The Wise Man Built His House Upon The Rock!
1 Corinthians 3:10-23 • Sermon • Submitted
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Good Evening man I am so glad that you all came out tonight to worship the Lord together Let’s pray and we’ll get started. (PRAY)
“The wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock, and the house on the rock stood still.”
When the rain came when the floods came, the wise man who built his house upon a firm foundation was pleased because when the trials of this life crashed down upon him. His house stood firm. The childhood song mentions someone who built upon the sand, when the rain came and the floods came the house on the sand went SPLAT right?
Bottom line: what you build is not as important as where you build it. Or to put it more plainly. What you build is not as important as what you build it on or with.
We continue our study of 1 Corinthians tonight and we have seen that this church in Corinth man they were struggling. They thought they were very spiritual and yet thier actions told a very different story. Their mouth said one thing while thier maturity level stated something else entriely. Paul even went so far as to tell them, I cannot treat you as if you were spiritual because you are not spiritual you are fleshly.
You are not mature you are infants in Christ.
The goal is to serve Jesus the destination we want to arrive at in Godliness, and reaching the lost but now because of your immaturity we are stranded on the island of selfish desires, rather than sacrificial love.
He says why are you arguing over who the greatest teacher is?
Someone has got to plant and someone has got to water…
Paul says I am not the most important, Apollos who is shepherding you now is not the most important. But each plays a role that is needed. He tells them youre being merely human when God desires you to be lead and guided by His Spirit.
HE leaves off the first portion of this text by telling these infant Christians dont worry about my ministry, or Apollos’ ministry but instead look out for your ministry and work together to glorify Christ, because.....
He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:
He says my ministry is not in question here, Apollos’ ministry is not in question. But instead yours is...
Each follower of Jesus Christ has been given a gift from the Holy Spirit, it is your job to seek the Lord and determine what that ministry is. Within the church yes, but also the ministry of your life. How you build your life and what is the bedrock foundation of your life is going to show throughout your day to day experience and if you get away without laboring for the Lord one day it will be all found out!
Paul says because each one will be given a reward according to his or her labor.
So Paul begins this text by stating that the Christians were acting worldly, fleshly preoccupying themselves with things that had ZERO eternal value and they needed to instead be building upon a foundation of love and grace and allowing that to impact the way they live out their life and the way they do church.
So the Corinthians would have been like well great Paul thank you for hitting us in the mouth, now tell us how we can change how we are acting. Paul ablidges....
Paul explains how to build a ministry which is healthy and glorifying to God, and consequently how to build ones life in order to be spiritually healthy and mature and God honoring.
Paul says here that when it came to building his life and his ministry to be one of the most impactful and powerful ministers of his time, that he started with:
The Gospel
The Gospel
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
Paul states right off the bat that it is by Gods grace that he even has a ministry, that he has even been saved at all, this grace which he did not deserve was given to him. That grace began the moment Jesus Christ stepped into this life. He was persecuting the church making life hard for the first persecuting the elderly ladies and children. The Lord had every right to step in and destroy him but instead he blinded him in order to change him into the man He was going to use in a mighty way.
Grace starts with Jesus and ends with Jesus.
Paul had determined in his mind that Jesus was going to be the centerpoint of his life and his preaching.
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
He said let’s get back to the basics, let’s get back to what really matters, at the end of the day it doesnt matter who is in charge, it doesnt matter what I want, or what you want but as long as Jesus is being proclaimed and we are on mission to seek and save that which is lost nothing else matters!
Paul says that is the bedrock foundation that every believer should build their life upon the gospel of grace!
As we allow that grace and that mercy marinate within us it should be changing our hearts and driving us into service for the Kingdom of God!
Grace produces gratitude and gratitude evokes service!
He says I am thankful for that grace and i labor to preach this gospel of grace as the foundation of my life.
He said and then God allowed me to begin a work among you, with that same foundation Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:
According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
Each one of you have been given the same grace and Jesus Christ is the foundation upon which you build your life! If Jesus is not the bedrock of your life then you are wasting your time! Wether it comes to your own spiritual health or the health of a church Jesus must be the solid rock that build on. It is your relationship to him that effects your relationship to others and the relationships within the church. That’s why it is crucial Paul says to “take care of how you build upon it.”
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
How you build your life is directly or indirectly affected by how you are cultivating your relationship with Jesus. When Jealousy and strife mark your life it is evident that you are not actively walking with Jesus even if you think you are! When there is constant strife within your home or marriage you may think you are doing ok with Jesus but the evidence shows otherwise. When you cannot go to church without having hard feelings in your heart toward someone else your mouth says your doing good with the Lord but you are decieving yourself!
How you build your life is directly or indirectly affected by how you are cultivating your relationship with Jesus. When Jealousy and strife mark your life it is evident that you are not actively walking with JEsus even if you think you are! When there is constant strife within your home or marriage you may think you are doing ok with Jesus but the evidence shows otherwise. When you cannot go to church without having hard feelings in your heart toward someone else your mouth says your doing good with the Lord but you are decieving yourself!
You may try to build your relationship through good deeds, wrong, you might try to build your relationship through heartfelt singing wrong.... you might try to cultivate your relationship with others even by instituting principles from the Bible but if your not actively pursuing the face of the Lord JEsus Christ every single day you will eventually fail. your life will become more about “what you are doing for God” rather than “what God is doing in you”
God is more concerned with what He is doing in you than what you think your doing for him.
when it comes to the Christian life, and the health of the ministry of the church people can make some
Common Mistakes
Common Mistakes
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—
each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
1 Corinthians 3
Paul says that we should diligently work at our relationship with God so that our work will not be “what we are doing for God but rather a result of what He is doing through us.”
Paul tells the church in Corinth you base your spiritual maturity on the wrong things. (gold, silver, precious stones) HOW WEALTHY YOU ARE, OR HOW BLESSED YOU ARE but just because you have those resources does not mean that you have a healthy relationship with Christ! So we have churches today who base their success on the uildings they can build, or the amount of money in the account and Paul says that is foolish and when the day comes where God exposes their work all of those things are going to perish because they are of no eternal value.
“Im too blessed to be stressed”
“BEST LIFE NOW”
“THE POWER OF I AM”
Our work must not be based upon the physical blessings we have in this life. But in our faithfulness even when it seems we dont have the physical things we want or think we need.
In God’s eyes large congregations don’t mean success, but healthy congregations mean success. How much do the people inside truly love and serve Jesus?
How does this congregation come together to drive each other toward SPIRITUAL MATURITY NOT JUST SOCIAL MATURITY?
Then he uses (wood, hay, straw) to display how each of these elements can be burned or consumed. Just humor me for a minute.... he could also be using these terms to paint a picture of the one who is buildings hard work.
It is difficult when you build something from wood, hay, straw.
Then you hear people today leaving the church saying “do you know how hard I worked for this or that and then this happned or that and now I am done.
While i can understand we can never let “our hard work” and the accomplishments of that hardwork become the idol we worship the feet of.
This begs the question do you do what you do for Jesus or YOUR FULFILLMENT?
He says if you base your spiritual health on your blessings, or your accomplishments of your hard work then it will come to light.
ONLY ETERNAL DEEDS DONE IN LOVE AND SERVICE OF JESUS WILL WITHSTAND THE FIRE OF HIS JUDGEMENT!
1 Corinthians 3:14
If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.