Unshakable Foundations Series

Unshakable Foundation

1 Corinthians Series

CCCAG 8-3-25

Scripture- 1 Corinthians 3

Within a year of God calling me to the ministry, we had a large blowup in our church. Our senior pastors to suddenly resigned and moved away. Eventually, so did the youth pastor, leaving me, the rookie pastor to help out as a kind of interim pastor.

Obviously, I was still very wet behind the ears in ministry. In fact, I had only been a Christian for 8 years.

While I could run a huge accident scene with calm and confidence as a paramedic, when it came to ministry, I didn’t have a lot of confidence in myself. Largely, because I was still struggling with the idea of being a pastor.

I didn’t live a very good life before I came to Christ, and that was always was weighing on me. The fact that Jesus forgave me off all that mess was incredible enough, but the fact that God wanted me in the ministry was almost laughable.

I was the epitome of 1 Cor 1:17- that God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

So now here I am, barely a year into the ministry. I was in bible school, but I haven’t even taken the sermon preparation class yet. I’m juggling my studies, working full time, two young girls to raise, and feeling like a total newbie.

During this time, the church board decides to have a 3-night revival and calls a relatively famous evangelist, Dr. Randy Cadwell, to preach it Sunday through Tuesday.

He was *incredible*. The Holy Spirit moved like wildfire; folks were fired up, hearts were stirred, and the services, scheduled from 6pm to 8pm ran until after midnight each night.

On Tuesday night as the service wound down, I remember sitting on the front pew watching as the last few people were getting prayed for.

I had a realization that tomorrow night, in this very place I would be leading the Wednesday night service.

I felt like the guy who had to come to bat after Babe Ruth slammed a baseball into orbit. There was no way I’d ever come close to that kind of greatness, and was feeling pretty self-conscious about it.

I felt like a flickering birthday candle next to a blazing bonfire.

Suddenly, someone plops into the pew next to me. It was Randy, wiping his face with his handkerchief. In his typical southern Arkansas accent, he said, “Now that was CHURCH!”.

I remember chuckling and saying, "Well, they definitely won't get anywhere near what you've brought when I'm leading the service tomorrow."

I stopped and turn to me and grabs my arm.

"Johnny," he says,"you are the called shepherd of these people. I tried to be a pastor once, and was miraculously rescued from that fate by a secret ballot that kicked me out of that position. I'm just a hired hand. Your words have God's pastoral power behind them, no matter how it might seem to you. I will never have that with these people. Sure, I got them riled up, but you will be the one who helps them grow and will be with them with everything in their lives. Never compare yourself to another man or woman of God. God is calling you to fulfill your ministry, not mine."

While his words gave me a little confidence at that time, I now look back on them and see how right he was.

His words reflect the heartbeat of what the bible is unpacking in 1 Corinthians 3.

The Corinthian church was all tangled up in divisions. There was unhealthy idolization of human leaders like Paul or Apollos. It led the people to forget the real foundation.

Paul's response to this mess?

In 1 Cor 3, he emphasizes that if Christ isn't our foundation, we simply won't stand. He reminds us that human leaders are just tools in Christ's toolbox—arguing who's best is like debating if a hammer is better than a screwdriver.

Both are vital in their roles, but the Master Builder is Jesus.

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Let's read the passage together, shall we?

1 Cor 3:1-9 CSB

"Brothers and sisters, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, because you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and behaving like mere humans? For whenever someone says, 'I belong to Paul,' and another, 'I belong to Apollos,' are you not acting like mere humans?

"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.