What Happens to the Church Without Christ Grow Up I Corinthians 3

What Happens to the Church Without Christ

Grow Up

I Corinthians 3

Many are afraid to grow up

Many do not want to grow up

But God makes things grow

He put the Foundation of Jesus Christ in you

God uses servants to plant and water so that you will grow

All things are yours

All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. 1 Corinthians 3:21-23

You are of Christ, everything else in your life needs to line up with that

You can mature because God causes the growth

Don’t play the blame game

Don’t hide behind others

Grow, Mature

Be the Temple of God filled with His Spirit

Grow Up

I Corinthians 3

There always seems to be a concern
when the next generation grows up.

Will the kids of today become adults?

We have placed mile markers toward adulthood like…

16 you can get a driver’s license

18 you can vote and buy alcohol

What makes an adult?

It seems to be a growing trend to put

off adulthood as if it is a bad thing.

You have heard the saying…

 “Never grow up”

More and more young people are continuing

to live with their parents after the age of 21.

We see a culture living hand to mouth

because our social environment

is to party, or entertain.

There is a desire to find love, but are afraid to

make a commitment, so family is put off.

Young people want what their parents

Have, but fail to realize the work

it took to get their wealth.

Depression and mental health issues increase

as 30 and 40 year olds realize they are

getting older and will not have enough

to make the “Golden Years” golden.

What keeps people from growing up is dependency.

Dependency on parents, others and government.

The Church in Corinth did not want to grow up.

They were quarrelers, envy and strife marked them.

Paul says they were worldly.

We should note the world and its

standards will not make you mature.

 The drama of childishness is all around

us every form of media we have is

filled with quarreling, strife, and envy.

So the world is not a good example of maturity.

Paul says the people in the

Church were followers of leaders.

Paul is talking of good leaders,

each leader doing their job.

Paul points out that the leaders are

different with different responsibilities…

One plants and another waters.

 

Godly leaders are specialized,

each leader has his role and all are to

build on one foundation “Jesus Christ”.

The people in church started

to follow different leaders.

If they were attached to a planter they

missed the watering they needed to grow.

God’s design is diversity but

not division to make us grow.

The core problem was not wanting to grow up.

There was an insecurity in growing up.

A failure to become responsible.

Although one plants another waters…

God makes it grow.

If we are to mature, we must

realize Christ wants us to “GROW”.

Paul tells us we are the temple of God.

God’s Spirit lives in us.

You are the temple of God.

If anyone tries to destroy His temple

(that is you) God will destroy him.

1 Corinthians 3:17

Some of us fear maturity for

fear of being destroyed by others.

God calls your life sacred, His temple.

Some of us don’t think

we are wise enough to mature.

  

Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, 

he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise.

1 Corinthians 3:18-19

We don’t mature when we hide under leaders.

It does not matter if they are a good leader or bad leader.

Boasting in leaders, hiding under

them will not make you mature.

Good leaders will plant and water

but God causes the growth.

We must never forget Jesus is our Foundation.

Everything built on that Foundation belongs to God.

The Church at Corinth did not have the mindset of maturity.

They had the mindset of dependency on others.

We need others, but God brings the increase.

You, too, are a planter or waterer.

 God has given you everything He has given to others.

All things are yours.

All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are of Christ,

and Christ is of God.

1 Corinthians 3:21-23

You are of Christ, everything else in

your life needs to line up with that.

You can mature because God causes the growth.

Don’t play the blame game.

Don’t hide behind others…

Grow, Mature

Be the Temple of God filled with His Spirit.

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 3

3:1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly — 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 worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? 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?

5 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. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; 20 and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."   21 So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.