An Inspection is Scheduled

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I want you to take out your Bibles while we stand and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
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1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 10, and we're going to read down to verse 17.
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The title of today's message is, An Inspection is Scheduled.
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An Inspection is Scheduled, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 10.
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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.
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Let each one take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
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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.
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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 burnt up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
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Do you not know that you are God's temple, and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for the truth of the word, and I pray now that as I seek to preach this word, that you would, by your immeasurable grace and power, please Lord, keep me from error, for I am a fallible man, I am capable of preaching error, and I do not want to, for the sake of my own conscience, and for the sake of your church, whom you love.
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We know your word tells us you love the church, and we ought to also love the church, not the building, but the body, not the place, but the people.
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God, give us grace to hear this morning, what your word has to tell us about the body, about building the body, about the foundation, and about the dangers of going against what you have established.
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Father, help us to understand all that you have for us this morning, in Jesus' name, amen.
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Please be seated.
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I don't know how many of you have ever pulled a permit to have work done maybe at your house or at your business, but if you have ever done that, you know that there is a certain amount of steps that you have to go through to be able to get the permit.
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You have to secure a builder, you have to take your plans, and you have to demonstrate what materials you're going to use.
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And then once you've done all the work, once all the wood has been nailed up, and all the siding's been put up, and all the shingles have been laid, then there's a person who comes out and does what's called an inspection.
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They come out and look at what you've done to see if it is, in fact, up to code.
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Well, in our lesson today, Paul is going to use that language of construction as an analogy for how the church is to be built.
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He talks about the need for a proper foundation.
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He talks about the need for appropriate building materials.
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He talks about the coming day of inspection.
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And then he, at the end, brings in a point that people often disconnect, but it must remain in context.
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He brings in a point about those who would seek to do damage.
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Those who would seek to do harm.
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And so, this is our study for today.
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This is the subject for today, and the verses that we've read is where we're going to tie ourselves to.
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For those of you who haven't been with us, we are in a longer series on the subject of 1 Corinthians.
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We've been doing a verse-by-verse study of 1 Corinthians, and now we're in chapter 3.
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I've sort of tried to make a commitment this year not to take a break for anything, but to stick with 1 Corinthians, and I'm going to try to finish the whole book in one year.
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At this particular pace that we're going, I don't think it's going to happen, but we're going to try to really stick through.
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So, if you haven't been here with us, but you're going to start coming, you'll know where we are going to be every week for our study time.
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And I find that to be encouraging because folks can read ahead, can study on their own, and come often with their questions that I hope to answer during the message.
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But, since chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, Paul has been addressing the issue of division in the church.
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And this division is based on feelings of spiritual superiority.
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There were people in the church who were alleging themselves to be better than others.
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And they were doing so by aligning themselves with certain spiritual leaders.
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Some would say, I'm of Paul, he's the one who founded this church.
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Some would say, I'm of Apollos, he was the great preacher who grew this church.
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Some would say, I'm of Peter, the great connection to our Hebrew roots.
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And some would say, well, I'm of Jesus, seeking to demonstrate their own personal piety.
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Well, I am of just Jesus.
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And by implication, you're not.
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And so, that's brought us to here.
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In the first two chapters, Paul has been dealing with this division.
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And in our lesson last week, if you look at verse 5 of chapter 3, Paul asks the question, what then is Paul? What is Apollos? Servants through whom you believed.
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And his point was to simply say, we are nothing.
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In fact, he says that.
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In verse 7, he says, he who plants and he who waters is not anything.
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It's God who gives the growth.
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It's God who gives the increase.
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It's God who's building this church.
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We are simply his servants.
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We're simply his tools.
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We are clay in the hands of the potter.
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You're clay aligning yourself with other clay.
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You're trying to find your superiority in people who are, in a sense, just like you.
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We're all servants.
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And why would anybody try to build his own superiority based on his alignment with another servant? So, that's the message.
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That's the theme Paul has been addressing.
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And he used in our lesson last week the illustration of agriculture.
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He said, I planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the increase.
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And we talked last week about how that was an agricultural illustration.
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We talked about the fact that when a farmer goes out and plants a seed, he doesn't have any control over what happens to that seed.
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All he can do is plant the seed and water it and trust God to bring it to life.
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He can't force it.
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He can't reach down into the soil and make it happen.
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And the same thing is with the church.
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We can preach the gospel.
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We can offer discipleship.
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We can teach the word of God.
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But it's only God who's going to give the growth.
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Well, on the heels of that agricultural lesson, Paul now switches to an architectural illustration.
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So, he goes from agriculture to architecture as his illustration.
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And as I've already said, he uses architecture in this way.
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He says, there's got to be a builder.
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There's got to be a foundation.
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There's got to be building materials.
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And there's going to be an inspection.
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And there are going to be dangers.
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So, this is Paul's outline and that's the outline for today.
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But before we go into this lesson, I want to give just one more part of an introduction before we break into the text.
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Because this is hugely important.
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We have an issue in the modern day of equating church with building.
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In fact, we often say that.
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We're going to church today and we think about the building.
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And I do think that this is a product of the problem that arose in medieval Christianity.
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Because in medieval Christianity, historically speaking, the church began to build for itself these giant fortresses of faith.
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In fact, you remember during the time of the Reformation, it was Johann Tutsal who was going about seeking to get people to buy indulgences so that they could take that money and they could use it to purchase the materials needed to build St.
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Peter's Basilica, the great big, what I say is an idolatrous mansion to Roman Catholicism over in Rome.
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They have this great giant place.
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And so, the church becomes the place.
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But in Scripture, the church is never the place.
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In Scripture, the church is always the people.
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In Scripture, the church is never the building.
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In Scripture, the church is always the body.
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So today, when you hear me say church, and you hear me talk about building the church, and a foundation for the church, and the materials to build the church, know that I ain't talking about sheet rock and steel girders.
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I'm not talking about shingles and pipes and electrical cords.
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I'm talking about the body.
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You know, if this church crumbled tomorrow, if this building crumbled tomorrow, this church would still exist.
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If everything we have in physical was taken away from us, and we had to meet in a hovel somewhere, we'd still be the church.
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We'd still be Sovereign Grace Family Church.
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You understand that? That's an important thing for us to realize.
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While God has been gracious to give us a comfortable place to worship, and many people have worked hard on giving us this place, and sacrificed much in giving us this building, and I take nothing away from the work and the effort that has gone into raising funds, and building this building, and I appreciate that, but this building will never be the church.
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It will always be the body that is the church.
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I simply say that because that's a necessary foundation for what we're going to study, because when we talk about all this building today, I don't want anybody to confuse that with this physical location.
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Alright? So let's look first now at the builder, verse 10.
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Paul is talking here, he says, According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled architect, that word is, in the ESV, it's master builder, but in the Greek it's architecton, and architecton is where we get the transliterated English word architect.
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It means master builder.
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He said, According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled architect, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it.
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Let each one take care how he builds upon it.
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Now, it's very important to understand what he's saying.
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He's saying, when I came to Corinth, and you remember, we talked about this in Acts 18, Paul goes into Corinth.
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When he went into Corinth, there was no church there.
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Paul began in Corinth what we would call today a new work.
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Have you ever heard that term, new work? When there's not a church in a location, a denomination will send a pastor and maybe a few families to a location, and they'll start a church there, and they call that church a new work.
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That means there's nothing there.
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They're laying the foundation, they're getting it started.
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When I came here, I didn't come to a new work.
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I came to a church that was already established.
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In 2006, when I became the pastor, I didn't have to lay a foundation.
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The foundation was already here.
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You know what I'm saying? When I came in, there was a congregation here to preach to.
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Now, God has done many miraculous things in the last 12 years in this congregation, but I didn't have to start a new work.
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That's what Paul did.
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Paul went into a place where there was no church.
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He went into a place where there was no body, and he laid a foundation.
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He planted.
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This is also called church planting, using the agricultural definition or agricultural illustration.
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Churches are planted.
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Churches are founded in places where they're not before.
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And that's what he's saying.
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He's saying, according to the grace of God given to me, like a master builder, like an architect, I came in and laid a foundation.
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And then, someone else built upon that foundation.
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And he says, each one must take care how he builds.
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Now, that is a sobering warning, because I believe at this point, he is very, very specifically speaking to those who are leading the building.
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I want to talk about this as we go through the text, but I do think while this entire passage can be applied to the whole body, I think that the focus of this passage is specifically to those who are leading the body, because they're the ones who are going to be the danger that we're going to see in verses 16 and 17.
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And he says, I came in and I laid a foundation, and other people came and built after me, and each one must take care how he builds.
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The foundation has been laid, but guess what? There are certain materials that go with that foundation, and there are certain materials that don't go with that foundation.
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And the guy coming in after the church has been founded, even if the church has been founded properly, even if the church has been founded rightly, on the bedrock and foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ, somebody can come in later and be a danger, and they can come in and they can start building wily and crazy, and do something that would harm the church.
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Even though it has a strong foundation, they can come in and create all kinds of things that are bad.
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So, the person building on the foundation has to be careful how he builds, Paul says.
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And then in verse 11, as I said, he says this, he says, For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
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Now, that statement could be the subject of the whole message, because it tells us something very important.
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It tells us the church is founded on one foundation, and that's Jesus Christ.
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And that is to say that the entirety of the message of Jesus Christ establishes us as a church.
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From His divine nature, to His virgin birth, to His sinless life, to His substitutionary death, to His miraculous resurrection, to His current intercession, to His glorious return, we are founded wholly and completely on the work of Jesus Christ.
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And if a church is founded on anything else other than Jesus Christ, it cannot rightly be called a church.
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Hear that again.
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If a church is founded on anything other than Jesus Christ, it cannot rightly be called a church.
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This is why he says no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid.
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He's saying there are places out there that call themselves churches.
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There are groups out there that call themselves churches.
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But they ain't founded on Jesus Christ.
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Amen? Do you agree that there are places out there that call themselves churches, that have church in the name, and I can't do this anymore, I've got to come off this.
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But there are places out there that call themselves churches, but they're not founded on Jesus Christ.
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The church has to be founded on Jesus Christ.
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And when I say that, I mean this.
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They have to be founded on the true Christ.
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I'll give you an example.
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If you go to a Mormon church, it says, Church of who? Church of Jesus Christ, right? Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
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Okay.
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Now you would say, okay, they've got a good foundation.
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But then you begin to investigate, who is this Jesus of Mormonism? Who is this Jesus that they're founded upon? And you come to find out it's not the Jesus of the Bible.
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The Jesus of Mormonism had a starting point.
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The Bible says Jesus is eternal, but the Jesus of Mormonism is the son of Elohim.
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Elohim himself was a man who once lived on another planet, and he, because of his adherence to Mormon teachings, became a god, and was able, through celestial marriage, to create an entire universe around his own godhood.
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And that god spawned himself a spirit family, and out of that spirit family there was one called Jesus, and there was also one called Lucifer.
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So in Mormonism, Jesus and Lucifer are brothers of the same spirit family.
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Let me ask you a question.
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Is that the Jesus of the Bible? So are they founded on Jesus? No.
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They can use the name, but they're not founded on Jesus.
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And beloved, that's an extreme example.
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You can go a lot easier and a lot simpler, because a lot of churches are built on a liberal Jesus.
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And they don't have to be Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses.
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You go to a lot of churches, and they're built on a Jesus who is a good teacher and a moral example and a social justice warrior, but he's not the Jesus of the Bible.
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A lot of churches have a Jesus who wasn't born of a virgin.
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He didn't live a sinless life.
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He didn't die a substitutionary death.
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He wasn't raised again on the third day.
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And they'll say, yes, but we believe in Jesus.
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You believe nothing of Jesus.
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If you do not believe in the Jesus of Scripture, you don't believe in Jesus.
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It's just like this.
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You can take mud, and you can bake mud in the sun, and it'll get hard.
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But if you try to lay a foundation for a house with that mud, it's going to crumble.
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Or if it doesn't crumble, when the rain comes, it's going to soften it up, and it's just going to begin to implode.
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And that's what a lot of churches are.
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They're building themselves on a foundation of the false Jesus.
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They're building themselves on a foundation of a false gospel.
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A true church must be built on a true Jesus.
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This is why I hate it.
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I honestly cannot stand it when I hear people say, I don't like doctrine, I just want Jesus.
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Because when someone says, I don't like doctrine, I just want Jesus, I say, that sounds really nice, but it's a recipe for disaster.
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Because beloved, the life of Jesus is filled with doctrinal propositions.
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To deny the doctrinal propositions about Jesus is to deny Jesus.
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If a church doesn't want to deal with who Jesus is, it's probably because they're in some way denying who He is.
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John Dominic Crossam, a member of the Jesus Seminar, a very popular liberal scholarship group from several years back, believes that Jesus Christ didn't die for sin.
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In fact, he doesn't believe He raised from the dead.
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He believes that He did die on the cross, but that He was probably buried in a shallow grave and His bones were eaten by dogs.
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This is what he writes in his book.
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John Dominic Crossam is invited to many liberal denominations as a keynote speaker and guest lecturer.
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This is not the foundation of Jesus Christ.
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Paul says there is no other foundation which can be laid than that which has been laid, and that is Jesus Christ.
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And if you try to lay a foundation other than the true Jesus, you don't have a church.
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You can't begin the building if you don't have the right foundation.
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There is no other foundation except Jesus, and if you're building on the wrong foundation, you stop building a church.
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You might be building a social club.
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You might be building a rec center.
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You might be building a club or an entertainment center, but you're not building a church.
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So the building foundation is absolutely essential to what the building will become.
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And Jesus Christ is the only foundation that can build a church.
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Now in verse 12, he looks at the materials that are being used for building.
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Verse 12, he says, Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become manifest.
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Now before we go into verse 13, let me just very quickly make some comments on verse 12.
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Because he says, If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, what he's talking about there are building materials.
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I spent a lot of time this week thinking about that one verse, because I think much ado has been made about that one verse.
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Many allegories have been used to try to prove what each thing is supposed to represent.
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The gold represents this.
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The silver represents this.
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The precious stones represent that.
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The wood, hay, and stubble or straw represent something else.
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But I think that that's reading too much into it.
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I don't think Paul is here giving us six different things that are all supposed to represent this in the temple or this in the tabernacle or something like that.
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I don't think that's the point.
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I think the point is this.
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You have two types of materials here.
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You've got materials that perish and materials that last.
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That's it.
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You've got two different types of things.
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The materials that last are the things that when you put them in the fire, they don't burn up.
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They get better.
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You put gold in a fire, it doesn't burn up, right? It just gets better.
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All the impurities burn out.
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You put silver in the fire, it doesn't burn up.
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It just gets better.
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Precious stones, it melts away all the impurities.
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But you put wood in the fire, what happens? It feeds the fire.
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You put hay in the fire, it feeds the fire.
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Straw feeds the fire.
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So you've got two different types of materials here.
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And these items represent how the building is being built.
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And remember the building is the church.
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Christ is the foundation.
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The church body is building on that foundation.
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And the quality of the work is what is in view.
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Some work that we do is going to perish.
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And some work that we do is going to last.
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What should we try to focus on? It's not a trick question.
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We should try to focus on the things that last, right? I mean, that should be the goal.
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Is that we try to work works that are going to have eternal value.
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What are some things churches focus on that don't have eternal value? Some churches spend all their time focused on entertainment.
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Putting on a show.
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Creating an atmosphere of fun to keep people returning week after week after week.
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And as we've said before, what you win them with is what you win them to.
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If you win them with a party, you've got to keep them with a party.
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And the party has to keep going.
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And so, we build the body with manipulative tactics, and we're doing so.
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We're building with wood, hay, and stubble.
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And I think, too, this can also be said about building programs.
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I mentioned the building earlier.
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I am not in any way saying buildings aren't needed.
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I appreciate that we have the building, and I am thankful for it.
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And last year, we helped another church get a building because they had a need, and we saw a need, and we had the ability to help them financially, and we did.
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Because they didn't have a place to meet, and we helped them get their building.
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So, buildings have value.
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But, beloved, how many churches spend so many millions on their building projects, and they can't get a thousand dollars to send a missionary out? I was talking to Brother Mike Collier.
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He's not here today, but he and I were talking about this very text.
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And he said he remembers a time when he was in a church, and it was a big mega church.
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And they needed 1.8 million dollars to redo the sanctuary.
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Mega, mega church, right? We won't see that for many, many, many, many, many moons.
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But they were able to raise it in two Sundays.
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A few months later, they had the offering for missionaries, and they had a missionary come literally weeping because he didn't have the funds he needed to get to the place that he was trying to go.
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They couldn't raise the money to get him to where he needed to go.
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Same place, same building, same situation.
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Beloved, if we can't see past our noses on this, I don't know how to get us to understand it.
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But there are things that are eternally valuable, and there are things that are not.
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And we do not need to sit here and focus all our time and energy and money and resources on things that don't matter.
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We need to be focusing our energy and resources and time and effort in eternal things.
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We must.
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We must.
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Because one day an inspection is coming, and this is where we get our title, beginning at verse 13.
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He says, 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.
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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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Now understand this, this is not talking about the fire of hell.
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And that's confusing for some people.
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Because anytime they see in the Bible fire and judgment, they're thinking about hell.
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And I understand that because the Bible does teach a fiery hell.
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So it can be confusing.
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This is not hell, folks.
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This is talking about believers.
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You realize as a believer you're still going to face God at judgment.
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Not judgment for salvation, because that was taken care of at the cross.
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Your salvation is built on Jesus Christ, not your works.
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You are not saved one nanosecond worth by your works.
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However, we all have to face God and give an account for this life.
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And what we did in this life on behalf of our Savior Jesus Christ, we will have to face God.
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Beloved, this is a sobering reminder to us that we are going to go through judgment.
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Not a judgment for salvation, but a judgment of this life.
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And this is something people don't...
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and by the way, this isn't purgatory either.
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Just clear that up.
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Because it's easy to...
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I've heard Roman Catholics make the argument this is purgatory.
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It's not.
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The idea here is that we all have been by the grace of God given the ability to do works.
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In fact, think of the one verse everybody thinks of for sola fide, justification by faith.
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For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God and not of works, lest anyone should boast.
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Write Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9.
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But what does verse 10 say? For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.
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We were created for something.
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Recreated.
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Baptized.
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Not water baptism, but we were given the Holy Spirit.
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Baptized by the Spirit to do what? To do good works.
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James tells us, right? If I say that I have faith, and I have not works, my faith is what? Dead.
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Right? So I've been given a purpose.
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I've been given a calling.
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How far have we fallen as a body in this community, in this church, in this world, in America particularly, that we've gotten away from the idea that the church is supposed to be doing good? You realize we have, as an American church, gotten away from that? We've become so consumed with the idea that we're saved by grace through faith, that we don't realize that we're saved to do good? You realize all the hospitals used to be named after churches? Baptist Hospital, Methodist Hospital, St.
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Vincent's Hospital.
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It was always because the church understood the responsibility to go out into the world and do good.
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How have we gotten so far from this? We're called to do good.
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It doesn't save us.
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It can't save us.
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And any good we do is a grace, by the way, just so you know.
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The Bible tells us, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to do, and even to will to do, His good pleasure.
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So even your desire to do good things comes from God.
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Your ability to do good things comes from God.
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So any good that you do is God's grace working in you.
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So I'm not saying pull yourself up by your spiritual bootstraps.
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I'm saying God has given you His Spirit.
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He's given you the Holy Spirit.
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If you're a believer today, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, and He empowers you to do that which pleases the Lord.
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And we're called to do those things.
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We are called to good works.
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And I think specifically, I mentioned earlier about leaders.
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I think specifically the position of elder and deacon can rightly be put in view here because this is a position that is going to be judged more strictly.
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I can say that particularly for elders.
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I want you to think about James chapter 3 and verse 1.
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And if you don't know that verse, it's one of my verses that I have memorized right on the front end of my brain.
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Let not all of you assume to be teachers because teachers will be judged with a greater strictness.
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Beloved, that's why we take such care in who we call as an elder because whoever that man is, he is going to stand before God and he is going to give account for how he built on this foundation.
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He is going to give an account for your souls.
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Did you know that? I want to show you something.
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Open your Bibles with me.
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Just hold it.
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1 Corinthians.
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But go to Hebrews 13.
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Turn over to Hebrews 13.
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This is a verse.
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If there's a verse that keeps me up at night, I mean it.
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If there's a verse that really weighs heavily on my soul, Hebrews 13, verse 17.
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The writer of Hebrews is speaking to the church and he says, Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.
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Beloved, do you realize I have to give an account one day for how I pastored you? I'm going to have to give an account for how I led this church with my fellow elders who will also have to give an account for how they led the church? Now, I am not necessarily responsible for your response.
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And we've had a lot of people who didn't take leadership very well, unfortunately.
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But I will give an account for how I executed the office of elder in this church.
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I will give an account for how I built on the foundation of Jesus Christ in this church.
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And every man who steps in that role will be judged with a greater strictness.
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So keep that in mind when you wonder why it takes us so long to put a man in the office of elder.
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Why it takes so long for us to evaluate a man who feels the call to the office of elder.
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Because we consider this very, very serious.
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And what is the reward? Well, this has been discussed ad nauseam by many.
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And I don't think we know for certain.
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But I will say this.
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I don't think pastors and preachers and other people walk around with big old crowns in heaven just showing off how good they were.
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I think any good that I have, I'm going to present at the feet of Jesus.
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And any good that you have is going to be presented at the feet of Jesus because any good that we have is all to Him.
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Right? There's a song, I mentioned it last week.
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We fall down, we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus.
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The greatness of His mercy and love at the feet of Jesus.
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And we cry, holy, holy, holy.
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That's the blessing.
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You know the only blessing that matters is to hear the master say, well done.
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That's all that matters.
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Not a crown or a mansion or golden streets.
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But just to hear our master say, well done.
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That's the goal.
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That's the goal.
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So now I want to look at verses 16 and 17 as I draw to a close.
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Because again, I believe these tie in.
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And if we don't see how they tie in, I think...
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Often times we take verses and we rip them out of their context and we use them inappropriately.
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But this verse has a context.
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And we've seen the context.
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The context is the builder, the building foundation, the building materials, the inspection, and now the danger.
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Look at verse 16.
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It says, do you not know that you...
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By the way, that you is plural.
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And keep that in mind.
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In the Greek, that you is plural.
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You understand you can be you individually or you corporately.
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And this is the corporate you.
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He says, do you not know that you are God's temple? And God's spirit dwells in you.
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Now can we say that individually? Yes.
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I can look at you.
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Marianne, I can say you're a believer.
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I believe God's spirit dwells in you.
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Okay, I can say that about Dale.
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Dale, God's spirit dwells in you.
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But in this context, remember what the focus is.
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The foundation, the building, the materials.
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This is about the body.
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This isn't about you.
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This is about you.
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That makes sense.
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That won't make sense on the recording.
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But you all saw my hands.
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From the one to the many.
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This is about the you plural.
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Because he's saying this.
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He says, do you not know that you all.
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That's how we say it.
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This is in the southerning, the y'all.
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Do you not know that y'all are God's temple? And God's spirit dwells in y'all? Okay.
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If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him.
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For God's temple is holy and y'all are that temple.
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See this? I think it's dangerous to interpret this individualistically because it ain't.
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This verse is specifically talking about the body.
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And the dangers that come in to do harm to the body.
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Beloved, if somebody comes and tries to destroy this body.
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They are a danger that God is going to deal with.
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In fact, one commentator said it like this.
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Those who seek to wreck the church will by themselves be wrecked.
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Those who seek to wreck the church will themselves be wrecked.
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I mean, that's what this verse is saying, right? And honestly, in 12 years of ministry, we've had some folks who've come in to try to create some problems.
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Now, I've never seen a pile of bricks fall on anybody.
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But we've had some people come and some people go.
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And there is a danger.
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There is a danger.
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This is part of the reason why.
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The church has to be vigilant.
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This is why Paul says be careful.
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Because false teachers will come in and make their way among you.
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They'll come in and they'll be a danger to you.
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And what are you supposed to do? They're going to be looking for people whose ears are itching for something to hear.
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You've got to be careful for those people.
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Because those are the type of people who come in and sow division.
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And sow discord.
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Right? They are a danger.
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Beloved, this reminds us how much God loves the church.
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Not the building, remember, but the body.
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God loves the body.
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And if somebody comes against the body of Christ, that's coming against the bride of Christ.
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And Christ will avenge his bride.
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It's just like that.
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I was thinking about this this week with my wife.
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You know, I love my wife dearly.
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And if there's anybody in the world who falls under the protection that I can provide, what little bit I can give, it's her and my children.
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Because I love her more than I love all of y'all.
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And if you don't understand that, read your Bible.
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It says I'm supposed to love my wife as Christ loved the church.
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And gave himself up for her.
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And I love my wife.
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And if somebody sought to do harm to my wife, they'd have to do it over my dead body.
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It just is what it is.
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And here God says, through the apostle Paul, is saying if somebody comes in to do damage to the bride of Christ, God is going to avenge that bride.
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So the point is the warning.
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Don't be that person.
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The point is the warning.
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Don't seek to do damage to the body.
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Be one who's building.
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See, because here we've got those who are building with gold, silver, and precious stones.
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We've got those who are building with wood, hay, and stubble.
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But all those people are saved.
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And I think that all of us have some of both.
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I think all of us have works that are gold, silver, and precious stones.
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I think some of us have wood, hay, and stubble.
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And I think the focus is trying to get more of those eternal things and get rid of those non-eternal things.
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Because we're all saved.
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He says that.
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He says even though they're going to have their works burned up, they're going to be saved, right? Because they're coming in by grace.
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But this person isn't saved.
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This is the damaging person who comes in as the unbelieving heretic, the unbelieving discord sower, the unbelieving divisive man.
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This is the person who comes in to do damage.
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And he comes in to wreck the church.
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And what does he say? That man will be wrecked.
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Because God loves the church.
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This is why I hate it.
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I honestly really...
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It turns my stomach in a knot when I hear someone say, You know, I can worship God without the church.
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I want to tell you something.
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This is...
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I honestly believe I can argue from Scripture for this that, number one, that's a lie.
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But I would just ask this.
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When somebody says that to me, and people say that to me all the time, and find out, well, you're a preacher, that's good.
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You know, I worship God too, but I don't care anything about the church.
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I say, where do you get any biblical warrant for that statement? The whole New Testament.
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All the books are written to the church.
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The historical narratives are about the formation of the church.
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The Bible says Jesus died for the church.
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And he himself said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
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Who are you to say the church doesn't matter? Beloved God loves the church, which is founded on Jesus Christ.
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And that's the only true church.
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Any church not founded on Him is not a church.
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So the important question for us, as I draw to a close, are we founded on Jesus Christ? I say yes.
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But how are we building on that foundation? Are we focused on things that matter, and have eternal value? Or are we spending all of our time, and all of our money, and all of our effort, and all of our energy, on things that are going to be burned up? Beloved, that's an important question.
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In individual lives, but also in the life of the body.
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In the life of the church.
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What's our focus this morning? What are we...
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We know what we're building on.
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We're building on Christ.
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But how are we building on Him? Individually, and this is how I have to draw it in.
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Individually, we do have to ask one simple question too.
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Even though the church has the foundation of Jesus Christ, do I? Because I know that some of you came here today, and you are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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You are filled with the Spirit of God.
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But some of you came today, and you're not believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And personally, you don't have a foundation in Him.
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Some of you are young.
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Some of you are older.
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Some of you have been in church for years.
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And some of you have only been in church for today.
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Beloved, where is your foundation? Are you built on the foundation of Jesus Christ? Is your life being built on the foundation of Jesus Christ? For there is no other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.
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If you're building on anything else, you may have a wonderful, wonderful life.
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But the life eternal will not be wonderful.
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And when I say it's wonderful, even this life without Jesus is nothing.
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So I want to take now a time and pray.
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I want to pray for everyone here, and I want to pray for our church.
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Let's bow our heads and go to the Lord.
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Father, I thank you for the opportunity to look at this passage today.
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And I thank you for the opportunity to be reminded that while our works don't save us, our works do have importance because our works are done in grace.
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And our works are done to bring glory to you.
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And Father, we build on the foundation, which is Jesus Christ, because there is no other foundation upon which a church can be built.
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But Lord, individually, I know there are those who have come today who have not built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, and I pray for them.
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I pray, Father, that you would, in this moment, open hearts to believe the gospel.
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To understand that every person here is a sinner, and as a sinner is justly deserving of your wrath.
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But Jesus Christ came and He died on the cross, and when He died on the cross, He drank the cup of your wrath down to its last drop.
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For every person who would ever believe, and Father, if there are those here today who have not believed, I pray that you would help them to realize today that there is no other foundation upon which to build a life that is pleasing to you than that of Jesus Christ.
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And I pray that even today, you might open up their eyes to see, their ears to hear, and their heart to believe.
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And Father, for this church, for those who are believers and filled with your Spirit, Father, let us refocus ourselves on things that have eternal value.
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Help us to not be so consumed with the pleasures and the things of this world that we miss those things which are eternal.
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Help us to build, Father, with gold, silver, and precious stones.
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Those things representing those works which are eternally valuable.
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Help us to be generous with missionaries.
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Help us to be generous with the gospel, and prolific in spreading the gospel in our neighborhood, and spreading the gospel in our community, and seeing your name glorified in this world.
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Not focusing on the things which will crumble and burn up, but focusing on the things that will last.
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Father, for these things, we praise you.
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We ask for your strength in Jesus' name.
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And we also pray, Father, keep us from division.
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Keep us from divisive people who come in to sow discord.
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Keep us from dangerous people who come in to teach false doctrines.
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Keep us tied to the truth of the gospel and to the doctrines of the Bible.
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And I pray it in Jesus' name.
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Amen.