I asked a question last week that I want to revisit. The question was, "What is the goal of Christianity?" Tell me how you would answer that question. I'll give you a hint. The answer should be something along the lines of our statement of purpose as a church. If you go to our church website, one of the first things you will see is our statement of purpose and it says, "Doing whatever it takes to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ."
That is our goal as a church and I believe it is basically the goal of Christianity and for all Christians. Now, my second question is, "What is your part in that goal?" And thirdly, "How important is your part in that goal?" Also, "How important is the part played by the person next to you? Or my part?" Is one part more important than another?
I know, I know. Sunday nights are for me asking questions. Don't worry. I'll have more for you tonight at 6. But I want you to think this morning about what part you play in the goal of Christianity and what would happen if you or somebody else did not play their role. Who is going to take up the slack? Who is going to do the job that didn't get done?
I finally got my garden planted at the house and I have to admit that I am dying to use it as an illustration and this is a good point to do that. I know it is way too late to start a garden but I got in when I could and I'll deal with the heat the best I can. But what is the goal of a vegetable garden? To produce vegetables, right? Now, I know that I can go to the store and buy veggies cheaper than I can grow them myself but I want good, fresh veggies or I won't eat them at all.
I am concerned about the cost, however. By the time I buy gas for Troy's tiller and buy the seeds and then water the seeds, I'm already out more money than it would take to buy them at the store. So, what I have decided to do is only water the plants about once a month to save on the cost of water. And I can't afford fertilizer at all, so that's out. But don't worry. I bought good, fresh seed and I tilled up the ground real good. I got all the weeds out and I planted the seeds at just the right depth and they are already coming out of the ground, just another everyday miracle.
So now I am just counting on God to do His part and bring the rain since I can't afford to water. And I hope the rain doesn't make the weeds grow because not only can I not afford to water but I don't have time to keep all the weeds out. That takes too long and I have other things to do. Oh, and I hope no bugs get on my plants because I don't want to have to spend money on insecticide. But I can't wait to eat all that fresh produce!
That's pretty ridiculous, isn't it? Nobody would do that, especially in this heat. So, which is more important, to till up the ground or water in the seeds? Is it more important to plant at the right time or harvest at the right time? Is it better to prepare the soil or keep the bugs off? Those are not good questions because all of it is important and just like in the goal of Christianity, if somebody doesn't do their part, then the harvest will not be good. The goal will not be achieved.
In our last sermon in this series of seeing ourselves in relation to God, we are going to see what we are as God sees us. We have seen who we are, where we are and whose we are and we have seen that when we see ourselves as God sees us, we see ourselves truthfully, not comparing ourselves to others but only as God says we are in His Word. And today we will see in I Corinthians what Paul has to say to the messed up church in Corinth about what our responsibilities are as Christians in achieving the goal of Christianity.
I read somewhere that the first thing every new pastor ought to preach is to go through the book of 1 Corinthians because in it Paul tries to address pretty much every kind of problem a church can have. And in chapter 3, where we are today, Paul is addressing the issue of division in the church. Some people thought they were more important or their job was more vital to the church and Paul writes to say that was not true.
And while that is important for all of us to be reminded of from time to time, he hits on something specifically that will be important for us to know in this church about what we are as God sees us. He tells us in verse 9 but I want to keep it in context by reading verses 1-9 of 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I hope you have your Bibles but if not there is one in front of you.
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. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere human beings? 5 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. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
So far in this series we have seen the benefits and responsibilities of being a son of God. We have seen that we are salt and light. We are seated in the heavenlies next to Jesus. We are co-heirs with Jesus to all the good things Heaven can offer. Lastly, we see that we have a job to do. And I want you to know that my job is very important. It is. But I also want you to know that your job is just as important. That's Paul's point here.
Nobody is more important than another but each one is vital to the goal of Christianity.
I want to concentrate on verse 9 and look closer at the 3 things Paul says that we are. He says we are fellow workers with God. We are God's field. And we are God's building.
As fellow workers with God, our job is to be about His business. Jesus knew at an early age what some of us struggle with all of our lives. His parents went looking for Him and finally found Him in the temple and what did He say? I'm just doing my Father's business. I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do. He said I am doing what I was put on this earth to do.
And our response to that is to compare ourselves, not to Jesus, but to others and think that doesn't really apply to us. I have a job. I have kids and grandkids and things to do and dinner to fix and blah, blah, blah. I met a woman one time who owned a gym. I used to collect taxes for a living for the state of Texas and I went to her place of business to demand payment of some back taxes.
I told her who I was and why I was there and she explained that she had made some sort of accounting error and that she would be glad to pay me because she had been so blessed because of what Jesus had done in her life. I wasn't there 60 seconds but what this lady was witnessing to me. And it just flowed out of her. We talked taxes for just a minute and then just compared blessings and if I had not been a Christian when I walked into that place, I bet I would have been by the time I walked out.
A friend of mine told me about his dying, elderly father who was literally on his deathbed. The man had been a soul-winner all of his life and kept trying to get up off the bed and my friend kept trying to keep him still. He asked him what he wanted and all the old man could say was, "Gotta go win one more for Jesus."
I watched a show on TV the other day about the training required to be a Navy Seal. It's more like torture than training at first. They get one hour of sleep a day for a week, very little food and they have to do crazy, tortuous physical training in the ocean and the pool with life rafts and huge logs they have to carry all over the place and then run over here and over there for hours. At the end of that week that they call "Hell Week" they had to be at a certain place on the beach by a certain time. The last 2 men to make it were considerably farther behind the others because they were both dragging themselves across the sand but they made it just in time. They were dragging themselves because both had broken a leg some time during the week and they got there as fast as they could.
I say that to ask you this. How bad do you want to be one of God's fellow workers? I know you have things to do and the stresses and worries of life are always going to be there. We know we are to provide for ourselves and our families but what is the goal? Is the goal to die with enough stuff? Well, how much stuff is enough?
And none of us would want to admit that we are more concerned about doing our earthly jobs than doing our God-given job but I want you to think back on the past year. 12 months. Since June 2012, how many people have you witnessed to? How many times have you said the name, "Jesus" to someone in a way that would encourage them to have a relationship with Him? I'm not talking about living your life in a godly way, although that is, of course, important.
I'm not talking about inviting someone to church. I mean when was the last time you got a Bible and said, "Look, Jesus is the way the truth and the life? We all have fallen short. The wages of sin is death. My relationship with Jesus has brought me peace and joy in these ways..." When was the last time you introduced Jesus to somebody? Personally, I'm embarrassed to think about how long it has been for me.
But do you know what? Paul tells us in the next phrase that we are God's field and as God's field, God expects us to start producing. That word "field" denotes a plowed field that is turned over, tilled up, with the seeds planted and watered. God has done His part. He has prepared you. Some of you can relate to feeling like a plowed up field right about now, can't you?
Hosea 10:12 says, "Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you." Jeremiah 4:3 This is what the LORD says to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: "Plow up the hard ground of your hearts! Do not waste your good seed among thorns. 4 Cleanse your minds and hearts before the LORD, or my anger will burn like an unquenchable fire because of all your sins.
Paul uses the same phrase that is found several other places to show that we are to have a tilled up heart, one that produces fruit. As a field of God, we can expect to be tilled. It's not fun. It hurts. It breaks up what we are used to and comfortable with and we don't like it. We like to think about being seated with Jesus and being co-heirs with Him and all the benefits that we get from being sons of the one true God.
And when the plow hits our hearts, we cry out to God, "Why?!" Why do bad things happen to good people is a question that will never be answered completely this side of Heaven but Paul touches on one reason right here. When the plow comes and tills up our hearts, then our lives can be used for Him.
After Hurricane Katrina, I went with some folks from the church where I was going down to New Orleans to help clean up and tarp some roofs and do whatever we could to help. We worked on the house of one man who was extremely bitter toward God for allowing all the bad things to happen to him, mainly the loss of his son a few years before. We were busy cleaning out his house while he stayed in a FEMA trailer but he would come out and watch us some. He was in bad health so he couldn't do much.
But I was determined I was going to witness to the crotchety old dude and so I went into the trailer but my friend Scott was already in there talking to the man about sports or something. I listened for a minute and I tried to steer the conversation around to spiritual things but the old man wouldn't listen to me. He would get angry and start complaining about how God killed his son and then he and Scott would go back to talking about sports.
I kept trying and every time the old guy would shoot me down with something about how mad he was that God would kill his boy. Finally, Scott was able to just gently and painfully tell the story of how he had lost his teenage son just about the same time but Scott was able to talk to the man about not only the pain of it but also the comfort that comes from having a relationship with Jesus. My words were getting nowhere with that man but because Scott had had his heart plowed up and tilled into a useable field, he was able to tell that man about the love of Jesus like I would never be able to.
Does that make it all better for Scott and his family? Does that bring back his son or erase all the pain? Of course not. And I am sorry that it happened to him and I am sorry that your own life has had to be tilled but our comfort is not the goal. Our goal is to lead people to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ and as the song says that we sang last week, if that is what it takes for You to get the glory then Jesus bring the rain. Bring the rain to our plowed up field so that we can produce a harvest.
Now as we go to the last part and the last point about how we are God’s building, I want you to know that I hear you. I do. I hear you when you say that you can’t do it. You just aren’t cut out to be a soul-winner. It’s hard to memorize scripture. It’s hard to know what to say. It’s hard to be real fruitful in this barren world. I completely understand.
And I want you to know that I agree with you. It is hard to memorize scripture, know what to say, have the boldness to say stuff and all the other things required to be what we are supposed to be. I agree with you that you can’t do it.
But the last thing that Paul says changes everything. He says that we are God’s building. And what is the purpose of a building? The purpose of a building is to house something or contain something or be a place of meeting. And do you know what is in our building?
1 Corinthians 6:19 says “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
We are God’s building with His Spirit living inside of that building and He gives us the strength we need to be what we are supposed to be! He gives us the strength to be fruitful. He gives us the power to be bold when talking to people about Him. He gives us the joy and peace we need to get through the tilling and the plowing and the rain and the harvest when we allow Him to do it through us and for His glory.
And when we do all of that; when we live our lives intentionally; with an urgency to win just one more for Jesus even in our pain and even at work and at home or school or whatever we happen to be doing at the time; when we allow God to use us as His fellow workers and His field we will be His building and we will not see ourselves or our job in the church as being more important than any other. We will see ourselves as God sees us. We will see our true selves.
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