1 Corinthians 3:2b-4:21 - Outline

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

December 15, 2012


 *JUL 25 - 1 CORINTHIANS 3:2b-4:21 - NATURE OF MINISTRIES*


 *1. 3:6 (3:2b-9) MINISTRIES: THEIR UNITY. “I planted, Apollos watered; but
:God gave increase.” *Father, this is a secret of Your Kingdom: we are
fellow-laborers, but the spring is from You. We acknowledge You alone as
the foundation of Your Kingdom in the Spirit. *Hallowed be your :name!*


 *2. 3:16-17 (3:10-17) MINISTRY OF A MASTER-BUILDER: LAYING CHRIST AS
FOUNDATION. “Know you not that you are God’s sanctuary, and the Spirit of
:God dwells in you? 17 If any corrupts the sanctuary of :God, him shall
:God corrupt; for the sanctuary of God is holy, which you are.” *This is
Your will Father, even our sanctification in our bodies! *Your :kingdom
come.*


 *3. 3:19 (3:18-23) MINISTRIES: TO BE RECEIVEDALL. “For the wisdom of this
:world is foolishness with :God. For it is written, Who takes the wise in
their :craftiness.” *Yes Father, and You meet the needs of all Your varied
types of ministries, all complementing one another. *Your :will be done, As
in heaven, so on earth.*


 *4. 4:1-2 (4:1-5) MINISTERS: FAITHFULNESS IN STEWARDSHIP. “Let a man so
account of us, as of ministers of Christ, and stewards of God’s mysteries. 2
Here, moreover, it is required in the stewards, that one be found
faithful.” *Part of our faithfulness Father, is walking in
*reconciliation*with You and with one another. Through You we love our
enemies!
*Our :daily :bread Give us this day.*


 *5. 4:7 (4:6-13) MINISTRY OF PAUL AND APOLLOS: AN ANALOGY. “For who makes
you to differ? And what do you have that you did not receive? but if you
did receive, why do you glory as if you had not received?” *Father,
evermore keep this insight in our hearts. We would walk in humility before
You. We would constantly walk in the security of Your armor! *And forgive
us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.*


 *6. 4:15-16 (4:14-17) MINISTERS: AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW. “For though you may
have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ
Jesus I begot you through the gospel. 16 I beseech you therefore, become
imitators of me.” *Father, we thank You for the example of Your servant
Paul. In him we see the power of an overcoming life. *And bring us not into
temptation.*


 *7. 4:20 (4:18-21) MINISTERS: TO DEMONSTRATE KINGDOM IN POWER. “For the
kingdom of :God is not in word, but in power.” *Thank You Father, that You
deliver us from a powerless Gospel! Your Gospel is the power of God unto
salvation! *But deliver us from the evil one!*


 *NOTE**: 4:17 (4:14-17) MINISTRY OF PAUL: TRANSFERRED THROUGH TIMOTHY. **“For
this cause I have sent you Timothy, who is my beloved child and faithful in
the Lord, who shall remind you of my :ways which are in Christ Jesus, even
as I teach everywhere in every church. *Father, if Paul could lead Timothy
to be like himself in You, any one of us can be led likewise! We choose to
become like Paul and Timothy.


 *Our Psalm for the day: 25:14 (25) TEACH ME YOUR PATHS. “The friendship
(or secret counsel) of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes know
n to them his covenant.” *Your secrets are Your mysteries Father; and in
Jesus You reveal them to us. Your Covenant is *also* in Christ (Isaiah
42:6; 49:8), and Your fear unlocks Him, the Living Covenant.


 Quote from C.H. Spurgeon, in the light of what happened in Connecticut
December 14, 2012.

*The Hour is Coming - John 5:25*

I have, in my imagination, looked on all whom I know on the earth, and I
have said, they are dying creatures. This is always true, but we often
forget it. Yet when a precious one is taken, we begin to realize this
truth. Thinking about this, I seem to see a passing procession. I remember
many who have passed - a long array of my Master’s servants - some carrying
His banner high, others marching with swords drawn, and some weak and
feeble being helped by sturdy champions. They are gone, and I will never
see them here again. Some of you are also passing away. More are coming,
but they are also going. I said that I was looking at this procession. But
that is incorrect, for I am in the procession. I am passing with the rest.
What shadows we are! What fleeting things! What mists! What paintings on a
cloud! We can scarcely say that we live; for the moment we begin to live,
we begin to die. This earth is not the land of the living. This is a dying
world. The living world is beyond death’s cold river. Here graves are
innumerable, and death rules all. No! That is not true. For there is One
who rules death. Death has no power over the living God. Death is His
servant. It is through death that we pass into life. By the death of our
redeeming Lord, we have been rescued from destruction. From everything that
wears the aspect of death, we can turn to Him, Jesus Christ, who is the
same, yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).


 *PSALM 25 - Title: “A Psalm of David.” *David is pictured in this Psalm as
in a faithful miniature. His holy trust, his many conflicts, his great
transgression, his bitter repentance, and his deep distresses are all here;
so that we see the very heart of “the man after God’s own heart.” It is
evidently a composition of David’s later days, for he mentions the sins of
his youth, and from its painful references to the craft and cruelty of his
many foes, it will not be too speculative a theory to refer it to the
period when Absalom was heading the great rebellion against him. This has
been styled the second of the seven Penitential Psalms. It is the mark of a
true saint that his sorrows remind him of his sins, and his sorrow for sin
drives him to his God.


 25:1 *Unto You, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.* See how the holy soul flies
to its God like a dove to its cote. When the storm-winds are out, the
Lord’s vessels put about and make for their well-remembered harbor of
refuge. What a mercy that the Lord will condescend to hear our cries in
time of trouble, although we may have almost forgotten him in our hours of
fancied prosperity! Very often the soul cannot rise; she has lost her
wings, and is heavy and earth-bound; more like a burrowing mole than a
soaring eagle. At such dull seasons we must not give over prayer, but must,
by God’s assistance, exert all our powers to lift up our hearts. Let faith
be the lever and grace be the arm, and the dead lump will yet be stirred.
But what a lift it has sometimes proved! With all our tugging and
straining, we have been utterly defeated, until the heavenly loadstone of
our Savior’s love has displayed its omnipotent attractions, and then our
hearts have gone up to our Beloved like mounting flames of fire.


 25:7. *Remember not the sins of my youth. *The world winks at the sins of
young men, and yet they are none so little after all; the bones of our
youthful feastings at Satan’s table will stick painfully in our throats
when we are old men. He who presumes upon his youth is poisoning his old
age. How large a tear may wet this page as some of us reflect upon the past!


 25:14. *The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. *Some read it
“the friendship”: it signifies familiar intercourse, confidential intimacy,
and select fellowship. This is a great secret. Carnal minds cannot guess
what is intended by it, and even believers cannot explain it in words, for
it must be felt to be known. The higher spiritual life is necessarily a
path which the eagle’s eye has not known, and which the lion’s whelp has
not traveled; neither natural wisdom nor strength can force a door into
this inner chamber. Saints have the key of heaven’s hieroglyphics; they can
unriddle celestial enigmas. They are initiated into the fellowship of the
skies; they have heard words which it is not possible for them to repeat to
their fellows.


 25:20. *O keep my soul out of evil, and deliver me *when I fall into it.
This is another version of the prayer, “Lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil.” *Let me not be ashamed*. This is the one fear which
like a ghost haunted the Psalmist’s mind. He trembled lest his faith should
become the subject of ridicule through the extremity of his affliction.
Noble hearts can brook anything but shame. David was of such a chivalrous
spirit that he could endure any torment rather than to be put to dishonor.



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