Building A Balance Life Series

TOPIC: BUILDING LIFE CAREFULLY

Text: I Corinthians 3:10b

v. 10b, “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.”

Introduction:

Balance living is what people needed in our time. Balance life will bring you to a healthy, simple life. When I say balance life it refers to the totality of a person. Many people today are good in disciplining their diet, many are good in balancing their time, many are good in balancing their schedule, etc. But these are just part of having a balance life, and to have this kind of life we must be careful how we build it. This morning we will try to dig in deeper what are the keys ingredients in building our life carefully so that we can have a balance life. Let’s open our Bible in I Corinthians 3:10 (read, put emphasize on 10b).

From this verse we can see the key ingredients to building a balance life:

1. It should be Intentional “But each one…”

For almost I think more than a month we talked about the Sermon on the Mount and we are not yet finished but when started our series I told you that we God’s kingdom builders. We build our life and the life of others. In this chapter Paul point out also this truth that we are building our life also the life of others. Paul used also the allegory of planting, watering and growing in our life and the life of others. This is a balance life, a life that is growing, but before it comes to the point of growing it undergoes to the process of planting, watering, caring, and nurturing. And Paul emphasize that it is should be intentional on our part, “But each one…” When we say intentional, it should be deliberate, planned, on purpose, it is not something that accidentally happen. (ILL. Vitamin C) Remember the two builders on Matthew 7:24-27, the wise builder is intentional in building his house, he planned it, he builds it on purpose and that is to become strong to withstand even the fiercest storms.

How about us in our Christian life are we intentional? Do we build our life on purpose? Do we plan everything we do in our life? Many are planning their life but not its totality, sometimes people just plan their future as having a stable career, a house, a car, a family, etc. This is not wrong but it’s just a small part of our total being. There is man in that Jesus told like this one in Luke 12:16-21, “16 And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ’What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 "Then he said, ’This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."’ 20 "But God said to him, ’You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." Jesus called this man fool, not because what he did is wrong but because of his perspective in life, for him life is just physical, for life is just what he is living now here. Both this man and the other builder was called by Jesus foolish, why? Because they are not balancing their life, they are just concentrating, focusing on earthly life, temporal life but miss their social, their spiritual life. We must be intentional, only us can do it, people can only help you if you first recognize your need to balance your life.

2. It should be Ideal “…should be careful…”

We must not just intentional, but we must also be ideal, “But each one should be careful…” When we say ideal or careful, we must give our very best in what we are intentionally doing. Being best doesn’t necessarily mean being number one. For what you are doing you might already giving your best and yet for others it’s not. It’s okay, because you are not doing it for man but for God who know your heart. Your motive should not be to please man but God. Being best doesn’t necessarily mean being smart, but being wise. Careful builder know first the what, his plan is clear to him, what he would like to build, he already see the finish building. Not only that he should know the what but he must also know the how, the right material and the right people to hire so that he can carefully execute the plans. If a builder know only the what but not the how there will be problem, because others who know their own way will do it and before you know it the structure you want to build is a mess.