Planting and watering
Category: Evangelism & Soul Winning
Key Passage: 1 Corinthians 3:6
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024
Would you take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter three tonight, 1 Corinthians chapter three? It will be a touch different of a service tonight, and I pray it will be an encouragement to you. We are trying to interweave into it 9/11 and some things that happened that day that you will not hear in the media. I think it will be an encouragement. That’s my goal in it all.
You know, a lot of churches, good churches, solid churches, are not even able to meet their close for a little bit with COVID going through whatnot. I’m talking about good churches, not wimpy churches, solid churches. I say that to say God’s been good to us. Just the fact that we’re still having service tonight is a blessing. I appreciate your faithfulness.
I’m glad God’s been good to our church. We’ve had COVID, just like others have here and there and yonder, but it’s not went through our church like a wave. It could have. We appreciate God’s goodness to us. It’s a blessing we’re having service tonight. We’re very thankful for that. I’m glad you’re here with us tonight.
Also, just one verse. We won’t go a whole lot of details around it. We’ll just read one verse. We’ll focus on some truths very briefly from that verse, and then we’ll hear and give some testimonies surrounding the verse and some from 9/11, and then we’ll be dismissed. I hope it would have been an encouragement to you to be a little different tonight.
We’re in 1 Corinthians 3, verse number 6, a very familiar verse. You’ll probably know it. Many of you know it by heart, I’m sure. We’ll focus on that one verse. Would you please stand if you’re able to tonight out of respect to the Word of God? First Corinthians 3 and verse number 6 of God’s Word.
And the Bible says, “I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”
Would you read that out loud with me, please? Here we go: “I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”
Would you pray with me that God would use this tonight to be an encouragement to you and I? Father, help us to continue planting and watering. Father, would you use tonight to encourage us in that? Lord, till you come or till we leave, Lord, help us be faithful in planting and watering. Lord, well, thank you for what you do. Use tonight to that end, Father, please. And we’ll praise you for it in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank you so much for staying. You may be seated.
Several things by way of an introduction. Number one, our job is not to bring the increase. It’s not our job. It’s God’s job. God gave the increase. I don’t bring the increase. It’s not my job. Our job is to plant and to water.
Now, here’s the encouraging thing about that to me: that’s doable. We felt like the Lord was laying on our heart to start a church years and years ago, and we thought, “There’s no way I can start a church. I can’t do that.” It was a good truth to realize: I don’t have to start a church. God builds a church. We just get the rock. Jesus saves the message out there. We try to, if you will, plant and water, and he builds the church.
Now, this is the way it is in your life. Satan will try to get you so focused on increase, but that’s God’s business. Our business is to plant and to water. We get so caught up in the increase. It would be wiser for us to get caught up in the planting and watering. See?
Notice a little emphasis. If you look down in verse number eight here, just briefly, verse number eight: “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own increase.” Is that what it says? No, according to his own labor, if you will, planting and watering. My focus ought to be on planting and watering. That’s my job. His job is to bring the increase, but God gave the increase.
Number one, our job is not to bring the increase, but to plant and to water. Number two, God gave the increase after they planted and watered. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think God would have given the increase, I really don’t, if they had not planted and watered.
Now, God brings the increase—that’s God’s business—but he did it. If you notice, I always say every word the Bible is important, and the order of a word is important. He said, “I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” The order: planting, watering, then God gave the increase.
Would you look down in verse number nine, if you would, very briefly here? Verse number nine: “For we are laborers together with God.” I don’t know why God allows us to be laborers together with him, but that’s his plan.
I’ve said it often: I think he’d do a much better job without us. I really do. But his plan is to use you and I. Sometimes we want God to do it on his own. He could; he’s an almighty God, but his plan is to use you and I. He wants you part of his plan. We’re laboring together with God. Now, God brings the increase, but he did it after they planted and after they watered. See?
I’ve been reminded of an illustration I’ve used many times, and I kind of forgot about it. It’s so good for me to be reminded of it. This is very much how it is. You ever seen a dad who’s going to move something, maybe the coffee table in the living room? He can pick that thing up and move it, no problem. It’s not that heavy, not that big. But little Johnny is there.
You know how it is. Daddy says, “All right, Johnny, help me out, you know. Come on, Johnny.” Now, the honest truth is little Johnny, the little boy, he kind of hinders Dad. Dad can just pick it up and carry it easier. But Daddy wants Johnny to be a part of it, to teach him to work, and they’re having fellowship together.
The honest truth is Dad picks it up, but Johnny—man, he thinks he’s got it, you know. He’s holding on to the end of the coffee table half the time. Little Johnny stumbles and trips and falls, you know, but Dad’s got it. It’s the honest truth, and that’s how we are with God. God could move the coffee table; he has no problem. But God wants you on the end of it, holding on, and God wants you to be a part of his work.
Oh, my goodness, he could do so much better without me, but I’m so honored that God says, “I want you to be a part of it.” Sometimes we get discouraged and say, “Well, God, you can do so much better on your own.” And God probably says, “That’s the truth, but I want you to be a part of it. I love you, I like you, I want you to be a part of it.” We labor together with God.
The honest, simple truth is God gave the increase after Paul had planted and Apollos had watered. That’s often how God works for you.
Number one, we said our job is not to bring the increase, but to plant and to water. Number two, God gave the increase after they planted and watered. And number three, just briefly, the Lord makes a big deal out of those that plant and those that water.
Look over, if you will, in Romans chapter 10, just one verse. We could use several different places in the Bible to kind of illustrate this truth, but Romans 10 and verse number 15. We were on the bus driving home this afternoon, and one of the little girls, Katrina—some of you all know Katrina—she pulled her shoes off.
Brother Josh was on there kind of keeping the kids in line and telling me where to go because I don’t know all the stops. Brother Josh came up and said, “Katrina, what are you doing with your shoes off?” I said, “Brother Josh, he’s fumigating the bus. Come on now, you know.” I teased it, of course. Feet aren’t the most pleasant things in the world if you know what I’m talking about, especially if you wear shoes without socks on. Oh, my goodness. We’re in trouble.
Look what God says. Romans 10, verse number 15: “How shall they preach except that they be sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of them which preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.’”
When we hear the word “preach,” we think of the preacher behind the pulpit, and it sure includes that, but technically it’s telling the truth. It could be someone at work telling their co-worker about Jesus Christ. It could be someone in their neighborhood, going out and witnessing to their neighbor. It could be someone on Saturday out giving out the plan of salvation. It could be someone at a family reunion telling the truth, “Jesus saves.”
God says those people that they, if you will, plant and water—God says even their feet, one of the most ugly things about our body, our feet, and for sure the ones that smell a lot—God says those that are getting the gospel out, they’re preaching the good news and the good news of peace, God says even their feet are beautiful. I’m just saying, God says, “Hey, those people that plant and that water.”
Now, here’s the wonderful thing. The wonderful thing is God, in his time and his way, he brings the increase. You just never know when God’s going to bring the increase. It might be in 2021 when things, or maybe in the political scene, don’t look very good. And when there’s tragedy all around us, it could be a time like 9/11 when a tragedy strikes that God brings the increase. But the goal is for us to plant and us to water. God takes care of that business, the increase.
I want you to listen. This first clip is about five, a little over five minutes long. It’s the most lengthy one. It’s not visual; it’s just audible. So I want you to try to focus. I hope you can hear all the words real good. This is God bringing the increase at a very impromptu, surprising time, but somebody had been planting and watering, and God brought some increase. Brother Marlon, whenever you’re ready, would you play that, please?
I remember we would hear an explosion, and you couldn’t see it, but you could hear it. Everybody would scream and run the opposite way. It was the cars that were blowing up. Every way you could turn, a car would just blow up because of the gas, and it was so hot. The heat down there—people were ripping off their clothes. There were people that had no clothes on, but it wasn’t like, “Oh, that person has no clothes.” It was a survival mode that everybody was in.
It looked like that they had just blanketed us with these gray blankets, the ash that you see on television. I mean, you couldn’t even make out a person’s skin color. Everybody was the same color. The ground was the same color. There were bodies lying on the ground. Everything was the same exact color. It was that ash color. It was in your eyes. It was in your nose, your mouth, everything. It literally felt like somebody had poured sand in your mouth, and you just couldn’t breathe.
Then I thought, “This is the way it’s going to end. I can’t breathe. This is how I’m going to die.” It felt like somebody had put a pillow over my nose and my mouth, and I just couldn’t breathe. I felt myself starting to pass out.
There was a fireman that was walking past us, and he had on a mask so he could breathe and see a little bit better than we could. One of the girls that worked for me, she grabbed onto his arm, and I grabbed onto her arm, and we continued because he could see. I told Cassie, my friend, “I’m not going to make it; I’m going to pass out.” I had always witnessed to her. She was one of my workers, so I felt I could get away with it sometimes. I would have her come into my office, and we would eat lunch together.
I could tell that she at one point had had a relationship with the Lord, and her brother was a Christian. I told her, “Cassie, do you really think that God, your brother is saved, and then he’s placed me in your life, and I share the Lord with you all the time? I don’t believe that’s by coincidence.” So that people—I guess it was our little code word—instead of saying “getting saved,” I would tell her, “Cassie, you need to get on the bus.” That’s what we started calling it for some reason.
She told me, “You know, I didn’t move to New York to live for God. I’ll do that when I get older. New York is a party place, and that’s what I’m going to do for a little while. I know I need to give my heart to the Lord, but I want to wait.” She was very mindful of that. I think when she saw me, she would think of how she was living versus how she needed to live.
Anyway, it was just the two of us at this time. When the loudest—everybody asked me what happened when your building fell. If you can imagine the loudest sounds you’ve ever heard and multiply it a few hundred times, that is what we heard that day. Every siren that was in New York City was going off, the explosions all over the place. I couldn’t tell one sound from the other. When the building fell, it didn’t make a dent to me because everything was so loud.
What we didn’t realize is when it fell, we were actually headed back into the building, toward the building. So that smoke cloud you see on television, we were right in it. We weren’t running from it; we were in it. You could not see your hand in front of your face. We saw an abandoned city bus. I said, “Cassie, let’s get on that bus.” The fireman had grabbed us at this point. I said, “Let’s get on that bus.” At least maybe we can breathe because I felt like if I didn’t get some air soon, I was going to pass out.
When we got on the bus, everybody started screaming when we opened the doors because then the ash would get in and stop people from breathing. So we closed the doors real quick, and it was abandoned. There was not a driver there. The city looked like a war zone. I thought I was going to work that day, and it was an actual war.
We sat in the back of the bus, and we were just trying to breathe. I remember just closing my eyes and trying to get a breath before we took off running again. We thought these people were on the ground blowing us up. So we sat there, and I turned to Cassie and said, “You know, we don’t know how much longer we have. I said, we probably won’t make it out of this. Don’t you think it’s time that you gave your heart to the Lord?”
There was no arguing, no nothing. She did it right then. We prayed loud enough where people on that bus could hear us. I would like to think that other people said that sinner’s prayer too because you just didn’t think you were going to make it. I think about it now: God does have a sense of humor. I remembered—and I didn’t even think of this until four days later—but I had always been saying, “Cassie, you need to get on the bus.” And where did she give her heart to the Lord? On an abandoned New York City bus.
Once she gave her heart to the Lord, it was like a renewed strength came inside of me and her too. I said, “Cassie, I feel like I could run forever.” You can look at me; I do not run every day. We ran about six miles from the World Trade Center and ended up at my church at Brooklyn Tabernacle when it was on Flatbush. I turned to Cassie and said, “Did you really mean it when you gave your heart to the Lord a while ago?” She said, “You bet I did, girl.”
While Don Robinson narrowly escaped with her life, Janelle Guzman, a single mom at the time, was fighting desperately for hers. You water, God brings the increase. Just sometimes at the times you least expect it, God in his unique way brings the increase. Hey, our job, just wherever you’re at, wherever you can, is to plant and water. That’s her job.
I thought about Brother Frank. We’ve already had him share the testimony. He’s been planting and watering over with Bill for years, his neighbor. He didn’t know that was the day that God would bring the increase, but he just stayed faithful at it. And God brought the increase in his time. Can I just encourage you: everywhere you go, everywhere you go, plant and water. God brings the increase in his time.
Brother Marlon, can you come share for just a moment here? Brother Marlon’s going to come up. Sure, that’d be great. Just a unique thing, just as of last Sunday night. Brother Marlon’s been planting and watering for years. It’s not all said, but we’ve got some increase on it. God’s brought, and I want you to hear it. I just want to be encouraged. We’re going to hear several testimonies tonight, just hoping to be encouraging. Let’s keep planting and watering and see what God will do in his time. Brother.
I hit this altar several times praying that she would get saved. We had a prayer meeting here Wednesday night, and Brother John, we actually prayed for my sister last Wednesday night. So with all the preaching that was done over the weekend under the tent and out at the park, I sent her the message—Brother Patterson’s salvation, Brother John—by being strong. So I sent that to her on Monday.
She said, “Well, if I have a chance, I’ll watch it.” And then that night, she texted me back, a long text, told me she loved me, thanked me for everything, and said that she just got saved. So five years of praying. That’s all my immediate family right now that I know that has accepted Christ. So that’s great, great news. Amen. Praise the Lord. Amen.
Amen, amen. I just want to encourage you: just keep on planting and watering. That’s your job. I’m not saying the increase—I like that—that’s God’s business. And I get discouraged often when I get on God’s side. God takes care of that, his time, his way. My job, your job, is just to plant and water. I can do that. I can’t bring increase. I’ve tried to make it happen about a million times, and it hasn’t happened yet. My job: just to plant, to water. God brings the increase.
Brother Marlon, would you continue on with that? You’re playing that. Would you please, sir? Should be clip two, brother.
Jeannie Broca’s story is featured in September’s Focus on the Family Magazine. She lost her husband, Al, in the World Trade Center attacks. Al was ridiculed for his faith at Cantor Fitzgerald, where his colleagues called him “the Rev.” On 9/11, just before the building collapsed and they were all killed, some of his coworkers called their family members from cell phones. They told them they had made peace with Christ after being led in a prayer meeting by Al Broca.
He had been witnessing; he had been planting and watering. When those planes hit, some of them, especially above, had time, and he was up there, if you will, preaching and sharing the gospel, leading groups of them to ask Jesus Christ to be their Savior. We know a lot of that because they were calling family on their cell phones and saying, “Hey, this man now—I called him Reverend—he’s been telling us about Jesus, and I just asked Jesus to save me.”
In the midst of all that was going on in 9/11—the media won’t talk about that—but somebody had been planting and watering, and God was bringing the increase. Friend, don’t get too discouraged by 2021. There’s always, until the Lord comes back, and even during the tribulation period, there will be somebody planting and somebody watering, and God will be giving the increase in his time, his way.
What about my neighbor? Well, just keep planting; just keep watering. God, in his time, his way, he brings the increase. It’s never us, never us. Don’t say, “Well, I brought the increase.” No, no, you didn’t, friend. Maybe you planted, and maybe you watered. I hope you did. God brings the increase.
Would you play clip three, please, sir?
And then went out to dinner. The next morning I went with them. These guys are as tough as they come, courageous. I can’t even tell you the things that they did at Ground Zero; I couldn’t say it on the air. But none of them were Christian guys. I love these guys like my own sons. That morning I went out, and we were standing on a street in New York. I said, “Guys, I want to pray for you guys before you go back to the pile today.”
Next thing I knew, there’s eight guys with their helmets on the concrete, and they’re on their knees in a circle. I was able to pray for them.
Amen, amen. That clip there—we don’t know if anybody got saved necessarily that we know of—but that man was planting and watering right in the middle of that. He was planting and watering. That’s your job. That’s my job. When you go to work tomorrow, what are you going to do? Plant and water. When you go to a family reunion, what are you going to do? Plant and water. Next Saturday, when we go out witnessing, we’re going to meet at a McDonald’s and get a Caramel Frappé, first of all, amen. But then we’re going to go out. What are we going to do? We’re going to plant and water. That’s your job. That’s your job. God brings the increase in his time, his way.
Sometimes you plant and water at times you never thought you’d be able to. Right in the middle of 9/11, God was bringing an increase, and some were planting and watering. Let’s listen to clip four, believe it is. Would you play it, please?
I was picking up masks. I was the junior man on the crew as we were digging through the pile, and they had just come down with some of the better masks people have been hearing about on the news. Prior to that, we just had these little dust masks that you would use if you were taking down sheetrock, which were useless. And American Bible Society—there’s still a tremendous amount of smoke, and the fire was still burning. The smell—people tell them they still can’t get that smell out of there. It looked like it was snowing, is what it looked like.
The dust in the air from everything, the ash was still floating. It would cover you. It would cover you. It would cover you. I had gone over to pick up these masks, and American Bible Society had just brought in their shipment of Strength and Courage with the firemen on the cover. So I decided that was my moment, and I picked up half a dozen, brought them back to the crew. The pamphlets, the booklets that said “God is our strength and refuge,” went as fast as the masks that we were using to work down there.
I was picking up masks. There’s another instance, not necessarily increase that we know of, but he was planting and watering.
I hope you understand it. I know it’s a little bit tough to understand. There are longer clips for these, but it would just take so long. When he went to get the mask, he got those old little booklets, tracts, if you will, and they went just as quick as the masks. They got to the firefighters and whatnot. That man was planting and watering. That’s your job. That’s your job. God, in his time, in his unique way, only one who brings life. Nobody else brings life. God brings the increase.
Our job, your job, it’s doable because your job is just to plant and to water. This is the last clip we’ll listen to, clip number five, would you please, Brother Moore?
You asked earlier if I had the opportunity to lead people to Christ on the pile. I didn’t. At that time, it was just to pray with them and give them that “Fallen but Not Forgotten” literature. But in January, we went back and put on a breakfast for New York firefighters. We had about 100 show up that day, and 20 of them invited Jesus Christ into their heart as a result of that breakfast. I remember one husband and wife who had brought their children with them; they gave their hearts to the Lord together. That’s the bottom line that God has impressed on me, John: the time is short. You need to let people know of the hope they can have in Christ.
Did you hear that? That planting and watering, and then he went back, and that gentleman went back and had a little service with the firefighters. About 100 of them, and 20 of them, God gave the increase. Our job, your job—you can’t change anyone; I can’t change one. My job, our job is just to plant and to water, and God, in his time, he brings the increase.
Can I just encourage you tonight? Just spend your life, spend your life planting and watering. Some of the joy will be when we get to heaven. God says, “You planted and watered, you didn’t even know it, but in my time, in my way, sometimes long after when you’re not even there, God brings the increase.” That’s your job.
I have a neighbor for 18 years, a good man. He owns the fields behind us and the horses and whatnot. A very good man, and I’ve enjoyed a good friendship with him for 18 years. Always very kind; he’s been very, very good to us, and we tried to do the same to him.
I’ve tried to witness to him down through the years, and he’ll let me talk a little bit, but nothing really solid. He wouldn’t let me get the Bible out and show the plan of salvation, go through the Romans Road, anything like that. But we’d talk, and I try every year or two; I try again a little bit and see what happens, and I didn’t want to break the friendship off, but I just tried to plant and water.
It’s a sad twist to it in some ways, but for eternity, it’s a wonderful thing. He’s had a stroke, a major stroke, and he’s in Trust Point Hospital down in Murfreesboro. Thursday, I went to see him. How often I’ve shared the gospel, tried to, and you could almost—sometimes you don’t physically happen, but you can almost feel the hand saying, “Hey, that’s enough.” He’s a Marine, good man.
I went to the hospital there and walked into his room. He’s in a wheelchair now, can’t walk. I came in and spoke with him for a while, and you could almost feel this time he wanted me to get to it this time. He wanted to hear, and he didn’t stop me this time. On Thursday, he was so glad to bow his head and invite Jesus Christ into his heart and get saved. He’s so thankful. He told me before I left, “Paul, love you. You keep being a good man.”
Here’s the thing: I just planted and watered. I didn’t bring any increase. I can’t bring any increase. Eighteen years. You just don’t know when or how God’s… But you just keep planting, and you just keep watering. That’s our job. Don’t let the devil get you on the increase side; that’s discouraging. That’s God’s side. God handles that. Our job? Just to plant. Just to water. Yeah. Just spend your life planting and watering. And God, in his time, he brings the increase.
Original File: Planting and Watering - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday PM 91121