UNSHAKABLE LIFE

WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING YOUR LIFE WITH?

1 Corinthians 3:10–15 CSB

10 According to God’s grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one is to be careful how he builds on it.

11 For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.

12 If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,

13 each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work.

14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward.

15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved—but only as through fire.

INTRODUCTION — EVERY LIFE IS BEING BUILT

Whether we realize it or not, every day we are building something. Every decision we make, every priority we establish, every relationship we invest in, every dollar we spend, and every choice we make adds another piece to the life we are building.

The question isn’t “Are you building something?”

You are. The real question is:

WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING YOUR LIFE WITH?

We can build a life that looks successful on the outside but has very little eternal value. We can spend decades building a career, a bank account, a reputation, a comfortable retirement, or the approval of other people—and one day discover that we spent our lives building things that were never going to last.

Bible Notes:

Paul gives us the picture of a construction project in 1 Corinthians 3. There is a foundation, there are building materials, and eventually there is a test. And Paul tells us that the test will reveal the quality of what we have built.

In this context Paul points to the evaluation of believers and their works before Christ, commonly called the Judgment Seat of Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 3:13–15, notice what happens to the person whose work fails the test:

“If anyone’s work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved—but only as through fire.”
— 1 Corinthians 3:15, CSB

That last phrase is especially important. The person’s salvation is not being determined by the fire. His work is being evaluated. He may suffer loss, but Paul specifically says that he himself will be saved.

Paul describes something similar in 2 Corinthians 5:10:

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

And Romans 14:10–12 similarly says believers will stand before God’s judgment seat and each give an account of himself to God.

The passage does have present implications, though. Paul presents this as a warning regarding the work of false teachers who were building on his apostolic labor in Corinth. So while the judgment is future and heavenly, the challenge is immediate and earthly: what you’re building spiritually right now—your teaching, your influence, your ministry—will be evaluated by God’s standards, not human approval or earthly measures of success.

TAKEAWAY 1

START WITH THE RIGHT FOUNDATION

1 Corinthians 3:11

“For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.”

Paul doesn’t leave any question about the foundation: “That foundation is Jesus Christ.” Before we worry about what we’re building, we have to know what we’re building on. We often try to build our lives on money, careers, health, relationships, our plans, or even our own abilities. Those things aren’t necessarily bad, but none of them were designed to carry the weight of our lives. Money can disappear. Careers can end. Health can change. Relationships can disappoint us. Plans can fall apart. But Jesus Christ remains.

Jesus gives us a similar picture in Matthew 7 when He talks about the wise man who built his house on the rock and the foolish man who built on the sand. Both houses experienced the storm. Building on the rock didn’t prevent the rain, the flood, or the wind. The difference was what happened when the storm arrived. One remained standing because of its foundation.

That’s what UNSHAKABLE is about. Following Jesus doesn’t mean storms won’t come into our lives. It means that when they do, we have a foundation capable of holding us. The foundation doesn’t keep the storm from coming; the foundation keeps the storm from destroying us.

KEY THOUGHT: An unshakable life begins with an unshakable foundation.

TAKEAWAY 2

CHOOSE YOUR BUILDING MATERIALS CAREFULLY

1 Corinthians 3:12

“If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw…”

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Once Paul establishes the foundation, he turns his attention to what we’re building on it. He gives us two very different groups of materials: gold, silver, and costly stones, and wood, hay, and straw. All six can be used to build something, but they don’t have the same value and they won’t respond the same way when they’re tested.

That’s where Paul’s words become personal. We can have Jesus as the foundation of our lives and still spend enormous amounts of our time building things that won’t last. We can build around success, possessions, recognition, comfort, popularity, status, and our own plans. Those things may look impressive while we’re building them, but the question isn’t simply “Does it look good?” The question is “Will it last?”

Compare those temporary things with faithfulness, obedience, prayer, God’s Word, generosity, serving others, sharing the Gospel, loving people, and investing in God’s Kingdom. Those things may never bring applause. Other people may never even know about some of them. But God sees them, and they have eternal significance.

We need to be careful that we don’t spend our entire lives building temporary things on an eternal foundation.

KEY THOUGHT: Don’t spend your life building temporary things on an eternal foundation.

TAKEAWAY 3

BUILD SOMETHING THAT WILL LAST

1 Corinthians 3:13

“each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work.”

Paul tells us that eventually what we’ve built will be tested: “the fire will test the quality of each one’s work.” In the context of this passage, Paul is looking beyond the ordinary difficulties of life toward the ultimate evaluation of a believer’s work before God. But there is an important principle here: testing reveals quality. Fire doesn’t make something gold. Fire reveals that it was gold all along.

Life’s pressures often reveal something similar about us. When the money gets tight, when the diagnosis comes, when someone disappoints us, when our plans fall apart, or when God doesn’t answer the way we expected, we often discover what we’ve really been trusting. Difficult circumstances can expose whether we’ve been building our lives around temporary things or eternal things.

Verse 14 says that if what someone has built survives, there will be a reward. That should change the questions we ask about our lives. Instead of asking, “How much can I accomplish?” ask, “What can I build that will still matter when my life is over?” Instead of asking how successful we can become, ask how faithful we can be. Instead of asking what we can get, ask what we can give. Instead of worrying about whether people remember our name, ask whether our lives are pointing people toward the name of Jesus.

KEY THOUGHT: The goal isn’t to build an impressive life. The goal is to build a faithful life.

CLOSING — WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING?

Every day we’re building. Every decision, every priority, every investment, every relationship, every act of obedience, and every opportunity God gives us becomes another part of what we’re constructing.

So as we begin UNSHAKABLE — Standing Firm When Life Isn’t, there are three questions we need to ask ourselves:

WHAT IS MY FOUNDATION?
Is my life truly built on Jesus Christ?

WHAT AM I BUILDING WITH?
Am I investing my life primarily in temporary things or eternal things?

WHAT WILL REMAIN?
When everything I’ve built is finally tested, what will survive?

We don’t become unshakable simply by trying harder to stand. We become unshakable by building on the right foundation and building with things that last.

Build your life on Jesus.

Build your life with things that matter.

Build a life that will last.

Because eventually everything we’ve built will be revealed. And when that day comes, we don’t simply want something that looked good.

WE WANT SOMETHING THAT STANDS.

UNSHAKABLE.