Introduction

Last week we began a new 4-week series called Rooted. The agricultural imagery is strong with this series, and we will be talking a lot today about seeds, soil, and growth.

After a seed is planted, what do you expect it to do next? (GROW!) That’s right, we expect the seed to grow and ultimately we all want the seed to grow and bear tons of delicious fruit.

We talked last week about how seeds need healthy soil to grow. This week we are going to talk about the other necessary agents of growth in a believers’ life to bring the seed of the Word to full-fruit-bearing maturity.

The agricultural imagery is strong with this series, and we will be talking a lot today about seeds, soil, and growth.

Main Teaching/Body

Let’s talk about the necessary agents of growth through the lens of 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 which says; '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. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither the one who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.'

It’s important to remember today that it is God who makes things grow. The seed matters, the soil matters, the water matters, the sunlight matters but ultimately the Master Architect of growth directs the agents of growth.

Throughout 1 Corinthians we see that the early church was fighting and quarreling about many different aspects of faith. It got to be such a problem that the Apostle Paul addressed it throughout the 1st and 2nd letter to the Corinthians. One of the specific arguments was over which leaders they were to follow. They must have felt that one was greater or more productive than another. Paul clearly states that these men are simply servants of God and that the fighting needed to stop because spiritual growth was not a result of human’s work. It is God who makes things grow.

This commentary in Paul’s letter was intended to free the readers from unnecessary comparison and to focus on God’s work in their lives ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium