Main Idea: The Lord knows your place, your pace, and your process, so you can wholeheartedly trust Him.
Introduction of Praise
[The queen of Sheba to Solomon] (1 Kings 10:6-9).
• As it was said of Solomon, so my heart says of the Lord Jesus, for He is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. He is the One who adorned Solomon in his splendor.
• And day by day we are privileged to have the experience of Him beyond just the words we read about Him or the words we hear about Him.
• “And He shall be called Wonderful…” (Isaiah 9:6). Being wonderful is not just what the Lord does, it is who He is! As the sun rises every day, it is not trying to be glorious, it is just being the sun. In the same way, as Jesus, the Son of God abides in us, by His Spirit. He isn’t trying to be wonderful, it is His very nature. It is who He is.
• With His glory as our backdrop, we turn our attention to how He impacts our lives personally each day. Again, The Lord knows your place, your pace, and your process, so you can wholeheartedly trust Him.
Text: 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role. I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. He who plants and he who waters are one in 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.
· Philippians 2:13; Ephesians 2:10
The central theme of each of these is that God uses people, but it’s always His work that causes the growth. He is the Planner and the Producer of our spiritual growth and spiritual fruit.
I. Our Place – Each one of us is in a unique spiritual place that is based on all our life factors, when we were born, family, experience, age, gender, race, etc.
• Our place is our present spiritual orientation. It’s what we understand spiritually. It’s what we believe. For real.
• Our “place” is the back story of our attitudes, beliefs and actions.
• We don’t stand at the same starting line and we are never in the same place as anyone else. So we are not competing with anyone. Depending on their starting line, someone who is “struggling” more outwardly spiritually could be growing exponentially. He knows where we are. As it is written in Psalm 139:1-4
• The Lord knows where we really are. So He is not surprised when we act like it.
II. Our Pace – Our pace is our readiness to receive God’s truth and act upon it.
• Luke 22:33 Peter said to Jesus, “I’m ready to go with You to prison and to death.” But was he ready?
• But after the resurrection Jesus told Peter how he was going to die and when the time came Peter was ready.
• 1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” He doesn’t set the pace faster than we can keep up.
• God knows our pace.
III. Our Process – How we think. How we react. Our triggers. Our defense mechanisms. The way we learn.
• Each of our process of growth is unique. God deals with us individually not as a group.
• “If I want him to remain until I come what is that to You, You follow me” (John 21:23).
• The Lord is in each of us personally because He wants to personalize each of our relationship with Himself.
• A faith walk is not a math equation with one correct choice. A faith walk is not about always knowing precisely what to do. A faith walk is all about engagement with the Lord and trusting Him with our process.
• Faith is trust in the person Jesus. Faith in Him is what He wants more than our figuring it out.
• A faith process is beautifully illustrated by Jehoshaphat’s prayer when the Lord’s people of Judah came up against a formidable enemy, “We don’t know what to do but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chronicles 20:12)
• The Lord knows how to handle you.
• And as we receive the Lord’s care for our place, pace and process, let us also have confidence in Him to care for the place, pace and process of others. Let us approach others with humility that comes from realizing God causes the growth and He knows what He is doing.
Leave a Reply