Building a Legacy
Ministry Associate Calvin Chu preaches from 1 Corinthians 3:4-15. Discussion points: We as seed planters are nothing, for it is God who makes the seeds grow; we’ve all been influenced and grown by faithful, forgotten nobodies, what we build on the foundation of Christ matters and will be tested.
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Scripture reader: [1 Corinthians 3:4-15] 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. 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.
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: Good morning church. It's good seeing you all. My name is Calvin and one of the things some of the other like, I know we have like a good cycle of people who kind of come in and they're checking out churches or they're like new. It's one of the cool things about being in the Greater Boston area, somewhere below Cambridge, Medford and all the the area here is that there's a good amount of people kind of float in and out. So every single time I come here, I'm like, oh, should I explain some of my background?
I probably should because I thought things won't make that much sense. So, for me, like I I was, I worked previously at a church with like a very wide range of people. So one of the thing that's really, really cool about it is because I was I had responsibilities over like middle school, high school, but then in college, but then I'd also work with like, you know, adults like recent grads and then obviously like people at my peer level. And one thing that's really, really interesting about being able to kind of be a little bit of a fly in the wall, like, hearing conversations with such a wide range of ages is that you get to hear what other people think about other generations, like, what other ages.
And so, for instance, like, a lot of times adults, they'll be, like talking about, you know, a student and they go, oh, my gosh. Did you hear this person? They're talking about their future. It was all laid out. Their 10 year plan was perfectly, like, you know, everything was set into place and they're like, do you even know the difference between A W-2 and A W-4 and an I nine? Do you even know your, your social security number yet? Like, there's this whole, like, oh my gosh, you're so clueless. And on the other side, the young people will look at the older people and they go, oh my gosh, like for instance, me at this current moment, I'm giving negative aura.
So, and they go, wait, you don't, you, they both look at each other and they go, you have no idea how the world works. And it's so funny because both are kind of right, like older people are looking at younger people, they're kind of right. And younger people are looking at older people and they're kind of right. And I think it's so funny because, there is, there are definitely differences of how we kind of look at the world and what we understand about it. But one thing that's interesting and kind of traversing amongst all these populations is there is there are a few things that are true about all of us.
But the one thing that's relevant to our passage this morning is a good chunk of people maybe close to all, maybe most of them, we all have this pressure to get things right. Get things perfect even. And that feeling can very often prevent us from like having a sense of confidence in the things that we're doing. It can help uh can prevent us from even doing things at all or trying things. I mean, it's like we have this decision paralysis because we don't wanna make the wrong decision or we, we know what we wanna do, but we don't wanna start it because if I start it, that means I'm doing it. And if I'm doing it, what happens if I don't actually do it?
And I love that this is the passage that I, I chose because I think in this passage for people who are in that space, whether you're younger or whether you're older is, I think there's two things in this passage. There's an incredible encouragement. And there's an incredible challenge. And so just for the context of this passage, and then I'll pray for us. the context is that there's basically a division between certain pockets of the church. And so there are some that said, they followed a Paulus who was a leader in the church. And then there were some that followed Paul, who, who's the writer of this, this letter? And Paul responds to this to break up this division and put some perspective about what's the most important thing for those who follow Christ, for the church to really be emphasizing on like, what, what, what, what should we really think about? What should we take into consideration when we kind of walk day to day in our Christ following lives?
And, and the thing that he talks about here and we'll see it as we dig into deeper is that we are all part of a legacy. And I hope we'll see that today. But let me, let me pray for us and then we'll dive into the passage a little bit more.
Father God, I thank you for the opportunity to come and to worship you this morning again. We, we lift up those who are at the retreat. Lord, we pray that they're being able to truly rest and be restored as they're stepping away from their day to day lives in their day to day spaces. And God, we just pray for us here because whether we weren't able to, we didn't know about it or we're happy that we don't have to go to New Hampshire or in the woods, God, wherever we are, God, we just thank you that we get to be here and hear your word this morning. And yeah, we, we pray that your will be done in our lives as a, as a result of hearing your word. And we pray all of us in Jesus's name, Amen.
So, as I said earlier, there is this great encouragement and a great challenge. And so let's start with the encouragement here. We actually see in verses 4 to 9, there's this analogy of like planters or like farmers. and, and Paul brings his attention to the readers who are at the center of the conflict and he actually talks about himself and the Paul is like, he, he basically does this thing. It's like, oh, I know that you guys have been talking about me and this other guy and he actually dresses, addresses it directly and for some of us that's like, not a comfortable thing. Like some of us try to be like a little bit more round about. So I really love how Paul is like, yeah, I heard you was talking about me and this other guy and I'm gonna tell you about it. Exactly.
And so it's not comfortable for me and, and to have been in this space because a lot of people that I've grown up with in my com community, like we didn't necessarily address things directly like this. a lot of times I, I, I'm Chinese and, and so when I grew up, I was one of two Chinese families in the town that I grew up in. And you can imagine that's like a fun thing because you kind of know the other. and and so, like, we intersected a little bit but we were, we were kind of different but like, you know, the parents would get together at like, you know, parent teacher things or like bake sale type of stuff. and, like, genuinely, like, on paper, their kids were definitely better than, like, me and my sister and like, it was one of the, like, like, you know, the, the, and it's so funny.
I'm the son, I have a sister, and, and they also had a boy and a girl and, the son who, of course I was kind of focused a little bit more on because, you know, I, I gotta try to keep up with him. Not really, he was like, he was like, played violin and he was, like, really, really good at it and he, like, played tennis and was, like, really, really good at it and like, I just, I like, played Super Nintendo a lot and it's like, that was kind of my thing. And then what's funny is that, like, like was like, I remember them talking about, like, the kids and they, they would just do it in this way. That's like, it's not like they compete about which kid was better. Like the parents, the parents, they would always compete about which kid was worse.
I don't know if you have like families that, that do this. My family definitely they'll be like, oh, they'll call him Frank or whatever, but Frank is so smart. Not like Calvin, he's so lazy and they, no, no, no, no, no, no. Frank is much worse than you think he is. You know, he is not, he's, he's just as lazy. He's the fact that he's more lazy and like, they would do this thing, they would kind of go back and forth almost like and its like, again, we, we're all with an earshot and it's like, like, what exactly are you trying to say? I don't think my parents like, liked playing this game that much but like the saving face and preventing people from like feeling bad thing of it all or like, or seem like they didn't recognize that they were much more accomplished in their very, very young life.
I think that they, we didn't hang out with them much, but this is an experience that like many like at least from you know, Chinese American American born Chinese kid or maybe children of immigrants or maybe not even maybe you are like your multiple generations here in this country and you also feel this and that is just not what is happening here like to be so direct. And so like I'm gonna address it specifically and I'm not gonna talk around it. I think it's really, really powerful. But is it Paul tells the readers that both are just servants with their particular role to play in God's Kingdom.
And I, I don't wanna read verses 4 to 7 here, but I want to point us to particularly to verse seven when I read it. So, but verse four starts like this for when one says, I follow Paul and another, I follow a Paulus. Are you not being merely human? What then is a pus? What is Paul servants through whom you believed as the lo 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. So here's the encouragement. You are nothing. You are nothing and you go away.
Calvin, that sounds kind of like I, if I, if we were in school, I would raise my hand and tell the the teacher on you for being so discouraging. How dare you say I'm nothing, Calvin. That's rude. That's me. But it, it truly isn't, it's an encouragement because then the thought process is you and I are not responsible for the results, right? You and I do not need to work harder to make the thing happen. We just have to be responsible for our part.
You are nothing is an encouragement because it says the task that God puts before us in our lives, that's all we're responsible for whatever God puts into your sphere, into your workplace, into your school, into your neighborhood, into your own personal development. That's all you're responsible for and you, and this is why it's so hard for us to move forward because we could go, I don't know what's gonna happen from my effort. Therefore, I don't move forward. Therefore, I don't do the thing. God, it's very clear. I know you want me to go in there, but I'm not gonna do it because it's too scary because what happens after that? What's the result of that action? And we get so petrified and stunned and paralyzed, but we just have to put the seeds in the ground. What else standing there and waiting? OK. See you're in the ground now. Grow, no, grow like really grow now!
Like we think it has time or we water and we're staring and we're looking and we're waiting and we're worrying. God is saying just do that plant seeds, you can walk away, water the seeds, you can walk away. Why? Because we're not in there, we're not shrinking to the micro level and breaking the seed apart and making sure that it does the thing that's God doing that. God designed the seeds to be that way in the same way that he designed our lives to do the same thing. So the thing that is before you, that God wants you to do the task is set in your life, do that part and trust that he will bring the growth.
I had some friends who they the campus ministry around the, the the country, but they had a season that they came back. And I remember one of the things that was just stuck with me for years is their definition of success. They said success is stepping out in faith, doing what Jesus called them to and leaving the results to God. That's the definition of success. Definition of success is that I did the thing and I accomplished the goal and here are my metrics like a resume bullet point. No, this is you step out in faith being obedient to God and you leave God to do the growth. And I love that because I think that if we, if we were able to embody that if we were to live that, understand that we are nothing, in terms of the responsibility for making the thing happen, for the growth to happen, then we would be so much freer the anxiety, the pressure that we feel in our day to day life, we would, we would feel so much lighter.
If we said, OK, God, I can only see this thing. So I will be faithful to that and God, whatever you do with it. I trust you. II, I hope that you feel that encouragement because I, I look around young, too old and we feel this pressure to get things perfect to be exactly the thing that we planned out. Exactly the thing that we think the world wants us to be and we're killing ourselves genuinely. We're stressing into these incredibly tightly wound balls and we're trying to get through life and of course, when something outside of our plan comes into it, we're like, wait, wait, if we could just go, ok, God, some of us who are like more control, you know, oriented. OK? God, this is the thing, OK? I'm gonna do that. OK? God, I'm doing this and then I'm gonna trust you for some of us who are on that. We, we go, OK? Got, what do you want me to do? Ok, I'll do it and then, but then I have to look for the next thing, you know, that's a whole other thought process.
And so, you know, when I stepped away, I felt this very I, I was at a, a previous church working in full time ministry and when I stepped away, like I felt this like very, very close to like my heart because when you leave anything for a long period of time, you, you have to kind of leave the comforts and the, the work that you have and you know, especially in, in ministry but any work, the work is never fully, fully done. Like there, you know, I worked in student ministry so there were six graders who I had, like, one year with. And I go, ok, well, I don't, I don't know what's gonna happen to them. I shared the gospel with them. I encouraged them. I met with them from time to time and I, I don't know what's going to happen with them, you know.
So when I left, I had to like process a lot of it because there was parts where I would sort of mourn that or like question that I'm like, oh, like, is that, is that wrong? That I didn't finish the task? And the thing that encouraged me was thinking about my past, right? Because in a lot of ways, there were people in my life who walked alongside me that prayed for me because as a kid, I definitely needed prayer. They, they came alongside me and they, they started things but they also left and you know, they, they, you know, I, I'm talking about Tommy, Danny, Gary, Josh, Ruth, Regan, Phil, Jack. And I just said these first names to a room of people who have no idea who they are. Like, like there's no sense of like, wait, those are, yeah, man. You know, Jack was so influential. You're right. You have no idea what Jack I'm talking about.
But that's the point. The church is built every single one of us who follow the Lord. We are all part of the legacy of nobodies, unrecognizable nobodies who had an influence in our life. And all they did was be faithful to the task that they had. Whether there was to pray for you, whether it was to be your, you know, V BS counselor, whether it was be your college fellowship leader, whatever it was like, we don't know any of them, but you do. And most importantly, the Lord does. And as you stand here with whatever growth you have experienced that that person, those people had a part of that but not because they brought the growth.
They just happened to be used by God to plant the seed, to water the seed, to put a little bit of miracle grow in there. And my friends, that's the encouragement for you. We don't feel like we have to be that person. We can just do the thing that we have set before us. Be faithful to that and let God do the growth. They were just faithful, forgotten nobodies and I encourage my hope for you is you feel like man, it would be great to be a faithful, forgotten nobody because that's who God uses in the same way you guys experienced that.
I've only been here for about a year and sometimes someone will say a name and they're like, oh, they are so great. They were so kind. They were so good. And I'm like, oh yeah. And then they'll do like the, oh they did, they, they give me like the, the 12th like description of them and I go, oh, that's cool. That's what praise God. Like, I'm, I'm glad that they had that impact on you. And you know, I know that if, if you guys are part of like our regular church life and you look at the announcement, one of our elders and their family, Jeremy, they're gonna be leaving soon and like we're all here. So we all feel that like very, very closely like, oh man, the colors are so great. Jeremy's so faithful as a, as you know, as a an elder here, it's so good. They're so, they're so amazing for this church and they are.
And while their impact will be felt for the, the, the entire history of this church, they too, at one point will have to be, oh yeah. Yeah. I was talking to Jeremy the other day and then someone new in one year, two years, three years, they go. Who's Jeremy? Oh, well, he was an elder here and he was here and, and he too will be forgotten.
But do you guys not see that? That's not a waste that he's not remembered. It's because he helped build the foundation he's faithful for the thing that God set before him and then he's forgotten to those who come after. But those he had impact on us. We know his impact. We knew what He did in God, us because God is the one that takes their efforts and grows them. So we don't have to worry about getting credit because it's not about us.
Verse 8-9 say this. 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. And so again, they're talking about division. They're talking about who is better or whatever. But I think the thing that we can really draw from this is that what matters is what we're doing together as a team, as God's people to make His name great in the spaces that we go through and work at school in our neighborhoods and beyond. That's encouragement. We're 10 to 15 here and for the, for the challenge. And then we have another analogy here. I love that Paul. He goes from a field analogy to a building one and he tells us how we are to do the work before us. Let's read verses 10 to 15 here.
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 what is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay straws. 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.
Paul tells us raises that he laid down a foundation and someone else is building upon it. And he says, let each one take care of how he builds upon it and this is so so crucial. He tells us that the foundation of all work, all work that lasts is one that is built on the foundation of the work of Christ. And so that's like step one. We have to understand that the, the foundation of the things that you and I do the task that God set before us. The first test is, do we understand that Christ is the foundation of it? And so that could talk for like religious work, ministry work all that and that, that sort of thing, very obvious parts of it. I'm I'm I'm serving at outside greeting people. I am vacuuming after you know, service is done. That's very clear like, well, this, I'm doing it for the Lord and hopefully, but it doesn't say just ministry work.
It doesn't say if you are serving in the church, you have to do it as Christ as your foundation and in other areas have some other type of foundation. Because I think very often we feel like there's a sacred and secular divide that says, well, when on Sundays and the day that I have CG, that's when I work for the Lord. But like Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, that work is for fill in the blank of your boss or fill in the blank for my paycheck. But now even that I think is really important for us to understand that that is also a spiritual work, a spiritual act. If you're, if you're running Excel sheets, you can do that with Jesus as your foundation. And, and I think that's, that's so so important because when it says, if anyone builds his foundation with and he says a split here, gold, silver, precious stones, things that would survive the fire and would hay and straw, which would not survive the fire.
I think that there's an element that the way, the way that we actually do this work, the way that we approach life actually matters, how we build upon that foundation makes a difference. And so basically, this, this symbolic fire is that we will be tested, what we built with, what we built our life with what we did and how we did, it will be tested. And so what this is saying is are we building well on top of the foundation that was laid before you Jesus as the base, the bedrock of it all.
But those who came before you, those who invested in you, those who prayed for you, if it's your parents who, who brought you to the Lord, the investment that they had, the aunties and uncles who invested in that brought you to church. You maybe your parents didn't go to church. Are you building upon what they had? Their Sunday school teachers, your youth fellowship leaders, your college fellowship staff, are you building upon what they had on that base foundation of Jesus? And then on top of that, and when the moment comes this moment right now that you are alive and you're hearing this word, you have to recognize that you are part of that line and you continue to be a part of that line.
God does not design it so that we are the end result that the, the work stops with us. And so the question is, how are you and I continuing to build that work, obviously, they didn't understand how plants work on like the microscopic level, but there's a lot happening. I'm not a biologist or scientist by any means, but even I know that and so from all the tasks that need to happen from a seed to a full blown tree, stuff needs to happen in the same way that from somebody who hears the gospel for the first time at a summer, a sleep away camp and says, yes, II, I recognize that I'm a sinner in need of a savior from that person. Then to a, to the, the moment that they're about to pass and they say God has been good to me. I praise him even though this is my life now and this world is ending, that whole process requires investment. Why is people caring for you and caring for them?
And so my friends, how are you building? What are you building your life with the, the things that you're focused on the things that are important to you? The the first thing you go to when you open up your phone, the first thing you open up your wallet to what are those things? And it doesn't have to be all, all Jesus, all Jesus is all Jesus. But what's your thought process? What's your approach? Because what it tells us is that through our actions and through the decisions that we make, we are building a life and this tells us that we are, we should be building a life on the right foundation with the right materials because it's really hard to build a life that lasts on a foundation that should be Jesus.
If it's not, if we know the foundation is over here, this poured concrete, perfect and it's built and it's strong, it's been tested and we take it and we take all of our life and we go to the sandiest, windiest, rockiest, like pebbly beach and we start building it there because I think that we can do that. I think it's really easy to do that because there are a lot of things that tell us that that's the thing that's gonna make us complete.
And then what this passage is telling us is no, that's not. That won't actually make you complete. You build a life on any other foundation. It will, it will not survive that test. You have to build it on the foundation of Christ. And so I think some things to think about is, is what I'm doing, encouraging and enabling people to worship the true and living God in holiness and in truth. If not, am I perhaps being untrue to the foundation that has been laid? Am I showing God's love and truth in my life or am I throwing hay on the ground and hoping that it will withstand the fire that will come when Jesus returns and tests every single person's contributions or lack thereof to the kingdom of God? I hope it's the former guys. I hope it's the former not so that we act out of fear because God does not want that for us because that is the way to build a life that lasts a life that truly matters.
It's a light analogy here to kind of shift the tone just the hair. I'm a patriots fan. I'm sorry, but I'm like, especially sorry now because we're like, really, really bad. And then thinking about legacy, I thought about that a lot because for years, you know, I, I, I'm of an age where I remember the first Super Bowl win against the greatest show on turf and like, I don't know what is this feeling of, like, seeing my football team do well? Like, it's like it was exciting and I got to see all of that and all through and all the, you know, the controversies and whatever. I'm not gonna talk about that. and then, like, seeing the end happen of, like, the legacy, the dynasty and it's just like, well, maybe it'll be ok, but Cam Newton is, like, pretty good at one point. Like, he, he could carry the torch after Tom Brady. No.
And then we have, like, other, other, I'm not gonna go into the whole sports thing or whatever, but we have other players and all this and then now the coach, so Tom Brady left and then Bill Belichick left recently too. And it's just like, ah, and then I think that the debate of who is better between Bill and Tom, like, that's definitely still there and like, who had the greatest influence on the Patriots during the years that they were winning? And that's fine. But if you look at the team right now, what was it built on? What was the foundation? And if that foundation, whether it's Bill or whether it's Tom is gone, then you're really not building a great football team, you're really not building a great legacy.
No one's gonna be like, hey, guys, remember 2024 Patriots? Wow, what a memorable, not memorable for the good way, maybe. And so I guess I say that so for you to recognize that this is a whole life thing. There is no, we've made it just in the same way that the 49ers in the eighties and the Cowboys in the nineties. If you're not into sports, you're like, oh my gosh, this classic, like new England preacher, talk about sports thing in the, in the eighties, the San Francisco 49ers were good in the nineties. The Dallas Cowboys were good and then the two thousands, the Patriots were, that's all you need to know. Yeah, I enjoyed that. Thank you. Thank you. I didn't want to flex too much, Fletcher.
All those things ended because they were unsustainable legacies. They were unsustainable dynasties because they were built on flawed or sorry. Limited resources, limited foundations, the arm of a certain quarterback, the coaching style of another person, the general manager that brought these teams together. But you and I, my friends, if you follow Jesus, we have an everlasting all powerful, all good foundation in Jesus Christ. And that's why you and I can expect that the legacy that we are a part of the dynasty that we are a part of will not cease. There is no need to rebuild the legacy of Christ because he has built it and he said it is finished and he has already won. The growth is not up to you.
And I, we just need to participate, grab our helmet, grab our pads and show up to practice when he tells us to show up to practice, show up the game day when he tells us to show up the game day. And with the trust that at the end of the season, that trophy will be ours, not because we want it because he did. And I hope you guys feel that. I hope you guys see that. And I think that's what Paul is calling us to do. If any, 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.
I hope that you will see that and be on the, the winning team. Our walks with Christ can go up and down. There'll be hard seasons, there'll be joyful seasons. But the thing that helps us go, the distance is building a life with the the right materials with the right motivation building on the right foundation. Let's pray.
Father God, I know that there are seasons where I'm just piling hay on dirt. Thank God, you have been merciful because you have moved me apart from the things that have distracted me. And God, if there are folks here who have been not been building on the legacy and the foundation that you have set before us, God, I pray that you would redirect us. I pray you would give us the wake up call to know that you want us to be a part of the foundation, the building that survives. And God would you help us to not feel the pressure that thinks that we're responsible for the results, but help us to just be responsible for the thing that you have us to be a part of which is the everyday faithful step by step following of Christ. And it's in his name that we pray, Amen.