Building What Lasts

Transcript

Welcome And A House Story

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning. My name is Katie. I'm a member of the staff and the teaching team. Welcome to all of you. Welcome to those of you who are joining us online. You're an important part of our community, and we're so glad you could be with us this morning. Okay, well, many of you, you may know that I grew up in Okanemak. I grew up in this church actually, when it was just down the road at what is now Little Dumplings. Grew up here, I moved away for a while, lived in Madison, lived in California for a while, back to Madison. And then in 2019, I ended up moving back to the area with my husband, and we had two kids at the time. We have four now. And when we were getting ready to move back, we started looking for houses. Started going to showings, and we really wanted to be downtown originally, downtown somewhere. And so we went through a showing of a house that's in the Merchant's Platte area. If you're from O'Connemak, you might know that area. It's kind of like between City Beach and the Bridge Church there, formerly St. Matthew's. And this one house sticks out to me because it was just beautiful. It was like, Alex is here. Remember that house Alex is like white, and it had like beautiful woodwork and character and like these big arches, and it was like perfect location, like mature trees, and there's a little like beach right there. And we just loved it. Like we absolutely loved it. But after walking through it, we started to see cracks in the walls and the foundation. And after a few conversations, we realized that the foundation was not secure. So we loved the house. We got a couple steps ahead, we could like picture ourselves there. Um, but the foundation was not secure, and so we did not end up putting an offer in on that house. But I want you to keep that image in your mind today because that that building, that house, is going to serve as a metaphor for what we see Paul talking about today.

Maturing In A Messy Church

SPEAKER_00 1:42

So as a reminder, we're in a series right now called Maturing in the Mess, where we're going through 1 Corinthians, and the big idea we keep seeing with them is that church is messy. But we also see that we don't grow as followers of Jesus by escaping the mess of the mess of the church, but by much maturing within it. No church is perfect, but that isn't an obstacle to our growth. It's actually essential to our growth. This is the primary context for our formation as Jesus followers. So Paul is writing to Corinth. Recall that Paul spent time in Corinth when we went through Acts. We thought we saw Paul's missionary journey, how he traveled and brought the gospel, and he spent about a year and a half in Corinth. But since then he's left, and it's been reported to him that there are problems in Corinth. So now he's writing to the church that he helped start there. And remember what we've seen in previous weeks about Corinth. This is a culture that's obsessed with appearances and personalities and preferences. Corinth is a city where everything was about status, like who had the best education, who had the best rhetoric. Public speaking was really big there. Who could draw the biggest crowds? In Corinth, success meant being admired. So imagine how strange Christianity would have sounded to them. Paul comes not preaching like an impressive philosopher, but a crucified Messiah. Sounded very countercultural. But yet, we were told many came to believe. Acts 18 tells us that Paul came, he preached the cost the gospel, and God told him to stay there because many were coming to Christ. They believed and they were baptized. But since that time that Paul visited, the Corinthians are continuing to build their church, but it has become apparent to Paul that they were beginning to build the church according to Corinthian values as opposed to kingdom values. So that's the context for our passage today.

A Building Metaphor For Church

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Our passage today is from 1 Corinthians 3, 10 through 15. It says, 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 build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that is 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 as one escaping through the flames. Okay, so there's a few things I want us to notice about this passage. The first is that Paul is talking about a building. But the building here is a metaphor for something else. He's not just talking about building an actual building. The building talk Paul's talking about here is the church. And when I say the church, I'm also not talking about just the church, the building. But remember in the Old Testament that God's presence came to dwell in a temple, like in a physical structure. That's where the Israelites met with God, was in the temple. But in the New Testament, the veil is torn, and now God dwells in each of us, right? He says, You are the temple, you are God's building. So he's using the building metaphor to describe the church. And this isn't the only place where Paul uses this picture. In Ephesians 2, he says, We are built in the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone, and in him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. In other words, God isn't primarily building a place, he's building a people. The body of Christ becomes the place where God dwells. So Paul's using this building as a metaphor for the church. And it seems that his audience here is primarily church leaders in Corinth. Like he's he's primarily speaking to those who are responsible for building and leading in the church, but there's also a broader application to the entire church body. Because if the church is what God is building, then none of us are just like spectators looking in from the outside. We're all like the builders and the building. We're all part of what God is forming. But before we go any further, I think we need to acknowledge that our culture can make it kind of difficult to understand what Paul is saying

Church As People Not A Place

SPEAKER_00 6:06

here. And what I've noticed in my own life and in American, maybe evangelicalism in generally, is that we do a great job emphasizing like my individual relationship with Jesus. But often church can become like the place I go to rather than a people that I help build. Church becomes a place that exists primarily for me to help my relationship with Jesus. But Paul's saying something different here. He's saying it is about your relationship with Jesus, but it's also more than that. He's saying, you are God's building. You are not just attending what God is building, you are part of what God is building. Paul gives us a vision of the church as the body of Christ. As 1 Peter 2 says, we are living stones being built together into God's dwelling place. We are the family of God. And this is why Paul says each one should build with care. Every believer is a builder. Every one of us is adding something to what God is building. And this is important because how we see the church determines how we will participate in the church. If church is simply a place that we attend, then we'll miss what God is building. But if the church is something that God is forming us in together, then each one of us has a role. And if together we all make up the church, we won't just be asking, what can I get out of church today? We'll be asking questions like, how does my presence strengthen the church? How does my speech strengthen the church? How do my relationships strengthen the church? How do I use my gifts to strengthen the church? We all together make up the church. The next thing I want us to notice about our passage is the reference to

Jesus Is The Only Foundation

SPEAKER_00 7:47

the foundation. So verse 11 in our passage says, For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. So Paul's saying, Yeah, I brought the gospel to you. I brought the news of Jesus, which became the foundation of your church. Paul doesn't say Jesus is part of the foundation. He says Jesus is the foundation. He's the only foundation. And this is true for the church in Corinth, and it's true for any Christian church since that time today. Our foundation as Christians is Jesus, the Son of God who came to earth as God in the flesh, who lived a perfect, sinless life, and who died a sacrificial death on the cross so that we might be saved. This is square one. If we don't have this foundational belief, then what are we doing? Right? Might as well just be like a country club, hanging out and having a good time. Jesus is our foundation. So the building is the church, God's people, Jesus is the foundation.

Builders Work By Grace

SPEAKER_00 8:44

And the third thing I want us to notice is how Paul builds the foundation. The very first line in our passage is verse 10. And it's easy to read right over that line. I think if we were living in Corinth, we'd be like, oh, come on, Paul, like give yourself some credit. You brought the gospel, you did the teaching, he helped start the church, he helped establish the ministry, he most likely equipped people to lead after he moved on. But Paul's saying, it's only by God's grace that I did this. He recognizes that God gave him what he needed and empowered him to do what he did. I love the Dallas Willard quote. Grace isn't opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning. So Paul's saying, he's not, he's not saying I just like sat on my hands and poof, the church appeared. And look at that. Um, he's not saying that. He's not saying grace is no effort or it's just like sitting idly by and watch what God does. But he is saying it's God who put me in the position to be able to do what I did. It's God who empowered me and equipped me. It's God who provided for me as I did his work. It's God who directed my steps. This is what it looks like to work under God's grace. And this also connects to Paul's earlier challenges to the Corinthians. We've heard multiple weeks in a row now him challenge them, challenging them on their factions, remember? I follow Paul, I follow Apollo. So there were divisions and factions among them. And he's saying, don't follow me. I'm just a builder who's building under God's grace. It's not me who should get the credit. Yes, I am a builder, but it's God who brought me to Corinth. It's God who provided for me, it's God who gave me what I needed to do this work. It's all grace. I'm just a vessel. So Paul's saying, don't confuse the builder with the foundation. Jesus is the foundation. I'm just a builder and I build by God's grace. And as I was reflecting on this, I was thinking, man, I think we all have a tendency to sometimes confuse builders with the foundation. If it's whether it's like a preacher we really love, just a personality we like, a podcast, an author, these are all wonderful gifts that can help us grow in our faith. But every faithful teacher should ultimately be seeing the same thing that Paul says. Don't follow me, follow Jesus. Jesus is the foundation. So I asked Adam to put an image together here to help us visualize the moving pieces of this passage. There's kind of a lot going on. We see that the church is the building Paul's talking about. Paul says, I'm the builder, but Jesus is the foundation. And the way Paul builds is by God's grace. Make sense? Alright, then the next part of our passage, Paul goes to talk about the materials.

Choose Materials That Match Jesus

SPEAKER_00 11:32

So we've got the foundation, now he's going to talk to us about the materials, like the walls, the rest of the building. He says, now that you've got your foundation, what are you building on top of that? The foundation is Jesus, that's great. Your people profess faith in Jesus, wonderful. You've got the right foundation. But you don't build the foundation of a building and then stop and step back and say, like, oh, isn't that a beautiful building? Right? You keep going. The foundation is super, super important, but it's that. It's the foundation. Back to 2019 when my husband Alex and I were looking for houses, we ended up not buying a house anywhere in O'Connor, we ended up deciding to build. We found a lot in Exonia and we put an offer in, and all of a sudden there we were building. It was kind of impulsive, but I think it was a good decision. It was literally like we drove past this lot and we're like, yeah, we should build. Okay. And we had an offer in, like maybe the next day. But when we built, man, there were tons of decisions. And it wasn't just like, what color is your house? But it's like, do you want this solid door or hollow door? What color are your cabinets? What's this? And I don't know, neither of us really like care that much. So we're like, yeah, I think we made all the decisions in probably like an hour and a half. We're like, yep, that, that, that, that. But there were a lot of them. There were a lot of decisions. But my point is when you think about building a house, you don't just choose the foundation, you choose the walls and the roof and the windows. Every decision shapes the finished house. So Paul says, Jesus is your foundation. Yes. So important. But now what are you building with on top of that? And when Paul talks about the materials, he says this in verse 12. He says, if anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, their work will be shown for what it is. And one thing I noticed from this list of materials is that they're not all equal, right? None of us would say that gold is the same thing as straw. But yet I think it can be enticing to build with straw. Straw could be cheaper, right? It's probably easier to build with. It's probably quicker to build with. And for a while it might appear to work. So straw here, I think, is the worldly wisdom that Corinth keeps coming back to. Again, the Corinthians had the right foundation. They weren't rejecting Jesus. They were just trying to build with straw rather than gold. The Corinthians were trying to build a church based on status, based on influence, based on eloquence, based on power, based on competition. But a church built on Jesus looks like humility. It looks like faithfulness. It looks like forgiveness. It looks like generosity. It looks like service. It looks like sacrificial love. And this temptation is still there for us today. Whether we're building the church or we're building our own lives, the question isn't what does the world say is successful? The question is what does God say will last? Or put another way, does it look like Jesus? Let me share an example. Imagine that someone in this church does or says something to hurt you, in theory. Not that you would ever do that. Let's say someone does something to offend you or to hurt you. Building with straw says, eh, I'm done with them. I'll find some other friends and kind of gossip about them, or I'll just kind of disappear. Maybe I'll just find another church. Building with gold says, you know what? I'm gonna have a hard conversation. I'm going to speak the truth in love. I'm gonna extend grace because God extends grace to me. And I'm gonna work for reconciliation and unity rather than division. See, that's not just preserving the relationship, that's building the church with gold. So, friends, the building the church isn't just what happens when someone stands on the stage up here. It's what happens in all the little moments when we, as the body of Christ, choose to live like Jesus. It's what happens when you notice someone sitting alone and decide to sit next to them. It's what happens when two people choose forgiveness over bitterness. It's what happens when a kingdom community brings a meal to a family in crisis. These moments might not make the headlines, but they're gold. They're the very things that God is using to build his church. So this is the temptation for the Corinthians. It's not just to reject Jesus altogether. The temptation is to build the way the world builds, to measure success according to worldly wisdom, while still claiming Jesus as their foundation. But Paul is saying anything that doesn't resemble Jesus doesn't belong on a foundation, that's Jesus. If Jesus is our foundation, then everything we build should look like Jesus. Let me show you another image of what I think Paul is inviting us to picture here. Notice we've got the same foundation. Jesus, we've got Paul as the builder, God empowering Paul to build by grace, but then we've got the materials. Like think about the sides and the roof of the structure. Paul's saying you can build with gold, silver, and costly stones, or you can build with wood, hay, and straw. And what Paul is submitting is that our materials should match our foundation. So that's our bottom line for today. If Jesus is the foundation, then everything we build with should look like Jesus. And I think there's a word for us today in this, because I can't help but hear this and go, well, what are we building with? We might do a great job with foundation, right? Teaching people about like the basics of Christianity and laying down your life and you know, receiving Jesus. But what are we building with beyond that, like in the day-to-day? Mack often cites the statistic about the state of discipleship in America. And he says that around 63% of Americans self-identify as Christians, but that the number of Americans who are actively following Jesus is closer to 4%. So 63% versus 4%. I think that's a sobering reminder that many of us have our foundation, but that we're not doing so great with the building part. Over half the people in this country would say, Yeah, I'm a Christian, I believe in God, but yet continue to use materials that look more like the world than like Jesus. Our materials aren't matching our foundation. So how do we know what materials we're building with? How do we know what materials look like Jesus?

Grace Sustains Daily Discipleship

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Putting our image back up there, if we can put that second image back up there, what I want us to notice is that God gives us grace for the building, and he also gives us grace for the materials. Everything we do, church, is a product of God's grace. There is nothing in your life that God has put before you that is outside his grace. No decision that has to be made that outside is his grace, no conflict that has to be addressed that's outside his grace, no book to be read, no meal to be prepared, no dishes to clean, nothing that is outside his grace. So it's not just that we receive our salvation through grace, and then we live the rest of our lives just like trying really hard to live as good Christians. The gospel of Jesus is not only that you've been saved by grace, but that you are sustained by grace every single day. Ephesians 2, 8 says, It is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift from God. So again, we know we need grace for our salvation, but how quickly we forget that we need grace for every single day. Imagine with me for a moment that on December 29th of this past year, when I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, imagine he looked at me and was like, Hey mom, thanks for curing me for nine months and delivering me, but like, I'm good. We'll see you later. Right? That would be ridiculous. We'd be like, you can't feed yourself, you can't change your diaper, like you literally can't do anything on your own. We are to be as dependent on God as my newborn baby boy. The only difference is we actually never go past that point. So the same grace that saves us is the grace that shapes us every single day. Salvation and sanctification. Both are products of grace, the grace that empowers us to build like Jesus. And as I began putting this message together, I was struck with so many examples of how God's grace is at work in my life and in you all and in our church, how we are sustained by God's grace. One of them, frankly, you guys, is this message. Um, I wasn't supposed to be up here today. Mac was. And um, two weeks ago, Cameron had to put a sermon together in like two days. And he's like, Can you do July 12th? That's like two weeks. I'm like, okay. Um so I prayed about it and felt like God was saying, yep, this is, I'm putting this before you. And that's a much shorter timeline than what I'm used to. But God gave me the grace to do what I couldn't otherwise do. God opened up like pockets of time that I wouldn't have otherwise had. He helped me clarify thoughts. Sometimes when I'd be up feeding the baby in the middle of the night, he would give me this thought, and I'm like, ah, that's what I'm supposed to say. And sometimes it's a big thing like preaching a sermon, but sometimes it's a small thing. Like for me, even just like getting out the door in the morning. Um, I don't know about you guys, but having like two parents that have to get to work and four little kids, including a baby with the daycare in the bottles. And sometimes I'm like, I don't know how we're gonna do this in the time that I have. I'm like, God, you gotta help me. And then I show up at church a couple hours later, and it's like, okay, God, we did it. We got everyone where they needed to go. I think they're fed and alive, and we're good, right? So sometimes it's just like the small things. And also, I had tons of examples that came to mind from you all. The number of times I've had one of you come to me and say, you know what? I think God is like pushing me to lead something or step in or disciple someone or lead a group, but ugh, I don't know. Like there's always a hesitation there. Like, I can't do that. Other people do that. But every time you step in, God gives you the grace to do what he's put before you. God gives us Grace not only for our salvation, but for every day that follows. So if we want to build a church that looks like Jesus, then we need to ask not only whether our foundation looks like Jesus, but whether the entire building looks like Jesus. Whether all of it is shaped by God's grace, even the small things. Especially the small things. The way our materials come to match the foundation is through God's grace.

Fire Reveals What Will Last

SPEAKER_00 22:30

But this idea is countercultural. I think it was countercultural to Corinth, and I think it's counter-cultural to us. The world says, you know what you really need? Build bigger churches. That would make God really proud. Build better churches. Build a platform. Get the right personality in the pulpit. Market yourself well. Believe me, there is a whole industry out there related to church marketing. If people are impressed, it must be working. But Paul says, don't confuse popularity with faithfulness. Don't confuse self-promotion with surrender. Don't confuse efficiency with grace. Build a church where the materials match the foundation. If Jesus is the foundation, then everything we build should look like Jesus, shaped by grace. So we can build with gold or we can build with straw. This is the choice that Paul sets before us. But there's a kicker. The kicker is that it's not always easy to tell the difference. In fact, sometimes straw can look great for a while. It can even look a lot like gold. It's kind of like IKEA furniture. No, I don't hate IKEA. I buy lots of IKEA furniture. But if you have IKEA furniture, you know, you know what I mean. Like it can look great. They can do a great job of like putting a pretty veneer that looks like hardwood or oak over like a particle board. And at first you're like, this looks great. And then after a couple years, you're like, oh, it's like peeling and breaking. If you come to my basement, you'll see plenty of examples of that. But Paul tells us in verse 13, the fire will test the quality of each person's work. He doesn't say if the fire comes, he says when. So Paul's saying, you may be able to fool yourselves now. These methods of achieving success, they might work in the short term, but time will tell what you built with. The fire will reveal the quality of the materials that you used. And there's a real difference in these materials and how they withstand fire. When gold goes through fire, it gets refined. In fact, the heat like melts away the impurities to create like a more pure and valuable gold. But when straw goes through fire, it burns up. So Paul's saying, be mindful of what you're building with, because the fire will reveal what materials you used. If your foundation is Jesus, you might be saved, but will you have every anything left beyond your foundation? In our passage, Paul refers to the fire as coming on the day. He says in verse 13, 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. So the day that he's talking about here seems to be judgment day, like a day in eternity when everything will be brought to light and revealed for what it is. And on that day he's saying, only what is built with gold will last. Only what looks like Jesus. And when the fire comes, it will reveal what material was used. Some things will burn away, some things will last. So it doesn't matter how like impressive or successful or flashy our lives are to those around us, doesn't matter how impressive or flashy or successful our church looks to those around us, none of that will last. What will last is every act of faithfulness, every act of cross-shaped love. Every act of grace becomes part of what God is doing in the world. Paul ends this very letter at the end of 1 Corinthians by saying, Your labor in the Lord is not in vain. In other words, what's built with gold doesn't merely survive the fire. It has eternal significance. Nothing done in the grace of God is ever wasted. Every act that participates in what God is doing that reflects the life of Jesus is part of the work that God is carrying forward into the new creation. So let's build our lives to look like Jesus. Let's build our church to look like Jesus. One day everything else will burn away, but that which has been formed into the likeness of Christ will remain. So let me

Three Invitations And Prayer

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leave you with three invitations today. These are my action steps. First, spend 10 minutes, it can be longer, but take at least 10 minutes this week and ask God, what am I building with? And then just listen. Try not to be defensive, try not to rationalize, try not to justify, just listen. God's grace covers it all. There might be some ugly stuff, that's fine. Receive God's grace. Just spend 10 minutes and listen to what he has to say. Then choose one act of gold this week. Examples. Forgive someone. Tell the truth in love. Practice generosity. Choose something to build your life with gold. And then the third one, build the church with gold. Choose one action this week that builds the church. It could be something big, like joining a serve team, leading a group, but it could be something small and like inviting someone into your home, getting to know someone, finding some way to use your gifts to build and strengthen the church. Sound good? Okay, let me pray for us. Dear God, I thank you for this message. I thank you for your word and the way that it challenges us and convicts us and encourages us and edifies us. God, would you help us to take this message and live into it? Would you give us eyes to see the ways that you're inviting us to build our lives on you for our salvation and you for our everyday sanctification? Would you help us to be a church that builds with grace, that doesn't use the materials of our world or our culture to build according to the world's wisdom? But God, would you help us build according to your wisdom in the small ways that look like faithfulness? Would you help us to just receive your love this week, to receive your grace this week, and that we would be able to bless those around us, our neighbors, our communities, anyone we come into contact with, Lord, would you help us just to share your love with the world and form us into a body of Christ that looks like you? In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Go in peace.