Build With God Not Without Him | Cornerstone Church | Pastor Brent Hatchett

Alright. Really quickly, if you got a bible turn with me to Proverbs chapter 16. Proverbs chapter 16 before I read the text. I'm gonna read verses one through nine but I cannot do this job without the help of the holy spirit. So would you join me in a word of prayer? Holy spirit, thank you so much

for being our help, for being our advocate. In this moment, I decrease and ask that you would increase highly behind the cross. Let them not see and hear from me, but let them only see and hear from you. And this is my prayer. Holy Spirit, would you begin to do open heart surgery on every single person in this room

beginning with the man on the platform? Our prayer is not just to be hearers of the word, but holy spirit, we wanna be doers. So may you be the only one that's glorified today. We thank you. We bless you. We praise you. And it's in Jesus name. We pray and give thanks. And everyone said,

amen. Proverbs chapter number 16. We're gonna continue in our series. Sounds good. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna read verses one through nine just to lay the foundation of where we're going and then I'm gonna ask you a question. Proverbs chapter 16

verses one through nine, I'm bringing from the New Living Translation. Here's what it says, we can make our own plans but the Lord gives the right answer. People may be pure in their own eyes but the Lord examines their motives. Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed.

Verse four, the Lord has made everything for his own purposes even the wicked for a day of disaster. Verse five, the Lord detests the proud, they will surely be punished. Verse six, unfailing love and faithfulness make atonement for sin by fearing the Lord people avoid evil.

Verse seven, when people's lives please the Lord, even their enemies are at peace with them. Verse eight, better to have little with godliness than to be rich and dishonest and then a ninth in the final verse, we can make our plans but the Lord determines our steps.

I want to start off by simply asking you a question and if you've ever said this phrase,

I want you to be bold enough to just slip your hand in the air and let me give you this preface. When I ask you this question and you've said this phrase but you don't slip your hand in the air, I just want you to know that you are guilty for lying in church. Okay? Here's the question. By show of hands,

how many people have ever said the phrase, I've got this? Hey, man. Thank you for your honesty. I'm in a good church this morning. Come on, God. Here's here's what I've come to understand. I myself have been guilty of saying this phrase, I've got this. And here's what I've learned, after thirteen years of marriage,

two and a half kids, what's the half? We're not having a puppy but we're having our third child, January 21. Amen.

But after thirteen years of marriage, two and a half kids and a really fun ministry career, here's one of the things that I've learned fam. I ain't got this And I got a funny feeling and a sneaky suspicion that you don't either.

I had a conversation with a couple that goes to our church, their names are Warren and Elizabeth. Warren's 82 years old, Elizabeth is 72 years old. We had a little over an hour long meeting, it was fantastic and one of the reasons why is because

they're getting ready to lead a life group at our church. It's one of the areas that I get to oversee and absolutely love it

And as I was talking to Warren and Elizabeth, I really wanted to get to know them because they've been a part of the church longer than me and I just assumed that they had been saved all their lives. So, during our conversation, I asked them the question, said Warren and Elizabeth, how long have you guys been saved?

And here's what's fascinating to me, Warren and Elizabeth said, Brent, we got saved twenty twenty five years ago and it took me by surprise because I just assumed based on the way I've seen them operate and move in church that they had always given their lives to Jesus,

which then led me ask the next question. I said, let me ask you this question. I know that you love Jesus with all your heart, mind and soul and I'm pretty sure that if knowing what you know now you would have given your life to Jesus years ago.

But here's the question I have for you, what is it that someone could have said, what is it that someone could have done in your twenties, in your thirties, in your forties, fifties, even sixties that would have made you give your life to Jesus sooner? And Elizabeth steps up and she says, well number one,

child they would have had to catch up to me because when I was younger, I was moving at a thousand miles a minute. But if they did catch up to me, what would have maybe changed my life is if they would have told me that my life would have been better with Jesus than it was without it.

And here's what she went on to say, she said, Brent, all of those years, I I built a great family and I built a great career but here was my mindset. I got this. I got this. I got this. I got this. And then one day I looked up and I realized I ain't got this. As she's aged up, she realized that her

mind doesn't work the way it used to work and her body doesn't move that way it used to move, neither her or Warren and she finally said, I need some help and that help came from Jesus. And one of the things that she and I both wonder is what would have happened in her life not to say that she didn't have a good life

happened if she would have given her life to Jesus much sooner and she built her life with Jesus versus building a life without Jesus. Which leads me to the big idea today which is simply this, what does it look like for you and I to build with him not without him? We don't got this. So because we don't got this,

what's it look like to build with him? Not without him. This is what Solomon talks about

in Proverbs chapter number 16. Solomon is the wisest man in the world and throughout these nine verses of scripture, he kind of breaks down what life looks like as you decide to build life with Jesus. So I want to take these one verse at a time beginning at verse number one. Here's what it says.

It says, we can make our own plans but the Lord gives the right answer. I remember when I first gave my life to Jesus at 16 years old, joined this church called New Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in Pontiac, Michigan and one of the mothers came up to me one day because she heard me talking about all my plans

and all the things that I was gonna do and here's what she said. She said, baby, you do what you wanna do with that pencil, but you make sure you give God the eraser.

Some of y'all will catch it later. Here's what she was trying to communicate to me, you can make all the plans you want in the world, but if you're really surrendered your life to Jesus, you let him determine the plans, you don't determine the plans. And some of us in this room, we have that a type personality,

nothing wrong with that. We like to know what's gonna happen a year from now, what's gonna happen five years from now, what's gonna happen ten years from now and I'm not knocking that. I absolutely think there are some times where you need to plan but make sure that you include the Lord in your plans.

Now based on this text, the question is man makes their plans but the Lord gives the right answer. So then the next question is is how do I actually know that I get the right answer from the Lord? Me and a co worker of mine, we took one of our young adults to coffee. She's 20 years old, very bright young lady

and she asked me a question at the end of the coffee. She said pastor Britt, if there's any advice that you would give me, what would it be? Now, let me be the first person to admit that I am not the smartest apple off the tree y'all. So what came out of my mouth next had to absolutely 1000%

come from the Holy Spirit. I take no credit for it. So I sat there for a second and I looked at her and I said, Joanna, if there's one piece of advice I would give you, it would simply be this. Spend less time being worried about your future and spend more time simply putting a smile on his face.

She said, could you elaborate on what you mean by that? I said, absolutely. I said, Joanna, when I was your age, I used to spend so much time

thinking about what my life was gonna look like a year from now, planning what my life was gonna look like five years from now. I was very much the person that said at 20 I'll do this, at 25 I'll have this, by the time I hit 30 I'll have accomplished this. And let me openly admit that none of my plans work fam. Okay?

But here's what the Lord showed me. Instead of me trying to hit all of these benchmarks in these five year increments or two year increments or one year increments, I finally learned that if I just wake up every single day with the intention to say every decision I make, I'm gonna make sure it's a decision

that simply puts a smile on his face up in heaven. I never have to worry about my future. Because when I wake up with the intention every single day to simply put a smile on his face, You know what I'm doing? I'm discovering what the right answer is.

So what does it look like for me? What does it look like for you as we build with him to make sure that we simply just put a smile on his face? Here's what verse number two says, it says, people may be pure in their own eyes but the Lord examines their motives. If you and I

are going to build with him, here's one of the questions I want you to always ask if you're taking notes, write this question down. Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? One of the things that I know about us as human beings, we can always find a reason to be doing something.

But is the motive for why you're doing the thing actually pure? I'll give you a couple examples. I'm sure that there are men and women in this room who you work really hard. You put in a lot of hours, you stay at the office late

and one of the reasons why you do this is because you wanna make sure that you are providing for your family. And I commend you for that and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But here's where you have to make sure that your motives are still pure.

Am I working hard putting in the hours and staying late because I wanna provide for my family or am I working hard putting in the hours staying late because I want to provide for my family and there's trouble at home that I'm trying to avoid and I don't want to go home.

Give you another example. You're familiar with a brother or sister in Christ and life has just been lifeing them and yes, you're praying for them but there's something in you that all of a sudden you just you want to reach out to them and check up on them and let me say, there's absolutely

nothing wrong with that. I encourage you but let me ask you this question. Are you reaching out to check up on them because you're truly concerned or are you reaching out to check up on them because you know secretly you're attracted to them but yet you're married to somebody else?

What's the motive for why you're doing the thing that you're doing? This is a question that I have to ask myself all the time. Am I posting to social media because I truly want to spread the gospel or am I posting to social media because I just want people to see my face? Make sure that if you're gonna build with him,

the motive behind why you're doing what you're doing is actually pure. Let's go to verse number three. Here's what it says, speak holy spirit. It says, commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed. Here's what I love about this verse y'all. When we invite God in the process of the things that we're planning,

he helps us to succeed in those plans and I'm not just talking about in business or career, it's in every single area of your life. So for those of us who have sat around and said in in January, I'm I'm I'm a get right and get on my diet because I done fell off. Amen.

When you commit that plan to the Lord, he helps you out. He helps you out with physical things. He helps you out with your finances. He helps you out with your relationships. He helps you out emotionally,

spiritually, mentally, all the things. When you commit your plans to him, he helps you succeed. I'll give you an example.

I get to serve two roles at my church. So in one role, I serve as a teaching pastor which is super fun because I get the opportunity to do what I'm doing right now which is teach on the weekends. But then I inherited this other role which is this role called the groups pastor.

And let me be very clear, never in a million years did I ever think I would be somebody's group pastor

and here's what the Lord has done. I've always had fun preaching and teaching God's word. I absolutely love doing that but recently in the last twelve walks weeks, I have fallen in love with leading groups. Now, here's what you need to know. There is no school that someone could go to

to learn how to lead groups at a church. It's not even a class when you attend seminary. There's no blueprint on how to do this and to this date it's only been twelve weeks child, I still don't know what I'm doing.

But I've committed my plans to the Lord and I've watched him put his hands on it. What do you mean you watched him put his hands on it? When I stepped into the group's role,

I took it over from a young lady named Janae, her and Dina, they did a fantastic job and I inherited 40 groups at our church. Well, here's what the Lord has done in twelve weeks. In twelve weeks, we took the 40, we grew it, added 45 more. So in January 2026, we'll launch with 85 groups.

Now watch this. That ain't because I'm so smart and it ain't because I'm so gifted, but it's because I admitted to the Lord, Lord, I don't know what I'm doing.

Would you show me what to do? And I followed his steps and he's blessed it. Now, that's a ministry example, but let me give you a professional example. I don't care what you say. You're not gonna win this debate. The Lord's chicken sandwich comes from Chick fil A.

Now here's what I figured out about Chick fil A. Chick fil A is the number three highest revenue producing fast food restaurant in the country. Only behind McDonald's and Starbucks, both of which have more stores.

Now, some of you may be saying, Brett, they're number three. Why are you shouting them out? Here's why I'm shouting out number three because there's a whole lot of people that they pass called Burger King, called Wendy's, called Taco Bell and if you eat Taco Bell, I'm praying for your body. Okay?

They passed up a whole lot of fast food chains but yet Chick fil A is number three. How is Chick fil A number three? Here's what I find to be interesting. How many days of the week is Chick fil A open? And the reason why you know it because you pulled in on a Sunday on accident, your heart was broken.

But it's because this man named Dan Cathy committed his plan to the Lord

and he said here at Chick fil A, we're gonna stand on Christian principles and values and we're gonna shut down on Sunday because we want to give our people the opportunity to go worship the king of kings and the Lord of Lords and we're gonna practice Sabbath. If Dan, Cathy and Chick fil A commit their plans to the Lord,

why haven't you? And it's not just the business. Why haven't you committed your plan for marriage to the Lord? Why haven't you committed your personal financial plan to the Lord? Why haven't you actually committed your dreams and your aspirations to the Lord?

It's very simple. We don't got this. So because we don't got this, guess what we got to do? We got to build with him not without him. Let's look at verse number four. Verse number four says this, the Lord has made everything for his own purpose even the wicked for a day of disaster. Here's truth, as you build with him,

don't you think for a moment that you're not going to be challenged by the enemy. His job is to kill, to steal and destroy and he's not gonna make it easy and as you make this decision to start building with the Lord, one day you're gonna look up and you're gonna look around and it feels like everything

is going off of the rails. Here's the good news, God still makes all things work together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. So don't you trip when you start seeing trouble.

Now there are two questions that I want you to ask yourself when you start seeing trouble. Here's question number one. Lord, what are you trying to teach me in this season? You see all too often we find ourselves when things are difficult having what I like to call these woe is me moments.

Now let me give you a little validation. I'm not putting you down because you have your woe is me moment. There's a whole book in the bible called Lamentations. The bible encourages us to lament the things we lose, but I don't stay in a lament state.

And even when I'm lamenting, here's what I've learned, Lord you've got to be teaching me something. Are you trying to teach me how to be patient? Are you trying to teach me how to trust you?

Are you trying to teach me that I've actually been trying to do this thing of my own and I need to go in a different direction? What are you trying to teach me in this season? But then here's the second question I want you to ask. The second question is simply this, what's one thing you can be grateful for?

Because I've learned that even in the difficult seasons when you find yourself in the lowest of lows, when you find yourself down in the valley, there's always something to be grateful for. Let's keep rolling, verse number five, here's what Solomon goes on to say, he says, the Lord detests the proud, they will surely be

punished. If you and I are going to build with him, please if you don't hear nothing else, hear this. Kill every ounce of pride that you have. Pride is one of those deadly sins

and it's one of those things that sneaks up on you when you don't even realize that you struggle with it. And the reason why I know this is because it happened to me. If there is two pieces of kryptonite that the enemy has used against me in my life, one is selfish ambition and the second one is pride.

Tell you a short story, I remember when I had transitioned from CS two and a half years ago and when I transitioned from Cornerstone to go to the church that I go to now up in Scottsdale, both churches are fantastic and both churches are very different.

So Cornerstone at the time was a church of around probably 5,000 a weekend attendance child, I don't know what y'all numbers are, nah y'all busting out the seams, praise God from whom all blessings flow. But when I went to my church up in Scottsdale,

our weekend attendance was roughly around a thousand. One's an apple, the other one's an orange, very different. But because the church is smaller, the dynamics of our staff was much different and this is when the Lord began to expose to me that I struggle with pride.

You all know that I would frequently teach on the weekend at Cornerstone and I was teaching over at at my new church called Pillar. And I never forget one weekend I'm on the platform and teaching

and then the weekend goes well then it's over and then we get the kind of email in the middle of the week about our staff assignments. And my staff assignment the next weekend was to put up flags and to drive the golf cart. Now, me say, there's absolutely nothing wrong with either of those things.

But in my pride, here was my response, excuse me?

Did you not just hear that message I preached last weekend? I didn't want me to go, y'all want me to go drown a dog fire, put a flag. And the Holy Spirit very quickly had to humble me because the reality is as a pastor, as a shepherd, there is no job that is beneath me. So if they had asked me to clean the bathroom,

here's what my response should be. Child, I'm a clean this bathroom to the glory of God. Now, let me be honest with you, I had a little attitude that weekend on the golf cart but the Lord worked on my heart.

Couple weeks later, the name of our church is Pillar. Now, I had fun with it. I started driving the golf cart, kids got on, I said, welcome to the Pillar Express. I had a good old time, but the Lord had to slowly start to kill pride. What does it look like for you to allow him to examine the different areas of your heart?

To see if you're struggling with any level of pride. Because here's what pride stops you from doing. Pride stops you from doing hard things.

But as believers in Jesus, you know what we're called to do? Hard things. This is why Matthew sixteen twenty four says, if anyone wants to be my disciples, he must deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me. But you can't follow him in pride. This is why he starts to prune you.

So if you're gonna build with him, you've got to kill pride. Verse number six, Solomon goes on to say this, he says, unfailing love and faithfulness make atonement for sin by fearing the Lord people avoid evil. Here's what I need you to know about verse number six, unfailing love and faithfulness are not just words

but it's actually a person. See unfailing love and faithfulness is the person of Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is the only one that actually makes atonement for sin. Here's what this passage tells me that if I am going to build with him, I must make Jesus the Lord of my life.

Here's what happens when you make Jesus the Lord of your life. He fills you with the Holy Spirit

and the things that you used to do to where you were comfortable with as it relates to sin, the Holy Spirit starts to work on you a little bit and now you're no longer comfortable doing those things and this is why the text says by fearing the Lord people avoid evil.

When you give your life to Jesus or when you start building your life with him, he gets you into this place to where you run away from sin and you start running towards him and you get to a place to where you realize I never want anything in my life ever again to come between me and Jesus. The

most important decision you can make is to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Look at what he says next, verse number seven. He says, when people's lives please the Lord, even their enemies

are at peace with him. Here's what I believe Solomon is trying to say is that when you and I live a life to where every single day we wake up and say, Lord, my heart's desire today is to simply put a smile on your face.

Even the folk who can't stand you, the folk who don't like you, the folk who don't care 2¢ about you, even they've got to be at peace with you. But here's what I learned, every enemy is not a flesh and blood enemy. See there are some enemies that you and I have called depression.

There are some enemies that you and I have called anxiety. There are some enemies that you and I have called worry. There are some enemies that you and I have that's called fear. Outside of having to deal with a clinical diagnosis because sometimes it is just simply spiritual warfare.

Because I've got the light of the Lord in my heart because he is the Lord of my life who'll even make those things be at peace with me. It's the reason why people can say the things that used to bother me child, don't bother me no more. Verse number eight says this, better to have a little with godliness than to be rich

and honest. Let me tell you a secret. As you begin to build your life with Jesus, you're look around one day and here's what you're gonna see. There's gonna be people that are going further than you and there are people that are gonna go faster than you. And here's what I want to encourage you to do,

stay in the lane called faithfulness.

Don't be worried about how fast they're going or how far they're going because some of those people, they don't have the Jesus that you got. This is why it says, I'd rather you have godliness than have a whole lot of stuff.

One of the things that I loved about my conversation with Warren and Elizabeth as they looked over their life, Warren's got over eight decades, Elizabeth has got seven and

they say, all of the accomplishments we've had and all of the things we've accumulated as we've gotten older and we gave our lives to Jesus, one of the things we realized that in the grand scheme of it all, it means very little because all of the stuff that we've accumulated, here's the truth,

when we get to heaven, we can't take none of it with us. And when Jesus is truly the Lord in your life, you won't be sad about that statement because the reality is you ain't going want of it and won't none of it no way. Here's what I mean by that.

In this message, I'm not telling you to be I'm not telling you to not be successful. I want you to be successful. I want you to build the beautiful family. I want you to buy the amazing home. I want you to have a large four zero one k, all of those things. But here's what I've also come to realize,

the home you build here on earth will pale in comparison to the mansion he's building you in heaven. The four zero one k that you saving up for, I pray it hits seven figures, eight figures, nine figures. Let me get 20. I pray it does all those things. But you know what I also realize?

That when I get to heaven one day I'm a look down and I'm a be walking on streets paved with gold that's gonna be 30 x what anybody's four zero one k is in this room.

Here's the last verse. He says this. He says, we can make our plans,

but the Lord determines our steps. Here's my question. As you have made your plans,

have you allowed him to determine your steps by giving him the eraser?

There are some people in this room who I want to challenge today who I feel like you're the younger version of Warren and Elizabeth. You're in your twenties, your thirties, your forties, your fifties and you've had this mentality that I got this.

Here's why the Lord sent me this weekend to let you know that you ain't got this fam. And there are some other people in this room who can also testify that they ain't got this and you ain't got this. But I wanna help you get it right. And the way you get it right is by taking this first step to give your life to Jesus.

Two thousand years ago, this man named Jesus, he hung, bled, and died so that we could receive the greatest gift that's ever existed in human history. It's this gift called salvation. Bible says in Romans ten nine, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. So

that when you take your last breath on earth, you get to go to this place called heaven where there is no more sickness, where there is no more pain, where there is no more disease, where there is no more death.

Here's what I'm gonna do really quickly. I want every head bowed and every eye closed. Every head bowed, every eye closed. I'm the only one that's looking. If you are in this room today, you listen to this message, the holy spirit was moving on your heart and you're ready to make Jesus the Lord of your life. I'm gonna count down from three and I simply just want you to slip your hand in the air. We're gonna do this quickly. Here we go. Three,

two, and one. If that's you, just put your hands in the air. Amen. Amen. I got a whole bunch of hands in the air. Come on. It's probably like 20 something hands in the air. Okay. You could put your hands down. Now,

here's what we're gonna do. Y'all, we're getting ready to have a party down here on earth. For those of you who put your hands in the air, I want you to repeat this prayer with me. Say, Jesus, I confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that Jesus is Lord. Fill me I

do. Down from three. I'm not gonna make you say anything. I The only thing thing that I'm gonna ask you to do is just simply stand up right where you are so we can have a party. If that was you, would I count down from three with the joy of the Lord? I just need you to stand. I'm a count down now. Three, two,

one. Stand right where you are so we can have a party. Come on.

Let's go.

Come on, Cornerstone. Let's rejoice. So grateful. So grateful. So thankful. Proud of you. Proud of me. Proud of you. You can be seated. Now listen. For every single one of you that stood, there's just one request that I have. The request is simply this. Would you text the word Jesus to 21999?

And let me tell you why. You're gonna text the word Jesus to 21999. Here's the reason why. We're not trying to get information from you neither are we trying to spam you. But here's the reason why we want you to text Jesus to 21999 because as a believer in Jesus, you are not meant to do life alone.

We want to do life with you. We want to walk with you. We want to be with you. We want to help you grow in your faith relationship. So when you text Jesus to 21999, somebody's gonna reach out to you,

and we'll make sure you get plugged into the family of faith. I am over my time. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give us our closing prayer.

But when I'm done giving us our closing prayer, if you're in this room and you say pastor Brent, life has been life and I need somebody to pray with me, I wanna invite you to come down front. There's gonna be a prayer team down here willing and ready to matter of fact, I'm gonna do something different. I might get in trouble. But if you serve on the prayer team, I just want you to come down now so that you're already up here. So if you serve on the prayer team at Cornerstone, just come down now as I give our closing prayer. Amen?

They thank you. Amen. You would come on. Thank you. There we go. That way you are already up here ready to receive those who need prayer. Okay. I'm a give us our closing prayer. I'm a say a special prayer for the cardinals because they need it. Alright. Let's pray.

Hey, Holy Spirit. Thank you so much for your goodness and your grace, mercy, and your love.

Now, would you help us to build our lives with you? God, we want to invite you into every single detail of our lives. Would you help us to dot all the i's to cross all the t's? Thank you that you are the Lord of our life.

Now as we leave this place but never your presence, would you begin to lead us? Would you begin to guide us? And we'll be careful to give you all the glory, all the honor, all the praise, and help the cardinals win. In Jesus name, amen. Love you all so much. Have a great week.