1 Corinthians 3:5-11
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1 Corinthians 3:5-9
1 Corinthians 3:5-9
Blinking is something we all do approximately every two to ten seconds; we only ever realize we’re doing it when someone points it out. (Now you’re probably going to read the rest of the list thinking about it.) But how does our brain manage to keep this process going with no conscious input? Blinking is an automatic reflex action, put in place to protect and maintain the moisture of your eye.
The outside corner of your eyes constantly produce tears. These tears are wiped away by the movement of your eyelids as you blink to keep your eye lubricated and clean. (This explains why our blinks are so evenly distributed.) The automatic system that regulates our blinking patterns also makes sure that our eyelids close when something is about to strike our face. Although we have the ability to stop the process when we think consciously about it (if you choose to have a staring contest), the automated system will eventually force us to blink again.
moving our tongue into position to do words
Regulating our body temperature. brain does it without our thinking consciously.
Maintaining our balance- unconscious brain function.
Sneezing-
Why do you worship? Why do you serve Jesus?
Believe it or not.... Paul is going to answer these questions in the context, in a discussion on Christian maturity and division in the church.
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
The word ‘servant’ here, unlike the word ‘slave’, can mean ‘the one who waits at table’; in other words, Paul and Apollos are simply the people who serve the food, while God is responsible for choosing it and cooking it. You shouldn’t make a fuss about which waiter brings the food to your table. What matters is that God is in charge in the kitchen.
A Servant is One who waits on a table and serves the food.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
Paul’s problem is not Apollos. Paul’s problem is the idea that anyone would play he and Apollos off of one another in a personality contest based on human standards of wisdom and rhetoric.
FAcebook posts.... likes, shares, etc.,
Years ago the grandmother brought the grandchild to church. He stood on the pew and watched every moment of everything done. When asked to shake my hand, he identified me as God.!!! What a childlike mistake and an adult temptation.!!
There is only one pedestal in the kingdom of God, and it is a cross.
It is a cross; and the Messiah who hung and died on it passed judgment on all human fame, celebrity, popularity and reputation. That is the message Paul wants above all to get across.
8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.
An assembly plant. The pottery workers.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
We are God’s field and God’s garden.
See Matthew 13.1-9
1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
Paul took this individual image and made it collective: the local church is a field that ought to bear fruit.
The task of the ministry is the sowing of the seed, the cultivating of the soil, the watering of the plants, and the harvesting of the fruit.
How did this image of the church as a “field” apply to the special problems of the Corinthians? To begin with, the emphasis must be on God and not on the laborers. Paul and Apollos were only servants who did their assigned tasks. It was God who gave life to their efforts. Even the faith of the believers was a gift from God (1 Cor. 3:5). It is wrong to center attention on the servants. Look instead to the Lord of the harvest, the source of all blessing.
Note the emphasis in this paragraph on increase or growth. Why compare preachers or statistics? God is the source of the growth; no man can take the credit. Furthermore, no one man can do all the necessary work. Paul planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but only God could make it grow (1 Cor. 3:6).
Popcorn is prepared in the same pot, the same heat, the same oil… and yet, the kernels do not pop at the same time. Do not compare your child with others. Their turn to pop is coming.
Bottom Line:
Bottom Line:
When We Selflessly Serve As One Out Of Our Strengths Christ is Glorified In Us
When We Selflessly Serve As One Out Of Our Strengths Christ is Glorified In Us
Three Bottom Liners:
Three Bottom Liners:
God wants diversity in our service to Him.
One laborer plows the soil, another sows the seed, a third waters the seed. As time passes, the plants grow, the fruit appears, and other laborers enjoy reaping the harvest. This emphasis on diversity will also show up when Paul compares the church to a body with many different parts.
God wants unity in our purpose.
No matter what work a person is doing for the Lord, he is still a part of the harvest. “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one” (1 Cor. 3:8). P
Paul, Apollos, and Peter were not competing with each other. Rather, each was doing his assigned task under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Even though there is diversity of ministry, there is unity of purpose; and there ought to be unity of spirit.
What men may think of our ministry is not important; what God may think is of supreme importance. Our reward must not be the praise of men, but the “Well done!” of the Lord of the harvest.
God Wants a Humility in our spirit.
It is not the human laborers that produce the harvest, but the Lord of the harvest. “God gave the increase … God that giveth the increase” (1 Cor. 3:6–7).
Granted, God has ordained that human beings should be His ministers on earth; but their efforts apart from God’s blessing would be failures.
Jesus expressed the same idea as recorded in John 4:34–38. The sower and the reaper not only work together, but one day they shall rejoice together and receive their own rewards.
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
When We Selflessly Serve As One Out Of Our Strengths Christ is Glorified In Us
When We Selflessly Serve As One Out Of Our Strengths Christ is Glorified In Us
What God Grows in His Garden
What God Grows in His Garden
Galatians 5:22-23 The Fruit of the Spirit
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Romans 6:22 Holiness
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Romans 15:26 Giving
26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.
Colossians 1:10 Good Works
10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Hebrews 13:15 Praise to the Lord
15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
Romans 1:13 More Christians Added to the Kingdom
13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
If the fruit of our ministry is genuine, it will eventually produce “more fruit … much fruit” to the glory of God (John 15:1–8).
you come upon a foundation ready laid, but without any plans for the superstructure, you will have to choose what sort of building to build. Paul’s basic answer is that this must be a building for worship: a Temple, in other words (verses 16–17). That’s the question every church worker should ask: is what I’m doing encouraging and enabling people to worship the true and living God, in
If holiness and truth? If not, am I perhaps being untrue to the foundation that has been laid?