We are Building our Life Building
1 Corinthians 3:10-23 (Pastor Heo)
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future–all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
Last week, we saw Christian life compared to agriculture (irrigation). Christian community is God’s field, garden. Jesus is the vine, God the gardener, we the branches. We each have our own functions – sowing, planting, watering, cultivating, reaping, harvesting. But only GOD gives life and makes it grow.
Remember:
- TODAY is the fruit of what we sowed yesterday, and
- tomorrow we will reap what we sow today.
Gal 6: “Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. One who sows according to the sinful nature reaps destruction, but one who sows according to God’s will reaps salvation. Let us not give up.”
Today’s text: Christian life is compared to a building. At least we can say: “We are builders of our life building.”
- I am building mine, you are building yours, and
- also we are co-builders of the church / house of God.
- I’m also A building – the temple of God.
- We are also members of one building – the church / house of God.
We see many buildings in the street. Beautiful buildings speak for themselves. Their beauty announces them and allow them to become a “destination.” Ugly, poorly built buildings are eyesores in our cities. These are not only ugly, but also very dangerous.
Sometimes, we hear about a huge building, a dept store or apt collapsed, taking many lives. Why? Because it was built poorly.
In usual times, we don’t know if it is strong or weak, but when tested, everyone knows.
Earthquake, typhoon, flood, these destroy some buildings.
Yes, we are building our life buildings. Is your building strong or weak? Stable, unstable? Safe, dangerous? Take care how you build your life building.
That’s why Jesus concludes his Sermon on the Mount with a picture of buildings. “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine is like a wise man who built his house on the rock… It did not fall… But everyone who does not put these words into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand… It fell with a great crash.”
This afternoon, our agenda / great question is: HOW can I / we build our (eternal) life building very safely, in a strong way?
To each of us, individually, think of this and be careful how you build your eternal life building. Ready?
Let me share 4 things.
1. We must build on the right foundation
We know the foundation is the most important thing in a building. Every building in this world has its own foundation. Without this, a building cannot stand. This is the most important part of a building. This determines the size, strength of a super structure. The foundation stabilizes, unifies the building. The foundation provides unity because it is singular in nature.
Ask yourself: What is the foundation in my life building?
Foundation is the most important thing.
In modern culture today, one popular foundation: emotions. I agree that emotion is important. Feelings are important and we do need affection. I respect your emotions / feelings. BUT they cannot / must not be the foundation of our life building.
If we depended on our emotions, our life would be very shakeable and rocky.
Sometimes great happens one day, and our life is GREAT! The next day, something bad happens and our WHOLE life is a mess / terrible.
Foundation is not something we make, it is something that is given to us from heaven: Jesus. This foundation is stabilizing, unshakeable, unifying force. This foundation secures our greatest desires for stability, unity, and eternity.
v. 10-11
“10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
Only in Jesus can we receive a solid foundation – perfect forgiveness for past sins, strength and power for the present day, hope for the future.
“Apart from me, you can do nothing.” – Jesus – “Apart from me, you cannot stand.” (I’m your foundation)
Today, what are you doing for God? Any ministry, service, sacrifice, that we build on something / someone else except Christ will collapse, disappear, become nothing.
The foundation of our life building is Jesus.
2. We must build with good materials
Agree? Yes, to build a building, we need materials, also in the physical AND spiritual world, we need good materials to build our buildings.
v. 12-17
“12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.”
To build a building, we need materials. Spiritual, there are two kinds of materials:
- Gold, silver, precious stones (diamonds)
- Wood, hay, straw
This is symbolic:
- Gold, silver, diamonds = permanent, imperishable, lasting materials (strong, expensive)
- Wood, hay, straw = temporary, perishable, passing away materials (weak, cheap)
What is the commonality?
- Wood, hay, straw = dry
- Silver, gold, diamonds do not burn in the fire. Wood, hay, straw BURN.
Fire = symbol of the Final Judgment
At that time, it is not difficult to find and gather wood, hay, and straw. We can gather them from our backyard. But, to find gold, silver, and diamonds, we must go to the mountain and dig deeper and deeper and deeper.
- Gold, silver, diamonds = hard work
- Wood, hay, straw = easy, lazy work
A lazy worker cannot gather gold, silver, diamonds.
When Christ comes again there will be a Final Test. In our application, we must know and study about Jesus more and more and make him known in this world diligently, sincerely, faithfully, passionately, joyfully. Are you ready?
Jesus is the best material with which we can build our house / life building.
3. We must build by holy wisdom / power
Do you want to be wise or foolish? God bless us all to be wise and powerful spiritually.
v. 18-20
“18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.””
To be wise spiritually, we must be foolish in the standards of this world. But most Christians want wise spiritually AND wise worldly, but it is impossible. Choose only one.
Wisdom of this world works for this world, but it will not work for the body of Christ, the house of God.
Ex:
- This world depends on promotion, competition, success, prestige, money.
- The church depends on prayer, the HS, grace, faith, humility, love, sacrifice, service.
These are totally different.
Acts (2000 years ago) – the early church had NONE of the secrets of success that seem to be important today: no property, no treasury, no political power, ordinary leaders without specialized education – but they turned the world upside-down.
God did something great through something ordinary. This is the wisdom of God.
This means that God has a special plan for his workers, his believers. The church is a communal building project, so all of us must participate in this building project with our respective responsibilities.
Just as we are responsible for building our friendships, relationships, families, careers, etc, so we also must be invested in building the house of God.
Chp 1 “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”
The philosophy of this world is very changeable, but God’s standard is unchangeable, timeless. So still today, God is pleased to save sinners through the message of the gospel which sounds like foolishness to those who reject that message.
Jesus is our power and wisdom.
4. We must build for right purpose
Q: What is the ultimate, final goal / purpose in your life?
If you are not clear on this question, your life is in trouble. Our final purpose should be about the glory of God.
1 Cor 10:31 “Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God.”
Answer these Qs:
- What do you have?
- Whose are you?
v. 21-23
“21 So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future–all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.”
Answer these Qs:
- What do you have? “ALL things” (Can you say like this?)
- Whose are you? If I belong to Christ, I can really say, “ALL is mine”
No more boasting about men. Our ultimate purpose should be about boasting about Christ.
Can you know how rich we are in Christ?
We have perfect freedom, perfect liberty in Christ.
v. 22
“22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future–all are yours,”
We don’t need to feel any competition, rivalry. ALL is yours, ALL is mine. We don’t need to meet the present nor the future with worry, fear, anxiety. They are OURS. Even physical death has no power over us because death is defeated already by the death and resurrection of Christ.
Second question: We are Christ’s
We belong to Christ – we are his possession, his treasure. He purchased us, bought us at a price, by paying the price of his own blood.
“You are not your own, you were bought at a price.” (Jesus’ blood)
This is so that we may live our lives for the glory of God by boasting about Jesus Christ, testifying about him – he is Lord of the world, Savior of sinners. This is our ultimate purpose / goal.
God bless you.
“I’m a builder of my life building.”
We are building our eternal life buildings through our whole lives in this world.
God bless you.
Let’s pray.
