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What Are You Building: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast of First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On our podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
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to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
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what God is doing in US and in our community.
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The sermon you're about to listen to comes from our Spring
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Mixtape 2025 Non Series Sermon Series.
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Rather than a series, this will be a collection of sermons based
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on what God is leading us to preach on this spring.
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You can find more information about our church at
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fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for listening.
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Good morning everybody. This morning scriptures reading
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comes from First Corinthians chapter 3.
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For when one says I follow Paul and another I will follow
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Apollo's. Are you not mere human beings?
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What after all is Apollo's and what is Paul?
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Only servants through whom you can came to believe as the Word
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has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed Apollo's
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Watergate, but God has been making it grow.
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So neither. So neither the one who plants
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nor the one who waters is anything but.
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Only God who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one
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who waters have one purpose and they will each be rewarded
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according to their own labor. For we are Co workers and God's
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service and you are God. You are God's bill and God's
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building. By the grace God has given me.
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I lay the foundation as a wide builder and someone else is
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building on it. But each one should build the
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care for. For no one can lay any
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foundation other than one already laid, which is Jesus
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Christ. This is the word of God for the
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people of God. Last time I had the opportunity
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to preach I had was talking about my love for a well thought
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out mission and our part in God's overarching mission
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throughout history. But we do not act by ourselves
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as the church. We are on mission together and
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who you partner with in mission is vital to the mission itself.
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And so this is as big as partnering with the global
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church, with the denomination that you line up with, the
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individual church that you attend, or even congregations
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that you partner with, like our beautiful relationship with the
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Lamb of God, House of Restoration, but also the
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individuals within the body, even ones that don't attend our
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church. I was very much blessed this
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past when was the concert Joanna Wednesday Thursday where a local
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sister in Christ used her platform and her senior solo to
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share scripture and sing about everyone being welcome at the
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Lord's table. And so it's beautiful to see
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those that we are in mission with doing the work of God.
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And when I think particularly in preparation of this, my brother
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Damian down in La Palmia immediately came to mind.
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He not only has helped host families as we take down mission
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trips for almost the past 15 years, but he's also one of the
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main voices and my eyes and ears on the ground for the sponsored
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children's project. So he makes sure that we are
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able to get all the school supplies to the kids that
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receive sponsorship. And I could not do the mission
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without him. And so he's been such an
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encouragement to myself. And what a blessing to have a
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brother in Christ to help us do our part in God's mission.
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But today we're going to look specifically at the beloved Paul
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and who partnered with him in ministry.
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But first, let us pray. Lord, I thank you by Your grace
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to be here this morning and ask that in this time I would be put
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aside and that Your Spirit would lead us.
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That Your Spirit would speak not only through me, but directly to
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the hearts of those here. That we would be transformed by
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Your Spirit more into your image and be given the boldness and
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courage like those examples of the faith to move forward,
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uniting to fulfill your mission in this world.
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Lord, we love you and we praise you in Jesus name.
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Amen. Little mental exercise to start
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us off and maybe wake us up is I want you to think of a book of
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the Bible and I'm going to narrow it down.
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A book of the Bible in the New Testament.
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That is not a gospel. Oh, you're distracted by the map
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now? It's OK.
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So think of a book of the Bible and the New Testament that is
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not a gospel. I can almost guarantee you that
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that book was written by Paul, and if you want to come up
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afterwards, I can verify which ones you were thinking of.
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But odds are in my favour because Paul wrote was the
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single author to write the most books in the New Testament.
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And as we see on the map, this is a map of his various, what
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they call his missionary journeys all over the place.
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And this is before the Euro rail existed.
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So he used boats, he walked horses, donkeys, all of the
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above to get from place to place with a mission to share the
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gospel to as many people as he could and the time that God gave
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him on earth. There's a reason why thousands
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of churches all over the world are named after Saint Paul
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because of how instrumental he is in the early church and in
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providing a lot of God's word to us as Christians.
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And so we are forever indebted to Paul for what he did as he
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was being faithful to what God called him to do.
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But today I I wanted us to look specifically at his second 2nd
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missionary journey because from the get go there is conflict and
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there is a deciding moment where he has to choose who he is going
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to go with on his second missionary journey.
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And his friend Barnabas wanted to bring along John Mark.
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And for those that don't know, on the first journey John Mark
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abandoned them part way through. And so Paul viewed John Mark as
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being unreliable for this second journey.
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And so after back and forth Paul decides to go forward with Silas
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on this journey. And the first time they went out
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on a missionary journey, it was a direct calling from God.
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And in the second time it was the general calling of sharing
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the gospel. And so they go out.
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And I'm sure that Paul was annoyed that every time they
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started to approach a place, the Spirit guided them away from
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sharing the gospel at that place.
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And so he's travelling and travelling, getting rerouted,
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travelling and travelling and getting rerouted.
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And instead of getting completely deterred, God sends
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provides a vision of a man in Macedonia calling him to share
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the gospel in Macedonia. And so Paul's faithful gets on a
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boat and lands in Philippi in Macedonia.
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There he meets later famous woman of the faith, Lydia.
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And upon hearing the gospel, she comes to faith and is very
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instrumental to the Kingdom building in that area.
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Shortly after, Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into
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jail. I don't know.
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Well, I only know of one that's been to jail fairly often in
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this congregation. But I don't believe he was
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beaten to get there. And in these kind of
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circumstances, it's very easy to lose hope, to lose faith.
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And yet Paul and Silas continue to praise God even in their jail
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cell and continue to pray out to him.
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And God is faithful to his faithful, and he sets them free.
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He sends an earthquake. They are broken free of their
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shackles and able to leave. And as they are heading out of
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the jail, one of the prison guards is about to commit
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suicide because he knows that it was his responsibility to keep
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them captive. And by failing at that
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responsibility, he was going to be put to death.
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Paul stops him, shares the gospel with him, goes with him
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to his home and shares the gospel with the prison guards
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family. And they come to faith in that
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household. Now, if Scott or I were to
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experience something like this, I'm sure we would then request a
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sabbatical because we had been through a lot, right?
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And yet Paul perseveres through and courageously continues on
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this mission journey. He continues to Thessalonica,
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Berea, Athens, and that's where we meet a scripture I'd like to
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share. But before we pull that up, Tim,
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before we do that, I'm curious. Show of hands, of literal hands.
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Who here before this sermon has heard of Paul and feels like you
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fairly have an idea of who Paul is?
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All right, OK, we've got good hands.
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Leave them up. Leave them up.
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OK, now leave your hands up if you feel like you're familiar
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with Priscilla and Aquila. OK, A little less famous, right?
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OK, so you can put your hands down.
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You're welcome. That's our stretch for the
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morning as we see Paul leaving Athens and going into Corinth.
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That's where we meet him in Acts chapter 18 this morning.
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And in verse one it says this. After this, Paul left Athens and
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went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila,
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a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with
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his wife Priscilla. Because Claudius had ordered all
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Jews to leave Rome, Paul went to see them.
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And because he was a tent maker, as they were, he stayed and
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worked with them. And so we have these two that we
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can gather a little bit at least specifically about Aquila, that
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he was a Jew originally from Pontus, but then at this time
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came from Italy with his wife because all the Jews were kicked
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out of Rome. Now, historians don't fully
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agree that every single Jew in Rome was kicked out because of
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the logistical nightmare of this, but especially the leaders
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in the Jewish community being exiled from Rome.
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So we can presume that Aquila and Priscilla were viewed as
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leaders in the Jewish community in Rome before they were exiled.
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And we also learned that Aquila was a tent maker, right?
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A Craftsman, just like Paul. And Paul hung out and worked
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with them building tents. But imagine, you know, when we
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think of the American dream, a lot of times it's people
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starting a business and growing that business and their success
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based off of that. But imagine having to move your
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location and restarting that business multiple times, right?
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So every time they're moving, you're building new clientele,
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you're building a reputation for your work everywhere you go.
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And so they are faithfully doing this everywhere they end up.
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As we move on into later in the same chapter, we see a familiar
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name that we read read about in our main scripture about how
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people were following Apollos and Paul and consider themselves
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followers of them specifically. And we see later in chapter 18
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it says, meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria,
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came to Ephesus. He was a learned man with a
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thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.
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He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke
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with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately.
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Though he knew only the baptism of John.
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He began to speak boldly in the synagogue.
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When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their
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home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
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We have a leader of the faith at this point growing in his
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notoriety for being a leader in the faith.
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And yet Priscilla and Aquila are there to not only get to know
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him, but they invite him into their house and they
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relationally disciple him. It says that they explain to him
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the way of God more accurately. But do you think that when he
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came over and they invited him, they said, this is what you
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don't understand. Explain it out and say, OK, good
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luck on your voyage. No, right.
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You sit down, you break that bread, you grow in a
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relationship, and through the same foundation of faith you're
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able to grow in truth and grace. And then later on we learned
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something very important about Priscilla and Aquila.
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In First Corinthians, we see it says the churches in the
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province of Asia send you greetings.
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Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does
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the church that meets at their house.
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And so we now see they not only invite individuals into their
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home, but they use their home as a home base for ministry.
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It's not just limited outwardly or Paul's gatherings or when
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Paul or Apollo's comes and preaches to the masses, but they
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are continuing this growth of the church within their own
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home. And you know, for only being
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mentioned, I believe, six times in Scripture, Paul seems to have
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such a high regard for this couple, even though we hear
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about Paul all throughout Acts, right?
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And then we have all of his letters that we love to read.
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And so it's easy to more focus on Paul.
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But who does Paul look to within the faith?
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And so we see in Romans 16, starting in verse three, he says
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this greet Priscilla and Aquila, my Co workers in Christ Jesus.
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They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches
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of the Gentiles are grateful to them.
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That's a pretty big deal. The I joked with the first
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service that if you're going to send me the seminarian, I'm
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going to have to learn some Greek words that I'll have to
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get my money's worth. And therefore I will impart on
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you that the Greek word for that is replaced with Co workers in
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English is actually the same route that we use for the word
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synergy. So he sees the synergistic
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relationship with Priscilla and Aquila as they are working for
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Christ Jesus. And not only that, we think of
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how much we are indebted as the church to Paul.
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And Paul points the people that he's greeting to Priscilla and
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Aquila, saying that all the churches of the Gentiles are
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grateful for them. That's some pretty high praise
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for some tent makers that hang out at their home and share the
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gospel and disciple people, right?
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You wouldn't think that maybe they had that large of an impact
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on the church as a whole. And if we look back to our main
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scripture and verse 4, it says, for when one says I follow Paul
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and another I follow Apollo's. Are you not mere human beings?
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What after all is Apollo's and what is Paul?
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Only servants through who you came to believe as the Lord has
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assigned to each his task. Paul and Apollo's are incredible
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men of the faith obviously, and as they acknowledged, they were
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merely human doing the task assigned to them by the Lord.
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And when reflecting upon Priscilla and Aquila following
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the task that God has provided them, I keep coming back to
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thinking of my friend and Co worker in Christ, Damian.
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Because Damian is not the pastor down in La Palmia.
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He has a full time job six days a week, usually on the ranch,
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picking limes, hard manual labor 10 hours a day.
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And then he has a family, 2 beautiful kids, one in middle
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school, one in high schooler and parents of teenagers.
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You know that that's potentially more work than your career.
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And then he also leads within the church, right?
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Not only on the administrative council, but he also preaches
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and teaches at mission churches and local villages around them.
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But he does not limit his leadership or the time of
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sharing the gospel within the church walls or the mission
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churches. He's very intentional about
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hiring people that he knows personally but do not know
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Christ, so that through the working day, his example, his
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speech, his talk about Christ and his life can have that
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impact. He can plant those seeds.
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He can water those seeds. Same thing with his home.
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There's very much a cultural division in the town between
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Protestants and Catholics, and Damian grew up Catholic and was
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able, is able to use the community that he grew up with
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to then bring them together with his brothers and sisters at the
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Methodist Church through parties and celebrations at their home,
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but also just individual invitations and being able to be
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that example and that light in his home as he hosts them.
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But Damian, though he at one point carried 80 lbs of limes
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for like a 5K and got second place, is still merely human and
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is using every area of his life to share the gospel, which is
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the task given to each and every one of us by the Lord.
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You aren't Paul or even a full time pastor.
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Thank God. You were all very lucky.
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And yet as a believer you should be in ministry full time.
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This doesn't mean necessarily volunteering more at church,
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though it can include that. But our jobs and our home life
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should revolve around Christ. Are we viewing them as ministry
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opportunities or is that limited to inside of these walls?
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And so how can we do this? I think letting people into our
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home can be scary or intimidating sometimes.
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I remember in college I was able to join a Kajic church in Camden
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where I was known as Brother Jeremiah as Ben loves to bring
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up and. At this church, they were
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preaching from James one evening about how the elders of the
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church should come and anoint the sick with oil.
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And the way he was preaching it made it seem like it was
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mandatory and you weren't fulfilling scripture if you
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didn't ask the elders into your home to do so.
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So I talked to him about it afterwards and he shared with me
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the culture and context in which he was working within the
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community. And he said that there'd only
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been a couple people in the whole congregation that ever let
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him through the doors of their homes as the pastor, as he tried
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to visit and walk with them personally.
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Most were too ashamed of their home life and didn't want the
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pastor to see how they were living at home.
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I remember growing up that my mom would ask me to clean before
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guests arrived. I did not see the point of that.
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They already knew us. They were coming to see us.
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They didn't care how much crap was on the coffee table where we
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were sitting around. But she was insistent.
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And I've been to many homes that before they even say hello, how
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are you? They start with please excuse
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the mess. And so there's there's a little
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bit of shame that sometimes comes into when we allow people
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into our homes. And I think COVID really
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intensified this, where our homes became our safe haven and
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became a place where we would primarily keep to ourselves out
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of confusion, out of fear of whatever it may be through the
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times. And though I didn't physically
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write down a list, after talking to many people through the
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years, it seems that we all kind of had a tier list of who and
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when we started inviting people back into our homes.
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How do we prioritize those to come in and visit, some with
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masks, some without masks, and so forth and so on?
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And as time went on, we started to loosen up the restrictions.
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But are we at a point now where we seek opportunities to get
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people into our homes and invite them into a place of
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hospitality, a place where we can exemplify the love of Christ
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in our homes? And so I provided I wrote here
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simple starter kit because sometimes we don't know where to
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start. And so I'm going to give you the
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layup and it's your choice whether you want a dunk or just
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fall past the backboard. Sports references.
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I'm sure most of you are proud of that.
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And so the first way is this summer, we're going to be
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starting up what we may be calling supper clubs, where
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we're able to gather, break bread together within people's
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homes and maybe discuss a little bit about what God is doing
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through the sermon series of this summer.
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But more specifically for our college kids.
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If you're one of our college kids, because you could you
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raise your hand, I'm going to throw you on the spot.
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We got 123. No, Timothy, not yet.
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Got a long way. We want to be able to gather our
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college kids this summer while they are home.
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And I don't know of many college kids that deny free food.
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I don't know many adults that deny free food.
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And so we are looking for families to be willing to invite
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the college kids into their home to host a dinner.
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I will be there as long as I'm in the country to help
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facilitate. But just to have a place where,
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like Aquila and Priscilla, we can invite those even from
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within the body, an opportunity to gather, break bread and
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disciple those within the body. Second, we have various ways in
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which we can engage our neighbors and our Co workers.
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I know that sometimes even without a meal train, we are
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able to provide meals to others or snacks to others.
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And it doesn't have to always be if someone is sick or grieving.
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But it can be as simple. I was thinking of you, and I
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know that your favorite food is banana bread.
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I could go for banana bread. And I don't know anyone that
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gets more upset or looks more poorly at someone after they
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have given you free food. Do we all like to receive free
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food? Yes.
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OK, awesome. If you know my address, you know
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what to do. But one of those things that we
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should be doing is living holy lives and engaging people
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wherever we are, whether it be work, whether it be school, if
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Christ is truly the center of our lives.
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It's really hard to talk to people for a long time and him
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not to come up in conversation if he is at the center of it
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all. And these are just some
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generalized areas, primarily food focus because I skipped
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breakfast this morning. But as you pray about what you
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can do in your places that God has entrusted you with in this
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season of life, ask him what talents, what gifts, what
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resources has he provided you specifically that you can use in
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ministry. Because he's not asking for more
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than what we can do, because we're merely humans doing the
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task assigned to us by the Lord. And if we return back to our
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Scripture in seven, it says so. Neither the one who plants nor
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the one who waters is anything but.
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Only God who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one
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who waters have one purpose and they will each be rewarded
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according to their own labor. For we are Co workers in God's
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service. You are God's field, God's
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building. We are not in charge of making
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things grow. Thanks be to God.
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Amen. That is a lot of pressure, and
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sometimes we put that pressure on ourselves unnecessarily.
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We have faith that our faithful works will bear fruit by the
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grace of God. And Paul even says by the grace
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of God, by the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as
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a wise builder and someone else is building on it.
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But each one should build with care, for no one can lay any
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foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus
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Christ. Now you thought we may never get
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to the sermon title, but this is where it comes in.
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What are you building? If scripture calls us to build
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with care, are we being intentional about every area of
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our lives having Jesus Christ as our foundation?
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Or are we focusing on building up temporary things for this
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lifetime alone? When people think of us, are we
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just another neighbor, or maybe worse, a neighbor that they
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don't even know the name of at work or school?
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Do we just blend into the social climate?
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You don't have to be a Paul. You aren't asked to be a Paul.
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You aren't even asked to be a Priscilla or Aquila.
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You are asked to be faithful in everything.
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Though we are merely human, our Lord has given us the task of
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making our home and ourselves a wholly safe place where people
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can experience the love of God shared with them.
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And before I close, I know sometimes people the the knee
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jerk reaction, especially with allowing people to enter into
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our home life, is that we may not feel like the most sociable
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of people, maybe not the most extroverted of people.
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And so going back to my friend Damian, the other half of that
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equation is his wife Doris. And Doris is the sweetest soul
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and always hospitable and loving and caring.
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She does not talk and it is not because she is mute.
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She just doesn't have it in her to start up conversations.
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So she greets. She then feeds and is a part of
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the congregation, smiles, laughs, nods, and answers
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questions when asked. But her way of showing God's
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love is through the service as people are in her house while
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Damian does all the talking. And so I'm sure that some of us
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in this room, especially married ones or even the kids, we have
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that dynamic where one of us does all of the talking and the
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other one is really good at serving and showing love in
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other ways. And so I don't want us to think
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that one means that we are less useful or fruitful in this type
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of ministry in our homes. And so as we ponder who we are,
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how God has created us to be, and how he expects us to not
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only plant and water seeds, but to build our entire lives on the
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foundation that is Jesus Christ, I ask again, what are you
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building? Let us pray.
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Lord, I thank you so much for the incredible examples of the
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faith that you have provided in history that we get to learn
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about through your Word, through what you've revealed to us
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through your Holy Word. And just ask that we would
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faithfully do the tasks that you have given us as a congregation,
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as believers, but also as individuals.
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That we would entrust you to grow whatever we plant, whatever
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we water. That we would be faithful as You
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have been faithful to us, and that we would trust You to bear
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fruit from our labor, no matter how awkward it may be, no matter
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how difficult or maybe not what we want to build with our lives,
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Lord. But we would trust that by
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building with care and using Christ as our foundation, Lord,
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that you would bless it and You would use it for things far
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beyond our lifetime, but that it would be glorifying to You and
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Your Kingdom. We thank You and we praise you
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in Jesus name, Amen.