Week 3 Gardens and Farms
Quote
“Ponder the fact that God has made you a gardener, to root out vice and plant virtue.”
Catherine of Siena
Passage
5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.
7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.
11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:5-11 (NASB)
Background
Quote-Catherine of Siena (25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), a lay member of the Dominican Order, she was born and raised in Siena, and at an early age wanted to devote herself to God. She joined the "mantellate," a group of pious women, primarily widows, informally devoted to Dominican spirituality. Her influence with Pope Gregory XI played a role in his decision to leave Avignon for Rome. She was then sent by him to negotiate peace with Florence. She dictated to secretaries her set of spiritual treatises The Dialogue of Divine Providence. She sent numerous letters to princes and cardinals to promote obedience to Pope Urban VI and defend what she calls the "vessel of the Church." She died on 29 April 1380, exhausted by her rigorous fasting.
Passage- The book of 1st Corinthians is a Pauline Epistle (letter from Paul). The Apostle Paul wrote it about 56 A.D. The key personalities of this book are the Apostle Paul, Timothy and also Chloe’s household. Paul’s purpose in writing this letter to the church in Corinth was to address and correct the immorality and divisions that had arisen among them.
Opening Statement
Playing in the dirt of a home-garden is often-times filled with toil and sweat. What makes it relaxing and fun is that neither our livelihood nor our life depends on the increase or lack of it that our efforts bring forth. The garden of the soul is essentially the same as long as we recognize the grace that is contained in the sacrifice of Jesus and the individual purpose behind why He did that for us in the first place.
Ask: What is the purpose of gardening?
Point: Originally or now? Originally, it was to provide smaller supplements to the family’s main diet which was provided by the crop grown in the field of the farm, hunting, and wild foraging. Today for most, gardening is a pastime or hobby done for the enjoyment of watching things grow.
Ask: When does a garden stop being a garden and start being a farm?
Point: When it stops being fun and starts to become work? When it is grown for income instead of sustenance? When it requires vehicles and equipment to maintain? All of this? None of this? More? Less?
First Reading (Genesis 3:17-19 (NASB)
Ask: Adam and Eve made the first bad decision and got all of mankind kicked out of a garden and onto a farm. What implication does this have for us today in light of today’s passage?
Point: Re-read today’s passage focusing on verse 6
Ask: What does verse six say about planting a seed of faith in another person?
Point: We can plant and tend seeds in the garden of another’s soul but only God can make that effort fruitful.
Ask: If all the growth is due to God then why should we do anything at all?
Point: Second Reading (Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB)
Ask: Why did Adam and Eve get kicked out of the Garden of Eden and what does that imply for us today if we do not wish to anger God as they did?
Point: Re-read verse 21 from the Second Reading
Ask: There is a single word that sums up what we are to do as directed by verse 21. What is that word?
Point: Obedience, but obedience to what?
Third Reading (James 2:14-26 (NASB)
Ask: Is it then all about what we do and earning our way into Heaven?
Point: No. Fourth Reading (John 14:6 (KJV)
Ask: Seed-planting is easy, just be loving and helpful to those you meet treating people as you would want to be treated (Matthew 7:12) but how do we figure out if the seed planted is wheat or tares and should be watered?
Point: Fifth Reading (Matthew 7:15-20 (NASB)
Closing Statement
Wheat or tares. Watering or planting, there is work to be done in the God’s fields. He has things for us to do for His purposes rather than our own. We have to believe in Him, in His ways to accomplish His purposes, or we are not working for the Master Gardner. It is important to our own personal growth and faith to recognize that we have but a small part to play in His grand scheme, but it is an important part nonetheless. We have individual gifts, and those gifts are to play no small part in the fruit we are to bring forth from our time in His fields. We have the hobby of gardening our own soul to enjoy things growing but the work we have is in the fields of His farm.
Questions for the Week
What is the status of your “garden of the soul?”
When you look at the status of your soul viewed as a garden does it feel like a garden or a farm?
The status of the garden of your soul gives you a starting point not an end. If a garden, you have internal, individual work to do. If a farm perhaps you are more in the position of doing God’s work for others. In light of this now what is the status of your “garden of the soul?”
Based on the above answers what immediate and long-term steps should you take to walk in God’s purpose and be known by your fruits as a laborer for Christ? Write this down to see how fruitful you were at the end of the year.
Scripture
First Reading
17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.
18 "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;
19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."
Genesis 3:17-19 (NASB)
Second Reading
21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
22 "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'
23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'
Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB)
Psalm 6:8
Third Reading
14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
18 But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
James 2:14-26 (NASB)
Fourth Reading
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 14:6 (KJV)
Fifth Reading
15 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16 "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
17 "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
19 "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 "So then, you will know them by their fruits.
Matthew 7:15-20 (NASB)
Definitions
Greek Strong's Number: 5452
Greek Word: φυτεύω
Transliteration: phyteuō
Phonetic Pronunciation:foot-yoo'-o
Root: from a derivative of <G5453>
Cross Reference:
Part of Speech: v
Vine's Words: Jew, Jewess, Jewish, Jewry, Jews' religion, Plant
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
plant 11
[Total Count: 11]
from a derivative of <G5453> (phuo); to set out in the earth, i.e. implant; figurative to instill doctrine :- plant.
James Strong, Strong's Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary, (Austin, TX: WORDsearch Corp., 2007), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "5452".
Greek Strong's Number: 4222
Greek Word: ποτίζω
Transliteration: potizō
Phonetic Pronunciation:pot-id'-zo
Root: from a derivative of the alternate of <G4095>
Cross Reference: TDNT - 6:159,841
Part of Speech: v
Vine's Words: Drink, Drank, Feed, Fed, Water, Waterless
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
give to drink 4
give drink 4
water 3
make to drink 2
watering 1
feed 1
[Total Count: 15]
from a derivative of the alternate of <G4095> (pino); to furnish drink, irrigate :- give (make) to drink, feed, water.
James Strong, Strong's Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary, (Austin, TX: WORDsearch Corp., 2007), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "4222".