1. "A church that when faced with divisions and threats to its unity by God's power and grace is able to heal, a healing church. Grace, forgiveness, humility, self-sacrifice, meekness are the virtues of Jesus, and as those saved by his self-sacrificial death, they should be true of his followers as well, not mainly because his work was a good example for us, but because his work on the cross has remade us."

2. "If a church is built on Christ alone, not Christ plus a bunch of other secondary matters, then church will not be easy. For the glory of Christ, it will not be easy. And so, like the Hagia Sophia, it will sometimes need to heal."

3. "If the Spirit of the living God is in you, how dare you act as merely human? It's like you run a six-minute mile and you shell out a few hundred dollars for one of those carbon-infused super shoes, and then you still run a six-minute mile. God's grace transforms."

4. "If our actions are merely human, either we haven't actually been forgiven or, like these Corinthians, we've lost sight of what God has done for us."

5. "The fellowship that exists in a Christian church should not be explicable by the laws of human psychology."

6. "God gives the growth. And because God gives the growth, building a church on its human leaders robs God of his glory. In fact, building the church on any human factor robs God of glory because then its growth can be explained by something other than God."

7. "Seeking reward because you know the reward merely shows that you want the reward. Nothing more than that. But seeking reward because God says it's good, even though we don't really know what it is—well, that glorifies the generosity of the God who gives precisely because we don't know what the reward is."

8. "No matter the success of your job, no matter the success of your family, the role you play in building your church will prove to be a much more significant element of your life than I think most people think. Because God cares massively about his church."

9. "If you are a Christian, you are in the loving, all powerful hands of Jesus Christ, who as His Father's beloved Son possesses everything. And that means God works all things for your good. Which means that you, Christian, have the net effect of wealth unlimited."

10. "Why would we compete for status and praise if we are of Christ and Christ is of God? Why would we jealously compete for blessings if all circumstances are being turned toward blessing for those who love God? Like two little kids fighting over a Lego block in a sea of Lego bricks. How absurd!"

Observation Questions

1. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, how does Paul describe the Corinthians, and what specific behaviors does he identify as evidence that they are "people of the flesh"?

2. According to 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, what roles did Paul and Apollos play in the Corinthian church, and who does Paul say is ultimately responsible for the growth?

3. In 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, what foundation does Paul say he laid, and what warning does he give to those who build upon it?

4. What building materials does Paul contrast in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, and what will happen to each type of work on "the Day"?

5. According to 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, what does Paul call the Corinthian believers corporately, and what warning does he give to anyone who would destroy it?

6. In 1 Corinthians 3:21-23, what comprehensive list does Paul give of things that belong to believers, and what is the basis for this ownership?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does Paul consider the Corinthians' division over human leaders (Paul, Apollos, Cephas) to be evidence of spiritual immaturity rather than simply a difference of preference?

2. What does it mean that "God gave the growth" (v. 7), and how does this truth undermine the Corinthians' tendency to boast in human leaders?

3. Paul warns that some builders will "suffer loss" yet still be saved "as through fire" (v. 15), while those who "destroy God's temple" will themselves be destroyed (v. 17). What is the difference between these two groups, and why are the consequences so different?

4. How does Paul's declaration that "all things are yours" (vv. 21-23) serve as a remedy for the jealousy, strife, and faction-forming that he has been addressing throughout chapters 1-3?

5. The sermon emphasized that a church built on "Christ alone" will inevitably include people who disagree on secondary matters. How does this passage distinguish between unity that honors Christ and a false unity that avoids all disagreement?

Application Questions

1. Paul identifies jealousy and strife as signs of fleshly, "merely human" behavior in the church. What specific relationships or situations in your own church involvement might be marked by jealousy or competition, and what would it look like to respond differently this week?

2. The sermon warned against gossip, slander, and judging others' motives as ways we unintentionally tear the church apart. When you have a concern about someone in the church, what concrete steps can you take to address it in a "humble, self-reflective, grace-filled way" rather than a condemning way?

3. Paul says that on judgment day, fire will reveal whether our contributions to the church were gold or straw. How does this future accountability shape the way you prioritize your involvement in your local church compared to your career, hobbies, or other pursuits?

4. The sermon described a "scarcity mindset" as a root cause of church conflict—believing there aren't enough resources, attention, or affirmation to go around. In what area of your life or church involvement are you most tempted to operate from scarcity, and how does the truth that "all things are yours" in Christ challenge that mindset?

5. If someone observing your life were to assess whether the gospel has real power based on how you handle disagreements and differences with other believers, what would they conclude? What is one specific change you could make in how you relate to a fellow church member with whom you disagree?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Romans 8:28-39 — This passage expands on Paul's declaration that "all things are yours," showing how God works all things for the good of those in Christ and that nothing can separate believers from His love.

2. Ephesians 4:1-16 — Paul describes how the unity of the church is to be maintained through humility, gentleness, and patience, with diverse gifts working together to build up the body of Christ.

3. 1 Peter 2:4-10 — Peter uses the same temple imagery to describe believers as living stones being built into a spiritual house, reinforcing the corporate identity of God's people as His dwelling place.

4. 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 — Paul teaches that all believers will appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive what is due for what they have done, connecting to the theme of eternal reward and accountability.

5. Philippians 2:1-11 — This passage calls believers to humility and unity by imitating Christ's self-sacrificial mindset, providing the theological foundation for the virtues the sermon identified as essential for a healing church.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Self-Healing Church: Introduction Through the Hagia Sophia Analogy

II. Red Light: Stop Tearing the Church Apart (1 Corinthians 3:1-9)

III. Yellow Light: Be Careful How You Build the Church (1 Corinthians 3:10-17)

IV. Green Light: Go in the Power of God's Abundance (1 Corinthians 3:18-23)

V. The Call to Trust in Christ and Live from Abundance

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Like many of you, I'm sure, I worked a variety of odd jobs as a teenager. I shoveled manure, smelly work. Washed windows in a Chicago winter, cold work. Did quality control in an automotive factory, noisy work. But my favorite job came at age 19, changing printer paper.

Exhilarating work, because those printers were attached to seismographs. And the seismographs were located in the arched windows that support the great circular dome of the Ayasofya in Istanbul, which must be one of the greatest cathedrals ever built, or the Ayasofya, as what is now a mosque, is called in Turkish. The seismographs were there because the team I was working for was studying something remarkable. Istanbul is one of the world's most earthquake-prone cities, and yet, since the year 562, the Hagia Sophia's massive dome has never collapsed. It remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly 1,000 years and still features one of the largest masonry domes ever built despite centuries of earthquakes.

The original shaken, not stirred.

How is that possible? Well, the secret lies in the concrete, which contains a special cement from a Mediterranean island so that even after 1,500 years, that cement has never fully set, which means that during an earthquake and cracks and fissures open up, they remain only until the next rainfall, when the water seeps in and the cement sets, and the structure heals itself. That's a key image for today. A church that when faced with divisions and threats to its unity by God's power and grace is able to heal, a healing church. Grace, forgiveness, humility, self-sacrifice, meekness are the virtues of Jesus, and as those saved by his self-sacrificial death, They should be true of his followers as well, not mainly because his work was a good example for us, but because his work on the cross has remade us.

So churches should be able to heal. And just like the self-healing ability of the X-Man, Wolverine speaks of a superpower within a New Testament church's ability to heal testifies to the transformative power of God's grace. But of course, that's easier said than done, isn't it? Depravity, differences, disagreements can so often lead to disillusionment, distance, and division. But when we allow that to happen, all it does is to confirm Satan's narrative.

Nothing special here, folks. Christians are just like everyone else. The gospel is a nice, inspiring story, but it has no real power. That's why when faced with threats to our unity, a church must be able to heal, to prove out Scripture's claim that Christ is in fact stronger than family, than ideology, than status.

Now you could opt for an easy church where you have complete agreement on the gospel and politics and money and parenting and where you get rid of all the obnoxious people, I suppose while you're at it, all the sinners as well. Well, clearly that's not gonna work. If a church is built on Christ alone, not Christ plus a bunch of other secondary matters, then church will not be easy. For the glory of Christ, it will not be easy. And so, like the Agia Sophia, it will sometimes need to heal.

So how do we navigate life at church amidst all of our differences and disagreements, knowing that we're sinners? That's what brings us this morning to 1 Corinthians Chapter 3, which you'll find on page 969 of your Pew Bibles. And just like a traffic light guides us through DC streets, it's also how we're gonna navigate our sermon text this morning, because in this chapter, Paul guides us in three ways. First, verses 1 to 9 is his red light. Stop tearing the church apart.

Then, verses 10 to 17 is his yellow light. Caution. Be careful how you build the church.

And finally, verses 18 to 23, the green light, Go in the power of God's abundance. I know some of you take notes in multiple colors. Caleb, I saw those three pens on your Bible earlier. This is your day. Red, yellow, green.

Red light, verses 1 to 9, yellow, 10 to 17, green light, verses 18 to 23. And you'll notice as we go along that Paul's tone matches his content. In each of these sections. Scolding in our first point, sobering in our second, and when we get to the green light, some of the most stirring language in all of Scripture. Before we get in, let me just offer a word to those here who are not Christians.

I hope you feel welcome here. We want you to be here. But just a note for you about this text. Most texts in the Bible are not as church focused as this one is, which means this sermon is gonna be very church focused. So you're kind of listening in on our family meeting as we discuss our family business together.

That doesn't mean this sermon isn't for you, though. Here's how I want you to think about it. The church is the effect on the world of the resurrected Christ, the ripples from a big splash 2,000 years ago, which means that part of evaluating Christ is evaluating his church. And it's just like every scientist has to clean up their data, you've got to distinguish, as you do that, false churches, and broken churches from the real thing. So my prayer is as we look at what the Bible says about what a church should be, that will help you evaluate the real thing as you consider the church, which will help you better understand Jesus Christ.

So how do we navigate life in the church? First, at the top of Paul's traffic light, the red light, stop tearing the church apart. Let me set the stage. Paul wrote this letter to the first century church in Corinth, a city in modern day Greece, because of a letter full of questions they'd sent to him and because of some concerning reports he received about them. And the first concerning report he addresses, which is the topic for this entire sermon series, is that the church was divided, with some of them following Paul, some following Apollo, some Peter, who's referred to here by his Greek name, Cephas.

Division is the surface problem, but in chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, Paul identifies a deeper problem, that they're thinking and acting in worldly ways according to so-called worldly wisdom. But Paul says the message of the cross, which glories in weakness, opposes the wisdom of this world that fancies its strength. So instead of competing based on the strength of their so-called wisdom, the Corinthians need to embrace the weakness of the cross, which is true wisdom. And at the end of chapter 2, Paul distinguishes Christians who have the Spirit, whom he calls spiritual people, from those without the Spirit, whom he calls natural people. And we see in chapter 2 verse 12 that he considers the Corinthians to be spiritual people.

But now in chapter 3, he's telling the Corinthians that though they are spiritual, They're not acting like it. So he coins a new term, people of the flesh, those who are spiritual but aren't acting like it. I'll read starting in verse 1.

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh.

For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

So we have real Christians who are nonetheless acting like the world, and Paul scolds them for that. You think you're so mature? You're mere infants, Paul says. People of the flesh. I had to feed you with milk, not solid food.

What I think is best understood is the manner of his teaching, not its substance, given the deep materials that we see revealed that he taught them as we read through this letter. I wonder where you are less mature than you think. That would be a good cleansing, humbling question to ask a fellow member of this church this week. Sometimes, like the Corinthians, the parts of our lives that we're most proud of hide our deepest immaturities. And speaking to the elders of this church, know Paul's strategy here?

When he was in Corinth before he wrote this letter, he would have loved to feed them with solid food rather than milk, but he loved the congregation God gave him, not the one he'd hoped for.

Just like Paul tells elders in 1 Timothy 3, we are to be gentle in leading this church. So just because you are a Christian doesn't mean you're always gonna act like one. That's why Paul tells us in Philippians 2:12 to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you. Work out what God has worked into you, which takes work, like retraining your arm after your cast comes off, You can move as you need to, you couldn't before, but it doesn't feel natural yet. It takes some work to figure that out.

Same with the Christian life. And what is it that these immature Christians who thought they were mature were doing? They were tearing the church apart by forming factions. And Paul's rebuke is so striking. Verse 4, For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human?

Or verse three, Behaving only in a human way. If the Spirit of the living God is in you, how dare you act as merely human? Right? It's like you run a six-minute mile and you shell out a few hundred dollars for one of those sets of carbon-infused super shoes, and then you still run a six-minute mile. God's grace transforms.

As Jesus says in Luke 7:47, which you can remember as the jumbo jet of the New Testament, if you have received a forgiveness that is humanly impossible, that will power a love that is humanly impossible. Which means that if our actions are merely human, either we haven't actually been forgiven or, like these Corinthians, we've lost sight of what God has done for us.

So, Claudia, I was reading an old email that Bill sent me this week about his first visit to our church. For those of you who don't know, Claudia's late husband, Bill, was one of the world's experts on groupthink with a full career at Harvard University as a professor of psychology before he came to faith. And here's the email I read, Claudia. I remember well the first time I entered CHBC. It was on Good Friday, I think, in 2003.

I was struck, Bill wrote, with the genuineness of the diverse Christian fellowship. The relationships seemed not so much unnatural as they were highly uncommon in my experience. So I was introduced to the idea of a healthy church, a concept that had before eluded me.

You see, Bill understood more than almost anyone else how humans function in groups.

And yet here he saw something that was more than merely human, and he didn't attribute that to some singular quality of the Capitol Hill Baptist Church, but to simply the fact that this was a healthy church, and that provoked him. He told me later as a professional, he wondered what it was that was going on here that seemed to defy so much of what he had studied, and that was the beginning of his journey to faith. And Claudius as you well know, to a life that was beautifully so much more than merely human, especially in the kind of friendships that he had here. The fellowship that exists in a Christian church should not be explicable by the laws of human psychology.

That's the positive view. Paul, of course, has the negative in mind, and in particular Christians who follow the well-worn human path of division. Division is not always the wrong path to take. Paul scolds them here for wrongly divided, but in just two chapters, he'll actually scold them again for wrongly uniting. In that case, keeping fellowship with a man who was in gross sexual sin who nonetheless called himself a Christian.

We also need to aim for the right kind of unity, the right kind of division over gospel matters. And Paul is clear, this is anything but that. You see, centering the church on its human leaders suggests that those leaders are the reason for its success rather than God. We as a church can certainly be guilty in the same way, lining up behind human leaders rather than behind Scripture.

Mark Dever is going to retire someday. I don't know when. And when he does, I hope there's not a hint in this congregation of, But Mark wouldn't have done it that way. That's a lazy way to do church. If Mark Dever's ministry has done anything for us, it has been to teach us to look to the Scriptures rather than to him.

That's a very specific application of what Paul has here. More generally, though, we should be watching out for three ways that we can tear a church apart. Gossip, slander, judging. All three wrongly divide a church. None of them intend to normally.

There's gossip, putting others down by saying true things about them. Slander, putting others down by saying false things about them. Judging, putting others down in your own mind by assuming bad motives from them. Something we're going to hear a lot more about in 1 Corinthians 4. Rarely do we intend to tear the church apart when we do these things, but that's what what they do.

Now, we should not confuse avoidance of these sins with silence. Problems in the church need to be talked about, but in a humble, self-reflective, grace-filled way, not a condemning way, even in our own hearts. But that caveat in place, we must be on our guard against those things because God loves the church, and God grows his church. Which is what we see in verse seven. Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth.

It's God who gives the growth in a church, which means that building a church on its human leaders robs God of his glory. In fact, building the church on any human factor robs God of glory because then its growth can be explained by something other than God.

So if you want a church that's about Jesus and MAGA politics, or anti-MAGA politics for that matter, then you rob God of glory. If you want a church that's about Jesus and Christian schooling, you rob him of glory. If you want a church that's about Jesus and a particularly musical vibe, you rob him of glory. If you want a church that's about Jesus and the CHBC way of doing things, you rob him of glory. Which means that just as God gets greater glory through redemption than through creation alone, the glory he receives in a church's unity is greater in disagreement and difference than if everyone were on the same page to begin with.

God gives the growth. And because God gives the growth, Paul can be wonderfully ambivalent about which leaders get credits. Verse 8, He who plants and he who waters are one. That's a great example for us of what you might call a small C Catholicity, a much greater concern for gospel growth than for whose church it happens in or under whose leadership it takes place. That's why in our pastoral prayers we very often pray for other churches and specifically for other churches that do not share our philosophy of ministry or our Baptist polity.

Well, I don't think the differences between, say, Presbyterian and Baptist churches don't matter. I think that they are wrong. And yet, I also understand that we serve a big God who does amazing things despite both my errors and theirs, so I want to be just as thrilled for conversions at Grace DC as I am for conversions here at CHBC. So Paul's red light says, stop. Stop tearing the church apart like the world tears itself apart.

Stop being merely human instead. Act like those who have God's Spirit who care far more about God's reputation in the church than their own legacies, leadership, or preferences.

That does not mean that all human leaders are the same. End of verse 8, each will receive his wages according to his labor. What does that mean? Well, that brings us to our next section of this chapter in Paul's yellow light, the caution light, Be careful how you build the church. Where Paul shifts from an agricultural analogy, the one of the field, to one of construction, the building, in particular, building a temple.

Verse 10, According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

The metaphor here is building a church. Not a church building, but the church itself. Verse 17 says, you, are that temple. A church is made of people, not bricks, stone, or steel. And for this church in Corinth, it was Paul who laid the foundation.

That is, he was the one who first proclaimed to them the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's now left, and other teachers have taken his place, building on that foundation. So verse 10, Let each one take care how he builds upon it. Implicit is Paul's concern that this building project is not going well because those who have come after him are building jealousy and strife back in verse 3 rather than unity.

Paul says it's not possible in verse 11 to have a foundation other than Jesus Christ. That's simply because if something else is the foundation, you have something other than a church. But he says it is possible to start with the right foundation and yet build something inconsistent with it. So Paul's saying, look, your church began built on Christ alone. As he said in the beginning of chapter 2, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Now, he says in chapter 3, Keep it that way. Build in keeping with that foundation. Build on Christ alone. I think an important implication of that for our church is a simple recognition that church will often not be safe harbor from the controversies that swirl through society. There are certainly some debates that won't find their way in, so we're not having the transgender debate at CHBC because the Bible clearly falls on one side.

Gender is a good gift of God. That we neither choose nor change. But there are so many debates in our society that Christians can disagree on that will find their way into this church. Is it prudent to deploy the National Guard right now in Washington, D.C.? What is the most appropriate way to regulate our nation's borders?

If a church is built on Christ alone, not Christ and agreement on those secondary matters, then debates that swirl through society can and will find their way into a church. I certainly pray that as those filled with God's Spirit, those debates are gonna look different in the church than in the world, but the very existence of disagreements and differences in the church is not necessarily a sign that things have gone wrong. Often, in fact, it's a sign that things have gone gloriously right. That we have, in fact, insisted on a church built on the foundation of Christ alone rather than Christ plus a whole bunch of other secondary matters.

But there's a problem that Paul points to, and that is that a failure to build on Christ alone isn't something we can always see right away. In fact, we might not be able to see it for a very long time. Thus his warning of caution in verse 10, thus his testing in verses 12 to 14.

Those being tested here are primarily church leaders, but these verses, of course, are written to the Corinthian congregation because, well, they are the ones responsible for having those leaders, as 2 Timothy 4 makes clear, and because they are the ones living out those leaders' teaching. So if you're a leader in a church, these verses have you squarely in mind, though to some extent, I think all of us are in view. So what's the nature of this testing Paul is describing? Testing to figure out what was real at that church was built. Well, in Paul's analogy here, it's a temple being built, verse 17, and a temple should be built from things like gold, silver, and precious stones, not wood, hay, or straw.

So in the analogy, gold, silver, and precious stones are those aspects of a church in keeping with its foundation of Christ alone. Wood, hay, and straw is what's not. And someday, verses 13 and 14, the day of judgment will make clear what a church was really made of. I grew up in Chicago where the old water tower is famous because being built of stone, it was one of the only structures that survived the great Chicago fire. Same idea here where on that last day God's fire of judgment runs through his churches to reveal what was built on the foundation of Christ alone and what was really a cult of a personality, a social club, a triumph of consumer insight to legacy of a generous endowment, distinguishing all that from what was really built on Christ.

And Paul says there will be real eternal consequences from that testing. Not that someone's salvation is at stake. The end of verse 15 makes that clear. But the careless builder of God's church, the beginning of the verse 15 says, will suffer loss.

So, builder, beware.

These verses have at times been used to defend the false doctrine of purgatory, that after death we enter years or centuries of torment to burn away our sin. I just want to note that the fire is a fire of testing, verse 13, not of purging. It's not purgatory that Paul has in mind here. Yet for the one whose work survives, Paul says, who really did build with gold, silver, and precious stones, there will be a end of verse 14.

So what do we make of reward and loss for those who are saved? I remember running across these verses when I was 21 years old, and I spent six months meeting with another member of this church over in Hunan King, which is now Sand Fan, to figure out what does the Bible say about eternal reward for those who are Christians? Well, since it's one of the Scripture's most detailed passages about that concept, let me just offer you six thoughts. Number one, no condemnation. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:1, praise God.

That is the big message of the gospel. Because Jesus has paid for our sin, there's no condemnation. And that is much bigger news than anything the Bible says about eternal rewards.

Number two, we will be judged. No condemnation is the main story for the Christian, but there is an equally true side story that on the last day, we Christians will be judged like we see here. Hebrews 4:13 talks about that. No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Number three, our good works can please God for those who are in Christ.

Though in this life sin taints everything we do, our acts of faithfulness can please God because he receives them in his Son, Jesus Christ. Think of 1 Peter 2:5, which says, We offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Number four, God will reward. He will reward our acts of faithfulness, big or small. Hebrews 6:10 says, God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name.

Number five, rewards are an act of grace, not merit.

Luke 17:10, Jesus says, See you also when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty.' And number six, Scripture says almost nothing about the nature of those rewards, which I think is so crucial. There are some Christians who feel almost dirty doing things for eternal reward. Right? Shouldn't I just do it happily because God tells me to?

Why do I need a reward? Yet as you read through the New Testament, you discover that working for reward is not optional. Hebrews 11:6 includes it as part of faith itself. Without faith, it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

So how can it be said that we seek heavenly reward out of love and not as some kind of spiritual mercenaries?

Precisely because we don't know what the rewards are. When my kids were little, I would sometimes come up from behind them and say, Open your mouth and close your eyes and I will give you a big surprise. And sometimes they would whirl around, open my hand to see what it was, and then decide if they wanted it.

But sometimes they did exactly what I invited: eyes closed, mouth open, trusting that whatever Dad had for them was going to be delicious.

Seeking reward because you know the reward merely shows that you want the reward. Nothing more than that. But seeking reward because God says it's good, even though We don't really know what it is. Well, that glorifies the generosity of the God who gives precisely because we don't know what the reward is. I find it interesting that the Quran, even more the Hadith, unlike the Bible, gives lots of details about what you get when you get to heaven.

So is it good to seek God's heavenly rewards? You bet it is, because he is so good, so generous, you know that whatever he has for you is worth whatever Whatever you give up to receive it, no matter how vague he might be this side of heaven and what that reward really is, and that faith-filled eagerness is what glorifies his goodness.

So parents, are you modeling for your kids what it looks like to live for your reward? Do you talk about heavenly rewards? Are you clearly eager for them? What a special service to your children to live that way. And kids who are here.

This world is gonna dangle all kinds of shiny rewards in front of your eyes over the next years and decades, and it is so easy to treat them as better than Jesus or to think that you can pursue them and pursue Jesus all at the same time. So I just want you to resolve today that you will pursue Jesus above all and ask your parents how they seek to do that. Well, all that was a digression, though I trust a useful one. What's in view here isn't rewards generally, but quite specifically for how we build the church. And in particular, evaluating the church not with metrics of quantity, but quality, not size, but health.

Since Paul, I do think, is speaking mainly to church leaders in these verses, let me just draw out some implications for the elders of this church.

So, my brother elders, this passage should drive us to desperate prayer. You and I will one day be called to give account for how we have led this church. And on that day, we will see what we have built. Is it substance? How much of it is vapor?

No, Paul says in verse 13 that that day would disclose the real value of what we've built. Not some insight you have three years from now, that day. That doesn't mean we can't learn from our mistakes, but when it comes to building a church, like building a marriage or parenting a child, it often takes decades to see the fruit of our labor, whether it's good or bad, which means in a very real sense, you only get to do this once.

Does that not drive you to prayer? What's more, all the good momentum that this church has can dull our vigilance. The danger is thinking that because we have been healthy, we must be healthy, and we will always be healthy. But my brothers, this church's trajectory can only take you so far. Our lineage of faithful pastors can only take you so far.

The only reliable path to building a temple of God of gold, silver, and precious of the stones is to continually reevaluate what we are building against God's perfect word. That is the path of humility, not pride, of Scripture, not human wisdom, and very often of sacrifice, not commendation. And yet that is the path to the rewards we long to hear in our Master's voice, the words we long to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant.

Because my friends, the church, even this church, is of great importance to the one who made us and who will judge us. We see that here in verses 16 and 17 where Paul turns from addressing the pulpit to addressing the pew. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are Guard that temple.

In the Old Covenant, the temple was a particular building in a particular place. But Jesus fulfilled all that the temple pointed to. As he says in Matthew 12:6 of himself, I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And so Paul tells us the temple today is the church. He gives us corporate language, not individual language.

And there's an escalation here. Right, verse 15, we see that careless workmen will be saved though they suffer loss. But those who destroy God's church, verse 17, these are harrowing words. God will destroy them.

Do you hear God's passion for his church in these verses? My friends, the church is the heartbeat of heaven and God cares tremendously what happens to it. Right, the local church is the centerpiece of his grand plan to make his name known to all nations under heaven. Acts chapter 20 says that God bought the church with his own blood. This is the object of his affection, of his protection.

This is the object of his jealous love.

Imagine you get an anonymous email tomorrow that says, I will destroy you. That would be very disturbing. How much more disturbing if it wasn't anonymous but came from someone you knew actually had the ability to do that.

But here these words come from the judge of all the earth. If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. Words of comfort to God's people, but also words of warning. So Paul's yellow light is flashing here. Be careful, he says, when you deal with God's church, you deal with his heart.

This is no trivial matter. That means that God's church is not ultimately about you or me, it's about God. And that affects how we construct our lives.

Lots of jobs represented in this church, lots of ways that we spend our days, changing diapers, healing patients, writing laws, fighting wars.

All those callings can have eternal significance as we steward God's gifts to bring him glory by loving our neighbors. But no matter the success of your job, no matter the success of your family, the role you play in building your church will prove to be a much more significant element of your life than I think most people think. Because God cares massively about his church. Sometimes we optimize our lives for our jobs and our families and we give the church whatever left over. That is so backwards.

So when you consider where to live, what job to hold, how to educate your children, what activities they'll be involved in, how you vacation, what your financial goals are, whether and how you're going to retire, a life centered on the local church is substantially more likely to be lived strategically in God's sight than a life where the church languishes somewhere on the periphery.

But of course, the Corinthians aren't putting church first, are they? They're destroying it by forming factions around these various teachers, which is why Paul writes so sternly. And yet it seems that even after all that he's written, Paul is still concerned they're just not going to get it. They might still miss his point, which leads to the bottom of the traffic light, the green light, Go in the power of God's abundance. Verses 18 to 23.

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, He catches the wise in their craftiness, and again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

I promised you an encouraging tone. Paul's going to get to that, but verse 18 still begins with warning. Let no one deceive himself, which he says precisely because he fears the Corinthians are deceiving themselves. They think that they're wise, but they are merely wise according to the wisdom of this age, verse 18, of this world, verse 19, revisiting language from chapters 1 and 2. And in that so-called wisdom, they are dividing the church.

So, Paul says, abandon that wisdom. For the foolishness of a crucified Savior. Because he says, the wisdom of the world is gonna get you nowhere good. It is folly before God, verse 19, which carries a sense of being judged before God as folly one day. So quite suitably, Paul cites two verses, Psalm 94 and Job 5, where we're told that God will one day expose the wisdom of this world for the foolishness it really is.

As regards the particular worldly wisdom that Corinthians had soaked up, Paul's next sermon, I think, summarizes everything he's been saying since chapter 1. So let no one boast in men. That's his main point all through these early chapters of 1 Corinthians.

Why? Well, Paul's been quite scolded in his tone so far, but here's where his rhetoric becomes very stirring. All these teachers, he says, are yours. Why pit them against each other? Paul, Apollos, Cephas, they're all yours.

In fact, the whole world is yours. It's yours as long as you live and even when you die, it's all yours. And what's more, all this is not just true today, it's true forever. The present or the future, all are yours. Why?

Verse 23, because you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. As Jesus said in John 16, All that belongs to the Father is mine. For those who by faith are in union with Christ, all that belongs to him belongs to us, which means this is all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. He is the bridge who stands between us and God, bearing God's wrath but then sharing the wealth of the divine with us?

That's amazing! What a savior!

But maybe you're not quite pulled in by Paul's rhetoric. You're thinking, All things are mine? Really? Is that hyperbole? What is he talking about?

I can think of plenty of things that don't belong to me. Whole countries that seek to exclude Christians. All things are yours? Let me help with an analogy. Why does wealth matter?

It matters because it turns circumstances to your favor. Your circumstances leave you hungry, you use wealth to buy a sandwich. Bored, you buy a movie. Restless, you buy a bus ticket. Anxious, you save money away.

So apply that concept to this verse. If you are a Christian, you are in the loving, all powerful hands of Jesus Christ, who is His Father's beloved Son, possesses everything. And that means, Romans 8:28, that because of Christ, God works all things for your good. Which means that you, Christian, have the net effect of wealth unlimited. Your circumstances obey the one who loves you in ways even a vast fortune could never deliver.

In the hands of your loving Father, the abundance of heaven bows in service to your eternal good. The so-called prosperity gospel is but an imitation of this great truth. It promises temporal wealth, passing wealth, decaying wealth for faithfulness.

What do you call it when you give a child all the material blessings they desire without any concern for what that does to their character?

You call that spoiling a child. That is the God of the prosperity gospel. But my friends, the God of the Bible is far better than that because the Bible promises eternal wealth. It promises spiritual blessing. And no matter how much or little you have at the bank, that is the wealth of every true Christian.

Wealth that will never diminish, never disappoint, and never fade away.

But all this is promised only for those who are in Christ, those whose sins have been forgiven at the cross. Maybe you're here and that's not you. You're here of someone who doesn't have a faith or a different faith, or you've grown up in the home of Christian parents but aren't a Christian yourself. To which I just want to say, you do not need to leave this room in that same state eternally.

Why would you go another day without taking hold of what Christ promises you here? We've all sinned. That's the Bible's diagnosis of our problems. We've sinned and our sin has earned the wrath of our good God. And yet that same goodness of God that shows as wrath also shows as mercy.

And in his mercy, God sent his beloved son, Jesus, God became man to die the death that you and I deserve so that we might walk free from the penalty that we deserved. God raised him from the dead as proof of the transaction. So how can you be forgiven of your sins? How can these amazing promises at the end of 1 Corinthians 3 apply to you? Today, you trust in Jesus along two very important dimensions.

You trust him to save you, recognizing that none of your good deeds can make you a person who is good enough and you trust him with your life. Repent of your sin, follow him, learn what it means to live in his abundance. If you want to think more about that, I'd love to talk to you. I'll be at that door right after the service.

And what do all these promises have to do with division?

Well, when things in the Dunlop family are getting rocky, Joan and I often realize we're operating in what we might call a scarcity mindset. They believe there aren't enough resources to go around. Things are kind of crazy, better look out for myself, which affects how we relate to each other, even to the kids, exit patience, exit grace. Well, consider how many problems in a church come from a scarcity mindset. Certainly problems of jealousy and strife that Paul mentioned by name back in verse 3.

Competing for status like we saw in verse 1 again, scarcity mindset. Pop psychology has tricks and tips for getting out of a scarcity mindset that can sometimes be helpful. But we just see that here, when it comes to the church, God completely lays waste to the scarcity mindset.

Right, why would we compete for status and praise if we are of Christ and Christ is of God? Why would we jealously compete for blessings if all circumstances are being turned toward blessing for those who love God? Like two little kids fighting over a Lego block and a sea of Lego bricks. How absurd! Thus Paul sees the Corinthians' problems, how absurd!

Thus I'm sure we should see our own problems.

How absurd.

So when you run into problems or difficulty at church, I just want you to ask yourself, are you approaching this from the perspective of scarcity? Scarcity of budget dollars, scarcity of time, scarcity of attention, scarcity of affirmation? A scarcity mindset hardly fits us who identify as recipients of divine grace. Instead, we need to view difficulty at church from the perspective of the other abundance that we have in Christ. It's good and right to seek to correct the problems we have in a church.

Because there are problems in church, in every church, there are certainly problems in this church that need correcting, but not with the heat and intensity that a scarcity mindset brings. Because as Paul says, all things are yours, the world, Life, death, the present, the future, all are yours and you are Christ and Christ is God's what abundance, what security.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Psalm 24 tells us and our heavenly Father has promised to use all that he has made for our good. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly, Jesus says in John 10, and he has given us that life at the cost of his life. The last enemy, 1 Corinthians 15 says, is death, and it has been destroyed so that for the Christian it is merely the gatekeeper to heaven beckoning us on to life eternal. In neither things present nor things to come, Paul writes in Romans 8:38, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Lord, all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's forever and ever and ever, amen. So Capitol Hill Baptist Church, when we are faced with threats to our unity, how can we be a church that heals?

Was those transformed by grace, we can stop tearing the church apart.

We can heed Paul's yellow light, being careful how we build the church, being careful and insistent to build on that foundation of Christ alone. And as we build, we can do so with the joyful exuberance and hope and generosity of those who have been given everything we could ever imagine in Christ. Let's pray.

Oh, Father, we came into this life as sinners.

We have each in ways big and small sought to build our own kingdoms instead of Yours. We have heaped defamation on youn. We have encouraged youd wrath. And yet in youn mercy youe have not only paid for our sins. You have not only offered us forgiveness.

You have not only offered us relationship with youh, but Father you have offered us this wealth eternal because of youf love for us. Oh Father may that truth transform who we are, transform what we want, transform what we love, transform how we live. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.