This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day two of our look through 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
Yesterday remember we started looking at what do we do in this chapter, what do
we do when Christians don't act Christian? And the first thing we do is we
realize that we can choose to act like babies in our faith.

So when Christians don't act Christian it's a challenge to me to grow, to not
act like that and also to encourage them to grow. That's the first thing you do.
As you continue to read through this chapter here's the second thing you do.

The number two thing you do is you remember that we are a church. When it feels
like hey the people around me aren't acting like Jesus you remember we're in
this together. You don't separate yourself from others and try to say well
they're like this.

You remember that we're in this together we are a church. Instead of looking at
ourselves as individual parts of what God is doing you look at the whole of what
God is trying to do in our lives together as his church. That's one of the keys
to growing to be more and more like him.

As you look through 1 Corinthians chapter 3 there are awesome principles in this
chapter for growing any church. Remember Jesus said in Matthew 16, 18 that he
would build his church. That's the importance of the church.

The church isn't my idea or your idea or some denominations idea or somebody a
thousand years ago's idea. It's Jesus's idea. It's his church.

That's why it's so important. And Jesus said I will build my church. Building is
his purpose in his church and this chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 3 is one of
the great chapters on building the church in all the Bible.

As you look through this chapter it talks about three specific things in regard
to building the church. And when you're frustrated with other believers, when
you're feeling like it's not working as well as I want in my life, you pour
yourself back into Jesus's model, Jesus's direction, the church. He began to
build what he said he wanted to build.

He wants to build his church. And in building the church you've got to remember
three things that Paul talks about in this chapter. You've got to remember that
God causes the growth, you have to remember that we are partners in the growth,
and you have to remember there is only one foundation for growth, those three
things.

Number one, God causes the growth. In verses 6-8 Paul writes, "I planted the
seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. " So neither he who plants nor
he who waters is anything, but only God who makes all things grow.

The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose and each will be
rewarded according to his own labor. If there's anything in us that thinks that
we can cause the church of God to grow, we've totally missed the point. Now we
get to be involved, we'll talk about that in just a minute.

We get to plant and water, but God is the one who causes the growth. If we think
that we cause the growth, we become prideful. And if we become prideful, we
become divided.

Pride always divides us. It compares us and divides us. But when we recognize
it's God who's causing the growth, individually, in our lives, in the church,
and also corporately together as the church reaches out into the community and
more and more people come to Christ, then all of a sudden it's not a matter of
pride, it's a matter of we get to be in on what God's doing together.

And there's something about that. When Christians don't act Christian, you pour
yourself back into what God's doing and what God's doing is his church. There's
something about that that reinvigorates you for the things of God.

You see, it can be very discouraging when believers don't act like believers. It
can discourage your faith. And one of the keys to making sure that faith does
not get discouraged is pouring yourself into the things that Jesus said he
wanted to do in this world.

And he said, "I will build my church. " To build the church, you recognize,
number one, God causes the growth. To build the church, you recognize, number
two, that we're partners together in the growth.

In verse 9, Paul says it this way, "For we are God's fellow workers, you are
God's field, God's building. " I think all of us want to be part of something
significant. For those of you that are into sports, if you ever played a
baseball game, something in you wants to be part of a World Series someday, you
would have loved to play in the World Series.

If you ever played a football game, something in you wanted to play in the Super
Bowl someday. If you're a business guy, you've ever been a part of a startup,
you want to be one of those startups that just takes off and is one of the stars
of Wall Street. Why?

Because we want to be a part of something significant. Well, I want to remind
you that in the church, we are partners. We are partners in the greatest cause
in this world.

The Greek word for fellowship, koinonia, is often translated in the New
Testament, partnership. We are partners. And Paul says here, "We are God's
fellow workers.

" Now, working with the Corinthians, he said, "You're God's field, you're God's
building, you're where the work is happening, but we get to work together in
this. We are partners together in what God is doing. " And so when somebody
struggles as a believer, I can't just leave them away from me, push them away
from me.

I realize we are partners together in what God is doing. They have something to
offer, and I have something to offer. And so I invite them back in.

That's the second key in building the church. And then there's a third key in
building the church, and that is that there's only one foundation for building
the church. In verses 10 and 11, Paul says, "By the grace God has given me, I
laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it.

But each one should be careful how he builds, for no one can lay any foundation
other than the one which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ. " Jesus is the
head of the church, and Jesus is the cornerstone of the church, and Jesus is the
foundation of the church. He is the leader of the church.

There's only one foundation in building the church. If you try to build on any
other foundation, it just doesn't work. There's only one thing that the depth of
our hearts were concerned about, and that is what would Jesus do in this
circumstance?

Now sometimes people try to make other things the foundation of a church.
Sometimes they try to make the builders the foundation of the church, the people
who are building it, like we're the most important thing in the church. We are
not.

People are important in any church, but Jesus is the most important. Sometimes
people try to make the fellowship, one of the purposes of the church, the most
important thing in the church, or the maturity of the church, how the church
grows, the most important thing in the church. Those are Jesus' purposes.

They're extremely important, but nothing is more important than the foundation,
and that is Jesus Christ. So if you want the church to grow, you keep the
foundation on him. This is true for any life, and this is true for any church.

When I'm struggling, when you find somebody who's struggling, you get back to
basics, and the basics are I can't cause my own growth, or I can't cause the
church's growth. Only Jesus can. The basics are that if you and I are going to
grow in him and become the kind of person that he wants us to be, we partner
together in it.

I cannot do it alone. I'll never be able to do it alone. And the basics are if
I'm going to grow in him and become all that he wants me to be, if the church is
going to grow in him and become all that God wants it to be, then you and I have
to realize he is the only foundation.

We work together in this. And in these verses we've just read, we see four
pictures of how we actually work together in these verses. Back in verse 5 is
the first picture, and then one in verse 6, and then one in verse 8, and then
one in verse 10.

Here are the four pictures. How do we work together? How do I stay healthy as a
believer?

Four pictures. We are servants, we are farmers, we are fellow workers, and we
are builders. Way back in verse 5, Paul says we're just servants.

They've been arguing about whether to follow Paul or Apollos or who to follow.
But he says we are just servants. We're not saviors, we're just servants.

So you don't put anybody on a pedestal. That is one of the great dangers. That
is why maybe you're not going to church right now, is because you put some
Christian on a pedestal, maybe some pastor on a pedestal, and they started
acting not Christian.

They started acting worldly. And because that human being fell away from
following Jesus, you've fallen away. And you blame them, but the truth of the
matter is, you're the one who put them on that pedestal.

You're the one who made them too great a foundation in your life. The foundation
is Jesus Christ, and Jesus is building his church. Whenever I hear anybody say,
"I can't go to church anymore because some human being let me down," I realize
they didn't understand the church, not at the depth of their soul.

It's Jesus' church, not a human being's church. I can't go to church anymore
because I can't put up with people. Why do you think God put you on this earth?

He puts you on this earth to put up with people, because what you have to offer
can make a difference in their lives. If I'm going to live out God's
opportunities in my life, it's as a servant. And the only way to be a servant is
to be around people who need to be served.

We're servants, and we're also farmers. Paul gave us that picture of we're
planting and we're watering, but God causes the growth. What I love about that
picture is it's just simple work, planting and watering.

You know what to do. It's very simple. It doesn't seem extremely spiritual, but
if you've done any gardening, you know amazing things happen.

Flowers bloom and vegetables come and just awesome things happen because we do
the simple things. So what's the simple thing that God wants you to do today?
Just as a farmer, where do you need to plant?

Where do you need to water? What simple act of kindness do you need to show
someone today? Paul says we're servants, we're farmers, we're fellow workers.

We work together. We are different in our gifts and abilities. We're going to
see that increasingly as we go through this book.

But we have one Lord and we have one goal. We are fellow workers. We work
together in it.

Anytime we start working separately to try to reach that one goal, we're not
going to reach it because it takes all of us working together. We're not in
competition with each other. We are co-laborers together.

We're not working separately from each other. We are fellow workers, servants
and farmers and fellow workers and we are builders. I love the picture Paul
talks about here.

He says as an expert builder, God had given him some wisdom in building the
church. And God wants to give you wisdom in building his church, whether it's in
your small group or an individual that you're sharing with. And what's the best
thing that an expert builder can know, the most important thing?

You already know it if you've never even built a building and that is you got to
have the right foundation. And we just said it, the foundation is Jesus Christ.
You might think, I don't know if I could do much to build a church.

I don't know if I could be an expert builder. If you can just remind the church,
the small group, the ministry of this one thing, just keep reminding the
foundation is Jesus. We're doing it for Jesus.

It's because of our love for Jesus. As long as you do that, that's expertise in
building. As we think about what you and I do in the midst of the frustrations
with ourselves and with others.

One of the privileges we have is to turn to this foundation and to talk to him
on a regular basis. So let's talk to Jesus right now. Jesus, thank you for your
church.

Thank you that you want to build a church in this world that shows what you're
like and that you can do it somehow, even in the midst of people who struggle.
Even though we struggle with who you are in our lives, with doubts, we come to
you, we get to know you. And then we start to struggle with who others are.

Those people in the church that don't meet our expectations. But Lord, you're at
work. So help us to set aside our disappointments and to trust you.

To trust that you want to use us in the midst of a real world where people have
real struggles to make a real difference. So use us today, we pray. In your
name, amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to look together at one of the key encouragements that
you'll need when you or others don't act like they should. We should as
believers.