1 Corinthians 3:10-23 “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 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, 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. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 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. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.”
Pastor Kyle continues in our church sermon series through the Epistle of 1 Corinthians, stating that our individual stories are so much bigger than just our story. In a like manner, every individual church’s story is bigger than just their timeline in history. Ultimately, every Christian church and Christian individual can trace our stories back to the Cross at Calvary, where Jesus, the Christ, died for our sins that they may have life eternally and life to the fullest now. That Christian life literally began 2000 years ago and carries into today. Within that fact, there are so many people, places and events that God uses to shape us into who we are and who we become. Almost a hundred years ago, a group of Christians formed a congregation and built a church on the corner of Broadway and Citron Street in the city of Anaheim, in the state of California and gave it the name of Calvary First Baptist Church and that Christian church still exists today as City Church of Anaheim. This church’s story is built on the foundational shoulders of faithful men and women of God who have given and sacrificed to keep a bible-believing Christian church here in downtown Anaheim to minister to citizens and preach the Gospel as a vital part of this community.
1 Peter 1:8-9 “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
It is not an accident that you are reading this Christian Blog on the church’s and individual Christian’s stories. We are all part of the huge over-arching story of God’s kingdom expanding in our midst. Our story is a fragment of His story, which we call “history”. This generation of Christians are called to build on the foundations of previous generations of faithful Christians to defend and maintain the Church of Christ, preach and teach the Gospel, make disciples of Jesus and advance the Gospel and kingdom of Heaven. Is the Christian church working, growing and maturing today, and at the place where they should be in their Christian journey of God’s cyclical plan of redemption and salvation story? Disciples make disciples that make disciples ... saving souls of sinners.
Pastor Kyle spoke of three simple and amazing facts about how God builds His Kingdom and His Church. (1) When Jesus and the Bible (the Word of God / the Holy Scriptures) are not the foundation, then the whole structure eventually crumbles. The Apostle uses the analogy of being a skilled master builder laying a supportive foundation. If the foundation is not engineered and built proper and right, then the building constructed on top will not be supported and fail. It is very difficult and expensive to fix a physical foundation once a building is on top of it, if there even is a solution at all. The right way to build a building is to ensure that the foundation is solid and secure from the beginning. Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church and is true for every one of our lives also. A life without a sound, secure, and proper foundation will inevitably crumble. Jesus is the foundation which the Christian is to build their lives upon and the Bible is the blueprint on how to do the groundwork and build our lives successfully upon that sure foundation.
When lives are built upon a faulty foundation (other than Jesus Christ), then the building on top has to be torn down to rebuild the foundation on the proper footing and base. Christians have to fight in order to keep Christ and the Bible at the very foundation of everything we do. Pastor Kyle shared five places where we can lose our footing and our firm foundation. (a) When we become too focused on power and control rather than surrender to and trust in God. We all want to live our lives “our way”, so try to control things to get the outcome that we believe that they should be. Jesus said to God in Luke 22:42 “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done. ”Surrendering to God and His holy Word, Will and Way is the key to keeping our lives built on the foundation of the Lord. (b) We can lose our footing and our firm foundation when we become too focused on our own prestige and influence over the glory of God. We are all God’s fellow workers in the kingdom of God for His glory. What is the chief end of man? Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
The third way that we can lose our footing and our firm foundation is (c) when we become too focused on putting our personal politics ahead of the Gospel. President Abraham Lincoln stated: “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.” People are not going to believe in Jesus if they first have to sign off on our political preferences first; it’s the politics of Heaven that count. The Gospel is the rock-solid basis that we stand on and everything else is secondary. (d) We can lose our footing and our firm foundation when we do not handle personal disagreements God’s way. You’ll never find two people who agree on everything. It is how we disagree that shows how our lives are built on the solid and firm foundation of Christ and the Bible or insisting on own way. You can win an argument and lose the relationship. Sometimes we have to decide whether to be right or reconciled. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, says: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” First, reconcile the world to Jesus by sharing the Gospel with them, but second be reconcilers to one another. Are we handling disagreements in life God’s way?
The fifth way that we can lose our footing and our firm foundation is (e) by placing personal preferences in the church in too high of a place (music genre social issues, interpersonal connections, Sunday School teachings, the youth programing, Small Group discussions, ministry outreach, church events, etc.). Preferences or passions should never be allowed to become tools of the enemy, the devil, to divide the Christian church. All together, we need to be passionate about advancing the Gospel and servant of Christ first; putting God first in our lives.
Let's continue Pastor Kyle's message on God's Story in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment