The Importance of Generosity

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Greetings guys, this is Pastor Keith.
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I'm sorry that I can't be with you this morning So I have made this video to continue our study in the book of Galatians And if you want to open up your Bibles, we're going to be today looking at Galatians chapter 6 Verses 6 through 10 that is going to be our passage today Galatians chapter 6 verses 6 through 10 So if you want to go ahead and get your Bibles open We are going to read together and again I want to just say and reiterate that I am sorry that I can't be with you.
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I know that the last last week and this week have been by video and Certainly not the way I enjoy teaching.
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I enjoy being there with you guys.
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It's set free.
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I miss seeing you I am praying for you.
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I'm praying for Pastor Mark as we all are navigating the situation regarding the COVID-19 virus and trying to make good decisions for our families and for our congregations but just know that you're all in my prayers and I look forward to being with you again in the midst of you and Being able to teach I really enjoy your questions.
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I enjoy interacting with you on the text.
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And so I hope that today is Is helpful for you Even though I'm not there to answer any questions that you might have I try to anticipate those questions in my lesson and hopefully we'll have a good time together even though it's being done by video So we're gonna read Verses 6 through 10 and this is gonna this is gonna start to close the book out for us We'll do verses 6 through 10 this week And if we finish then next week, we'll do verses 11 through 18 and that will be the end of the book So this is the end of a very long study for us about a year in the book of Galatians And for those of you who've been with us this whole time Hopefully your eyes have been open to the themes and the purpose and the point of this important epistle so Galatians chapter 6 says Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches Do not be deceived God is not mocked For whatever one sows that will he also reap For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption But the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life Let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season.
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We will reap if we do not give up So then as we have opportunity let us do good to everyone and Especially to those who are of the household of faith Excuse me.
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The title of today's lesson is the work of generosity last week we looked at the work of Restoration if you'll remember that the Apostle Paul in Galatians 6 1 to 5 talks about the person who has fallen into sin and we who are spiritual should restore such a one and all of this is coming on the heels of his lesson about the fruit of the the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit the works of the flesh are Bad things are sexual immorality impurity and all of those things Gossip and dissension and division all of that and then he says but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace Patience kindness goodness gentleness self-control and against these things there is no law And so the Apostle Paul is encouraging us to While we are saved by grace through faith to never use our salvation by grace through faith as a license for sin but to understand that our salvation is Is Completely unholy by grace, but that grace is not a license for sin grace is an encouragement to Love and an encouragement to do good It's like he says in Ephesians chapter 2 by grace You have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves It is the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast for we are God's workmanship Created in Christ Jesus for good works So the relationship between grace faith and works is this it is by grace.
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We are saved It is through faith that we are justified and we are justified only by faith not by what we do, but our life is Good works because that's what God saved us for.
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He saved us that we would have a changed life And so when we when we come to Christ we are changed internally and so our heart changes and One of the ways that we see a heart change is that when somebody falls when someone sins when someone is broken Our desire is to restore them.
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Our desire is to encourage them.
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And again, this is all going back to last week Restoration is an outgrowth of love.
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It's an outgrowth of the fruit of the Spirit.
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So Now the Apostle is going to address another outgrowth of the Spirit not only is Restoration and outgrowth of the work of the Spirit not only is restoration an outgrowth of the fruit of the Spirit but there's another outgrowth of the fruit of the Spirit and that is generosity and And so the apostle is going to, in verses 6 through 10, deal with the subject of generosity, and more specifically, he's going to deal with generosity toward those who minister the Word of God.
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Paul clearly, in my mind, in this passage and in several other passages that we're going to look at, he answers the question that a lot of people have, and that is the question of should a minister be supported by those to whom he ministers? Should a pastor be supported by those to whom he pastors? Now, some of you may say, well, what has this got to do with anything? Why is this important? Well, remember the context that Paul is in.
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Paul is dealing with a church that he planted, and another group has come in and subverted.
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The Judaizers have come in and preached a false gospel.
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They have set themselves up as the authorities.
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They have set themselves up as Paul's correctors.
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They're correcting his teaching.
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They're correcting his theology.
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And Paul wrote back and said, no, their theology is a false theology.
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Their theology is a wrong theology.
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They do not have a right understanding of the gospel.
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They do not have a right understanding of the relationship between grace and faith.
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And therefore, these false teachers, they are not to be listened to.
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They are not preaching the gospel.
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And he chastises them, like back in chapter 5.
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He chastised them.
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He said he wishes they were cut off from the assembly.
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So now we come to chapter 6, and Paul begins to talk about the subject of generosity by saying, those who minister the word should be supported, or the text says the one who is ministered to should share all things with the one who is doing the ministering.
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And so this, I believe, and along with other passages, provides for us an understanding of how the minister, in the midst of the congregation, is to be supported in his ministry by the congregation.
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So over the years, I've heard a lot of arguments about the question of whether or not ministers should be paid, and I've even had people get surprised when I tell people that I am paid by the church.
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My work at the church is my primary work in life.
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I am what's known as a vocational minister.
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There are those who are vocational.
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That means they are paid and supported fully.
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That's a vocational minister.
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There are those who are non-vocational, meaning they do not receive any payment from the church at all.
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And then there are those who are bivocational, and bivocational means that they minister and they're paid for their time, but they also have another job that they do, like somebody might be a plumber four or five days a week, and he ministers in the church three or four days a week, and so the church pays him a partial salary, and he gets the rest of his money by being a plumber.
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One of my professors in school, Professor Vernon Johns, he told a story of how when he was a young man, a younger minister, he was in a church that was supporting him completely.
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And another church called him and wanted him to come, and he felt God was urging him to go to this new church, but the new church could not support him fully.
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And so Dr.
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Johns said, well, do you have a furniture store in town that I could get a job? Because he had experience selling furniture.
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And so they got him a part-time job selling furniture, and so Dr.
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Johns took the job at a much smaller church at a much less rate of pay, because he felt God was calling him to this smaller church, where they couldn't even support his family completely, but he knew that that's where God wanted him to be.
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So he left the church that was meeting all of his needs to go to a church that could only meet a portion of his needs, and he worked a few days a week to cover the support for the rest of the needs.
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And I've always thought that was very noble of him, because very few men are willing to, especially ministers, and again, I feel like I can speak candidly about this, it's hard a lot of times for ministers to take that step down, to go from a large church back to a small church.
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And that's what he did, and I thought that was a good example of a man who's following the leading of God in his life.
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And so, again, over the years, I've heard people say, well, ministers should not be paid at all.
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In fact, there's a guy online, and I've seen his arguments, I've seen his videos, and he has said that any minister that's paid is a hireling.
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And if you want to know what a hireling is, the word hireling is basically a person who just does what he's doing for the money.
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He's only doing it for the material reward.
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A modern-day word might be a mercenary.
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What's the difference between a soldier and a mercenary? A soldier does what he does for love of country.
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He's a patriot.
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He's doing what he's doing for service, and he cares about who he serves.
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A mercenary works for anybody because he's only doing it for the money.
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He doesn't care whose side he's on, he doesn't care who he offends or what position he takes, because he's only doing it for the money.
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And are there ministers who are mercenaries? Absolutely.
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There are some very dangerous men out there who would do anything for the almighty dollar, and some of them are wearing the preacher's robes.
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Some of them are standing behind pulpits.
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There are certainly minister mercenaries out there.
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Another word that has been used is the word prostitute.
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You know, a prostitute does bad things for money.
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And if a minister is not preaching the word of God for God's sake, but he's preaching the word of God for money's sake, then in that sense he is a prostitute.
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He's basically just doing it because he's being paid, not for the love of the word, but for the love of money.
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And remember what the Bible says, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
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I remember years ago having a conversation with a group of people in our church, and one of the men in the congregation was, he was upset with me about doctrine, he was upset with me about a few things, and one of the things that he said, or one of the things I said in the conversation, I said, you know, I would still preach even if I wasn't paid.
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I would, because I love to preach the word of God.
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I would not be able to dedicate as much time in preparation, I would not be able to dedicate as much time to minister to the body if the church did not support me, but I would still preach.
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And he said, you're a liar.
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You wouldn't do this if you weren't being paid.
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And I said, that really tells me how much you know me, because the one thing I don't feel like I'm paid to do is preach.
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I feel like I'm paid to do all the other things, to provide for my family so that I have time to study, to prepare, to read the word of God, and to do all the things that are necessary to be able to preach well, to know the word of God well, to be able to bring to the table a true meal when I feed the sheep the word of God.
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And that's the way I look at what I do.
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I look at the ministry of the word is like preparing a meal.
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And my job is to prepare a meal that is nourishing, that is filling, and that is going to ultimately benefit the body, because if I just come in with cheese and crackers, that's not what the body needs.
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The body needs a nourishing meal.
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And so my goal as the pastor is to preach a meal, to feed the sheep.
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And that's my goal.
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And the church pays me a salary so that I have the time to be able to study.
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And it also gives me time to do things like I'm doing right now, because I'm able to preach to you guys at Set Free every week, because the church pays me and I have the time to come and dedicate to ministering to the body.
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And so someone who says, well, the minister is like a mercenary, I would say, no, the minister is like a soldier.
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We're called, you know, we're part of God's army, ultimately.
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We're soldiers in the kingdom.
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And so as a soldier, I'm still paid for my work, but I do my work out of love for my God.
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Just like a soldier does what he does out of love for country and love for his nation and out of service and duty, he does his job.
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But he's still paid because he has to be supported.
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You know, my son is in the Air Force.
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He loves his country and he loves the Air Force, but he still receives a paycheck because even though he's serving, he has to be supported.
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And so that's something that I think is very important that we understand that even though the minister is paid, that does not make him a mercenary.
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It doesn't make him a prostitute.
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It makes him more like a soldier.
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His job is to be prepared to preach the word.
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And to do that, it takes time and preparation.
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And so and I am very aware, some of you may be thinking this, I'm very aware that some of you may be thinking, well, there are ministers who mistreat their flocks.
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They fleece their flocks.
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They misuse money.
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And I know that.
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There are men who preach the gospels whose coffers are filled, who are abhorrent in their behavior because of how they handle money.
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And I think the Bible speaks very clearly to those.
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The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
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You have to serve God rather than mammon.
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You have to serve God, not money.
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And so I know there are bad ministers out there.
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I know that there are people who misuse money.
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I always tell the story when I preach about money, when R.C.
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Sproul, my favorite pastor, when he was a little boy, he was with his uncle, and they were at a baseball game, and the uncle saw a man wearing a preacher's collar.
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And R.C.
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Sproul didn't know what that meant.
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So he asked his uncle, what does that mean? And the uncle said, that means watch your wallet.
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Ha-ha, right? The idea was a person who's a minister is a person who is out to get your money.
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And that is not true.
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But that is often the stereotype that ministers receive because of so many ministers on television who are only out for money.
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This is why I say one of the most dangerous places that you can look to for theology is the television, because the people who get on the television are often the people with big money, and the way they got big money was by misusing and mistreating God's people.
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But the vast majority of ministers do not fleece the flock, and abhorrent behavior by some ministers does not delegitimize the true ministry of other ministers.
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It simply shows that there are those who will misuse the blessings.
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I want to give you a quote from Tom Rayner.
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He's a, I believe he works for Lifeway, but he does statistics and information for churches in this way.
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He said, we all know of the extreme examples of pastors living lavishly or mismanaging money.
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Those stories, though true, represent a small minority.
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Most pastors are not overpaid, and most pastors manage their limited finances well.
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That's a good quote, and I believe it's true.
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In fact, as far as ministry goes, there is no other job, there is no other work where so much education is expected with so little monetary benefit.
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Ministers are expected to have at least a bachelor degree.
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Most churches require a Master of Divinity, which is a three-year postgraduate degree, and some require a doctorate with experience.
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I looked at some churches a few years ago, I was trying to help someone else find out about a job, and I was looking to see what churches were expecting, and a lot of churches were, we want a doctorate, we want a person with at least five to ten years of experience, and all of these things, and they were paying very little for that.
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And I thought, you know what, that's just an interesting thing.
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And I remember years ago, I was at a pastor's conference, and Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul, he made the point, he said ministers are the lowest paid professionals.
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And I hate to use the word professionals, because I don't consider ministry a profession in the same way that I would consider a banker or a lawyer.
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But we all had to go to school, and we all had to invest in our education, and yet, most of the people who go on to master's degree and doctorate degrees are making a much larger sum.
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In fact, Investopedia, which is an online financial resource, it lists the lowest paid categories as careers to avoid for professional education.
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And among those listed are minister or clergy, because it's such a low paid position.
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And so I remind people that even though there are those, you got your Joel Osteens, who's a heretic who's all about the money.
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You've got your Paula Weitz, who is a heretic lady who's all about the money.
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You've got your Joel, or your Benny Hens, who's not only a heretic, but he's a false healer and a false teacher.
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And I'm willing to call these people out by name, because they are absolutely false teachers.
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Their words themselves condemn them, and they are about money.
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They're making money hand over fist.
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But that small, minute category does not represent the larger body of good, sound, faithful ministers who have devoted themselves to the understanding of the Word of God, and are being supported by their churches, and are living by not necessarily a low standard of living, but they're living a standard of living that is lower than their professional accomplishments might get them in the secular world.
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But they're serving Christ.
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They're serving God.
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And they're serving the ministry.
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They're serving the people.
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Why? Because they love God, and they love the people.
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And so, when someone says, well, the pastor who receives pay is a prostitute, I would take great issue with that.
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I would say that person is so ignorant, he doesn't understand anything.
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I have a family, and I have to support my family.
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The Bible says, if I don't work, I don't eat.
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And my work is the work of ministry.
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And so, that's what we're looking at today.
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I know that was a rather lengthy introduction, and some of you may be having thoughts and questions, and I wish I was there to answer your questions.
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And you may be saying, why is he talking about this? Because the text is talking about this.
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Today is about generosity, specifically generosity with those who minister the Word.
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And you know what? I preach on all manner of topics.
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You know this.
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If you listen to me, I don't preach about money very much.
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And I especially, I get really uncomfortable preaching about things like this, because it's almost as if I'm preaching for my own benefit.
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But I'm not.
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This is for, you know, I have so many friends who are ministers whose churches, they don't support them hardly at all.
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And it hurts me.
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I'm so thankful for our church, that it supports my family.
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Because I know that I need that.
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My family needs support.
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And so, I'm thankful for my church for doing that.
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So, let's look at this text.
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We're going to look at, it has three parts that I've broken it down.
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One is the call to generosity for ministers.
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That's verse 6.
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The second is the call, or the warning about deception regarding generosity.
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That's verses 7 to 9.
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And then the general and specific call to generosity is verse 10.
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So, let's look first at the call to generosity for ministers.
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This is the call to generosity.
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Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.
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Okay, let the one who is taught.
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That is obviously the church.
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Particularly those who are within the church who are being taught.
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That's the body of Christ that's being taught.
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And it says, let them share all good things with the one who teaches.
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That is the elder or the pastor whose job it is to teach.
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And this passage may seem to come out of left field because it doesn't seem to be connected with what came before.
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Paul was just talking about restoring someone who's fallen.
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But remember, Paul is drawing this letter to a close.
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And he wants to make this a part of his closing remarks.
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Because he wants to ensure that the ministers, the good ministers, not the Judaizers, not the false teachers, not the ones who brought the false gospel, but the good ministers, he wants to make sure they're being supported in Galatia.
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Because that's going to be foundational in the church continuing to move forward as it needs to.
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Paul wants to make sure those ministers are supported.
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I want to quote to you from Martin Luther.
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Remember throughout the study we've been looking at Luther's commentary? Martin Luther said this, I've often wondered why all the apostles reiterated this request with such embarrassing frequency.
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Now, I'll stop right there.
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What Luther's saying is the apostles seem to talk about money a lot.
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They seem to request money from the churches a lot.
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And that seems a little embarrassing.
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And Luther's being honest.
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Because like I said earlier, it's hard to talk about money.
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It's hard to talk about asking for money.
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Because when you do that, people say, well, now you're all about the money.
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And Luther's saying, he said, I've wondered why there's been such frequency.
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But then he goes on.
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As often as I read the admonitions of the apostles to the effect that the churches should support their pastors and raise funds for the relief of impoverished Christians, I am half ashamed to think that the great apostle had to touch upon this subject so frequently.
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In writing to the Corinthians, he needed two chapters to impress this matter upon them.
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It seems to be a byproduct of the gospel that nobody wants to contribute to the maintenance of the gospel ministry.
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When the doctrine of the devil is preached, people are prodigal, that is to say they're generous, in their willing support of those who deceive them.
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We have come to understand why it is so necessary to repeat the admonition of this verse.
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When Satan cannot suppress the preaching of the gospel by force, he tries to accomplish his purpose by striking the ministers of the gospel with poverty.
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He curtails their income to such an extent that they are forced out of the ministry because they cannot live by the gospel.
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Without ministers to proclaim the word of God, the people go wild like savage beasts.
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Now that's Luther.
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That's not me.
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That's Martin Luther.
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But hear what he's saying.
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He's saying one of the ways the devil attacks the church is by helping the church members be less than generous with their ministers, letting the people not want to support their ministers, and that forces ministers to have to abandon ministry to support their families.
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And in doing so, the church doesn't have steadfast, stalwart men of God who spend their lives studying the word of God, who spend their lives ministering the word of God, but rather have to either divide their time or abandon the ministry altogether to support their families.
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And Luther is saying the sad thing is the doctrine of the devil never has any trouble supporting itself.
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It's the gospel ministers who have trouble supporting.
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And in his commentary, I didn't bring this copy, but in the commentary he uses the example of the Roman Catholic Church.
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He says, look at the Roman Catholic Church.
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They're preaching false gospel, but they have large cathedrals, and they have grand banks of wealth and treasuries of wealth, and their ministers are well-clothed and they're well-fed, and they have all of these things, and yet they're preaching the doctrine of the devil himself.
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They're preaching a false gospel.
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And the ministers of truth are struggling.
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And why is that? Because people are willing to pay for false teachers.
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This is, again, why Joel Osteen has a basketball arena for a church.
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This is why Benny Hinn takes money in such large quantities that it's literally trash bags full of money when he goes to his different arenas to give his false healing ceremonies.
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So, Luther says, why do we have to address this? Why do we have to address this so much? It's because people have to be reminded.
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Ministers need to be supported.
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And as Luther notes, Paul addresses this with frequency in other passages.
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Why? Because people need to be reminded to support the ministry.
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People find great value in the trinkets and the toys of this world.
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They spend copious amounts on entertainment.
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But for the ministry, for the preacher, they often have little to spare.
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And it shows the perception of value.
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Yes, I can go spend several hundred dollars on a video game system, but I can only put five dollars in the offering plate.
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You see where the perception of value is there.
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People don't mind spending $75 taking their family out to dinner, but they won't give $7 towards a missionary who is overseas, who that $7 could spread far and wide more than the $75 that they spent on fish and chips.
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Again, this issue is close to my heart because I don't think about just myself and my support.
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I think of all the ministers who go unsupported.
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I think about all the missionaries who go unsupported.
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I think about the people who give their lives to ministry and are in poverty.
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And the church should be supporting.
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Share all good things with those who minister the word.
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Listen to 1 Corinthians 9.14.
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If you have your Bibles and you want to open there, 1 Corinthians 9.14.
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It says this, In the same way the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
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Hear that again.
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Those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
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This shouldn't even be a debate.
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This is what the Bible says.
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1 Timothy 5.17 and 18.
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Again, if you want to turn there, 1 Timothy 5.17 and 18.
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Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
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For the scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages.
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That's a direct quote from Jesus.
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The laborer deserves his wages.
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And when Jesus said it, he was talking about the ministers who were going out to share the gospel.
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He says when somebody shares with you food, when somebody gives you, when somebody supports your ministry, receive that support because the laborer deserves his wages.
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Again, somebody says, Well, it doesn't say they deserve money.
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It says they deserve honor.
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Yes, but notice the context.
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Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
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Those who make preaching and teaching the word of God their job.
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Not all elders do that.
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We have five elders in our church.
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Two of the men are retired.
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I'm very thankful for Jack and Richard and both of them have retired.
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But I have two men with whom I serve who have other jobs.
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Brother Andy works for Penske Trucking.
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Brother Mike owns his own painting company.
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Both of those men work very hard.
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Many hours a week and yet they still give their time to preaching and teaching the word.
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They preach on Sundays a few times a year and Brother Andy helps out in Sunday school every week by teaching and also on Wednesday night by leading a devotion in the Psalms.
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Brother Mike teaches when he can and when he has time.
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But my job is week in, week out, preach the word.
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Week in, week out, preach and teach.
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That's my labor.
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And therefore, that's what this passage is talking about.
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And it says you shouldn't muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain.
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That's talking about if you've got an ox that's pulling the cart and they are collecting the crop, the animal, the ox who's pulling the cart is allowed to eat as he goes because that's supporting him.
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If you muzzle him, he's going to be looking at all this food and he can't touch any of it.
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And he says you shouldn't do that.
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The laborer, the ox in that sense is worthy of that.
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The laborer, the minister is worthy of his support.
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And again, I quote Luther.
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He says these passages are meant to benefit us ministers.
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I must say I do not find much pleasure in explaining these verses.
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I am made to appear as if I am speaking for my own benefit.
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If a minister preaches on money, he is likely to be accused of covetousness.
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Still, people must be told these things that they may know their duty over against their pastors.
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People have to understand the role of the ministry and within the church.
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The role of the church is to support the minister and encourage him as he feeds them and they support him and it's a reciprocal relationship.
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This is something, again, there's some controversy over it, but there shouldn't be.
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The support of the ministry by the people being ministered to is clearly biblical.
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We see this as we go.
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But now I want to move to verse 7 because in verse 7 we get a warning against deception regarding generosity.
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Notice what he says in verse 7.
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He says in verse 7, Do not be deceived.
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God is not mocked.
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For whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
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For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
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And let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.
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Now, Paul has already called the people to generosity.
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That was verse 6.
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Now he's applying a warning.
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You reap what you sow.
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He's called them to generosity.
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Now he's reminding them that when it comes to giving, when it comes to generosity, we're going to reap what we sow.
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Often we think about reaping and sowing, you think of that in regard to our deeds.
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You do bad, you get bad.
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You do good, you get good.
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That's the way most people do it.
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A lot of parents when they're talking to their kids, they say be careful when you're out with your friends and don't do bad things because you're going to reap the benefits of doing bad things.
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You reap what you sow.
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But this also applies to generosity.
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When we are stingy with what we have, when we are less than generous with what we have, we are also going to reap very little.
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If we sow little, we reap little.
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One of my professors used to give a very simple principle, and this is a good principle for you to remember.
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I've remembered this for years.
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It's often helped me when I think about reaping and sowing.
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Three principles for reaping and sowing.
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You always reap what you sow.
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You always reap more than you sow.
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You always reap later than you sow.
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Let me say that again.
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You always reap what you sow.
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You always reap more than what you sow, and you always reap later than you sow.
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Let me go through those very quickly.
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You always reap what you sow.
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You can't plant corn and expect to get carrots.
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You can't plant potatoes and expect to get broccoli.
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You're going to reap what you sow.
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The Bible clearly teaches if we reap or if we sow evil, we're going to reap from that evil.
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If we sow good, we're going to reap good.
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There's ultimately a biblical principle of reaping and sowing.
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When it comes to the concept of giving, the idea is what you sow matters.
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The Bible says we have three things to give.
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We have time, we have treasure, and we have talent.
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Those are the three things that we have to give.
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The question of what are we sowing? Are we sowing our time to the ministry? Are we sowing our treasure to the ministry? Are we sowing our talent to the ministry? Many of you guys at Set Free, you live there.
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You're there all week long.
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Of course, time is not a big issue, but it still can be.
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Some of you may be wasting time.
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Some of you may need to devote more time to the ministry.
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Some of you may need to devote more of your talent.
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Maybe you have something that you could give to the ministry that you haven't been.
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The Bible talks about what we sow is important.
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The three things that we have really that's been given to us by God is time, treasure, and talent.
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How are we managing our time, our treasure, and our talent? Then, as my professor said, he said, it's not only that you reap what you sow, but you reap more than you sow.
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If you seed, if you plant a seed, that seed multiplies when it grows.
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It makes more seed.
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The concept there with reaping and sowing is if we reap badly, we will sow more bad.
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Again, if we reap positively, we will see more positive result.
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You always reap what you sow.
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You always reap more than you sow.
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You always reap later than you sow.
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That's important because you're not going to plant and harvest on the same day.
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One of the things about agrarian culture or people who live by the land, people who live in farms and things like that, is there's usually a great deal of understanding of the concept of patience.
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They don't plant a seed and get the crop on the same day.
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In fact, there's a lot of work that goes into just preparing the land to receive the seed.
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Then, when the seed goes into the ground, preparing the continuing to water and nurture the ground as the seed grows.
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We have the benefit of learning patience in an agrarian culture.
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Something that we don't have a lot of today.
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We don't have a lot of patience.
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We expect our Amazon packages, as soon as we order it, we go stand by the door expecting it to arrive any minute.
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We have very little patience.
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The concept of reaping and sowing is an important concept because it reminds us that what we do today has an effect on the future.
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What we do today, whether it be something positive or negative, it's not only going to have a multiplication effect.
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It's not only going to have a cloning effect.
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It's not only going to be the same thing.
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It's not only going to be multiplying, but it's going to also be later.
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Are we willing to be patient and wait on God? Again, quoting Luther, he says, "...this simile of sowing and reaping refers to the proper support of ministers.
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He that soweth the spirit, he that honors the ministers of God is doing a spiritual thing and will reap everlasting life.
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He that soweth to the flesh, i.e., he that has nothing left for the ministers of God, but only thinks of himself, that person will reap of the flesh corruption, not only in this life, but also in the life to come." The Apostle wants to stir up his readers to be generous to their pastors, to understand that in the life of the pastor, you're reaping what you sow.
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Again, this is not about me.
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This is about ministry in general.
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I think about this with you guys.
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Think about how you treat Pastor Mark.
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Now, I know Pastor Mark has a very difficult job.
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His job is helping to support you guys through some of the most difficult times in your life, but I would ask you, with Pastor Mark, do you understand that you're sowing into his life? You're either sowing difficulty into his life, or you're sowing positivity into his life.
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You're either encouraging him, or you're discouraging him.
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As somebody who is benefiting from the support of his ministry, you should be thinking about what you're sowing into his life.
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You should be thinking about how you are engaging with his ministry and his life as he ministers to you, because we have the responsibility to those who minister to us, that we would love them and encourage them in their ministry.
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Now, one thing I do want to mention here, because I think it's important, is the concept of reaping eternal life.
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Because he says that in verse 8, he says, the one who sows to the Spirit will reap from the Spirit eternal life.
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Does that mean, and I want to clear this up, somebody might say, well, does that mean that being generous is a work that produces salvation? Because he says it's eternal life.
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And my answer to that would be no.
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There's no work which can add to your salvation.
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No work that you do, no amount of generosity that you can do can add to your salvation.
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Jesus has paid it all.
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But we must not miss the connection that exists between our spiritual life and our handling of material things.
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The Bible makes a big connection between our spiritual life and our pursuit and desire for material gain.
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Think about how many Bible passages talk about the dangers of being rich, the dangers of seeking personal gain.
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What does the Bible say? It's harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
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Why? Because the rich man is bound by his richness.
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He's bound by his riches.
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I think about Luke 16 and the story of Lazarus and the rich man.
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You notice in that story, and if you don't remember it, Lazarus was a poor man who sat outside the rich man's house and he ate crumbs that fell from the rich man's table and dogs would come and lick his sores.
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The rich man feasted sumptuously every day and he had everything that he needed.
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Purple clothes, which was an example of riches.
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The Bible says when they died, the poor man went to be with Abraham in paradise and the rich man went to Hades and where he lifted his eyes in torment and was tormented by the flames of hell.
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The picture there, what's interesting, it never mentions faith.
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It only mentions that the one was poor and the one was rich.
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That doesn't tell us that you're saved by being rich or poor, but it does say something about the condition of the heart.
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The condition of the heart of the rich man was that he was never concerned about the needs of others.
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He was never concerned about the needs of this poor man that sat right outside his home.
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His dogs were licking his sores and he wanted the food that the dogs ate, the crumbs that fell from the table.
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Jesus uses this as an example.
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Without mentioning faith, rather he mentions the condition of their heart and the condition of the heart tells us about our faith.
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The condition of the heart tells us what we really believe.
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And so we think about the idea of money.
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How we handle money says a lot about who we are as people, as spiritual people.
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Our handling of the material says what we believe about the spiritual.
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And so I'll tell you this, you show me a person who is greedy and uncharitable and I will show you a person who is probably not converted to Christ.
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You say here's a person who is greedy and does not seek to support others, minister to others, or love others.
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That is a greedy man and I'll say that's a person who probably does not know Jesus.
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Because one of the things that comes out of a heart that knows Christ is a heart of generosity.
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And this leads us to verse 10, our final verse for today's lesson.
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And I call this the general and specific call to generosity.
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He says in verse 10, so then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially those who are of the household of faith.
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So Paul closes this section out by expanding the focus of the call to generosity.
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He first called for generosity to teachers, people who handle the word.
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That was verse 6.
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He now expands it to everyone, but he gives a focus even within everyone, the focus of those who are of the household of faith.
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So, it's like this.
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You need to support those who preach and teach the word.
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You need to understand that you reap what you sow.
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And you need to understand that our call is to do good to everyone, but especially those of the household of faith.
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The first allegiance of the church excuse me, let me say it again.
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The first allegiance of the Christian is to the church.
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Now, some people think that's wrong.
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Some people think, no, no, no, the Christian should be worried about people outside.
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No.
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The first allegiance of the Christian is to the church.
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After that, we can help those who are outside.
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But let me give you, let me tell you why this is.
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There's a very simple principle at work here.
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If you have the opportunity to help people outside the church, but there are people inside the church who have needs, and you overlook the people inside the church to help the people outside the church, you might think you're doing well.
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But understand what that looks like to the people outside the church.
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Okay, you're willing to help us, but you're willing to step over those in your immediate community to come and help us.
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That's not good.
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That's not the way it should be.
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The first help, the initial help, is to those in the church.
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Because we are supposed to have solidarity as a body.
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If you read Acts, the early chapters of Acts, you'll notice that the church was very generous.
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But the primary goal of the church in the book of Acts was taking care of those within the church.
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The widows within the church, the orphans within the church, the ministers within the church, they were taken care of by the church.
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In fact, the first deacons that were chosen in the book of Acts were chosen because there were people in the church who weren't being ministered to.
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And so they wanted to make sure that everyone in the church received the proper allotment of food because they were giving out food.
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And so they assigned these men, they weren't called deacons, but that was essentially a prototype of what they were.
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They were prototype deacons, and they assigned these men the role of taking care of those within the church.
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Again, if given the opportunity to help those outside or inside, we start with those inside the church.
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Some would say that's wrong.
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They'll say, but the people outside need to be saved, so we need to be helping them.
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But understand this.
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The primary responsibility of the church is first within the church.
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Some people get upset about that, but understand this.
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Would it be better if I said the primary role of the church is to neglect the church? No, that wouldn't make any sense at all.
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We can't neglect the people around us.
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Like at our church, I'll give you an example.
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If you're a member of Sovereign Grace Family Church, we have a specific fund, a budget set aside so that no one in our church would ever go hungry, that no one in our church would ever have to go without their immediate needs being met, whether it be a light bill, phone bill, something that they couldn't afford.
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We have a budget set aside just for that.
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Then we have another budget that we call our Benevolence Fund, and that's for people who are outside the church.
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We do support both.
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We have people that come to the church all the time, weekly, who need food.
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We keep boxes of food prepared for them, and we provide them the food.
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We give them gospel literature that goes with the food.
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We talk to them.
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We try to help them if we can.
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We provide whatever we can for them.
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But I've said this from the pulpit, and I'll say it because I believe it's true.
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I'll continue to say it.
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The primary people that we're concerned with are not the people outside the church, but the people inside the church, because we have to care for them first.
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We can't have the people in the church going without their food while we try to feed the world.
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So we first feed those in the church, and then we can feed those people in the world.
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And so that's the steps.
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And that's why he says in this passage, Let us do good to everyone, especially those who are of the household of faith.
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Our first priority is to our Christian brothers and sisters.
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And the world should not see us neglect one another.
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The world should not see ministers being neglected, and the world should not see church members being neglected.
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The church should be the most generous place in the world.
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Their ministers should be supported, their members should be supported.
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We should support one another in love, ensuring that all of our needs are met.
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That's the role and goal of the church.
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John Wesley said this, Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
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That's the goal of generosity in the church.
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And that should be our goals.
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That should be our goal as we follow after Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us.
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He's our example of generosity.
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Jesus humbled himself.
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He came to the earth as a man.
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He gave himself to a work of service.
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Remember he said I come to you not as a...
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I come to you as one who serves.
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He got down and he washed the feet of his disciples.
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Jesus was a servant.
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Jesus was generous.
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And in such he is our example of service and generosity.
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So my encouragement to you men today is to understand the role that we have, all of us, as followers of Christ, to be generous with all that he has given us.
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Be generous with our time.
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Be generous with our treasure.
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Be generous with our talents.
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Because these are gifts from God that he's given us, not only to benefit ourselves, but to benefit his church.
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And remember, it is his church.
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Guys, I hope this has been an encouragement to you today.
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Again, I'm sorry that I can't be with you, but I do want to end with a word of prayer.
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So let me pray for you.
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Father in heaven, thank you for the opportunity to teach again.
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Lord, I pray that even though this is by video, I pray that the lesson would be an encouragement to the men, encouragement to understanding what Galatians 6 has to say.
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And Lord, that they would take this lesson and that they would apply it to their hearts.
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And Lord, ultimately we know that only the Spirit can really apply it to the heart.
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So I pray that your Holy Spirit would apply this word to the hearts of all of us, and that we would all be more generous with our time, our treasure, and our talent.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
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Guys, I miss you and I hope to see you soon.
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May God bless you.