Study Unit 13 (Laboring Together with God) PDF

Study Unit 13 (Laboring Together with God) God calls on us to be “laborers together” with Him Sound doctrine when “rightly divided” will allow each of us to stand before Him at judgment God chose to reveal His written Word and send His Son, the incarnate Word, to a nation called Is...

Study Unit 13 (Laboring Together with God) God calls on us to be “laborers together” with Him Sound doctrine when “rightly divided” will allow each of us to stand before Him at judgment God chose to reveal His written Word and send His Son, the incarnate Word, to a nation called Israel ------ largely an agricultural nation of farmers and shepherds Agrigultural imagery of planting, watering, fertilizing, pruning, and harvesting was chosen because of the nature of the people and nature of the truth that God was communicating to man The physical laws of God reflect the spiritual laws of God Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 that if we understand the role of God and the role of man in the activities and responsibilities of a “plant grower” (a farmer) we can understand the role of God and the role of man in the activities and responsibilities of a “people grower” (a disciple-maker) ○ Our Part: We are to be “faithful farmers”, planting and watering as God’s laws of nature dictate and as God’s grace enables us------practicing God-dependent self-denial ○ God’s Part: He is the sovereign Lord of the harvest, giving the increase as He sees fit God ultimately does it all but He invites us to participate in His work, and He gives us certain responsibilities The three kinds of farmers are the Gambling Farmer (Slothful){undisciplined to please self), Controlling Farmer (Legalistic){disciplined to please self}, and Trusting Farmer (Faithful){Disciplined to please God) Legalistic is someone who imposes any discipline upon his life or the life of another believer Discipline to please self is just as destructive as a undsicpined person to please self These farmers represent the various responses believers can have to God’s laws of any sort------natrual or revealed Gambling Farmer ○ This farmer ignores laws of nature and gambles on the outcome ○ God created His world with certain built-in laws and His laws are reality of the things are in God’s world ○ His law in natural world cannot be ignored without paying certain consequences (just like law of gravity, law of thermodynamics, and law of sowing and reaping cannot be ignored without penalties) ○ Book of Proverbs compares sluggard to a lazy farmer ○ Solomon (Proverbs 24:30-34) portrays it as a afternoon drive on chariot inspecting fields and pause in disarray to one man’s field to ponder ○ Solomon realized that the end of the man’s laziness would be total ruin ○ The soul of sluggard has nothing and soul of the diligent shall be made fat (Proverbs 13:4)  ○ He does not like to be pushed and will give you many reasons to justify his inactivity ○ The lazy farmer will beg for a second chance but it shouldn’t be given unless they had a change of heart ○ They have a “lottery mentality” that ignores God’s normal ways of provision (they ignore the sowing and reaping, then gamble for a lucky number) ○ His fleshly self-indulgence destroys every field of responsibility Biblical change involves turning his heart toward God in repentance and dependence Developing a growing personal relationship with God involves applying doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness He must have plowed, planted, and cultivated his soul according to God’s laws of growth and change, or no second chance will help him Some accuse God of being not merciful but they misunderstand mercy God’s mercy is used when we need to be rescued from a pit before salvation we were rescued from penalty of sin After salvation we needed to be reduced from the power of sin in our life God’s mercy is to allow us to experience the consequences of sin, so we can change The most merciful thing God can do is chasten us (thought it is painful at the time) in order to deliver us from the miserable end of our self-indulgent living Without consequences, the human heart will continue to gamble on the outcome Unpleasentness is needed to help him change The main problem is pleasing self rather than pleasing God Controlling Famer ○ Keeps the laws of nature religiously to ensure a desired outcome ○ He creates a great crop and becomes self-confident ○ Others seek him out for advice ○ The farmer is so diligent and become driven/controlling (perfectionsitic) about the labor ○ He begins to develop self-doubt and redoubles his efforts ○ Example: the really good student ○ He will receive many “corruptible” crowns but his flesh-driven achievements will earn no “incorruptible” crowns from the Judge who tries the heart (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) ○ His lust for control will become intense ○ Controlling farmer is the stopover point from Gambling farmer to the Trusting Farmer ○ They must repent their slothfulness and be determined to abandon their self-serving ways ○ They must learn to focus on God to maintain th results they had grown to admire ○ He does what is right in his eyes in order to ensure and control the outcome ○ Legalist does right things for self-advancing, self-preserving reasons  ○ Legalists go into extreme opposite of tolerant self-indulgence, often in the name of “Christian liberty” ○ The flesh can produce only destruction (Romans 8:13) ○ Both sluggard and legalist are headed for ruin, one through neglectful orientation, the other through his driven intensity ○ Sluggard only wants leisure and fun ○ Legalist wants only a bumber crop (what he wants) ○ Neither of them experience much peace or true rest because both are flesh driven ○ Gambling and Controlling Farmer will suffer greatly on judgement day The Trusting Farmer ○ Keeps the law of nature because the Father he loves has given them and wants to obey God ○ The Lord of the harvest means that He decides what the results for your work are ○ The trusting farmer is more concerned that the fruit of the spirit be manifested in his response than that certain amount of fruit come out of his fields as the result so fhis efforts ○ Trusting farmers greates delight is not in the bumber crop he reaps but his pleasure he brings to his Father for having done his will ○ The most outstanding characteristic is not the bumper crop but the fruit fo God’s Spirit that is evident in his life no matter what the yield of his field