THE LORD ASSIGNED

1 Corinthians 3:5-7   “What then is Apollos?  What is Paul?  Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.  I planted, Apollos watered but God gave the growth.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

 When the Lord puts a passage of scripture before my eyes several times in a week I take it as a sign to pay attention.  This passage, 1 Corinthians 3:5-7 has been one of those.  I came across it in my devotional reading first, then in a book I am reading, and finally it jumped out at me from our denominational magazine this morning.  God says, “Pay attention!”

Paul is speaking to me here.  In fact, he is speaking to all of us who are involved in doing ministry of any kind.  No, he is speaking to all of us and he is reminding us about our role in kingdom work. 

Do you notice that Paul writes, “What is Paul?” not “Who is Paul?”  That is because he wants his readers to know that in the great work of evangelism and kingdom-building it doesn’t matter who we are!  The thing we need to remember is what we are!  Paul says we are servants.  The Greek word is diakonos, “servant, helper, minister.”  I am God’s servant.  He has assigned me a task.  Sometimes I plant the seed of the gospel.  Sometimes I water the seed.  I am merely a servant who is supposed to do what the master assigns me.

Our church is made up primarily of farmers and farm workers.  Early every morning the farm workers assemble at the farm shop and Steve gives them their assignments for the day.  Some of the workers are supervisors.  The rest are laborers.  But Steve assigns them all their work for the day.  Even the supervisors are under Steve’s direction.  They may do one thing today and something very different tomorrow. 

We are harvesting the almonds now.  Countless truckloads of almonds!  Mountains of almonds sitting in the yards of the hullers!  Which laborer gets the credit for which almonds?  Which supervisor gets the credit for the harvest?  Does it matter?

And so it is with me.  One day Christ will return and bring his kingdom with him.  The earth will be filled with God’s sons and daughters.  He won’t say, “Okay, who is responsible for this one?  Who shared the gospel with this one?  Who spent time explaining the message to this one?  Who gets the credit?”  He won’t ask such questions because we are servants and we aren’t responsible for the salvation of any of them!  God sends us to plant or water but only he can make the seed grow.  He is responsible for life!

So God put this passage in front of me this week.  What does one do in such situations?  I ask God what he wants me to see.  He reminds me that I am a servant.  Okay.  Good.  “Then, Lord, I want to be the best servant I can be!  How can I be a better servant?”  And the Lord said, “Pay attention to my daily assignments.  Do only what I ask you to do.  Don’t get caught up in measuring results or assigning credit.  Be humble and give me the glory for the harvest when it comes in.  Don’t ever give up!”

Okay….