"We Are Laborers Together With God" (I Corinthians 3:6-11)

"We Are Laborers Together With God" from I Corinthians 3:6-11 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on August 24, 2025.

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.mycitybaptist.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta. Please take your Bibles with me. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And we're working our way through this book of 1 Corinthians. And Paul writing to this church, he knows and he loves, setting some things in order. And we'll begin reading this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse number 6. And the Bible says, I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God. Year God's husbandry, year God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Would you mark this phrase in verse number nine? We'll take it for the theme of the Bible message this morning. Verse number nine, we are laborers together with God. We are laborers together with God. Now I'm encouraged when I read a verse like this because it shows us we do not labor alone. When we go out and we speak to people about the Lord and we're being a gospel witness, we're not the only one working. God's working as well. When we seek to, November will be four years ago, we started this church. You realize we don't do that alone. God goes with us and we labor alongside Him. Now it does not say that God is a laborer together with us. Sometimes we launch out and do something on our own and we just try to get God in on it, right? You ever done that? Got out on a limb, and then you said, Well, Lord, you want to come meet me out here? And God says, Well, I didn't tell you to go out there in the first place. That's not what it's talking about. But when we walk with Him and we obey Him and we follow the Lord, we're laboring with Him. And I think there's some key things that we find here in this passage, laboring together with God. Would you make note of some of these things? Write this down if you're taking notes. Number one, our work begins with God. Our work begins with God. Look at three words at the beginning of verse number six as we think about how our work begins with God. It says here, 1 Corinthians 3, verse 6, Paul says, I have planted. Now, all through this passage, he's going to use gardening terms. We've got a few gardeners here today. We've got a few people that are growing things. In fact, down in we have a Christian school here, and down in the Christian school, they've got a greenhouse, and they're growing green beans, and they're growing all kinds of herbs and they're growing lots of different things in there. And Paul says, I have planted. But when Paul came to Corinth and he started this church in Corinth, it wasn't just one day he thought, this is a good idea, and this is what I'm going to do, and I hope God gets in on it, right? I remember there's a story told about Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Someone came to him and said, Now, Mr. President, do you think God's on our side, or do you think God's on their side? President Lincoln very quickly responded, he said, I hope we're on God's side. It's not about getting God on our side or getting God on somebody else's side. We need to make sure we're doing what God has asked us to do. We're launching out into what God has given us to do because that is when he touches his work and that is when he blesses his work. Paul says, I have planted. I can remember how the Lord worked in our heart about starting the City Baptist Church. I could take you right down here, down to Bobby Dodge Stadium. It was a it was a night. My wife and I, you know, we God had taken us to the mission field and brought us back to the United States, and I never thought I'd be back in Georgia. I grew up here. I thought Georgia's got plenty of Christian work, let's go somewhere else. But God brought us back to Georgia. We had left the kids with the grandparents one night, my mom and dad, and we were driving through the city, praying about the city. You better be careful what you pray for. God may answer it, and he may not answer it the way you think he'll answer it. And I said, babe, turn the GPS off, let's just drive. We drove up, we'd come to the intersection, we'd turn here and come to a stop sign and turn here, and we just drove around the city, just praying. And we took a ride on a Techwood Drive up by Bobby Down Stadium. There was an event going on, and there were just streams of Georgia Tech students coming our way. I leaned over to my wife as clear as day, as if it happened yesterday, I remember this, and I said, Who's responsible for these souls? Who's responsible for these students? Who's reaching them? And I said, Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna pray, Matthew 9.38, the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers into his harvest, and we're gonna get behind someone planting a church in the heart of our city, Atlanta. Someone else planting a church in the heart of our city in Atlanta, right? It's always someone else. Whenever we pray the big prayers, it's always someone else God's going to use, right? And as we pray, you know what the Lord began to do in our heart? He began to say, This is what I have for you to do. And you realize it was birthed out of something God already wanted. This was not just the McElrees coming up with some big idea, it was getting in on what God already wanted. Lord, did I know our pastor, Pastor Seth Hahn of the Grace Baptist Church in Columbus, he was praying. In fact, when I called him and talked to him about it, he said, We've just been praying this past week. I didn't know it. He didn't know what I was praying. I didn't know what he was praying, he said we're just praying this past week. That God would allow us to get behind a church planner going into the heart of our capital city, Atlanta. That's what God does. And we're just getting in on what God is already doing. Sometimes we knock on people's doors in our neighborhood and they say, I just told God, if he showed me where to go to church, I'd go. And then we come knocking on their door. That's no accident, you realize. That's a work that begins with God. You realize anytime we speak with someone, look what he says here. Look what he says in verse number seven. He says, So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. He's saying, You may come along and you may be the one that plants something. You may be one that comes along and waters something, but ultimately it's a work that begins with God and will eventually, God will bless it. We should not just launch out on some idea we've come up with. I ask you this morning, many of you here, you're in a particular program. You're here, we have a number of Georgia Tech students here. I'm thrilled. But I ask you this morning, did you go to God first and ask him, is this what you want me to do with my life, Lord? Maybe you've taken a job, you've taken a position, you thought, well, look, this pays good, there's good benefits, but did it begin with God? Did you go to the Lord first and say, Lord, is this what you want for me and my family and my future and what you want me to give myself to? Maybe there's relationships you've entered into, and you say, Well, I think there's a good idea, I think it sounds great. But did we begin with God and say, Lord, is this someone you want in my life? Is this someone you want me to give my heart to even? We've got to begin with God, and that's the work that God blesses. Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6 says, He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we like to claim that and think, well, look, I started something and I want God now to perform his will in it. No, no, no. Let's begin with the Lord. And when the Lord says, Here's what I want you to do, and the Lord says, Here's how I want you to respond, the Lord says, Here's what I have for you, he will perform that work. We've got to make sure we're beginning with God because our work begins with him. John chapter 15, verse number 5 says this I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I am him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Now we like that part. The Lord says, I'm the vine, and you're the branches. If we're going to get anything done, if we're going to get energy and vigor, and we're going to have a fervor for the Lord, it's going to have to come from him. But here's how that verse ends. He says, For without me, ye can do nothing. John 15.5 does not say, without me, you might get a little something done. John 15.5 does not say, well, without me, you'll squeak by. No, he says, without me, if you're going to do my work your way and live your life your way, you're going to get nothing accomplished. Can you imagine living your life? Could you imagine us having a church or living a Christian life? And we do it all our way. We haven't factored God into anything. It's religious, but we really haven't sought the Lord. What does he want? And we come to the end of it. And he says, You really got nothing done. Imagine living a life or working a career or following a path. But it's not something we sought the Lord for. And we really accomplished nothing with it. Our work begins with God. Consider those who have gone before us. Many of you I know that are here. There are pastors that have poured into your life and youth directors that have poured into your life. And there are people in churches that have decided to take you under their wing and they've helped you and they've given you guidance. And you have a mom and dad, many of you, or an aunt and uncle, or grandmother, or a grandfather that poured into you, and you are where you're at today because of that. You realize you're not here just because of the decisions you made. Now that helped. If you didn't make certain decisions, you wouldn't be here. If you hadn't worked so hard, you wouldn't be here. But there were things put into you long before you had any opportunity to change that. That's helped propel you to where you are today. And that's what the Lord's work does. I want you to think about maybe there's sometime you've spoken to someone about the Lord. You begin to give a gospel witness, and they say something like, Yeah, I've been thinking about that lately. You realize that's God going before you and preparing someone's heart? That's God going forward and getting people to think about things, or maybe some crisis has happened in their life, and now they're thinking about eternity and they're thinking about their soul. That's what the Lord does. Because our work begins with God. But would you make note of a second thing? Look back in verse number six. It says, I have planted, and then the second part of the verse says, Apollos watered. So our work begins with God. Make note of a second thing. Our work blossoms with God. If Paul's going to use gardening terms, I'm going to use gardening terms. Our work blossoms with God. He says here, Apollos watered. Now I want you to go with me to Acts chapter 18, please. Back just a few pages to the book of Acts. Back in Acts chapter 18, this is the historical account we're given of Paul coming to Corinth. Remember, he's writing this letter of 1 Corinthians to this church. But there was a time where he showed up when there was no church in Corinth. There were no Christians in Corinth. Look at me. In Acts chapter 18, it says at verse number one, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth. Then it says in verse 2, and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. So Paul goes to Corinth and he finds two believers, Aquila and Priscilla. Now, how did they get there? They used to be in Rome, according to verse number two. Well, the emperor, because of persecution and he's casting out Christians, they leave and they head to Corinth. You say, what a terrible thing that this persecution has come. And yet what does God do? He uses it to bring two laborers, Aquila and Priscilla, to come to Corinth and to labor with Paul. That's amazing how the Lord works that way sometimes, doesn't he? God was working behind the scenes. Paul surely was thinking, I'm going to go to Corinth. There's going to be nobody there. And yet he's prepared a husband and a wife, because of persecution, having to leave their home and leave their city. They come to Corinth. And now they're going to labor together for the gospel's sake. God works all that out behind the scenes. And here we are, look at verse 3. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. So now God's got a little team of three. You say, what could three people do in carnal, lustful, terrible, sinful Corinth? Or they can do a lot. Because this work began with God. This wasn't something Paul and Quill and Priscilla came up with, because here's what happens. Look at verse 5. Two people show up in verse 5. Who are they? And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. Now there's a team of five people. Silas and Timothy come. This is the Silas that was with him all the way back in Acts chapter 13, when they were down in that jail in Philippi, and the Lord shook it, opened the doors, they came out. Lydia gets saved. The Philippian jailer and his house get saved. They start a church here in Philippi. This is that Silas. This is the Timothy that's his son in the faith that he sees come to know the Lord. And now there's five people laboring. You see, God's work, it begins with God, but it blossoms with God. You say, man, there's only five people here? Well, it's five more than used to be there. Sometimes we want to jump ahead of God and we think, boy, I should see more being done here. Maybe we would think at the City Baptist Church, we'd say, boy, there should be more going on here. Look, if we're following the Lord and we know we have done our part, we can trust the Lord to bless and blossom his work in his time and in his way. Now we've got to make sure we're right. We've got to make sure there's nothing in our lives that would impede the work he wants to do in our church. But we can trust the Lord in his timing to bless his work. Look what happens. Go down with me. Acts chapter 18, go down with me, please, in verse number seven. And he departed thence and entered into a certain man's house named Justice, one that worshiped God and whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house. So we've got this man Justice gets saved. This man Crispus, who's the chief leader of the synagogue, he gets saved. His whole house gets saved. Now there's a few more gods added. What's happening? The Lord is touching his work and blessing it. That's exciting. I'd like to be a part of that. I like to see what God can do in a difficult place. Look down with me. It says here in verse 11. And he continued there a year and six months. Corinth is going to be one of the places Paul is going to spend the longest among many of the places he is, one of the longest places. He's there a year and a half. Sometimes Paul's in a place just a few days. I think Corinth just needed a year and a half. But what's happening? God is bringing labors. He's blessing his work. Now, if you remember, back in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, he said Apollos watered. Well, we haven't read about any Apollos yet, have we? Let's skip ahead, will you? Go with me, please, to verse number. Let's go ahead to verse number 24 of Acts 18. It says, and a certain Jew named Apollos, born in Alexandria, so he's born in Egypt. He's a Jew, an eloquent man. He's well spoken, mighty in the scriptures, he knows his Bible. He came to Ephesus. And this man was instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the Spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. Now you say, what is this? Apollos at Ephesus, what does this have to do with Corinth? Well, remember, God's working behind the scenes all these things out. By this point, Aquila and Priscilla have gone to Ephesus. They meet a man there, Apollos, who's fervent in the scriptures, knows his Bible, has a zeal for the Lord, they begin working with him. We find here it says, and when he was disposed, go down with me in verse 27, and when he was disposed to pass into Achaea, Achaia is the area where Corinth is, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him, who when he was come, helped them with much, uh helped them much which had believed through grace, for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly showing that the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. Acts 19, verse 1. It came to pass while Apollos was at Corinth. Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus, finding certain disciples. What happens? You say, How could all this come together? Apollos has come from Alexandria, and he goes to Ephesus, and he meets Aquila and Priscilla after they left Corinth, and now he comes to Achaia, this area where Corinth is, and now he's laboring at Corinth. What has God done? He's brought the people along that were needed in his church. And you know what God will do? He will bring the people that are needed in the church at Corinth. He will bring the people that are needed in the City Baptist Church. I was just talking to someone this week about our city. I was talking to a couple people this week about our city. And the work that needs to be done, there are places in this city that need other churches planted. And in God's timing and by God's grace, if we don't send someone out, we're going to find someone that's there and help them. But that's going to be done in the Lord's time. It's going to be done in the Lord's way. And I believe there's an Apollos somewhere in Ephesus that God's working behind the scenes to work on and labor with and prepare to bring to Corinth just when he's needed. But you know what we've got to be? We've got to be the kind of people that are waiting on God. Our work begins with Him. And in His time know that He will bless it and He will blossom that work. You know what all this is? It's a fulfillment of Matthew 9.38, which I mentioned earlier, to pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labors into his harvest. Whenever you're here on Wednesday nights for our prayer meeting, we pray through the 242 neighborhoods in the city of Atlanta. 242 neighborhoods in our city. And each week we take one of them and we pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labors into his harvest. You know why I do that? Because it's rare that anyone goes to a place they've never heard of. And so when we pray for Bolton and Coll Your Heights, Old Fourth Ward and Buckhead and Mechanicsville in Pittsburgh. And people begin to think about. I think that's a little seed that's planted in people's minds. And maybe somebody one day will say, I want to go there and I want to make sure there's a gospel witness in that place. I want to make sure there's people being reached in that place. There's a gospel preaching church in that place because our work begins with God, and our work is blessed by God. But not only that, would you make note of a third thing? Go back with me, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse number 6. Paul says, I had planted, Apollos watered. Would you read those last four words with me out loud? Ready? Read them together. God gave the increase. I want you to read them out loud with me. Say it again, ready? God gave the increase. Now we like the increase, right? We say, oh yes, Lord, give the increase. Let me ask you this. Have we planted something to start with and have we watered it? Sometimes we say, we say, boy, I want to be the super Christian. I want to see God do incredible things in my life. But we never planted anything worthwhile. We never watered it. We're just asking for the increase. Could you imagine going out? You had a field, and you just walked out of that field and you said, God give the increase. But you hadn't tilled up the soil. You hadn't put the seed down. You hadn't picked out the weeds. You hadn't made it stayed watered. You hadn't put any fertilizer down. In your life, you've done nothing to set the table for God to do anything. And you say, Why isn't God blessing me? Why hasn't God given me increase? You hadn't planted anything and you haven't watered anything. What if we said, we can't believe God's not letting anybody get saved here? But we hadn't gone out and passed out one track. We hadn't gone out and knocked on one door. We hadn't talked to one cashier when we're buying our coffee, talk to him about the Lord, and give him a gospel tract. And we say, why isn't there any increase? Because there's been no planting and there's been no watering. You know, there are times of both of those. There are times of planting. And we've seen that in our own church. We've seen that in our own lives. There's times where we're planting and we're working the soil and laboring, tilling it up, making sure we keep the weeds out, making sure we keep near the Lord. There's times of watering. And in the Lord's time, would you write down a third thing? Our work builds with God. Our work begins with God. Our work blossoms with God, but ultimately our work builds with God. In his time, in his way, he will bless. Look what he says. Go down with me. Back in 1 Corinthians 3, look at verse 7. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Look at verse 8. He says, Now he that planteth And he that watereth are one. I think that's true when people come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. I read a statistic recently. I think it said today, on average, and of course this is not everyone, but they say on average, I think the number now is people need to hear the gospel 27 times before they come to the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Now I've known people they heard it the first time and they were ready and they got saved. I've known people it's taken years of hearing the gospel before they finally received Christ. You know what that is? It's planting and watering. And watering and watering. And watering and watering and watering and watering and watering. And praying in God's time, He gives the increase. Let me encourage you. Maybe there's something in your life, maybe there's a person you're praying, come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. You're praying this person is saved. Don't stop watering. In God's time, He will give the increase. Look what he says. Go down with me to verse 9. For we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. Those are two words that are speaking about organic and inorganic things that take labor and that take building. Husbandry, that speaks of a cultivated garden, a building, of course, an erected structure. And he says in verse 10, according to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. Paul says, I went to Corinth and I just laid the foundation. I was there a year and a half. I just put down the roots that could, and then someone else came and built over the top of it. You know, I have to think about that as a pastor. I won't be the pastor of City Baptist Church forever. As long as the Lord doesn't come back, there'll be a time someone's gonna come after me. Don't amen that. I'm just kidding. And I've got to think, are we laying the proper foundation? I have to think about that with my children. I have five children running around here. And you know what I'm doing in their life? I'm just laying a foundation. There will come a day where I will release them into the world, but I've got to make sure I've done everything I can to lay the foundation they need that they may build upon it. I ask in your life, what kind of foundation are you laying? Because it says in verse number 11, or it says in verse 10, at the end of the verse, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. Verse 11, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. I ask you this morning, have you built your foundation upon the Lord Jesus Christ? Now here's where you start. You gotta make sure you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. I ask you this morning, do you know for sure that you've been born again and you're on your way to heaven when you die? Do you know? That's the beginning part of building your foundation upon the Lord. I didn't ask you if you grew up going to church. I did not ask you if you had been baptized at some point. I did not ask you if your name was upon a membership role somewhere, if your granddaddy was a pastor, or your grandmother was a Sunday school teacher. Do you know that you've been born again? That's what Jesus said in John chapter 3. That there's been a time you understood you were a sinner and your sin separated you from God. Do you know that there was a time you understood that the wages of sin was death? And the price of that sin was separation from God and an eternity in hell without him. And did you come to the Lord and Jesus Christ alone and call out to him to save you? That's the first way to set the foundation. And then you know what the next part is? It's living every day, beginning it with him and saying, Lord, what do you have for me today? Not here's what I want to do, and here's all the things I've come up with, and I really need you to get on this. No. Lord, is this what you have for me? Is this what you want for my life? Lay the foundation there, and you know what'll happen? God will blossom it. God will bless it, God will build it in his time. I want it to be built now. That's okay. You plant, you water. I have great dreams for this church. I have some things sometimes I don't tell you because I think about what could be done here. But I know if we built upon the right foundation and we're planting and we're watering as God wants us to, in his time, he will build his church. You notice he says, not, I will build your church. And he doesn't say you will build my church. He says, I will build my church. You know what that is? That's a dependence upon the Lord, trusting in him, his time, and in his way, and with his blessing. Thank you for listening to the City Pulpit. For more information about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta, please visit www.mycitybaptist.com