Valley Lights Church Podcast
Golden Buzzer Moments- Part 4- Craving Recognition
- Good morning, welcome to Valley Lights Church. Glad to see you here today. And I'm glad you've joined us for church this Sunday. We are, we saw Roland just now we're in a message series called the Golden Buzzer Moments. And that's a, it's based on a TV show that a lot of people have seen where a special award goes to average people that go on stage and if their performance is great, actually if their performance is beyond exceptional, they receive the Golden Buzzer. It's a gold fireworks explode from the stage in confetti, the crowd goes wild and those are really exceptional moments. And so this is the fourth and last message in this particular series. We're just doing something a little different during the summer involving some media. But if this is your very first time here today, my name is Bruce Wood, I'm the lead pastor here. And I'd love to get the chance to say hello to you after our service. And I'm just really glad and grateful to be able to spend some time together this Sunday morning in the middle of July. So in this, what we're looking at, the reason we're looking at this content, some series based off of some TV content is because when you watch TV or videos or things on YouTube, things that are really highly valued in our culture get put on display and in a show like this, they get awarded. And some of those things that get awarded really tug on our hearts. And so throughout this series, we've just been looking at how the world's values and things that really appeal to us, how do those compare to things that are really important to God? And so throughout this series, we've been actually watching a video clip from this TV show, "America's Got Talent." And we've been pulling out some of the hidden themes and some of the messages that, I don't know if you realize this, but when you watch movies, you consume messages without even realizing it sometimes. And the things that we watch, especially we watch things over and over again, as a way of shaping our minds. And so what we're doing is we wanna maybe pause and with enough time to evaluate some of the messages that are really tugging on us so that we can recognize those. So the video that we're about to watch in a few minutes from this show, this one, this week, it touches on the theme of recognition. So far, we've looked at, at the beginning of the series, we, the first message was called craving significance. And we watched somebody win the Golden Buzzer who was really craving significance in life. Second week was craving hope. Somebody that was in a very desperate situation and how people really crave an unshakeable hope in life. Last week, the message was craving. Ooh, I forgot, I forgot my own message, that's bad. When the pastor doesn't remember his own message. So, if you remember, it was a good one though, it was so good, it was unforgettable. Okay, so let's just go to today. So today the theme from this video clip is recognition. And you're gonna see a person who really wants to be recognized for her talent and all the work that she put into it. And before we watch it, I just want you to consider one verse that we'll look more in a few minutes, but this verse from 1 Corinthians chapter three, a chapter that's been very, very helpful for me in my life. But it says this, if anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. This verse, we're gonna unpack it more in a minute, but basically, the high view of this is that whatever you're producing in your life, it's gonna be evaluated in the end. And if you produce something that will last, God's going to recognize your efforts with reward. So if you're a follower of Christ, if you're a true believer in Christian, that means there's more on the table than just salvation. Salvation is pretty good. I mean, if eternal life with God forever wasn't good enough, there's actually more on the table than just that. There is a possibility of earning reward. And we'll look at the context of how that even happens, but so let's watch this video where there is one person who's building her life around her talent for singing. And if you're listening later this week on our podcast, go ahead and search for this video. Britain's Got Talent, Lauren Allred, Never Enough. Check out this video. Well, that was an exciting episode. That singer truly has an amazing voice. I mean, it's, it really, it's, I can't argue, it's on another level, her ability and her talent, and probably the amount of work that goes into that. I mean, I think you probably have to have some talent and then you probably also gotta do an extraordinary amount of work to shape that talent. And so the judges, when they give her their comments and feedback at the end, it's like they have compassion for her because, you know, she was originally denied recognition for her talent and singing on the movie, The Greatest Showman. And they're so impressed with her skill that it's, it's their joy to award the Golden Buzzer. And that one judge, she says, I can't believe I have this incredible opportunity to give you your moment to shine. It's kind of like the judges are gods that could, you know, pull people out of the mud like, you know, they can bestow on people a life-changing opportunity. It is kind of like that a little bit. And it's almost like they have this position of benevolent authority that is somewhat remissant of the verse that I showed you at the very beginning about God who will reward people based on the work that they've built. And this vocalist, she's just declared on this video and other videos that she's ready to build her life around this talent and to earn a life of distinction because of it. And that last judge at the end, he says, this award is so well deserved. Like you deserve this. Someone else got the recognition you deserved before and so now I'm so happy for you. And one of the messages I think that comes out of this, just a quick video clip like this, is this. Get recognition for your effort now. If you put in the work and if you happen to be exceptional at something, you deserve to be recognized. Everything that you're doing, you're pouring yourself into you and the good things that you're good at, you really deserve to be recognized. And it doesn't have to be singing like this, but you, or the messages, use whatever resources you have to become something significant and impressive and to earn respect and to be acknowledged. Most of us don't have a distinguished talent quite like this, like on this level. This is a world class. We'll probably never have a shot at being on a big fancy stage like that. But there is an intersection with us in this content is because we do have a choice about what we build our lives around. You get to pick what you focus your life on. You really get to pick what building materials you're using as you put together your life. And so let's go again to 1 Corinthians 3. I just gave you a preview of one of the verses, but I wanna look a little bit more about how this is described in the Bible. And Paul, the author of this biblical letter and an early church leader, he gives this caution in 1 Corinthians 3. The caution really is this. Be careful how you build. Careful what you build your life around. And be careful how you build the church and the ministry. 1 Corinthians 3 starting verse 10 says, "According to the grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder and another builds on it. But each one is to be careful how he builds on it for no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. And that foundation is Jesus Christ. When Paul talks about this idea of building, the immediate context he's referring to is a group of people that are trying to put together a church. And they were trying to grow a church, but divisions were starting, things were breaking down. And the church community had a lot of problems in it. And this passage, it's an indication that as long as Christ followers are alive, we're building. You can't be a follower of Jesus in living and not building something. We're building some sort of life. We're building some sort of church. We're building some kind of spiritual community together. A culture is developing at valley lights. And whether that's done in intentional ways or by passive neglect, something is always being produced by our efforts. And that's why Paul says, be careful. Be really careful how you build. And then he writes this. This idea of the quality of your work will be tested. You're building something and the quality of it is going to be tested. He goes on in the first 12, he says, "If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, each one's work will become obvious. For the day, we'll disclose it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test the quality of each one's work." So there are six building materials mentioned here. This is a big metaphor for building, but it boils down to two categories. There's three good building materials and those are gold, silver and costly stones. And there's three worthless things we can build with. Those are wood, hay and straw. So this is an analogy. And really all those materials represent our works, our activities created in life. And every Christian of course has been created in Christ Jesus for good works which got prepared beforehand, Ephesians 210. And we are to bear fruit in every good work. Ephesians, or Colossians 110. So we're working. You and I are working, we're building things. You're building a life. You may be building a family. Together we're building a church. We each have various endeavors and goals that we're trying to accomplish. So, if you're a Christian, you're a builder. And we're building with some sort of material. And God wants us to build only with the best, only the best things like gold, silver and gems. Because only the best are worthy of him and really only the best are the most effective and things that will last. So the caution here is I might be building my life with flimsy, flammable materials like wood, hay and straw. Stuff that's gonna get burned up by the fire in the end. The Lord is the one who's gonna determine the value of each man's work. So let's take that example of singing. The contestant on a TV show might sing in order to gain recognition and fame. That seemed to be her goal. We sing in church too also. We sang a few minutes ago. And even if we're not on America's Got Talent, we can sing with the same motives as the person on a show. You know, we can sing in a way where we're really concerned about how people think we sound. And we could be singing in a way to get, you know, some satisfaction and puffed up by that. All of that, by the way, is hay and straw. Stuff that singing in that way, regardless of the context, it's stuff is gonna burn in the end. But singing, you can sing, you can do the same activity when it's done with a heart to glorify the Lord and with a heart to encourage fellow believers. And if singing is done in that way, it's like silver and gold. Sometimes what we're doing, it's really the motive and why we're doing something, that's really the difference in the quality of our work. You could be doing something really good. Let's say you give money to the church. But if you do it from a place of guilt or compulsion, that's not quality material. That's not something that brings pleasure to God. God's not pleased with that gift. And so a lot of times that it could be, the activity itself could be valuable or worthless or it could be a valuable activity done with the wrong motive and then it becomes worthless. When it comes to the big project of growing a church together, like we're doing, there's a lot of ideas out there about what makes a great church. And you have probably looked at different churches and you have your structure for evaluating what makes a good church, what's important. There's a lot of people out there. What are the metrics of a successful church? What is the most important thing for churches to do? What things are unimportant? And sometimes, a lot of times, size is really a dominant factor for success in the minds of people. But I don't think it just only boils down to size of a church because I think it's possible for a very large church to be built out of wood and hay. I think also it's very possible for a small church who's just unknown, nobody really knows about it, to be built with gold and silver and gems. And so, as we build and as we work, as we produce things with our life, God has formed his own independent idea about what the results of our ministry should be. And God has an idea of what the results of your life should be, the difference lies between what is valuable in his site or what's not valuable to him. Going further in this letter, Paul goes on, he gives us a little bit more information. He says, if you build in line with what God wants, you'll find reward. We really have to build in line with what he wants. Going on to verse 14, he says, if anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. So there's this fire imagery in this passage, and fire helps us to be mentally prepared for the day that we meet Jesus. So when we stand before God on the day of judgment, the very first issue that God's going to settle is whether or not our names are written in the Book of Life. And in that moment, our salvation from the wrath of God depends on whether we put our faith in Jesus and followed him as Lord and boss of our lives, over every area of our life. And if a person does not have his name written in the Book of Life has not put his faith solely in Jesus, that person will then proceed to the eternal fire, a judgment, you know, hell. And that really is a judgment and a destination that each of us does truly deserve because of our sin. And if we wanted to talk in reality about what you deserve and what I deserve, it is hell. And it's, you know, in that video, there really was a lot of talk about the singer's recognition and her deserving it. And yeah, you deserve this. But the only thing that any of us truly deserves is hell. There's nothing else we deserve. The good news then is that Jesus died on the cross to take the penalty that we truly deserve. And he opened a way for us to be saved from all of that. And that if we believe in him and follow him as Lord, that becomes a decision that, well, that actually might be a decision that some of you are facing today. Haven't really totally nailed that down. Maybe you're at a point where we haven't fully crossed the line of faith and put your faith in him. But for those of us who make it to the day of judgment as Christians, you're like, all right, Jesus is my Lord, where he goes, I will go, I will follow him. When we make it to the day of judgment, there still is a quality check fire that we're going to face. There's flames for us to reckon with, according to this passage. And I kind of imagine, as Paul writes this letter, I just sort of imagine a fire grate on the floor, where you just kind of like step up onto the grate and we bring all of our life works, our accomplishments, just the results of everything. All the results of my effort and all the results of my labor, and we just dump it in a big pile on top of the fire grate. And then the fire turns on. Everything that I did, no more throughout my life. Well, everything that I did that was made out of wood, hay and straw is gone immediately. And there's nothing left but a pile of ashes. And if anything that comes from my life that was made out of gold and silver and costly stones, it'll be sitting there in the remains. That's a big if though. If there's anything that remains. I think Paul wrote this passage because there are going to be some Christians who don't have anything valuable that remains. There will be some well-intended followers of Christ who make it there and everything is burnt up. Everything from their life turns into a pile of ash. Nothing goes, there's no reward in eternity. And that's what he says, there will be some where he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved but only has through fire. It's like he's standing on the grate and he's getting into heaven, he jumps into heaven but the fire kind of like licks all his clothes and just makes it to heaven and his tidy whities. And there's nothing to show for all of his time on earth. I would imagine this to be a pretty humbling situation, eternally. I really don't want that to be true of me. I think I probably do spend a lot of time and effort on building things that are just going to burn in the end without even realizing it. Sometimes I don't even know. I'm occupied with trivial things. I so desperately want to be building things that make God proud. I would love to earn the rewards that he has in store for faithful believers, faithful builders. I don't know what the rewards are exactly. There's a lot of talk in the New Testament about the rewards that may become valuable to us. We don't know what they are, but I am sure that they are glorious, fulfilling, and imperishable. And as wonderful as it might be to win a Golden Buzzer Award on America's Got Talent or to be a famous for something credible talent, I mean, those, you know, to be recognized by the elites of our world, you know, I just don't think that stuff is gonna last in comparison. You know, it's, it is, in a way it is fitting for an excellent vocalist to get recognition for the hard work that she put into developing her voice. But I just, in a way that's not even necessarily a bad thing, I just don't think it's going to be enough. I think there's more. And ironically, the song that she sings is never enough. You know, part of the lyrics to that song are towers of gold, they're still too little. It'll never be enough, never enough. So I think it's actually, it's kind of true. What she's singing is true. All the recognition and the awards, it'll never be enough. Earthly rewards will not satisfy throughout eternity the way that God's rewards will. So, incredibly, God gives us the freedom to build our lives with whatever materials we want. You can focus your life on anything. You can do what you want. And we all crave recognition. You know, you can guarantee your work on Earth in your life. It will be recognized by God one way or the other. It's going to be either in a good way or a bad way. Few verses earlier, Paul says each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. Which means however you invest your time, the results of your life, it will be appraised. Many people will arrive at that purification fire with a very impressive pile of wood, probably, not realizing how burnable it is. It's kind of amazing, you know, wood, hay, and straw. You can actually build stuff with that and wood, wood's kind of sturdy. You can build really big things. You can build an impressive pile of burnable material. And you know if that happens, if once you get to the fire and you realize it's all all burns up, it's too late by that time. It's all gone. There's no chance to build anything else. Eternal. So I think about this verse personally, and I think what if you're going about your day this week and then you get a little whisper in your ear and God tips you off and he says, pfft, you're building something that I'm going to burn. What if you just got a tip up? If you're like in the middle of something, like, oh my gosh, this is all, this is in God's sight. This is trivial, burnable stuff. What if, what if the life that you're building or the family relationships that you're building, or the career that you're focused on, or the church that we're building, what if it gets burned up? That's a possibility. How would you know if you're using the wrong materials? How would you know if your efforts are going to be burned up in the end? 'Cause it would be good to know. And verse 12, God says, the quality of your work, it will become obvious. Will kind of gives me this future mindset, like it's going to become obvious to everybody in the end, but right now, we're not at the day of the judgment yet, so it's actually not that obvious right now. It will be obvious, it's not right now. So what is the quality of what you're building with? Here's how, here's how you know. If you're building with the right materials, we need to study the Bible diligently, hard like focus and repetitive. We need to study the Bible diligently for guidelines on how to handle life in ministry, or else we'll waste our opportunities on very impressive but insignificant things, and then create a huge pile of burnables that will receive no reward from God. We need to study the Bible diligently for those guidelines for life, otherwise we might create an impressive but insignificant pile of burnables. So without a very clear understanding of what God wants from the Bible, it really is easy for us to fool ourselves into thinking what I'm working on is valuable. This is good. When I'm focused on my time at this is important, this is gonna get me to where I wanna go. It's very easy to fool ourselves. You might be a very well-intended and hardworking person, but what looks like gold may turn out to be straw if we have not judged our work by the standards of God's word. You can build some pretty impressive stuff with wood, hay, and straw, huge things. Well, things that earn all kinds of recognition with people, too. You can, man, we could build things that a lot of people would love and post online all over the place. But we must know the Bible so well that in a way that enables us to build in line with what God wants and find reward. The opposite, of course, is if we build out of line with what God wants, we will labor in vain. And sometimes we don't realize it in the middle of it if that's happening. So on 127, one through two has been a big encouragement and a big check for me personally. It says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, "it's builders labor over it in vain. "Unless the Lord watches over a city, "the watchman stays alert in vain. "In vain you get up early and you stay up late "working hard to have enough food." Yes, he gives sleep to the ones, to the one he loves. Man, we could build, we could be so focused on building. You could be sweating out there in the sun with your hammer and your nails and the saw. And if God is not in it, it's not gonna come to anything. Or the watchman, you could be protecting yourself, protecting your money and your house and your family and just doing everything you can to make sure that there's security and stability. If God's not in it, it will be in vain. It's gonna come to ruin in the end. It really makes a big difference if God himself is involved in our work. I mean, imagine, like this verse says, imagine it's like getting up early. You're working yourself to death. You're getting up early, you're staying up late, you're just exhausting yourself, you're like this, I'm gonna grind it out all to produce nothing. That's depressing, okay. To think about working that hard and then nothing comes of it, that's a very troubling thought. That is a possibility woven into reality. So you're a builder, you're building something. You can't help but be building something. And you're using certain materials to build your life. You're putting effort into something. So what is it? What is it that you're building? Is it straw or is it gold? And I have a few suggested categories that the quality of our work is gonna get tested. I have a few suggestions of some areas you could evaluate. Maybe begin thinking in this category of quality check. You can begin using the Bible to evaluate the quality of your faith. Your own walk with Jesus. Philippians three is a great place to start for that. But our faith ought to be growing and developing and deepening, strengthening, getting more rooted. And it really takes consistent, unrush time in the word and in prayer. And for me, so I'll be totally honest, there have been times when it feels like carving out daily time with God is not amounting to very much. Sometimes it feels like prioritizing that, you know, maybe I could take it or leave it is what it feels like at times. Especially when I have so many things to do. You know, I wake up and my mind's already going about all the things every day and slowing down for a quiet time, time with God. It feels counterproductive, very like driven person, you know, I'm focused and then I wonder, I think about this, especially if I read chapter like Philippians three, and then I wonder if all those urgent tasks that my mind is on are really like, hey, I'm strong. In time with God is the gold in my day. Think about Billy Graham, a man who finished well, spent 99 years on earth and produced a lot of, I think he produced a lot of good things with his life. And at the end of all of it, all the things he accomplished, they asked him, hey, what would you do differently if you could go back? And he said, I would read my Bible and pray more. Actually, I just pray, I just want to, I just wish I could know Jesus better. Like that's it? Like, yeah, he had all, you know, he traveled all over, he had fame, speaking opportunities, everybody wanted his attention. He just wanted more time with Jesus. That says a lot. So you can use the Bible to evaluate your faith, your walk. Also, if you're married, use the Bible to evaluate the quality of the oneness of your marriage. The oneness of your marriage. And I believe, one is, I mean like unity. But I think the kind of oneness that God desires for our marriages is very deep and very rich. And the standard of unity was demonstrated by Jesus's relationship to the Father. So if you read about how Jesus interacted with God the Father, there was mutual total submission and perfect cooperation between them. Perfect cooperation cannot yet be used to describe my relationship in marriage. It's, you know, we haven't gotten to perfect cooperation yet. Like Jesus and God did. But Aaron and I have been journeying toward greater oneness over 17 years, and every inch on that journey has consumed vast quantities of effort and quite a lot of struggle as well. I think a marriage can be built with hay and straw. It will burn up if it is. Or there won't be fruit and results from that lasts. I would love to see our marriage efforts produce precious jewels by the time we're at the purification fire. You can also use the Bible to evaluate the quality of your spiritual investment in your children if you have kids, your spiritual investment. I don't mean the quality, I'm not saying evaluate the quality of your kids. You know, they're in progress still. They're all a bunch of little sinners. Just like we are. But I'm saying evaluate the quality of your own spiritual investment in them. Because a lot of parents invest a lot of time in caring for the physical needs of their kids, or maybe some academic goals or athletic goals, things like that. But making a spiritual investment, that's really quite another thing. To be highly engaged and focused on training them in the instruction and discipline of the Lord, that requires a lot of work and just repetition and you know, staying after it. And I think perhaps the work of raising children into godly adults is among some of the gold and silver that can be produced with our lives. It's very easy to not do that. It's so easy to be focused on investing in them in other ways and not this way. So evaluate. Use versus like Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6. I've on your handout, I've listed other passages for marriage and some of these ways to evaluate. And then last, use the Bible to evaluate the quality of your love and unity with believers at church. Take a look at Colossians 3, your Galatians 6 for that. Well, we have together, really ought to be something special and distinct in the world as people in church together. This is a spiritual community. We're like a, we're a kingdom colony. We belong in heaven. Our world and our life will be in God's kingdom. But right now we're at this outpost and what we have together, our relationships together, is really ought to be very, very special and distinct and enjoyable and refreshing. And I think part of what makes it special is a willingness to slow down enough to spend unrush time with people from church, other believers. And it could be this church or it could be other churches that you're connected to or, there really is, especially if you look at Galatians 6, 10, talks about, just even there's a kind of priority that we put on our service towards other members in God's household. And so I like calling, when it comes to slowing down, time for people, I call it that Adirondack Share mentality. These are Adirondack chairs. When you sit in one of these, you kind of like, you settle in and it's actually hard to get up 'cause you're like leaning back. You don't go anywhere fast in the chair like this and when you plunk down, you're probably gonna be sitting there for a while. And I kind of have these chairs in the comfort of sitting in one of those chairs in mind when I'm talking to people. Just like, what if I just kind of settle into this conversation? How about, I don't be in a rush. I can do this with my kids, by the way. I can be in such an rush that I don't even settle down just to hear them talk. Or people or my wife or just, man, how about I just kick back and I listen and I chat and I share, that's part of this special thing that grows unity and bonds in our community here. Beyond that, it's also very important for us to maintain clear, open relationships. I really believe it's God's intention that there are no unresolved offenses within our congregation. And if there are, they need to be talked about and addressed. And he gives guidelines, no word about how to do that. And I think as we do that, that creates some of the golden silver that can really last. All this time, I just listed a few categories. And it's like, I'm suggesting that you spend time with people, with your kids if you got them or with God even, just your own personal time with God. If you spend a lot of time with people, you're probably not gonna earn a lot of awards and recognition. You know, those judges on those TV shows, they never ask contestants like, "Hey, great singing voice, "but how is your relationship with your wife? "How's that going?" Like, they don't ask that question, they don't care about that. If a person sings amazing, they could care less what their relationships are like at home. It doesn't matter, all they care about is raw talent and performance and skills that bring in probably money. I'd say that's a whole lot of wood, hay and straw. Impressive amounts of it, nevertheless. But, you know, the Golden Buzzer Award is a lot more like straw than it is like gold. It should be called the straw award if you evaluate it this way. But if you wanna build things that are important to God, it's probably going to take enormous quantities of effort for something that doesn't look like it's amounting to very much right now. And if I'm honest, it does feel that way to me sometimes. Like, the time getting relationships straightened out or investing in my kids or people or time in the word even, sometimes it just, it feels like I'm sinking all this time and it's not even, what is this even accomplishing for me today, right now? Sometimes it doesn't feel like very much. But I think that's the way it is with gold and silver and gems. I think it takes a long time to earn enough to get them and then when you do get something that valuable, the item is usually pretty small, you know? Maybe it takes a long time and the product is small, but if it lasts for eternity, that makes it all worth it. So I've given you really just a few categories. I think there's so many other, many other ways that you could, materials that you could be building your life with and God may speak to you through his word about other areas in your life, ways for you to be building things that will last. I'd encourage you this, to imagine our church in the future. Like I said, Paul wrote this letter, specifically to a church. So think about our church, Valley Lights. Imagine, let's say five years from now. Maybe five years from now, there might be more people, maybe not, but don't think about that. Don't think about the number of people. Imagine a church where we've been cultivating gold. Imagine a church that's been investing in people, building a unified community. Imagine a church where there's warmth and relationships are genuine. Imagine a church that God is pleased with because we ignored all this stuff that the world craves and we chased the things that God loves. That kind of wraps us up for this series, the Golden Buzzer Moments. Next week, our assistant pastor, Barry Rogers, will be starting a new message series and he'll be working through the letter first John. And so I'm really excited about that. He's prepared some really good material and be going through specifically that letter first John. And so let's pray together. Father, I thank you for your word and I thank you for inspiring Paul to write these verses in this book of the Bible that have been such an encouragement to me as I'm trying to figure out what to focus my life on. And I feel very, I often feel just pulled around by so many competing desires and motives about what I should be focused on and what I should be building. And I think I easily get distracted. I think we easily get misled. Well, would you show us Lord, where are the ways that we can be building things that are good materials that are worthy of you? Things that will last for eternity. Pray that you use your word. Help us to just sink and root ourselves deeply in the Bible so that we can know the direction that you have for us. Let us be humble and fully reliant on you to lead us in your paths. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.