"Real-Life Discipleship” Series

v. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

Paul and Apollos both served God and the work in Corinth didn’t belong to either of them. Paul

recognized that it was all God’s work.

vv. 8-9 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Those of us in full-time ministry realize that our reward for our work comes from God. Every

one of us, whether we are pastors or not, will one day stand before Christ and have to give an

account of what we have done with the life God has given us.

James says,

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. James 3:1

It is said that if you can do anything other than pastoral ministry, do it! Pastoral ministry can be

daunting, but then, so can a lot of different vocations. The difference is that pastors will be

judged with a higher standard by God. God loves His Church and He doesn’t want anyone

messing it up, especially pastors.

All of us are responsible to God for His Church. As Paul says, together we are God’s field, God’s

building. As part of God’s field, are you fruitful?

Jesus says in John, chapter 15,

v. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. “

What kind of fruit is Jesus speaking about? There is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Are the fruit of the Spirit growing in your life?

Secondly, there is the fruitful harvest of godly service. Paul speaks about his own work as

“fruitful labor” (Philippians 1:22). Paul is clear in his epistles to the churches in Rome, Ephesus

and Corinth that every Christian is empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve in the church and

world – 1 Corinthians 12 is one of the places where Paul mentions spiritual gifts.

God made us to be fruitful. He wants us to grow in the fruit of the Spirit – this is character

development. We are to grow to be more and more like Jesus. God wants us to be fruitful in

godly service. Are you serving God in the church and in the world?

This brings me to the diagram on the front of your bulletin. It is from Real-Life Discipleship, a

book by Jim Putnam, founder of Real Life Ministries in Idaho. [Note: the diagram is on page 77]

You can see the colored rim of the circle progresses from dead to born again to infant to child to

young adult to parent. Inside the rim of the circle are short descriptions. Jim Putnam calls this

diagram the stages of spiritual growth wheel.

The New Testament says that before Christ is our Savior we are dead in our sins. Jesus said that when we receive Him as Savior and Lord we are born again, born from above, given new life. It’s important that we know where we (and others) are in the spiritual growth process. Jim Putnam says, “listen for a ‘phrase from the stage.’ ” [p.45]