Compensating Shepherds
Practical Church (1 Corinthians) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Announcements
Good morning. Welcome to Southern Hills Baptist Church. Thank you for joining us today.
If you are a first-time guest with us, you will find a Connection Card in the pew rack in front of you. We would appreciate it if you would fill that out and place it in the offering plate. That gives us a record of your visit and allows us the opportunity of reaching out to you this week to answer any questions that you might have.
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See bulletin for Calendar Updates
If you are a guest with us, know that this is our weekly Family Worship service. Our children will remain with us for the entire service. We do have a nursery available for children under 4 just down the hall if you would like to use it.
Please stand as I read our Call to Worship.
Call To Worship
Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
Opening Hymn
Scripture & Prayer: Evan Bohnet
Song #1
Missions Minute: MISSION PARTNER
Today, our Missions Minute is about the Olsen family. Dan and Tammie Olsen work with the International Mission Board in Istanbul, Turkey. They have 3 children. Hannah goes to Oklahoma Baptist University, while Faith and Micah help their parents minister to the Turkish people.
Istanbul sits on the dividing line of Europe and Asia. They have a population of around 16 million people, of which less than 1% identify as Christian. And while it is not illegal to be a Christian living in Turkey, it is illegal to preach the gospel in public. In fact, Turkey considers evangelism of the Christian faith to be a “threat to public order.”
Because of this, the Olsens focus on living as ordinary Christians in a somewhat unfriendly environment. They find opportunities to share the gospel through individual conversations and through relationship building. They use two specific activities to be involved in the community and have the opportunity to build those relationships.
One is through their English speaking club. Once a week, they meet in a coffee shop with Turks to help them practice speaking English. After the meeting, they invite those that have come to stick around and ask questions about the Bible and Christianity.
The other way is through Henna art. At public events, they will set up a booth to do Henna art and tell the gospel through their artwork as they paint it on peoples arms.
Please be praying for their family. Hannah recently got engaged. And Dan fell and hurt his rotator cuff. If you have more questions or would like to know how you can help their ministry further, please let me know.
Offering & Prayer
Song #2 (Song Title)
Lord’s Supper- Pastor Atreju
Please be seated.
(beat)
Connect Song #2 to Scripture Reading
We’re going to continue our reading about Jesus from the book of John. Today we will continue in chapter 7:
But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.
About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
At this time, I am going to have our ushers come forward. If you are a follower of Jesus, in that you have accepted Him as Savior, bowed to Him as King, and been baptized in obedience to His commandment, we invite you to participate with us. In just a moment, we will pass the plates. Please take a piece of bread and a cup and hold it until we take together.
Pass
Instruction from Jesus: Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Prayer of Blessing on bread and cup
Song #3
Pastoral Prayer
World - Wars
Country- Military; Memorial Day families
State- Upcoming primary elections Iowa
City- Heartland Community: new Associate Pastor
SHBC- Live as family
Introduction
If you have your bibles with you this morning, please turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 9.
Last week we covered all of chapter 8, where Paul responded to the Corinthians comments about partaking of food sacrificed to idols. There, he confronted their reliance on human knowledge over the Godly wisdom that was available to them through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Instead of abusing their Christian freedom and God’s grace, they should be so filled with the love of God that it naturally flows from their heart and out to their mind and mouth and hands.
He explained to them that it was better to give up their Christian freedom in order to draw others to Christ. For to wield their freedom in an arrogant way is to place a stumbling block before less mature believers and to push non-believers away from hearing the truth of the gospel.
Paul closed by setting for them an example of a Christ-like use of Christian freedom. He said that he would rather give up eating meat entirely, if that was in the best interest of his spiritual siblings. And—here in chapter 9–he will continue to show himself as an example for the Corinthian believers of someone willing to give up his rights for the sake of the gospel moving forward.
We will be camped out in chapter 9 for the next few weeks. But this week, Paul will continue his line of thought from chapter 8 as he teaches through Christian freedom by discussing those who—like him—lead Jesus’ church.
[TITLE SLIDE]
Today, he will discuss the rights of shepherds as the spiritual leaders of God’s household. Let’s jump into the text and then we will break it down some to properly understand Paul’s argument. Chapter 9, starting in verse 1:
[MAIN PASSAGE SLIDE x6]
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 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 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.
Here, Paul talks about the evidence for his office and his rights as their shepherd before he begins touching on the practical application.
Have you ever bought a ticket from a box office for a ball game or a show or a concert?
Do you remember those days where you paid in cash and all you got in return was a ticket?
This was a long time ago.
Kids—there was a time when you gave someone money and they gave you a seemingly worthless piece of paper in return. There was no receipt. There was no credit card or debit card evidence that you paid for something. There was no digital wallet or Apple Pay or Venmo.
That ticket was your receipt. It was your only proof of purchase. It was the only evidence that you had purchased something.
And God help you if you lost your ticket in those days. Never fails. The little kids always want to hold their ticket. “How about I’ll give you your ticket after we get into the ball park?”
You couldn’t afford to lose it. There was no video on a security camera showing you paying at the ticket counter; only the memory of a 19 year old kid who sold tickets to 173 other people in the last two hours.
But, for the person who held that ticket in their hand, the ticket held power. It gave them a right to redeem it for an experience. It was their evidence of their interaction with the box office.
[POINT 1 SLIDE]
Evidence of the Shepherd (vv 1-3)
Paul is going to connect this first verse with the end of chapter 8 before presenting evidence that he is a good shepherd to the church in Corinth. Remember that he has just said to them in his letter that “if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” Now chapter 9, verse 1:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
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.
Paul starts with rhetorical questions. He asks, “Am I not free?”
Just like the Corinthian believers, Paul has also been made free in Christ. And yet, he uses his freedom to love his spiritual siblings instead of seeking to fulfill his own desires—regardless of whether those desires are good or bad.
In this reminder, he is saying, “I am no different than you. Follow what I do, and I will show you a better way. I will show you the pattern of love that has been given to us by our Savior.”
He then says, “Am I not an apostle?”
We would be quick to answer Paul with a “yes” in response. However, I think it is important for understand the word apostle and the nuance that is lost in it’s translation into English.
To do this, we will compare two words in Greek. The first word is angelos, what we call an angel. The word angelos means “messenger”, or more literally—it refers to a being sent with a message.
It does not denote the essential nature of the being who is sent as an angelos. An angel—in Greek—is not a type of being. It is a job description. It is someone, whether supernatural or human, who carries and delivers a message.
The second word is apostolos, which we call apostle. Apostle is also a job title. It means “one who is sent.” It is more specific than angelos, particularly because it refers to a divinely appointed messenger or representative. In other words, an apostle is an ambassador for God.
John shows us Jesus using this word during the last supper. Look with me at John 13:
[SCRIPTURE SLIDE x2]
You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. (/) Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
The word translated messenger here in the ESV is apostolos. Jesus here claims to be an apostle (which the writer of Hebrews acknowledges in chapter 3). He has been sent by God for a task. Jesus says that He has given the disciples an example. And later, after His resurrection, He sends them as apostles by saying, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
Jesus, the resurrected God in the flesh, is personally commissioning the disciples for a task. That task is to make disciples and build His church in the power of His Holy Spirit.
This now gives us two understandings of apostle in the New Testament sense. There are disciples of Jesus—spiritual children of believers—who have been sent out to build the church in the pattern of the Great Commission. That is us. We are apostles in that sense.
But there are also those who have been personally commissioned by the living resurrected Jesus—namely the twelve—who we call big “A” apostles. And like the twelve, Paul has also encountered the risen Jesus who has commissioned him for a task.
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
He reminds them of his testimony which has been detailed by the good doctor Luke in Acts chapter 9. He says, “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?”
Paul reminds them that not only has he been commissioned by God, but he has been personally commissioned by Jesus. He is a big “A” apostle and the shepherd to the Corinthian church.
Now, before we get into the evidence of his apostleship and his faithful shepherding of the church, let us take a couple minutes to clarify what a shepherding apostle looks like. For while we have all been called to be apostles in the sense of making disciples and building the church, we have not all been called to be shepherds.
In Jeremiah 3:15, God promised ““ ‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
These shepherds are leaders of the church. They follow the example and the pattern laid out by the Chief Shepherd Jesus. He taught the twelve and Paul how to image God well by ruling well in the church.
God’s human imagers are called in Genesis chapter 1 to have dominion over the earth. As the perfect image of God, Jesus has given us the pattern of faithful rule in creation. That pattern is designed to be demonstrated by the men that He has called and commissioned to lead His local churches as well as by the men that He has established as fathers in every family.
Shepherds are designed in the pattern of Jesus over the local church. And while we don’t find the word pastor in our bibles, the title of pastor comes from the Latin translation of shepherd.
The journey to the title of Pastor has been an interesting one. In our English bibles, the terms for the office of Pastor that are used are Elder, Shepherd, or Overseer. These terms are used interchangeably for the office of Pastor.
Early in the church, most Pastors were called an Overseer, also known as a Bishop. But Bishop was still synonymous with Shepherd and Elder, which was also known as a Presbyter.
So, to be clear—a Pastor is an Overseer and an Elder, but alternate biblical titles are Shepherd, Bishop, and Presbyter.
As the church grew, the Western church—now called Roman Catholics—began using elevated the role of Bishop as sort of a Regional Overseer and placed Priests below them. After the Protestant Reformation, the Mainline denominations dispensed with the title of Priest and used other titles for the Pastor instead. Presbyterians used the word Elder—or Presbyter—for their Pastors.
As Baptists were formalizing a faithful denomination focused on the baptizing of believers in the 17th century, they did not want to look like the Roman Catholic or Presbyterian churches, so they chose titles for Pastors that were different. But as the Baptist branch of churches has grown and the English language has changed, even our own preferred titles have evolved.
The New Hampshire Confession of 1833–which is the pre-runner to the Southern Baptist Faith & Message—used the terminology “bishops or pastors” However, the language shifted in subsequent revisions.
The 1925 Baptist Faith and Message altered this slightly to “bishops or elders.” And both the 1963 and 2000 editions changed it to simply “pastors.”
This evolution reflects changing Baptist preferences. The term “elder” dropped out of use among Baptists in America beginning with the New Hampshire Confession but found its way back in the late twentieth century with a revival of Reformed theology.
But despite these changes in title, Baptists—following what they believe to be the teaching of the New Testament—have historically used the terms bishop, elder, and pastor interchangeably and treat this as one office. And we recognize that all three titles refer to the same leadership role.
A Pastor is an Elder which is a Bishop which is a Shepherd. There are only two prescribed offices in the church: that of Elder and Deacon. The practice of having an Elder that is not a Pastor in the local church is unbiblical and has no theological foundation.
All of that said for clarity, Paul is a big “A” apostle and the shepherd of the Corinthian church. He reminds them of that here in our passage. And now, he will offer them evidence, just in case they want to dispute his claim.
He continues: “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.”
Acts 18 tells us that Paul started the church at Corinth and stayed with them for a year and a half during his second missionary journey. It was only because of his faithfulness to his calling as an apostle that they even exist. He discipled many of them himself. And so, they are his primary defense.
But I want to look at a few other pieces of evidence that Paul hints at. And while he is defending himself as their shepherd, these pieces of evidence should be clearly seen in every faithful Pastor-Elder in the church today.
First, Shepherds are called by Jesus and affirmed in their calling by the church. They have been commissioned by the King for the task of shepherding the local church. That is that they are called to lead, guide, care for, and protect the flock. And the local church has affirmed their calling. This is the purpose of ordination. Ordination is the church’s affirmation of the calling on a Shepherd’s life.
Second, true Shepherds engage in faithful gospel proclamation to the flock and to the community. They proclaim that Jesus is King and call the flock to obedience to that King. They expound the whole counsel of God to the sheep and equip them for the work of the ministry. And secondarily, they proclaim the gospel to the lost surrounding the church.
And third, they are continually shepherding the flock. Their love for the sheep that have been assigned to them that is such that they care for them—not only by teaching and modeling, but by binding their wounds. They also fend off wolves that would come, either from inside or outside of the flock. They will beat them off with sticks, and—if necessary—lay down their life for the sake of their sheep.
These things are evidence of a faithful Shepherd. They are all implicit in our passage. And they should be evident, not only in the life of Paul, but in the lives of every local Pastor-Elder.
But as Paul will make clear in this passage, the defense he is making is not specifically in his apostleship, but in his right to use his freedom however he chooses.
[POINT 2 SLIDE]
Rights of the Shepherd (vv 4-12)
Back to our ticket analogy from earlier. Having a physical ticket without additional evidence could be a sketchy thing. It could be lost before you redeemed it.
I miss having physical tickets to ball games. They are memories, and for me—my favorite bookmarks. These were things that I redeemed for an experience and I still get to be reminded of that memory every time I see the ticket.
But before enjoying that experience, holding the ticket only gives me the right to redeem it. But it doesn’t guarantee that I will redeem it. I can always choose not to redeem it. Or I can give it to someone else.
And this is the argument that Paul is going to make. That he has the full right to use his Christian freedom in the way that is expected, but he also has the right to deny himself of that same freedom if he chooses.
Look with me at verse 4:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
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?
Paul has been speaking about his right to freedom, but now switched into the plural. We see that he does this because he and Barnabas share a condition: that of singleness.
Paul says that—like the Corinthians—they have a right to eat and drink freely. And like Peter and James and Jude, they have the right to be married and to receive provision from the church for the work of shepherding the gospel.
And yet Paul and Barnabas have chosen to remain single for the purpose of being solely focused on proclaiming the gospel, as he explained in chapter 7. They have also chosen to work and provide their own cost of ministry, but here Paul claims the right to be paid by his congregation.
Verse 7:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
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?
A soldier is hired for his work and skill at fighting and protecting. He is provided for by his leaders because his work is too important to be distracted.
A farmer plants a vineyard and reaps a harvest, but does not deny himself the fruit of that harvest. It is his right and his reward for the work that he has put in.
And a shepherd cares for his flock, and in return he receives provision from his own sheep. They nourish him so that he can continue to lead and protect them.
He continues:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
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?
Paul continues with his rhetoric. He is saying, “Do you think I am making this up? Let us look at the Law of God as given to Moses.”
He then points to a miscellaneous law written at the end of the Torah. Deuteronomy 25:4 Says that, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.”
Paul will also point this out to Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 5. And as he states, he doesn’t bring up this law for the sake of animals, but in defense of his own rights.
He is employing an ancient Jewish ethical argument called qal vach’omer. It takes a lesser argument and applies it to something greater. In this case: “If you are commanded to treat an animal this ethical way, then you should surely treat an imager of God even better.”
Paul has done the hard work of preaching and making disciples and building a church and shepherding them. And now he claims the right to eat from the work that he has put in. If the ox has the right to eat while he works, surely so does Paul who was not created to be a lowly land beast, but was specially made to be an imager of God.
Verse 10:
[PASSAGE SLIDE x2]
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 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 put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
Paul reiterates that this law was added to the Torah for the understanding of ethical human behavior—not simply for the benefit of animals, but for God’s human imagers. He continues his qal vach’omer argument contrasting physical to spiritual: “If the one who plows and the one who threshes deserves the crop, how much more the one who plants and waters spiritual crop?”
To many scholars, it seems that the Corinthians have made an argument in their letter to Paul that he should be provided for by the church. It may be that some of the them want Paul to take compensation and live a rich lifestyle so that he may increase his status as a renown teacher like the Greeks. They could be embarrassed that Paul would live such a meek lifestyle and take nothing from them. If so, it is the social elite who don’t want Paul to have to work in manual labor. The fact that he earned his living by tent-making may seem undignified to them.
In this passage, Paul has agreed with them and even strengthened their argument that he has the right to receive provision and a salary from the church. And yet, he chooses not to redeem his right. Look at what he says:
“Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.”
The shepherd has a right to compensation and provision, but he also has a right to give up those rights. Paul will dig into this idea more next week. For now, he makes it clear that he chooses not to redeem his right so that there is no possible stumbling block to the gospel—the same thing he spoke of at the end of chapter 8.
An unbeliever in Corinth could assume that the only reason Paul claims Christ is because he is paid to do it. And Paul is not willing to take that chance. He will work to provide for his own needs so that nothing will hinder the gospel message.
Paul has made clear to them that he has Christian freedom and the right to redeem provision and compensation for the gospel, but he is showing them by his example that he won’t wield that right at the expense of others coming into contact with the gospel.
His discussion has now reached its climax. He has made the point that faithful shepherds have the right to redeem their earned compensation and provision, and he has made the point that every faithful shepherd also has the freedom not to redeem.
But how can we understand that practically for our purposes today in the 21st Century church?
[POINT 3 SLIDE]
Practice of Compensation (vv 13-14)
Paul will close by reiterating his point—that the shepherd has the right to make a living by living faithfully to their calling to teach, guide, care, and protect the flock that God has given them.
Verse 13:
[PASSAGE SLIDE]
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.
In the Torah, God made clear that the priests and the Levites were to be provided for by the tithes and offerings that came to Him in the tabernacle. And Paul referenced a command from Jesus that messengers of the gospel should get their living by their proclamation.
In Matthew 10 and Luke 10, Jesus sends out His 12 disciples and tells them to take “no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.”
In this same vein, Paul will tell Timothy that “The laborer deserves his wages” and that “It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.” And he tells the church at Galatia to “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.”
So the pattern throughout all of Scripture is that the assembly of God—what we know as the church—should provide compensation and provision for their faithful shepherds. And as Paul has made clear, these faithful shepherds have a right to redeem this provision and the right to refuse.
The only question that remains is what this looks like. Does the church have an obligation to provide a large salary and a fancy house for their Pastor-Elders? Do Pastors deserve a bigger salary when the church gets really big? Does any pastor need custom shoes and a mansion and a private plane?
The answer here is no. The church should—like they do for all of their fellow church members—provide for every need of their Pastors. Notice that the word I said is need, not want. Faithful shepherds should have every need provided for, just as all members of God’s body should have every need provided for.
The local church—as the body of Christ—should provide for the needs of their members. The only difference is that the church understands that their shepherds will often fully rely on the church for their practical needs.
This brings us to the pattern of tithes and offerings in the Bible. But before we discuss the pattern, let me first define for you what tithes and offerings are.
A tithe comes from the Hebrew word meaning “ten.” In the Torah, the Israelites were called to bring a tenth of all that they were given by God. The idea is that God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. He is the ultimate source of everything that you receive—whether money or crops or animals or even offspring.
The firstborn obviously could not be tithed, but there was a monetary redemption for the tithe of the firstborn child and sacrificial requirements for the firstborn animal. However, financial payments and new crops were items that could be tithed. But, as we learned with Cain in Genesis chapter 4, it wasn’t just any tenth that was commanded to be given to God in the tithe—but the first and best of the provisions.
For if we are giving back to God from what Has provided for us, surely we should give Him the best of what we have.
An offering therefore, was anything above and beyond the tithe. It was a free will gift of gratitude from the giver to God.
But, you might say, “Pastor, wasn’t the law fulfilled in Jesus?” And I would answer, “Yes.” But the Torah has set a pattern of giving for us—not that we should be legalistic about giving God a tenth of our income today, but that we have learned to be grateful and generous with all that God has given to us.
Today, we would describe tithing as a set amount or percentage that the giver has agreed with the Holy Spirit to give to God on a regular basis. It is not the amount or percentage given that matters, but the grateful heart of the cheerful giver. The 10% threshold should not be seen should not be seen as some kind of gold standard, for in the Old Testament it was the bare minimum.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all give 50-90% of our income back to our Creator every month? For many, this concept would seem impractical. But how many of us could tweak our budgets just a little to give God just a little more from what He has blessed us with?
The purpose of the tithe is three-fold. First, to give gratefully for God’s provision. For we would have nothing apart from His gifts to us. If you cannot give a portion of what God has provided to you back to Him with a grateful heart, He does not want your tithe. It has become a stench in His nostrils and He will not accept your worship.
Secondly, to give generously to the One who gave all for us shapes our hearts to learn to give generously to others who bear God’s image. God shares His generosity with us and desires to cultivate our hearts to be generous as well.
And, thirdly, to give sacrificially to show our trust in God’s provision for us. When we give sacrificially to God and others, we become dependent on His grace and provision. And it is that dependence on God’s continued provision that builds our trust in Him.
God then uses the tithes and offerings that are given from His grateful and cheerful givers to supply for faithful shepherds who minister and equip the flock for the ministry of discipleship and missions. Only secondarily do those tithes and offerings facilitate the church in meeting and ministry through buildings, utilities, ministries, and programs.
A small church that meets in a home and gives cheerfully and sacrificially, applying 100% of their gifts to furthering the gospel through supporting their shepherds and missionaries is more faithful to this call than a church using kingdom resources for anything that doesn’t enhance the mission.
So, as we approach utilizing our resources as a local church, we must ask ourselves some questions:
Does our comfort enhance the mission?
Does building a giant campus enhance the mission?
Does overpaying our shepherds enhance the mission?
Do amenities like full-service coffee bars and stadium seating and a concert-like atmospheres enhance the mission?
Does investing in the raising up of new Pastor-Elders to send them out enhance the mission?
Does giving generously and sacrificially as a church to missions enhance the mission?
Answering these questions will help the local church to use their kingdom resources wisely. Like individuals, the local church should utilize budgets that help them to be grateful and cheerful givers. Their budgets should reflect that their hearts desire growing of the kingdom of God rather than growing their own kingdom.
Much of the big “C” church has drifted too far from their mission-orientation. They have turned inward and begun neglecting to call to kingdom building. The church must come together in unity to discern from the Holy Spirit what He says is the most effective way to use the kingdom resources that He provides. For if we are not consulting him in our giving, we are failing to be faithful, both in our individual lives and as local churches.
Now, I have said all of this to orient our hearts to the pattern of scripture. As grateful and cheerful givers seeking to be faithful and ever more dependent on the Father, these are things that we must prayerfully consider.
Providing for faithful shepherds is not a matter of what the shepherd deserves. Faithful shepherds should have all of their needs met by their flock. And hopefully, if the local church has sought God’s wisdom in choosing a shepherd, they will find that being generous to that shepherd will not feed his bank account and ego, but will allow him to be more generous to God and to other image-bearers in return.
For as Paul tells Timothy, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.”
Now, I must address that this concept of fully providing for a faithful shepherd is not always practical, especially in the case of church planting and in dying churches. And this is another reason why healthy churches must be in the business of planting and replanting churches, for we can come alongside them and help them provide for their faithful shepherd.
Healthy churches will have an abundance of resources that God has provided for them—not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of others. Like individuals, the local church should be giving sacrificially and from the abundance of their blessings to further of the kingdom.
And when the local church images the Father well by being generous and grateful, rather than stingy and bitter—they share the pattern and model to their members. Then their members will be molded and shaped by the pattern of God and by the Holy Spirit into cheerful givers, moved to action by the grace and love of King Jesus.
The generous provision by the local church in the compensation of faithful shepherds who steward God’s resources well conveys the pattern of God’s love to the world. And faithful shepherds who are loved by the local church will equip the church by working with the Holy Spirit to shape every member into the image of Jesus for the purpose of teaching them to love and steward creation well.
[PREVIEW SLIDE]
Application
Church, we must remember that God has created us for a purpose. As He continues to shape our hearts into the image of His Son, we should find that we are becoming more grateful and more generous in our giving of tithes and offerings.
We will begin giving from a heart of love, and never out of compulsion. And our desire will be to bless our church family and the lost in our neighborhoods and around the world.
Faithful shepherds have been given the right by God to be provided for by the local church, if they choose to accept. And providing lovingly for those shepherds allows the church to practice imaging God well in generosity and stewardship—characteristics that we can see in the Father from the first pages of His story.
Sharing provision in the local church family is ground zero for preparing our hearts for loving the world.
If you are a part of God’s church, I am going to challenge you this morning:
If you are giving but feel obligated, and you can’t do it with a grateful heart—stop giving. God doesn’t want your gift. He wants your heart. Seek Him earnestly and ask Him to help you put to death whatever it is that is holding you back from Him.
If you are not giving some kind of tithe—that is, a regular gift of a set amount or percentage—start now. Even if it’s only $10 a month. Learn what it is to give sacrificially and depend on God for His provision.
And if you are a regular giver, are you giving generously and sacrificially to God’s church—the vehicle that He designed to win the world—or are you on cruise control? Consider how the Spirit would challenge your heart.
I pray that you spend time this week reflecting on your heart and asking the Holy Spirit how He would continue to shape it to look more like Jesus.
Invitation
And if you are here this morning and you are not following Jesus—if you are not part of His local church, this message may not have helped you much. But know that this Almighty Creator God has built His church to reach and to love you. He calls you now to come and see the work that He has prepared for your life. Abundant spiritual blessings await all who would come to the King.
CLOSE IN PRAYER
CLOSING HYMN
CONGREGATIONAL BLESSING
