1 Corinthians 9:1-18 That One Awkward Sermon About Pastoral Salary

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak preaches from his sermon series titled, 1

Corinthians, Sinful Church, Powerful Gospel. Let's listen in. I'm Don Filsak.

I'm the lead pastor here, and I want to welcome you all here this morning. God has been gracious to bring us back together again.

We are a people who need kind of a dose regularly of corporate faith, of gathering together with God's people to grow and to see him expand us in our understanding, our belief, our trust of who he is and what he's done for us, but also an opportunity to rub shoulders with each other.

And so I'm glad that you're here. The very nature of the gospel is that we are one by his great love and the relational nature of that gospel, that good news, is designed to draw us together into more relationship with one another.

To be a together people, to be a loving people, to be an honest people, to be an increasingly set apart for his purposes people.

That's what the word holy means, is set apart that we live a distinct life from the way that the world around us lives, and that sometimes can feel isolating and alone out in the world.

And so we gather together to recognize that we're not the only ones kind of slugging it out day in and day out, week in and week out.

We're a church that's committed to capital T truth of God's word, all of God's word we value.

It's a core value that keeps us walking through books of the Bible, verse by verse, paragraph by paragraph.

If you get donuts back there, you're probably focused on the donuts, but above that's a sign with our core values that makes up an acronym for our name, replication, community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth.

Again, that capital T truth is the very word of God that we dissect and we walk through.

We allow it to dissect us and to walk through us and to transform us and change us.

And I say this occasionally, I'm afraid of saying it too much, but there are passages that I think we would probably just naturally skip if it was up to us.

There are passages that we might just kind of even in our weekly reading, or if you're going through the

Bible in a year, you might come to 1 Corinthians 9, these first 18 verses and go, oh, that's probably really interesting for somebody to read and move along.

And it would be very easy for us to do that. And I'll confess that this is actually one of the most awkward passages that I've ever studied in order to preach.

And I say that as a man who has actually preached through, yes, the song of songs. And yet this is awkward for me, and I don't point that out for pity, and I'm not looking for pity at all.

I point it out to identify the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room is this, as a pastor, I'm about to preach

Paul's lengthy and detailed argument about the right for those ministering in Christian ministry to receive compensation.

Now do you understand why it's awkward for me? It's a bit awkward to get up here and preach a detailed explanation of the right of a pastor toward compensation.

I've entitled this message that one awkward sermon about pastoral salary because I like to label things what they are.

And so, that's what we're going to be talking about this morning. But for any of you who are visiting for the first time, you have to trust me when

I say you haven't stumbled into one of those churches. You know, I think some of us have been to a church that it was kind of like the message seemed to often be about giving, tithing, or sowing financial seeds.

And it seemed like that was kind of like the routine every week. No, what we're doing is we're marching through the book of 1

Corinthians, and that has proven to have some tough passages already. How many of you know what I'm talking about? We've already been through some of the tough passages.

We are not even to the part about head coverings yet. So buckle up, because the book of 1

Corinthians has all kinds of passages for our intrigue. What was going on in Corinth is obviously informative to us.

But there's a reason, it's not illogical, there's a reason that Paul is speaking so directly about this subject in these 18 verses.

He is really killing two birds with one stone here in our text. Paul has chosen not, and we'll see that emphatically by the end, he's chosen not to accept financial gifts or patronage from the church in Corinth.

He's decided not to be an employee of the church in Corinth. And they had some questions about this.

They obviously have wondered about his commitment to them, and yet he has just made a strong case in chapter 8 about giving up rights in the church out of love for one another.

And in this passage, Paul goes over the top to establish his right, he says, I have the right to ask for support from the churches that I'm ministering to, while explaining the reason for his giving up that right.

And in this argumentation, we will find some nuggets of application for us along the way. The passage is not merely about the right of a minister to get paid, but it's also about the relationship between a church, a church leader, the gospel, and at the end of the day, about us giving up our rights for the cause of Christ.

And so, let's open our Bibles or your scripture journals or your apps to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. We'll be looking at the first 18 verses of 1

Corinthians chapter 9. And again, this is God's holy word. This is what he desires to communicate to us.

So, again, when I say I would skip this, this is God's holy word. I don't mean to diminish that at all. It's awkward to talk about, but it's something that I value talking about because God's word values it.

Do you guys know what I'm talking about? So, we're going to dive into what God has for us each and every week with joy and gladness.

So, 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verses 1 through 18, am

I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our

Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least

I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who would examine me.

Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles and the brothers of the

Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?

Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit?

Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Do I say these things on human authority?

Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.

Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not certainly speak for our sake?

It was written for our sake because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.

If we who have sown spiritual things among you, if we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than to put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?

In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision, for I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.

For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting, for necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.

For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.

What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you are a

God who is concerned about our daily lives. You're a God who understands how we're put together, even in our fallenness, that we're a people who are very, very quick to identify our quote -unquote rights, we're people very quick to be up on the things that we deserve, very quick to point out when we're not getting those things that we think we deserve.

We're an American church, and that means people in tune with our rights.

Father, I pray that through this message, you would shake us free from the demands that we would put on others around us, the demands that would so quickly grab our lives, and that we would be much more a community of love than a community of rights, that we'd be much more a community of gospel than a community of rights, that we'd be a people who are quick to sacrifice that which might get in the way of the gospel, that which might get in the way of love.

Thank you for that love that we have for each other that comes and flows correctly from the love that you have for us, the love that is expressed in the sacrifice of your

Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross for us. And Father, I pray that you would meet us in this place, even as we now have an opportunity to sing praises before you,

Father, that you would be honored and lifted high in this time of praise, as a people that are united, not by rights, not by where we were born, but that we are born again through the living hope that we have in our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In whose name I pray, amen. All right.

Yeah, you can go to be seated, make yourself comfortable, and keep your

Bibles open to 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 1 through 18. If you lost your place there or shut your device down, you can reopen that so that you've got the

Word of God in front of you. And as I say every week, if you need to get up and get more coffee, juice, or donut holes while supplies last, take advantage of that back there.

And then the restrooms are out the barn doors down the hallway on the left -hand side if you need those. But again, we're going to keep our focus on God's Word as much as possible for the remainder of our time together.

And to set the table this morning, we need to understand a bit about chapter 8. We're now in chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians, but chapter 8 comes to bear on this a lot.

Paul encouraged the church in Corinth to be sure that they don't use their freedom in Christ to run over weak brothers and sisters who do not yet know the freedoms that we have in Christ.

So there are going to be some who are really well -versed in the freedoms that we have and a little less on their conscience, a little less burdened as they move throughout the world with a little bit more freedom, and then there are going to be those who are weaker that don't have that freedom or don't quite recognize it yet.

And the subject he was addressing last week was quite particular and unique. He was talking about eating meat from the marketplace in Corinth that was sourced from the pagan temples as sacrifices to the gods and goddesses of Rome.

And he warned that by demanding our legitimate rights to eat whatever we think we deserve or whatever we want, thank you very much, we could entice weaker

Christians back into idolatry and their destruction was at risk. That would be very destructive to them if they got enticed back into idolatry and pagan practices just on the basis of the way that the

Corinthians were exercising their freedoms. So in love, he basically said last week, in love we make sacrifices for our community.

The truth of our freedom is not the end of the discussion, but rather what is beneficial for others ought to come into play in the way that we talk about these things.

That's the point. In love, we make some sacrifices, and here we're going to see him start to head towards not just love that makes us sacrifice for one another, but even the gospel that makes us sacrifice for one another, the cause of the opportunity to share our faith with others.

So Paul is going to hold himself up in this passage as a model of that type of sacrifice.

This is still part of the same section about how we live together in community. And yet Paul here, as I mentioned in the introduction, is going to kill two birds with one stone, teaching regarding the right that ministers of the gospel have to take an income while explaining why he specifically refused that income from the

Corinthian church. So Paul uses a slew of rhetorical questions in this passage.

I think you probably saw this, or even if you read it in the English Standard Version, it preserves all of those question marks there for your benefit so that you can see that he's asking, asking, asking rhetorical questions.

And I honestly believe that this shows his desire to demonstrate the truth and to draw out the truth in the hearts of his readers and those listening, the truth that a minister, a church planter, a pastor, a missionary should be able to make a living without, really he's trying to make that case without allowing the authority for the statement to solely rest in him.

So he's asking, asking the church, he's asking those reading, isn't this true? Isn't this true?

Isn't this true? Those kinds of rhetorical questions. He is after all talking about his own livelihood, which is awkward in itself and a bit strange.

And so am I up here, which is awkward and also a bit strange. But rhetorical questions have a tendency to draw the reader, the listener into the decision making process.

Isn't this true? Don't you already know this? It gets better buy -in from the audience, right? Ah, see what

I did there? Did you get that? And then did you get that too? Because I just asked another rhetorical question, so we could just keep going here.

But rhetorical questions are a tool that a speaker uses that we often use even in our own personal one -on -one interactions to draw others into the discussion.

Don't you know that this is the case? Isn't that right? Isn't this right? I am glad that Paul doesn't say it this way.

I'm glad that this isn't the way that this revelation goes. Oh, wait, I've got a word coming in from the Spirit here, closes his eyes, kind of scrunches up his face.

What? Okay. The Spirit's talking to me? What? No, that can't be right. Double the salary?

Are you kidding me? Really? Okay. And it comes, you guys aren't going to believe what God just told me, right?

That's not how Paul goes in this passage, right? He is going to make a solid argument for the way that God will provide for the needs of those who are called out to a more vocational ministry of the gospel, where that's their calling and that's their livelihood.

Unfortunately, this topic is awkward because for a couple of different reasons, not just that I'm talking about it as a supported, paid pastor, but because I think we've also all seen the abuse of these things.

Like we've seen the televangelist sporting Armani, or what's more common now is the megachurch pastor who's got like $400 kicks, right?

And his whip is amazing, right? So we know people and we see, how many of you raise your hand if you just know what

I'm talking about right away? Like you just know that like there are guys out there that you're kind of like, whoa, I wonder what the average income of his church is because that's amazing.

Flying his golf stream around the world to revivals and to speaking engagements because God's servant can't fly economy, right?

You guys know what I'm talking about. But equally, you might be aware that there's another side of this table to fall off of and that's that there's plenty of people who have adopted a view that pastors shouldn't be paid at all.

Now, fortunately, I haven't encountered this a ton in ministry, but there is a pretty major movement in that direction that pastors just shouldn't get paid at all.

Eugene Peterson in his memoirs tells a story of when he was starting his church. He was planning a church in Maryland, in Bel Air, Maryland, and he was going around and somebody had visited, this couple had visited his church, so he went to visit with them.

And after talking, it was obvious that the lady was a bit antagonistic and gruff and he was trying to figure out what that was about.

And so he's sitting in their living room talking with them, kind of like, thanks for coming to the church. What's going on? She said, we'll never coming back.

And he said, why? And she said, because you're not a biblical church. Why? What did we do wrong? What's the problem?

You're paid as a pastor, she said. And then she referred to Matthew chapter 10, verses 8 through 10, which is a passage where Jesus is talking about sending out the 12 for a quite specific mission.

And he says this to them, and this is recorded for us in scripture. Matthew 10, 8 through 10 says this, 8 and 9 rather.

She emphasized 8 and 9. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. He's sending them out.

He's giving them instructions. You receive without paying, give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, he tells the 12 as he sends them out.

And she pointed to this verse and he called her bluff. And he said, I will indeed apply that to a

T as directly as it's written, verses 8 and 9. If you will also turn and open and read verse 10 for me and then apply that.

If you agree that you indeed are called, and she said, yeah, we're all called to minister to God's people. So this applies, you know, this applies to all of us.

In verse 10, it says this, and take no bag for your journey or two tunics or sandals or a staff for the labor deserves his food.

And he said, I'll go without pay if you will turn over your shoes right now to me and go barefoot the rest of your life.

No shoes for your feet, says Jesus. According to Eugene Peterson, the conversation was pretty short after that.

Not a ton of conversation. That lady had certainly not taken to heart this extensive passage supporting the payment of those who are in full -time vocational service to churches in 1

Corinthians. She had a view that came from one passage of Scripture. Verses 1 through 3 establish here for us

Paul's authority. He is free in Christ, he says. He is an apostle.

He has beheld with his eyes the risen Lord. And the very existence of a church in Corinth is an in -your -face seal or authentication of his apostleship in the

Lord, he says. He makes a passing comment here that there are some who are not recognizing his apostleship, but surely the church in Corinth knows better, they know the truth, that Paul has been called out and used as a messenger from God to start churches, and they stand as evidence of that.

And he set forth the defense of his actions among them regarding finances. Most scholars believe that he's defending against a fairly strange accusation, that the accusation doesn't go towards the megachurch where they're accusing him of living opulently or something like that.

As a matter of fact, it's the opposite. He has not taken any donations from Corinth. And he's going to say later in this passage that he has no intention of this passage being the one that lights a fire under them to give to him.

He's not going to ask anything from Corinth. And the Corinthian culture finds this behavior to be sketchy and undesirable.

Here's the strange thing. They want him to receive their money. They want to pay him, and there's a particular reason why.

You see, in that culture, it was common for traveling philosophers and speakers to make money off of their speeches.

So they would get up in the forum and they would speak and kind of like set out a hat and that's how they made their living.

It was like a culture of TED Talks, and it was one form of entertainment in this ancient city and many cities throughout

Rome. There was a forum there. So go, you know, don't have anything to do tonight? Go listen to the rhetoric at the public forum.

Take your coin purse and vote with your money who you thought had the best arguments. But nothing is new under the sun, and money has power.

And so the patrons of speakers, the ones supporting the speakers, would often get a little opportunity to guide the messaging, right?

We know that this is alive and well today where people can buy a speech. And I will dive right into this at the deep end.

A church is in trouble when their pastor is a voice for hire. A church is in trouble when their pastor is a voice for hire.

When you can come and tell me what to say. When you can come and tell me what to preach. Come and tell me what makes you uncomfortable and say, don't talk about that anymore.

When you can tell me what I must or must not pray. The church is in serious peril when that occurs.

And unfortunately, money can be a lever in sinful hearts to move away, move an entire church away from the truth.

This is a reality that's in play in this discussion about ministers making a living off of their spiritual work.

I'm confident, and I say this personally, I'm speaking for myself, I'm confident in my calling before God to preach the truth regardless of offense.

I pray and I hope that if what God desires is rebuke for you this morning, that that's what you get. That if he wants encouragement for you this morning, that that's what you get.

That he meets everybody where they're at. And my hope and prayer is that I could ask for a show of hands and some of you would say, yeah,

I've been hit between the eyes by some things that's been preached up here. That I've been convicted by it, that it hasn't been comfortable and that it hasn't all been fun and fluff.

I hope that's the case. But I'm confident, regardless of offense, that I am called to preach the word of God.

There may be a genuinely funny reality that goes on here on any given Sunday morning.

Some of you are participating in that giving slot back there. You're giving to the work of the

Lord here, which ends up coming to me, part of it comes to me in the form of a paycheck. And then

I turn around and I preach convicting, offending, correcting, and rebuking messages. So, it's kind of a funny thing.

But don't let that relationship be lost on you. This passage is about that relationship. And I consider myself as a man paid to study deeply, to reflect on the word, to translate it into my life as a model for us, that's a scary thing.

And then to translate it into words in both sermons on Sunday morning and into counsel as I meet and talk with people and interact with them throughout the week.

My role is not church CEO, and I am certainly not, not, not a voice for hire.

And further, it might be comforting to some of you to find out and to know, I hope most of you knew this, but I don't know who gives what here.

I never have. In 15 years, I have no idea. There's actually one person in the church at all, our financial,

I wanted to say clerk, but that's not the right word, secretary. She's the only one in the church who knows, and that's just so that you can get a receipt.

But aside from her, there's nobody else in the church who knows who gives what. I don't want to be influenced by knowing what you do or don't give.

Do you know what I'm talking about? I don't really care to know that. I do believe that that giving is between you and God, and it ought to remain there.

And the New Testament thing, the Old Testament thing is a tithe. The New Testament thing is cheerful giving, cheerful giving.

That's the standard. The Old Testament was a 10 % thing. The current one is gladness and joy out of what you've been given by God.

That's it. So for this reason, Paul has to make a strong defense of rightful pay for ministers simply because it would be possible for some to think logically then that the solution to this potential to buy off your leaders is to avoid that risk of them being swayed by finances is to not pay them at all.

There. Problem solved. Just don't pay them. That would be one way to solve the problem.

That would also be one way to get a very hungry Don and Linda. But no risk of me being swayed by your money to change the message, right?

That's a possibility. But Paul is going to spend verses four through 14 making strong claims to the right to be paid for his ministry.

And he sees this as a, and he draws out just a logical way that the world works.

His argument begins by asserting his rights, like the right to eat food. Okay? Like there's a right to having an income and being able to provide for himself.

These first two would scarcely need any defense at all. The right to eat and the right to support a family are nearly universally accepted.

I'm talking about verses four, five, and six here. Paul is saying what all of us take for granted and even the most oppressive regimes in the world at least fake a system of providing for its people.

All cultures actually acknowledge that provision from labor is a benefit.

Even the North Koreans, who many of them are starving, they seek to present a front that looks like plenty of provision for all.

But verse five ties in with provision at the point of what I believe was actually happening among the traveling apostles during this time.

There's a little bit of nuance here to understanding why he says the things that he says here in four, five, and six.

Paul says, I have the right to take along a wife. And it's a little bit hard to understand how he's connecting that financially.

But it seems like he's indicating in verses five and six that he and Barnabas stood apart from the other apostles as not having a wife.

The two of them are single. They're single dudes that are apostles that are going around and wandering around sharing the gospel and planting churches.

What I think was happening that makes sense of these three rhetorical questions in verse four, five, and six is that he says we, notice the we, we,

Paul and Barnabas, have a right to eat. We have the right to make a living, verse four. We both would have the right to take and find a wife and get married if we wanted.

You acknowledge that we could do that, right? Like the rest of the apostles and the brother of Jesus and Peter, who he calls

Cephas here. And I think he is still trying this, tying this in rather with financial concerns because I lean toward a view that sees, believes that the churches were supporting the married apostles here in this context because they had families to provide for while these two single apostles were not being financially supported.

And that would make sense of his final question. Is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living, doing physical labor and trying to minister to the churches on top of that?

Is it only the two single guys who don't qualify for church support is what this line of thinking amounts to?

In verse seven, Paul says that soldiers, vine dressers or vintners, and shepherds all benefit directly from their work.

Soldiers are paid to soldier on. They don't have to plant crops on the way to the battlefield, right? And hope that something grows. They're supported by the army.

Grape growers get some of the grapes or the wine or the raisins. Shepherds get some of the milk and the wool or whatever the products of their labors.

We expect to receive gains for our labors, right? How many of you would just say that's a reasonable thing to gain from your work?

This is a basic starting argument at common ground stuff. Of course workers ought to get paid, he says.

But now Paul defends this common sense argument about soldiers and vintners and shepherds and he takes that and he begins to support it with scriptural support in verse nine.

This isn't his own authority, but scripture actually promotes this care and concern for the one laboring by showing that God even cares how we treat a beast of burden, arguing from the lesser to the greater.

It's a quote from Deuteronomy 25 .4. Paul quotes from this a couple of different times in different letters.

He references the law about the treatment of an ox that is threshing grain. Threshing that process requires just a little brief explanation that's helpful with a picture.

Most grains have a hard inedible outer husk that has to be broken off and removed before it can be processed into flour or eaten.

And so there were many methods for threshing grain, but one common way was to pour out the grain on a hard rock surface, often circular as you see in the picture.

There was a pole at the center to which an ox was leashed and the ox was then pushed forward to walk in a circular treading pattern with his heavy hooves breaking the husks

In this picture you see a man on a threshing sledge, that's what that's called, and he's standing on it behind the ox to actually further break up that hard outer shell off the grain.

That's threshing. And guess what a common diet of oxen is? Grain. Grain.

Like the grain that they're working on there. Like a hungry ox walking around is like, why can't I eat some of this? Especially if you've got a muzzle on them to keep them from, the idea there is by the way a farmer would often muzzle the ox.

Why? Because they're eating his food. They're eating his produce. They're eating the product of his labor. So don't let them eat while they're working.

This is like making a college dude work at Pizza Hut while prohibiting him from eating any pizza.

I mean, that would be cruel, right? That's cruel. So when verses 9 and 10 are taken together, it's clear that Paul argues from the lesser to the greater and that if God cares for the oxen, clearly he at least has that level of concern for our sake.

If he's concerned about animals getting something to eat, he's certainly concerned for us.

The plowman plows in hope and the thresher threshes in hope of sharing in the crop. Logic. So let's pause and consider what this reveals about our

God here. He is a God who opposes the oppressor and cares for the needy. This is a common theme and thread throughout scripture.

He is not a God far removed from the routines of our daily grind, but rather he is a God who cares for the least of us.

He is a God who speaks into things as mundane as caring for hungry animals. And he is certainly concerned that we care for the needs of each other as well.

I have to point out just from the very beginning, work is a blessing from God. Work is shown as a blessing.

And he has designed a world in which work comes with a reasonable hope for a living sustenance. It's a world in which we are able to improve things.

We are able to grow things. We are able to gain and in that gain survive, right?

That's a good thing. Foraging is not going to save us for long and we need to work the soil.

We need to do the things to see increase and growth. Let the worker gain food and shelter and material blessings from his labor.

That's the way God has designed it. And there are so many political directions this discussion could go right now about work.

And I will refuse to enter any of them at this point. That might be for a cup of coffee if you want to talk.

But I'm not going to get into political discussions up here. But what I am going to point out is a couple of truths. Wages are up, right?

Wages are up. Yay! Costs are up. Boo! Right? But trust in God is just as important as ever.

Trust in God is just as important as ever. What if the wages are up and the costs are down?

Is that where your trust is? Is that what you're hoping for? Well, that would be nice. But man, what requires us to lean into God and trusting in his goodness?

Well, that's good. That's good. But still speaking of his right to obtain support for his work,

Paul acknowledges in verse 11 that he has merely sown spiritual things, while he has the right to expect material, physical remuneration.

He says, the work that I do is spiritual in nature. It's not very tangible. I'm not working with physical things.

And that's a reality for pastors and spiritual leaders. I would only point this out to maybe just help us to think it through, the distinctions between spiritual things and expecting material remuneration or material support.

I just point out to you that these hands have very few calluses. Okay? I have indeed worked hard jobs in my past.

I worked a third shift factory job. I've worked unloading semis by hand. When Lynn and I first got married,

I worked at Gordon Food Service on their docks unloading, stacking 60 -pound bags of onions on pallets for hours on end.

The boxes of meat were the worst. When a Tyson truck pulled in, almost everybody working on the docks split for the bathrooms because you didn't want to unload that frozen meat.

Working in and out of the freezer, cold hands, you know, your hands would go numb by the end of a shift.

And I was just trying to stay warm, and it was not that fun. It wasn't a very attractive job.

But somebody had to do it. Books, on the other hand, where I work now, they don't produce a lot of calluses.

I'm just telling you. Like, I mean, a paper cut from time to time, boo -hoo, you know, risk of the job.

Some of you are like, oh, oh, sissy boy. Paul here is identifying that there are different types of work.

We know that. And if we're not careful, we can begin to compare our labors. Why does that guy sit at an office desk all day, and I've got to be out here doing this, or whatever it might be?

If we're not careful, we begin to think that way. But Paul here in verse 11 is absolutely identifying that there is different type of work, and that's okay.

The works of a pastor, church planner is not the same as that of a soldier, vintner, shepherd, plowman, or thrusher.

Some sow to material work and reap material things. But in verse 11, he highlights that some sow spiritual things and reap material things.

Some might look at me and wonder, why are you not merely satisfied, Don, with spiritual rewards for your spiritual work?

How does one get a salary from true ministry? You can't pay somebody to love

God. Did you know that? You can't pay somebody to do it. You can't be like, okay, here's enough money to go love

God. It doesn't work that way. And so some might look at spiritual leaders and go, aren't you working for a well -done, good and faithful servant?

Isn't that enough for you? And I would say emphatically that it is. That is the highest prize, without question.

Whether you're working in the material realm or in the spiritual realm, the highest thing that you can receive is not your paycheck.

It's well -done, good and faithful servant, right? We know that. That keeps me going. That fuels my ministry among you with joy.

That fuels my determination in the days where it's hard and it's kind of like, man, throw in the towel or whatever.

That keeps my eyes on the prize. It is the call of my Lord and his love for me that keeps me tethered to the truth, even preaching awkward passages like this one with gladness and with joy.

But also like Paul, I don't mind eating. I like to make my house payment.

I like to be able to provide for my family. But here in the text in verse 12, unlike other traveling speakers in the church at Corinth, Paul hasn't made use of this well -established right.

In verse 12, he goes straight to the place of giving up a well -established right for the cause of the gospel.

Look at what verse 12 says. If others share this rightful claim on you, do we not even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel.

The gospel of Christ. It takes a little, a little thinking, maybe a sprinkling of speculation, but not a ton to figure out why

Paul thinks that accepting a payment in Corinth, from Corinth, would cause an obstacle in the way of the gospel there in that community, as he says at the end of verse 12.

But one thing is culturally established and pretty well affirmed by history and documentation.

Paul's freedom from financial patronage kept him from merely serving his patrons.

They couldn't buy him, but he was also able to serve the lost in the community.

He wasn't their voice for hire. He saw being supported by them as a potential hurdle to the gospel because he would then be beholden to them.

Paul was not ready, in other words, to be employed by the church of Corinth. He did not want them to be his bosses.

Now, it's important to understand that this was not a universal policy for Paul. There were other churches that he received money from.

He had churches that supported him. Philippi, for example. But for obvious reasons, what

I think are obvious reasons, after studying the book of 1 Corinthians and becoming acquainted with them and the way that they rolled and understanding

Corinth, he thought it likely a hindrance to the gospel to be on their payroll.

This was a very broken fellowship, as evidenced by the things he is correcting for them all throughout this letter.

Do you guys get what I'm talking about? You guys been around Corinth enough to know? You've read enough Corinth to know?

I wouldn't want to be on their payroll. That is a mess. I am grateful and glad to be on the payroll of Recast Church.

I love serving you guys. There's passages in Scripture that say, make it easy for your leaders to lead you.

This has been one of those churches. I talk with other pastors who have horror stories to share.

I'm like, man, pray for you. Sorry. It's going really well over here. I really love these people and they seem to love me.

You're like, oh, you didn't get that email last day? That's a broken fellowship.

And Paul gives two more final examples of obtaining support. And these two in verses 13 and 14 come straight from religious work.

The priests in the Old Testament temple are held up as an example. They were supported by the sacrifices off the altar.

And in verse 14, we see a mic drop on the subject. The Lord Jesus Christ said the following.

And he's like, there you go. I don't know why he didn't start there because how many of you know if you can just quote Jesus, the argument's over, right?

But he wanted to establish it in their minds. He wanted them to think it through. He wanted to give these rhetorical questions. He wanted their buy -in on this.

He wanted to express it in that way. But Luke 10, 7 is kind of the mic drop. He at least seems to think so.

And Jesus said this as he was sending out the 72. Now, this is a different sending out than the 12 disciples.

And he says this. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages.

Do not go from house to house. The idea of being supported by those who you're ministering to.

The context of this saying is the sending out of that 72. Jesus sends out his followers, encouraging them that support for their work is a sign, even, of the receptivity of their audience.

Where there is no receptivity, he goes on in that same passage, just saying where no one will provide for you, where nobody will take you in, no one will receive you, shake the dust off and depart and move along to the next town.

It's a sign they need your message. They don't want your message. Those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel, says

Paul here. It's an interpretation, a translation, translating into real life of Jesus' words.

It's not a direct quote from that Luke passage. But the gospel laborer deserves his living from the gospel.

It's not far removed from the meaning. A laborer deserves his wages in the context of sending out the 72 to proclaim the good news of the kingdom, as he was doing in that text.

So Paul has gone so over the top to establish his rights, that by the time that we get down to verse 12 and then 15 through 18, they're meant to be a bit shocking.

He intends these words to be shocking, that he doesn't want or desire or take their money.

Just like it's shocking for the one who loves a good beer to not drink beer when a struggling alcoholic is around.

Just like it's shocking when a person who knows they are free to eat meat, sacrificed to idols, refuses to eat meat at all, like Paul said at the end of chapter 8, because of a former idolater in his presence.

Just like it's shocking when a person who's nearly addicted to Fox News refuses to speak ill of President Biden in the middle of a water cooler discussion at work.

What kind of things would a person surrender? What kind of shocking things would a person give up for the cause of Christ?

What kind of things would a person forego and skip that they may feel like they're entitled to for love for others and the cause of the gospel?

What kind of things might you be called to surrender in the cause of the gospel, in the cause of love for brother and sister?

Paul gives up his rights for the cause of the gospel. The evangelistic thrust of this passage is going to be saved more for next week.

We're going to see quite specific language as we close out chapter 9 next week. But that is certainly the direction the passage is taking us.

Letting secondary things fade as we make a laser -like focus on the gospel.

How many opportunities have we missed to share the gospel because we made a secondary thing our discussion? Because we made something that is not gospel, gospel.

We've made it center. Our good news is faulty, right? Our good news is faulty if it's not Jesus Christ dying for our sins.

And how many good news do we have? Oh, we multiply good newses that when they get down to their core are bad news because they're people trying to fix stuff.

How many of you know that's not the good news? The good news isn't us pulling up ourselves by the bootstraps. Good news isn't the right leader.

Good news isn't the results of the election. Good news isn't the legislators getting the right laws in place or us getting the promotion or whatever you might think is the good news.

The good news is that there's a remedy for our sin problem and his name is Jesus Christ. That's what the world needs to hear from us.

Laser -like focus on the gospel. Sacrificing and giving up our rights for the cause of the gospel.

Letting our unity be beautiful together for the cause of the gospel. Loving one another well within these four walls that we're appealing in the gospel to others out there.

All part of it. Paul's only boast was Christ and him crucified. So wherever you see

Paul mention the word boast, the gospel is right there. Christ crucified is right there in it.

That good news is the thing that he holds most dear. So verses 15 and 16 summarize like this.

He would rather die than have anything get in the way of his clear presentation of Jesus Christ and him crucified for our sins.

He's preaching out of necessity, emphatically not for a paycheck. In verse 17 he explains that he isn't playing a part.

He isn't playing preacher for hire. If he was doing this from his own will, he says, if his calling was nothing more than his own voice in his head saying, why don't we go speak so we can make some money, the way he says this in verse 17 is that he would then already have his reward.

He would already take a paycheck and be done with it. But Paul identifies his calling as an act of God's will and not his own.

Woe to him if he does not proclaim the gospel. That means his ministry is more like a stewardship, he says.

He is caring for the gifts that are on loan to him. Verse 17 is fundamental in our understanding of ministry.

Whether paid or not. But it's especially important teaching for those who are paid.

We are all in service to God, mere stewards of God's gifts, his talents, his time, his resources.

We don't serve in his kingdom for wages, we serve in his kingdom for more glory to the owner of it all. A successful steward is one who cares well for the holdings of his master.

These are not my hands, this is not my mouth, this is not my calling.

I'm entrusted with handling holy things for the Lord and King. His stuff, I work for him, says

Paul. So then, what reward does Paul expect to receive in the end instead of getting paid in Corinth?

Verse 18 ends explaining that he counts it a reward to discharge his calling free of charge.

He has the ability and freedom to preach the gospel clearly in Corinth without interference. And he's able to demonstrate a forsaking of a right for the cause of love of the gospel.

Now, I think it would be good for all of us to settle on a discussion for just a moment about vocation. This is a word that comes to English through Latin.

It's a word that means calling. And we ought to consider the stewardship of our time and gifts as it pertains to our callings.

Now, it's a beautiful thing when your calling and your work line up. When your calling and your employment are together.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Hopefully, if you haven't experienced that, that you get an opportunity to experience that at some point in your life.

Right? But some of you are here and you're like right in the sweet spot of both giftings, talents, abilities, and what you do for pay.

But recognize that vocation is not synonymous with employment. There are seasons and times where I can tell you assuredly that unloading semi -trucks was not where I felt called.

But there was a season for that, right? And there's a season for doing the work that you need to do to do the things to get the stuff done.

Right? And that's a reality. But very few of us will connect even our employment to an idea of calling because how many of you might be willing to admit that there's a season and a time where you're called to be right where you're at.

So on that loading dock at GFS, that's where I needed to represent Christ. Not just get a paycheck and move along.

That's where God had me. And so that was indeed a part of my vocation for a season.

That wasn't the big picture. That was a season where I would honor God by the way that I did my responsibility on behalf of my employer.

Right? So in a broken world, we know. In a broken world, there's toil.

There's futility. There's hard work. There are calluses. Book of Ecclesiastes makes this clear, doesn't it?

There is a type of futility in our work. You guys listen.

There's also in this world, even in the book of Ecclesiastes, whispers of beauty.

There are days of success. There are moments of feeling useful for the betterment of others, where you feel like when you put your head down on your pillow, this was a good day.

You know what I'm talking about? Praise God for the beautiful days. Push through the toil.

Push through the seasons of futility. And recognize that all of it, as Ecclesiastes would tell us, is from the hand of God.

What do you work for? Who are you working for? Your boss? Your company?

Your paycheck? Some of you here in the room just thankless children? Yourselves?

God has been gracious to us to establish a system by which our labor produces growth, and that results in gain.

Church, let's rejoice in our callings. Let's double down on our service to the king, wherever we are placed.

And let's be willing to shed any entrenched right that we may think we have, regardless of how well established, for the cause of love and the gospel.

We're going to come to the tables of communion. We do this every week to be sure that we are reminded to preach this gospel to ourselves, the center of our faith.

Not a go out and do a bunch of stuff. That's not the end of my sermons is not go do the things.

It's to rest in a person, to rest in a work that is done for us. I hope you remind yourself regularly throughout the week.

I'm not convinced that Sunday is enough for you. I think you need more than this. You need to be digging into the word on your own.

You need to be praying with one another. You need to be connecting in community. You need these things. But what

I at least know is that if you attend Recast and you show up here on Sunday morning, we're going to give you an opportunity to remember what

Jesus Christ has done for you. We're going to give you that shot. We're going to give you that opportunity. You may take it.

You may not. You might just find this routine. Some Sundays you're going to come in here and you're just going to be like, okay, it's cracker and juice time.

God forbid that that's a routine because that's not what this is. It's not snack time for adults.

This is an opportunity for us to reflect on what Christ has done for us. Jesus died for our sins.

His body broken for us. So we take that cracker and we take it back to our table, back to our table, yeah, your table, your chair, to remember.

Jesus died for our sins. So we take that cup of juice to remember his blood shed for us. So if Jesus is your

Lord and Savior, you're at peace with others here. If that's true of you, then I encourage you to come to the tables to remember the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that reconciles broken sinners like us to a holy

God. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity that we've had to gather together in your name here in this place.

I thank you for the sharpening that you perform through your word in our hearts. And I pray that you would make us a people quick, quicker, quicker, increasingly quick to give up our rights for the cause of love and the cause of the gospel.

Anything that would interfere with the laser -like focus that you call us to on the gospel would be shed, that there might be some specific things.

There might even be some specific convictions about specific relationships in some people's heart here where they recognize that, oh,

I get together with that neighbor, and man, oh, man, it would seem to them that the good news to me is that Michigan has a really good team this year.

God forbid that that would be what my neighbor knows of me, but that they know that you are my

Lord and my Savior, and I love you. Father, whatever it might be that would cloud and get in the way of this, this darkness right now in our world is growing, and we see it before our eyes, and we read it in the newspapers, and we feel it in our hearts, and the oppression seems like it's coming, and people need you.

May it be our voices that declare the glory and the supremacy of Jesus Christ over all things, over our works, over our labors, over the things that we do.

May that come in those quiet conversations, those one -on -one conversations, those group conversations in our workplace.

May you make us bold for the gospel and quick to shed our rights because of Jesus Christ our