[0:00] chapter 3 as we continue our way through the book of 1st Corinthians and this morning will we be focused on verses 10 through 23 which will get us to the end of the third chapter.
[0:11] 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verses 10 through 23. Now I need to remind you as Paul writes to the church at Corinth he is writing to a church that is full of problems and it's full of problems because it's comprised of people and one thing that we have found that has resonated throughout history is wherever there are people there are problems and as long as there are people who live in a society that is pushed down and going astray then the people who live in such a society often bring that society into the presence of one another and they get along and they call it the church and rather than being called out from it they become a part of it and when people create problems in the church is not operating the way it should and Paul writes to the church at Corinth and he reminds them of their stance by calling that they are saints and then he begins to address some of the problems and the divisions that occurred within the body of Christ at Corinth and unfortunately those divisions mimicked the divisions of the world because in that day the world judged your standing based upon your education not necessarily which university you attended but whose feet you sat at and studied under it would be the equivalent of saying well I got a degree from so-and-so so I'm better than you or I got a degree from so-and-so so I'm better than you and there was much pride in who they studied under well that crept into the church and they just tried to sanctify it and said well I learned from
[1:45] Apollos well I learned from Paul well I'm gonna do you one better I learned from Cephas Peter and some say well I'm gonna trump all of you I'm learning from Jesus and there began to be these schisms based upon personalities because let's be honest not everybody can get along with Paul not everybody can get along with Peter not everybody can get along with Apollos and let's not even go every one of us better get along with Christ but we see these divisions that crept in and Paul began to address them and we have to put this in context because in the third chapter he's not so much speaking about the problems of the individuals he's speaking about the problems of the body this is a corporate issue therefore our applications pertain to individuals as connected to the corporate body and we'll have to see that because there's a phrase that is mentioned here in this third chapter we'll get to it that is mentioned elsewhere in the book of first Corinthians and with application to the individual here it has application to the church body corporate and we'll see that but he's addressing those divisions and he is referred to them as God's field and then in the ninth verse he said you are God's field you are God's building now the you means well let's make it southern it means y'all y'all are God's field y'all are God's building you all it is not you individually he's talking about the church the body and he is referring to the corporate body called the church at Corinth and he says the church is the field the church is the building church is the body now with that in mind we'll pick it up there in the 10th verse so if you are physically able and desire to do so I'm asking if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read first Corinthians chapter 3 starting in verse 10 going to the end of the chapter which gets us down to verse 23 and then we will pray according to the grace of God which was given to me 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 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 wood hay straw 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 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 do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you if any man destroys the temple of God God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy and that is what you are let no man deceive himself if any man among you thinks he is wise in this age he must become foolish so that he may become wise for the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God for it is written he is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness and again the Lord knows the reasonings of the wise that they are useless so then let no one boast in men for all things belong to you whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all things belong to you and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God let's pray
[5:27] Lord we thank you for your word we thank you for the opportunity we have together as your church and as your people to hear your word we pray now Lord that your word would speak to our hearts and minds that it would change who we are that it would have an effective and powerful work within us that may be displayed outside of us we pray Lord that your word would resonate with truth and purpose you give us ears to hear it a mind to understand it and a life to apply it for your glory and we ask it in Christ's name amen you may be seated this morning in our passage first Corinthians 3 verses 10 through 23 we see the building of the church the building of the church now some of you are at that moment going to push back a little bit because we're going to make reference to our part in the building of the church and the reason you're going to push back against that and you should you should throw up a little caution because Jesus says in Matthew 16 upon this rock I will build my church and we understand that Christ is the builder of his church upon this rock the confession of Peter not Peter we need to rightfully understand that we're not making our way through Matthew again but upon his confession upon the testimony and the reality of who Christ is upon that rock I will build my church is what Jesus says in Matthew 16 and we're reminded of the reality that Jesus is the builder of his church but there's also this truth that goes with it he uses men to do the building I haven't figured it out yet in all of my understanding and in all of my searching of scripture I have yet to figure out why
[7:18] God limits himself so much so that he desires to use man to do the labor of the kingdom if God can create the heavens and the earth and all that we see and all that we hear and all that we can experience if he can create every bit of it in six days and then on the seventh day take a sabbatical take a rest and sanctify it as holy God can do whatever he wants to do God could speak it into existence God could ordain that it would be so just as it says in the beginning God created and then it says and God said let there be light and I love this and it was so right whatever God wants to happen can happen at the moment he says so because when God says so it is so but for some reason when it comes to the kingdom of God God has desired and designed to utilize man in the building process he is still the what we would refer to as the general contractor if you go to my house right now and you open up the electrical panel inside of my house you will see all of the important aspects that run the electricity and I'm probably going to get in trouble because I know this is streaming but don't get on to me I got to be grandfathered in I've already passed inspection right you'll see all these electrical components all these things which we had someone else do I didn't do that myself I had an electrician do that but there's a sticker that goes inside of that panel and that sticker is to be signed by the general contractor that says and it makes a declaration of what kind of insulation the house has in it so that it could tell you how well insulated the house by today's building standards you know we can't use newspaper on the inside of the walls anymore it has to be efficient has to be energy efficient so there's stickers there and the sticker has to be there before the final inspection or you won't pass the final inspection now I'm just going to be truthful with you because I'm standing behind a pulpit and I would do it anyway we were already living in the house before the final inspection came okay it was COVID everything shut down and we had a brand new house that was sitting empty I would have been foolish not to so we had already moved in we hadn't moved all of our belongings in we knew the house was built right we had done a lot of laboring on the house I had done a lot of work on the house and I had forgot to get my contractor to sign the sticker because it was in my truck so if you were to open my panel box you will see the name Chris Heath because Chris Heath my brother Chris who is pastoring preaching a message probably right now was my general contractor of the house and it's got his name but I got a secret for you I signed it with his permission I had him on the phone I said brother what kind of insulation do we have in here because see the inspector was coming and I had to put the right I could assign my name but it wouldn't it wouldn't have mattered I had to sign Chris Heath because Chris Heath built the house I just did some of the work you see where I'm going it's not your name that signed on the church it's Jesus Christ it's his church but he uses men to do the work and that's us and we sign his name by our activities and our actions and our labor therefore when Chris gave me permission he knew that everything his name stood for hinged on the reality that I was writing it on that piece of paper because if there was a problem they were not going to come to me the homeowner they were going to go to him the home builder therefore Chris had the right to tell me what to put on there he had the right to declare to me what I should state because his name's sake rested upon it listen Jesus has the right to tell us how to build the church because it's his name's sake that rests upon it it's his church not ours and when Paul makes this declaration of them being the building then all of a sudden he goes into the labors for the building that is those who are doing
[11:18] the work and we see a number of things through here the first thing we see is that the building of the church is a response of the individual it is a response of the individual Paul makes this declaration in verse 10 and I hope you don't skip over it to get to the parts that we're familiar with but I hope you see it he says you are the building in verse 9 and then in verse 10 he opens it up like this according to the grace of God which was given to me according to the grace of God which was given to me like a wise master builder and just stop right there according to the grace of God which was given to me like a wise master builder and then he begins to describe for us what he has done and he begins to talk about his labor and he begins to talk about his efforts but I want you to pay attention and see his motivation because see Paul didn't have to do these things Paul would say later on that he had this encounter with the risen savior on Damascus road and then for three and a half years he was in the wilderness being taught by the risen savior out there in the middle of nowhere and much like Moses God made him took him from something and made him nothing so that he can do something with him right God took him from a high place put him in a low place so that he can use him every place and we see this and he does it with Paul and then Paul says I had to preach the gospel I had this fire in my bones said woe is me if I preach not well what is that which is causing the woe do you think that it's the spirit that is just making him unbearable making it miserable making it unattainable is it is it God putting him under his thumb and saying you better preach or I'm on discipline you know Paul says according to the grace which was given to me according to the grace of God which was given to me here is his response he says the reason I labor on the building of the church is because I know the grace of God given to me one thing I have found it resonates throughout scripture one thing that seems to be so true those who are forgiven much love much is that not what Christ says and those who know the grace that has been given to them they respond to that grace through service and laboring they cannot get over the reality uh friend let's let me encourage you I don't care how long you've been a believer I don't care how long I don't want to say that sounds that sounds cold pastor don't say that uh let's just say that it doesn't matter or or well no I'm just going to say it the way I have to say it because I'm not educated enough to know how to say it really doesn't matter how long you've been a believer don't ever get over grace if you ever find yourself getting over the grace of
[14:08] God given to you then you need to back up and go back to the beginning don't ever get over the reality of grace that is our motivation that is our inspiration that is the the thing that pushes us forward the moment we begin to take grace for granted is the moment we stop the laboring because when we feel like we're there because we deserve to be there then we feel like we've done everything we need to do but it's only when we feel like hey I don't deserve to be here it's only I don't people don't think that I should have had a right to be here you can look in the sports world and tell that right you can look at all these hall of famers I don't care which sports genre you go into you look at those people who were picked we just experienced I know I in my house we've had some some kids get married and move out so we don't see it as much but I can still tell you the sound of the NFL draft right when the pick is them I understand it's just forever etched in my mind and somebody said what does that matter well it doesn't matter to me but it matters to some but when you can look throughout the sports industry and tell those people who are picked very low in the draft have a greater motivation because they're out to prove something right that is their their effort they had this drive there or they're they're undrafted nobody thought they were good enough to make it it seems to be those are the stories that people thought well they had something to prove we're not trying to prove anything but I'm afraid that when we get over grace we think that we earned it and we attained it therefore there's nothing we need to do in response of it but when the reality of the fact is is that he chose me while I was yet a sinner and the grace of God is displayed to me which the word grace means everything that is loving kindness the loving kindness of God displayed to me for my good it is a response of the individual and Paul says when I understood this grace he didn't say I half-hearted did anything he says like a wise master builder that is God's grace was so amazing God's grace was so sufficient God's grace was so overwhelming like a wise master builder I wanted to take the time to do it right I wanted to take the time to do it properly he says like scripture do all that you do as unto the Lord right I wanted to make sure that what I was doing was a direct reflection of the grace he had given and then Paul implies here by the way that this isn't just for a select few because he talks about laying this foundation
[16:37] I laid a foundation and another is building on it but here's this word but each man but each man must be careful how he builds for no other foundation has been laid which other than Jesus Christ the one true foundation but he starts referring to each man or each person that's each individual so the implication of Paul is that what Paul has done is going to be united to or joined with the labors and the efforts of other individuals that other people will come and they will respond to that grace and they will respond to the mercy and they will respond to the love by laboring for the kingdom in the building of the church friend the church is important I mean it's absolutely essential and the response of every individual is important this past year we went to a church retreat if you remember our church retreat our focus was on
[17:38] Ephesians 4 Ephesians 4 verse 16 was the key verse now I've told you what Ephesians 4 12 says because I understand Ephesians 4 12 it has direct application and implication for me God gave some to be pastors shepherds for the equipping of the saints for the building up of the body so my job description is really clearly displayed in Ephesians 4 12 but if you keep reading Ephesians 4 your job description is displayed there as well because in Ephesians 4 16 when we're talking about building up of the body in love it says that the body is built up by what every joint and every member supplies according to the proper working of every part that is every part responding as individuals and uniting as a body for the building up of the church it is the individual's response to the grace of God given which leads to the building of the church it's not programs it's not it's not this new showstopper stuff it's not lights and actions and all this other stuff it's not charisma it's not listen anything other than Jesus Christ as the foundation when anything else becomes a foundation when personalities are the foundation when performances are the foundation when programs are the foundation when when all these things anything other than that foundation of Jesus Christ you build on anything else it's going to crumble but the implication of scripture is that we are all building that we all respond and we see it's the response of the individual now if it's an individual response to the activity of God and building up of the church however that may be each one of us looks differently
[19:40] I'm not here to tell you what it is you should do I'm here to equip you to do it and if the spirit leads you and the Lord moves you then I want to empower you to do it according to the foundation of Christ with this understanding number two there's the day of inspection there's the day of inspection now he's speaking of the corporate body of the church the church is the building and we're building the building here as individuals responding to the grace of God given to us and then he tells us now if any man builds on the foundation with gold silver precious stones wood hay or straw now Paul reminds us here that it is quite possible in our efforts to labor in the kingdom in the building of the church it's not our name it's his name but it is possible that our efforts could be both beneficial and detrimental that is depending on what we're building with we are either doing something that will last or we're doing something that will pass on one of the grandest questions every pastor must ask and they actually one of the grandest questions that every church member must ask is what is it we're doing in the church that is lasting and what is it that is fading what are the silver gold and precious stones and what are the wood hay and straw we must ask ourselves because it is quite possible based upon our personal preferences again because God did not create robots he created individuals that respond to bring in our preferences and to try to lay on the foundation of Christ that which is temporary when we ought to be laboring for that which is eternal everything must have an eternal aspect to it that means sometimes and I know this is hard but sometimes then we must say well this isn't a lasting eternal impact maybe we should discontinue using this material and go to something that is more beneficial pastor said the word I hadn't said it yet but that's the word change right sometimes we have to look and inspect knowing that there will be this day of inspection because he tells us in verse 13 each man's work will become evidence now he doesn't tell us that the church that war trace baptist church is going to be called up there and it is a church body we're going to stand before him and as a church body we're going to give an account of how we built the church at war trace that's not what he tells us what he tells us is that each individual will stand before him and each individual's work according to how he labored in the building of the church will come for inspection so pastor you're putting a lot of importance on the church you're right I am it's the bride of Christ it's the bride of Christ this isn't dogmatic this is biblical because the last time I checked when we get to heaven the thing that we're invited to is a wedding supper and a wedding supper is held in honor of the bride it's the bride of Christ
[22:46] Jesus paid the price to redeem his bride Jesus declaration is that he would build a church it is a church universal but it's also a church manifested local I understand it but the laboring of the individual what we're going to be judged upon what's going to come before his inspection is our laboring for the church he said well pastor I've done a lot of good things I've done this this this and this and this I know a lot of people you know I understand that I remember in the book of Matthew there were some people who come and stood before Christ and they talked about all the good things they did have we not cast out demons in your name have we not healed the sick in your name have we not have we not have a night Jesus says depart from me for I never knew you we need to be careful here because what Paul says is that each man will give an account and an inspection and we will lay before him our laboring in the church how we built upon the church now I'm not saying this because I'm trying to make my job easy I'm not saying this because I'm saying this because I believe it's absolutely important honestly I think God called me to be a pastor because he I already had a passion for the local church I was already serving and laboring and not because I wanted to just because I felt like I am according to the grace of God giving me I needed to and and then out of that bore this this this fruit and then I read these articles now and I see it uh personally where they call it the pipeline of ministers or the pipeline of pastors is diminishing we don't have pastors coming out of our churches anymore we don't have pastors men aren't responding to the call of God to preach the gospel uh right now according to the Barna survey if any of you read the Baptist and Reflective you understand that that more pastors at any other time in history are least satisfied with their job than they've ever been more pastors at any other time of history have less of a conviction of their calling than they ever have by the way I don't fit into that category right there are more pastors now that have a less sense of calling than they did when they entered the ministry than ever before little little to none are coming out of our churches and I wonder if it hasn't become we've professionalized the ministry and we have forgot that it is the church that serves we've left the service and the work and the labor to the professionals and that's what we have you for as opposed as individuals going no there will be a day where I give a reckoning and an account for what
[25:17] I've done in the local church and then this burden this burning becomes and God begins to call and move people and we're seeing less people respond to the mission call we're seeing less people respond to the ministry call we're seeing less people respond to really any kind of calling because if you look at it and I'm not saying here I'm not picking on us here I'm just saying if you look at the church in America you have crowds packing seats and pews to watch a few do the ministry Warren Wearsby once said too often in America multitudes gather to sit in their seats to watch someone else do work and they call that the worship service when in reality it ought to be called the worship watching because worship service implies that we're doing something there will be a day where each individual stands and each man's work will become evident there will be a day and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will go before my Lord and Savior whose grace was in such great display to me and I will lay before him I don't have to lay it before him he'll actually probably bring it out and lay it before me and show me everything I've done in connection with the church and I'm just going to be honest with you there's a lot of things that I've done that are going to be consumed by fire because it will become evident that it was done for personal motives or it was done for temporary motives and it wasn't done for lasting things because I am a human being and I'm in flesh and whenever there's people there's problems then there hopefully and prayerfully there'll be those things which are gold silver and precious stones those things that will last but the reality is is there will be a day where I stand before my Lord and Savior whose great grace and mercy has been poured out upon me and paying the price for my sins and I will give an account to him for every effort I've ever done for the church but it's not just me because it says each man's work will become evident each just like I read in scripture each means each and every means every that those things will be put out before us and it will become evident there'll be a great day of inspection and the sad thing is is we don't get to choose well God that was I like that was good work and that was a good work and that was a good work no I'm afraid on that day we're silent and we're watching his inspection and he is going to be the one and then it tells us if any man's work which he has built on it remains he will receive a reward I told you it's nothing wrong with laboring for a reward in heaven then he says but if any man's work is burned up he will suffer loss but just in case you misunderstand this passage but he himself will be saved yet so as through fire we're not talking about salvation here okay this isn't a matter of salvation you're not laboring for the church to be saved that's a bad doctrine that church history has seen I'm not saying hey you need to do this so that you can be saved no I'm not saying that hey it's because you are saved this is the expectation of your savior because of the price he paid remember it's in response to his grace we're not talking about salvation you're not going to lose your salvation well if you don't ever do anything for the church you're going to lose your salvation no that's not it nothing at all because it says you will be saved but saved as through fire unfortunately what we're going to take with us is less rewards david jeremiah I remember he was he was preaching the uh series on the end times many years ago preached the book of revelations escape the coming night was the title of the series and I remember very instrumental I listened to it and he made this declaration in that this series because it says in the book of revelations that the saints will be closed in the righteous deeds the righteous deeds of the saints will be the cloaks that they wear david jeremiah made this this statement he said I'm afraid there's going to be a lot of saints running around naked because they don't have any righteous deeds to clothe them and I remember hearing that I went oh wow I love you and all but even in my glorified
[29:17] state I don't want you seeing me running around naked right I don't I ought to be sure I got enough to wear when I get there because we're riding horses too right that's a bad imagery you didn't expect to get when you came this morning right I'm just saying it's there I'm gonna be sure I got enough to wear righteous deeds of the saints it's important there's going to be a day of inspection now let's go number three we see the greatest of importance that it's upon it why is it so important why are we putting such a great emphasis on this why we talk about it so much why is it so important well the word of god tells us and it tells us again this is where I want to remind you it's talking about the corporate body not just the individual we'll get to the individuals later on in first corinthians but here we're talking about the corporate body verse 16 says do you not know now do you not know that you that word you is plural that means y'all do you not know that y'all or you are the temple of god so what he tells us here later on he'll tell us that the individual's body is the temple of god that god makes his abode in him but here we're talking about the corporate body do you not know that you are the temple of god this is the temple of god agent rogers put it this way in the old testament god created a temple for his people in the new testament he created a people that is his temple that you are the temple of god the church is the temple of god that is when you read the old testament and you see the reality of the temple in the tabernacle right and you see its holiness and its splendor and its glory and its majesty and the centrality that it had to the worship of the people and how you couldn't just go in there in any way you wanted to and you couldn't just do whatever you wanted to there and people were dying because they offered strange fire people were dying because they were somewhere they shouldn't have been we understand this this is the temple of god and then paul reminds us do you not know that that's what the church is the church is the temple of god and then he gives this warning if anyone destroys the temple now we want to make that application to the individual and we want we want to talk about someone takes their own life or something we'll get to that later on the implication by the way in first corinthians when he starts talking about the individual being the temple of god it starts talking about sexual defilement not physical defilement so we got to be careful here we're talking about destroying the temple which is the church so if anyone seeks to destroy the church through their labors or their lack of labors or their vain efforts because we're understanding the grandeur of the importance here it says god will destroy him you want to know why for centuries now people have tried to destroy the church and have never succeeded because this is the temple of god church and the church will endure god has a way of sustaining it and he makes the promise here you're the temple of god and if anyone seeks to destroy the temple god will destroy him hudson taylor went to the china inland missions he formed the china inland missions and he was there and when the great revolution revolution occurred and and hudson was so upset because they needed to pull out so many of their their missionaries and hudson himself had to leave and and they pulled all their missionaries out of china because there's this great war that was going on there and there's this battle and and hudson's heart was just broken and he kept saying to himself when we get back there's not going to be a church there's not going to be a church there's not going to be a church because we as the missionaries we were there and we had taken on their culture and we were we were living we're spreading the gospel we'll get back in the church it's not going to be there and it was the boxer rebellion if you read so much of it and the boxer rebellion was just tragic and so many christians died the reality is is after the boxer rebellion hudson taylor and china inland missionary society could come back they went back to china and what they found was the church was stronger than when they had left it there were more believers more people worshiping together and stronger than they'd ever been why because the church isn't dependent upon man to sustain it it's it's god's building man has a part in it but he's not responsible for it and those who tried to destroy the church were ultimately destroyed we see that and this is so important now i love this last phrase right in this verse here because in the very beginning of the book first corinthians paul reminds them they're saints by calling
[33:20] but now look at what it says you know all the problems of the church of corinth right you know we're going to get to some great problems but look at what it says verse 17 if any man destroys the temple of god god will destroy him now now follow the logic with me if you will for the temple of god is holy the temple of god is holy now look at this next phrase and that is what you are which means you're not only saints by calling but you're also holy by position why is it so important why is the church so important because it's holy so i i don't feel real holy the temple of god is holy and that is what you are holy totally dedicated and set apart for his service and his glory holy now i've got one more last thing and we're done the last and final thing those verses that seem so confusing remind us when we're building the church there's a response of the individual according to the grace given to me there's a day of inspection each man's work will become evident there's a greatness of importance because you are the temple of god but we're talking about here individuals right and the conflict that's going on in the church and how so many people try to attain a better position by based upon individuals and responses and all this but paul closes this section with this position of inheritance that is who you are by inheritance and while we understand our laboring for the building and laboring for the kingdom is of such great importance we're not trying to gain status we're not trying to gain status in society or in the world or even in the church based on the individuals we know now listen before i get into this i want you to understand i am greatly benefited by other saints right there's a lot i can gain informationally there's a lot i gain uh from from all these these people and i learn from a lot their writings and i've quoted several of them today uh their writings and their understandings and and i understand no man stands on his own right we're like those trees whose roots are all connected together to redwoods and we're we're we're we need one another to be built up we need the information other people get but i am not better because i know someone now i say that positionally in the kingdom not practically as a man because unfortunately what i've seen i've seen it in other pastors it would bring up stacks of books and and they wear these great banners and all this well i've read this this and this and this and this therefore i know so much more and they equate their advancement based upon an individual but look at what paul says we need to caution this here because look at what it says let no man deceive himself if anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age he must become foolish so he tells us that progression in the kingdom cannot be equated with progression in the world the world's wisdom does not build the church it does not build the church for the wisdom of the world's foolishness foolishness before god look what it says in verse 21 so then let no one boast in men now we can learn a lot from one another an iron sharpens iron we need to understand that but i'm not now i say this word i i'm a better person a better more studious things but i'm not better positionally because i know someone i'm not better positionally because i attend somewhere i'm not better positionally because i have this degree or don't have that degree i'm not better positionally because i have attended this or attended that and that's where we begin to get into separation in the church is because some of us feel like we're not fit to labor in the kingdom because we haven't attained this but look at what it says so let no one boast in men for all things belong to you we're talking about positional we're not talking about that we shouldn't study to show ourselves approved we're not saying that we shouldn't try to advance we're just talking about a positional a position we have in the kingdom all things belong to you whether paul or paulus or cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all things belong to you
[37:21] all things belong to you so positionally we already possess everything that we need now we need people to come beside us to help us understand what we already possess right positionally though we already possess it because look at what it says you belong to christ when you have christ you have everything you have everything this is your inheritance in christ therefore you are fully equipped to do the work in the kingdom you need people to come beside you i need people to come beside me to foster out what's already in there i've used the illustration before god gives us a normal body not if he gives us a normal body and we're blessed with that he has put in place everything that is needed for that body to function he has put in place everything that is needed we need to work out that which he has already put in place to see it thrive or we can let it degenerate we can let it falter from what he put in place and we'll see it suffer but he's already put it in place positionally in christ we have all that we ever need we need people to come beside us to help foster that and to grow that this is why we have iron sharpening iron forsake not the fellowshipping of one another the gathering of one another which is the church we ought to come beside one another so that what we have inherited positionally can become applied practically we have christ and christ is god's and since we have all we need in christ we are fit to labor in the kingdom for the building of the church and this is important because the more i serve in church the more satan tried to remind me that i wasn't fit to serve in the church he tried to tell me i didn't know enough i didn't understand enough i haven't done enough i didn't accomplish and the reality is is all that's true but then i reminded him christ called me christ has me and i have christ so in christ i have all i need if he's called me he'll equip me and if i don't mean to i need to do the work study to show myself approved but the end result is this if he's called me to do it then it's his responsibility that it comes about the mind he's given me needs to be exercised the body he's given me needs to be exercised all those things need to take place but positionally in christ i have all i need and i'm closing satan tries to convince us that we're inferior and not fit to be utilized in the building of the church christ tells you that in him you have everything you need so get to work because when christ has redeemed us and saved us he is all we need he is all we need let's pray lord i thank you for this day and i thank you for your word we pray that your word would resonate within our hearts and minds now as we come to a time of response that our response would be one of surrender lord realizing you can use each and every one of us for your glory different ways different purposes but to one end will we surrender to you say oh god use us as you see fit as tools in your hand and we ask it all in christ's name amen so so
[41:23] Thank you.
[42:19] Thank you.
[42:49] Thank you.