Worship

Scripture

In the first few chapters of 1 Corinthians, we see Paul trying to explain to the church that they are guilty of some things that aren’t good. One of the things he tried to explain was that people were getting caught up in who they were following. Some were going so far as to differentiate themselves based on who baptized them. Yes, Paul did the planting and someone else did the watering, but it was God who made it grow. The challenge we face comes on both sides of this issue. As believers, we have a role to play. Maybe we are called to plant the seed or maybe we are called to water the seed, but our role is not to be God. He is the one who makes it grow. Even though our motivations might start in a good place we can end up being more focused on our role than God’s role. Paul addressed that by saying that he was glad that he couldn’t remember baptizing anyone. I don’t think it was because he didn’t want to play a role; it was because he realized that it was becoming divisive and that it could lead to missing the point of who was most important. The other aspect of all of this is when we believers begin to hold those God has sent as being more important than God Himself. I don’t think any of them saw it that way at first. Paul’s point was that some of the people identified themselves through the person who preached to them, baptized them, or perhaps led them in worship etc. Imagine the challenge here…. a person wanted to follow Paul whom God did clearly call. Paul has much to share from the Lord, a great thing! Yet even in following God it became a trap for people to start following Paul. “Let’s go see Paul. I was prayed for by Paul.” All of those were things that might not seem bad on the surface, but they become a form of idolatry.  After all, how many times do we put our trust in a person and then that person fails? Paul wanted them to understand that they had to always go back to God as being the One, otherwise it was doomed to failure. 

Prayer

HONOR GOD

There is nothing too big for our God. Honor His greatness!

ASK GOD

SUBMIT TO GOD