Introduction:
Romans 14:12 – So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Revelation 22:12 – Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
How to Have a Successful Building Campaign (1 Corinthians 3:10–17)
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Build on the right FOUNDATION. (1 Cor 3:10–11)
Matthew 16:15–18 – He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
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Use the right MATERIALS. (1 Cor 3:12)
2 Corinthians 5:10 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
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Pass INSPECTION. (1 Cor 3:13–17)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Corinthians 3:10-17
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Your works will be tested by fire (1 Cor 3:13). What determines if a work is good or useless (precious metal or straw)?
Is it wrong to be motivated by rewards? How much do rewards motivate you to serve Christ?
How would you answer the question: “What exactly is the reward Jesus is giving in 1 Cor 3:14?”?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
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Open up those Bibles.
The 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
1 Corinthians chapter 3.
Just pause for a second.
As we so often do, I'm just going to ask you to take a moment and pray for me to be faithful
to communicate God's Word, and I will pray for you to be ready to receive what it is that
the Lord has to say today.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven, your Word tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing through
the Word of Christ.
Father, I pray today that you would increase our faith as we sit under your Word, and that
your Word would not just encourage us, but it would move us.
To be the people that you've called us to be so that we would do the things that you've
called us to do, Father, for your glory and honor.
We praise you in Jesus' name.
All of God's people said, "Amen."
1 Corinthians chapter 3.
My wife, Erin, loves gardening.
And if there's a story that sort of encapsulates Erin's gardening experience, it would be
this one.
Several years ago, somebody gifted Erin a little greenhouse, and she was so excited.
She spent so much time building this greenhouse, and then inside the greenhouse, you know,
she had to build - it wasn't like this massive structure, but it was a pretty nice structure.
And then inside the greenhouse, she built all these shelves, and then there were all
these, you know, those little plastic trays, and you fill them with the dirt, and she went
through.
But some of them, you know, you had to have the pots, and she had the most magnificent
greenhouse.
She spent so much time, and I'm like, "We are going to have such a harvest.
We're probably going to have to hire people to come and harvest this bountiful crop.
We're probably going to have to buy like machines."
There was so - I'm like, "This is awesome."
Well, one day, we were out somewhere, we returned home.
There was a really, really bad storm.
And when we got in the house and went about our business, and at one point we looked out
the window and saw her greenhouse was completely leveled.
And everything was strewn across the yard.
Literally nothing was salvageable.
You thought this was going to be funny, didn't you?
Trust me, I didn't laugh.
Husbands, in a moment like this, you do not laugh.
She spent so much time and so much work and so much energy building this thing, and it
was all for nothing.
She at the end had nothing to show for it.
And you know, the Bible says, Christian, that your life can be like that.
Did you know that?
That you can live your whole life doing lots of things, lots of energy, lots of time spent
on things.
And at the very end, you find out that you have nothing to show for it as you enter into
eternity.
That's what this passage is about today.
We're going to be picking up in verse 10, but I want you to drop down for a second and
look at verse 16, because we're going to grab this so that we understand this passage.
Some of you probably know this verse off by heart.
1 Corinthians 3.16 says, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's
Spirit dwells in you?"
And what I want to point out here is in the Greek, that word you is plural.
And a lot of times when we talk about you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we think
about individual salvation.
Yes, absolutely God's Spirit and dwells in the individual who receives Christ.
Absolutely.
But listen, at the same time, I want you to hear me very closely on this.
There is a corporate aspect of salvation, meaning this.
You are saved to be a part of a community.
And that is cover to cover in your Bible.
Look at Old Testament Israel.
God dealt with them as a community nation.
Look at the New Testament church in the book of Acts.
It is a community.
Look at the description of heaven in Revelation.
What is it?
It is a community.
It is a community of people that are saved together worshiping.
So salvation yet it is an individual choice to receive Jesus Christ.
Yes, it is going from death to life individually, but we are always, always, always called to
community.
Always.
We are God's temple.
That's why this unity issue is so important.
Salvation is not just a me thing.
It's a we thing in the church.
And in this passage we are looking at today, we have a new analogy.
Last week Pastor Taylor walked us through the previous analogy that Paul gave us.
That was the farm.
Planting and watering and harvesting.
We are moving today from the farm to the construction site.
And in this passage we are going to see that you are each a part of God's building project.
And the inspector is coming to evaluate your work.
And Christian, you are going to be judged.
You are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, time out, time out.
Pastor Jeff, this isn't my first time at this church.
And I've heard you say that a Christian will not be judged.
You will not be judged for your sin.
You will not.
But I want you to understand that when the Bible talks about judgment, there are many,
many, many, many, many, many, many kinds of judgment the Bible talks about.
For example, the Bible talks about the judgment of the nations.
Matthew 25, the Bible talks about the judgment of demons.
Jude 6, the Bible talks about the judgment of the unsaved, the great white throne judgment,
Revelation 20.
The believers will be judged.
And if you are a follower of Christ, you will be judged not for your sin.
Jesus took care of that on the cross.
If you are a follower of Christ, sin is in the rear view mirror forever in God's perspective.
That is a done deal.
But you will be judged for your works in terms of receiving rewards.
Jesus is the judge, John chapter 5, and He will judge you for rewards according to what
you do after you are saved.
The Bible is so clear in this.
There are so many verses.
Here's a couple that just highlight this.
Romans chapter 14, verse 12, there it is.
So then each of us will give an account of himself to God, each of us.
He's talking to the church.
He's talking to us.
We will give an account to God.
And look what Jesus says, end of the book, right?
Revelation 22, Jesus said, "Behold, I'm coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay
each one for what he has done."
Each one.
And you look at the context of that passage.
He's talking for the bad, and He's also talking for the good.
He's going to repay.
Alright?
So in this passage we're looking at today in 1 Corinthians, believers works.
Listen, this is the whole theme.
This is the whole, I don't know, is it a metaphor?
Is it a simile?
Is it an analogy?
Whatever the whole word picture here is construction terms.
And in this passage the Bible is talking about your good works in terms of building something,
building a structure.
And your works will be judged.
Are they worthy of a reward?
So on your outline, this is very timely for us as a church.
It's all straight from the text here.
This isn't gimmicky or campy.
This is all straight from the text.
How to have a successful building campaign.
You want to enter heaven someday with something to show for your time here on earth?
That's what this passage is about.
And it's actually exactly like having a regular building campaign.
Same principles.
How to have a successful building campaign.
Number one, write this down.
Build on the right foundation.
That's where it has to start.
You get a build on the right foundation.
Look at verse 10.
Paul says, "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."
Paul here talking about himself, he planted the church in Corinth.
He spent 18 months laying the foundation.
And he refers to himself as a skilled master builder.
He wasn't exalting himself.
He wasn't bragging.
He just said in the previous passage that he is nothing.
We already established that.
All Paul is pointing out here is, "Look, I know how to plant a church.
I know how to do that."
Like, have you ever read the book of Acts?
He wasn't bragging.
He's like, "I know how to plant a church."
He had a technique and it worked.
And he planted many churches that we're still talking about today.
He knew what he was doing.
And he says, "Someone else is building upon it."
Pastor Taylor talked about that a little bit last week.
That's Apollos.
The next pastor, Apollos is building on the foundation of Paul-Aid.
But notice he says here, verse 10, "Lest you think..."
Well, you know, good for preachers, right?
Good for them.
He says, "Each one..."
Look at that.
Look at that in your Bible.
"Each one, take care how he builds upon it."
Each one.
You know what that phrase, "Each one" tells me?
This passage isn't just for pastors.
This passage isn't just for the clergy.
Each one.
Each one.
Look, you serve in this church in any way.
Church Academy, teaching the kids.
Guess what?
You're one of the each one.
You're a small group leader.
Each one.
Are you a ministry team leader?
Each one.
Are you serving on one of the ministry teams?
Each one.
This is for all of us here.
Each one of us have to take care on how we're building on the foundation.
Every single one of us.
You know what the problem is?
It's too often the church is like Pendant.
Some of you already know what I'm going to say.
And if you work for Pendant, I'm certainly not talking about you.
But how many of us?
Come on, let's just be honest.
We've been driving by Pendant, road work.
What do you see?
One or two people working and eight or nine people watching.
True or false?
Don't leave me up here.
Pastor Jeff hates Pendant?
No.
Pastor Jeff is just observant.
You've seen it too.
But you have one or two guys like really working.
And then you have eight or nine guys just standing around watching and eating a sandwich
or smoking a cigarette and like hanging out on their cell phone.
That's the church, honestly.
That's what you have at the church.
You have a small percentage that are working really hard in so many ways and you have a
lot of people that just kind of sit around and watch.
Maybe contribute with some occasional criticism.
The church is too much like Pendant.
Look, if we're going to build, we're going to start with a foundation.
And you're like, "Okay, well Paul said he laid a foundation.
Are we just going to go with the one that Paul laid?"
Yeah, I would recommend that because look at verse 11.
He says, "For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus
Christ."
The church, listen, the church only has one foundation.
And the foundation of the church is Jesus Christ.
This is what he talked about in Matthew chapter 16.
I'm going to paraphrase here.
But Matthew chapter 16, Jesus said basically like, "What's the word on the street?
Who do people say that I am?"
And the disciples are like, "Well some people think you're John the Baptist or Elijah, one
of the prophets."
Jesus says to his disciples, "But who do you say that I am?"
And then Peter spoke up.
Look at that.
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
That's what Peter said.
And Jesus blessed him for that.
Jesus said, "And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.
On this rock I will build my church."
They're like, "Well what is the rock?"
Well, some people believe that Peter is the rock because the name Peter means rock.
But there's a lot of Greek linguistic reasons why that isn't exactly accurate.
But Peter is not the foundation of the church.
The foundation of the church is Peter's confession.
Because we see here what the foundation of the church is.
The foundation of the church is Jesus.
The foundation of the church is Jesus.
So it is Peter's confession, meaning the church is built when people confess that Jesus is
the Christ.
That's the foundation of the church.
Churches abandon the mission when they try to build on another foundation.
And listen, when a church is built on a foundation other than Jesus Christ, then it's not really
a church.
Well we believe the church is here to go after social causes or focus on politics or try
to entertain people.
We're on the wrong foundation.
But I want you to listen very closely.
Yes, the church is called to be salt and light.
Yes, the church is called to influence every arena where God puts us.
Absolutely.
But any of that stuff that's happening has to come from the foundation that we are a
community that believes in Jesus Christ.
We are a community that has been transformed by the spirit of Jesus Christ.
And we carry out the mission of Jesus Christ to make more disciples of Jesus Christ.
So I have to ask you, have you personally made that confession?
Have you confessed in your own heart and mind with your own mouth that you believe that
Jesus is the Christ?
You believe that Jesus is the Son of the living God?
Have you made that confession?
Because Jesus must not only be the foundation of this church, he has to be the foundation
of your very life.
So the first step in having a successful building campaign, you've got to make sure
you're building on the right foundation.
We could spend so much more time on that, but we recently had a whole sermon about building
on the rock, not on the sand.
Right?
So build on the right foundation.
Number two, successful building campaign means you've got to use the right materials.
You've got to use the right materials.
Look at verse 12.
He says, "Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood,
clay, straw, stop right there."
All right, building project.
Let's say you're putting up a structure.
All right?
And let's say money is no object.
What kind of materials would you want to use to build your structure?
Have the three little pigs taught us nothing?
The materials matter, don't they?
You'd obviously want to use the highest quality, right?
Marble, gold, silver.
What's Paul's point here?
The quality of materials.
Listen, if you miss this, you're really going to be confused for a few minutes.
The quality of materials speaks to the quality of your service.
Are you teaching biblical doctrine representing the Word?
Are you led by the Holy Spirit?
Are you rightly motivated by the glory of God?
Are you putting forth your best effort serving the King of the universe with excellence?
That's not about the show.
It's about dazzling people.
We already talked about that.
The question that you have to ask yourself, you have to evaluate yourself, it's this,
what kind of an effort am I putting in to glorify in Christ by doing His work?
What kind of effort are you putting in?
Because some people settle to build out of wood and grass.
Well, it's easier, quicker, right?
You want it a building, here's a building.
I did my job.
You have to understand that Christ considers that type of effort to be worthless.
I want you to look at Paul talks about this again in 2 Corinthians.
Look at 2 Corinthians 5-10 on the screen.
It's the same teaching, but I'm going to point something out here.
He says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one
may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil."
Now there's a problem with this translation.
The problem is the word evil.
That is not the right translation of that word.
You can do the Greek study yourself and you'll find that that word evil should be translated
worthless.
He's not talking about something morally evil like from the devil.
He's not talking about that.
He's talking about something that's worthless.
Things done even in the name of Jesus that ultimately end up being worthless.
What in the world are you talking about?
Things like things done for Christ only in human effort.
How about that?
Not spirit-led.
Not really motivated by God's glory.
I mean, I'm doing this and I'm doing it in the church, but I'd really be happier if
people noticed me.
Those kinds of things aren't really evil as much as they are worthless.
Just building out a straw.
And you know, church, we can fill up the church calendar with all kinds of busyness that has
nothing to do with the mission of evangelism and discipleship.
And at the end of the day, do you know what it is?
Straw.
It's just straw.
On the other hand, when you are motivated by God's glory, when you are dedicated to maximum
excellence, when your heart is in the right place because you're being led by the Holy
Spirit, that's like building with gold and silver and precious stones.
And you're like, oh, okay, so being part of a big church means big reward, right?
No.
Look, we're not speaking negatively of big churches, but I do have to point out that
sometimes we think that size equals value, and that's just not true.
A handful of diamonds is much more valuable than a truck full of logs, despite the obvious
difference in size.
But if you want a successful building campaign, better use the right materials.
You're like, man, wow, this might be new information for some of you, and you're like, how do I
know?
How do I know?
How do I know I'm using the right materials?
Well I know one thing for sure we're going to find out, because number three is you've
got to pass inspection.
You've got to pass inspection.
Look at verse 13.
Paul under inspiration, the Spirit goes on, 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."
The day is coming.
You know the day, the day.
And the inspector is coming to test by fire.
You're going to see here throughout the rest of this passage, there's three kinds of people.
Let's look at the first one, verse 14.
He says, excuse me, "If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will
receive a reward."
There is a reward for the faithful worker.
Again, we went through the sermon on the Mount.
We talked quite a bit about this.
From Matthew chapter 6, verse 20, "Jesus commanded us to lay up for ourselves treasures
in heaven."
And anytime we talk about rewards and treasure in heaven, people say, "Well, what is it?
What are the rewards?"
And I'll tell you the same thing I always say.
Not really sure.
But we can't imagine that it's a kind of reward like earth, like cash.
Right?
What is the reward?
And again, I would suggest to you that maybe God's word isn't specific because it's something
that we wouldn't fully understand on the earth.
But we do know quite a bit about eternal rewards.
We know a lot about them.
First of all, we know they're eternal.
We know this is something you're going to have for eternity.
And something else we know is it's better.
It's better than anything that we know of on earth.
And if every good and perfect gift comes from above, don't you trust when God says, "This
is awesome.
You should work for this."
Don't you think that it's going to be good?
You're like, "No, it's going to be awesome."
Right?
So we know that.
We also know there's no second chance to earn rewards after we die.
According to the Bible, this is your chance.
If you're hearing this message right now, you are in prime opportunity to earn rewards.
We also know that this is a motivator.
It's a motivator.
We build with excellence because it's going to result in eternal reward.
How are you doing?
Some of you are going to get a huge reward.
Some of you are.
Who is?
Those of you who have spent the money that God has entrusted you on missions, on the church,
on gospel purposes, Jesus said you're going to get a huge reward.
Those of you who know your spiritual gift and you have used it to bless the church, you've
used the time that God has given you here.
You've taken your opportunity.
There is a huge reward coming for you.
On the other hand, let's look at the second group of people, verse 15.
He says if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be
saved but only as through fire.
Okay, so we talked about the person that's working, giving, serving, faithfully, using
this opportunity.
Now we're going to talk to some of the rest of you.
On the other hand, some of you are saved but you're lazy.
You're irresponsible.
God gave you two things to use for him, time and money, and you have spent both of those
on yourself.
You attend church but that's really about it.
Your contribution to the kingdom is warming a seat.
You didn't invest much money into the kingdom.
You don't really serve the church in any way.
You're like, am I still going to heaven?
Yeah.
If you truly believe in Christ, if you've truly been born again, yes, yes, he says right
here.
He's still saved but it's like jumping out of a burning house and then watching it burn
to the ground.
You lost everything and you got nothing to show for it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You're telling me.
You're telling me, Pastor Jeff, everything I worked for in my life is ultimately going
to be nothing in eternity.
Are you telling me that when I cross over into heaven that I'm going to have nothing
to show for my time on earth?
That's what he said.
I think that's also why he said in verse 10, "Take care how you build."
So take care.
Take care, pewsitters, God tippers, and part timers.
Take care, ear scratchers, bench warmers, and buck passers.
Take care because today you should examine the quality of the work that you're putting
in to serve Jesus because He's coming to test it.
Salvation in Christ is a gift.
But what we do with it, it's on us.
There's a third group.
Look at verse 16.
He says, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and God's spirit dwells in you?"
Do you realize how precious you are to God?
Do you realize what you are to God?
You're not some she-shed.
You are His temple.
You are the place where God resides.
You individually, and again, this is plural.
He's saying you corporately.
This is where God chooses to dwell.
Therefore, verse 17, "If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him.
For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple."
This is the third group.
And I think it's pretty obvious, right?
He's talking about unsaved people here, right?
People that destroy what others build.
We're talking about false teachers, obviously.
But you know what else we're talking about?
Those in the church who aren't saved but are divisive.
Those who hinder the work of the church.
Those who are constantly causing problems for the leaders of the church.
Are you protective of your house?
If you went home from church today and there was somebody inside your house destroying it,
what would you do?
Well, God is pretty protective of His house, too.
And when He looks down and He sees His house and He sees somebody that's trying to destroy
His house, God says, "I'm going to destroy Him.
I'm going to deal with Him severely."
Any building campaign, really, at the end of the day, any building campaign can only
be said to be successful if it passes inspection, right?
I'd like to invite the worship team and our communion servers to come up because we've
got to close a passage like this by gathering around the Lord's table.
Why?
Well, the Lord's table for the Christian, for the church, it means so much.
A couple of things in particular means that we are reminded as we gather around.
First of all, this brings us back to our foundation.
Lest we ever be tempted to build a foundation on anything else, the Lord's Supper brings
us back to the place.
You know, this is the foundation of the church, the Lord who died for His church, who rose
from the dead for His church.
So not only is it our foundation, but I think another huge aspect of the Lord's table is
our motivation.
Because look, the Bible talks about rewards.
Should we be motivated by rewards?
Absolutely.
But rewards should be a motivator, not the motivator.
The motivator is the God who died for you, the love that He poured out on the cross.
He died for you.
So we are motivated to live for Him.