1 Corinthians chapter 3 look down at verse number 9 this morning 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse number 9 if you're there say amen. The Bible said for we are laborers together with God we are God's husbandry we are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Let's pray this morning. Heavenly Father, we do thank you again for this morning. Thank you for those who are able to be in church. We do pray for those who are sick. I pray, Lord, specifically for my grandmother this morning in Nebraska. Lord, you physically touch her, help her, Lord. She's dealing with pancreatitis, Lord, and just heal her from that. Lord, we do ask you this morning God, you just help us from the Word of God this morning. Would you just continue to take your word, make it real to us, make it personable to us. Help us to apply it to our everyday life. Lord, help us to realize, Lord, it is not just something that we read. It is not just something that we study. It is not just something that we meditate on, but Lord, it is something that we can live through the power of the Holy Spirit of God. I pray, Lord, just want you to hide me behind the cross of Calvary. Lord, you empty out of myself. Fill me with the spirit of God. Use me one more time, Lord, for your glory. Thank you for what this day is about, Lord, as we have on purpose sought you for direction and for purpose of our church this year, not just within the walls, but Lord, without these walls as well. Lord, thank you for the great commission. Help us be faithful to it. And just thank you, Lord, for all that you do for us. Lord, there's somebody here that needs to be saved by the grace of God. Would you do that this morning? And Lord, we'll give you all right and all will to do that this morning. we thank you in Jesus name we pray amen and amen you can have a seat thank you so much for standing this morning but we've come here to first Corinthians chapter number three and every year since I've been pastor I think we've had what we've called a vision Sunday and just as we seek the Lord ask the Lord what would you like for us to do this year what's the direction God that our church to pursue this year and go after and what should be our theme for this year and God for this year, put on the thought in my heart of the word and the thought of building. We've been looking at the past few weeks on Sunday mornings on how not to build and how we ought to build this morning. But as we come here to Vision Sunday, and once again, I'd encourage you back tonight, we'll give you some practical things this evening, some plans that we have. for this upcoming year. Really, we'll go through that booklet that we passed out this morning. If you don't, if you need one, just see me after the service, and I can't get you one today or this afternoon. I can get you one this evening for sure. But we'll go through it tonight. But as we come here to 1 Corinthians chapter Number three, there was a portion of this verse that stuck out to me and it is, ye are God's building. And I want to praise the Lord for the building of South Haven Baptist Church. I want to thank God for the amenities that we have here, the facilities that God has blessed us with. Thank God for every brick that's in place, for every pew that is here. Thank God for heaters and air conditioners. Thank God for electricity and microphones and thank God for all of that. But having us know this morning that God is far more concerned with us that he is building than the building that we are setting in this morning. If need be, we could go find us a tree by the Savannah River and clear it off like they did in Philippi. and we could have church right there. And we thank God for the building, but really the thought of my heart this year and this morning is God building us. And we come here this morning with this thought of building and construction in our mind. I wanna give you some simple truths by way of introduction that concern this building. Well, first of all, building requires patience. It requires, you can't just hope to get it all done in one day. Right, if you're building a bigger project, if it's more than just a simple thing, it takes more than one day. You could say that building your life for God is more than just a weekend project. It is an everyday thing, which leads us to the next part. Building requires persistence. It requires persistence this morning. There's gonna come points in your Christian life where, and I don't mean to sound derogatory when I say this, where it's no longer going to be fun. It's no longer going to be easy. It's no longer, there's gonna be points in your Christian life where what God is calling you to do and desiring you to do in your own mind doesn't even sound reasonable. It doesn't make sense to you or really the world. And when that comes, what do I do? Preacher, you become persistent. You do not let that stop. You do not cause that for a means of quitting this morning. But building requires patience and persistence. But notice this, building resolves problems. Normally, building starts because of initial problem. Right, there is something that you need, there is something that must be built, that must be solved this morning, and that's the initial problem that's solved. But how many of you know that when you begin the building process, you often run into some more problems? You ever made that dreadful statement, all we have to do Many years ago, I was fresh out of high school, just graduated, or right around there, and we were having a men's meeting at the church, and Brother Ricky, who's sitting back there, said, hey, Brother Ted, I want you to bring your, I had a Mercury Mount near at the time, he said, we're gonna change your brakes at the men's meeting, which I said, praise God, I could tell you Pythagorean's Theorem, but I had no idea how to change brakes on a car. They didn't teach me that in high school. You don't find that in calculus. And so I brought my Mercury Mountaineer up here and we jacked it up and I was ready to learn and Brother Ricky grabbed that part of, I still don't know what it's called to this day, grabbed that part of the wheel and he shook it like this. And he said, you see that? I didn't know what I was looking for. He said, it's not supposed to do that. We're gonna have to do more than change your brakes. We're gonna have to change your whole wheel bearing unit. I said, oh. And so the men's meeting, all we were supposed to do was change my brakes. There was people running to AutoZone. There was people taking up money. The Lord blessed and it took over the entire men's meeting. It was an unseen problem. And sometimes when we're building, even when it comes to building our lives for the Lord, and God building things in our life, there are unforeseen problems that you and I are gonna run head first into. But I would kind of encourage this one, when those problems arise, remember they did not take God by surprise. And so we see here this morning, building resolves problems. Building realizes potential. See, building is the process that takes something from a blank canvas to a masterpiece. It is the effort that is necessary to accomplish the goal. When we allow the Lord to build our lives, we'll see the greatest potential imaginable. In essence, this morning, I would encourage you to dream your biggest dream. And can I say this morning, if you'd let God build in your life, and you allow God to build in your life, what he could accomplish with your life would be far more than you could ever imagine. But building realizes potential, and then building reassures promises. If I came to your house this afternoon and you said, Preacher, I would like for a brand new deck to be built onto my house. I want a porch, Preacher, on the front of my house, and I want it to be this long, and I want it to be covered. And I said, well, that's great, but let me tell you what I could do for you. You see what your plans are. Here's what I would like to do. I'd like to screen that thing in. Matter of fact, I'd like to take half of that, close it in, put a wood-burning stove just in case it snows again. You'll have a warm place to go. And while we're here, we might as well run electricity out here and we can put a TV out here. That way, come fall time when it's football season again, you can sit out here and watch your Georgia Bulldogs. and I begin to give you dream after dream, promise after promise after promise, you would say, preacher, that is amazing. Boy, I can't wait for you to do that. And I promise you the world that I never show back up. Can I say those promises would quickly fade away from reality. But when you and I allow God to build our lives, and we purpose in our heart to build for the Lord, we'll begin to realize God keeps all of his promises. Can I say this one, because if I come to you and I gave you all that, and then I don't ever show up, you lose faith in my promise. But when I showed up with that big old truck full of two-by-fours and four-by-fours and two-by-sixes and two-by-eights, three-inch screws and ten and screen, and boy, I get to work, you'd realize that young man is keeping his promise. He is doing what he said he's going to do. And when you and I step out in faith and say, God, I want you to build my life. God, give me the blueprint. God, give me the plans. God, give me the go ahead. God, give me the desire. God, do what you want to do. And my Lord, I'm willing and ready for you to build. And when you release that unto him and you allow him to begin to work, you will see that God keeps every promise that he's ever made. All the promises of God are yea and amen. So we realize this morning some truths about building, but here in this chapter we see some following truths quickly this morning. We see first of all that we are God's building. Look at verse number nine this morning. Ye are God's building. I was gonna do the first portion of that where ye are God's husbandry, but I don't know how you would take it if I started calling you a cow. or a vine. Husbandry is one of those too, I can't remember at the moment. But notice this, we are God's building. So first of all, we are God's building this morning. But then notice this, we are to build with God. Notice what it says right there in verse number nine, for we are laborers with God. In essence, it is God working in our lives and then we working with God. Just pause and hit timeout real quick. We talked about a pardon just a few minutes ago. Imagine or remember where your life used to be and how you used to live and what you used to care for and what you used to desire and now God has saved you by his grace and enabled you and given you the privilege to build a life that glorifies him. So not are we just God's building, but God is building, we are building with God, but in verse number nine, we're also told that we are building together with God. Look at verse number nine. For we are laborers together with God. What does that mean, preach? That means you and I, as God is building us, or God is building you and you are building with God, we are to link hand in hand and build together for the glory of God. it is still good that brethren dwell in unity. In essence this morning the best thing that can happen at South Haven Baptist Church is not that we become individuals and trains going on different tracks but rather that we link hand in hand and say by the glory of God I am God's building and I'm going to build for God and at the same time I'm going to build with you for God as well. Well preacher, how do we do that? How do we accomplish that? So exactly how are we gonna build together with each other and with the Lord here at South Haven Baptist Church? Number one, we'll build on our foundation. We'll build on our foundation. I tried to save you a step inside that booklet. My three points for the message are already there. We will build on our foundation. Look at verse number 10 and 11 this morning. According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another built of their own, but let every man take heed how he built of their own. Look at verse 11. For other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. The interesting thing about the Christian life is it's not that we only start on the right foundation, we stay on the right foundation. We never get a place where we are so spiritual and so smart and so knowledgeable and such a great builder that we can step off the foundation of Jesus Christ and say I got this all by myself. The reality of the Christian life is that the same foundation that we start on is the same foundation that we stay on this morning. And anytime we try to get on to another foundation we are heading to disaster, we're heading to destruction. Building a Christian life isn't about you and I becoming independent of Christ, but rather as we build and God builds in us, we realize our greater dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The older we get, the longer we live, we ought to come to this realization, I need him more than I did yesterday. and we are to build on our foundation. Christ is our foundation. He must stay our foundation. We can't hop off of it and expect to build something for the Lord. We can't let numbers be our motivator. We can't let recognition and popularity and influence and even wealth be our motive. Those are not good foundations to build on because once you get it, it'll be gone. but Christ will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He's a wonderful foundation to build upon. Here's the foundation that we at South Haven Baptist Church, not just on a corporate level, but on an individual level this morning, here's the foundation that we'll build on that God through his grace and through his love and through his mercy sent his son Jesus Christ to die for our sins and to rise again the third day so that we too might have eternal life that whosoever believeth on him shall be saved. That is the foundation that we are going to build on. And when we accept Christ and allow him to be our foundation, we now have the opportunity to have a life that is built by God. And here's the blessing of that. When you and I allow Christ to not just be our foundation when we get saved, but we allow him to stay our foundation, Jesus said, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against that. Oh, the attacks of hell will come. Satan will try his best to knock you off and to get you out and to make you quit, to put your hammer down, to throw away the tape measure. But may I remind you, when you allow Christ to be your foundation and everything goes back to him, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I say that's not just a promise to the church. It's a promise to the believer. that when we allow Christ to be our foundation, there is no greater foundation that we can build our life upon. Let me ask you this morning, will you commit to building your life upon the foundation of Jesus Christ this morning? Number one, we're building on our foundation. Two, we are building up our faith. We're building on, then we're building up We see the picture here this morning. I want you to quickly take your Bibles and turn with me to Jude. I would say chapter one, but there's only one chapter in the book of Jude. As we look at this idea, we'll be back in 1 Corinthians on the next point, but take your Bibles from the Jude chapter number one, go down to verse number 20 this morning. Now, we should never get off the foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we also this morning, and you ought to give me a couple seconds to explain this, right? Don't put it on your TikTok and run with what I'm about to say without letting me explain it. We should never get off our foundation, but shouldn't let it stay as a foundation. What do you mean by that, preacher? Now, if you come over to your house and said, preacher, I want you to come see my brand new house. I want to show it to you, preacher. I want to show you what we've done, what we've accomplished. And I get over there, and all you have is a concrete slab. Preacher, isn't our house wonderful? Isn't it magnificent? Preacher, do you like how it looks? See, now you've put me in a tough spot. Do I lie and say, oh, it looks wonderful, looks amazing? Or do I get real honest with you, it's just a foundation. It's just a concrete slab in the ground. See, the realization this morning is that when it comes to building a home and building a life, yes, Christ is our foundation, but we don't just build on, we build up. In essence, we allow God to not just be our foundation, but as he is, we allow him to build up in our lives, to build us up in our most holy faith, to build us up in our desire for him. As we stand upon the foundation of Christ, we must allow the Lord to build us up on that foundation. We must follow his blueprint. How, preacher, how do I do that? I'm one of those people, show me how to do it. And I'm gonna strive to do it my best. You can tell me all day long. You can try to describe to me how to do something. many times in the cabinet shop working there they say here's what we want and my project manager said here's what I want I want you to build this it's got to be this long it's got to describe it to me and I said listen man you gotta have to write that down for me you have to draw me a picture you have to show me how that's done because what you're saying ain't computing up here I ain't one of the people can see them things in my mind give me a blueprint I can build it by the grace of God Thankfully, God gives us a blueprint on how to build up our life unto him this morning. Look at Jude chapter one, verse number 20. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, let me stop right there, your spirituality, your building project, you wanna say it that way, is your responsibility. What do you mean by that, preacher? I can't build you up. I can exhort you, I can encourage you, I can help you. but it is my responsibility and your responsibility to build what God desires out of our lives. I can help you and I can encourage you, but you're gonna have to pick up the hammer yourself, too. I noticed you this morning, how do you do that? The Bible said, verse number 20, but you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. How do I build up my life, preacher? How do I build up my faith? Well, practicing prayer. Notice what he says, praying in the Holy Ghost. We're not talking about a charismatic thing, but rather that sincere, earnest, honest, effectual, fervent prayer that the Bible talks about, that when we bow our heads and we bow our knees and we call out onto the Lord, we are not going through repetitions. We are not going just through programs. We're not just reading off a list. We're not just saying things because that's what you're supposed to say. But as a child desires the parents to get involved and to help them as one who is completely and totally dependent upon the Lord, it is coming from our hearts as I, that if God does not move, I don't know what I'm going to do. That sincere, effectual, fervent prayer. That's how you build your, let me ask you this morning, how's your prayer life? How's your prayer life? If we're gonna build up our faith, we must practice prayer. We must stay in the love of God. Look at verse number 21 this morning. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Now this morning we're not talking about maintaining your salvation. We're not talking about you keeping yourself saved. Well I'm glad this morning my salvation is eternal. My salvation is secure. I can't lose it. I can't misplace it. I can't throw it away. What I have is eternal this morning and I'm grateful for that. So what is going on here in the book? How are we supposed to keep ourselves in the love of God? Let me ask you, how do you know God loves you? Did you just look up at the clouds one day? And they formulated it into the sentence, I love you, God. Were you just fishing one day, and the water rippled just right, and you felt a little funny feeling in your tummy? Oh, God loves me. I don't know about you this morning, but I know how I know God loves me. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish. but have everlasting life. Preacher, how do I stay in the love of God, stay in the word of God? Why, preacher, because this is how you find out how much he loves you. Boy, there have been some verses I've come across in my Bible reading where they have blessed the socks off of me. Now, they're in direct opposition of everything I've ever heard, but it was God speaking to me through his word. I'm full of compassion, full of mercy. I love thee with an everlasting love. I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. Those aren't things we made up, those are God's words to us. I want to build up my faith, stay in the word of God this morning. We've got some things planned to help you get in there, but can I encourage you to let this become not just your Bible, but would you look at it like God's love letter to you? Some of y'all know what that was like before there was text messaging. where there was emails. You had to sit down and write out a note. Boy, me and Miss Becky was in middle school. We'd write notes to each other, and you had to go on spy missions, espionage, because if you got caught, you had to read it to the whole class. Boy, we got real good at it. That thing, that note would fall down on my desk. And boy, I was trying to be sneaky. But I wanted to read that thing. Because I liked her and she liked me. And boy, I'd open it and I'd read it. Put it back in my pocket. Get on the bus, read it again. Can I say this one? There's one who loves me far more than my wife loves me. His name is Jesus. He's the God of heaven. And he's giving you his letter. Preach on a bit of my faith, stay in the word of God. Practice prayer this morning. Look for mercy. Look at verse number 21. Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Don't live with the mindset of what can I get off into? And God bring me back that I might experience mercy. I'm glad that he can. and I'm glad that he's able to, and I'm glad that he's willing to. I'm glad this morning that David said, there's no place I could go that he's not going to be there. Even if I descended into hell, he'd be there. And can I encourage this morning, when you get up in the morning, instead of seeing how far off you can get, Instead of looking for places in your life that you can get into and serve because God has been merciful to you. Because God has given you the opportunity and the ability to serve him. It is not what can I get off into that is wrong that I might experience the mercy of God, but how can I serve him because he has been merciful to me? Preacher, there's things I would love to do for God, but there's no way I can do that. Well, join the club. but there's nothing that is impossible with God. And God's put that in your heart, he's building that in your heart. He knows that you can't do it and he knows that I can't do it, but he's fully aware that he can do it this morning. Look for mercy and finally have compassion. Look at verse 22, and some have compassion. It's always been explained to me that compassion is love and action. It is putting action to that which we say Preacher, I feel like I've plateaued in my Christian life. I'm not building, I'm just going through the same routines. I'm just going through the same stuff. Let me ask, when's the last time you showed compassion? Some having compassion, making a difference. That's what the Bible says there. And it's not necessarily that you just make a difference in somebody else's life. As you begin to see God work and God move, it makes a difference in yours. God wasn't lying when he said it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. Preach, I wanna build up my faith. I wanna build up my faith in the Lord. Have compassion this morning. And compassion is more than just saying. Compassion is an action. Let me ask you this morning, are there some people in your life that you love dearly and are concerned for because you don't know their eternal destiny? Have compassion. Pray for them, yes, but don't be afraid to bring up the gospel before them. Because if we truly love them, we know that's their greatest need. We have to have compassion. Let me ask you this morning, what good is your faith if it never prompts you to act? What good is your faith if it never moves you to action? We are to build on our foundation, we're to build up our faith, and then finally this morning, we are building for our future. We are building for our future. Look at verse number 10 of 1 Corinthians chapter number three this morning. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I've laid the foundation in another building their own. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. Now due to our history as American, as a nation, our history goes back just a couple hundred years. But they say if you go to places like Rome, those ancient cities, that the modern day city is actually built upon the ancient cities. That you can actually dig down and go down to different places below street level and see towns that used to exist. See roads that used to be there. You can literally, there's underground cities at one point that were above ground, but now they're underground because they built a new city on top of them. It's foundation upon foundation upon foundation upon foundation. Now here's what I find interesting this morning. In 1 Corinthians chapter three, Paul calls himself a wise master builder. A wise master builder. And in our society, if somebody was deemed a wise master builder, we would typically know that because we could look out and look up and see what they've built. Because of where we live, and because that Hephzibah is not littered with skyscrapers. Every time I go to Atlanta, drive through Atlanta, it's dangerous. Not just because everybody else driving on the road, because of this. You ever seen a skyscraper so tall where you start here and you end up falling backwards? And typically that's how we know someone's a wise master builder. They have architecturally created something that was seemingly impossible just a few years ago. We sit there and marvel and awe at it. That's not what Paul says when it comes to the Christian life. Notice what he says right there in verse number 10. According to the grace of God, which is given to me as a wise master builder, I have built the biggest thing you've ever seen. I have built the greatest church ever known to man. We have the biggest building and the biggest numbers you've ever seen. Paul said as a wise master builder, here's what, I've laid the foundation. that another might build upon. Now Paul's foundation is not different from Christ. He goes, that's what he explains there later on in the chapter. He said, there's only one foundation. But Paul said, I chose to give my life to build upon that foundation that those who come after me would not have to dig out and remove what I've built and do away with what I've done, but rather they can simply step onto the scene and take what I have done for the glory of God and build upon it. I don't know if you noticed this morning, but there was about 20 kids. that got up out of their pews this morning and are headed next door. And right now they're learning the foundations of our faith. They're learning the truth of the gospel, learning who Jesus is and how he died for them. But here's the reality that's been brought to my mind through studying and preparing for this, that there is going to be a day and a time where I cease to be the pastor of South Haven Baptist Church. My plan, my desire is to stay here until I get really old. I have no desires to leave, not looking for anything bigger and better. This is the greatest place God has ever placed me. And I'm thankful for that. But I do realize Lord Terry's is coming. Someone sitting here this morning or sitting over there very well may be the next person that God calls to pastor South Haven Baptist Church. And I want to leave a foundation that is built upon Christ, but then they can come in and build on for the glory of God. I don't want to step in and then have to make up a whole lot of, fix a whole lot of mess ups and craziness. That's why Paul says that later on in verse, where's that verse number, somewhere in here, there's more, verse number 10, but let every man take heed how he build thereupon. Take heed how he build thereupon. In essence, at this point, you say, well, preacher, I'm not pastoring, that's great for you, but what about me? All of us are building something that somebody's going to inherit later on in their life. Fathers, mothers, siblings, grannies, grandpas, demas, mimis, mamas, whatever your thing is, your name is there, we're building for somebody. That's why Paul said you wanna be a wise master builder. It's not your ability. It's not your skillset. It's not your talent. It's not how smart you are, how much money you have. He says, it's how you take heed on what you're building. The greatest building we will build is not a new one that we might sit in one day, but it's a life that those who come after us can build upon. You ever heard a story of what we'd call a great Christian? You ever read a missionary biography? You ever read after someone who has sold their life out to the gospel? And you get done reading it, does it make you wanna serve Christ more? Oh, it does for me. I'll read those stories and, Lord, I wanna do something like that with my life. When it comes to the end of my life, I want others to look at my life and say, I want something like that. I want a life that someone can build upon and not have to shy away from and stay away from. We're building for our future here at South Haven Baptist Church. My desire is that as long as we're here and until the Lord returns, that this place will be a place where sinners can find hope, where saints can find help, and where the Savior is glorified and lifted up. And whether it's me preaching or it's the next generation, I want them to be able to step onto the scene and say, thank God for the foundation that was here. Let's go on for the glory of God this morning. We're building this year. We're building on our foundation. We're building up our faith, and we're building for our future. Let me ask you this morning, what foundations are you building right now, right now in your life? What foundations are you building that those who come after you will be able to build upon for the glory of God this morning? Let's all stand this morning, every head bowed,