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each one be able to know that you are here and that you are near to us.

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We pray that you will speak to us by your Holy Spirit as we come to the Word, God.

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And grandfather, grace to us that we may then respond to that Word obeying the Lordship

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of Jesus in our lives.

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And this we pray in His name, amen.

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Well you have with you your copy of the Bible.

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I hope that you'll take it out right now and follow along with me as we read the text for

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this morning found in 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

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While you're doing that you can also pull out the outline on the yellow sheet from your

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bulletin so that you can use that as a way of tracking where we're going in the message.

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I'm going to begin reading with verse 5 in 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

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What after all is a polis?

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And what is Paul?

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Only servants.

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Only servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord is assigned to each his task.

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I planted the seed and a polis, watered it, but God made it grow.

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Neither is He, neither He who plants or He who waters is anything, but only God, only

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God who makes things grow.

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The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded

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according to his own labor.

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But we are God's fellow workers.

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You are God's field, God's building.

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For the grace of God given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder and someone else is building

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on it, but each one should be careful how he builds.

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For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

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If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or

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straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the day will bring it to light.

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It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.

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With what he has built or survives, he will receive his reward.

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If it is burned up, he will suffer loss.

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Yet he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

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Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple, and that God's Spirit lives in you?

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If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is sacred, and

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you are that temple.

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As Pastor Dave told you, a number of us have just returned from Israel.

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We have people all over the world in Venture Church.

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We have a team that has just returned from India.

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We have a team that left on Friday to go to Germany to participate there in helping to

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renovate a ship for operation mobilization.

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Some of us have just returned from a discipleship journey to Israel, and some of us went on to

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Greece as well.

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It was an eventful trip.

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Let me tell you, it was exciting to be there and to see these places again.

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In Israel, we were standing one day on Megiddo, which is a tel, a mound on which several

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civilizations are built.

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Megiddo is located, it's an ancient fortress that is located right on a valley.

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From the top of the tel, you look out on the valley of Jezreel, or the valley of Ezdralon,

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as some call it.

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It is there the Bible says in the final days, the battle of Armageddon will form up with

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the armies of the world.

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As we were thinking about those themes and the things that God has in store yet ahead,

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believe it or not, there was an earthquake at Megiddo.

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Later we went on to Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem it snowed.

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It snowed in Jerusalem.

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It's not supposed to do that.

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For the second time this season, we were told it's a one in twenty year event, so we were

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there for history.

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We escaped the snow by going down to the Dead Sea, which is a very warm and arid area, being

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the lowest spot on the face of the earth.

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And it rained at the Dead Sea.

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Now not while we were there, but you could see it in the distance, you could see where

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the rain had fallen.

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It was an eventful time, and then coming back, both groups experienced difficulty, not in

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Israel, not in Greece, in the good old USA, at JFK and Newark airports.

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And there were problems not only with the weather, no one can control the weather, but

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problems with the way the airlines were handling things.

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And you look at things and say, things just shouldn't be this way.

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I'm there.

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I don't think things should be that way with airlines.

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From a service ought to be focused on whom.

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You would think so, right?

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You would think so.

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But we're rather idealistic people, aren't we?

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There's nothing wrong with being idealistic.

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Sometimes our idealism runs into the real world.

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And the real world is that there's fallen people in the world, and things don't always

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work the way they ought to, and things take more time than we think they should.

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We bring our idealism sometimes into the church as well.

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And we think the church should never have any problems, that everybody in the church

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is always going to get along no matter what.

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We think there should be no divisions in the church, but that's not the real world.

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Last fall, 21 weeks ago, in fact, we merged two congregations.

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And some are surprised, disappointed maybe, that there's still some us and they going

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on.

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I know that surprises you, doesn't it?

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But there are others in the church who are still surprised that there's us and they going

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on.

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Folks, we're early into this thing.

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We said it would take two years to do the merge, to get us comfortable in the merge.

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Sometimes we have telephone calls at the office and people say, well, who's preaching

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the service this weekend?

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And the implication is very strong, if it's not the preacher I want, I'm not going to

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come this week.

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Right?

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It's normal to have favorite preachers.

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It's normal to connect with one style or with a personality type more than another.

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But let's face it, when those kinds of preferences determine whether we're going to participate

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in the life of the body of Christ, what we've effectively done is become Corinthians.

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We've become Corinthians because that's where the Corinthians were.

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The tendency to exalt human leaders over allegiance to the Son of God, to make human

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ministry leaders more important to our decisions than the Son of God, whose church it is, raises

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an important issue in the life of the church.

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What is the right view of ministry leaders, pastors and other leaders in the church?

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That's what Paul is writing to the Corinthians about, and that's what we're going to look

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at this morning.

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Essentially what our text today is telling us is this, that ministry leaders are God's

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servants.

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God's servants, not ours, God's servants.

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Those who attend to the tasks that have been assigned to them by God.

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That's what ministry leaders are.

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Of course, we immediately think of pastors, but I'm thinking beyond just pastors.

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I'm thinking of elders.

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I'm thinking of community life leaders, discipleship group leaders, leaders in other ministries

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of our church, Sunday school teachers, anyone who has leadership in ministry, and that's

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nearly everyone here in one realm or another.

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ministry leaders are at the bottom line God's servants.

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Now Paul draws upon two metaphors for the church in this text, as you notice, and he

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uses these two metaphors to expand upon what he wants to say in order to put God's leaders

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in their place in our minds.

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The first metaphor is that of agriculture.

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He says, you are God's field.

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You are God's farm.

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The second metaphor is that of a building or comes out of construction.

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He says you are God's building.

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Later he says you are God's temple.

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And so building his thoughts around those two metaphors, Paul has some things he wants

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to say to us.

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The first deals with principles.

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The principles that God wants us to consider.

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By the way, I wish I had chosen another word than consider because these are not just principles

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to think about.

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These are principles to put into practice in our lives.

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So let's look first at the principles that God wants us to put into practice in our lives.

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He says to these Corinthians who are dividing themselves up over leaders like himself and

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Paulus.

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He says you are a field of God, a field.

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Now Corinth was a large bustling cosmopolitan city in Paul's day.

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It was a town that was five times the size of Athens, which today is much larger.

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In fact, we went to Corinth a few days ago and stood in the ruins of that city.

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In Paul's day, this city had a population of about 800,000 people.

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800,000.

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There had been a city on this site since prehistoric times.

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But about 200 years before Paul's day, the city was destroyed by a Roman proconsul because

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of some political issues.

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And then in 44 BC, about 100 years before Paul is writing, the city was rebuilt by Julius

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Caesar shortly before he was assassinated.

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And so in Paul's day, this city, though it was on an ancient site, was a young city.

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It was a city that was vibrant with an economy that had access to two seaports that were

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only four miles away, a bustling, large cosmopolitan city with all the problems the cities have.

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But surrounding Corinth were large plains, vast fields that were filled with grain and

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with vineyards.

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Corinth was famous for the vineyards.

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It was famous for its grains and thus the seaports where it exported to the rest of

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the Roman Empire.

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In fact, today we have what we call currents.

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C-U-R-R-A-N-T-S.

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Currants are small seedless raisins that you might enjoy eating.

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The very word current in the English language comes from the medieval times and it was a

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corruption of the word Corinth.

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So we're talking still today when we think about currents, it's talking about the export

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of grapes from the city of Corinth.

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And so when Paul says, you're a field, the people in this city would have understood

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that.

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And outside the city there were fields.

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They understood agriculture.

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Many of them worked in the agriculture business.

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Paul says ministry leaders really are God's workers.

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That is, they're God's hired hands.

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He uses the term early on here of deacon.

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He says we are God's servants.

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He says we are God's deacons.

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Actually the word deacon means a table waiter, a table waiter.

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Now table waiters have but one purpose ideally and that is to wait upon their customers.

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We've all experienced less than the ideal and those get less than 18%.

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But he says we're like table waiters and we like table waiters have but one concern and

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that is the concern of God.

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We're His servants.

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We're His hired hands.

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It's His field.

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You are His field.

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We're hired by God to look after His field.

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He says that ministry leaders fill a function and that function is to bring others to faith,

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to help others come to faith.

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He says some plant in God's field, some do the irrigation of God's field but it's God

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who gives the increase and He says you came to faith as a result of our work.

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Ministry leaders function to help others come to faith and to mature and to grow in their

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faith.

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He says furthermore that ministry leaders wait on God for every increase, every increase.

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The process of nature is sometimes painfully slow.

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You can't control weather.

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You can't control the elements of nature and so one who is working in a field has to wait

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upon God for the increase.

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The farmer does his part.

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He cannot be idle but on the other hand it is God who gives the increase.

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Ministry leaders are God's workers.

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Secondly he says ministry leaders are peers.

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Notice what he says in verse 7, neither he who plants or he who waters is anything.

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So what I'm saying here is that ministry leaders are peers.

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We're all co-equal, nothing.

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We're nothing in comparison to God.

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We're of zero importance because it is God who gives the increase.

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The point is that no one person, no one leader is indispensable.

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God's work does not rest upon any one person.

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It rests upon God.

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In the church there are no VIPs.

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God alone is the one to be exalted.

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You understand the point here?

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They were exalting a Paulist and Paul and saying they're more important really than

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God to us because we follow them.

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Paul says that's absolutely wrong.

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We're peers, whether it's a Paulist or myself, whether they water or plants, we're peers.

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We're all on the same level and the bottom level is where we are.

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Everything is about God, not ministry leaders.

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Thirdly he says that ministry leaders are a team.

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Verse 8, first part of the verse, the man who plants, the one who waters have one purpose.

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You see ministry leaders are a team because they function as a unit.

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God viewed Paul and his successors as one squad to use an athletic metaphor or as one

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farm team to go back to agriculture who have a single goal and that single goal is to grow

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the church.

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Whatever you do, whatever role you have, your purpose is to grow the church.

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Each one of us fits into God's niche in this overall effort just as a quarterback and a

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receiver have a different role on a football team.

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But both are vital.

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So whatever you do, whatever I do, whatever this person does, we fit into the niche that

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God has shaped us for.

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There are no big niches.

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There are no little niches.

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We are all a part of the team.

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Furthermore ministry leaders are each rewarded.

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Each rewarded.

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Verse 8, the last part.

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He says we all have one purpose and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.

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So we are a team when it comes to getting the work done, but when we are judged someday,

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we will be judged individually for how we have done.

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God has called us to be faithful as part of the team and we will be rewarded according

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to our faithful labor.

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Notice that we are paid back by God for the energy that we put out for our labor, not

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according to the results.

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Because who is responsible for the results?

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God is.

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You and I are not responsible for the results.

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It's God's business that the judgment seat of Christ, we will each give a personal account

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to God and at that point, God will then reward to each one according to our labor here, how

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we have functioned for him in the niche that he has given us.

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We labor as ministry leaders, wherever God has placed us, we do our thing, but it's

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God who gets the increase.

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There are lots of philosophies of ministry these days regarding church growth.

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You can go to seminar A and seminar B and they will both tell you how to grow the church

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and they're diametrically opposed to one another.

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I want to tell you when church growth is reduced to a methodology or to a kind of leader or

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a personality, when church growth is reduced to that, then it has missed the mark.

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Because it's not about us and it's not about philosophy and it's not about personality,

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it's about whom?

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It's about God and he is the one who brings the increase.

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But we are God's field and we have functions in God's field.

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We are His laborers as His leaders.

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And it's important that we understand these principles, that we put them into practice

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as we find about how we should be placing ministry leaders in our lives.

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There are those who follow ministry leaders to such an extent that they become almost

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cultish.

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I know pastors who get up and preach on Sunday and they are met at the door by people in

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the congregation who compare what they've said to some favorite television preacher

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or radio personality.

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And they say, well pastor, I know what you said, but doctor so and so says this about

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it.

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Now it's not wrong to listen to others.

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We all ought to enrich our lives by listening to a variety of teachers and leaders.

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But let's not divide ourselves up over ministry leaders.

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Let's let our allegiance be alone to Jesus Christ.

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That's what Paul is so concerned about with the Corinthians.

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They were giving their allegiance to human leaders.

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They were dividing themselves up.

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Say, I'm going to go to church when this one preaches.

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I'm not going to church when that one preaches.

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Paul says, you Corinthians, he says, you are babes.

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You're carnal acting that way.

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He says ministry leaders are nothing.

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It's all about Jesus Christ.

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Focus on him.

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That brings us to the second part of our text where Paul now changes his remarks from agriculture

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to construction.

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He says, you are God's building.

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He wants to talk to us about the project that God wants us to construct.

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You see, God is erecting a building, a temple really.

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It's the church.

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It's a project that's been under construction for 2000 years.

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And today, each local church, venture Christian church, is like a piece of this greater building

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that Jesus is building and putting together.

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So let's think about the parts of the metaphor that Paul is drawing out for us here as he

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thinks about this project, this construction project that Jesus is about.

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He says, first of all, there are some builders in verse 10, the builders.

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He says, by the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder and

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someone else is building on it.

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Paul is the skillful architect, as the Greek word means here.

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It really means more than just the one who designs the building.

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Paul is in thinking of himself so much as the designer.

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Jesus is the designer.

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But he's thinking of himself really as the contractor.

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The one who is laying the foundation.

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When Paul went to Corinth, he is the one who proclaimed the gospel in that city.

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He laid the foundation.

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And now he says, there are others who are building upon it.

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But Paul was one of them.

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They are building the superstructure that is upon the foundation that has been built.

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You and I must never forget that the foundation of this church was laid years ago on the person

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of Jesus Christ.

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You and I are involved building upon a superstructure that others, rather a foundation that others

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have laid for us.

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In a sense, we stand upon their shoulders doing our part in this project.

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And the issue Paul says is how each one builds.

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Whether laying the foundation or building the superstructure, he says each one should

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be careful how he builds.

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In what manner he builds.

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Really watch how you do your work.

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Now we'll come back to that in just a moment, as Paul does.

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In verse 11, Paul points out to us the foundation.

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The context here is the local church in Corinth, just as we have a local church.

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He says the foundation of our church is Christ Himself.

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God's wisdom revealed to us.

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He talked about this in chapter 2.

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He says Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church.

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Not only by the way is he the foundation of the church.

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He's the foundation of our lives individually.

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Other foundation can no one lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

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If you're building your life on another foundation than Jesus Christ, my friend, you are going

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to fail in the end.

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There is only one foundation that will take you through life and into heaven.

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That is the foundation of Christ.

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If you have not placed your faith upon Him and begun building your life upon Him, I urge

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you today to take that step.

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It's critical that a foundation be laid properly.

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What Paul is talking about here is the right doctrine about Jesus Christ.

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The kind of preaching that leads people to a personal knowledge of Christ and understanding

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then of Christ's plan for their lives and how they fit in to what He is doing in the

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world.

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There are lots of different messages in the church these days.

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Some of them are rather insipid and weak messages.

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Others are sermonettes.

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What Paul is saying here is that when you and I are teaching, whether it be in the context

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of a service like this or we're teaching a Sunday school class or we are doing a discipleship

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group, whenever we are proclaiming Christ, we are to do it with sound doctrine so that

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the foundation of our class, our group, our church is solid and laid well.

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As folks, if the foundation is not strong, the superstructure will collapse.

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He talks now about the superstructure or the structure of the church in the next thought

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as he carries on this idea of the construction.

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He says that the structure really is you.

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He says you are God's building.

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Just down in verse 16 he says, don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple?

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He says in verse 17, God's temple is sacred and you are that temple.

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Paul is laying a foundation for some things he's going to say later in the book.

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But right now he wants us to understand that we are the building of God.

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What we're constructing and renovating down here, where we're going in a little while

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is an important place to us, but that's not God's building.

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God's holy place, God's temple is you and me when we are together.

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That's why we need to be together faithfully, not forsaking the assembling of God's people.

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Because as you and I gather together, we are the habitation of God himself.

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Paul says as you're constructing the building, there are some materials that you need to

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consider.

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Look at verse 12.

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He says if anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay,

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or straw, there are different kinds of materials that can be used.

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Which corresponds now to the how of verse 10.

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Be careful how you build.

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What Paul is thinking about is be careful about the methods you use.

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Be careful of the motives of your heart in putting together the church of Jesus.

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Be sure that the methods that you're using are good methods.

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Be sure that the motives of your heart are pure motives so that as you build, you will

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be building as it were with gold and silver and costly stones or jewels.

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Beware he is saying of building out of cheap materials, using cheap methods, using the

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passing fads of our culture.

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So that you in essence are building out of what is wood, hay, or straw, thinking probably

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of straw being in bricks.

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As we stood in Corinth a few days ago, we saw the ruins of what was once a majestic city.

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Some of the ruins that are still visible are the temple of Apollo.

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This temple to the pagan god Apollo was first constructed in 600 BC a long time ago.

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Parts of it are still standing because it was built out of materials that would withstand

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the test of time.

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But you know we didn't see a single house of the Corinthians left.

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After 2000 years and earthquakes and armies and so forth, all of that is gone.

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The church of Jesus Christ needs to be built out of materials that will last the test

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of time and eternity.

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John MacArthur says, when a pastor preaches sound, solid doctrine, he is building constructively.

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When a teacher teaches the word consistently and fully, he is building with good materials.

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When a person with a gift of help spends himself serving others in the Lord's name, he is building

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with materials that will endure testing and bring great reward.

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When a believer's life is holy, submissive, and worshipful, he is building a life built

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with precious materials.

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We are reminded here of the importance of the materials that we use in building our lives

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and the church of Jesus.

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The reason for that is because of the test.

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In verse 13 Paul says there is a test that is coming.

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What is this test?

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Well he says it is going to involve the revealing of the true nature of the work we have done.

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He says that what we have built will be shown for what it is.

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It will be brought to light, he says, revealed with fire.

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There will test the quality.

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Paul is saying that what you and I do in this life matters because someday, he calls it

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THE day, that's the when, the day points to the future, the judgment seat of Christ.

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He says on that day the work that we have built into our lives and into our church will

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be exposed by Jesus.

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I believe that in some fashion the work that we as believers and particularly as ministry

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leaders do in our church or churches where we lead will be exposed by Jesus.

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I don't know how that will happen, but how we have built in our time in this world will

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be shown.

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He says that there is going to be fire, that's the how of this test.

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Fire is always a symbol of God's judgment.

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In some way God is going to purify, He is going to consume the unworthy works of our

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lives, of our ministries.

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And what is worthy will be left behind.

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You see in the end it doesn't make any difference how much people like me or you.

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It doesn't make any difference how much applause we get or don't get.

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It doesn't make any difference how many books I sell or how many CDs or tapes people pick

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up.

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Those things do not matter.

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It doesn't matter if we're on television or we're famous or not known.

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What matters is how we've done our work where we've been assigned our construction responsibilities

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and how we have built.

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That's what matters.

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He tells us the results of this in verses 14 and 15.

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He says the work is going to either pass or fail.

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He says if what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.

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If it is burned up, he will suffer loss.

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The work passing the test will get what?

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Reward.

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It will be a reward appropriate for the quality of the work he has done in his lifetime.

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Not the size of it, not the reputation of it, but the quality of the work.

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He says the work failing the test will result in what?

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Suffering loss.

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What does that mean?

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Well you'll find lots of different answers out of the commentators.

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But most likely it means the forfeiture of honor and reward that might have been gained.

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The forfeiture of what might have been if the work fails the test.

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I don't know about you, but I want to do my work in such a way.

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I want the how of it to be so carefully looked after that when I come to that day and I

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stand before Jesus Christ, there will be something left that's worthy that I can offer him.

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Would you say amen to that?

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Don't you feel the same way about it?

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I do not want to get to that day and be empty handed because what I've done in this world

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has not been worthy and it's been shoddy.

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It's been for selfish motives.

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I've used methods that did not honor Christ and the result is it's all ashes at the judgment

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seat of Christ.

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There's a real warning that is given as we conclude this text.

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Paul says, don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple?

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God's spirit lives in you?

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He says if anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him.

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Now let that settle down in your thoughts for just a moment.

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It's very sobering.

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He says anyone who spoils, who defiles, who ruins by his influence the church, God will

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give appropriate retribution to him.

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Literally, that's what he says.

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Now, is Paul thinking of false teachers who enter into the church and lead the church astray?

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Well, certainly they're going to be judged.

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But I think Paul is writing here to more than false teachers.

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He's writing to all of us and he's warning us that as we go about our business in this

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world we need to be careful to build God's church, not spoil it in some way by our influence

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in it.

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Because when we do that, we bring ourselves under God's judgment.

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And so be careful what place you give to ministry leaders.

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What place ought we to give them?

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Well, let me just conclude by saying very quickly, number one, a place of respect.

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In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, Paul says respect those who are over you in the Lord, whether

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it be in your Sunday school class, your discipleship group, the churches, the whole whatever context

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00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:26,840
where there is someone who is leading your group.

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God's word says we should give that person a place of respect.

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He doesn't say respect them if you like them.

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He doesn't say respect them if you agree with them.

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He says respect them because of the work that Christ has committed to them.

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Now, that respect should not be meaning to exalt them.

470
00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:54,600
It doesn't mean to become their followers.

471
00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,800
It doesn't mean to put them on pedestals.

472
00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:02,400
It doesn't mean to treat them like royalty, but it means to respect them.

473
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:09,720
And so I ask myself the question, do I respect those whom God has put into my life as a leader?

474
00:37:09,720 --> 00:37:16,920
That's an important question so that I can give leaders the right place in my life.

475
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:22,880
Secondly, a leader deserves a place of prayer in my life.

476
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:26,680
Over and over, Paul says pray for us, pray for us.

477
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:31,280
And anyone who is a godly leader will say the same thing, right?

478
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:37,160
We want the prayers of those who follow us, those who are in our charge.

479
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:41,240
And so I ask myself the question, do I pray for those that God has put in my life as a

480
00:37:41,240 --> 00:37:43,280
leader?

481
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:47,520
Or do I spend more time complaining about them?

482
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:54,280
Or more time praising them than I do praying for them?

483
00:37:54,280 --> 00:38:01,120
Finally, the right place of a leader is a place of balance in our lives.

484
00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:07,360
Preparing leaders, testing another believer's spirituality by the teacher that he listens

485
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:14,600
to, or by withdrawing into a clique or a faction that follows a single person to the exclusion

486
00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:15,760
of others.

487
00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:23,040
All of that has a destructive corrosive effect upon God's temple, and it's very dangerous.

488
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:28,120
We need to keep leaders in balance.

489
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:34,840
Not only in God for them, but keeping them in perspective and keeping our focus on Jesus

490
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,280
alone.

491
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:42,680
The reason for this is very practical and fundamental.

492
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:49,880
It is that human leaders, whoever they are, will fail us at some point because there are

493
00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:52,920
no perfect human leaders.

494
00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:59,040
And if we're watching people, we'll get disappointed, disillusioned, disheartened, and we'll give

495
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:01,560
up.

496
00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:09,320
It is vital that you and I keep our focus on Jesus because He never fails.

497
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:12,640
Do I keep Jesus?

498
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:16,400
Jesus alone is the highest leader in my life.

499
00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:20,440
Every other leader, compared to Him, is nothing.

500
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:22,880
He's everything.

501
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:25,120
He's all I want.

502
00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:28,200
He's all I've ever needed.

503
00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:31,600
Lord, draw our hearts to You.

504
00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:34,120
And away from human leaders.

505
00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:40,920
Lord, let us give human leaders the right place in our lives, Your place, but let us

506
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:47,120
never replace You by human leaders, for You are the Lord of Your church.

507
00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:55,160
And Father, my prayer is that Jesus will build us, that Jesus will grow us, that You will

508
00:39:55,160 --> 00:40:05,240
bring the increase as we do our part for You in Your field and on Your construction project

509
00:40:05,240 --> 00:40:07,000
of the church.

510
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:21,120
Amen.