Our natural tendency is to look toward results, reports, and bottom-lines with an air of self-achievement. Upon finishing a big project at work, wrapping up a great Sunday, or a executing a large event, we feel the pull to lean back and wait for the kudos.
“Look what we did…” we quietly surmise.
We find it all-too-easy to receive accolades and relish in our accomplishments when things go well.
What about when plans or programs go sour? When the “buildings, bodies, and bucks” don’t add up? Aha! In those moments, we quickly drop to our knees and cry out to God for direction, blessing, or a sense of relief.
But with increase or decrease, in want or in fullness, we are to move forward on our knees in total reliance on God. We dare not forget the God who brought us through the storm when we reach the peaceful, sunny shore.
God alone brings the increase. God alone accomplishes His work as we remain reliant, dependent, and submitted to Him.
The apostle Paul exhorts us under the inspiration of the Spirit:
“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.” (1 Cor. 3:5)
Apollos was known as a “golden-tongued” orator-preacher of the gospel. He could capture the ears of hundreds…even thousands. Paul was the foremost theologian of his era, an expert church-planter, and a bold preacher of the Word. These guys were heavy-hitters in the line-up, you might say. But what does Paul make clear? They are only servants of God who entirely operated through the opportunities that the Lord alone provided. The apostle continues the logic:
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” (1 Cor. 3:7)
If the planter and the waterer are nothing, then that means God is the One who causes and cultivates EVERYTHING. God provides the opportunities, the calling, the equipment, and the power. The seed is God’s gospel. The water is God’s provision, the work of the Spirit. The servants are God’s redeemed children. The glory of the harvest belongs to God alone.
Listen carefully to the next line:
“Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Cor. 3:8-9)
We’re united together. Eternal rewards will be given to each according to our obedience to Christ. But we’re not divided on the basis of gifting, skill, results, or reward because all of those are purely the outcome of God’s work. Three visual metaphors are combined in the last phrase: We belong to God’s team together as servant-leaders; ultimately, we’re all in God’s field and one in God’s house (cf. Eph. 2:11-22).
God does it!
So as elders and deacons of Mayfair Bible Church, let’s remember this is God’s church (not ours). We serve God’s people (not ours). The results of ministry-labors, whether up or down or in-between, are of God’s power and grace (not ours).
Let us…
Walk faithfully. Serve humbly. Pray fervently.
Soli Deo Gloria
