No Shoddy Construction

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Don Filcek; 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 No Shoddy Construction

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You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsick preaches from his sermon series titled,
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First Corinthians, Sinful Church, Powerful Gospel. Let's listen in. I'm Don Filsick.
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I'm the lead pastor here. Most of you knew that. Some of you didn't. And so, introduce that. And I'm really glad for the opportunity that we have to gather together.
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I am right where I want to be this morning. I hope you are too. I absolutely love this church.
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I love all of you. And I count it a huge privilege to open up the Word, the Word of God, each week to help explain it the way that God has pressed it on my heart and in my life over this week of intense study of the text.
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And the thing that I want to say to you is an unpopular opening sentence as I introduce the text before we come and sing some songs and then really dissect this in a little bit.
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This very simple statement that is a little shocking to our system, and it's just simply this.
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Judgment is coming. A judgment is coming. Now, raise your hand if you knew that.
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Did you know it? You knew it. But we need reminders of that, do we not? There will be a day when all that is true and all that is real will be revealed.
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No more hiding. No more masks. No more pretense or pretending because we will be seen by the one who sees all things.
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No more time to do good. No more time to do evil. Just the promise of an exposed reality of what has indeed been true of our lives.
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Anybody a little scared? Anybody, like, where's this going, Don? It makes sense that we might have a little bit of fear when we think about that exposure.
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We don't like to be seen. We're a culture of masks, are we not? We like to hide behind all kinds of pretense.
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We like to look better than we are. But I think an exposure of what is true is a good way to conceive of judgment.
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We think of judgment, what do you think in your mind? Just harshness or meanness? But no, an exposure of what is true is what really a judge is going for.
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A judge and a jury and a justice system must be concerned for what is true in order to be genuinely fair and just.
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What is real? And when we think about judgment at the end of time as followers of Christ, we have to consider that on that day, just judgments issued by Jesus Christ will be based on what is true and what is real.
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Real and true, as in this. Are your sins paid for on the cross?
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Is that true? Is that true of you? Are you made righteous by the imputed righteousness of the
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Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is Lord and King and Master, and the
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Lamb of God, who was slain to take away sins? Is the banner over your life no more condemnation because you are in Christ Jesus?
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Our text will highlight judgment, and we may be tempted to think of this judgment as primarily a judgment between the saved and condemned.
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I think often that's what we think of in our minds when we hear the word judgment as Christians. We think sheep and goats, or we think condemned and saved.
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But this is a glorious judgment that we're going to look at. It's a different judgment that's recorded for us here in 1
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Corinthians. It's a glorious judgment. It's a beautiful judgment, a judgment that makes my heart soar when we understand what
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God is saying through the Spirit -inspired words to the Apostle Paul here in 1
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Corinthians. When we believe that this judgment is what we will one day face, it should ignite us to amazing awe.
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It should ignite within us exuberant praise as we come to have an opportunity to sing songs here in just a moment.
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And even a life, it ought to ignite within us a life of eager service to Him, glad obedience from a heart that loves
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Him and has been loved by Him. And you might be wondering, Don, how in the world can a text about judgment do all of those positive things?
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How can it produce within me awe? How can it produce within me praise? How can it move me to do my life for Jesus?
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Is it going to be through the fear that you're going to talk about, Don? Is it going to be fear that's going to move us? Oh no,
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I'm going to be judged, so I better behave. I better be on my best behavior because one day I'm going to stand before Jesus Christ and give an account.
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Is that what this is? What I find most motivating in this explanation of judgment that every follower of Christ will face is simply what is absent.
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What is absent from our text is breathtaking. Our judgment before our
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Lord and Savior, if you are in Christ Jesus, will not be one of fear, but one of rewards.
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But one of rewards. That's what is at stake in this judgment, it's just flat out icing on the cake, rewards.
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Understanding this judgment between Christ and His people on that final day is explained for us here in the text.
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And the Corinthians in this context needed to hear this, and we need to hear it, to motivate us to take care how we live and work, particularly within His church.
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Because He is the one for whom we are all to work. The praise band, the greeters at the door, the many workers and teachers and recast kids even right now serving us back there, all of those working with sports camp this week starting this evening, all of it will either be rewarded by Jesus or not based on what is true of that work.
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And it will be revealed on that day. Was it done with an intention to stay connected to the foundation of Jesus Christ?
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Does it flow from Christ and Him crucified? Or is it done through worldly wisdom and worldly fleshly strength or to beat our own chest and say, look at me,
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I'm awesome. Motives are really hard for us to suss out. Why do we do the things that we do?
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Why do we serve one another? But Jesus won't struggle on that day to determine why we did what we did.
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He will easily discern our deepest primary reasons for all service, whether it was rendered to Him or rendered to self.
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So let's open our Bibles or your scripture journals or your devices to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 10 through 15.
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Again 1 Corinthians 3, 10 through 15, we're going to read this in its entirety, recast God's holy word, a word that ought to impress upon us the importance.
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Again, we just see that when we hear from God's word, it is trying to tell us something that we don't grab naturally.
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It's a supernatural moment that we come to when we hear from God. So let's take it that way, asking
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God to show us what He desires to press in each one of our hearts from hearing
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His word this morning. 1 Corinthians 3, 10 through 15. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder,
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I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
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For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 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.
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Because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
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If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
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Let's pray. Father, I'm just grateful for your faithfulness through the pages of Scripture to march us chapter by chapter, verse by verse, in a direction that just takes us all over the place in terms of the things that we need to hear.
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We have ministry opportunities in front of us all the time. We have work to do, we have life to live, we have people to serve and responsibilities through employment, responsibilities through volunteering, and our motives can be all over the place.
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One moment loving you, one moment loving self, one moment really wanting others to be impressed with who we are and the way we roll and our intellect and our strength and our abilities and our skills.
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Father, I pray that you would, like a laser, point your focus on the things that matter most, that which is built on the foundation who is
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Christ and his sacrifice for us. May the gospel be the center of our service, the center of our living, the center of our motivations, the center of all that consumes a life lived to point to the one who died for us.
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Even as we sing these songs, there's so much room in every activity, even your praise, there is room in our praise for ourself to get too much in there.
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So Father, I pray that you would help us to magnify Jesus Christ and magnify your great grace toward us, even as we sing these songs together now, in Jesus' name.
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Yeah, you can go to be seated, and I do ask that you make yourself comfortable, but reopen your device or your
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Bible to 1 Corinthians 3, verses 10 through 15. We read that earlier, and that's gonna be the text we're gonna walk through, and I'm gonna be kind of explaining that passage.
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If at any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donut holes while supplies last, or need to use the restrooms, they're out the barn doors down the hallway on the left -hand side.
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So this is a passage, this passage of scripture has been stuck in my mind for years.
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It captured my imagination at a very formative time of my ministry. I attended a final retreat weekend for a senior seminar class at Cornerstone University.
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Any of you have like a senior seminar or something like that, that was like kind of a last class that you had to take before you graduated?
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Anybody? A few of you? I always thought that that was the kind of class that was just so that the university could make a little extra money.
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I was like, it's just a three -credit class that's kind of like wrap everything up, and I'm like, why do I have to do this? I'm a little nonconformist in those ways.
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I rolled my eyes at the need to go away for a weekend retreat with guys I didn't even know, to some cabin
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I'd never been to, away from my fiancee named Linda at the time, and I had to wrap up that class, and I thought it was all just extra.
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But the speaker that weekend spoke on this very passage that we're looking at today, First Corinthians 3, 10 through 15, and it's really been burning just below the surface of my life and heart over the past 30 years of ministry.
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He chose the passage that weekend that I needed to hear, and how many of you have had that happen where it's just like, that's what
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I needed to hear in that moment? It was glorious in that moment, and it's been something that's impacted my life.
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Because the images evoked in this passage, they're a kind of benevolent judgment of our
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King, right? This passage that talks about the benevolent, kind judgment of our
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King Jesus have formed a framework for hope for me, and an ongoing motivation in ministry, and even over the years when
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I wasn't paid to minister, it's been the way that I drove a pipe fitting truck, delivering pipe around West Michigan.
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The way that I have lived for God, the way that I've tried to father my children, the way that I've tried to be a husband to my wife, the way that I have tried, tried, tried to drive my car, there's a lot that's impacted by the way that we look at this passage and an understanding of what's going on here.
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It's forced me to think more and more in terms of motivation to serve out of love for Jesus, to make much of Him in the day -to -day, everything of life.
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It's made ministry less of a checklist and more of a delight. And it's reminded me with so much hope that this is the judgment that His followers will face, no reference to condemnation, but instead icing on the cake of my interaction with my
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Savior and Lord, whom I have been serving, and to see Him in that last day. I don't know what
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I will have to offer Him, and I'm not making any speculation in terms of works of gold or silver or precious stones, but I know my judge well.
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I've gotten to know Him. I know who's going to be doing the judging, and He has walked with me every step of the way. And I've seen
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His grace and His kindness towards me, and I'm sure I could open up the mics and we could testify to His kindness till the cows come home or until He returns.
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And we would not exhaust the kindness that He has expressed to those of us that are here in this room. I don't believe for a second that His grace will give out on us on that last day, amen?
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He will see it to completion. But I'm sure that I understood, I'm sure that I actually misunderstood some of the context of this back when
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I was just graduating from college and getting my bachelor's degree at that senior seminar. I did.
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I understand the context a little bit better today, so let me catch you up to speed on what we've been going through. Paul has spent the opening of his letter to the church in Corinth addressing their divisions.
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That's been fundamental so far. There's going to be a lot of other topics he's going to address, but divisions takes up a big chunk because this was a church divided.
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Many within that congregation were picking their favorite preachers, playing their leaders off against one another, seeking to divide up over who they thought was bringing the best wisdom, who had the secret information that was needed to go deeper in the
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Christian life and all of that. So Paul cut to the chase and said that there's only one message that matters.
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Don't bother with all these other different kinds of contents. There's one thing that matters, and it's
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Christ and Him crucified. That's what Paul brought to them from the beginning, and he says that is a safe place to center your life.
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When all else in our lives is storm and chaos, when your faith wavers, when life gets dark and you go through those dark nights of the soul, fix your eyes on Christ.
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Fix your eyes on His cross. Paul is drawing attention to the church, church's attention back to Jesus because they are people who have gotten sidetracked into their own personal spiritual heroes and celebrities and messages and all of that.
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So Paul made a strong case that those leaders in our text last week, they really are nothing. Your leaders are nothing.
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Only God gives growth. Only God can grow a church in faith and community and service.
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If we are growing, recast, it is because God is giving it. If there's depth and increasing depth in our understanding of His word and application of it, it's because God is doing that.
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No leader, and I'm standing up here as a spiritual leader called to lead a congregation, called as one among the elders to lead, no leader can create true spiritual growth.
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No leader can create faith in you. Did you know that? I can't do that.
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That's not within my purview. What I can do is I can express God's word and pray and pray and pray that faith grows within you, that you take on more of Him, that you experience more of Him, that by His spirit,
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His word comes alive in you. Even this morning, I pray for you, that the word of God would ignite within your hearts, would meet with you in a way that transforms you even for this week.
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Our text is going to serve as a reminder that all who lead and serve within the body of Christ will be judged according to their work, meaning that those who serve within the church are working for only one master and one
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Lord to whom they will give an account. The metaphor Paul uses is that of a building. And his last words in our passage last week were to declare that the church is
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God's building, possessive, a building that belongs to Him. Now, Recast, we are
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His. And when we say the word building, you can start to look around and see there's some metal and there's some drywall and walls and paint and all of this structure.
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But he is not talking about the facility, far from talking about the facility that the church meets in.
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I don't know if you noticed, this is kind of a meh building. It's kind of not very ornate, there's not much stained glass, it's just kind of utilitarian and that's with intention, it has multifunctions.
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But we're not talking about the facility, we are talking about us. This text is talking about us,
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God is speaking about the congregation, the people, and we are like a building being built up together.
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Our outline this morning is going to be this, for those of you who like to take notes. The foundation is verses 10 and 11, the expansion or building on the foundation, expansion verses 12 through 13, and then two outcomes verses 14 and 15.
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So foundation, expansion, two outcomes. Paul starts with the foundation in verses 10 and 11. Paul has no problem here, right away in verse 10, giving himself a pretty significant role in starting the church in Corinth.
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Now remember this is a specific context, but he says, I was a skilled master builder among you.
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And yet it's tempered by the phrase that begins verse 10. In verse 10, this opening to this passage is something that I'm going to emphasize now, emphasize in the middle, and emphasize at the end because it's so vital to our understanding about what we're called to do, church.
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He says, according to the grace of God given to me. If you're an underliner or a highlighter, highlight that in your
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Bible right now or in your scripture journal. According to the grace of God given to me.
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We should acknowledge that it's by his grace in every aspect of our lives.
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Anything good that comes from us, anything good of benefit to others is absolutely according to the grace of God given to us.
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Paul is saying that his ability came from outside of himself. And if you would not be willing to admit that your skill, your ability, your talent, whatever it is that you ...
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Some of you are in the room and you're trying to figure out what you were made for. Some of you have pretty much found it out. I hope by the time that you're around 50, you probably ought to have an idea of what
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God has designed you for. What are you good at? And knowing that it is by God's grace is vital.
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If you can't admit that the skills and abilities and talents and resources that you have come from the hand of God by his grace, then
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I don't think you're paying much attention. Let me ask you a few questions. Why are you not shorter?
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Why are you not dumber? More dark but true.
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Why are you not this morning in an alley in Kalamazoo trying to get your next fix? Why are you not buried in a cemetery in Kalamazoo?
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Why do your muscles still respond to your nervous system? Because God has given you.
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One of the trickiest but most important things of this life, church, is to make sure that credit is given where it is due.
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Who deserves the credit for our day in and day out work?
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Oh, you say, I've worked really hard at it. You see, the problem is the currency of our lives, the currency of our day to day is in intermediate causes, and we love to lavish our praise on intermediate causes, the things that are in between the ultimate causes and us.
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Yeah, I work out at the gym. I don't really. I mean, if you work out at the gym, speaking hypothetically, some of you maybe work out at a gym somewhere, and so those who work out at the gym have a tendency to kiss their own biceps, beat their own chest.
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We can toot our own horns and pretend that our luscious locks, not me, but luscious locks come from meticulous primping and figuring out the right formula of conditioner to shampoo.
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We think that our intellect came from rigorous study, and here is what is true, church.
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The gym, the shampoo, the rigorous study are all intermediate causes. Everything is according to the grace of God, all of it.
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And so after establishing that, being sure that we begin on the right footing, that he worked according to the grace of God, then
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Paul does indeed go on to talk about the hard work he exerted in laying a foundation of Jesus Christ in Corinth.
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Paul calls himself in this text, he's not afraid to say, I'm pretty good at what I do. The very word translated skillful master builder is, and it's actually a
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Greek word, it's an architecton. Some of you got it right when I said it, architecton sounds an awful lot like architect, absolutely.
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That's where we get our word architect is straight from this Greek word. Architect being a designer in our culture, not so much in theirs.
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This is the foreman on the job who actually is getting his hands dirty. He's involved in the building process, not removed just to the, we've removed that word now all the way down into just mere design.
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This is a person who is a master skilled builder, knows construction, and he laid a foundation which he clearly indicates is
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Jesus Christ. He's not talking about building buildings. He's talking about building a church, and he says,
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I laid a foundation in Corinth. In other words, the foundation piece of any true church will be the fundamentals of the faith, which in this context he declares without question to be
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Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for his people on the cross. And there is not another foundation that can be laid that will result in a true church.
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I said that intentionally because there are foundations that can be laid that can result in what would be on the sign church, but it is not a true church if Jesus Christ and his sacrifice is not the very foundation of it.
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You're hearing what I'm saying? And unfortunately there are many, many gatherings that would call themselves church that have jettisoned
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Jesus Christ or his sacrifice. So Paul's work is made clear here.
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He came into the community. He came into Corinth. There was no church in that Greek city when he showed up.
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Eighteen months later, he left with a church established. And the reason that church was established is not because of his hard work.
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It's because Jesus Christ was taught and believed. And I think it's helpful for us to consider some of the things that are not mixed into the foundation of a church.
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He could have said just about anything here, but it is not his righteousness. It is not merely his effort.
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Not our agendas for social reform or some political stance. Not right behavior, which often the church has wanted to grab a hold of.
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We behave right, so we're a church or something like that. He doesn't say it's the actions that make a church.
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Well, we serve our community really well, so we're a church or we do really good for the poor or something like that.
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It is a central focus on Christ and his sacrifice that is the fundamental ingredient of a true church.
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But look back at verse 10. Someone else is now building upon that foundation.
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Our minds might go to some of you that have been around here for the first few sermons might think of Apollos or some might think the elders of the church there are building upon the foundation or some other leaders he has in mind.
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It doesn't really make a ton of difference because he intentionally generalizes the concept at the end of verse 10 to make sure we are all of us brought into the discussion by saying this phrase, let each one take care how he builds upon it.
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There's a foundation laid in our church, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Let each one, let each one be careful to consider how they are building on that foundation.
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His calling any and all who minister in the church to consider the way that we are building.
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We move into our second section after the foundation. Now we're going to talk about how we build on that foundation, how there's expansion in verses 12 through 13.
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I believe that Paul has much more than merely preaching and teaching in mind here with the metaphor of building on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
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We might tend to think it's just teaching, but the word he uses in verse 13 would be teaching if he meant teaching.
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So you look at verse 13 with me, each one's work will become manifest, not each one's teaching, not each one's doctrine, not each one's understanding of the text of scripture, but each one's work.
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We might be tempted to think of building upon the foundation as only something that the real church workers do. This is reserved for the paid staff or the pastors or the elders, but building on the foundation encapsulates a whole bunch of ministry activities that go far beyond preaching and teaching, which is just one of many.
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It is categorized as each one's work here. And ask yourself, how many ways are there to work in God's kingdom?
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How many ways are there to serve God? Is mowing the lawn here serving God? Yes. How about playing an instrument up on stage?
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Those are two very different tasks, are they not? You don't want to get those confused. I thought I signed up to mow the lawn and what's this guitar for?
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Very different tasks, right? Amen? Different things, but still serving God. And then you can ask yourself about all the different host of activities that can occupy your time.
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How about parenting kids? How about serving your employer? How about showing up early on a
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Sunday morning to make the coffee? Paul is generally calling attention to the work of any who would seek to build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ in the church.
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And while this is certainly focused on the ministry we do within the church, we are all called to build one another up and to serve the
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Lord through our glad work for Him in all aspects of our lives. Certainly, you need to understand
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Paul is focusing on the work within the church here, but it definitely is meant to bleed out into all of our areas of life.
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I don't think I'm going to only give an account to Jesus when I stand before Him for the way that I preached, because if that's it, it's going to be a whole life thing.
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You guys understand what I'm saying? The use of the word anyone again highlights the general nature of what
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Paul is getting at. Not if any pastor builds, not if any staff member builds on the foundation, not if any elder builds on the foundation, but if anyone builds on the foundation who is
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Christ, he says. Paul offers up a quality test of the building materials available to anyone who builds on the gospel of Christ.
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He lists them out in the text. Gold, silver, and precious stones are chosen because they're not able to be destroyed by fire.
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As we're going to see, the judgment is going to be based on fire. While wood, hay, and straw make the list of less quality, flammable building materials.
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You don't want to be building with wood, and hay, and straw on the foundation who is
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Jesus Christ. You want to be building with gold, and silver, and precious stones. I'd suggest to you that this is where things got really confusing to me over the years.
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I want to know, how many of you would just say, okay, if that's the basis of judgment, then can you just tell me, Paul, what's gold?
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Anybody want to know what gold is? What's gold in the text? What's silver? What's precious stones?
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What constitutes accurate building? If that's going to be the standard of judgment, then tell me what these things are.
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How do I know if I'm building in my life and building in the church with the good stuff? The best
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I was able to arrive at in my younger years was something kind of nebulous about purity of motivations just in general.
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I thought like this. If I was working for the Lord out of some pure love for Him, gold.
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If I was loving His people well and not gaining anything, not getting anything out of it, silver.
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If I was sacrificing for Him out of love, like maybe giving up my day off to respond to an emergency or getting up at 2 o 'clock in the morning to respond to a phone call or while I'm doing marital counseling in somebody's house having their dog pee on me.
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Real story that's happened to me, so the kinds of things that happen in ministry, it's kind of funny.
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It's actually happened to me twice. Can you believe it? Dogs love me. Actually, they don't.
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It's kind of weird. It's kind of one of those funny things, but anyways, it's neither here nor there.
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I would have thought of those things as precious stones, right? Like building up, you know, reward in heaven by doing these things with the right motives and how many of you know your motives are sus?
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Do you know what I'm talking about? Like they are suspect. Like you just are kind of like, I don't really know what my motive is in a given moment.
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Like if that's the standard, I am all over the map. Anybody with me on that or are you going to leave me standing alone on that?
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I mean, when I try to dive down deep into why am I doing this, there is a whole hodgepodge of different things in any given moment and I'm like, man, if that's the standard, if I have to do it with a purity of motives and it's up to me to get to where like my mind is only on Jesus, now
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I'm going to preach and now that's gold, I'm in trouble. I would guarantee that there's nothing in this room that we have ever done that is not tainted in some way by our flesh.
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Do you get what I'm saying? I want people to see. I want people to know. I want people to think I'm intelligent. I want people to whatever and there's so much in there.
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So after studying this more in depth and going like, well, who's going to have anything there on that day of substance?
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Who's going to have anything that was gold or silver or precious stones? I think
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I might have missed the mark on trying to suss out motivations here. Note that Paul sees himself, interestingly, he sees himself as outside of this caution in this text.
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He says in verse 10, I did my work well. How can he have that kind of confidence? He says, by God's grace,
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I did it well. But I worked like a skilled master builder. Paul is here saying,
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I laid the foundation in the construction project, nailed it, got it.
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Why? Because he laid a foundation of Jesus Christ.
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His confidence is not placed in some ability to drum up right motivation, which is often fleeting and hard to determine, as I said.
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He's not encouraged by his quality work because he was able to personally act selflessly in all moments.
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His confidence is declared in the nature of his work. It was Jesus Christ who was the center of his work and it was according to God's grace.
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And therefore, I conclude that building with gold and silver and precious stones is any work consistent with the foundation who is
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Jesus Christ. Done for him, consistent with him, with his mind, with his spirit, according to him and fully fit to the foundation that is him.
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Flowing from that foundation. An illustration might be in order here. Most Sundays, I didn't get all the way over there this morning because it started to sputter and rain on me.
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But most Sundays, I'm walking through the new neighborhood early on Sunday morning. Just looking for places to walk.
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I'll often walk through the woods here praying. Sometimes I walk through the hallway when the weather isn't great and in the winter. But I've walked across that, anybody driven through that new neighborhood that's going in across the street.
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You go through there and you're going to find construction. You're going to find buildings, houses in various stages of construction.
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Some right now are merely, right this minute, are merely poured foundations while others are already finished with floorboards, plumbing, and some of them are even occupied.
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There are people living in there now. They're getting a lot of prayer because I walk through there and I pray for them. I pray for us. I pray for the community.
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But one thing that is fundamental in construction is that the building will follow the foundation.
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When I see the foundations poured over there, I can see the footprint of the house.
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Are you getting what I'm saying? I can see where the carpenters are going to come in and are going to put the sill plate and build the studs up and build those walls.
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You can see the form of the house by looking at the foundation. You can see where the framers will come in and follow the foundation to build the walls.
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Did you hear that? Follow the foundation. What foundation are we talking about?
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Wait, what are we talking about? Are we talking about the houses over... What's he talking about? Who is the foundation church?
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Follow the foundation. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All ministry built on the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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How does our expansion upon the foundation become lasting? By sticking to the foundation.
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By surviving the fires of scrutiny. How does it survive judgment? By adhering closely to the master.
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If anyone doubts this, I would understand why, because the metaphor in this text can be a bit confusing. So let me add a couple of more things to the mix.
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Despite the fact that Paul adds the quality of materials, he doesn't go down the road of how those materials are, quote unquote, obtained.
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It's not that kind of allegory. This isn't the analogy he is driving for, and neither does he provide a key for the different building materials, like an allegory, the gold is this, the silver is that, the wood is this, the hay is that.
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Instead, he jumps immediately to judgment of the work in verse 13. Our judgment will not be based on our ability to find scarce resources over and opposed to each other.
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Our judgment will be based on quality work that will enhance. And here is a key word, church, listen to this word, beautify the foundation.
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Maybe a better word there might even be glorify the foundation. Think about this as we kind of wrap this idea up with a bow, gold, silver, and precious stones are not substantive building materials.
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They're not used that way. Never have been, never will. They're not used as load -bearing materials in construction.
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They're just not. What are they used for? They're beautifying materials, are they not?
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They bedazzle and snazzy up things, right? They are lavish, they are adorning.
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If anyone builds on the foundation, let him or her adorn the foundation.
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Let the foundation look glorious when they are done mowing the lawn. Let the foundation look glorious when they are done leading worship, when they're done leading their small group, when they're done making the coffee, or when they're done preaching the sermon.
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May the foundation be glorified in their work. May it be bedazzled.
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May he be glorified and lifted high in the work that his people do.
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Do you see it, church? A distinction beyond just mere motivation like, boy, I hope
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I was doing that right. To who am I doing it for? Who am
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I doing it for? Later in this very letter,
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Paul is going to say to the Corinthians, whatever you do, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.
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Whatever you do, do it all for his glory. That covers just about everything,
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I'd say. We are not enlisted into his kingdom to sit by idly. We are his workers, and our greatest and highest calling is to glorify the foundation.
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Adorn him with gold. Adorn him with silver and precious gems by work that points to him.
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Human wisdom and our flesh, by the way, will always do the opposite, will it not? Is that not what human wisdom is? Build up yourself.
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Build up your resume. Make yourself look glorious. When we're working out of our flesh, it will always boost our own ratings.
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It will make others think more highly of us. Look at me out here in the sun, slaving away for the church.
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Look at me up here, preaching his word. Look at me and my sick licks on this here guitar, right?
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Wood, hay, straw. Ministry that doesn't make much of Jesus's ministry that will not last.
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Ministry that cannot start by honestly stating, according to the grace of God, I have fill in the blank.
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It will not survive the final judgment if it doesn't begin with that, an acknowledgement that what we have to offer and what we have to build with is coming from him.
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A third part of this text is where we see the actual judgment and the outcomes, two outcomes for his people in judgment.
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The judgment begins in verse 13 with the fact stated directly, each one's work will become manifest.
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That's a fancy word that means laid bare. In honesty made known, like exposed to the light.
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And as I said in an introduction, judgment is merely a revealing of what is actually true. Do we serve with a hope that Christ will be glorified or for any of a whole host of other reasons that we might be serving and doing good deeds?
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The reasons that we did what we did in this life will be disclosed there and it will be tested by fire.
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That sounds a little scary to our ears, but hang with me for a minute.
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Remember that Paul is straight up using a metaphor. People don't test construction through fire routinely, right?
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I haven't seen anybody and none of the contractors across the street have lit the house on fire to see how it withstands fire, right?
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Like they don't build it from the ground up and they go like, let's see how this works. It's called arson. It's not good.
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Kind of funny, but my mind works weird.
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But in this metaphor for judgment, I developed an imaginative picture at that senior retreat 25 plus years ago and that image still sticks with me.
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So this is the way my mind works. I picture a huge conveyor belt stretching out as far as the eye can see. This is our judgment day.
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And people stand on this conveyor belt, all Christians, all followers of Jesus. Remember, this is to the church.
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This is to those who are indeed all in with Christ. We stand on that conveyor belt and the belt passes through a blast furnace.
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The doors come down at your turn and then the doors come back up and you move along and you're going, oh, that's going to be hot.
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Hold on. It's a metaphor. But there we all stand awaiting our turn as one by one, every
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Christian enters the kiln and they carry in their arms all of their life work. I just picture it as parcels and packages in like boxes and stuff like,
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I don't know, just an image. And there we all stand waiting one by one to enter that fire with all of the works that we have done.
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We're talking about the good. We're not talking about any reference to sin. We're not talking about carrying our bad deeds like something hung around our neck or like some big burden.
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We're carrying gifts that we want to give to our master or something to that effect, like the works that we did in this life.
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The doors will close on us. And you can picture one man, he's carrying his stuff.
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The conveyor moves forward. The doors come down. It's his moment. The fire blazes out and then the doors open and the conveyor lurches forward and the man is there holding the same works he had entered with.
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Praise God, his works have survived the fires of scrutiny. He loved Jesus and he loved the works that he did proved to have been gold and silver and precious gems to offer to his
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Lord. But in exiting, another man right behind him as the flow of judgment goes, the conveyor continues on and another man has entered.
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And he's, you can barely see the guy. He's got so much in his arms. He has done so much.
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He has served in so many ways. Work at the food pantry, always giving to the dudes holding up the cardboard signs at the exit ramp.
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Planting flowers for the village, swapping with other employees for the less desirable shifts, like that kind of guy, right?
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And further, all the donations. People are curious, how in the world could he donate so much?
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How could he give so much? He wasn't wealthy. But man, did this guy give a lot of money and give a lot of his time and serve and serve and serve and the conveyor carries him into the oven.
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The door drops down. Can you see it? You have an image in your mind? The door drops down. The fire flashes for a second.
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The door opens and the conveyor now carries this man out the other side of the oven and our jaws drop as we see he has absolutely nothing in his hands.
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There's nothing there. Where did it go? His hands are empty. What happened?
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His works, some of what I would suggest to you may very well be the exact same works as the previous man.
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Whose work survives the fire? How is this fair? It's some of the same exact works of the previous man, but his had been consumed.
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They were wood. They were straw. They were hay. They were done with no concern at all for the
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Lord. They were not done to beautify the foundation. They were not done for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ.
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I would suggest to you that many of them were done for the glory of himself. They were not of the quality of love and joy for his master.
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He himself is, by the way, this is really important. He's not been scathed by this fire. He's not burned.
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He doesn't have third degree burns and has to get medical attention. No, he's fine. He just has nothing left in his hands.
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And church, these are two outcomes. These are two outcomes that God has revealed to us about our judgment.
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Some will have worked to glorify their master and receive. The text doesn't go there and I can't either.
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It just has an undisclosed reward. The one who has still in his hands, the one who has built with gold and silver and precious stones will receive a reward.
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We're not told what that reward is, but that sounds pretty cool. And if you know Jesus and he's given out rewards,
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I wouldn't mind one. You know what I'm talking about? But others will suffer loss of their efforts and sacrifices that were not at the end of the day done for their
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Lord. They will be saved, but the text ends with only as one snatched out of the flames.
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So, as we prepare our hearts to come in to a landing at the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the one who will be our judge, let's take on what this passage wants to convey to each one of us.
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For those who belong to Christ, he has purchased us with his blood. This is the foundation we return to every week because this is the centerpiece of our hope.
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And so our calling in this life is now to serve him with gladness and with joy, seeking in all things to point to Jesus.
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We are called to highlight and emphasize the grace of the Lord in our lives. A good mindset to adopt is found in that starting phrase today, according to the grace of God, I have.
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Encourage you to jot that down and make that a statement over your life routinely.
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But we are called to highlight and emphasize the grace of the Lord in our lives, and we are to continue to point to him.
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This isn't in my notes, but I'm going to go there. There's been a problem in our generation, I would say probably for the last 20 or 30 years, where people have adopted an idea that they are sharing the gospel by doing good works.
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That if I, if I, if I'm a good guy at my workplace, if you work at a school, you're, you're a good person and all the other teachers love you, the principal's like, man,
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I can depend on him or her. If you're a good person, then the myth is that you're sharing the gospel.
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Do you know why that's a myth? Because what are people going to say to you?
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You're a really good person. That's what they get out of it. The gospel is comprised of words, and we don't want to hear it, but it is.
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You are not declaring the gospel unless you say that Jesus died on the cross. That's the good news, church.
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The good news isn't that we're nice people. And for about 20 or 30 years, I think that's been the primary gospel that the world has heard from the church is, wow, nice people.
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At least they think they're nice people. Right? Is that the gospel?
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Now, granted, we are, I'd encourage you to be nice. Not discouraging that at all, but I, you got to have words.
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This notion that you can preach the gospel and use words if necessary, guess what? They're necessary. Go for it.
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We have to use words to declare the gospel. You are not proclaiming the gospel to anyone without talking about Jesus.
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And where our culture, I think, has gone very far off the rails is on the basis of the church proclaiming the wrong gospel.
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Fearful to mention Jesus. If we're fearful to talk about Jesus, who's going to?
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They're not going to hear it if they don't hear it from us. This idea of doing what we do according to the grace of God, even our gospel witness,
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I'd encourage you to lean into that. And if you're not able to speak of Jesus and you haven't been able to get to that boldness, pray,
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God, give me your grace. May I proclaim Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior by and according to the grace that you will give.
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And then let's get doing it. And let me say that this idea of serving him hits hard every
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Sunday afternoon for me personally. According to the grace of God, I overcome stage fright every single week and get up here and talk to you.
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According to the grace of God, I preach. According to the grace of God, I still breathe. According to the grace of God, I will glorify his son.
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And a personal testimony, I fear no condemnation. Oh, it's a weighty thing to bring the word of God, but I don't fear condemnation.
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I am free to serve the Lord in gladness without fear. But I am not free to serve in any old way
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I see fit. I am not to serve in a way that promotes my own brand, my own fame, or seeks my own accolades.
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Each one of us will stand before the Lord and will be judged only on the basis of how we worked in all things to bring glory to Jesus Christ.
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All other judgments are settled at the cross, amen? And that's why we end our services with communion, to thank him, to identify with him in his broken body and his shed blood.
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If Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and you're at a place of settled peace with others in this church, and when
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I say that, I've been saying that recently, it means that you don't have animosity towards one another. You don't have anything that you need to reconcile with each other.
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You can go ahead and reconcile this morning if you need to go over and talk to somebody or you need to send a text or whatever before you take communion.
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But if you're in a state of peace with the church, in a state of peace with God through Jesus Christ your Lord, then come to the tables, take the cracker and the juice to remember what he has done for us.
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You can go back to the table or go back to the table, go back to your seats and take that at your leisure. But he took the punishment for us, church, so that our judgment is about the judgment, the only judgment we will face as his children is icing on the cake.
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So let's go out from here making much of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ recast. Father, I do pray that the result of this message would not be guilt, but rather an instilled and infused power and desire and hunger to honor
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Jesus more in this next week than we did last. To be a people who are vocal, you're a vocal God, you have given us a written word, you have spoken through prophets and through apostles and through a word that we can go back to time and time again through a steadfast word.
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So I pray that you make us a speaking people as well, a people who will declare the name of Jesus, sowing seed wherever we can and seeing what type of soil it falls on.
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Father, I pray that you would help us not just in proclaiming the truth to a world that is in darkness right now, but it would also be in the way that we do all things for your glory.
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I pray that even this message might be the foundation of some good things that are going to be revealed on judgment day.
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That some might take this on and recognize that to glorify Christ is the center of their lives.
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Not to just try to get by, not to just cope, but to thrive in a place of recognizing