Building Your Life
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever built something just to have it either fall apart or even possibly where it has to be taken apart.
When Arika and I first got married probably around 95% of our furniture came from IKEA, which if you have heard about Ikea it is great because you can get nice furniture for cheap,
But the issue is it comes completely disassembled.
And so when you put the furniture together depending on what it is it can take hours and if you are like me it also takes a lot of frustration, because you mess up 100 times.
But there was this piece that I was putting together that was extreamly complicated, because it was a dining room set with one of the tables that has folds which you can pull out.
And I remember I started with the chairs, Then I put together the table itself and it probably took me a total of three hours.
And I remember being so excited to to show my new bride this dinning room table and chairs,
And so Arika came into the room and she looked confused and the first words said was thats the wrong color.
And so now I had to dissemble it, find a way to get it in the small box I destroyed while opening and drive and hour to the closest Ikea.
I mean it was a pain.
Because whenever you build something the wrong way or even you build the entirely wrong thing, it is painful and causes issues.
But you know the sermon series we are in is talking about a church and a people who have done this.
Because if you were with us last week we were talking about the church of Corinth.
And if you remember anything you should remember that this church was an absolute mess.
The people were toxic, they would follow other false gods, they were divided, they were sexually impure and the list keeps going.
But whats amazing is that this church was actually a church that Paul ( who is writing this letter we are looking at) it was a church he started.
And so they started off right, and they have a good foundation in Christ which is really important,
but what the issue is, is that the quality of the building they built, did not match the quality of the foundation the building stood on
There lives did not match their foundation.
And you know it is so easy to look at this church and these people we are talking about and go “wow. they are terrible, I am glad I am not like them,”
But the thing is if we examine our lives closely I think we would see that there are places in our lives where the structure we have built does not match the foundation.
The things we have built our lives around do not match our identity we have in Christ.
In fact, I am just going to be honest, I believe this is the case for the majority of Christians.
And so the question becomes: how do we get the structure of our lives to match the foundation.
and for some of this might mean that we have some assembling to do, for others it might mean we have some disassembling to do
But it is so important for us to have our life and foundation match.
So lets jump on in we are in 1 Corinthians 3:1-23
and this is a really large passage so we will actually be breaking this up into a few sections and will be starting in just the first 4 verses.
So starting in 1 Corinthians 3: verse 1 it says:
1 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
So Paul starts out by telling these people who he is writing to that when they accepted Christ they were new Christians.
I love Paul’s illustration because He says they were like babies.
And Paul is saying like a baby, I fed you things that were meant to help grow in your walk with God.
I told you about God’s love for you, I told you about how He will never abandon you, I told you about His Grace.
But the issue is that Paul looks at these people and they are the same as where Paul left them.
And if you have ever raised a child you know when they are a baby they only drink milk or formula, right?
But when they turn around 4 or 6 months they start eating baby snacks then they turn 1 and can eat a lot of what you are eating
Then they eventually can eat tough things like stake
and then eventually they become teens where they eat everything in sight.
But you want this to happen, right? because if you are only drinking milk into adult hood you will be malnourished and truthfully probably not survive.
But the really sad thing is when we are surface level Christians where we say:
I have accepted God, but I do not want to go deeper,
I love God, but I do not want to serve Him,
I am in a relationship with God, but I do not want to put in time with Him,
I could keep going...
but what happens when we get this way is we are malnourished
And can I just say I am not saying this to make you feel bad, but I am saying this because malnourishment is not good
No one wants to live a malnourished life, but I want to see you live a life to the full because it is so much better.
Please if there is an area that you know is something you should be doing (devotional time, serving, giving) or should not be doing (lying, anger issues) either start or stop doing it, because I believe God has created you for more.
Do not live malnourished.
Well look at this next part in verses 5-8 because it says this:
5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.
So what I love about this part is Paul is talking about how God has given everyone a role, and he is partly saying this to address the division that this church is facing because people in the church liked some of the people who have come to help there church more then others,
but I also think Paul gives us a really practical step here so if you are thinking I might be malnourished this is a good thing to listen to.
Because Paul is saying God has given everyone a role or a way to serve Him.
He has gifted each one of us differently
For some of us it might be to lead a small group, for some it might be to greet, others it could be to clean, it could be to preach, it could be help with kids or teens, it might even be to help with a ministry outside of our church.
But God has gifted you in ways and if if you are an athlete you know this, but the best way to get stronger and healthier in an area that your gifted in or strong in is to keep working it out.
And if you are here today and are not serving somewhere I want you right now to take out the connect card in front of you and right an area you would be interested in serving, and place it in the offering after service.
But verse 9 tells us why this is important. It says this:
9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
You know when we are using are gifts to serve God as a body of Christ something happens where we start to see God move in such a beautiful way.
Its almost like this video I saw a few weeks back and you may have seen it, but this company put together this amazing drone show, where each of the drones were a specific light color and they used hundreds of drones to create these 3D moving Christmas displays in the sky
and it was amazing
But the thing is if there was just one drone in the sky it would just be a light in the Sky instead of this stunning display.
Can I just say when everyone is working and serving where God has called them to it allows us to make the people who see what God is doing in our church and lives stand in aww of it.
Because that is how God has called the church to accomplish His will.
Well lets look at the next part in verses 10-12 because Paul says this:
10 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. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,
So Paul goes back to this idea that we talked about that by the Grace of God we have a foundation laid in Jesus Christ, but Paul ask us what are we building on this foundation.
and He even tells us you really want to take this serous,
And He ask are you building with gold, silver, or stone, or are you building with cheap materials like wood, hay, and straw,
And if you have ever read the three little pigs you know that the thing you build with is really important,
Because the big bad wold comes right?
And He destroys the hay house, He destroys the house built of sticks, but then he cannot destory the house built of rock.
And really Paul is telling us our lives are like the 3 little pigs because look at 13-15 Because Paul says
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. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
So Paul tells us the reason we need a strong foundation is because when we go through difficult periods in our life times where there is fire, if our life is a weak building its just going to topple down.
But if our life is built solidly then a fire can come, things can go completely wrong, but our building will stand firm.
Because if it is built on God and everything around our life is centered on that it will stand the test of time.
where small bumps or even big bumps can’t derail things
Because when we have bumps in life it amplifies stress in our life, when our finances are bad it adds stress on our marriage, when our kids misbehave it adds stress, when our job is bad we take it out on our friends
But if the structure of our life is built on Christ an earthquake can happen, but our lives can stand firm.
You know even as a church it has been so cool to see how we everyone has handled this past year, because I know some churches and organizations have really been divided over everything because like I said difficulties amplify issues, but whats neat is we have been able to see our church in difficult times continue to come together to do God’s work.
And I am so thankful for that.
Well look at the next part in verse 16 because so far we have talked about building the structure of our life to match the foundation, and we talked about how it was important right?
Well verse 16 and 17 tells us just how serious this is. it says:
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
This verse is saying it is so serious that your life matches your foundation.
Because you are a temple, meaning that if you have accepted Christ and you are a Christian, God literally dwells in you.
So if you are doing things that are toxic, you are not just polluting your life, but this passage says you are actually polluting the very dwelling place of God.
I mean I do not know about you guys but that convicts me, because that means every action I do that is not God glorifying actually pollutes.
And verses 18-21 actually let us know how we can determine what pollutes us. its says this:
1 Corinthians 3:18–21 (NIV)
18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours,
You know the city that this church Paul is writing to in Biblical times was considered actually a very wise city from a world view.
They had positioned themselves as a major trading post for a lot of countries and because of this the city was known to be wealthy, they were known to be successful,
But a lot of scholors compare the city of Corinth to Las Vegas because they had all of the wealth, all of the sucsess, but no morals.
And the issue that I mentioned is the people in this church saw how sucsessful the culture they lived in was and said we want this to guide us.
This is what we want to build our life on.
But Paul tells them “look this idea you have of wisdom is wrong, because true wisdom does not come from the world but it comes from God.
Because God is truth.
It is almost like if you have ever used a solar panel and you hold up the solar panel to a light in your kitchen it won’t work, why?
Because in order for the the solar panel to work it needs true sunlight, because the fake stuff will not cut it.
And if we want to live a life where our structure is sturdy, then we need to live a life where our wisdom does not come from the worlds definition of sucsess, but our wisdom comes from where God is leading us.
If we want true wisdom then we need His word, His Spirit and His people in our life.
basically we need to do whatever we can for God to guide us and not the world we live in
Well look at this last part and this is the most important part verses 22-23
22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
I love this because Paul is really telling these people how they need to live, I mean he is giving to them.
But then he finishes the part we are in today saying look ultimatly wether you seek wisdom from me, another leader in this church or even this world never forget whose you are.
can you just read the first half of verse 23 with me again as we close?
1 Corinthians 3:23 (NIV)
23 and you are of Christ...
This morning it is easy to feel discouraged or get lost in everything we talked about.
But never forget whose you are.
Because you belong to Christ which means you are priceless
And God want’s you to live a life that is worthy of just how much He loves you.
You are Holy, set apart, created beautifully.
Maybe today you need to remember whose you are, because if you are breathing you belong to God.
What would happen if you boldly declared that last verse in your life.
You are of Christ.
Will you pray with me?
