May 28, 2000 -- AM
BUILDING TO BURN?
1Corinthians 3:9-17
INTRODUCTION:
(1) USA TODAY, May 22, 2000 cites a recent survey from the Impulse Research Corporation that summarizes those things people most regret wasting time on. Cindy Hall records the top five "regrettable time wasters:"
5. Gossiping (18 percent)
4. Cleaning/chores (19 percent)
3. Commuting (27 percent)
2. Watching TV (35 percent)
1. Worrying (67 percent)
(2) Life can be wasted. Only certain things will survive this life -- and then only as determined by the Lord’s criteria. The Scriptures warned against the wasting of life’s work. Life effort that is wasted is a byproduct of building life with commodities that will not withstand the examination of Christ. The believer, by structuring his life with the wrong things, can orient his life toward "building to burn."
PROPOSITION: ETERNAL LEGACIES AREN’T BUILT FROM COMBUSTIBLE MATERIALS.
Here are Four considerations of choice concerning combustible Christianity.
I. There is only one choice concerning life’s FOUNDATION (1 Corinthians 3: 10-11).
A. The foundation for life’s work is Jesus Christ. We see this in the parable of the wise man who built his house upon a rock (Matt. 7: 24-27). Jesus Himself said that no one could come to the Father but by Him (John 14: 6). We are told that there is no other name for salvation (Acts 4: 12).
B. Now, in all or any of these manifestations the matter of first importance is the foundation. A church, or a building, is no good if the foundation is no good, and in this case the apostle is very clear to make sure that we understand who that foundation is. He does not leave it to debate; we do not have to argue about it; it is stated as plainly as it can be. God’s Builders by Ray C. Stedman, June 4, 1978
II. A believer chooses the CHARACTER of his life structure (1 Corinthians 3: 12-13).
A. The Christian is warned to "take heed" how he builds. Most of life’s choices may be reduced to the issue of whom one is going to please: himself or the Lord. A major temptation is to yield to the urges of self.
B. Materials of life structure are temporal or eternal.
1. Worldly things are temporal (1 John 2: 15-17).
2. Fleshly things are temporal (Galatians 6: 8).
3. Devilish things are temporal (Matthew 25: 41).
C. The structure of our lives will be tested by the examination of Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 10). The examination of Christ is compared to a fire that reveals the nature of materials thrown into it. If one’s life is built with wood, hay, or stubble, these are temporal materials that cannot endure the presence of God’s consuming glory. The eternal materials, on the other hand, are compared to the qualities of gold, silver, and precious stones. These are the elements in a life structure that are consistent and compatible with God’s glory. They will withstand the examination of Christ.
D. There is a sense in which every one of us who is possessed of the Spirit of God builds upon this foundation. We all touch one another; we build into other’s lives; we affect everyone by the way we live and the way we think, the apostle called our attention to that. How are you building on the foundation? What materials are you using? Is it the wood, the hay and the stubble of human wisdom, the love of status, the seeking for ambition and prestige by which the world is characterized? Is this what you are building for and with? Or is it with the truth revealed in that secret and hidden mystery of God, truth about yourself, about humanity, and about history? Is that what you are building on? Is that what you are building with? That is the question. Ray C. Stedman in How to Destroy a Church, June 11, 1978.
III. There is no choice in what will OUTLAST one’s life (1 Corinthians 3: 14-15).
A. Did you ever watch a winning team at the end of a game? Do you notice what they do? Why, they go crazy! Grown men jump on each other’s backs; they pound one another, and hug one another, and even kiss one another. They jump up and down like little kids in a candy store. Why? They are filled with joy because the efforts they put forth produced results; it was satisfying to them. That was their reward.
Did you ever watch the losing team? They slink off; there is no jumping around and slapping one another on the back. No. Sadness and gloom prevail; they are ashamed because all their efforts were to no avail. It was all wasted effort.
Now, all of us shall have some of both in our lives. There is nobody who is a Christian who will not have some degree of gold, silver and precious stones because God guarantees it by having come into our lives as Christians. But there can also be a lot of wood, hay and stubble too, built upon the philosophy of the flesh instead of the Spirit. John says, "Let us so live that we shall not be ashamed before him at his coming," {cf, 1Jn 2:28}.
What is your life going to count for? God’s Builders by Ray C. Stedman, June 4, 1978
B. Every one of us here is investing his life in something. You cannot live without making an investment. What is it in? Will it be permanent? Will it abide? Will it stand the test? In the great day when all the universe sees things the way they are, will you be filled with joy that your life was invested in what stood the test and contributed to the glory of the Lord himself? Or will you be ashamed that you wasted all these years making an impression on men and teaching and influencing others to do so, and it was all burned up in the fire -- saved, but as though you had to run through the flames and lost everything besides? God’s Builders by Ray C. Stedman, June 4, 1978
C. Martha Snell Nicholson has put it in this little poem, cited by Ray C. Stedman, June 4, 1978 in God’s Builders:
When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ
And He shows me His plan for me,
The plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way, and I see
How I blocked Him here, and I checked Him there,
And I would not yield my will
Will there be grief in my Saviour’s eyes,
Grief, though He loves me still?
He would have me rich, and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I cannot retrace.
Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break
With the tears that I cannot shed;
I shall cover my face with my empty hands,
I shall bow my uncrowned head...
Lord of the years that are left to me,
I give them to Thy hand;
Take me and break me, mould me to
The pattern Thou hast planned!
IV. The local church has been chosen by God as His building (1 Corinthians 3: 9, 16-17).
A. The local church is the place of God’s dwelling, or, His Temple. The second person references in verses 16 and 17 are plural, and indicate that the Holy Spirit not only indwells believers individually, but also chooses to live among them corporately. Whenever we gather, He is there.
B. [Because the nature of God is holy, His building, by design, is also meant to be holy.] Well, how do you damage the church? How do you corrupt the congregation? I think the answer is clear from the context -- we have been looking at this all along. Corruption takes place when someone introduces the wisdom of the world into the life style and the practice of a congregation. If someone individually chooses to begin to live according to the wisdom and the practice of the world, he begins to corrupt and damage the church. He is building with shoddy material, with wood, hay and stubble which will not stand the test of the fire and therefore he is marring the building of the church. When someone seeks to make the church impressive and powerful by the methods and the standards of the world, he is fulfilling this very thing -- corrupting and damaging the church. So whoever suggests a compromise with the spirit of the age is fulfilling this dangerous thing, especially when he does so at the expense of the teachings of our Lord himself. Ray C. Stedman in How to Destroy a Church, June 11, 1978.
C. God is protective of His building (that is, you).
1. My son David and I once encountered a huge rattle snake while we were out fishing in the central Washington Desert. The size of the snake caused me to respect the distance between us. Rather than attempt to kill it, I chose to watch as that huge snake slithered its way into a small opening between two rocks. When all that remained visible of the snake was a tiny patch of its nose I realized there were many small openings in the rocks just like that one. I could never know where a snake was hiding along the riverbank among the rocks.
2. In the same way we can never know exactly where we are going to encounter the temptation to serve the urges of self. One can build his life by serving his desires and impulses instead of those things which are consistent with the glory of God. On Monday of this past week I was looking for a spare outlet in my motel room to plug in my laptop computer. Innocently I moved a night stand and discovered a cache of pornographic magazines left by a previous occupant. Knowing the danger of such materials, I maintained my distance and refused to touch them. They were hiding there just like a snake. I called the front office to remove them.
3. While reflecting on the incident, I expressed my thanks to the Lord for His protection. He reminded me of the breakfast I had on an Alaska airlines flight that morning. When I opened the sealed breakfast, I discovered a small card with an attractive scene on it accompanied by a quote from Psalm 107:1. I realized that the Lord had to move upon someone’s heart to bring about the inclusion of that little card in the breakfast package. In the same way that we do not know where we will encounter the snake and his temptations, we also can know that our loving God also takes measures to provide His protection and show His love in unexpected ways. Christians choose whether they will build their life structure with the materials provided by the Lord or by the enemy. Both will be encountered unexpectedly and both are readily available. Only those consistent with the Lord’s holy nature are worthy of inclusion in His holy building, however.
CONCLUSION:
The flame will not corrode or blacken gold, for fire burns it pure and clean, and gives it a shining color.
Saint Mechthild of Magdeburg (C. 1210-C. 1280)
During Cyrus McCormick’s boyhood, farmers faced the unwieldy task of harvesting increasingly larger crops of grain. McCormick inherited his father’s dream to perfect a mechanical reaping machine. When he did (assisted by a slave named Jo Anderson), Cyrus McCormick made history. In 1847 McCormick moved to Chicago to oversee manufacture of his reaper, and in one year he sold 1,500 machines. At age 40, McCormick was heralded as a captain of industry.
A Presbyterian layman, McCormick lived by the creed that business and Christianity are compatible; the latter ought to serve the former. In that context, he enticed the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the Northwest to move to Chicago by promising to endow a chair if it relocated. The seminary not only moved, but also adopted McCormick’s name.
It took an extraordinary man to convince McCormick to invest in projects outside his own denomination. Dwight L. Moody succeeded. When the young revivalist described his vision for a Chicago YMCA building that would be larger than the Crosby Opera House, McCormick warmed to his tenacity.
Moody boldly asked McCormick for an initial investment of $10,000. His plan was to raise $125,000 by selling stocks in the YMCA association. The association then hoped to repay investors from its paying boarders. McCormick’s name, Moody said, would start the ball rolling. Two years later, in 1866, the full sum was pledged.
The building was hardly built when it burned down. McCormick again purchased $10,000 in stocks, and in 1869 the new hall was dedicated to him.
McCormick contributed yearly to the YMCA and periodically to Moody’s campaigns in Chicago. In 1886, when Moody began raising funds for the Bible Institute, McCormick offered $50,000. "Better make it a hundred," Moody told him. "That will require some consideration," McCormick replied with a smile, ending the conversation. But he later consented to give the larger amount. -- "Dwight Moody," Christianity Today, no. 25.
Early one morning fire broke out in a house on a narrow street. The alarm was sounded by a policeman on duty. Before the fire engines could get to the scene, however, flames were leaping high into the air. Suddenly a young man appeared at an upper window in his pajamas. Firemen quickly placed a ladder against the burning building. But to the consternation of all, he refused to come down, shouting back that he had to get dressed first. The firemen pleaded, "Come as you are! Come as you are!" but to no avail. From below they tried to ascend the stairs, but were turned back as the wind fanned the flames into fury. When a rescuer tried to enter through a window, the heat and smoke forced him away. Suddenly the stairs gave way and the roof fell in. The man had waited too long and was buried beneath the ruins.
How much greater tragedy awaits all who refuse to "flee from the wrath to come." Many reject God’s provision of salvation and safety in Christ because they want to get dressed up in the clothes of self-righteousness or religion. Their delay could cost them their souls.
