Workers of the Field
Practical Church (1 Corinthians) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Announcements
Good morning. Welcome to Southern Hills Baptist Church. Thank you for joining us today.
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If you missed our State of the Church address last week, please go back to our YouTube page and watch it this week. It will give you an update on where we are as a church and what we believe God has planned for us in the future. On the screen, you will see our updated Mission Statement. I want you to get to know this intimately this year as we focus on covenant and mission. So, if you would, please repeat it with me:
MISSION STATEMENT: Our mission is to seek holiness as we covenant together as a faithful local body of Christ and to engage in the Great Commission by making disciples in our homes, our communities, and around the world.
LOTTIE MOON UPDATE: This past week was our last week for our special Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Again, this is something that we do each year as a convention to raise money for our International Missionaries with the International Mission Board. This year, we raised $16,988 of our $21,000 goal. That is an average of $175 per church member, so I want to congratulate you on a fantastic year of giving. Also, please know that there are still some Lottie Moon envelopes on the info table if you would still like to contribute. We will keep them out through the month of January.
See bulletin for Calendar Updates
If you are a guest with us, know that this is our weekly Family Worship service. Our children will remain with us for the entire service. We do have a nursery available for children under 4 just down the hall if you would like to use it.
Please stand as I read our Call to Worship.
Call To Worship
O Lord our God,
other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
They are dead, they will not live;
they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
you have enlarged all the borders of the land.
Opening Hymn
Scripture & Prayer: Pastor Atreju
Song #1
MISSIONS MINUTE: Her Health
OVERVIEW: Her Health is a Women’s Health Center focused on offering support to women faced with unplanned pregnancies and pregnant women in need. They offer free prenatal health care, material support including a diaper and clothes closet, parenting classes, and counseling to these women in need.
EVENTS: Every year, Her Health promotes two key fundraisers that you can be involved in. In April, they have their Vision Dinner at the convention center. This is a free event where they bring in a speaker and cast a vision for the future. But know that there is some expectation that you will give to the ministry. Also, in September they do their Diaper Dash, where groups of people raise money for a walkathon.
SUPPORT: Our church currently provides Her Health with $100 per month and takes a group to the Vision Dinner each year, but we would like to begin doing more to volunteer.
OPPORTUNITIES: Review volunteer card
Offering & Prayer
Song #2 (Jesus Messiah)
Lord’s Supper
Please be seated.
(beat)
There are many worldly biblical scholars who push back on the idea of Jesus as Messiah. Their argument stems from their unbelief in the supernatural and that nowhere in the gospels does Jesus explicitly call Himself the Messiah. However, these scholars spend all of their time with their head in the Word that they refuse to let penetrate their hearts.
Not only did the men and women who followed Jesus believe that He was the Promised Messiah, He did not hide that fact from them. In fact, in His final year of ministry, Jesus is pretty forthright about it in the gospels. That is one of the reasons that I love the gospel of John so much. John reveals to us more details on who Jesus believed He was and shows Him revealing that to those around him.
This included not only His 12 disciples that we hear about regularly, but a small band of people who traveled almost everywhere with Him. This band included women like Mary Magdalene as well as some of the mothers of His disciples. They were constantly ministering to Him and to His followers. I have no doubts that at times, these women were examples of faith to the 12.
When Jesus died, it was the women who stood and watched as He died. And it was the women who continued to care for His body after His death. They were loved by the Master and they loved Him in return. In fact, throughout all that happened that week, they were the picture of true loyalty. And so, it was only fitting that Jesus would reveal Himself to those most loyal first.
As we approach the table this morning, let us be as loyal as Mary Magdalene and as faithful as these other women who were willing to follow Jesus into the grave so that He would receive the honor that is due to Him. Let us bow to the crucified King that has been risen. For it is He who lives and reigns over all things.
We’re going to continue our reading about Jesus from the book of Mark. Today we will finish chapter 15:
There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
At this time, I am going to have our ushers come forward. If you are a follower of Jesus, in that you have accepted Him as Savior, bowed to Him as King, and been baptized in obedience to His commandment, we invite you to participate with us. In just a moment, we will pass the plates. Please take a piece of bread and a cup and hold it until we take together.
Pass
Instruction from Jesus: Read Matthew 26:26-29
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
Prayer of Blessing on bread and cup
Song #3
Pastoral Prayer
World -
Country-
State-
City-
SHBC-
Introduction
I am glad to be back into our series on the book of 1 Corinthians this week. As much as I enjoy doing topical sermons on occasion, it takes a lot out of me. So, I’m glad to be jumping back in with our friend and brother Paul as he teaches the church in Corinth about what it means to be a faithful local body.
If you have your bible with you, please turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. This is the 10th week in our series and we are finally beginning to close his introduction and getting into the heart of the letter.
Paul has been slowly exposing the weaknesses of the church in Corinth and building a theology of Christ as the wisdom of God. He has reminded them that Jesus should be their sole focus, the point around which to orient their lives and bring them to unity. But, instead, they have chosen to cling on to their old way of living and thinking—their old understanding and practice.
We saw that these believers had been given the Holy Spirit, the only spirit who knows the mind of God. He alone is the source of true wisdom, and yet the Corinthians still had a strong desire for human knowledge. They were relying on their own human spirits when they had a better Spirit living inside of them and available to them at every moment.
We dug into the spiritual realm to see that that true reality is not always what we see here on earth—that there are spiritual beings who have made God their enemy and seek to destroy His human creation. We found that there are many things to be learned from the spirits of the spiritual realm, but that there is only one Spirit worth seeking after. Jesus didn’t just leave us on earth helpless. He ascended to the Father for a purpose. Not only would He take His rightful seat as judge over creation, but He purposely went to the Father so that He could send the Holy Spirit in His place. And He said that this was for our good—that it was better that He go.
The Spirit came, not to walk beside us like Jesus, but to dwell within every believer. And it is there, within us, that He communicates with our spirits and begins shaping our hearts into the people that God designed us to be. The only problem is that we have to be willing and intentional to engage the Spirit in that shaping process. We have to fully submit ourselves to King Jesus before our hearts can begin to change.
Last time, we saw Paul addressing these Corinthian believers by calling them into account. They have welcomed the Holy Spirit into their lives, but they have not allowed the sanctification process—that is the process of being made holy—to move forward. They have not yet fully become “people of the Spirit.” They were still living as “people of the flesh.”
Paul was hoping that his next interaction with them would be an opportunity to give them some solid theology to chew on, but their actions proved to him that they were still spiritual toddlers. Paul called them to look at the lack of spiritual fruit in their lives and to fully submit themselves to Jesus.
He explained that God designed these Corinthians for more than mediocrity. They had been living as half of the person that they were designed to be, unwilling to step into the fullness of the role as human imager. God designed them to be not only physical people, but spiritual people. And while they have invited the Holy Spirit in, they have yet to collaborate with Him to conquer theIr flesh.
The Corinthian church has been called to more than belief; they have been called to mission. But they cannot step into their purpose and fulfill their calling without first becoming spiritual people in the way that God designed them to be. They must mature as Christians and fill out God’s design for humanity if they ever want to experience what it is to be truly human.
This week, Paul points to their division as a sign of their immaturity. These church members had begun fighting and dividing over which teacher they liked the best. He closed our last passage by saying—in verse 4:
1 Corinthians 3:4 “For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?”
Paul points to the fact that they are stuck in this fleshly nature, desiring comfort and familiarity over unity. And in today’s passage, he hopes to dispel their tendency to elevate their teachers. He is going to tell them that Christian teachers should not be placed on a pedestal in the hearts of believers like a worldly Corinthian would a Philosopher. Instead, he calls them to think differently, for a Christian teacher is nothing but a messenger—they are simply workers of the field.
[TITLE SLIDE]
We’re going to pick up Paul’s argument there, this morning. Again, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, we’ll be starting in verse 5:
[MAIN PASSAGE SLIDE x2]
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. (/) For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
Paul is calling the Corinthians to pull back and see the bigger picture—to see the purpose of the church. God has designed His loyal human imagers to reflect His glory to the rest of creation. His adopted children are to take part in bringing fallen creation back into order. They reflect His glory to draw others to the source of the glory. Disciples—like Paul—are to always be pointing others to God. Teachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ are not to be revered, for they are simply His servants sharing His good news.
[POINT 1 SLIDE]
Servants (vv 5-6)
A servant is not greater than his master. The title “celebrity preacher” is an oxymoron. Those two words do not belong together. They are oil and water, just like “jumbo shrimp.” Preachers should always be reflecting God’s glory to mankind and pointing back to God as the source of glory. Failure to point to God as the source of glory should be a red flag for us. Those who proclaim the gospel always point to the work of Jesus—the Master that they serve. For being in submission to that master, servants simply do as they are instructed. Look back with me to verses 5 & 6:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
Notice that Paul does not say “who,” but “what.” He is not speaking of the individual personalities called Apollos and Paul. He is calling attention to something more fundamental: not who they are, but what they are. They are humans called to a vocation: human imagers of God called to be something better. This is not about their natural nature, but their supernatural nature that they have been called to re-assume.
Apollos and Paul, as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, have been called to become Spiritual imagers of God—by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what God designed humanity for from the beginning and Jesus has empowered His church by His Spirit to rediscover what it means to be truly human.
So, given this understanding, what is Apollos? And what is Paul?
Paul responds by claiming that—in this higher spiritual nature and calling—they are only servants of the Lord.
The word used here for servants is the Gk diakonos. This word can be translated as “servant” or “deacon.” This word diakonos is used throughout the NT in both a formal and informal capacity. Formally, it is used for the church office of Deacon. But, informally, it is used of men and women throughout the NT who are servants of the church.
Now, the point of our message this morning is not to exegete other parts of the Bible to argue for or against women serving in an official role as Deacon within the church. That will have to wait for another day. But my point in bringing this up is to show that the way Paul uses it here in our passage is inclusive of both genders. He is not speaking of himself and Apollos as Elders of the church, but as servants and evangelists of the good news of King Jesus.
He uses the phrase in much the same way as the Septuagint translates diakonos in the book of Esther: as “servants of the king.” Paul presents himself and Apollos as “servants of the Lord,” who obeyed their master in speaking the truth of the gospel, which happened to result in the Corinthians believing that Jesus is Lord and Savior.
He says that he “planted” and Apollos “watered,” but neither can be credited with the growth that came as a result of the planting and watering. They were simply servants obeying the Lord by fulfilling their duty when the call and opportunity came to them.
I want you to think back to a story in the gospel of Matthew, where Jesus encounters a Centurion of great faith. Look with me at Matthew 8:5-13:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE x4]
When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. (/) For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. (/) I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (/) And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
The Centurion understands that Jesus—as the Master of all—has the authority to heal his servant. He understands that all he needs to do is carry the Word of Jesus to His servant for Him to be healed.
This is the Lord that Paul and Apollos serve. He is the glory of God that they are to reflect to the world.
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
And like the Centurion, they understand that they hold no power themselves. Their only duty is to carry the Word of Jesus to others, for in His Word is the power to restore all things.
Paul has carried the Word of Jesus and implanted it in the hearts of the Corinthians by proclaiming the truth of the gospel.
Apollos has carried the Word of Jesus and watered the hearts of the Corinthians by further proclaiming the truth of that same gospel.
They have both fulfilled their duty to their Master. But neither is responsible for the growth in the hearts of the Corinthian believers. That task is only accomplished by God Himself.
You see, it is only the Lord’s work that matters in drawing and growing believers. It doesn’t matter who plants and who waters. Jesus can always find another servant, but there is only one Lord.
As His servants, We should feel privileged that He wants to use us at all. Just like God did in the garden with Adam, Jesus invites us to be part of the work that He is doing. He is building out His church and reclaiming creation for its original purpose and He shares the work load with us.
We are called to plant and to water—and it doesn’t matter who plants or who waters—provided that both obey the Lord when the call and opportunity come. Planting and watering are both necessary tasks, but neither is more important than the other.
A tree must be planted and watered, but failure to complete both tasks accomplishes nothing. It must be both planted and watered. The servants of Christ must respond to His call with obedience to both jobs. And while one servant may be more gifted to plant than another, it does not excuse him from watering when watering is needed. Nor does it excuse she who is better at watering from planting when called upon to do so.
Every servant of the Lord must engage in both duties. It’s not just pastors and evangelists and church planters that are called to plant and water. All believers are called to plant and to water as they go about their lives. This is our role—as His servants of Jesus—in helping others come to know Him and receive salvation.
When I was a Youth Pastor, I used to get frustrated that I couldn’t “close the deal” on leading a student to Christ. I could teach them all that they need to know. I could walk them to the precipice of belief and, still, many wouldn’t take that final step. Many weren’t willing to submit their entire life to the Lord.
But coming from a sales background and still growing out of my fleshly instincts, I had misunderstood what Jesus had asked me to do. It wasn’t my job to save anyone. It was my job—as His servant—to be obedient to the call to plant and to water. The Lord hadn’t called me to rescue people; only to proclaim the truth to them. Only God could give the growth that others needed.
[POINT 2 SLIDE]
Grower (v 7)
We make a fundamental mistake when we begin to believe that we are called to bring salvation to anyone. The Lord only calls us to proclaim the good news that Jesus is King and that salvation is available to any who would come and serve Him. Let’s go back to Paul in verse 7:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
Paul starts with “so.” He is drawing a conclusion based on the last two verses.
Because God is the One who gives the growth, the servants of Jesus who plant and water are nothing. They are simply obedient children seeking to honor their Father in heaven by their service to the King.
As the creator and sustainer of all things, God is the first cause of creation and nothing has happened throughout all of time without His consent and provision. Just as He has ordered creation by His word and set up laws for the natural world to submit to, so He has ordered the spiritual world.
For a plant to flourish, a seed must be planted. But it must also have water and energy to grow. For most plants, photosynthesis is the mover of growth—it generates movement within its cells by capturing warmth and sunlight and turning into energy.
In this example, God is the sunlight and warmth that stimulates growth in the heart of a human being. He is the only source of growth and He alone deserves all credit for the salvation of His wayward human imagers.
It is He who calls all people to return into relationship to Him. It is He who uses the proclamation of the gospel to stimulate and energize a dead heart to life. The power of the Living Word generates change within God’s human imagers and energizes their hearts.
(Repeat)
God gives the growth through Jesus the Word by the power of His Spirit.
God does all of the important parts of the work. And yet, He still invites us to be a part of reclaiming creation by speaking truth in every part of His creation.
Imagine standing next to one of the great Renaissance painters. You’re standing next to Michelangelo as he turns a blank canvas into a work of art. And as you stand and watch, the painting comes to life. (Beat) And then he hands you a brush and instructs you to paint a small black line.
You didn’t create the painting. You didn’t do enough to claim yourself as a co-painter. But he offered you a chance to be a part of his creation—to assist him in his process of turning nothing into something.
This is God does with us. We plant and water, but He gives all of the growth. The proclamation of the Word is the planting and the watering. Sharing the gospel and what it has done in our lives is the planting and watering. Living holy lives for the world to witness is the planting and the watering. It prepares others’ hearts for growth. Remember what Paul tells the church at Rome:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Servants of King Jesus are called to present themselves as living sacrifices, transformed into His holy image by the constant intake of the Word of God, so that we may properly discern God’s will and effectively fulfill the mission that Jesus has given to us. And what is that mission?
To go and plant and water…
Or—to put it another way—to make disciples.
(Beat)
There is no reason for ministers to ever feel accomplished for God’s work, nor is there reason for church members to put all of their confidence and hope in a minister. For it is God who gives salvation through the sacrifice of His Son. He alone gives the growth. We are only the servants tending His fields.
[POINT 3 SLIDE]
Fields (vv 8-9)
We live in Iowa, the land of corn and beans. You can’t go 5 miles in any direction without running into a field. This time of year, our fields look pretty boring. There is not much going on above the surface. But below the surface, things are happening. The rich earth is filled with life as it prepares for the spring. Go with me to verses 8 and 9:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
As we have discussed, the planter and the waterer are both servants. Neither outranks the other, for both jobs are equally important. And every servant is called to do both. Paul says that the one planting and the one watering are one. That is, they belong to the same body of the same Lord. They have the same purpose.
And neither of them have the purpose of becoming the Corinthians favorite teacher. They don’t care to be the big man on the block. Their only desire is to fulfill the mission of their Master so that others will hear the Word and join them as fellow servants of Jesus.
And Paul says that each servant “will receive his wages according to his labor.” That is to say that servants will be rewarded for their obedience in accordance to how well they follow the instructions of the Master. The scholar J.W. MacGorman puts it this way: “the basis of God’s approval is never the size of the crop but always the intensity of the toil.”
It doesn’t matter if I lead a small church and a mega-church pastor leads a large church. We will both be judged by our faithfulness to Jesus and His mission.
The same is true for all believers. It doesn’t matter if some full-time evangelist disciples 300 people over his lifetime and you only disciple 3. You will both be judged on your faithfulness to Jesus in your calling to the mission that He has set before you.
A single mother who works 3 jobs to provide for her one child, yet intentionally leads her child to know and follow Christ will be found more faithful to Jesus than a Pastor who leads a church of thousands, proclaiming the true gospel, yet never gives of his life to teach his congregants how to follow Christ.
Paul’s says that we are God’s fellow workers. God has called us and Jesus has commanded us—as His servants—to step into a role alongside the Creator to help bring a fallen world back into order. His Spirit is here to lead us in that endeavor: to live holy lives and to build the church. That is, to be transformed into the image of Jesus—fulfilling our design as fully physical and spiritual imagers of God—so that we can reflect His glory to the nations as we proclaim the truth of the gospel.
Paul then likens the Corinthians to a field and a building. We will focus on the building next week. For today, we will stick with his agricultural analogy and focus on the Corinthians as the field.
The field is the place where the servants work. God—as the vineyard owner—and His Son—as the manager—have sent us out to plant and to water. If he owns the cattle on a thousand hills, which is an idiom for Him owning every hill, than He also owns every field. And it is His servants who tend these fields.
Servants of Jesus are missionaries to every field. Some stay in the field in which they were born and some are sent to far-away fields, but every servant is a missionary. And our task is to plant and water over and over and over.
God is the One who generates the seed and gives the growth. He is the one who prunes the vines through the circumstances of life and the consequences of sin, and it is He who prepares the fruit—the corn or the beans.
God is constantly at work in every field. Those with the most faithful workers will be the most fruitful. There are always new fields to be sown and harvested. But there are never enough servants:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE]
And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
God is at work and has been at work in these fields since the day that Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden. Jesus has come and called all faithful servants of God to step into the fields and begin to plant and water. But He has said that we don’t have enough workers. There aren’t enough servants to work in the fields.
So, this is the question I want to leave you with this morning: How do we—as the servants in His field—both keep the fields fertile and raise up laborers for the harvest?
We are going to answer that in two parts. First, we keep the fields fertile by staying in the fields and focusing on the task. We give the soil constant attention, being intentional to cultivate the earth and care for the plants that begin growing. And we speak the Word of God to each and every plant. We proclaim the gospel over the fields. And God uses the faithful preaching of the Word to stimulate further growth.
The second answer is connected to the first. How do we raise up laborers for the harvest? First, we need to remember that we can’t raise up anything without God first giving growth. So, we start be constantly praying that God would raise up a crop of laborers. That, as plants would grow strong, that He would harvest them into more workers.
And second, we engage those new workers by disciplining them. We teach them how to live holy lives and how to proclaim the gospel and live out the mission that God has given to us. Every harvest has more workers, but if they are to become faithful servants, they need someone to guide them and teach them how to plant and water and cultivate.
We are called to plant and to water and to make disciples of those who respond and allow God to stimulate growth in their life.
I want to close this with one of Jesus’ parables:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE x7]
“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. (/) But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. (/) And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ (/) And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ (/) He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ (/) But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. (/) For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Servants of Jesus are like these servants in the parable. When we come to Him and bow to Him in service, He entrusts to us the mission. For those who take up the mission—who give to Him their faithfulness—they will begin to plant and to water in the fields. They will speak the Word and make disciples.
But for those who do nothing with the mission—those who take and bury the talent for fear of the world—they will be cast away from the Master into the darkness, for they were unfaithful servants.
[PREVIEW SLIDE]
Application
Church, it is time for us to step into our calling and be faithful workers of the field. But, we must remember what our calling is. Like Paul and Apollos, we are called to be planters and waterers. We are called to make disciples—that is, to teach others to plant and water. Nothing more.
It is not my job to save the world.
It is not the church’s job to save the world.
Instead, our job is to tell the world: to proclaim the gospel.
Our job is to disciple the world; to bring chaos back into order by following Jesus’ plan to reclaim all people and nations by His conquering power.
Pastors are simply the chief planters and waterers in every faithful local church. They do this because they have been called to as a servant of Jesus, but also as an example to the flock. It is the pastor’s job to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. That is discipleship.
We harvest from those whom God has grown and teach them to plant and water. And the cycle continues. And every church member, every follower of Christ, is called to do the same.
If you have never been discipled, it may seem intimidating to make disciples. Come and ask for help. It is the Elders’ job to equip you for the mission. We would love to walk with you through how to make disciples.
(My story?)
What does discipleship look like? Mentoring, counseling, spending time together, meals, living life together.
Discipleship pyramid illustration
This is God’s design to grow His church. Will you use your talents to fulfill the mission?
Invitation
If you are here this morning and you don’t know Jesus, maybe God has used this message to stir your heart. He is calling you now and is bringing energy to the seed in your heart. See after Him. Learn the truth. And come and learn how to live in the way that He designed you to live. I would love to speak with you after service.
CLOSE IN PRAYER
CLOSING HYMN
CONGREGATIONAL BLESSING
