God's Field: I Cor.3

How would you like to spend an afternoon working in my garden? I have plenty to do -- cleaning up from the year’s growing season, preparing for winter, planting bulbs for next spring. Not an attractive offer? What if I told you that Jesus is my head gardener and that you would be working with and for him?

Paul says that God has a field and that we are God’s fellow workers. Wow! What a privilege to be one of God’s farm hands caring for his crops. What could be greater? Is it a burden for me to spend 3,4 hours each week preparing for this Sunday School class? Not when I remember that I am tending the eternal souls of God’s seedlings. What could I want to do more? Try to lower my golf handicap?!

Fortunately, I am not working alone. Paul explained that he was a seed planter and Apollos was a water carrier. And under girding them was God, who makes things grow. I am never responsible for the entire spiritual life of anyone -- not my friends, not my children, not my wife. I must determine what the Lord has assigned and do it -- trusting that the mix of laborers will produce a crop. Whenever I overestimate my role in the growth process I become frustrated or anxious or manipulative: “Why won’t you get with it?!” But when I remember that God simply asks me to be faithful, then I can be at rest, confident that the God who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Phil.1:6)

Would you be willing to pull on your gloves and join me and Jesus in the garden? The author of Hebrews complained that his readers needed to be taught the elementary truths of God’s word all over again when they should have been teachers by that time. If you aren’t regularly teaching someone, would you trust God to lead one person into your life whom you can begin to teach what you know about how to walk with God?

Sunday's study: I Cor.4:1-21
1.What did Paul mean when he said: "I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed I do not even judge myself."
2.Study Mt.7:1-5. What do those verses and this chapter contribute to our understanding of what it means to judge other/ourselves/the world?

Next prayer fellowship: Nov.13.

“Judging All Things” -- I Cor.2,3

We are the ultimate insiders -- we have been given access to the “deep things of God” because God’s Spirit has been planted in and speaks to our souls. But many Christians don’t seem to hear the mysteries that the Spirit wants to reveal. Why not? Because other voices drown out the voice of God -- the culture, the devil, our friends, our family, our history, and even our churches. All of these sources can broadcast “the standards of this age” and keep us “infants in Christ.”

If we want to move beyond our spiritual pre-schools, we must learn how to recognize and reject these false standards -- wherever we find them. When our churches measure spiritual maturity by church attendance, by tithing, by service to the church, we must remember that you you can do all of that and still be a spiritual thumb sucker.

Our task then is to discern “worldly” thinking -- “the spiritual man makes judgments about all things.” (2:15) This is a learned skill -- developing the ability to discern the good and evil in “all things.” As you watch T.V. with your family (or by yourself) ask questions:

• What does this commercial teach about what it means to be a woman? what makes her happy? why aren’t there fat or homely women in commercials?
• What does this sit-com teach about the role of fathers? Is that the kind of father you would like to have?
• What kind of life do you think these professional football players live? How would you like to have your mistakes unveiled by instant replay to the whole nation? What would it be like to be cut when the team found a better player?
• What do you think it would be like if our family lost our home in a natural disaster? would God let something like that happen to us? should the federal government replace our home if we lost it?

It is God’s Spirit in cooperation with God’s word which helps us make accurate judgments about the world we live in. And these right judgments form the basis of a maturing, stable Christian faith.

Assignment: Practice making judgments as you watch T.V. this week.

This Sunday: We will complete I Cor.3, asking some of the following questions:

• How did Paul view his role in the Corinthians' growth toward maturity? What does this say about how we should be involved in others' lives?
• How will God judge my role as a discipler of others?
• How do I measure my success as a discipler of others? (4:1-5)

Next prayer fellowship: Oct.23 at Ed & Kristi Irvin's

I Cor.2

In Mel Gibson’s movie “What Women Want”, the actor was miraculously given the ability to hear what women were thinking. At first he used the gift to take advantage of women, but then he began to use it to relate to them better. One of those women was his 15 year-old daughter who had little respect for him because of his indifference toward her. But hearing her needs and her vulnerabilities stirred his dormant fatherly love. The scene where they went shopping for a prom-dress is particularly touching.

But in the real world we obviously can not know the unspoken thoughts of others. The apostle Paul made that point when he concluded: “For who knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him?” (I Cor.2:11) The only way I could really know my wife’s thoughts would be to have her spirit implanted in my soul. As good as that knowledge would be, an even greater gift would be to know the intimate thoughts of God. And who knows God’s thoughts? Paul explained: “No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” So if I want to know God’s most private thoughts, I must have His Spirit transplanted into me. But this also must be a fantasy, right? Wrong! “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (2:12) Wow!

We often talk about the wonder of our salvation -- the infinite, holy, all powerful God gave his life so that we might have life. But an equally, if not more, astounding truth is that he sent His Spirit to make a home in our finite, unholy, weak selves so that we can know Him intimately. Why would he reveal his “secret wisdom” to us in this way? We will never understand but we can praise God for such an undeserved and unexpected gift! “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” (2:9)

Questions for I Cor.3 - Oct.9
1.What does it mean to be "spiritual"? "worldly"?
2.What are the characteristics of spiritual infants?
3.How should those who are ministering to others view themselves?
4.What rewards is Paul talking about in 3:14? How are those rewards achieved? When will they be given?

Next Sunday evening prayer fellowship: October 23, 6:00 P.M. Any volunteers to host?