Church in the Wild
Week 6: We Are the Temple
Pastor Rick Henderson February 7-8, 2026
Note: This manuscript isn’t a transcript of the sermon, but a planning guide showing what the speaker intends to say.
1 CORINTHIANS 3
I don’t watch the Grammys, but I don’t live under a rock. When something culturally intriguing happens, I’m just as curious as the next guy. Recently, Jelly Roll won Contemporary Country Album of the Year. This is part of his acceptance speech.
VIDEO: Jelly Roll Speech at the Grammys
I think that’s so cool. I don’t expect everyone to be a Jelly Roll fan. I just love his I-love-Jesus-energy. I want to hang around that guy.
I’m asking you to pretend with me. I want you to imagine that circumstances conspire in such a way that you must move several states away. Imagine that you have a good job. You’ve found a great neighborhood. Almost all the new pieces of your new life are in place. The only thing left is for you to find a church.
You start attending a new church, and it begins to dawn on you that there is a large group of people in the church who are Jelly Roll fans. One way you know this is that whenever you meet one of these folks, one of the first questions they ask you is whether you like Jelly Roll. That seems strange to you, but it’s harmless enough.
And then you start to notice that people who like Jelly Roll all go to the same service, and the people who aren’t Jelly Roll fans start to go to another service. The Jelly Roll fans and the non-Jelly Roll fans won’t attend the same small groups together. As you meet more and more people, not everyone is direct about whether they are a Jelly Roll fan. But it often feels like you’re being sized up in conversations. People are trying to suss out if you are pro-Jelly Roll or not.
And then you discover that there are anti-Jelly Roll people in the church. And the anti-Jelly Roll people love to talk about our bodies being temples of God, and tattoos are like graffiti on the temple. People without tattoos often feel superior to those with tattoos. They let people with tattoos into their group, but only if they got their tattoos before becoming Christians. The pro-Jelly Roll crowd doesn’t require tattoos, but they treat people in the group who have tattoos as more prestigious. Each week that you attend this church, it feels like it’s getting more tense.
And then one day, a handful of people speak up. They say, isn’t the most important thing that we put our trust in Jesus and declare that he died for our sins and rose from the dead. You can like his music or not like his music and still be united in the faith. Some can like tattoos and others can dislike tattoos, all while being united in Jesus. Being a Jelly Roll fan doesn’t make you more or less prestigious. Not being a Jelly Roll fan doesn’t make you more or less prestigious.
And when they are done making their statement, you think to yourself, that makes sense. But you notice that some folks get mad at them for trying to walk a fine line. They are shouted down, accused of Jelly-Rolling down a slippery slope. The other side is mad because this small group didn’t denounce the anti-Jelly-Rollers.
Wouldn’t you think to yourself, something has gone terribly wrong with this church?! As dumb as that sounds, that’s the kind of atmosphere that was in the church of Corinth. It’s the kind of atmosphere that is too commonly found in American churches. We may not be guilty, but we’re just as vulnerable as anyone else.
1 CORINTHIANS 3
We’re going to read most of 1 Corinthians 3. Let’s read it while thinking of the silly parable I just told you. Listen for both tone and content. This was written by the Apostle Paul. How would you score his level of urgency?
1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-9 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
If you don’t know the name Apollos, he might have been the first ever celebrity preacher in Christian history. Apparently, this guy was thrilling to listen to. He had great content and great delivery. Naturally, people gravitated toward him. But this was more than that. It was far more than people saying to each other, “I so appreciate it when Apollos is the guest speaker because he helps me better understand Jesus. He inspires me to want to be with Jesus, become more like Jesus, and do as Jesus did.” That response wouldn’t be a problem. But that’s not what was going on.
Corinthian culture valued public speaking ability. They made celebrities out of public speakers. Are we any different? We’ll make celebrities out just about anyone for anything. We have made celebrities out of handymen who flip houses. We’ve made celebrities out of chefs. We’ve made celebrities out of people on TikTok. I’m not exactly sure what they do, but they’re famous. The bent toward celebrity in our culture is so pervasive that we even turn pastors into celebrities.
Let me take a beat and pause to be extra clear. I would never dog someone for being a celebrity. That’s not a problem. I walked out of the building on Tuesday and passed the classroom where people were listening to Karen Rucker teach a Bible study. If she became famous and thousands of people wanted to attend her Bible study, that would be awesome. It’s not a problem for a Christian leader to be a celebrity.
We don’t have a CELEBRITY problem in the church—we may have a celebrity CULTURE problem in the church.
There is a repeating, observable pattern in human behavior. It seems harmless enough at first. We have this tendency to cluster around personalities. Maybe it starts because we admire them. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But subtly, this appreciation evolves into association. This is something peculiar about human beings. If someone is prestigious, we may feel we benefit from or gain a little of that prestige through our association with them. Maybe we don’t even know them personally. But we listen to their podcast, buy their books, quote them—you get the idea.
And this is the hard part. The unhealthy thing I’m talking about looks like perfectly acceptable behavior on the surface. There is nothing wrong with appreciating a Christian leader, podcaster, author, or pastor. There’s nothing wrong with listening to, reading, or quoting them. The problem emerges when we start to think of ourselves as little bit smarter, a little bit more spiritual, a little bit purer, a little bit better because we listen to or read them. And this is the crazy thing about church people. We not only like to define ourselves by people who are living their 15 minutes of fame right now, but some of us also love to define ourselves by associations with people who have been dead a long, long time.
This group that associates with that dead theologian thinks they're on a higher level than the people who don’t. Do I sound like I’m smoking crack? Have you observed what I’m talking about?
Next, that clustering around personalities then calcifies into a tribe. And before you know it, that tribe becomes the foundation of our identity and the object of our loyalty and devotion. Maybe we don’t even realize it, but we can even start to evaluate Jesus and his word through the lens of our tribe. If our tribe emphasizes one part of the Bible, we emphasize that part like crazy. If our tribe overlooks or intentionally ignores a part of the Bible, we come up with excuses why it doesn’t apply to us.
Does it sound like I’m from another planet, or am I on to something? Are we still friends? Can I take this further?
When people are in a tribe, they want the pastors at their church to align with their tribe. They want the pastors at their church to wave the same banner as their tribe. And they can get a little grumpy if the pastors won’t do that. Sometimes they get mad at their pastors if they don’t say the right words, in the right way, just like their tribe. And sometimes they get grumpy if their pastors aren’t as mad at the other tribes as they are.
Have you seen this? I’m not putting you on blast. For the first time in my life, there was applause after the sermon in all three services last week. That makes me a little uncomfortable, but at the same time, it feels to me like we’re united. I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m trying to give words to a reality that is all around us in the American church world. We see it, and we feel it. You may not be guilty of it. We may not be guilty of it. But we are just as vulnerable to it as anyone else.
This reality that I’m describing was the reality in the church at Corinth. It’s almost scary how relevant this is.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:5-6 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
In this passage Paul uses farming and construction metaphors. I’m going try and summarize one of his points by using a building metaphor.
Even the best of us make the worst FOUNDATIONS.
Jesus alone is the foundation. If we lean on any personality, if we lean on any tribe, or any cluster of people for our sense of self, we are asking for profound disappointment. Whenever church folks make a person, a pastor, a leader their foundation, it exposes that they are immature, babies in the faith.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?
Wherever there are divisions in a church, petty competition and quarrelling, it doesn’t matter if everyone in the church could win a Bible trivia championship. That is an immature and sinful church that is so underdeveloped that it cannot receive the riches of the gospel. They are shallow.
CAUTION: A church can be THEOLOGICALLY rich, yet SPIRITUALLY poor.
I want us to be theologically rich. I want us to know God’s word. I want us to be people who have knowledge sloshing around in our brains. But may that never be all that we are. May we be spiritually rich. And this is what that means. We are people who know the true foundation and never settle for false foundations. And on that foundation, we build a life that is more and more like Jesus.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:10-15 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built structure survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this section. Let’s make sure we understand what Paul is saying. There is only one foundation for our life and faith. That’s Jesus. We can build worthwhile things on that foundation, or we can build worthless things on that foundation. And we all get to decide what we are going to build.
And one day, we’re going to have to give an account. Did we build Christlike, Jesus-honoring things on that foundation? Or will we be so influenced by our cultural moment that we invest ourselves that have no spiritual significance. One day, there will be an account. Fire is a metaphor that represents God testing the worth or value of something. In that moment, some will have nothing to show for what they did with all their time and effort.
We can’t lose our SALVATION, but we can lose REWARDS.
In this passage that we read, I think Paul is certainly targeting ministry leaders. And it I think it applies to all followers of Jesus. What we are building on the foundation of faith in Jesus. No one’s going to lose their salvation. Some will lose rewards. The reward is the realization that because of our influence, other people grew in their faith too. There will be people who will have to face that they sounded religious and they were busy with religious activity. But that is not the same as building something of value on the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ.
This is an important moment. All you folks who have been half-listening, I need both of your ears. We are at the point of the sermon where it would be understandable if someone interpreted this to mean, “Don’t be dumb. Try harder.”
This is not a try-harder message. This is not a dig deep and find more effort message. We’re about to see how this is profoundly supernatural, all dependent on the ongoing supernatural presence and power of the Spirit of God. And if you dare to truly hear this, it will melt your face off. Are you ready?
1 CORINTHIANS 3:16-17 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
Do you know that we are God’s temple? Do you know that he is here? I’m not asking about your reading comprehension. Yes, you know that’s what it says. I’m asking, do you know it? As we make our way through the rest of 1 Corinthians, we’ll see that there is a collective aspect to this and an individual aspect too. Today, we are zooming in on the collective aspect.
We aren’t SPECTATORS at a show of God’s presence—we are the TEMPLE who host it.
Would you let yourself sit with that? For all the things that the Corinthian church got wrong, for all the ways that they mimicked their culture instead of being formed like Jesus, Paul said they were God’s temple, hosting his presence.
That means his presence is not based on our performance. We don’t conjure him up with prayers that are good enough, sermons that are profound enough, or worship that is ecstatic enough. He is here for no other reason than in his grace, he decided to make his people where he resides.
We aren’t in a SANCTUARY. We are the SANCTUARY.
What happens when a church truly believes that? How does that change how they relate to each other? How might that reframe how they approach conflict with each other?
This summer I got to study at Oxford. On my last night, with my cohort, we had dinner at the dining hall of Magdalen College. It’s beautiful and historic. It’s where C.S. Lewis taught for many years. I sat across from an old pastor from the US. He has pastored the same congregation from a mainline denomination for decades. While his denomination has moved further left, celebrating viewpoints that he can’t affirm, he chose to stay and lead as faithfully as he could.
It was obvious that this was a man who loves Jesus, has a keen understanding of doctrine, and is firmly orthodox. I love hanging out with and listening to old pastors. So, I asked him, “Why did you choose to stay in your denomination even when it moved in a direction that you believe is wrong? Why not join a collection of like-minded churches?”
He told me that he seriously considered that. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. There were several complicating factors. But the thing he said that I’ll never forget is this.
Once you start splitting, you never stop.
Was he right or wrong to stay in his denomination? I’m going to let you wrestle with that. I don’t think I could do it. I know I couldn’t do it. And yet, I don’t know how to argue with this. Whatever you think about his decision, the collective history of church people seem to support this statement. I’m going to let you wrestle with it. I don’t have a neat and tidy solution. I couldn’t do what he chose to do. But he has my unyielding respect and admiration because I think that old pastor has a deeper reverence and holy fear of this verse than I do.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
We are God’s temple. And we destroy it when we passively allow or actively pursue division. For those who have trusted in Jesus by faith, we are his temple. That makes our unity sacred. Personally, I’m praying for a move of God that would overwhelm churches with this realization.
This is what I think happens when a church truly gets that they are the temple, hosting God’s presence.
WHEN A CHURCH GETS IT:
- Quick to pray and are expressive in worship.
Do you know why this church is quick to pray? It’s because they understand that everything they have is based on God’s grace. They are dependent on the presence and power of God’s Spirit, which means they don’t trust in themselves. This is a church that understands that they should give their best, but they’d be fools if they depended on their best. Because they are buoyed by that truth, you can’t keep them from praying.
So, why would that make them expressive in worship? Why can’t they just sing songs stoically, with the facial expression of someone who’s been sucking oatmeal through a straw?
Imagine with me for a second that someone in your life, for reasons beyond your comprehension, decided to pay off all your school loans, mortgage, car loans, and credit card debt. Not only that, but this person also wrote you into their will, ensuring that their fortune would be passed on to you.
Now imagine that you are with your friends, out doing something together—and that person unexpectedly walks up and stands beside you. Would you be passive and reserved when they showed up? Or would your affection burst forth in your body language? Wouldn’t you just instinctively, without even thinking about it, start telling your friends about how wonderful this person is? Wouldn’t your face effortlessly light up when you saw them?
I completely understand being raised and formed in a stoic, reserved culture. I’ll never understand passive, non-expressive worship when the Spirit of God is with us.
Don’t be offended. Hang with me. Expressiveness is on a sliding scale. I think I’m expressive. And then I go to church in Ghana, and they make my worship look robotic. And I’m reminded again of my lack of rhythm. I’m not saying that someone who gets this will out-express the person next to them. What I am saying is that a church that gets this will be genuinely expressive. You’ll hear it in their voices. You’ll see it on their faces. You’ll see it in their body language. We are hosting God’s presence.
- Unimpressed with themselves.
- Unimpressed with wealth, status, celebrity, or prestige.
- Happy, disarming, and hospitable.
- Allow for disagreement while being emotionally revolted by divisive behaviors.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a great church. Any church that gets it and wants to never lose it will keep these words close to its heart.
1 CORINTHIANS 16:13-14 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.