THE CHURCH UNCENSORED

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

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“Building God’s Church”

1 Corinthians 3:10-15

Rev. Dustin Largent

February 15, 2026

 

The problem is this: the Corinthians—the Corinthians—though they were Christians, though they were saints, though they were believers, though they were God’s people, though they were righteous in God’s eyes, did not live that way. The way they lived was not like people who were controlled by the Spirit, but as people who were of the flesh. And so, as a result, Paul says, “I can’t talk to you like believers. I have to talk to you like unbelievers.” And so, he started to talk about this problem that they had with the church being divided.

 

And they were divided over individual people. Some people were like, “I’m in the Paul camp. I think Paul is my leader. I love Paul, and I love all the stuff he says.” And others were saying, “I’m an Apollos guy. Apollos is my guy, and I’m all for him.”

And Paul was trying to explain to these people that you can’t do that. And the metaphor that he used was one of agriculture.

You remember that? He was talking about plants. And he was saying that all Paul did—everything he did—was plant. He planted the church.

 

All Apollos did was water the church. He built on what had already been established. And so, the issue was, well then, who is growing it? Well, God is growing it. You don’t glorify the person who waters it. You don’t glorify the person who plants it.

You glorify the one who makes it grow. And that’s the way it is with God. And he’s talking about His church. And he’s talking about us as people.

 

Now, if you remember, at the very end—you might have missed this—he made a quick U-turn in the metaphor that he was using. Let’s go back to it in verse 8 of chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians. It says this: “The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.”

 

So, we talked about that—that they are rewarded not by their success, but by their work, by the fact that they are working hard. And then it says, “For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field,” right?

What’s that? Agriculture. He’s using that as the metaphor. Then it says, “God’s building.”God’s building. Well, he did something there that maybe you didn’t recognize. He just did the old switcheroo with the metaphor. He went from plants, from agriculture, to architecture.

 

And so, in this passage today, he’s not going to talk about a field and who’s planting and who’s doing this. He’s going to be talking about a building and the process of building. Any of you guys ever build a house? Any of you ever build a house or be involved in the building of a house? Some of you—nobody wants to raise their hand—but yes, there we go. We’ve got one person who’s done it.

 

When I was a broker—when I was a broker out in Seattle—I would work with builders. It was great to work with a builder because if you found a plot of land, then once you found that plot of land, you’d get a commission on the sale of that land. But then they would build those houses, and then you’d get what’s called list-backs. So, let’s say you sell them a lot, and it’s like five acres, and they build a bunch of houses on it. Well, then I get to list all those houses too, and I get to make a commission on that. So, it was great working with builders. And when they build, there’s a process that they go through in the building. I mean, you don’t just show up one day and just start digging a hole. There’s a process. And there are four parts to that process—at least four that I’m going to talk about—and four that are related to this passage.

 

The first one is architecture. You don’t just show up with a bunch of material, right? You show up and you hire somebody to plan the building. You say, “Well, I want four bedrooms, and I want three bathrooms,” or “I want a two-car garage,” or “I want a three-car garage,” or “I just want a carport.” But there’s architecture that’s involved. They plan it. Somebody plans all of this together, and you have input as the builder, and you have input as the person owning it, but there’s architecture.

The second thing that’s involved in architecture is that you have to put a foundation down, and it has to be a good foundation.

 

You can’t have a foundation that doesn’t match what you’re building. The foundation matters as far as what you’re building. So, let’s say you’re going to build a $50,000 house—or let’s say you’re building a $100,000 house. Well, you don’t put in a $500,000 foundation on a $100,000 house. And if you’re building a $3 million house, you don’t skimp and put in a $50,000 foundation. You need a foundation that matches what you’re building because the building is reflected by the foundation, right? So, you don’t spend $50,000 and only make a foundation here, but your building is all the way around.

 

The third thing is you’ve got to start building. And when you build, you’ve got to determine what kind of materials you’re going to use. Are you going to use wood? Are you going to use stone? Are you going to use a steel roof or a metal roof? Are you going to have composite shingles? What are you going to do—what tile floor, whatever? What materials are you going to use based on what your needs are?

 

And then finally—and people forget this one—you need an inspection. Before anybody moves into that house, they don’t let you just move into something you just came in and did. They inspect it. Inspectors come in, and they take a good look at the house.

Now, what is the church? Never in the Bible is the church called a building. Okay? We’re talking about the church here. Okay? We’re talking about a building here, but the Bible never actually calls the church a building. When Jesus says, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not stand against it,” He’s not saying that the gates of hell won’t stand against this building. When we talk about a church, what we’re talking about is the people who are involved. So, on our sign outside, it says Sonrise Bible Church. But we are only Sonrise Bible Church when Christians who belong to this body are in this building. So, we should change the sign. Maybe we should get facilities to do that—change the sign so it says Sonrise Bible Church when Christians are present, right? Don’t you think? Because otherwise it’s not the church. It’s just a building, right?

 

It’s a great tool. We love this building. It’s a pretty building. I love the stained glass. We’ve got pews and plenty of room for us to meet. But this building is not the church. It never has been the church, and it never will be the church. The church is people. God, when He is building His building—when He’s building His church—and He’s using building as an analogy, He’s not talking about a physical building. He’s talking about us as people. When He talks about a foundation, He’s not talking about concrete. When He’s talking about building materials, He’s not talking about wood, cement, and stone. That’s not what He’s talking about. He’s talking about us as a church. These are metaphors. Likewise, when you get a group of people—if we all get together and meet at McDonald’s on a Wednesday night—the church is at McDonald’s. I love having church at McDonald’s, right? Because now the church is not here. You say, “Hey, come to church,” and all of a sudden the women are at Culver’s, and it’s like, hey, the church went out to you. All of a sudden the church went to McDonald’s. All of a sudden the church went to the park. All of a sudden the church went here. And then after the service, the church divides up into all its little tentacles and is all over the place. It’s at John Deere, and it’s over here, and it’s in a building over here, and it’s at the apartments over here. And the body of Christ is all over the place because it’s not about inviting people to the church.

We can invite people to the building, but when you invite people to church, you’re not inviting them into this building—you’re inviting them into this group of people. Do you understand that? When you invite people to church, that’s what you’re doing. Okay?

 

So let’s start with architecture. Who is building the church? Right? Who’s the architect? Who made the plan for how the church is going to be? Let’s take a look at what Jesus says in Matthew 16, verse 18. It says, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” He wasn’t talking here about hell being unable to overcome a building, right? It says in Ephesians 1:4–5, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world.” So, when did He begin to architect the church? Before He even made the earth. Before He even said, “Let there be light,” He had architected the church and how it was going to function.

 

It says, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship.” And how did He predestine that? That the way He was going to save us was through Jesus Christ. So, He predestined the way that we would have a church. He predestined that the church would be according to and by the work of Jesus on the cross. And then it says, “According to His pleasure and will,” which means that He gets to decide what He wants to do. And the reason He builds the church the way He builds it—the reason He goes through the steps He does as far as architecture and foundation—the reason He does all of that is because this is what He wants.

The church is not about what we want. The church is about God’s predestined plan for how He wants the church to work, and we are a part of it. And it’s always better when you do things God’s way than our way. God knows best how the church functions and what the church does.

 

God is the architect of salvation, and He saves the people who become a part of the church. Scripture says that He is the author of salvation, right? Jesus is the author of salvation. That’s another way of saying He’s the architect of our salvation—the architect of the church.

 

The second question is this: What is the foundation the church is built on? Right? What do we build on? What is He building this thing on? That’s an important question. Is He building it on Paul? Is He building it on Apollos? Is He building it on Cephas, or Simon? What is He building it on? Because that matters. When you decide what church to be a part of, you need to look at the foundation. Some of you are looking around and saying, “Well, I don’t know what church to be involved in. I don’t know if I should be with this body or maybe with the body over there.” What matters is this: you need to look first at whether the architect of that church is the Lord God according to Scripture. When you look at it, does the church look like what Scripture says the church should look like? And then, does it have the foundation that a solid church of Jesus should have?

 

You might ask, “Well, what does that look like? What is the foundation?” There are all kinds of churches with all kinds of different foundations. If you go to the Mormon church, their foundation is not based on Christ. They don’t even believe He is divine. If you go to the Catholic church, what is the foundation? Well, Jesus is there, but it’s equal ground with the pope. The pope has the same authority as Scripture. And it’s not the same Christ who saves completely. You still have to do things after you die in order to get out of purgatory. That’s not what Scripture says. So, what is the foundation?

 

Let’s look at verse 10. It says, “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder.” So who laid it? Paul did. He laid the foundation. And someone else is building on it. Who is building on it? Apollos. Paul planted the church in Corinth. He planted it with Jesus as the foundation—he planted it on the gospel. After he was there for 18 months, he moved on, and they got a new pastor. His name was Apollos. He watered the church. He continued to grow the people by giving them more and more of the gospel and more and more of Jesus.

 

And Paul says, “Each one should build with care, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid.”

What is the foundation that has already been laid? Jesus Christ. You don’t mess with the foundation. If it’s based on Christ, you don’t move it and say, “Well, now it’s going to be based on the pope,” or “Now it’s going to be based on our own theology,” or “Now it’s going to be based on the idea that someday we’ll get our own planet.” You can’t do that. When you pull the church off its foundation, it ceases to function. It ceases to have power. It ceases to be the church. So, when you’re looking for a church, look for one that is solidly built on the foundation of Jesus Christ as presented in His holy Word.

 

And before you enter eternity—well, we’ll get to that in a minute. Some churches are built on moral ideas. You go to some churches—and I’m not trying to rip on churches; I’m just trying to be realistic—there are a lot of churches that no longer hold their foundation on Christ. Their foundation is now on, “We’re going to move it over here and deal with social justice issues.” We’re not really going to base it on the gospel. We’ll kind of forget about Jesus in the foundation, and we’re not even going to talk about that. We don’t even care that He died on the cross for us. That’s irrelevant.

 

There are a good number of churches that think Him dying on the cross is completely irrelevant. What matters is that He was the perfect example of self-sacrificial love, and we should act like He acted. He’s not divine—He was just a good example. And so now let’s go out and just love everybody and accept everything as equally good. That’s not the foundation of the gospel. Some churches build on ideas. Some build on political purposes. Some build on a pastoral personality—and if that pastor leaves, the church just dies. That’s not good. Some build on traditions. Maybe the foundation of the church was solid on the gospel at one point, but then it drifted. And yet the church continued to function week after week by doing the same old things it had always done. It felt like church because the traditions were still there. But that cannot be the foundation of the church. It can’t.

 

Here’s the truth: God’s church is built to last for eternity. Isaiah 28:16 says, “So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation.’” Who is that cornerstone? It’s Jesus.

Jesus shows up, and the Jews don’t want Him to be the foundation of their religion. Why? Because He says, “I’m the foundation.” He says, “Tear down this temple, and I’ll rebuild it in three days.” They didn’t like that.

 

In Acts chapter 3, Peter heals a lame beggar. You might remember this story. And the religious leaders arrest him because he’s preaching about Jesus as the foundation of salvation. Look at what it says. Acts chapter 4. It says, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers and elders of the people: if we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this—you and all the people of Israel—it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.’” What’s the foundation? What made this possible? Jesus. It goes on: “Jesus is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.” You didn’t want Jesus to be the foundation of your religion because that would remove your authority. So, you rejected the true foundation so you could maintain your system. And what did you do? You killed the foundation. But God raised Him from the dead and installed Him as the foundation anyway, because you don’t have power over Him. “You don’t have power over Him.”

It says, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

 

In other words, since you rejected the true foundation, your building has no power. Why wasn’t anyone being healed by the rabbis in first-century Jerusalem? Why weren’t lives being transformed? Why weren’t people being freed from sin? Because they rejected the foundation. God’s means for reaching and ministering to the world is His church, built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

 

Now, I’ve worked in a lot of parachurch organizations. When I first came out of college, I joined Youth for Christ, and I worked for Youth for Christ. That’s not a church. That’s an organization built by Christians, specifically for evangelism.

Is there anything bad about that? No—especially when they are working directly with the church. But the chosen organism God has selected to change the world is not the government. It’s not some side organization. His chosen instrument, the one He laid out with the foundation, is the church.

 

That’s what He’s chosen, and that’s what He wants to use to bring change to the world. And this church—I’ll tell you—it’s got a rich history. It was originally built in 1863. It’s had a bunch of different names. At one point, when I was reading through some of the old records—we have a bunch of old books about the church’s history—it was originally called something like the Shabbona something church. Then it became the Congregational Church. Then it was the Congregational Church of Christ. Then it became the Congregational Church again. There have been something like fifty pastors here—lots of pastors. And I’ll tell you this: when this church was planted—when it was established—there wasn’t a big group. But the people who were there loved Jesus. They were passionate about the gospel in their area. They loved Jesus, they wanted to grow, they wanted to evangelize, and they wanted to reach people. And the church was solid, and it grew.

Over the years—over more than a hundred years, since 1863—Lincoln was president, for crying out loud—that’s how long ago this was—there were times when this church flourished. At one point, the records show there were as many as ninety-one people in Sunday school. That’s a lot for a small town, especially when people didn’t have cars. People walked to church, and the church grew.

 

But then, if you look at the history, what would happen is this: the foundation would start to drift. The church wouldn’t be solid on Christ and the gospel. They’d go through pastors quickly—one for a year, another for a year and a half, another for a year. And then someone would come along and say, “Wait a second. Why aren’t we building on the foundation of Christ? Why aren’t people worshiping Jesus the way they should? Why are we built on tradition instead of the solid rock?”

And you know what would happen? That pastor would stay for ten or fifteen years, sometimes longer, and the church would grow. Ministry would flourish. They’d build additions. They’d expand. God would bless the work. Then that pastor would leave, or pass away, and the church would drift again. They’d bring in a few pastors who didn’t preach the gospel clearly, and attendance would decline. And then eventually, the church would return to the foundation—because churches grow when they are built on the true and right foundation of God. We all have a tendency to drift. Churches do too. We start wanting to build with our own materials, using our own wisdom, thinking we know how to make the church grow. And I get that. But churches drift toward personality, tradition, human wisdom, or even the building itself. We start thinking, “This building is the most sacred thing here.” And that’s not true.

 

So, let’s go back to this. Christ is the architect of the church—number one. Number two, Christ is the foundation that the church stands on. Number three, the church must be built with the right materials, because there is going to be an inspection. All right? Now, what is built is going to be based on the foundation and on what kind of materials are used. We’re not going to do a $2,000 foundation for a $700,000 house. And we’re not going to do a $100,000 foundation for a shed that’s worth $50,000. We’re going to be careful about that. But look at what it says here. Verse 12 says, “If anyone builds on this foundation…” What foundation? The church is built on Jesus—on the gospel. And what does that mean? It means this: we are building the church on the truth that Jesus Christ loves us, that He died on the cross for us, and that He paid the penalty for our sin. We deserved death. He paid for that by dying on the cross. God requires justice for offenses against Him. He can’t just let sin go. So, what did He do? He said, “I will pay the penalty myself, so that I can remain just and still offer you grace.” The penalty was fulfilled so that God could remain just, and at the same time offer salvation. That’s the foundation. It’s Jesus.

 

And then it says, “If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw…”Now, some of those don’t sound like very good building materials, right? Gold? Sure. Silver? Okay. Costly stones? That makes sense. Wood? Fine. But hay and straw? That sounds like a problem. That sounds like the big bad wolf is going to come and blow your house down. You don’t want the big bad wolf blowing down your church.

 

And there’s both a corporate and an individual aspect to this building. Christians together make up the church, but this is also talking about how you build your own life. God builds the church by using the church. His means for building His church is you and me. So, you go out and share the foundation with someone. They become a Christian. They become part of the body. The body grows.

 

Now there are two important factors regarding building materials. First is quality. Second is durability.

Look at the list: gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, straw. Notice how the materials move from valuable and fire-resistant to less valuable and more flammable. Did you notice that? In the list they get more flammable as they go along. So gold, silver, costly stones, they last a long time.  Wood, hay and straw, they might last a while, but they won't last like long term. So, it says their work, it says verse 13, “their work will be shown for what it is because that day, the day will bring to light.” What day is it talking about? The day of judgment for believers. You go, there's a day of judgment for believers? There is, there is a day of judgment for believers.

 

Now before you enter eternity, you're gonna stand before Jesus and all your works, all your deeds, all your motives, all your attitudes are gonna be judged before God. Did you love people? Did you care about people? Did you have good motives? Were you advancing Christ's mission? Did you strive for holiness? Did you invest time in eternal things? Or did you invest it all on earthly things just like acquiring stuff and watching TV? How did you spend your time? How did you spend your money?

 

How did you spend that? And did you build a life based on the foundation of Christ? Right, if he's your foundation, did the life that you built for yourself, does it match that foundation? Did your, does your life match Jesus that was the foundation? Or you have a foundation that's solid and you got this wacky messed up deal in your life. That was the problem with the Corinthians, right? Because their life didn't match the foundation.

 

He couldn't talk to him like a normal church because they were built with all kinds of fleshly materials. You following what I'm saying? And there's gonna be an inspection. Look what it says, it goes on, it says, it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person's work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss, but yet will be saved. Notice, he's still saved.

 

So, this is talking about Christians. You're building, what are you building your life on? A foundation, what's the foundation? Jesus Christ. You're gonna build with all kinds of different materials in your life. Some of you are gonna build with things that are just earthly, that are gonna pass away, its hay, it's straw. Some of you are gonna build with things, you're gonna build it on faith and you're gonna trust God and you're gonna love people and you're gonna do things sacrificial and it's gonna be building a house that's solid, it's gold, it's silver. And what's gonna happen is one day you're gonna stand before God at what's called the Bema seat of God and when you stand there, there's gonna be an inspection of your building. Now, you've been to a few inspections, I'm sure.

 

I've been to a few inspections. They go under the house, right? They're looking for rats, they're looking for water leaks, they're looking for whatever, they go on the roof, they're checking out the shingles, you're running all the sinks, right? And plugging the thing up and then you let all the water go out and you're seeing that the drains work. That's not how this inspection will work. You know how this inspection works up in heaven?

 

Jesus comes out with a flamethrower and shows fire; he sets your house to fire. And what is still standing, what is still standing is what goes into eternity. What lasts. Everything that's freshly, everything that didn't matter for eternity, it's nothing, it doesn't matter. It's wiped out. Now, there's some weird views about what happens when you die and you go up to heaven, okay? And about the judgment. So, one of the views that there is, is it's this idea that Peter judges you at the pearly gates. How many of you think that's, you like that one?

 

That's the most common. You watch cartoons and especially Looney Tunes or something like that and I don't know. Yosemite Sam dies and the next thing he's up there and Peter's up there, ‘cause Peter apparently has some role in the judgment. And he's up there and there's pearly gates and there's one gate to get in and he's there and they say, all right, well, what did you do in order to be able to get into heaven, right? That's not in the Bible anywhere. That's nowhere. You're never gonna have to deal with that, right? That's a swing and a miss. Here's the second one. That believers are judged for the sins they committed after they were saved. Okay, so I gave my life to Christ on earth.

 

I was at camp one summer. I gave my life to Jesus and then once I get up to heaven, then there's gonna be a second judgment for all the things that I've done wrong. And God's gonna say, yeah, you were saved but you also looked at that worm and lustfully and you also did this. So now you're gonna have to pay for those sins. Not true. Not true.

 

Let me explain this to you. When you die as a Christian and you come up, you are perfectly righteous before God. There is no sin. Your sin was paid for 100% on the cross. So, you're not going up there with some, oh, am I gonna get in or not? No, you're in because your position, which we talked about last week, is perfectly righteous. Some people say the believer's gonna be judged for the sins that they didn't confess after they saved before they died. So maybe you're Catholic and you're thinking, all right, so here's what happens. As long as I go in and I talk to the priest and I confess my sins or I get down on my knees, after I sin, after I sin and I confess that sin, then that's wiped out. No, that sin was wiped out on the cross before you were ever even born. All your sins, past, present, and future were completely wiped out. You were imputed the righteousness of God from that point. You will not be judged. Romans 8 once says there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. None! You will not be condemned for your sin. Then what is going on here?

 

What is this judgment? Just because you're saved, you're saved. And you're building, you're building for Christ. There's a reward. You're building reward. You're building a house. And that reward, you're not gonna be rewarded for anything that wasn't for eternal purposes, that wasn't based on the foundation of what you were built on. So that's what it's gonna look like. No Christian's gonna be judged according to his sins. The saved won't be condemned for any sins they've committed. Their judgment already happened on the cross. You were already judged. Now, unbelievers are gonna have to face judgment because there has not been judgment for them yet. Right? Christ's judgment on the cross, the judgment that was paid for your sin, didn't, they didn't accept that. So they have decided that they want to receive the judgment for their life for themselves. They've made that decision. I want you to judge me based on what I've done. And God says, okay, I'll judge you based on what you've done. You don't want that. You don't want it to be fair. It's not fair. You wanna be judged on the grace of God.

 

Let's keep going. It says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, 10, it says, “for we must all appear before the judgment.” That word is, well, they call it the Bema Seat, but the word is Bematos “seat of Christ so that each of us may receive what is, due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” And this word for Bema, it's the word that's used, we see the Olympics now. It's the word that's used for the podium, that it’s used for two things. It's the word that's used for the podium, that when you run the race, or you ski down the hill, or you do whatever, you're gonna get a reward for how good you did. And they get you on the podium, and they make you stand up on there, and then everybody sees it. So that's one. The other is, it's also the judgment seat by which they're standing there at the finish line and determining whether you ran the race right, or you did it right.

 

Or if you came at first, or second, or third, or whatever. And so, it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 4-5, we'll get to this later, it says, “therefore judge nothing before the appointed time, wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart.” See the motives matter, our motives on earth matter. That's a part of our judgment. That's a part of our reward. We had good motives when we did it. At that time, each will receive their, now what's the reward? What's the reward they're getting? What do you get? You getting a gold medal?

 

No, look at what it says. “Each will receive their praise from God.” The maker of the universe will praise you. It goes on, let's look at Romans, or Revelation 4-4. This is at the very end of the Bible. It says, “surrounding the throne were 24 elders. Our 24 other thrones, and seated on them were 24 elders.”

 

“They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.” So then go down to verse 10, go down to verse 10. “The 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him Who lives forever and ever.” And watch what they do. They've received crowns, they had crowns, right? It says “they lay their crowns before the throne and say you are worthy. Our Lord and God, you receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things and by your will, they were created and have their being.” Our reward is related to our eternal worship of God.

 

I want you to follow this along and I want you to think with me. Imagine living in a way, as a Christian, you live in a way that you don't have a reward from God in heaven. Everybody that followed God, everybody that worked and they had the right motives and everybody that was serving God faithfully, they're up before God for all of eternity. And they've got a crown by which they can constantly lay at the feet of Jesus in worship.

 

Not just for a day, but for eternity. They've got the praise of God that they can take that praise that God has given them and lay it at the feet of Jesus and say you alone are worthy. And you, because you didn't live a life that was worthy, you can't worship God the same way. You don't have the crown. You don't have the ability, you don't have the same praise. What we receive from God, we're able to pour back to him in worship for all of eternity.

 

That's a really, really powerful thing. Build your life so that it will pass the inspection for eternity. Build it on the foundation of Christ with materials consistent with life valued by God.

 

And according to his word, build your life that way so that when the inspection is over and you stand before God, you can say, God, receive that praise and you can for all of eternity, throw that back at God in worship and praise. That's what we need, that's what we want. That's what we want.

 

God, I praise you for your word. I praise you for this, that you are building the church. You're building a church on the foundation of Jesus and we together as a body right now, we proclaim that the foundation of Sonrise Bible Church is Jesus Christ and nothing else. You are the foundation of Sonrise Bible Church. And Sonrise Bible Church is made of a bunch of different people that attend here that call this home and this is our group that you call a church. And that church, each individual here, God, we are confessing that we are our foundation for our salvation, for us being in the church, is Jesus Christ and nothing else, no good works, nothing else. We're establishing that right now. We affirm that and God, we pray that you would build your church, build it with materials, build it so it'll pass the inspection so that we can worship you and that what we build on this earth, what you build on this earth through us will bring you glory forever and ever and ever and ever and ever in Jesus' name, amen.

 

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