Construction
Sermon Notes for Sunday, February 4, 2007
Construction
1 Corinthians 3:9-17
I think of the three little pigs and their houses of straw, wood and brick in fighting off the big, bad wolf. Paul is talking about the spiritual life here in this passage and what it is constructed of.
Do we build our spiritual home in a hurry so we use the quickest and easiest means of doing so. A prayer here, a quick look at a verse of Scripture there; kinda the fast food version. A quick ‘burger’ as we drive down the road kinda of thing.
Do we build our spiritual home intentionally? Do we carve out a niche of time that is meaningful and purposeful? It is like having a sit down meal instead of fast-food. What are we using to build our spiritual home?
The frantic fire escape in this reading is not about whether someone is saved or not, it is about the quality of their spiritual life. It is done cheaply and quickly or is it built to last? Wood, hay, stubble vs gold, silver or precious stones.
Finally, like all construction, the foundation is the most important part. On what are we building? Is it Jesus himself or something else?
When the ‘big bad wolf’ comes to us, will our home stand or come crashing down around us? It depends on how it is built.
Devotional Guide. Monday, February 5, 2007. Foundation is important in building. In Ephesians 2:11-22 Paul makes a curious statement, to Protestants at least. He says that our faith is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus being the chief cornerstone. Jesus has chief place, as the cornerstone, everything points to and comes from him; but, the teaching of the apostles about Jesus form the foundation of what we believe. How is your faith built not only on Christ, but on the teaching of the apostles and the church?
Tuesday, February 6, 2006. 1 Corinthians 3:9-17. Paul says that he laid the foundation, Jesus Christ. We are to ‘be careful how we build’ on that foundation (3:10). He does not develop an allegorical meaning for each of the building materials, he just points out that not everything we do is lasting. Sometimes we do quality work and sometimes the façade looks good, but the underneath is not so good. How are we building?
Wednesday, February 7, 2007. 1 Corinthians 3:1-17, one more time. Paul? Apollos? Who are these guys? Just workers in God’s field he says. There seemed to be a rift in the Corinthians church about who was the best preacher, Paul or Apollos. Again, he says, who are these guys? They are just the planters of seed, God gives the growth. Ministry is a collaborative thing. In the local church we sometimes develop cliques around local leaders. Who are these guys, just planters. It takes all of us working together to do the work God has called us to do.
Thursday, February 8, 2007. In the famous picture of Jesus knocking at the door, have you noticed that there is no door-knob on the outside? What does that tell you and me? What is significant about that? In our work of building our spiritual home and life, it is important to keep in focus that our spiritual life has a core value and that value is Jesus. It is not just a spiritual life to have a spiritual life, it is a spiritual life centered on Jesus Christ.
Friday, February 9, 2007. The next time you are in the sanctuary look around you. You will notice that the plaster is pealing in places and work is needed. (Fortunately, prelim work is being done now to begin the repair process). My point is this: no one purposefully set about to damage the church, it was just suffered from benign neglect in the day to day rush of life. It happened gradually and few really noticed. (Like the way our children grow and we who live with them everyday don’t always notice.) Our spiritual home can suffer from the same kind of benign neglect. Have we examined the state of our spiritual home?