WE ARE THE CHURCH Week 2: We are God's House | 1 Corinthians 3

Let's look at a second declaration that clarifies the identity of God's local church.

We are God.

Does anybody know who this guy is?

His name is that's Vizini.

No, Fezek is Andre the Giant.

Yeah.

You're gonna get taught.

If you're gonna get talk, we're gonna talk back, okay?

Alright?

So this is Vizzini.

Um he's a character in the movie The Princess Bride, and I admit that the cultural reference of the Princess Bride uh shows my age as much as the gray in my beard that my children consistently remind me of.

Uh that too shows my age as a 40-year-old.

But The Princess Bride, in which Vizzini is this critical character, is like a legitimately great movie.

I know many of you have seen it.

It has a great plot, uh, great actors, and these uh great one-liners throughout the entire movie.

And Vizzini, this guy right here, he is one of the characters who delivers many of those memorable lines.

Um, if you don't know anything about this guy, here's what you should know.

He's a Sicilian crime boss.

Which means that he is always planning his next caper.

But not only is Vizzini a Sicilian crime boss, he's also, well, really, really competent.

He considers himself to be the intellectual superior of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

He considers those guys to be, well, um, unintelligent when compared to his intelligence.

That's why he believes that any plan he devises is 100% ironclad.

Now, his partners in crime, they don't always share his same level of confidence.

So sometimes they remind him of all the ways that a specific plan might fail.

Once those doubts are expressed, Vizzini always answers the same way.

He answers with one single word.

We'll go to the next slide.

He says, Inconceivable.

An inconceivable event.

That's an event that's unbelievable.

An event that couldn't possibly happen.

So each time, though, that Vizzini says an inconceivable, this event is inconceivable, do you know what happens?

That unbelievable event quickly comes to pass.

One of his partners in crime, he goes grows so tired of all these empty boasts, of all this certainty regarding those plans, uh, that he delivers his own memorable line.

He looks at Vizzini one night and he says, This, let's go to the next slide.

He says, You keep using that word.

I do not think it means what you think it means.

Hashtag boom roasted.

At that moment, Vizini learns a very important lesson.

It's embarrassing if you use a word incorrectly.

Last week we began this series called We the Church.

In this series, we are reclaiming the biblical vision for God's local church.

And to reclaim the biblical vision for God's local church, it begins by actually understanding what the word church truly means.

All too often we believe that church means a place.

When in fact, according to God's word, church means a people.

And when it comes to church, the difference between it meaning and being a place and it meaning and being a people, that difference is monumental.

If a church is a place, then your presence in that place is just a reflection of your personal convenience.

But if church is a people, your presence with that people is a reflection of a commitment.

If church is a place, then when you arrive at that place, it's natural to focus on self.

But if church is a people, the issue gets reversed.

No longer would you ask the question, what can I get?

Instead, you ask the question, what can I give?

The focus isn't on self because the focus, if church is a people, the focus becomes service.

And if church is a place, then the standard is nothing more than attendance.

It's like patronizing your favorite restaurant.

But if church is a people, the bar is raised.

The standard becomes engagement, it becomes involvement and participation.

And if we desire to say with conviction and confidence, we the church, then it is critical that we know what the word church actually means.

Church is a people.

And last week, here's what we learned.

We learned that this people called church can declare with one another, we are the bride of Christ.

Would y'all say that with me?

We are the bride of Christ.

With that statement, that declaration, we clarified part of our identity as God's people in the world.

As Christ's bride, we are loved by Jesus.

And that's why Jesus died for his bride.

It was an act of love, an act of commitment towards us.

And now today in week two, we're going to take one more step forward in this series and further clarify the identity of God's local church by making this declaration together.

Let's go to the next slide.

We are God's house.

Say that with me.

We are God's house.

And just like any other house, if you want to build God's house, you must pour the right foundation and pick the right materials.

You must pour the right foundation and pick the right materials.

Listen to these words written by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

I'll start at the end of verse 9.

Paul says this.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it.

But each one should build with care, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Verse 12, if anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, their work will be shown for what it is.

Because the day will bring it to light, it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul pulls out and puts on his hard hat.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

He takes out this blueprint because he wants to remind the church at Corinth and he wants to remind this church in downtown El Dorado, Arkansas, that what?

Most, if not all, modern English translations.

Instead of using the word house in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 9, they use the word building.

1 Corinthians 3:9

And building, in fact, is a perfectly good translation.

It's actually probably a more literal translation of the original language.

But here's my issue with the word building.

When I read, if I were to read you are God's Building, do you know the first thing that comes to my mind?

I think of an office building.

And when I think of an office building, the first thing I begin to think of this place, this space that is cold.

You know what I'm talking about?

Like an office building filled with those hard floors and that really harsh lighting.

Or when I think of an office building, I think of a place that's been designed to focus on production and efficiency and efficiency and functionality over relationships.

Or I think of a building where people every single day they share a space with one another, but they're unable to share their lives with one another.

But when I think of a house, I think of a place that's never cold.

I think of a place that's always warm and welcoming.

If church is a building and you think of an office building, you think of a place where you want to come and go.

Like you want to only spend a minimum number of hours in that place.

But if church is a house, you don't want to come and go, you want to sit and stay.

Or when I think of a house, I think of dinners around a table, I think of conversations in the living room.

I think of a space where people are drawn into deeper relationships with one another and deeper relationships with God.

That's why I prefer to say we are God's house.

And I believe that description, that's the sort of house God is calling us to build as a congregation known as First Baptist Church of El Dorado.

But for us to build that sort of house, for us to be that sort of people, that sort of assembly in the name of Jesus, it first requires us to do what?

Pour the right foundation.

According to the Apostle Paul, the right foundation and the only foundation for the local church is Jesus Christ.

Paul says, Jesus is the foundation I poured in Corinth.

Paul says in chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, when he greets the people, he says, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ.

In other words, I've been sent by Jesus.

I have a message from Jesus.

And then later on in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul says, We preach nothing except Christ and him crucified.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

I laid, in my work in the city of Corinth, Paul says, I laid the firmest foundation you could ever know.

The only foundation upon which a church can be built.

I preached the name of Jesus Christ in that place.

And he says, listen, no matter what anyone else wants to do, you cannot change the foundation I laid.

The foundation has already been poured in this city.

And praise God.

Because what is true in Corinth, it's true of this gathering of God's people in downtown El Dorado, Arkansas.

The foundation, the right foundation, has already been poured.

For over 175 years, the people known as First Baptist Church have gathered.

In the fall of 1845, seven of God's people gathered together and they established First Baptist Church.

Their first pastor was this guy right here.

If we go to the next slide, yeah, there he is.

Handsome fellow.

He's working, if you look at his upper lip, he's working on a little facial hair as well, if you're curious.

His name is S.

D.

Worthington.

I have no idea what S and D stand for.

I decided it's some dude Worthington.

But he was the very first pastor of First Baptist Church of El Dorado.

Now think about it for just a moment.

For over 175 years, there has been a continuous witness of God's people who go by the name of First Baptist Church.

Think about that.

And the first question that comes to my mind is this question: how is that even possible?

Sixteen years after this church was established, civil war broke out in our country.

Our country was fractured and divided.

Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost, yet this church endured how the right foundation was poured.

Or think about the history of El Dorado.

Think about those days when oil went boom, but also the days when oil goes bust.

Like the local economy in South Arkansas has been on a roller coaster ride for a 100 years.

There have been ups and downs and all arounds and twists and turns.

How can a church endure so much turmoil in the community around it as the economy goes up and down?

It's all because, praise God, the right foundation was poured.

Or think about the events of the previous 18 months.

The ministry of the church changed, but it never stopped.

We endured those 18 months, and now I believe we are positioned to make an even greater impact coming out of those 18 months.

How is all that possible?

The right foundation was poured.

As Chris prayed earlier, one of the things we are grateful for and we praise God for are the people who came before us.

And this morning we can say, praise God for those seven people who gathered together in the fall of 1845.

Praise God for the preaching ministry of S.

D.

Worthington.

Praise God because together that pastor and that congregation poured the right foundation.

A foundation that would not be shaken by a civil war or by two world wars.

A foundation that would not be cracked under the weight of a great depression or a great recession.

A foundation that would not shift under the under the grip of a global pandemic, be it the Spanish flu or COVID-19.

Because the foundation of this church is Jesus Christ.

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

Praise God, the right foundation was poured.

And every week when we gather together, what do we do?

We stand on that very same foundation.

We exalt the name of Jesus as we sing songs.

We preach the name of Jesus when we open God's word.

We greet one another in the name of Jesus when we see someone enter through those doors.

We pray in the name of Jesus when we take our requests before our heavenly Father.

And when the final amen is said and God's gather, people scatter out into our community.

Do you know what we do?

We take with us the light of Jesus Christ.

Praise God, the right foundation was poured for us.

Somebody did the work before you even got here.

And now it's with that right foundation already poured.

That you and I we pick the right materials because it's time to build.

You see, the foundation was poured in the past, Paul says, right?

You can't change the foundation, it's there.

But it's the responsibility of every generation, Paul says.

Every group and gathering of local believers in their time to gather together the materials to build God's house.

In verse 12, Paul he lists six building materials.

He divides those six building materials really into two categories.

There's the wrong materials and the right materials.

The wrong materials, that's wood, hay, and straw.

Paul says, a day will come and a fire will burn, and those wrong materials will not stand up underneath the heat of that fire.

But the right materials, the flame will not burn them up.

Paul says those right materials are gold, silver, and costly stones.

The right materials, they are the materials that can withstand the fire of God's close inspection.

They are the materials that can stand the fiery trials that await.

These are the right materials because listen, they also fit perfectly with the foundation that's already been poured.

Some of you renovate houses, you renovate buildings, you build houses, you own rent houses, and so a lot of the talk of materials, you talk about builder grade materials, right?

You've heard that phrase before.

Builder grade materials.

Well, what Paul lists, listen, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, it's not builder grade materials, these are king grade materials.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

Because only king grade materials will fit perfectly with the foundation that's already been poured, because the foundation that's already been poured is King Jesus, the name of King Jesus.

So, what are those king grade materials that we have to gather together, that we have to put to use if we want to erect God's house in this generation at this moment in time?

So that every aspect of our being, whether we are gathered together or scattered from one another at our jobs and in our homes, reflects the glory of King Jesus?

What are those specific gold and silver and costly stones?

I'm not asking, ladies, to for you to go and melt down your jewelry.

I'm not asking you to give up your engagement ring.

These are just metaphors for what Paul says will last under the close inspection of God, which will endure the trials that are to come, which will make sure that this house has a witness in this community for the next 175 years that are to come.

I think the best way to identify those king grade materials is to consider the life of Jesus himself.

So, in our remaining time together this morning, here's what I've done.

I've divided the life of King Jesus, the one who is our foundation that I'm standing on today, that you're standing on today.

I've divided the life of King Jesus into five chapters.

Five chapters.

You could have done it differently, but this is the way the Spirit led me today.

Five chapters in his life.

And in each of those chapters of his life, the question I asked the Holy Spirit is show me how the church comes out of that chapter of Jesus' life and can build a house that reflects our King.

Show me the king grade material at that moment in Jesus' life.

In the first chapter, identified was Jesus' birth.

The events and details of Jesus' birth are many.

On Tuesday afternoon, as I was outlining the sermon, I asked the Holy Spirit the question, what is the king grade material?

Amidst all of the stories about Jesus' birth, there's the genealogies, there's the announcements both to the mother of John the Baptist and to Jesus' own mother, Mary.

There's Mary's song, there's Joseph's decision, and I was like, Holy Spirit, where in the midst of all of this is that king grade material that points us forward as a church?

And almost immediately the Holy Spirit reminded me of those angel, that angel and that heavenly host that appeared to those shepherds and said, Glory to God in the highest heaven.

Of that angel and those heavenly hosts who on that dark night, what were they doing?

They were praising God for what he was doing in the world.

And then the Holy Spirit, he just directed my attention to that story in Matthew chapter 2 when Jesus is no longer a baby.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

He's grown and he's now an infant.

He's still with Mary and Joseph and those wise men from afar, they've traveled so many miles for so many months, and they arrive and see Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus, and we are told that they bowed down and worshiped Jesus.

The king grade material in that chapter of Jesus' life.

The material that fits perfectly with the foundation that's already been laid is the material put to use by the heavenly host, the material put to work by the wise men themselves.

It is worship.

When we hear the word worship, we immediately just think of all the songs that we like to sing.

But worship is so much more.

Worship becomes this all-encompassing activity that defines our life.

Worship is our lifestyle that we give everything we are to applauding and honoring the greatness of our God.

It's why the scriptures often call God's people a kingdom of priests.

Priests, they knew a thing or two about leading in worship.

It's why the Apostle Paul in Romans 12 he gives the challenge to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, Paul writes.

Worship, that's our first king grade material.

Let's move on real quick.

Chapter number two of Jesus' life.

Listen to Matthew chapter 4, verse 23.

Matthew 4:23

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

That verse, and there are others in the Gospels, but that verse summarizes the public ministry of Jesus Christ.

It tells you what Jesus was all about.

Everything from Jesus' sermons to his miracles to his parables fits into Matthew chapter 4, verse 23.

Matthew 4:23

Because Jesus' goal throughout his public ministry was to do what?

It was to first show the world that I love God and I'm going to love my neighbor.

And by my love of God, I'm going to declare the presence of God's kingdom on this earth.

And by my love of neighbor, I'm going to invite anyone and everyone to come and find their place in God's kingdom if they would just repent and believe.

So what's the kingdom grade material in this chapter, this second chapter?

I've said the word a couple times already.

It's ministry.

For us to build a house that fits perfectly with the foundation that's already been poured.

We must focus on living lives, both when we gather together and when we scatter from one another, living lives that love God and love our neighbor.

Too often we just settle for programs that fill our calendars, events that keep us busy, obligations that we feel kind of this strong arm and this arm twisting to be a part of.

But programs are wood, fire, and straw.

Our material, listen, if it's going to last, must be ministry.

Declaring the presence of God's kingdom in our world and inviting anyone and everyone that we meet to find their place in God's glorious kingdom.

To say there's always room for one more.

From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Verse 24.

And then Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Here's the connection between chapter 2 and chapter 3.

Jesus' cross is the result of his public ministry.

By declaring the presence of God's kingdom and inviting anyone and everyone, baggage and all, warts and all, to find your place in God's kingdom.

Jesus made quite a few enemies.

And eventually those enemies come together and they say, We're going to put you on trial and then put you to death.

You will hang and suffer on a cross.

And in the eyes of the world, the cross is foolishness.

It shows that Jesus, according to the world, is a fraud and Jesus is a phony.

But we know, we the church know that the cross is the power of God at work in the world.

By the power of the cross, we are saved.

At the cross, our sins are forgiven.

At the cross, grace is poured out.

And we share the message of the cross with the entire world, not to garner decisions, but to make disciples.

Don't forget what Jesus says right after he predicts his own cross.

He looks at his closest friends, his closest followers, and says, hey guys, I'm going to my cross, and you need to be ready to pick up and carry your own cross.

Because the kingdom grade, king grade building material in this chapter, this third chapter, is discipleship.

Listen, disciples of Jesus, they are first people who have responded to the message of the cross of Jesus Christ.

And now they are willing to carry their own cross every single day.

No matter what the world says, no matter how the world reacts, no matter how the world evaluates, disciples of Jesus are willing to carry that cross to be a people who think like Jesus and speak like Jesus and act like Jesus and react like Jesus and to love like Jesus.

Discipleship is a king grade material because, listen, it fulfills the Great Commission.

It's a king grade material because it reaches around to the ends of the earth and it extends to the end of the age.

So worship, ministry, discipleship, those are the first three king grade materials.

First three materials that will pass the test of the fire.

The fourth chapter of Jesus' life, that's his resurrection.

Three days after Jesus was crucified, those friends visited his tomb.

But when they arrived, he was not there.

An angel tells some of Jesus' closest friends, he has risen.

He is not here.

See, look, see the place where they laid him.

Look.

Same place.

But then pay attention to what verse 7 says.

But go tell his disciples.

But go tell.

The command to go and to tell is a king grade material for the church in every generation because it points us to the necessity of evangelism.

Evangelism is simply telling someone the story of Jesus Christ.

Let me tell you about who Jesus is.

Let me tell you about what Jesus has done.

Let me tell you about how the story of Jesus still can impact lives in this world today, even your very life.

We tell people who haven't yet heard the name Jesus.

And we have to tell people, listen, who when they first heard the name Jesus, they weren't yet ready to hear that name.

We go and we tell because just like those friends of Jesus who visited the tomb, we want people to know that Jesus is alive.

So the story of Jesus doesn't stop at the resurrection.

There's actually a chapter that's yet to be written, his second coming, and that's the fifth and final chapter of his life.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4 describes that day this way.

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

Do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope.

For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever.

Forever.

With those words, Paul describes the glorious return of King Jesus.

I don't know when that day will be.

You don't know when the day will be.

That Christian author doesn't know when that day will be.

But what I know is that with every passing minute and hour and day, that day draws closer.

And that I know that day draws closer.

Here's what it does for me: it gives me hope.

How did Paul start that passage?

Do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope.

And hope, that's our fifth king grade building material.

Humans, your neighbors, your friends at school, your colleagues at work, the guy you're gonna see at your upcoming high school reunion.

Everybody you know is looking for hope.

When it comes to hope, hope is like a moth uh going to a light for a person.

Like we're just drawn to hope.

In fact, a neuroscientist named Tali Sharat, he believes that hope is essential for human survival.

He believes that the human brain is hardwired to go after hope.

He says that without hope, everyone we know is just caught in a prison of despair.

It's easy to be caught in despair, isn't it?

It is.

He says, we do not grieve like those who have hope, no hope.

He doesn't say we do not grieve.

He just says our grief is different.

The way we read the headlines is different.

You see, it's easy to be filled with despair if you don't have hope.

When everything you read is about suffering, when children live in poverty, when people lob this continuous stream of insults at one another and threats.

It's easy to be trapped in a prison when you believe there is no solution for the plagues that are ravaging our world.

And I'm not talking about a medical plague, I'm talking about just like the plagues that ravage our world of violence and suffering and death and disease, of addiction, of anything that is breaking people and tearing people down and leading them to their grave.

And that's why the world needs we the church.

That's why El Dorado needs we the church to build God's house with this kingdom-grade material of hope.

Because hope says this.

Hope says we can enter into and face the pains of the world.

Hope says you don't have to minimize the pain of the world.

It's as bad as you imagined it to be.

It hurts that bad.

Because listen, hope unlocks the prison.

Because we know that one day Jesus will come again.

The author Tim Keller puts it this way: he says, our Christian hope is that we are going to live with Christ in a new earth.

Where there is not only no more death, but where life is what it was always meant to be.

We can read the headlines, we can walk in the world, and we can know this wasn't God's plan.

And God's gonna do something about it.

He created a world good.

Sin was our choice.

And one day he will recreate the world when Jesus comes again.

That is our hope.

In the early 20th century, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright was given a great challenge.

He was told, contracted to build the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.

Tokyo is one of the most earthquake-prone cities in all the world.

Wright, with his team of engineers, made a careful investigation of the building site, and he discovered that there was a solid foundation that could be floated if he went about 60 feet down into the ground.

If he went way down, there was this 60-foot layer of mud he could build this hotel on top of.

Shortly after construction of that hotel was completed, an earthquake of enormous generational proportions shook the entire city.

And while all these other buildings fell and crumbled, the Imperial Hotel stood.

The right foundation had been poured.

Friends, over 175 years ago, again, the right foundation was poured at First Baptist Church of El Dorado.

And this church has withstood many earthquakes in human history.

All because of that foundation of Jesus Christ.

It's a foundation.

Jesus is a foundation that does not shift, he will not crack, he will not be moved.

And now it's the call of this generation to build on the foundation that has already been poured.

It's our call to pick the right materials that will pass close inspection and endure for the future.

To pick those king grade materials so we can build a house that is a beacon of light in South Arkansas.

Are we ready to build together?

That's the question.

Are we ready to build and to work together with worship, ministry, discipleship, evangelism, and hope?

So that we the church can say that we are God's house.

Let's stand together and pray.

Almighty God, we are humbled this morning to stand on such a sure, steady foundation that is Jesus Christ our Lord.

A foundation that was poured so many years ago by that faithful group of people.

We thank you for their faithfulness to you.

We thank you for the truth of the gospel, the power of the name of Jesus that they proclaimed.

And there's something humbling to even say, God, it would be different in our lives if it were not for them and what they did before us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Another house to be built on this same foundation that has endured.

A house for 2021 and for the years to come.

Lord, I pray for a spirit of unity to fill our church that we can work together.

A spirit of understanding as we try to do and seek to do something great for the name of Jesus in this community.

And a willingness to commit for the work that lies ahead.

Jesus, your life, which is the foundation of the church.

Maybe this morning you just showed us that your life is also the blueprint for the church.

Your life shows us the materials we need to fulfill our calling and mission in this community.

In your name we pray.

Amen.