Body Building:
God builds the body with foundational training: God's Word

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Pastor Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

During my recent vacation, I got to do something that I've been wanting to do for quite some time. I actually started a rather large project at the house. I started finishing off the basement. I've been planning this probably for two or three years, just looking forward to finally getting down there and making something out of that space, a little rec room for the kids to play in. I've just been looking forward to it forever, and it feels great to finally get started on it. There's just something about going down there and sawing wood and nailing it together. I don't know, I just enjoy the experience to no end. Maybe the best part of the whole thing is I get to work with my father-in-law, and he and I just seem to have a good time down there putting things together.

But I have to tell you the single most important event in pulling off a project like this happens on the very first day. In fact, the whole project hinges upon what happens that first day. In fact, to go further than that, it all hinges upon the first wall that's constructed. And even more than that, it hinges upon the first piece of lumber that you finally lay down on the floor as you start getting ready to construct that wall.

You see, the first thing that has to happen when you do a project like that is you have to set the first wall, that first piece of lumber so it's square and it's plum. And from that, well that's what the rest of the basement takes form from. If you have the first wall square and plum and you base all of your measurements from that first wall, then the rest of the basement will be square and plum. If not, well then it looks rather unusual to say the least.

Now I understand probably some of you are wondering, “What is square? And isn't plum a fruit we eat?” All right. I struggled with how to explain this, so we're going to build a wall here. Don't get too nervous. Okay. Now when you're building a wall, you want it plum. That is, if this is the first piece I put down, as long as I put the next piece directly on top of that piece, the wall goes straight up. And I put this one directly on top and this one directly. Now as long as I keep them all aligned, I could go on probably forever. Now eventually, these would fall down; but if I put them together with glue or nails, there's just no telling how tall I could go with this wall. And hopefully, you can see, even in the back, it's nice and straight. That's called being plum. If it were kicked to this side or this side, then it would be out of plum. Now also, though, you want things to be square. So that means the second wall you build has to go right next to this one. And again, you put one on top of the other and keep it straight. Now it looks square. Now if I kicked it out like that, it looks rather funny, doesn't it? We'd have an odd-shaped room if I did that. It may look a little modern. Some people might like it, but not me. I'm a symmetrical kind of guy. I like things square. So you want to make sure it's plum so it's not going this way and it's square. You have a 90-degree angle where the walls meet together. That doesn't seem that tough, does it? It all depends on the first piece of lumber you put down and the first wall you construct. Even if you vary from that just a little bit, it can be disastrous. Let me show you what I mean. Let's take our wall again here. And this time, we're going to construct it. Now we have our base here, and it's all square and plum. But now I'm going to put this one and I'm going to guess that I'm, at best, a 32 nd of an inch off from the base. What's a 32 nd of an inch? Okay, but let's follow that line up just a little bit. And I'm just going to keep on with that line that started out only a 32 nd of an inch off from where the base is supposed to be. You see my wall starting to look a little interesting here? It's not looking like something you'd want. (Wall falls down.) That's what happens. What starts out is maybe even just the smallest of degree out of plum or out of square, the further down the line you get, it can just be disastrous. Where you begin from will determine where you'll end up.

It's this kind of picture that St. Paul paints for us in the second chapter of his letter to the Church at Ephesus. He talks about building a solid foundation and, from my analogy here, a foundation which is square and plum. And upon this square and plum foundation, you are to build your life. And if you build your life in alignment with that, then you form a structure which is solid and firm. Nothing to worry about. He says that the foundation is the teachings of the apostles and the prophets, scripture itself. And he goes on to say the first thing that's put in place, everything is trued up to, the chief cornerstone he calls it, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, the teachings of scripture formed the foundation. And if we are in line with that foundation, then we grow together as a church, as a structure which is solid and firm and strong and, even as individuals, we base our life and stand upon that solid foundation of scripture with Jesus Christ being the cornerstone. If we vary even the smallest degree and move away from that, the results can be disastrous.

You see, God has given us the foundation. God has given us His Word. You've probably thought of it before, but think again. In the pages of this book, in the pages of your bible, God spoke to us. Not St. Paul. Not Peter. Not Matthew. God spoke to us. They may have been his mouthpiece, but they were inspired by God. The word contained in this book is God's Word, and we believe everything in here is true, that it contains no errors. It doesn't contradict itself. Imagine it for a moment that God has revealed Himself to us and He's given it to us and He says, “Here, this is the foundation for your life.” St. Paul talking about this word again when he wrote to a young pastor, Timothy, said, “All scripture is God-breathed.” That is, all of scripture is inspired by God. And he says, “It's useful. It's useful for teaching, for rebuking, for admonishing, for training up in all of righteousness.” Jesus said, “This is what you live by more than bread. You live by the very word of God.” Everything we need to know about God is contained in here. Everything we need to know about ourselves is contained in here. Do we have other knowledge about who we are? Certainly, we do. But what we need to know is here. It's all revealed to us in God's Holy Word.

And then scripture a couple of times says, “And this is the foundation. This foundation takes its shape and its form from the cornerstone and the cornerstone is that of Jesus Christ Himself.” Now back in Paul's day, when you built a building, you didn't start out with a wooden structure. Instead, usually it was built out of stone. So you'd find a stone that looked pretty straight. It looked pretty square. And then you'd even work on it some more, and you'd hone it down so you would take extra time with that first stone to make sure it was all square and plum. And you'd lay it down first and then the rest of the foundation would be formed from that first stone.

Scripture tells us the foundation that is laid has Jesus Christ as the cornerstone. In other words, all of scripture finds its meaning in Jesus. From Genesis to Revelation, scripture has but one purpose: To show Jesus Christ and to show Him as the Savior of all mankind. It has all kinds of history in it. It has all kinds of facts and figures in it. But when it comes down to it, the central focus of the entire bible is to demonstrate Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of mankind.

John summarized it well at the end of his gospel. He says, “There are many other things Jesus did among us. They're not recorded in this book, but these are recorded that you might know Jesus is the Christ and, by believing in Him, you might have eternal life.” All of scripture finds its purpose in revealing Jesus, and it reveals of Jesus the one central teaching of scripture. St. Paul included it in his letter to the Church at Ephesus. In fact, in the very same chapter we're looking at, at the beginning of Chapter 2, you probably know it well, Ephesians 2:8-10, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It's a gift of God. Not by work so no one can boast, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.” If we start out with the foundation for our life as scripture and we move to the fact that the central message of scripture is Jesus and then we move beyond that and what is the core teaching of Jesus, the core teaching when you finally boil it all down is that you and I are saved by grace. It is an undeserved love God has for us, and we receive that grace through faith, faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

The central message of scripture tells us, because Jesus lived and died, your sins are forgiven. You don't have to walk around with guilt anymore. You don't have to have shame anymore. It's gone. Because Jesus Christ rose again, life doesn't end when it ends in this world. But it goes on forever. It goes on in eternity in heaven. The central message of scripture: We're saved by grace through faith, faith in Jesus. That's the foundation God has laid out for us in His Word. And He says we are to build the church and we are to build our individual lives firmly planted on that foundation, to make sure we are in line with the foundation God has laid down for us. If we change the foundation, we change everything.

In the world we have today, there are some that want to change the foundation, just as it was in Paul's day and that's why he addressed it. Some want to change the foundation and change the central teaching that scripture has for us, and the results are disastrous. Let's take a look at the Mormon Church, for example. The Mormon Church, if you've watched their television commercials, will flash the Holy Bible on the screen. It will offer to send you one along with their own book. The Mormon Church talks about Jesus, talks about all the great things Jesus did, how admirable Jesus is. The Mormon Church talks about things we value. They talk about family and strength in the family. They have a lot of the same convictions we do. So, as you look at it as a whole, you think, “Well, they're doing great things. They're building upon the same foundation we are.” Except they've changed the foundation, ever so slightly. But you change it just a little bit, and it changes everything. You see, they talk about Jesus but not the same Jesus we talk about. They'll say Jesus is God, a god. They won't talk about Jesus being the one and only Son of God, because that's not what they believe. They believe that Jesus was once a man and finally He worked His way up until He became a god, just like all of you are to work your way into becoming a god. They changed the foundation just slightly, but it changes everything. You lose grace. There is no need for grace. You lose salvation. You lose heaven as we know it. Everything is lost because you shifted the foundation just a little bit, and you've lost the central thing that scripture wants to assure us with. You change the foundation, you change everything.

That's why, in God's Word in the Book of Revelation, when John finishes up his letter, he says, “Now don't add to or subtract what has been written here.” God is telling us that we are not to add to scripture and we're not to take away from scripture. In other words, we're not to speak where scripture is silent as if God were saying something when he is not nor where God has spoken clearly. Are we to act as if He didn't speak at all and ignore it? It's happening today in the Christian churches as we know it. Where God has spoken very clearly and definitively on a subject, subjects such as homosexuality or abortion or euthanasia, where God has spoken clearly, articulated His point so you can't miss it, and some Christian churches choose to ignore it and to act as if God did not speak. You shifted away from the foundation. You're not aligned with the foundation God put in.

Others want to go to the other extreme and add on to what God has said. In areas where God is silent, in areas where God has given us freedom, such as who we pray with or the style in which we worship Him, God has given us freedom in those areas. And yet there are some who want to put in rules and regulations and say you must do it this way and that way and box it in speaking where scripture has given us freedom and yet taking that freedom away. God says, “Don't add to and don't take away.” He's given us the perfect foundation, and it's based upon the perfect Son of God. It's that foundation we are to line up with and none other.

What that calls upon us to do then is to constantly go back to God's Word, to constantly go back to God's Word and to make sure what we teach and what we believe and how we live is in line with what God says. You know, it's easy to believe but how much do you really need to study scripture. Think about it for a minute. Scripture has been studied for thousands of years by people who have dedicated their lives to nothing more than just studying the scriptures. Wouldn't you think they would have exhausted it by now? That they've studied everything that has to be studied, that they've come to all the conclusions they can come to? And yet God keeps revealing Himself to us. His Word never changes and yet, throughout the ages, it remains relevant. That is the astounding thing of God's Word. It's dynamic. It's alive. It's not like a history book. It's not like a textbook. Even though our lives change, the scriptures do not change. And yet, it remains relevant to us in each and every stage of life we enter into. That's why we constantly come back to the scriptures, constantly study the scriptures, to make sure we're in line with what God has taught us.

I'll give you an example from the basement project. We had constructed most of the walls in the basement. And all of them based upon that first wall we put in, taking all of our measurements from that, making sure all the rest of the walls were square with that first wall we put in. We're about to put a 10-foot long plate on the floor, and we put the square down at the corner and we look. It's 1/8 of an inch off. What's 1/8 of an inch? Come on. How much could that be really? If you walk 10 feet to the other end of the 2 x 4, that 1/8 of an inch turned into 1 1/4 inches. That will look goofy in my book. So you know what we had to do? We had to come back to the other plate we had just laid down on the floor, crowbar that puppy up, and then realign it. Because it was out of alignment, it was throwing this wall out of alignment. We had to pull it up, reposition it, and put it back down. Now that wall would be straight.

Sometimes we come back to God's Word and, all of a sudden, we find out we're out of alignment. All of a sudden, we've shifted off the foundation one way or another. And God's Word calls us back, and we take a step back. We reevaluate, and we put ourselves back in line with what God is teaching us in His Word.

My Friends, what it calls for is for every Christian to be reading God's Word, every single one of you to be involved in reading and studying God's Word. You just have to. It's the foundation God has given to us. There are many opportunities around Gloria Dei for you to do that. In the weeks and months to come, there will be even more opportunities for you to get involved. The question is not, “Can you get involved?” The question is, “Will you get involved?” The question is not, “Do you have the time?” But, “Will you make the time? Will you make it a priority?”

The challenge I believe God is giving to you this morning and the challenge I'm giving to you this morning is in the weeks and the months to come, you find the time and you make the commitment, whether it's on a Sunday morning bible study, whether it's Wednesday morning, Wednesday night, whether it's a small group, whether it's online, whether it's by yourself, whether it's 40 Days of Purpose , or it's a ChristCare group. Whatever vehicle it is that it takes to find the time, make the commitment, come back to your foundation. Make sure you're lined up with what God has laid out for us, because when our lives are aligned with the foundation God gives us, the one thing He builds us up strong and secure but also He builds us, the church here at Gloria Dei, He builds us up as a strong structure, a secure structure, because we have our base. We have our foundation, and His Word and His Word alone. Amen.

Copyright 2004 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church