Our Ellis County soil is pretty bad for builders. If you live in the area you know that a good foundation almost always leads to cracks in your home’s walls. If your home is built with a bad foundation, you’re going to have major issues. If the foundation is bad, a homeowner might spend a lot of time and money on hiding the cracks, but they will always come back. As a church, our foundation must be on the truths of Jesus found in scripture and nowhere else. If we build our church on something else, our church will crack.

Sermon Notes:

  1. Our Firm Foundation Must Be Jesus Christ (1 Cor.3:10-11)
  2. Build Upon the Gospel Foundation with Sound Biblical Materials (1 Cor. 3:12-17)

 

Sermon Transcript:

Amen. If you have your bibles this morning, let’s open them together to I Corinthians. We’re continuing the series in the first four chapters of the book of Corinthians, talking about this house being divided, meaning the church being divided 2,000 years ago in the city of Corinth and how we can learn lessons from them. We come to Chapter 3 and we’re going to be addressing verses 10 through 15 and Paul is talking to us this morning about a congregation, a building is his illustration here, that is built to last, made to stand the test of time, to be a congregation, to be a church that has a legacy that far outlives some building, a legacy of Christ. And when we think about things that are built to last, we always think of buildings. I believe that’s why Paul brought up this illustration.

Sometimes we think in America, we don’t have buildings that are very old, but it would surprise you. In Connecticut, there’s this house that’s called … oh, what’s this guy’s name? Henry Whitfield House, and it was built in 1639. Now, what’s interesting is that Henry Whitfield was a Puritan minister. One of the first ministers that came to the New World, but even morning interesting to him I found this week was the age of his house. Almost 380 years … I brought a picture of it … this house has been around and a question may come to your mind. How does a house, how does a building stand the test of time for so long? What is the process that they use, which is what I’m going to talk about today, both about a house or a building and about a spiritual house called a church that lasts. Two simple processes and if you follow them correctly, will cause a house to last. One is building a proper foundation, which they did on this house and two is using proper building materials to construct the rest of the house.

Now, in the 1600s, they didn’t just pour slab foundations. In this house, they used what’s called a stone foundation, so they dug a big hole in the ground and then slowly they would fill that hole in with stone, so one stone at a time, one day at a time, for many days and probably even many weeks, they built this foundation. But, I want to tell you, the work paid off because this foundation is enabling this house to still stand some 380 years later. And then they used good building materials. This expert builder, he came in and after he saw that the foundation was established, that’s the most important, he says, “Let’s also use stones not only for the foundation, but for the walls,” and so those stones that you see, that build the walls and even that smokestack, or that chimney, are still there from the original construction project.

Church, Paul is trying to help us understand it’s not really that much different in the spiritual realm of our congregations. You still have to follow those two steps. You have to have a firm foundation and now get ready, because that’s going to preach throughout the message and you also have to use good, solid building materials. See, Paul not only wanted this church in Corinth to stand the test of time. I believe Paul and God, himself, would want us, you, the body of believers, to leave a legacy of teaching that withstands the test of time as well. Now Paul knew something about the Corinthian church that we can all fall prey to. He knew that they were an immature church. Now, for them, they were a young church. We’re not that young of a church here at Tabernacle, but he also knew that not only were they young, but they got distracted by the world that was around them. We’re always in danger of that.

He also knew that they allowed division to come into the congregation, so he wants them to understand how they can have a congregation that stops with the division nonsense, that stops with the distraction nonsense and lasts and lasts and lasts. And the first thing that he says is that you have to have a firm foundation. Let’s read it together. Stand with me, I Corinthians, Chapter three, started in verse 10. Paul says, “According to the grace of God which was given to me.” That’s a great way to introduce yourself to somebody. “Like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.” Do you hear the warning there?

Verse 11: “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones,” that’s one category, “wood, hay and straw,” that’s another category, “each man’s work will become evident. For the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire and the fire, itself, will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work, which he has built on, if it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss. But he, himself, will be saved yet so as through fire.” This is God’s word. Please be seated. Paul’s trying to help us this morning, help us understand that as a church, we have to have a firm foundation, you could probably guess it right now, of Jesus Christ and then we must continue to build this congregation on solid biblical materials which are the biblical doctrines that we see as revealed in the scripture.

So, let’s start with the foundation. Paul wants you to know in verses 10 and 11 that our firm foundation must be Jesus Christ. Everybody in here would probably say amen to that, but it’s not just going to happen on its own. It takes work. Paul says, “I’m the master builder that laid the foundation which is Jesus Christ when I was there with you.” But notice how Paul introduces himself before we get to how to make Jesus Christ the foundation. How does he introduce himself as the master builder? Well, he does it with humility. He says, “Everything that I have, all my apostolic authority, all the spiritual gifts that I’ve been given, that I used to establish the church there in Corinth, all of those things were given to me by God and his grace,” meaning nothing I’ve done on my own, but his favor that he’s shown to me, that has not been earned by me. That’s what grace is. Why do you think Paul does that right here in the beginning as he’s giving this illustration of a building? There’s the building, he’s the master builder, God’s the architect.

Well, he does it because he knows they’re already distracted by wanting to choose teams because Paul founded that church. Many of them were like, “Paul’s the greatest man ever to live. I want to follow Paul.” And then others who came after Paul, they really started to like Apollos, who was the next pastor. They go, “I want to follow Apollos.” Paul has already told us last week that neither Apollos or Paul or Peter or Todd or any of us, we’re really nothing. G od is everything. He didn’t want them to give him more credit than he was due, so he says, “Yes, I’m the master builder. Yes, I laid the foundation, but everything that I have was given to me by God.” If one man that has ever lived had the right to be full of pride or to be puffed up, it was Paul. I mean, he was intelligent. He was a hard worker. He did not give up. He literally was watching the world change around him. He could’ve said, “Oh, yeah. Look at what I’m doing.”

He didn’t say that, but often he would say, “I’m the chief of sinners. Don’t follow me, but if you do follow me, follow me because I’m following Christ.” He wanted to turn the attention from himself and put it back on God. Now let’s stop here for a second before we get even into Christ is our foundation, there’s some lessons here that we can learn.

I was thinking of the interview I watched of the last Tour de France that Lance Armstrong won. It was like number seven and I remember being so disappointed and as the interviewer after the cancer he had recovered from, after the time that he put back in, literally on the saddle of the bike, after the last win, they were interviewing him and they said, “What do you think about these gifts?” And they kind of casually said, “These gifts that God has given you?” And he kind of sat back in his chair and was a little offended. He goes, “God didn’t do this. God didn’t put in the hours on the bicycle. God didn’t put in the hard work that I had to recover to cancer. Everything that I have, I earned on my own. I mean, I was wearing my little bracelet right there.”

I was like … “Listen, you may have some kind of great athletic ability. You might be something. You might be stronger than anybody else in your class or anybody else that you know. You may be faster than anyone you’ve ever seen. You may be able to jump higher and accomplish great things of the [inaudible 00:09:03], but those talents that you have … even if you’ve worked to make them better, they’re given to you … listen to me … by God and they have a purpose and the purpose, great athlete, is not to receive all the accolades for yourself. The purpose is not for you to become filthy wealthy.” Let’s say that didn’t really apply to me. I’m not athletic. Maybe you’re really intelligent. Maybe your IQ is off the charts. Maybe you’ve got other gifts that are administrative. Maybe you’ve earned for yourself, you would say, all of these educational degrees and you’ve arrived somewhere, wherever it is, whether wealth or education … even that, your intelligence, your success, the job that you had, it’s been given to you by God in this time for a purpose.

The purpose is to use it as a platform to bring God glory by introducing more people to Jesus Christ through whatever vehicle that you have to do it. That’s why you have these talents. We need to remember this. Don’t get puffed up. Don’t get prideful about it. Be humble, as Paul is humble so that God can use you, maybe even to lay the foundation, which is the most important thing in somebody’s life … the foundation of Jesus Christ in their heart, because see what Paul’s doing here is he’s talking to them collectively, but also individually. That the foundation that he said he is the master builder of, that he laid, which is Jesus Christ … he makes that clear in verse 10 and 11. He says, “This is, as a whole, your church body together, has the foundation of Christ,” but also the church is made up of what? Individuals. Each one of you that sit in the seat. You’re like a brick in the building, like the illustration says, that God is building.

Each of you, as individuals, have to have Jesus Christ as your firm foundation. Paul is making this clear. Church, any other foundation is dangerous. Any other foundation that you try to build a church upon other than Christ, it will fail. Fail epically, and fail miserably. There are lots of people that want to be associated with Christ by name that are building a faulty foundation and they will never find true success in the eyes of God or a home in eternity. Lots of the examples we could look to our Mormon brothers that see … or Mormon friends, I should say, that see Jesus Christ as more like a brother or maybe like the followers of Arius in the 4th Century, who’ve made themselves out again … we call them Jehovah Witnesses who see Jesus as just a man and not God and that’s the faulty foundation.

This is just a man and not God. That’s a faulty foundation or maybe your Islamic friends that say Jesus is, well he’s a prophet, but just a prophet and they leave him there. That’s a faulty foundation. That will never last. But, this can also be in Christian churches. Those are easy, aren’t they? It’ll get closer to home, there may be Christian churches out there that build their foundation around the charismatic personality of one man. “We got this great leader, and so, let’s plan a church about whatever he believes, because we love him and we wanna follow him.” That’s dangerous.

Or, maybe it’s a church built around secondary issues, that’s their foundation, and not the gospel, not Jesus Christ. Or, preferences, or moralism, or legalism, all of those are faulty foundations and that building, that church is in danger of completely collapsing. And one day, it will, whether it be this day or the day they stand before God.

You need a firm foundation, the only foundation that is firm is Jesus Christ. We know this, but we need to live this and we need to never stray away from it.

Here’s a question: how did Paul lay the firm foundation of Jesus Christ? I’ll tell you how. Through the proclamation of the gospel. He would come in to a city and he would preach the gospel to them. What is the gospel you say? I’m glad you asked. It’s Jesus Christ, his life lived on our behalf, his death as an atoning sacrifice for us, his burial which gave the three days according to the scriptures, and his resurrection that leads us into eternal life, and the belief in his ascension, the belief at his glorification and the belief that we will one day be with … This is the gospel. This is what Paul preached. This is the foundation that he laid and he took as much time as needed.

Why? Because the foundation is the most important part of a building. And Paul has used the illustration of a building as the church. Practically this is why we spent so much time and so much money on the Kids Town building, and the foundation. You may have noticed that it seemed like for months there was just a giant hole there. “Like, what are they doing?” Well, they’re building the foundation.

And, if you live in Ennis, well if you live in Ellis County, you know the dangers of having a bad foundation don’t you? This may be a little too much ask. I won’t ask you to raise your hands. How many of you, you don’t have to raise your hand, you can if you want to, have cracks in your walls because of your foundation?

Right? We live in Ellis County where there’s this dirt called mud that’s like clay and it expands when it’s wet and it shrinks when it dries, and if don’t spend enough time in the building construction process, on your house, on the foundation, you’ll have those cracks in your walls, you may have them anyway by the way. The illustration breaks down in Ennis I think. But, if they do a really bad job of your foundation, your whole house can come tumbling down. “But Pastor that would never happen.”

And, if you remember that church, oh nope, that school I mean, that was where Veterans Park is, anybody teach there? I’m so sorry. This happened, if you’re not familiar, there used to be a school where we put Veterans Park now. Across the street from the bowling alley, and it wasn’t that many years ago. They didn’t spend enough time on the foundation. There was a faulty foundation, something bad happened because the school was brand new, almost as soon as it opened, they started having problems, and within a very short period of time, right Bob? They had to close the school. It was too dangerous to even have students or teachers in.

What did they do? Well, you don’t see a school there do you? They had to tear it down. And, they don’t even have a school there anymore. That’s why when we built the Kids Town building, you saw that big hole, we dug a big hole, however many feet it was, maybe like 15, maybe more feet. And then we started slowly adding dirt back in and every eight maybe every 10 inches, we would stop and treat that soil. And then bring in more dirt. And then stop and then treat that soil. You told us to do this, because you knew how important the foundations were. It took longer, yes. It cost more, yes. We could’ve cut corners, yes, but we didn’t. ‘Cause the foundation is important.

And, after they put all the dirt back in, they brought in new soil for the very top layer, and then we dug piers, lots of piers, like 17 feet in the ground. Filled them up, concrete, and then on those piers, on that dirt, we built a slab. And we’re praying that that was enough to keep that foundation solid, so that that building will be here in 50 years, when your children, your grandchildren come back to see it.

More important than that, is the foundation of Jesus Christ, ’cause what I pray, not just in 50 years, I pray that in 200 years when these buildings are all gone, that the legacy of Christ through Tabernacle Baptist Church will still be here. That we’re a church that stood on the foundation of Jesus Christ, that we preach the gospel and we followed his word. The foundation matters church. And what you believe about Jesus in the gospel matters. This is how Paul laid the foundation. I know there’s lots of people that wanna claim Jesus and say that Jesus is my savior but they believe in a Jesus that’s different than what we have revealed in the scriptures.

If you wanna say Jesus is my foundation, you must also believe certain things about Jesus. And, before you even see your need for Jesus, you must see how desperate you are in sin. That’s the very first piece of the gospel. You must understand that as a human, you have sinned. A sin is anything that God told you not to do, that you say, “No, I’m gonna do it anyway.” There’s lots of things that I do that are sin. I won’t share them all with you this morning and I won’t make you share yours with me. Lying, cheating, stealing, murder, yeah all of that and many more things. And Paul says, “All of us have sinned.” And there’s consequences for that sin. The consequence for that sin, the gospel says is death. We’re not just talking about physical death, that’s a smaller consequence, it is a consequence. He’s talking about eternal death. Separation from God forever in a place called hell.

See once you understand sin, then you can start seeing your desperate need and desire for Jesus. And then you can understand if Jesus is your foundation, that he was born perfect, born of the virgin Mary, so that he did not have the stain of original sin. That he was born perfect but he also lived a perfect life. He performed miracles and proved thorough his perfection and the miracles that he showed the world that he was God in the flesh. Fully God and fully man.

Why? So is this innocent man, he could die a sinner’s death, on a Roman cross 2000 years ago, not just to say that he did it, but to atone, meaning to pay the death penalty for sin that you and I deserve. He was our wrath absorber if you will. He was our substitute and when he died on the cross, penalty paid. He was buried three days later, he rose from the dead in victory and if you’re here today and you would repent and believe in that Jesus, the gospel Jesus, you would be saved and then you can be a brick in this building that God is putting together.

Church have no other foundation than Jesus Christ. Also, don’t let any other ideas come into your congregation, into my congregation, into our congregation, that competes with the foundation of the gospel. There’s lots of things that may try to compete with the foundation. We have to say no to it. Otherwise it’ll be like, we have the foundation of Jesus, it’ll be like water getting under your foundation, it’ll slowly erode at what we truly believe about the gospel. This can come in through morality, meaning the things that you do on your own are good enough to please God. That can transition into legalism. You must do these things to please God. That will erode at the foundation, you can’t believe that.

Other things that wanna compete with the foundation, is societal acceptance of sin. If you believe that thing, whatever that sin is, then you’re a hater, or you’re a whatever. You gotta stop believing that. And then churches that call themselves Christian, for the pressure that they feel from the society, will start becoming Christian in cultural name only, and stop wanting to offend the society and then start to want to change the foundation. Let me just tell you, Jesus is enough. The gospel of Jesus Christ is enough. Nothing else needs to be added to the foundation, and praise God, I believe we have been and still are and I pray will long time be, a church that has Jesus Christ as our foundation. It’s important. It’s the most important.

Every heresy that has ever been, every church that has ever collapsed, every false teaching, every other doctrine that has failed, has failed because of what they don’t believe correctly about Jesus. I think I’ve established that point, we could go on, but let’s move in to verse 12 through 15. We must have a firm foundation but Paul also says, if you’re gonna have a worthy foundation of Jesus Christ, you have to use materials that are worthy of his name. So build upon the gospel foundation with sound biblical materials. Just like the building process. Once you spend all the time over here in Kids Town, doing that laborious work of a foundation, it would be pretty silly if we used shoddy materials for the rest of the building wouldn’t it?

If we spend all that time and all that money and all that effort on that solid foundation, and then we built the walls out of untreated cedar or untreated wood, of any kind, and then for the walls if we just used that Ellis County mud and just kinda threw it up there, let it dry, there would be a good wall. Or, if we used some kind of wood, hay or straw, like Paul says here, for the roof, it’ll be pretty silly wouldn’t it? Yeah it would. Just as silly as if you’re a Christian church and you have Jesus Christ as your foundation, and then you use humanistic teachings to build your church. Moralistic teachings to build your church. Worldly acceptance teachings to build your church.

Now, it would have saved us a lot of money, and the building the future [inaudible 00:22:53], you just use some mud and some untreated wood and some hay. Yeah. But would it have fulfilled its purpose? Maybe for a day or two. With all these rains that just happened, oh the rain would have collapsed that straw roof, it would have melted those mud walls, and would have eventually rotted those untreated two by fours for food. But we didn’t do that did we? No. You said, “Use good materials Pastor, because we want this building to last.” So instead of untreated wood, we used steel to frame the walls of the church. Instead of mud on the walls, we used every material that you can think of to put on the walls.

We started with sheet rock, we tape embedded it, and then on the sheet rock we used good paint, and then on the floors we used tile and carpet, so that not only would it last, but it would also be beautiful in its architecture, beautiful in its finishes, why? To reflect the beauty of the God that we serve. The same thing is the teachings. The teachings that we teach, that we build the church upon, on the foundation of Jesus Christ, need to be good materials that last, like gold and silver and precious stones as Paul said.

Like gold and silver and precious stones as Paul said. Not temporary materials like wood and hay and straw. They needed it to be materials that are worthy to be associated with the name of Jesus Christ, that’ll stand the test of time and that’ll reflect the beauty of the gospel to the world. Why? Because through solid, biblical doctrinal teaching, it’ll correct your attitude that’s wrong. It’ll correct your misguided behavior and you reflect the beauty of the gospel, live a righteous lifestyle and the churches that use these good materials, what happens? They obey the Lord. When they obey the Lord, they share the gospel. When they share the gospel, people get saved. The church grows. God’s hand of blessing is upon them.

But yeah, sure, we could use shoddy materials and follow some kind of humanistic doctrine that makes the world happy just to get them in, and we may grow for a time, but just like that untreated wood, it won’t last. It’ll rot and it’ll decay and the bottom line is, it won’t be acceptable to God. You say, “Pastor, what are some of these shoddy materials that you’re talking about?” Well let me describe some of them for you if I can find them. How about works-driven faith that says you can do it on your own? That’s not good enough. What about making Christianity about just service to the society and acceptance to the society alone without Christ as necessary for salvation? What about a church that never wants to disagree with the world? A church that only teaches how to be moral and not how to honor God? A church that selects leaders based upon their wealth or their social status? These are bad materials, church and Paul says one day they will show themselves.

We, on the other hand, need to be preaching sound doctrine. You say, “Pastor, how do you know that?” Because it comes directly from the word of God. If you’re wondering what some of these sound doctrines are, not only would I tell you to read the scriptures, I’d go a step further. The sound doctrine that we teach from the scriptures, it brings glory to God. It magnifies the name of God and it shows humanity as less than him and in desperate need of him. So if you’re at a church, or you’re listening to the radio or you’re watching a preacher on TV and the doctrines that he says or she says, that they’re preaching, if they elevate humanity to be the focus and put humanity and your needs and your desires on the same level or above God, you can have a pretty good indicator that that is not a sound biblical doctrine. That is not a material worthy to be associated with the gospel and you no longer need to trust in that building.

Sound biblical doctrine that brings glory to God is the reason that the church made the creeds for thousands of years. They wanted to make sure that the churches knew what doctrines that they should be preaching and teaching and how the church of Jesus Christ should be unified on these matters. You can go look this week and read and maybe even memorize the Apostle’s Creed or the Nicene Creed and what you’re gonna find is that many of the creeds talk about the same thing. They talk about God as Trinity, Father the creator, Son Jesus Christ the Savior, and God the Holy Spirit as our comfort and our guide. Three in one. They talk about for a period of time, right, they discuss the Trinity, they talk about specifically, Jesus Christ. Because why? He is the foundation.

They talk about how he came to seek and to save the lost. How he was brutalized and suffered, why? For sin. He was able to do so because he was fully God and fully man at the same time. That he was born of a virgin without original sin, that he lived a perfect life, that he died on a Roman cross under Pontius Pilate, that he was buried and three days later, he rose from the dead. That he ascended into Heaven, that he sits at God’s mighty right hand and one day church, and I believe it’s soon, he will come again to judge us. That we are unified in that belief as a church. That we too believe in the resurrection of the dead and we too believe in life eternal. These creeds help us stay unified on the core doctrines of scripture.

Has anybody seen that show Fixer Upper? Some of you ladies for the first time started paying attention. Joanna Gaines, there’s another key word, yep. Let’s say a church has a solid foundation of Jesus Christ. But because of the temptations of the world, because, like the Corinthian church, because of the division, let’s say that the walls are a little decrepit, they starting to decay and they’re in need of a little bit of fixing upping, a remodel. Well if you ever watched Fixer Upper, this is how they do it. They don’t go find that house in Waco that has a broken down foundation, that’s unrecoverable. They may work with that sometimes, but what’s the ideal house they’re looking for? A house that has a firm foundation, that has solid bones. It may be ugly as anything, but they’re gonna go in and what are they gonna do? They’re gonna use good materials and get good contractors and tear all that old stuff off. They’re not gonna hire some kind of slum lord to come in and just cover all of the real problems and make it look good on the outside. That’s what some churches try to do.

No, they hire a good contractor that uses good materials. They address the problems, they fix the problems, even if the problems do what? They cost the owner more money. And then when you see the house, not only is it beautiful on the outside, but it’s also beautiful on the inside. Church, if we start to struggle, this is how I will approach it. I know our foundation is Jesus Christ and praise God it is solid and he doesn’t fail. We will not give up on that, but as I see as your leaders, I see some walls that are crumbling, as I see some issues that we need to deal with, I’m not just gonna let that dead dog lie. I’m not just gonna try to cover it up with some humanistic acceptance of whatever that is, that sin, that struggle, whatever.

No, like a good contractor underneath God’s grace, I’m gonna use the good materials and we’re gonna address the problem and we’re gonna be beautiful on the outside that reflects the glory of God and we’re gonna be beautiful on the inside. Church, this is why, as long as I’m alive standing behind this pulpit, I can’t always tell you I’m gonna be the most entertaining preacher, I want to be engaging, I do; I can’t tell you my speech is always gonna be perfect, I can’t tell you every sermon is gonna fire you up in your seat like maybe one or the other did, but I can tell you this and I promise you this. Every sermon that I preach is gonna come right out of the word of God. It’s gonna be based on solid biblical doctrine and it’s gonna always reminds us of the foundation of the gospel in Jesus Christ. And I believe that’s what it’s gonna take. That’s what Paul says, that’s what God says it’s gonna take to make us a church that is built to last.

But just in case you’re wondering, “What about all those churches, Pastor, that are using the shoddy materials and they look good on the outside, but we can’t seem to find the doctrines that they preach and the scriptures or doctrines that they ignore are really clear? It’s like right here, but they won’t teach it?” Don’t worry about them. Verse 13, “Each man’s work will become evident. For the Day, meaning the day of judgment, will show it, because it will be revealed as with fire and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. Now this is not the refining fire that comes through persecution as a Christian, like we see in 1st Peter. This is a testing fire that is meant to burn up the wood, the hay and the straw, and meant to reveal the precious teachings of these precious stones and gold and silver. Look at verse 14, “If any man’s work which he as built on, if it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss.” Meaning judgment. “Though he will be saved,” Because he has the foundation of Christ, “yet as through fire.”

You know the day Paul is talking about here is the day of judgment and we usually associate the day of judgment is when believers or unbelievers stand before Christ and that day is coming. And that’s one level of judgment. But do you realize there’s also a day where all of us, even as believers, will stand before the Lord and our life will be opened up like a book? And our life will be laid before the Lord and we will have to give account of everything that we did for his glory or that detracted from it. That day will be as if fire.

I’m not trying scare you, I’m just saying I think about this day sometimes and it keeps me up at night. Well what am I leading the church to be built upon? I know it’s the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. But what are the building materials that I choose to use? How I choose to lead you and choose to lead my family? All of that will be taken into account by Christ and he says, ultimately time will tell what materials that you use. That’s why I do expositional preaching because my mind may be wrong and my heart like every human heart, wants to satisfy the masses. That’s why we have to stick to this. The solid biblical materials that God has given us. My question is what materials are you using? Ultimately, what’s your foundation as an individual? Is it Christ?

It has to be or you have no hope. But also, what materials are you turning to? Are they reflecting the beauty of the gospel? Are they from the word of God or are they constructing things for you or things for him? These are questions all of us need to ask. Use good materials because you serve a good God who gave you a good savior. That is your foundation. I’m so thankful this week for Kids’ Town, I really am. Because it’s like an endless source of illustration for me. Right? You voted, you did the Building the Future. You said, use all this money. And we still need the money, by the way. There’s a little plug for that. We need to pay it off. But you said, “Do the foundation the right way.” And we did. You said, “Use quality materials so it lasts.” And we did. That’s a great illustration of who I want to be as a church. So that yeah, in 50 years they may come back and see this, but in hundreds of years when it’s gone and this building’s gone and all of us are gone, the legacy that we left, is a lasting legacy of Jesus Christ as our foundation and the sound biblical teachings to produce a sound biblical life it its believers.