Built to Build // 1 Chronicles 7 // Sheerah // Bianca Juarez

Welcome to Revere. My name is Bianca and I'm one of the pastors here and I want you to turn. Oh, thank you. Wow. Thanks mom I appreciate that Just kidding. Just kidding. Do me a favor turn to your neighbor and say God is good and online family I want you to put in the chat box. God is good Once you spoke to both of your neighbors go ahead and grab a seat Well, welcome to church and I'm excited because we are just one week away from Celebrating an entire year here in this location the faithfulness of God the goodness of God And though it isn't our birthday There is a part of me that feels like it is a little bit of one year older one year wiser and so because We are who we are and we do what we do We're gonna have a little party Okay, cuz I any any excuse to have a party I will indeed and we're actually gonna have a photo booth and a nacho wall Because we are not you'll have they're not we are nacho average church You get that? Yeah, you're welcome. Not your average stress for nacho average people In fact next week We're kicking off a new series entitled dying to live and if you have someone in your life that needs to know the gospel Of Jesus Christ invite them. It's me a four-week series I'm a very excited as we dive into God's Word But today I want to spend some time sharing what God has placed on my heart as we approach one year here As we grow and we identify who we are as a church and as a church community I think it's important because there are new faces and new places that we've been over the last year since we've launched I feel like it's important that we know Who we are Who we are as a church community I feel like it's important that we know Who we are That we know who's in the room The truth is is that there's people from different backgrounds different cultures different social

Economic statuses different zip codes different cities and yes, even different stories People have walked in with their different perspectives, but in this community me personally I have seen lives Transformed people walking into this community have found healing emotional healing relational healing financial healing Because of the presence of God and the teaching of God's Word the worshiping of God in the presence of his people And let me tell you this transformation that I have seen. I'm not just telling you about it because I've watched it I'm sharing it with you because I have experienced it here in this community With those who call this place home. I've witnessed it firsthand and maybe you're new to this community Let me let you know about the people of this church The people here are not perfect and I believe that many of them might have a past that they would want to forget I believe that there's people in this community who forgive much because they have been forgiven much I believe that there's people that walk in with shame that feels like a heavy coat I believe that there's people that walk in with shame that feels like a heavy coat That feels like if people just saw me for who I really am I wouldn't be wanted But let me let you know about this space in place your mess Might be rejected by others, but in this place if you are submitted to Christ And you're willing to do the work of healing your mess doesn't frighten us Oh, no, no, no see the world will tell you that keep your head hang low and you might feel embarrassed You might walk around feeling burdened and yes, we hold a high standard here in this house But I want you to know that you could hold your head up even higher because the Spirit of God is with you And we believe that transformation is possible. Yes I know this about this community because I experienced it myself If you're new here, maybe you don't know a little bit about a moment in my life where my life began to unravel So I don't want to spend a whole lot of time here But I feel like it's fair as there's many people that are new in this community Four years ago my life began to unravel and three years ago my life completely imploded If I'm honest with you, I thought that that was the end of me It felt like everything that I had built had come crumbling down into a million broken pieces I didn't know if God had anything else for me after that If I'm real honest with you, I didn't know if I wanted anything else for my life after that Years later, I could say that that version of my life is over

But in this community of Jesus-loving, Bible-believing Christians I was able to move past disillusionment, despair, depression, and even an ugly divorce So when I talk about this community, I'm not telling you something that I have not witnessed and experienced If God did it for me through the people in this community People who would raise up and say, oh no, no, no, it's not her It's the God in her that I'm down to ride with It's in this community that I have seen marriages restore and friendships found And even marriages actually happen because of what's going on in this community place. So today we are not in a sermon series and I'm not gonna be preaching a popular parable. Today I have come to speak to the person who feels like nothing but despair surrounds them. I want to speak to the person who wants to build and yet they're walking in the midst of destruction and desolation. I want to speak to the person who feels unseen, unknown, and overlooked. After a year of watching God move in this community I'm asking for us, I'm asking him for us, what what are you asking us to become? Maybe everything that God did in this building and through us being mobile is that maybe he's not asking more for what he wants to do in us. Maybe, maybe he's calling us in this growing community, in this stretching community. Now God is asking what do I want to do through you? Now the healing that we have found it doesn't just stay with us it's for others to experience as well and so today I want to go into the pages dive into the pages of the Old Testament and learn about a biblical character who most of us has never even heard of and discover that you don't have to be famous to be faithful. That God can take the broken pieces of your life and make something stunningly beautiful with them. Do me a favor turn with me in your Bibles to 1st Chronicles chapter 7. 1st Chronicles chapter 7 and if you have your notebook and your pen go ahead and pull it out. If you don't have a Bible we have a free one for you at our Welcome Center. We believe in the Word of God and we want you to have it in your hands but for today you can go ahead and follow along on the screen if you didn't bring your Bible but 1st Chronicles chapter 7 starting in verse 24 but before we do that I want to give you the title of our

time today and the title is Built to Build. God wants to do something in you and he wants to do something through you. You are built to build. Now as you turn to 1st Chronicles the Bible contains tons of characters who fill the pages of Scripture and some characters like Moses he got tons of chapters. Some characters like like Abraham or Noah they got multiple chapters. Even King David he got multiple books and segments in books and history and poems. I mean Ruth got an entire book about her. Queen Esther had an entire book. Like some people get books and chapters but the woman that we are going to read about today her name is Shira and she gets one verse. One verse. Now it's okay if you've never heard this Bible character. In fact I got really excited. I have been asking everyone have you heard about Shira from the Bible? Have you heard about Shira? And nobody has heard about her. So I went to my father. My father who has been a pastor for 35 years. My father teaches exegetically. That is book by book, chapter by chapter, line by line. He has led his congregation reading through the Bible eight times in 35 years and he don't skip even the boring books. Alright so I asked my dad, Daddy do you know who Shira is? And he looked at me and he said no and I was like well wait a minute let me tell you something. Let me teach you okay dad. I was I was so excited and so so so I discovered her story at a critical time in my life where I was forced and faced to make some critical decisions and she so inspired me. I feel like she has become my friend and as I was able to share her story with my dad let me share her story with you. And in 1st Chronicles 724 it says this. His daughter was Shira who built both lower and upper Beth Horon and Uzin Shira. That's it. That's all we know about her. Scripture doesn't tell us her age, her appearance, nothing about her personality, the skills that she had acquired. Scripture doesn't tell us any of that. In fact it's very interesting to note that Scripture doesn't even include if she was married or had kids. And in a patriarchal society where a woman's status was determined by her marital status or her motherhood, this is really interesting. None of that is mentioned. The Bible tells us one extraordinarily thing that she did. She built three cities and though her entire life is

summed up into one verse, the Holy Spirit thought it was worth preserving for thousands of years. And in studying and becoming friends with her over the last two years I've learned this. That the size of your story doesn't determine the significance of your faithfulness. I want that to sit. Because sometimes we can look at these mega characters in Scripture and feel like, oh I'll never be like them. Or it's aspirational and I want to be like them but I don't have the faith like them. You know what I discovered in Shira? The size of your story does not determine the significance of your faithfulness. And some of us might feel in this room or watching online you don't feel spectacular because your life is just boring. You don't preach on platforms. You don't have a title. You don't own a business. You're not married. You don't have a name on a building somewhere. No, no, no. Heaven's economy is different from ours. God does not measure your success or your worth based on your Instagram following or TikTok following. God is not impressed with the amount of money in your bank account or the size of the ring on your left finger. What Shira's story demonstrates is that people might not know you, but God sees who you are and what you're building. So let me tell you, church, you are built to build. See, Shira's story started with brokenness. Before we get to Shira, we need to understand context. And we obtain context by reading history and or verses above and verses after. And in First Chronicles, the book is actually a genealogy. What's a genealogy? It's like a Hebrew phone book of your daddies, daddies, daddies, daddies, daddies. So all these chapters, it's like so-and-so was the father of so-and-so. So-and-so had so-and-so. So-and-so begat so-and-so. It's just, you know, your daddies, daddies, daddies, daddies, daddies. And yet, here, we're going to come across something tragic that happens in the middle of a genealogy. So I want you to pop up a few verses for some context about our girl, Shira. Verse 20 says this. The descendants of Ephraim. Shuthalah, Mered his son, Tehath his son, Elidah his son, Tehath his son, Zabad his son, Shuthalah his son.

They think they're running out of names because they're just naming each other after each other, okay? I don't know. Maybe it was just me. See, the Bible's funny. It's funny. Azar and Elid were killed by the native-born men of Gath when they went down to seize their livestock. Hold on a second. I don't want us to get lost in the sauce, but this is important. So Gath was where Goliath was from. Goliath was known for being a people of giants. So the men of Gath, the giants, came and plundered, stole from God's people, and decimated the lineage of this man that we see here. Verse 22, their father Ephraim mourned them for many days, and his relatives came to comfort him. Ephraim was the son of Joseph, as in the prince of Egypt. This is his son. And so his whole family lineage was wiped out. All the men who would carry the name forward were absolutely wiped out. This genealogy suddenly becomes a funeral where names become people and numbers become family, and behind this genealogy, there's grief, there's sadness, and there's loss. So maybe you haven't been to a physical funeral, but maybe you were mourning the death of a dream, the death of a relationship, the death of an end of an aspiration or a business endeavor. That's exactly where Ephraim finds himself. And then he does this in verse 23. Then he made love to his wife again. If you don't know what that means, you can ask Pastor Cesar after church. He'll teach you everything. I love that. Thank you. Thank you. As she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, he named him Bariah because there had been misfortune in his family. The name Bariah means calamity or disaster, so in other words, Ephraim names his son according to the tragedy that has affected not just his family, but his entire lineage. He's mourning.

And amidst the darkness and the sadness and the loss, Shira pops onto the screen. Now, look at verse 24. His daughter was Shira who built lower and upper Beth Haran as well as Uz and Shira. Don't miss the contrast that's happening here. His family had just walked through devastation, but the story doesn't end with devastation. There is grief in this genealogy, but there's also a building that is about to happen. And what happened to you may explain part of your story, but it doesn't write the end of your story. This is what I love about this woman because there's people in this room who have lived through things that they have not chosen. A broken relationship with their parents, loss, devastation, bankruptcy, addiction, debt. Feeling like God has not spoken to you, and the temptation is to believe about your identity is wrapped around what's happened. Well, my family's broken, so I'm broken. I failed. I'm a failure. They abandoned me. I'm never going to be loved. This, I just don't know how I'll ever recover from this. But scripture gives us a completely different picture. Ephraim's family ended or experienced tragedy, but tragedy was not the ending. It was not the final chapter. Out of the middle of a family that is experiencing absolute death and desolation and destruction rises somebody who builds. Shira is a remarkable character, and she doesn't appear in a vacuum. She appears in the midst of grief, in the middle of loss. In a genealogy marked with suffering, scripture very clearly says this. His daughter was Shira who built. If you brought your Bible, I want you to circle the word built. It didn't say she lamented. It doesn't say she complained. It doesn't say she retreated. It doesn't merely say she survived No, no No

The word that was chosen was built and Shira's life reminds us that God takes people who've inherited brokenness and uses them as instruments of construction Shows me you can come from a broken house without letting a broken house break you I Love this woman So what happened to you might explain part of your story But it doesn't explain the full story and it doesn't get to write the ending God can redeem what happened before you to establish something different in You Shira just doesn't say I'm a girl. I'm just a little baby. Someone come rescue me She's like, uh-huh. My brothers are dead where what is gonna happen to our family? She built Second a first Chronicle 724 says that she she built these three cities. There's three places There's lower Bethlehem upper Bethlehem and ooze and Shira the text that the language uses here is is interesting When she says she built in the original language it is implying construction Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't just simply that her name was mentioned. No. No, let's put this in context She was a city planner. She was a construction contractor. She had teams of people that reported to her She had to manage people she had to manage payroll and she was smart. She's a baddie You know what? I'm saying bad as in good. All right, Orange County. Stay with me track with me. She's a baddie Amazing and as you study a scripture you will discover even it in a map if you look at it Even today that Beth Horan were in strategic Locations these this was significant because they were at each of a way that was there for military Strategy to protect God's people and there was a trade route for sales that would provide for God's people So she built these two cities to protect God's people and provide for God's people What she wasn't was building wasn't meaningless monuments in the middle of nowhere They were strategic locations to provide for God's people and protect for God's people Do you know that over? 3,500 years later 12 miles outside of the old city of Jerusalem. There's two cities that still exist separated by two miles Beth Horan and upper Beth Horan 3,000 years later the cities that this woman built still exists today. I

Read her story several years ago. I Revisited her story when we were about to launch Revere I was so moved by what this woman did on the heels of Devastation and that these cities would provide and protect for God's people and I made an internal decision I said I am gonna do the same. I Want to be someone who builds in the midst of loss in the midst of devastation? I don't want to walk away when it feels hard She taught me that faithfulness isn't simply asking what can I build? But it's also asking where can what I build serve God's purposes God places all of us somewhere for Shira. It's in the area of Beth Horan upper and lower Beth Horan But for you, he's placed you in your city. He's placed you in your church. He's placed you in your state He's placed you in your family. He's placed you in your cubicle. He's placed you in your C suite He's placed you on that athletic team. He's placed you in your community He's placed you in that friend group. So I'm I'm asking don't simply ask Well, what am I supposed to accomplish but begin to ask God? What have you placed me here to build for you and in the kingdom of God don't feel disqualified because there are so many builders Mothers are builders fathers of builders grandfathers of builders lawyers of builders doctors or builders brain surgeons are our builders construction workers are building Builders administrators are builders volunteers are builders She built something that outlived her and Perhaps the most beautiful detail for me is that the third city that she built was Named oozin Shira a name after her but what theologians believed is that she didn't live to see the end of that third city And it was the people that named it in her sake so that her name can carry on generations afterwards The name Shira, you know what it means Survivor or remnant What is a remnant? It's someone or something who survives past devastation? You might not have ever heard of this woman whose story is buried in the pages of Scripture But what we know about her and what we hold to is that she was a woman who built something that remained So your greatest legacy might not be what? you accomplish for yourself, but what remains for others

when obeying and serving God faithfully. So the question I have to ask us this morning is, what will remain because you built? Ask yourself, what will remain because I built? It's not the question, who will remember me when I die? Who knew my name? Who knew my story? Who saw my Instagram account? No, no, no. The question we should be asking is, whose life was strengthened because I led them to the Lord? It should be whose children, these children that I'm raising, will they know the name and the scriptures of the Lord because I'm raising them in this way? Whose marriages will become stronger because I remain faithful to my marriage? Whose life will change because I opened up my house and served dinner to those who were spiritually hungry and physically hungry? The truth is that God remembers what people forget. Think about the irony. Shira is one of the least known people in scripture. Most people don't know her, and yet God found it fitting to put her name in the word of God. The world may never notice your faithfulness, but God sees it. Look at what Hebrews 6.10 says.

God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints. I read this verse and I can't help think of this community. We have faithful servant leaders. Many of them, you might know their name, you might never know their name, but let me tell you about Veronica. Veronica is a woman who arrives before the sun is up. She opens up moving containers and crates as we unload to set up here, and as she pulls out boxes and crates and containers, she's pulling out toilet paper and mops and brooms and vacuums because this woman, along with the small crew of servant leaders, are dedicated to cleaning this house. They'll scrub the toilets. They'll mop the floors. They'll vacuum the carpets so that when the saints of God arrive, they can rest and receive the word of God because how many know if you entered into a bathroom and it's full of poo, you can't focus. You might not come back. So shout out to the clean team. It's true, it's true, yeah. And I love that Veronica is serving as unto the Lord, but she's not simply serving for herself. Her son Sebastian is part of our youth group here, and her nephew heard about Revere

because of Veronica telling him about it, and he got baptized just last month. Let me tell you something. God doesn't overlook your faithful work. Heaven keeps records that earth will never keep. You don't need someone to applaud you to obey God. You don't need someone to recognize you or know you for you to be obedient and serve God. You don't need somebody, you don't need a platform for people to pay attention to you. God knows your name, so it's about time you build because you are built to build. Shira's story called me out from choosing easy. I had excuses, legitimate excuses to walk away without judgment for people. People, multiple people have said, hey, you don't need this. This is really hard. You know, like you have every excuse just to walk away. Be hurt, like mourn, and I did. But for me, I had seen God be so good to me in my life that I had to choose to obey even if it felt hard, even if it didn't make sense to everyone, and even if people didn't agree because I had to come to the reality. Man did not call me, God did, and I have to be faithful even through the heart. When we were about to launch Revere, I just had a very honest conversation with the Lord, and I recognized, God, I don't have the resources

that many other pastors or church planters have. I don't have the wealth that many other churches in Orange County have. I don't have the education that many other Bible communicators have, but what I know is that when I show up to build, my God will supply my every need like the psalmist says. So I am proud to say that month over month, we have never been in the red. The Lord has always allowed us to be in the black, that though we had to move out of one building, the Lord allowed us to move into this temporary venue that we have to set up and tear down, but by the grace of God, we still here, and we're doing it, and people's lives are being transformed, and people are maturing, and people are being discipled, and people are understanding who God is. Yes, I wanted to tell you about my friend, Shira, because she calls us out of passive Christianity. Don't just complain about your life. Build your life. Don't just attend church. Build your church. Don't just criticize the church. Begin to be the solution to the church. Oh, I don't like that song. Join the worship team. Oh, the parking sucks. Get out there in the heat and help. Some cars, you know what I'm saying? Yes. Yes, don't complain about your spouse

Don't complain about your marriage pour into your spouse pour into your marriage Don't talk about community build community through a community group Don't just talk about revival start praying that the lord will teach us how to create space for the god's presence to dwell among us so What are you building? What Are you building? There are certain moments in a sermon where you ask you ask questions and it's theoretical like let me pontificate about that I'm, not that's not one of those moments. It's a legit question. What are you building? Okay, okay What are you building because the truth is? You're building something In your marriage. Are you building trust? Are you building division? Are you building intimacy? Are you building skepticism, but you're building something? What are you building in your children? Are you popping them into a school system to let them babysit and teach your children about morals? Or are you taking a stand and teaching your children? I will build you and for me in my house as joshua says we will serve the lord. What about your business? What are you building your business? I want to acquire wealth Why I want to acquire wealth so that I can share and resource churches around the globe I want to resource those without and I want to take care of my family for future generations. What are you building? What are you building in your church if this is your church? I don't want you to merely ask what can this church do for me? No No, I want you to come and say lord What would you have me do in this community that will allow others to encounter you your presence and your life transformation? Oh y'all We're heading into a building season. I feel it in my bones But let us not erroneously think that we are the great builders Jesus is the true builder And at this point I have to move from moralism or this like cute talk about a smart woman who is strategic and awesome

And start talking about the gospel because this message isn't be like shira amass and build something great No, no like the gospel. It's way deeper than that Because ultimately we are not the great builder Jesus is Psalm 121 says this unless the lord builds the house those who build it labor in vain We build our careers we build our businesses we build our ministries we build our families we build our reputation But if jesus christ is not at the center, then we will spend our life constructing something that will not last Jesus says in matthew chapter 7 to build upon the rock and the rock is jesus christ his words and his life that we follow as christians And this is where shira's story becomes a picture of the gospel Her family experienced grief and death, but she became a builder And at the cross at calvary Everyone was watching jesus gasp for his breath and say it is finished. Well, everyone thought that this was being destroyed His body was broken. His reputation was destroyed his followers and his disciples were scattered the Ministry apparently had ended and his enemies on earth and in hell thought that they had won But what looked like destruction was actually god's greatest construction plan because through the cross jesus reconciled us to god the father Through his resurrection. He proved that he conquered death He gave us his spirit to do the things that we cannot do with supernatural strength and because of the gospel He's still building the church. That's why jesus said in matthew 16 18. I will build the church It doesn't say you will build the church. It doesn't say bianca will build the church No, no, no, first of all, this is us together. This has never been about a platform a person or a personality We are the church, but this is not me at the helm I'm a willing shepherd. I'm a willing servant and I will go where the lord calls me But let me tell you and set the record straight. I am not the one who is building this church This church is built on jesus christ His words his life his death his resurrection And god can turn a place of great destruction Into the greatest construction project your Brokenness doesn't frighten god

Your sin doesn't intimidate god. Your failure doesn't exhaust god's grace your family history doesn't Make god's sovereignty nothing. Oh, no, no, no God raised jesus from the dead which shows me that we can build something beautiful Out of something that looks so broken Shira's entire biblical biography could fit into a small portion on a page one verse And her life could be summed up in one sentence she built If you could summarize the entirety of your life in one sentence, what would it be? Here lives somebody who accumulated here lives somebody who complained here lives someone who had a huge instagram following here lives someone who? Amassed millions of Dollars, or here lives somebody who built. Someone who built a home where Jesus was honored. Someone who built friendships that were characterized by grace. Someone who built hope and joy and faith in someone else. Someone who built for eternity. Shira's name is hidden in scripture, but God saw her and he saw it fit to tell generations this truth. She built. And perhaps that's all that you need to hear today. Maybe you need to hear that you don't need to be famous and you don't need to be popular and you don't need to be impressive. You don't have to have this massive platform. You simply need to be believers in God who believe that he could take the broken and make something beautiful.

And when God is assigning, you're building assignment in your hands. Don't spend your life wishing that you had someone else's building assignment. Build what God placed in front of you. Build your home, build your family. Take care of your body, build your business, build your relationships, build your church. Stop looking at everyone else, but please hear me ever so clearly, build on Jesus Christ because apart from that, everything else will crumble. And some in this room or they're watching online, maybe you feel unnoticed by people, unseen. Can I just tell you right now, God sees you. Maybe you're in this room and you've been comparing your assignment to his and hers and them. And God is not asking you to build their city. The Lord's asking you to build yours. Maybe some of you are sitting in this room and you were thinking that your best days are behind you because of what happened to you. I get to stand before you today and testify that your greatest days might be ahead of you. If you hold your head up high, you refuse to give up. You declare that God is good and believe I will build with whatever he's put in my hands. Today, I want us to be people that know my story is not over. The broken part isn't the whole part.

Maybe the thing that God wants you to say isn't simply, oh, I survived it. I would hate for your tombstone or your epitaph to be, they survived, he survived, she survived, like cool. But I want your headstone to say, he built, she built, they built. And so I want us to weigh, weigh with a weight in our minds. God, what are you calling me to build? What are you calling me to do? Not him or her or them. What are you calling me to do? I want you to think about that because I wanna lead a church full of builders who we may not have what they have or she has or he has, but we're gonna show up and where God guides, he provides. We say yes, he does the rest. That's the church I wanna lead. Okay, so let's have an honest conversation. Your marriage isn't going the way that you want it to go? Start building it so it goes in that way. Oh, you come from a history of addiction. You come from the history of depression. You come from a history of debt. Guess what? What are you gonna build today? Oh, things haven't happened the way that you thought it was gonna happen. I'm not worried about that.

I mourn that with you. I'm sorry for you, but I'm asking you now, today, what are you going to build? The Lord wants to entrust his people to build something that outlasts them. So church, I'm asking you, what are you building? I'm gonna invite you all to stand to your feet because today, church, I want us to not just think about bold declarations. I want us to sing out bold declarations. I want us to know that we know that we know that we are children of the most high God. And we are declaring that we will build our life on the truth of who God is. We're not building our life on our wealth or our finances. We are building our life on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. So I'm gonna encourage you, don't leave. You got two minutes, don't leave. I want you to stay. I want this seed to be in your heart. And will you do me a favor? Will you begin to open your mouth and declare these words over your life? Worship team, I want you to come forward. I want you to lead us. Because right now, church, I want you to know you are built to build. So act like it. You will not be shaken. Our God who provides the cattle

on a thousand hill will provide. Our God who can restore even the most broken things, he can restore. Our God who loves you and forgives you, he wants you to come to him and build your life upon him, the solid rock of Jesus. So church, can you begin to declare? Can you begin to decree? Who are you putting your trust in? Who are you putting your trust in? Let's go, church.