Building Up Your Spiritual Life
1 COR. 3:1-17
Building Up Your Spiritual Life
IX. Intro:
A. Card game
X. Scripture: 1Co 3:1-17 <<READ>>
XI. Building Purposefully
· Like the card game, life is frustrating and meaningless and a guess without knowing our purpose.
· Arguing about which conduit gets the credit, as opposed to crediting God the true source is not spiritually mature.
· The “mere men” phrase is rendering carnal, with the comparison being spiritual.
· Focusing on anything other than God and the goal of the extension of His work is spiritually immature.
· We are the work of God, collectively and individually.
Tony Campolo: I am believe God has placed within us a deep yearning to know our lives matter. We want to do great things, make the world a better place, and do something significant with our lives. Each of us, when leaving this earth, will crave to know that we have left behind something of significance. And each of us hopes that his or her legacy is good and will be honored as such. There are philanthropists who give with the hope that buildings on university campuses will be named after them. There are authors who fantasize about writing books that will stand the test of time and become classics. There are soldiers who bravely go to their deaths dreaming of ballads being written about them and sung to future generations.
Now you may be thinking to yourself, "I sure don't see that in people. I see folks who are cynical, critical, and living defeated lives every day. People don't give much thought to making a difference - we are all just trying to make it through the day." If you have ever sat at the bedside of someone who is dying then you know that deep inside is a yearning to be more than we've been. Many say, "I sure wish that I would have..."
XII. Avoiding Building poorly
A. By Choosing a Poor Foundation
· Have you seen the over-used theme in movies where something or someone needs to be caught in a primitive situation? They often use a covered hole, disguised of course. Then the dunce falls in instead of the prey. The covering won’t support the weight.
· Building a spiritual life on a false foundation has similar results.
· We must build our spiritual lives on a true foundation. Building on anything else is foolish as it will fall when the foundation fails.
· JC is the only true foundation per Bible and my experience.
B. By Choosing Poor Materials
· Right foundation not enough. We must build on it with quality. If not it won’t stand the test.
· Christians collectively and individually, have far too often built with trash. Even though our foundation was right, our building looked like garbage.
o Foundations almost always become invisible under what is built on them.
o Our trashy building made those within and without assume that the foundation must be like the building, trashy. We cause people to reject Jesus based on what they see in us.
· House burned down on Aycock. Sad. I saw a house burn as a kid. Nothing left
· We can enter an eternity with God without a lot of great works, but whatever we did do will be a waste. It will not survive. Who wants to waste their life now, and then sense the suffering of loss for that decision later.
· But note the grace of God for those who chose a good foundation…
XIII. Building well
· There is a reward for laboring in the extension of the kingdom.
· Building well, with good materials would be whatever actually makes the kingdom of God grow, collectively and individually.
o Using God given gifts and abilities to build others up, and to lead self and others closer to God.
o Using time and resources in the same way.
o Drawing nearer to God for the above purposes
§ Prayer
§ Scripture
§ Worship: song and meditation
§ Putting aside distractions of sin, selfishness, materialism
XIV. INVITE:
· We must not destroy God’s temple in ourselves, others, church collectively. Rather we must build it up.