Eugene Prewitt

Eugene Prewitt: 1 Corinthians 3

Neutered Sermons Do Not Produce New Births

Helping Others With The Word

I Plant and Water and Am Nothing

We Work Together With God

Ouachita Hills College

Our father in heaven, I ask that you would be here this morning as our teacher, that you'd help us to understand what is true and I ask for this gift in the name of Jesus. Amen. I'd like to have you memorize this morning a sentence of scripture and then to give you a proverb and then to preach at you for about nine minutes and let you go. Turn in your Bibles to one Corinthians chapter three, one Corinthians chapter three. As we refined the sentence. The sentence is in verse six. It's the first three words. What's the sentence? Say? Have we memorized it yet? I have planted. Let's try to say that scripture sentence together. I have planted. Can you hold that in your head for a long period of time I have planted. I want that to be in your mind. I'd like it for us to have this idea that we could always say that and it would be true. I have planted in this case, Paul was saying he had planted in Corinth and we're gonna study that for a few minutes. Here comes the proverb. Neutered sermons do not produce new births. Neutered sermons do not produce new births. Why do we neutered dogs? They not produce. We don't want there to be extra puppies around. We don't nere sermons do not produce new births. Good morning ladies. You missed our memory of work already, but I'll tell you, I think you can memorize it. We memorized one Corinthians chapter three verse six, the first sentence and it says, let's try to say it together. I have planted, that's the whole sentence. And then we went to a modern proverb. The proverb says that neutered sermons do not produce new births now begins to preaching. Let's just look more at this passage. First Corinthians three and we're looking at verse six. The rest of it I have planted Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants anything. Neither is he that watereth but God that gives the increase. Now he that planted 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. You are God's vineyard. You are God's building. What is it that you plant? If you say, I have planted, what do you plant? You can go ahead and respond. Pretend we're in a classroom. What do you plant? MAGA books. Okay, you plant the seed, you plant MAGA books and in and a Bible answer would be you plant the word of God. The seed is the word of God. And we're born. Let's keep a finger here cause we're coming back to this before we're done. But look at one Peter, chapter one, one Peter chapter one. So the scripture, the scripture we memorize says I have planted. And when we say it, we're thinking I've planted what I've planted the word of God. One Peter chapter one, and we're looking at verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible. One Peter one, verse 23. But of incorruptible seed by the word of God, which lives and abides forever. So here's some good news. If you plant the word of God, how long's it gonna stick around? The word of God lives. It abides forever. If you plant it, it's going to grow because it is a seed I have planted. What if I planted, I've planted the word of God And when I plant the word of God, does it cause new births? Does the what Does it say in the passage in Peter being born again? Yeah. So here comes first point. Rounded out planting the word of God causes new birth. When you plant the word of God, it springs up is new births. And wouldn't it be nice to say I've planted cuz that means that God is going to give the increase, which of course is new births. What's a neutered sermon? It would be a sermon that is depending on something other than the word of God for its power. It could be depending on show for its power, depending on humor for its power, depending on stories for its power, depending on something else for its power. But what is it that you plant? You plant the word of God and that's what grows and that's what causes new births. Andre sermons do not produce new births. Look down at chapter two and verse five, one Peter two, verse five. You also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house. So we read in Corinthians that were God's building. What's the building made out of? Living Stones, living stones in these living stones. Are we a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ? That's the idea. We are God's building and what he's building is living stones. But what makes us into a living stone? That would be if we had inside of us the living word. It lives and abides forever. So just like neutered sermons do not produce new births. Neutered sermons do not produce living stones. They might produce other kind of stones, but most often they produce fancy straw. Turn back to first Corinthians three. First Corinthians three. Were moving to the theme of building cuz that's what the chapter does. We're looking at 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 builds there on let every man take heed how he builds there on. So the foundation is a huge living stone. It's the living word of God, namely Jesus who came to be the living word of God. There he is a huge foundation stone. Now we're gonna build on this. What should we be building on it? We learned from Peter, this temple's built with living stones. That's right. Living stones, lively stones. But you could put something else on it that says in Corinthians, now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones would hay stubble. So maybe you could say that on top of this foundation we can put lively stones and maybe some would qualify as building with silver or building with gold. Those would be good things to build on. Build the temple with stones and gold and silver. What else could you build a temple with neutered sermons? With neutered sermons? The temple would look like it's getting bigger, but it wouldn't be getting bigger in the long term because when it gets tried by fire, it's gonna get smaller. If it's built with wood or hay or stubble, that's the biblical thought. And now comes the 90 seconds of application. It's not only preachers who should be able to say, I have planted, the evangelist should be able to say, I've planted when he preaches his evangelistic series. And the canvasser should be able to say, I've planted when she has sold her books. And the pastor should be able to say he's planted when he's been preaching his sermons. But any sort of Christian ought to be able to say, I have planted the word of God is the power in our lives to produce new births. If I want to produce new birth in my roommate or in an academy student or in a gas station attendant or wherever I wanna produce a new birth, what should I be planting? You can plant the word of God as our sermons. The only time to plant the word of God. You know the word of God is something to be scattered everywhere at all times. The word of God is a power and it produces new births. When we depend on it like that, we could fight opportunities and we could say, I have planted, I've built it. God gives the increase summary of the whole thing. Let the word of God dwell on you richly. In all wisdom, let your speech be planting the word of God with your friends, your neighbors, your family on the telephone, your family and letters, the people you find. If you, if you're planting the right thing, God will make sure that there is an increase. Now if you're trying to build up this temple of the church, it's possible that you could succeed without succeeding. That is, you could build the temple up and make it bigger, but you might build it up with wood, hay, stubble. And the problem is the temple is gonna have to handle a fire test. And if you build it up with that, there's no long-term benefit. Because neutered sermons don't produce new births. We want to be sure we're relying on our planting on the word of God, which lives abides forever. Ms. Neal for prayer, our Father in heaven, I asked that you would take the seeds from first Peter and first Corinthians, and that you would use them today as you use all seeds, that you would plant them in hearts and that you would bring forth an increase that you would be the builder of your heavenly well of your earthly temple. Here we're dependent on you to give the increase and I ask for that blessing in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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Eugene Prewitt: 1 Corinthians 3

Neutered Sermons Do Not Produce New Births

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