Whenever we are faced with a challenging or daunting task, there are two problems that can ensnare us. One is when we are very aware of our infirmities, and the other is when we are not aware of our infirmities.
This is how it works. When we are aware of our infirmities, that tends to paralyze us. We are confronted with something we know that we cannot do, and so we do not do it. But if we look at it, and we are swollen in our own conceits, and think that doing it would be a snap, we go on in our own strength and in our own name.
Either our weakness is manifest and paralyzes us, or we are not aware of it, and proceed under banners flapping in the crisp breeze of our own vanity. When we are paralyzed by the daunting task, we retreat into self-pity—what arrogant pride does when it is thwarted. When we are not paralyzed by the daunting task, we advance in the glory of our own imagination. We are puffed up—what arrogant pride does when it is not thwarted.
This is why all our labor—which would naturally include the building of a church—must be done to the glory of God. It is not enough to do it all in your own strength, and then put a plaque on the wall in the narthex, glorifying God as some kind of an afterthought. There must be no afterthought about it.
We must do corporately what we are all called to do individually. Paul says that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in us to will and to do for His good pleasure. This is the task—we must work out what God works in, and we must not lay one brick more than that. We must work out what God works in, and so we must lay every brick He gives us.
So let the stones cry out.