In love and mercy; Stop being worldly
August 2nd 2009
rev. David R. Watson
1 Corinthians3:1-3
3:1 Brothers I could not address you as spiritual but wordly- 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 wordly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not wordly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4 for when one says, “I follow paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos, “are you not mere men? 5What, after all, is apollos? And what is Paul? Only sevants, 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 made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants or he who waters it is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 the man who plants and the man who waters has one purpose, and each will rewarded according to his own labor. 9 for we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, Gods Building.
It has been said to me that” We want you to be lead by the Holy spirit. Preach what God says not what we want!
I have heard your plea, I listen to your discussions. Today I speak to you what the word speaks to me.
In mercy and love I have these things against you my beloved church:
1. You say you don’t receive because I do not teach the way you want me to teach.
2. You say that you do not read and pray as you should, I ask why not?
3. I contend that you rely too much on church events to feed you spiritually when this deep infilling should be wroght through a personal in filling which comes through the deep drilling of the holy spirit that is manifested in our secret places. Jesus does the work with us alone in our secret place, the function of the church is to edify the already, manifested spirit that comes from a deep dwelling of the work of Jesus in us. It is for praising our God and blessing him. Unto him alone do we come together. There is no reason we should continually come to church empty and in need week after week. If this is the case the answer is not in small group methods, but in a strong emphasis and accountability for personal devotions so that you may be able at staying close to our Lord Jesus as he is already and has been doing in my life.1 cor.4:8, “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings-and that without us! How I wish you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!”
4. There must be absolute loyalty and devotion to this fellowship and to me as God’s anointed leader. I am not pleading because of my lack of confidence, I know who I am absolutely, You are the one who needs to remember; Or maybe you have not known. Romans1:1” A servant of JesusChrist, called to be an Apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.
1 cor.9:1-6, “Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle?Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? Even though I may not be an Apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my Apostleship in the Lord.” 1 cor.4:13-16, “We work hard with our own hands. When we ar cursed, we bless;when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth the refuse of the world. I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many Fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the Gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.”
5. I challenge the idea that it would be simply ok for you to just “look for another church that meets your needs.
There are those who have left for their reasons; You know whom I speak, I contend; that it has not been not Gods plan, it does not fit with scripture in the least; but what am I to do. I however, through a clinched teeth spirit,for the sake of unity and peace at the moment said nothing and gave a blessing of sorts. It has since laid a perversed foundation for spiritual loyalty for this fellowship. Today I want to say that it should be with fear and trembling that any man woman child should consider leaving this faith proving church for any reason other than a strong clear call of God to serve in a ministry. Through time it has been nothing short of carnality to leave for reasons such as: not being fed, not getting what I need, too much drama for me. Church planting is dirty work and this is what is going on here. It is a pursuit of less than God’s refining and spiritual “all” that causes man to grumble, get weak and leave a fellowship. It would be a rare thing for a person to stand and repent for there own carnality, we seek because of our self worship to find fault in God’s design. We say that it is God’s Annointed that is at fault and is less than what I need. Is this Hubris or is it the Sin that we all seek to cover up? Most people leave without even prayerful council. GThey have given in to Satanic leading rather than concluding that the element that is missing may well be the Spirit of the Lord Jesus. I say these things not as a slander to any one person, but as a stern and yet merciful warning from the word; the Lord Jesus our Christ and King.
1 Cor.10:1-5, “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into moses in the cloud and into the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the dessert. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”v10, “And do not grumble, as some of them did-and were killed by the destroying angel.”
Application: The word to focus on in this passage is, “ALL”. Repeatedly it says they all were under Gods cloud, they all drank from Christ the rock, they all ate the same spiritual food.
NEVERTHELESS God was not pleased with most of them and their bodies were scattered over the dessert.
WHY? Very few got it! Very few understood that they were no longer slaves to Egypt, (sin). Very few understood that yes things were not as pleasant as they could hope for. Very few understood that the dessert trip was Gods proving ground, and yet a blessed opportunity to draw close to him and worship him for their new found freedom and the ultimate pay off to come-our promised land.
It was the Grumblers, discord sowers that were facilitators not of, blessing, hope and peace, and spiritual prosperity; but of spiritual strife, unrest, judgement.
In our church these same sins are being sewn here in different ways. You know, we loose out on spiritual renewal and revival, on Fresh growth, we reap unanswered collective hope and prayer.
I know not all miss behave this way, but a little yeast spoils the lump.
I want to leave you with this exhortation; This has been a word of rebuke for some, warning for others, and yet for others a simple reminding to guard your gates. Let not your heart mind and spirit be led away by wordly and carnal temptation; that is indeed what it is! 1 Cor.4:1 so men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. Look to your pastor as a friend, as a counselor, as one appointed as a spiritual teacher and guide that the Lord has placed. You have heard my testimony, you know that it is true; I know yours, and I know God has called you here.
We all are gifted in different ways but with the same Spirit 1 cor. 12:v4, 1 cor. 12:7, “now to each one the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.”
V12 “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one spirit into one body-whether jews or greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
So lets drink and get our fill!!
prayer
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