Here To Stay (2026): Brick By Brick

March 15th, 2026/Seventh Day Adventist

“4 As you come to him, a living stone—rejected by people but chosen and honored by God— 5 you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and honored cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.” - 1 Peter 2:4-6 CSB

Let me start today by pulling the curtain back for a moment and telling you where we are as a church.

Over the last year we launched something called Here To Stay. It wasn’t really about a building as much as it was about a conviction. We believe God planted Pinewood Church in Boulder for a reason, and we believe He intends for this church to serve this city for generations to come. Through the generosity of this church family we’ve been able to strengthen ministry, reach more people, and begin preparing for the future we believe God is leading us into. As we’ve been praying and planning as a leadership team, one thing has become very clear to us: God is not finished with Pinewood Church.

In fact, we believe we are stepping into a brand new season.

Now one of the questions people naturally ask is, “What’s next? What are we working toward? Where is all of this going?” And the honest answer right now is that we are actively working on that. We are exploring what the next step looks like for Pinewood in this city and what it will take for us to establish a long-term home that can serve the mission of Jesus here in Boulder for decades to come.

But here is what I do know. Whatever God builds in the future will not be the result of a few people carrying the weight. It will happen because an entire church family decides to step forward in faith together. And the beautiful thing is this: it doesn’t matter if today is your first Sunday or if you’ve been part of Pinewood from the very beginning. If you’re here, you are stepping into this story at an incredible moment. We believe we are standing at the edge of a new season where God is inviting us to take bold steps of faith together.

And here’s something I’ve learned about how God works. Movements of God don’t usually begin with certainty; they begin with faith. When God starts doing something new, people rarely see the whole picture at the beginning. What they have instead is a sense that God is moving and an invitation to trust Him with the next step.

I’m reminded of the words God spoke to His people in Isaiah 43:19, where He said, “Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”

Church, I believe God is doing something new in this city.

But let me ask you a question.

What if the thing God is building in Boulder right now won’t be finished in your lifetime, but your faithfulness helps shape the lives of people you may never even meet?

Because when I think about that idea, I can’t help but think about my own life for a moment. When I look back, I can see people at different stages of my life who laid bricks that shaped who I am today.

When I was a kid, there were adults in church who took time to invest in me. They probably thought they were just serving in kids ministry, teaching a Bible story, or showing up to help a group of noisy kids learn about Jesus. But those moments mattered more than they probably ever realized.

Then when I was a teenager, there were youth leaders who gave their time and energy to pour into us. They showed up week after week, led small groups, prayed for us, and helped us start taking our faith seriously. I doubt they knew exactly what God would do with those seeds years later.

When I was in college, there were pastors and mentors who spoke into my life and challenged me to think about what it would mean to actually follow Jesus with everything. They asked hard questions, gave wise counsel, and helped shape the direction of my life in ways I couldn’t fully see at the time.

And then early in ministry, there were leaders who believed in me before I had much experience or clarity about where God was leading. They gave opportunities, offered encouragement, and walked with me through the process of learning and growing.

And here’s the thing about all of those people.

Most of them had no idea where their investment would lead. They didn’t know that one day I would be standing in Boulder helping lead a church that is reaching people with the gospel. They were simply being faithful in the moment God placed them in.

But when I look back now, I can see what God was doing all along.

He was building something.

Brick by brick.

Person by person.

Generation by generation.

And that’s how the Kingdom of God has always moved forward. Ordinary people choose to live faithfully in their moment, and generations they may never see end up walking in what they helped build.

The things that shape people’s lives are almost never built overnight. They are built slowly, faithfully, and over time. As we said last week “Temporary living produces temporary vision, but rooted living produces generational vision.”

Eugene Peterson writes about this in his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. He observed something about our culture that still feels incredibly true today:

“One aspect of the world that I have been able to identify as harmful to Christians is the assumption that anything worthwhile can be acquired at once. We assume that if something can be done at all, it can be done quickly and efficiently… But the Christian life cannot mature under such conditions. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue. A long obedience in the same direction.”

In other words, we live in a culture that expects quick results, instant change, and rapid success. But the way God forms people and builds His Kingdom usually looks very different. It looks like faithfulness over time. It looks like ordinary obedience repeated over years and decades. It looks like people choosing to follow Jesus again and again in the same direction.

When you step back and look at how God works throughout Scripture, that is exactly what you see. God builds His work slowly, faithfully, over time. Brick by brick. Prayer by prayer. Act of obedience by act of obedience.

They are built brick by brick.

And that’s exactly the story we find in the book of Nehemiah.

Background:

Jerusalem had been destroyed in 586 BC. The city walls had been broken down. The gates had been burned. The people had been carried away into exile. Years later, under Persian rule, some of the Jewish people were allowed to return to Jerusalem. The temple had been rebuilt, but the city itself was still vulnerable. The walls were still broken down, and the gates were still burned.

Without walls, the city was exposed to attack. In the ancient world, walls were not just about construction. They represented protection, stability, and dignity for the people who lived there. A city without walls was a city without security. It was a visible sign that the people were vulnerable and unfinished. So the broken walls symbolized something deeper. They represented the vulnerability and shame of a people who had not yet been fully restored.

Meanwhile, Nehemiah was living far away in Persia, serving as the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. Now that might sound like a small job, but it was actually a position of significant trust and influence. A cupbearer had direct access to the king and served within the royal court. Nehemiah lived in the palace. He had stability, security, and a comfortable life in the center of power. But one day Nehemiah heard about the condition of Jerusalem. And something happened in his heart.

The Bible tells us that when he heard about the broken city, he sat down and wept. He fasted. He prayed. Before Nehemiah ever built anything, he carried the burden before God. Because the work of God never begins with ambition. It begins when someone allows the brokenness they see to drive them to prayer.

Passage: Nehemiah 2:17–18

17 So I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned. Come, let’s rebuild Jerusalem’s wall, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.” 18 I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me,and what the king had said to me. They said, “Let’s start rebuilding,” and their hands were strengthened to do this good work.

Main Points:

1. God births His work through prayerful burden

   1. Before Nehemiah ever picked up a brick, he carried a burden in his heart.

   2. When he heard about the broken condition of Jerusalem, he didn’t immediately launch a building project.

      1. He prayed.
      2. He wept.
      3. He fasted.
      4. That matters.

      5. Because a burden in Scripture isn’t just emotional frustration. It’s something that is formed in the presence of God.

         3. Prayer has a way of transforming concern into calling.

      6. Nehemiah wasn’t simply bothered by a construction problem. He was broken for the people that those walls represented.

      7. The destruction of Jerusalem meant the people of God were living exposed and humiliated. Their city, which once represented God’s presence among them, had become a symbol of disgrace.

      8. And Nehemiah couldn’t ignore it.

         4. Every great work of God begins this way.

      9. It begins when someone sees something broken and refuses to accept it as normal.

      10. When someone looks at a situation and says,

      11. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”

          5. Sometimes the burdens God places in our hearts are invitations.

      12. They are the beginning of the work He’s inviting us to join.

      13. And when you look around a city like Boulder, you can see many of those burdens.
      14. You see families trying to raise kids in a complicated world.
      15. You see students searching for identity and purpose.
      16. You see people chasing success but still feeling empty.
      17. And when you see those things and something inside you says, “There has to be something more.”
          6. That might be the beginning of the work God is inviting you into.

2. God advances His work through a willing people

   1. Nehemiah didn’t rebuild the wall alone.

      1. In fact, if you read the next chapter of the book, you see something remarkable.
      2. Nehemiah chapter 3 lists person after person who worked on the wall.
      3. Priests worked on the wall.
      4. Merchants worked on the wall.
      5. Goldsmiths worked on the wall.
      6. Families worked on the wall.

      7. Many of them simply rebuilt the section of the wall closest to their home.

         2. Each person took responsibility for the part in front of them.

      8. And brick by brick… The wall began to rise.

      9. That’s how the work of God moves forward. Not through one person doing everything. But through a community of people bringing their piece of the work.

      10. This wasn’t just a construction project. It was a community movement. Everyone had a role. Everyone had a brick. And that’s how the kingdom of God grows. Brick by brick. Faithful act by faithful act.

          3. In the same way, the future of a church isn’t built by a few people carrying everything while everyone else watches.

      11. It grows when an entire community decides they want to participate in what God is doing.

      12. For some people that means serving.
      13. For others it means leading.
      14. For others it means praying faithfully for the mission.
      15. And for many people it means giving generously so the mission can continue.
      16. But every brick matters. Because no brick means no wall.

      17. When God’s work begins, resistance often follows

          1. The moment the wall began to rise, opposition appeared.

      18. Leaders from the surrounding regions mocked the builders. They questioned their motives. They tried to intimidate them into stopping the work.

      19. And this pattern shows up all throughout Scripture. Whenever God begins restoring His people and strengthening their witness in the world… Resistance often follows.
      20. Sometimes that resistance shows up in our minds as doubt.
      21. Sometimes it appears through circumstances that distract us.

      22. Sometimes it comes through voices that question whether the vision is really worth it.

          2. But Nehemiah and the people refused to stop building.

      23. Instead, they prayed… And they kept working.

      24. They trusted that the gracious hand of God was still on the work. And brick by brick… The wall continued to rise.

Closing:

If you keep reading the story of Nehemiah, something remarkable happens. The wall actually gets finished. In just fifty-two days the people rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, something that had seemed impossible for generations. The city is protected again, the gates are restored, and the people gather together to hear the Word of God. There is confession, repentance, and spiritual renewal among the people. For a moment it looks like everything has finally been restored.

But as the story continues, something else becomes clear. Even though the walls were rebuilt, the deeper problem had not been fully solved. The people still struggled with the same patterns of sin and unfaithfulness that had always plagued them. In other words, rebuilding the city did not automatically rebuild the human heart.

And that is exactly where the story of Nehemiah begins pointing us forward to Jesus. The Old Testament shows us again and again that what God’s people ultimately needed was not just a restored city or stronger walls. What they needed was a Savior who could give them a new heart. That is exactly what Jesus came to do.

When Jesus came, He did not come to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He came to build something even greater. He came to create a new people whose lives would be transformed from the inside out.

Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 2:4–5: “As you come to him, a living stone—rejected by people but chosen and honored by God, you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house.” In other words, God is still the builder, Jesus is still the cornerstone, and we are the materials He uses to build something that lasts. The church is not just an organization or a gathering. It is a spiritual house that God Himself is constructing through the lives of ordinary people who follow Him.

The apostle Paul echoes this same idea in 1 Corinthians 3 when he says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” Paul’s point is that the work of God always involves many people participating together over time. God invites His people into the process. We pray. We serve. We give. We show up. We encourage one another. We carry the mission together. And through all of those ordinary acts of faithfulness, God does something extraordinary that none of us could accomplish alone.

That is why the story of Nehemiah still matters for us today. The wall in Jerusalem did not rise because one man had a vision. It rose because a community of people decided to participate. Every family took responsibility for a section of the wall. Every person picked up their brick. And slowly, faithfully, brick by brick, something began to rise that restored dignity and protection to the people of God.

The same principle is still true today.

Throughout history, the Kingdom of God has been built by ordinary believers who were willing to be part of something bigger than themselves. We pray for God to move. We serve the people around us. We give sacrificially. We invest in the next generation. We build friendships and community. We show up week after week with quiet faithfulness. And over time, something beautiful begins to rise,not just a building, but a legacy of lives changed by the gospel.

That is what we are talking about in this series. We are not simply talking about construction. We are not simply talking about a building. We are talking about participation in the story that God is writing in this city. Years from now, someone will walk into Pinewood Church searching for hope. They will hear the gospel. Their life will be changed. Their family will be restored. And they will never know your name. They will not know the prayers you prayed, the sacrifices you made, or the brick you laid. But heaven will know.

Because when God builds something that lasts, He builds it through people. Through living stones. Through ordinary men and women who decide that they want their lives to count for something bigger than themselves. The question for us today is not whether we can build the whole wall. The question is whether we are willing to bring our brick and lay it down in faith.

And when we bring our brick and lay it down in faith, God takes those ordinary acts of obedience and builds something extraordinary. He builds a church that stands as a witness to His grace in this city.

So church, this is what we believe with all our hearts: God is still building His church, and by His grace we get to be part of it.

Brick by brick.
Stone by stone.
Legacy by legacy.

And by the grace of God, Pinewood Church is here to stay.