Judgment

Grace of God, which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation and another is building on it, but each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet so as through fire. Let me pray. Jesus, we pray simply that you would come and open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, that you in some sense would help us to understand the importance of the gospel, the importance of our part in it even. We praise you and thank you in your name and in it. Well, many of you, actually every week, people make comments upon my use of movies. Some of them are complimentary and some of them are less than complimentary. That's fine. So I decided to give everyone a break today and to please everybody by instead of opening with a movie, I'll open with one of the great classics of the English language. Probably a story that has been translated more than any other story, a story that has been rewritten and reworked and given more different spins than any other story, maybe in the English language. You know the story. I'm sure you know it and you know it well, it's a three little pigs, right? We all know the story of the three little pigs. What is it? There are two lazy pigs and one good pig and the two lazy pigs, the first pig, he wants to play so instead of working hard on his house, what does he do? He goes and builds straw. He gets straw and he builds his house out of straw and he's very lazy, you know, he's sort of inside playing Nintendo or something and the wolf comes and knocks on the door and says, let me in and he says, what? Not by the hair of my chin, chin, chin, right? You know the story and what does the wolf say, I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down and he blows his house down but he doesn't get the pig. What is the first little pig he do? He runs to the second pig's house but, oh, we have a problem here because the second little pig is just as lazy as the first pig, instead of building his house with something strong, he's built his house with sticks, yet they think they're safe, they're inside, they're now they're playing Nintendo together against each other instead of the computer and they're playing and the wolf comes and knocks on the door and says, let me in and they say, not by the hair of my chin, chin, chin, you see it's a responsive worship service and what is the wolf say? The wolf says, well, I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in. What does he do? He huffs, and he puffs, and he blows their house down. It's what do they do? Does he get them? They run like crazy, they barely escape each time and finally they run to the house of their good brother, right? The good brother has been doing what? He's been, he's taken stock of what is important in life and he's been building his house with bricks so they go in and he lets them in and they're, now they're inside, the two are playing Nintendo and probably the big brother is making them something to eat, right? Because he's a servant and he's smart and the wolf comes and says, let me in and they say not by the hair of my chin, chin, chin, he says, I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down. Any huffs, any puffs, any blows, any puffs, any blows again and nothing happened until the wolf is tired and frustrated and what does he do? He comes in the roof and he tries to get in through the chimney, but the wise pig knowing what was going to occur, lit a fire and the wolf comes down the chimney and his tail catches on fire and he shoots all the way up the top of the chimney depending on what version you see or cartoon you watch and he shoots out of the top and he runs away forever. And we all know what's the moral of the story, it's very, very important with what you do with your life. It is very, very important that the kinds of things you build your life around. That's the point of that story, isn't it, that you can either waste your time by building a house if you will or building a life out of straw or sticks, but when the wolf comes and blows, it will not last. And remember in some sense the three little pigs is nothing but a reiteration of what Jesus said. Remember Jesus told the exact same story except he didn't do it with pigs, he simply said at the end of the sermon of the mount, he said if anyone hears my words and acts upon them, he's like a man who built his house on a rock. When the winds and the storms come, nothing will happen. He says now the man who hears my words and does not act on him, he is like the man who built his house on a sand and when the wind and the storms come, they will blow the house down and that day it will fall and Jesus' last words are and great will be its fall. And today Paul's passage is essentially the same. Today's Paul talks about judgment. And today in some sense, today's passage is probably, you know, it actually frightened me last night when I was sort of writing notes for myself this morning and I thought this is probably one of the most misunderstood texts in the whole Bible. But what frightened me is the fact that I seem to say that all the time, which led me to believe that most people don't understand what's going on at any rate. This passage on judgment, this one in particular is extremely misunderstood. Why? Because some churches use it to manipulate people by guilt, right? You know someone Ross gave me a book called Growing Up Born Again, I don't know if you've seen that. It was hilarious and the first thing I saw when I opened it was an actual fact, similarly of a poster from like the 50s and it had two sweet little children sitting on two chairs and in between them were two empty chairs. And the top of the poster had in very lilting letters, Jesus loves little children and at the bottom of its page it said, Satan loves empty seats, implication, bring your friends, you know what I also talked about and I've heard this before and people have said it to me before that Tommy someday the movie of your life is going to be flashed before God and everybody. Everything you've done, everything you've said, everything you've thought is going to be shown to everybody in God and you're going to have to stand there and give account. You know I say, don't even look at the filter, right? Because after about two minutes God will say, I've seen enough, you don't need more, right? He's only two minutes old, so it's finished already. And I remember in college a guy told me I was drinking a beer one time and a guy, a Christian man came up and told me I should worry, why? Because the rapture comes, I would be raptured up and the problem is that beer would have stuck to my hand. So I would appear before the judgment seat of Jesus, either with a beer in my hand or one hand behind my back, trying to give account for myself. And you see you laugh, but the reason it's funny is because that's what people do all the time. They're sort of motivated by guilt and motivated by the fear of judgment that at the end I'm not going to be found good enough. And because of that they misuse these texts. Now the other problem is the churches like ours, right? Churches like ours can get very smug, you say we preach grace, but you know churches like ours don't get this text either, because what do we do with this text? You know, I would say, you know, about the movie of my life, I'd say yeah, you know, God someday is going to show the movie of my life when the opening credits come on, it'll say, you know, Tommy Allen's wicked, horrible, sinful life, starring Jesus, right? And Jesus will get all of the credit for all of the terrible things I've ever done, thoughts or anything, right? And then the movie of Jesus' life will come on. You know, say the life of Jesus, the wonderful, glorious, perfect life of Jesus, introducing Tommy Allen, he gets the credit for every good thing Jesus ever did and because we believe that, I think that is true because we believe that. We look at these passages on judgment and we sort of see them as very irrelevant to our lives. We say, you know what, someday I'm going to be seen and proclaimed as righteous as Jesus and so nothing matters and what the Bible says, what Paul says, the guy who preached grace more than anyone else is that this couldn't lead further from the truth. In fact, if you understand grace, everything matters, everything, that's the problem with grace, if it's true, everything now matters. And you see these passages are not there to threaten you. All the judgment passages are not in the Bible to threaten you. They're in the Bible to warn us and warning by its very definition is gracious, right? If you see someone who's getting ready to walk out in front of a car, what do you say? Stop! You've just given that person your unmarried favor. They did nothing to deserve that. Why did you do it? Because you didn't want them to get hurt. And not only that, we warn people, why else do we warn people? We warn them of some future event in hopes that it will affect the way they live their lives now, right? Surgeon Generals warning, smoking causes cancer. What does he do that? He's warning you that someday you could die, but it affects your life now. What the end is defines sort of the beginning and the middle. And so that's what Paul is going to get at today. He's going to talk about judgment, but really the spin is not guilt. The spin is warning. Particularly for those of you who understand the gospel and those of you who would define your lives by grace. So all of that said, we're going to look at three things today. Paul uses this building metaphor. If you remember last week, he's sort of used the farm metaphor. And this week he's going to use a building metaphor to explain his point. And so we're going to look at three things this morning. The first thing is the importance of our foundation and a building. The second thing is the importance of our work in that building. And the third thing is the significance of our reward. Reward is probably a besides judgment. Reward is the other thing that's probably completely misunderstood in the church. So all of that said, let's look at the point one versus 10 and 11. Let me read this again. Paul says, according to the grace of God, which has given to me like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. They basically what Paul is saying to them first is remember Paul had all these problems with the Corinthians. And the first thing he's saying is that I came in and planted this church and I laid a foundation like a wise and master builder. There's that word wise again. Remember that the Corinthians were very caught up in wisdom and Paul says I laid a foundation according to wisdom. Like a wise builder, I laid a foundation and what was that foundation? You see, he makes the point to them that he laid the foundation and the reason, first of all, why does he start with the foundation? He says, I laid the foundation and the reason he's letting them know that is because what comes next, you see the foundation defines what is built on top of it. The foundation defines the nature of the building, right? We built a wall and the back of my house, many of you helped, the master builder helped and he kept over and over again. He didn't nag, but it took us hours to lay the foundation of this wall. It took hours, I mean it was microscopic, level, level, salt, level, level, pounded, pounded, removal a couple of rocks, it took hours and he said if we'd get the foundation right, everything else would just fall into place. You know, I was skeptical on the other hand, I was not extremely excited about the amount of work it took to work on that foundation. And yet once the foundation was laid, the rest of the wall went up in like no time at all. And once it was finished, there was no mortar, there was no anything and it was perfect. The wall was perfect, why was the wall perfect? The foundation was perfect, right? And so what Paul says is, I came in and laid a foundation and the foundation ought to define the rest of the building. And he says, what is that foundation? It's Jesus, the Jesus is the foundation and it's important to notice here because Paul came in and his foundation was not methodological. It was not philosophical, he didn't come in with slick techniques, he didn't come in with slick methods, what he did, his foundation was theological. Paul planted this church and the foundation of this church was based on the person and work of Jesus. It's utterly important to understand. It's utterly, especially given this text, you see because if your life is not defined by Jesus, if Jesus is not the foundation of your life, it would be too easy to say, well, the building is going to be screwed up, right? You know that, you can make that implication, but if Jesus is not the defining thing in your life, the foundation, then your life is necessarily defined by the rest of the building, by tangents, if you will. And you see in these are broad terms, but basically in life there are two kinds of tangents, there are ethical tangents, and there are theological tangents, right? What is an ethical tangent? An ethical tangent would be something like whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, right, whether you're conservative or liberal. A theological tangent would be something like, you know, do you baptize babies or do you not baptize babies? Is it okay to dance? Is it not okay to dance? Is it okay to drink beer or not okay to drink beer? These are ethical tangents and theological tangents, and many of you have been to churches and you have been burnt out by churches, and you sort of have a bad taste in your mouth because of churches, and the reason is my guess is I'd be willing to bet anything, it's because that church, whether it was liberal or conservative, was not defined by Jesus, but it was defined by its tangents, right? And if anything is defined by its tangent, it will necessarily end in disappointment at least, disaster at worst. And so, what is Paul trying to tell them? He's trying to tell them that what is important is that when you enter into this thing called church, and you enter into this thing called understanding the gospel, what is important to nail is that Jesus is at the bottom of everything. That Jesus is the driving, not only the driving force, but he is the foundation, and that's important to know in a church plant because people ask me all the time, you know, what's the foundation? What's your philosophy of ministry? What do you start with? And you know, I know it's sort of invoked these days, it certainly is for businesses, but it for churches as well, to write sort of slick mission statements and core values and all of these kinds of things, and you know, I've done that. I've written out the core values for this church, but it really, it took one minute because the core value of this church is the gospel, right? The core value is the gospel, and everything else, every other value is a sub-point. So my job is the pastor is to keep you guys from getting caught up with the sub-points and pointing you back to the only thing that matters. That's the person who worked with Jesus, the fact that he has embraced you in such a way that he will never let you go. And if he has done that, you're free. If he has done that, you're free, not to do whatever you want, but you're free to struggle with your sin, but also you're free to struggle with what you're doing with your life right now. That's where Paul goes next. He says, here's the importance of the foundation. Do you get it? That Jesus is your starting place, but they go to the importance of our work, right? And you don't like to talk about that usually in churches that are very oriented towards the gospel of grace, but our work is actually extremely important. So look at, if you would, verses 12 and 13. Paul says, now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each man's work will become evident. For the day we'll show it because it has to be revealed with fire. And the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. Well, I'll just launch into it. Basically, Paul says this, he says that someday this is an important distinction to make, the importance of your work. And he says, someday, he doesn't say, someday, your work will be revealed. Okay? He doesn't say that. He says, someday, the materials with which you worked will be revealed. Gold, silver, precious stones, those are imperishable ones, those are good things, or wood, hay, and straw. He says, someday, the things that you built with will be revealed. Now, that's important to know because some people think, well, I'm building this building at the end, he's concerned about what it is that I've constructed. And really, he's not. But what is going to be revealed is what it is you worked with. And the big question, of course, is what does he mean by gold, silver, precious stones, those are imperishable things, and wood, hay, and straw, can we assign some particular to those? And you know, you really can't. You can't. You just don't know. And for a number of reasons, one, I think, is because it's different for each person. What do I mean by that? Basically, Paul says, at the end of time, Jesus will come to judge. And he says it's going to be like fire, and it will sweep through, and what you've built with will remain. And what he's talking about is at the end of time, what you've built with will be revealed. It's almost like this. It's as if you took $1,000, two years ago, and you put $1,000 in Amazon.com stock. Or you took that $1,000 and put it in something like Boston Chicken. Okay? It's the same $1,000. And you don't know whether it was imperishable, a good investment, if it was golden, or if it was a perishable investment, a waste of time until after. Until after it is revealed, and there needs to be a certain amount of time, right? To bear itself out. And after a few years, you will have looked at it and say that investment in Amazon, that was gold, and that was a beautiful investment. But the investment in Boston Chicken, that was a waste of time, those are waste of my money. And so that's what Paul is getting at. So the bigger question is not what you're investing, although that is one of the questions. The big question is, what is the building? What is the actual building that you're investing in? And my best guess is, what he's talking about as far as your investment, given the whole context of the letter, is your life, right? The wood, hay, stubble, gold, pressure stones, that's your life. Your time, treasure, and talents. You invest those. All of us invest them somehow. We invest our lives somehow, and he says at the end, it's going to be revealed how you invested it. Now, how are you going to know where you invested it? Now, here's the key. It's going to be people. That's what he's getting at. Because gold, silver, pressure stones were what? Those were the primary materials with which they built the temple. And in the very next passage, what does Paul say to the Corinthians? Don't you know that you are the temple? And what he's saying is that you can, if you pour your life into the building of the temple, that is other people. Other people in your church spread the spread of the kingdom all this time. At the end of time, it will be revealed that you spent your time well. It will be revealed as imperishable, right? Because people are the only things besides God that lasts forever. He says, however, if you've taken your life, your time, treasure, and your talents, and you've spent them on stuff, on things that were worthless, what the end of time that will be revealed as well. Why? Because the thing you built won't be there. Now see, what this does is that you cause us to do a gut check, right? I mean, the point of this passage is for you to do a gut check. It's sort of like this. You know, I had my first big paternal gut check two Friday nights ago at Mike and Karen's wedding. Right? For five years, I have been dancing with my daughters to Frank Sinatra. Right? Mary's favorite is Blimey to the Moon and Abby is a stranger in the night. Mercy doesn't have a song, but I'm sure it's going to be. I did it my way, right? And we went to the wedding. It was a gorgeous wedding. It was a gorgeous reception. And you know, we got there and the band started playing one of the first songs I think was a synotrotum. And I thought, well, this is beautiful. They're just going to come running up to me. They didn't. They didn't. They didn't dance with some seven-year-old kid. A boy, worse. I know you guys thought it was cute. I was a 911 reporting a sexual predator, blonde hair, blue suit, seven, I think. But you know what that did? It's funny. I mean, it was funny then, but it really made me do a gut check because I really take for granted the time I spend with my daughters. I just think, you know, I got them forever. But I know people tell me they're not coming around forever, but I don't believe that. But when I saw the future, if you will, it made me totally think, what am I doing with my daughters? So I spend time with them. Do I take care of them? Do I love them? Do I nurture them? Do I teach them the gospel? Do I? Do you know what the answer is? Generally speaking? No, no, no, no. Not like I should. And what Paul's saying here is, what are you doing with your life? It's a gut check. He says, at the end, it's going to be revealed how you spent your life. You know, and you have to ask yourself, how do I spend my time? Is my time spent serving other people? Is it spent ministering to people? Is it spent on behalf of others? Or is it spent on basically on behalf of myself or worship yet? Is it just wasted? Is it just wasted sitting in front of the computer, sitting in front of the television? Is it wasted? You've got to ask yourself that. He says, what about my talent? If you were here and you were a human being, you are extremely gifted in one way or the other. And you've got to ask yourself, you know, what am I using my gifts for? How am I serving people with my gifts? What am I giving to people? And finally, your treasure, right? That's the hardest one. What do I do with my money? Is my money spent on the benevolence of other people? Is it spent on the spread of the kingdom? Or is it spent primarily to create an infrastructure in which I can be comfortable? Or worship yet? Is it just wasted? Right? And when you begin to ask yourselves these questions, Paul's intention is not that you feel guilty, although I'm guessing many of you right now are feeling guilty. You shouldn't feel guilty, but you should feel sorrow, right? You should. That's Paul's point. And he says this much, right? If you don't believe me, he says this much. In 2 Corinthians, he refers back to this letter. If you go to 2 Corinthians, I'll turn there. You don't have to. He addresses them. And he says, for though I caused you sorrow by my letter, he's referring to 1 Corinthians. He says, you're not regretted, though I did regret it. For I see that the letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while. And then here's the key. He says, I rejoice not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance. For you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation. But the sorrow that the world produces, produces death. See what Paul says to them, apparently it happened with the Corinthians, that Paul wrote them these hard things. He gave them these gut checks and it made them sorry to what? It made them sorry to the point that they changed their lives. But don't be confused and think they worked harder. So Paul says that the sorrow leads to repentance and that this repentance is without regret. And what he means by that is that if you were a Christian and you begin doing a gut check of your life and you begin to say, man, I am wasting my time and my treasure and my talents on myself. I am wasting them on that, which will not last. I need to put them into other people. He does not say feel guilty. What he says is that sorrow leads you to repentance and what is repentance, but turning back to Jesus. You see, because in Christianity it is the only religion that I know of when you feel sorry, when you totally screw up, you can go back to Jesus. And what does he say? He doesn't say, I told you so. You utter regret it. You know, Tommy, some day you are going to get to heaven and you are going to be utterly completely embarrassed about the way you lived your life. That is not the point. Paul says that this stuff should, in some sense, it causes you sorrow, but sorrow that leads to repentance and that repentance is without regret. What that means is, as soon as you get it, you get it. As soon as your heart is convicted or touched that you need to be doing something other with your life, whether it is turning from some sin or spending your money or your time a different way, you turn back to Jesus and what he says is welcome back. Right? The Pierce Pettis Lion. He says, you came back of your own free will just like I knew that you would. You are back. And now that you are back, there is nothing to regret. You see, because nothing, all of these judgment passages, they cannot molest grace. That what they do is they warn you and in warning you, they take stock of where you are at and as soon as you take stock of where you are at, if you are honest, you find yourself wanting. And as soon as you find yourself wanting, that pushes you back to Jesus, the place where you should have been the whole time. In some sense, what Paul is doing in this passage is he is causing a minor earthquake. He is shaking them so that their building will tumble. And if your building tumbles, where does that leave you? That leaves you with Jesus. My guess is, this is only speculation, so don't quote me and edit it from the tape. But what happens is you build a lot on your building and you get shaken and only a little bit is left. And as your life goes on, you build a lot, it gets shaken and a little bit is left. And so over time, there is certainly some growth but it is not like you expected. And you see, only if you understand this, that what these judgment passages do, this one in particular, is it warns you of the future so that you can take stock of now so that you can do a gut check so that it leads you back to Jesus. Only when you understand that, can you understand the nature of a reward. Because Paul, not only does he not motivate people by guilt and preachers should not motivate people by guilt, he does not motivate them by reward either. Okay? They are not motivated by reward, however reward is significant. If you look at the last, my last point is the significance of your reward. And Paul says, if any man's work, which he has built on remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss but he himself will be saved yet so as through fire. And what Paul's point here is to usually we perceive a reward as something, if I work extra hard, I get a reward. Right? I remember the most awestruck that I've ever been and I was awestruck on a daily basis was when I was in the army. I went to a few schools at the John of Kennedy Special Warfare Center. And in the John of Kennedy Special Warfare Center, if you've ever been there, along the walls are portraits of green berets and rangers and others who were awarded the congressional matter of Medal of Honor and almost all of them were awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. Right? They're dead. And what does it say at the bottom of all their things, awarded for what? The above and beyond, the service above and beyond, the call of duty. And that's the way most of us look at our lives. That's the way we perceive of the reward that we'll get from Jesus someday. Right? That those Christians who are quote good Christians who have performed above and beyond the call of duty, they'll get a reward. And if you haven't performed above and beyond the call of duty, you get nothing. And to say that is to not understand the concepts of a reward, at least in the Bible. You know it's beautiful in the Bible. How do you get reward in the Bible by trying? You get reward in the Bible by trying. What do I mean by that? Jesus, imagine this for you parents, what do you do with your children when your children are kind to their sister sometime? You praise them. You get them a reward. I'm so proud of you. You were so nice to your sisters. They give up something. You say, I'm so proud of you. I'm going to give you a reward. I'm going to give you an extra cookie. I'm going to give you an extra popsicle. I'm going to take you out for some. I'm going to give you a reward. Well, you know what? You're giving them a reward for. You're not giving them a reward for something that they've earned. You're giving them a reward for something that they should do all the time. Do you realize that that all of us, at some point, could get to heaven and God would be perfectly just to say, Tommy, you lived an utterly perfect life. You serve the poor. You preach the gospel. You did everything. It's unbelievable. Come on. You know, you're standing there going, throw me a bone, give me my reward. And God would be perfectly just as if he said, why do I owe you an award? You still was expected of you. Right? Every Christian is supposed to be benevolent to the poor. Every Christian is supposed to give up their money. What are you expecting for me? He could say that. In fact, the only way that you could ever earn a reward from God is if that somehow you could outperform Jesus. Right? You got there and he said, Tommy, you're the first one who did it. You outperform Jesus. You were better than he was. And because of that, I'm going to give you a reward. He doesn't say that. He says, you are rewarded because you tried. You trusted. You repented. Right? It's the same thing I've told you a million times. Right? The children is learning how to walk. And they fall. What do you say to them? You don't say, you need to say, you miserable little red-headed child. You know, none of the other children fall. You don't say that. Nor do you say, a beautiful, great planner. You just, it was expected of you. You know, your biped, you're supposed to walk. You don't say that. You scream, get the video camera. Bring her some melbatos. Something. Let's make a huge event out of this. And give them the character of the father. Right? We don't know what the reward will be in heaven. You just don't know. But give them the character of the father. I can't imagine that it would be anything but that. So what does he mean by those of you who will suffer loss? He said, some of you will be revealed. And you will suffer loss as if through fire. And you know, frankly, I'm not quite sure. All I could come up with was this. If you've ever heard Tim Keller, he's fond of saying this. He says that your present self always looks at your past self. And when you look at your past self, you say of your past self. Man, was I stupid back then. Right? You look 10 years back and you go, I was really idiot back then. I was really immature back then. I didn't know what I was doing back then. Now the rub is this. He says, that means your future self is always going to look back at your present self. And see, your present self is being stupid and an idiot. So what does that mean you are now? That means you're an idiot now, right? And so what Paul is telling them is he's not trying to induce guilt. He's not trying to manipulate them. What he is doing is giving them a picture into the future. And he says, unless you turn to Jesus and begin building with that which is imperishable, your future self is going to see your present self as having wasted your time. And what does that mean? That means you're wasting your time now. And what do people hate more than anything? What do people say all the time? Don't waste my time. Don't waste my time. And irony is most of it do it to ourselves all the time. You know what Paul is doing here primarily is to close with, if he's really trying to just force them into it to early Christopause, if you will. If you don't know what the word Christopause is, you don't worry. I just made it up. Basically I was reading Atlantic Monthly this week. And in Atlantic Monthly there's a place in the back where it talks about new phrases that are coined. And a new phrase that has been coined over the past several years is a phrase called filipause. It's derived from menopause. And what filipause is is when scientists come to the end of their career. And after spending the end of their career having researched and having gathered empirical evidence, they still relatively speaking have no answers to the questions they were asking. And so what they do is they become discouraged and they begin to look to philosophy or religion for answers. And apparently it is so common that it has become a phrase. You know Tommy's in filipause now, don't bother him. You know he's given up on trying to find the answers in his research, but in fact he's looking to something bigger and higher than him. And what Paul is trying to do is communicate to us not filipause, but if you will, Christopause. But there comes a time in everyone's life when you have to sort of take stock of what you are giving yourself to, what are you pouring yourself into? What are you gathering unto yourself? And is it any good? Is it worth your time? And is it declined by Jesus? And if it's not, you're wasting your time. And the point Paul is making this text simply, is that it's either going to be revealed that you're wasting your time in the future or it's going to be revealed that you're wasting your time now. And what Paul wants to do is he wants you to think about it now. What are you doing with the gospel? What are you doing with Jesus? Some of you are not even Christians. But what you do for you is, you know, is Jesus the answer to my questions? You should be asking that question, if you're honest at all. But if you're a Christian, you know what you should be asking as well? Is Jesus really the answer to my questions? Is he really the thing that is worth building my life on? And if he is, it should affect every other area of my life. And if it's not affecting every area of my life, maybe I don't really get it. Think about that. Let me pray. Jesus, we thank you that you see fit to save us unto yourself and to never let us go. And we also thank you that you see fit as the loving parent to teach us. Sometimes hard ways and sometimes easy. But nonetheless, because you care, you intervene and we thank you for that in your name. Amen.