That is just life this side of heaven.

The fire in the Bible very often and here is an image to talk about God's judgment, God's penetrating and discerning ability to decide what is good and what is not.

Gold, silver, and precious stones are materials that have qualities that will stand up to his judgment.

Wood, hay, or straw are materials or qualities that will not.

The only house that survived the big bad wolf was the piggy who used brick right?

Building your life, which you and I will do inevitably, is not mostly a matter of our outer circumstances.

We so often think our lives are about what kind of income or what kind of vocational opportunities or how our IQ is or what our body shape is or if our face is attractive or our hair or our resume or our GPA.

No, no, no.

It's my character.

It's the quality of my inner life that matters.

It's the kind of thoughts and desires and intentions and habits that come to govern my minutes and my hours and my days and my years.

That's what matters most about me.

Friends, we live in a place that is so deluded about this.

Money, title, office, reputation are dust or ashes in comparison.

Some people, with great-looking outer lives, are living in spiritual hovels.

Some people who appear very unimpressive in worldly terms are actually even now beginning to inhabit an eternal masterpiece.

We think even what matters to God are the things we do for God (our accomplishments or achievements).

No, no.

As Dallas Willard used to say, "The main thing God gets out of your life is the person you become." The main thing God gets out of your life is not your resume and not your accomplishments. It's the person you become, and that also is the main thing you get out of your life.

That is what you will take with you into eternity.

This text poses a great question: What will I build my life with?

What are the qualities of spirit that a wise carpenter would choose?

For gold, silver, and precious gems, we might think about what Paul talks about as the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace).

For wood, hay, and stubble, we might think about their opposing qualities. Instead of love, ego. Instead of joy, envy. Instead of peace, hurry and chronic anxiety.

The reason we need to examine our lives in light of the cross is that the true nature of my inner life and of my character is actually known only to God.

One day, it will be revealed in high definition, and Paul says, by way of talking about this, "…the Day will bring it to light."

When he talks about that, the idea is an old phrase from the Bible, the day of the Lord, the day of God's judgment when God will make everything clear, and all mysteries will get solved, and there will be no moral ambiguity left anymore, and no wrongs that go un-righted anymore.

We are all building a house, a life, a soul that we will take with us into the next life.

Make sure you build one that will last.

Whatever good things we build, end up building us…

Dios Le Bendiga!

Rev. John Roberts