This word is for all of you who had an Encounter with God, who were born again and received Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
12 “Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
I Corinthians 3:12-15
This word is for all of you who had an Encounter with God, who were born again and received Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
Do you have Jesus as your foundation? Is Jesus the foundation of your lives?
How are you building your life upon this foundation? How are you building your spiritual life?
Because each one’s work will be tested by fire ! If anyone’s work endures, he will receive a reward.
Illustration :
how many of you remember a children story : three little pigs and the big bad wolf
There were three little pigs. One pig built a house of straw while the second pig built his house with sticks. They built their houses very quickly and then starting singing and dancing all day because they were lazy.
The third little pig worked hard all day and he built his house with bricks.
The big bad wolf went to the first and the second house and blew the houses down in seconds.
The big bad wolf tried to blow the bricks house down, but he could not because he used strong material.
The two little pigs felt sorry for having been so lazy. After that they built their houses with bricks and lived happily life after.
Here in this text Paul says to the believers, people who follow Jesus as their foundation, he says we have an option to build our lives upon Him using different kinds of materials.
With gold, silver and precious stones or we can build them with wood , hay and straw.
The material that we use to build on Jesus makes a big difference!
There are 2 categories
✅ The first one is gold, silver and precious stones
☑️ The second one is wood, hay and straw
✅ Gold , silver and precious stones are always found underground.
☑️ Wood, hay and straw are found above ground, on the surface.
✅ You have to dig to find the first ones because they’re not found on the ground and usually come in smaller size or smaller quantities.
☑️ Wood, hay and straw always come in big quantities.
✅ Gold, silver and precious stones are also very expensive.
☑️ Wood, hay and straw is a cheaper way than gold because they’re everywhere!
✅ Gold, silver and precious stones are very rare
☑️ Wood, hay and straw are very common
✅ Gold, silver and precious stones can not be burned by fire, they only get purified by fire.
☑️ Wood, hay and straw are destroyed by fire.
✅ If Gold, silver and fire go through fire they become pure, better and more expensive!
Paul is saying to the believers whose foundation is Jesus, what material are you using to build on Jesus?
Because we can build on Jesus with Jesus . Or we can build on Jesus without Jesus!
You can build your life today with your knowledge, your intellect, with your wisdom, degree, discipline, you can build your ministry with a software and you can build a lot of things today without an intimate relationship with Jesus.
As long as you work hard, as long as you are smart, your ministry can become big, people can look at you and say: Wow he/she is a nice Christian, that ministry is very powerful! But the question is not how big or how good it is in the eyes of men!
The question is: Will it last when I die? Can it go through the fire and get purer?
I should build my life on Jesus but with eyes fixed on eternity – what will matter is not how big things get, it’s what material I use.
Is my dependence on my gifts or on my intimacy with Jesus?
Without intimacy with Jesus all you have is wood, hay and straw!
Wood, hay and straw are cheap, they are easy to find, they require no devotional life, no sacrifice, they have no eternal significance, because they don’t last and they don’t require consecration.
Wood , hay and straw doesn’t require help from the Holy Spirit. They might look big in the eyes of man but they are small in the eyes of God.
Wood, hay and straw require no sacrifice, no fasting or digging deeper on my end – using them doesn’t require us to humble ourselves or spend time with God.
Jesus said that day God put his fire, meaning God looks at my life with His eyes and his fire goes through my life and everything that was done for Him without Him gets turned to ashes.
The foundation is still there but my life’s work becomes pointless and the bible says: you will suffer loss but you yourself will be saved . Meaning: if my life on earth has no significance into eternity, I don’t lose my salvation I lose my eternal significance, I lose my reward!
Stop worrying about losing your salvation, God wants you to focus on one thing, He wants you to start building on Jesus with Jesus!
Building with gold means building your secret place! Don’t just build your life on Christ, build it with Christ.
For our work to have significance it must come out of our secret place!
Christians should not focus on losing their salvation, but they should focus on not losing their reward.
Important point: It’s not your success in this life that will determine your reward in eternity.
Here you can be small in the eyes of men, here you can be poor, here you can lose many things.
I was a pastor of a big church in Brazil (5,000 members) and to become a missionary in Ireland I lost my church, I left behind my friends, my family, and today I’m pastor of a small church.
I used to speak very fluently in my own language (Portuguese) using nice words but today I’m very limited here. I need to write down my preaching, I need to read more. If I look at myself I’m not successful.
Maybe you are serving God but you are not seeing many results, you’re investing your time, your money in the kingdom of God and you cannot see great results.
The point is: where are you looking at? Do you have your eyes on the success of this life or are you looking to eternity?
Let’s not live for the applause of men but for the audience of God. Let’s live for the assignment of God.
Did Jesus have a successful ministry? He died at 33 years of age, we had just 12 disciples and a small group of people.
What did Jesus say about himself?
“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” John 17:4
2 things Jesus said: I Glorified you and I finish the work ! I give you glory, I spent time with you, I loved you and I finished my work!
Jesus was just 33 years old and He said: I have finished the work you gave me!
Listen : Your assignment is completable!
You cannot save the world but you can finish your assignment. Jesus didn’t preach to all people of the world, but He finished His assignment.
Paul said the same :
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
II Timothy 4:7
I fought the good fight, I wasn’t lazy. Are you fighting the good fight or are you sleeping?
Are you running the race or are you enjoying life and building your life on earth?
Apostle Paul says this: I fought the good fight I have finished the race! That tells me, my race, my work and my assignment is completable but you will never know if you don’t live in a secret place.
Jesus lived only 33 years and he said: I’m done with my work, not everybody is healed, not everybody is saved but my part is finished.
Paul says the same: what I was supposed to do is done!
Are you fulfilling God’s assignment? Or are you running for your own business?
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; then because of joy he went and sells all that he has and buys that field.”
Matthew 13:44
The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in the field ! The treasure is “in” the field, it’s underground, not above ground.
A man found it, and full of Joy, he invested all he had in that field!
My brothers and sisters, salvation is free, it comes through the blood of Jesus, it is by faith not by work but if you want the treasures, gold, silver and precious stones, you need to invest, you need to work hard and dig for them.
It’s in the secret place that you are going to find the treasures!
Now I want to talk about the secret place .
“But when you pray, go into your room, and close the door. Then pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you openly.”
Matthew 6:6
Jesus said: when you pray, not if you pray, He expects you to pray! We need to have a life of prayer, living a life of dependence on God.
I want to talk about how important it is to have a secret place.
I believe each one of us, either lives in a secret place or in a place of secret sins!
Something that you’re hiding or deleting after you’re done browsing the Internet, something that after you look up, you delete the history.
The moment you have to delete conversations,. The moment you find yourself in secret sin, it’s one of the first signs that you don’t have a secret place anymore!
What you have in the secret place will change your life tomorrow!
If you are hiding in the presence of God, if you are hiding with the Holy Spirit, your life will change, your career will change, your relationship will change, your future will change.
Secret sins will affect your life, will affect your health, will affect your finances, will affect every area of your life!
Your secret place, your secret life has to be a place where you are hosting God and not hiding sin.
The best and only way not to hide sin is to host the Holy Spirit.
You need to have secrets! Because this secret place is the secret of your future, it will change everything about you.
Because everything that is hidden will be revealed and the world will know you!
You either have a secret place or a secret sin!
When I say that you need a secret place I’m not saying that you need go to your room with a prayer list and start saying:
God I’m in trouble, God bless my family, God bless my church, God help me, etc. The first and most important thing is your relationship with Him!
Our identity is in having a relationship with God.
If the only time we pray is when we have issues – we don’t have intimacy with God.
Intimacy with God is when you go to God even if you don’t have issues. That’s what intimacy is!
You have to close the door when you come into your secret place so God can open the window.
Many people don’t find God because they don’t close the door. You have to close the door when you go to a secret place.
This Door is called distraction!
You’re at the right place, intimacy is supposed to happen, A husband and a wife are in bed and one of them is on the phone. Suddenly the woman says: I’m here but you’re not here!
Why does God want us to close the door when we’re praying? Because intimacy always happens behind closed doors. God wants intimacy. Every married person knows you have to close the door.
God says: when you come into the room I want to be intimate with you! Could you close the door? Could you leave the phone behind that door?
Remembering some points :
1 – Is in the Secret place where you discover your assignment.
God has a purpose for your life, He wants to use you.
The secret place redefines your life and you are going to discover what You must do!
In the secret place you are going to discover you must have a home group (Cell meeting), you are going to discover how important is the Church, that you must disciple people, you must pray for the sick, you must give tithes and offerings to support the kingdom of God.
Your relationship of love with God will redefine you and you are going to build your life with gold, silver and precious stones.
2- The only way to conquer your sin, your addiction is to replace sin with the secret place!
3- Remember you’re not here to solve problems, you are on this earth to fulfil your purpose. God didn’t just place you here to fix your problems! God placed you here on this earth to fulfil your purpose!
4- What materials are using to build on Jesus?
Without intimacy with Jesus everything is wood, hay and straw and one day it will become ashes!
5 – God is waiting for you in the secret place! He loves you and misses you!
If you abandoned your life of prayer, please come back, God is waiting for you!
If you abandon church prayer meetings, come back, Gods is waiting for you!
We have to go back to our prayer, we need to go back to fasting, we have to go back to serving!
God loves you and He is waiting for you in the secret place .
We need to stop building with wood, hay and straw. We need to start building with gold, silver and precious stone.
Your life has an expiration date and we must live as though it’s the last day.
But also live as it was the first day of our life.
Because we have a legacy, an inheritance to pass on to the next generation. Let’s run the race !
God bless you