Sermon Tone Analysis

Society as we know it is made up of groups of people who have something in common.

Sometimes these groups formalize into an active, viable entity.

Other times they do not.

For instance, Gail and I enjoy watching a series on the Hallmark Channel that is titled WHEN CALLS THE HEART.

This series is based on a series of books by the same title that were written by Christian author, Janette Oke.

Towards the end of this most current season one of the main characters died.

In an effort to figure out if the actor was simply fired from the show, or if this was in keeping with the story line of the books I did a Google search.

As I did so I found that there was a whole community of people who followed this show who are known as HEARTIES.

Though Gail and I enjoy this show, we do not follow it on social media.

We are not HEARTIES, though we could be if we wanted.

The local church is a community of believers who are joined together for the purpose of worship, instruction, and evangelism.

In the early days of the church it would appear that they not only had a common interest in the Messiah, Jesus, but they also had all things in common.

Dr. Luke, writing about the Day of Pentecost when the church came into being, stated:

Because many of the charter members of the early church were Hellenistic Jews who had traveled from distant lands to be in Jerusalem for a Jewish holiday, they desired to stay in town rather than return to their homeland for the purpose of learning more about this new found faith.

So they literally had all things in common, by participating in communal living.

The term translated common in this text is koina.

It is used in its various forms throughout the N.T. to refer to sharing, partnership, fellowship, etc.

We find it in its verb form in our text for this morning, .

In this instance it is used as an imperative command: “Share all good things.”

The context of our passage is connected with the burden bearing that Paul had referred to in last weeks passage, and it is the close of the ethical section of this early letter from the Apostle Paul.

Throughout this ethical section Paul has impressed on this bewitched community of believers that they need to live out the doctrine of the cross in their daily lives.

He did so by summing up the Law in one statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

He continued by exhorting them to walk by the Spirit rather than give way to their basic, fleshly nature.

He contrasted the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit, and then challenged them to fulfill the law of Christ, the law of love, by bearing one another’s burdens.

I believe that the main point of our passage for this morning is that the believers in the local church are to share with the leadership in the burden of the ministry.

As we go through our text we will look at various commands which help to define just how a believer is to share in this awesome burden.

They do so by: supporting the ministry of the local church with their finances, standing firm against those who seek to deceive the church, sowing spiritual seed, persevering in ministry, and by doing good to all.

Let’s read our text together.

The first thing we see in our text is that believers share in the burden of the ministry by:

Supporting the Ministry of the Local Church with our Finances

Look with me at verse 6.

I will begin by stating that there are differences of opinion regarding both where this verse belongs and what Paul intended by the statement to share in all good things with the one who teaches.

As to where this verse belongs, most modern translations put it together with verses 7-10, but some put it together with verses 1-5.

The NKJV gives this verse its own paragraph.

The basic understanding of the verse changes based on which paragraph it is associated with.

If it belongs with verse 1-5 then the reference is to bearing the spiritual burdens of the church.

If it belongs to the paragraph with verses 7-10 then it may be a reference to finances.

One author was bold enough to title his sermon on this passage: BURDEN BEARING, PART 2: PAY YOUR PASTOR!

I wonder how well that was received by his congregation?

As I frequently do, I am going to take somewhat of an inclusive approach and say that this passage does refer to burden bearing, which includes supporting the local church with our finances.

Churches are not businesses which sell a product in order to make a profit.

Our focus is not on profit margin, but on the One who is described as being prophet, priest and king.

Therefore we, the local church, depend on the giving of those who attend in order to sustain our ministry.

Though we are not a profit seeking institution, it does take money in order to pay the bills.

And when giving is down, as it has been so far this year, it is easy to get nervous about how we are going to make ends meet!

Thus, one of the greatest ways that you as a church attendee can help carry the burden of the local church is by supporting it with your finances.

You may note that I am applying the text to the church, but Paul seems to apply it to the one who teaches.

There is good Scriptural proof that ministers of the Gospel are to make their living from their ministry.

As Jesus prepared to send the disciples out to minister two by two He gave this instruction to them:

Though Paul chose to pay his own way and not rely on monies from others, still he referred to this passage to point out that he did have the right to earn his living from the work of the Gospel.

Elsewhere he taught: ,

I will just say that I have been blessed to be your pastor.

You folks, collectively, have sacrificed much to provide for me and my family.

The second thing we see in our text is that believers share in the burden of the ministry by:

Standing Firm Against Those who Seek to Deceive the Church

In the context of this Epistle, there were those who were seeking to get the people who made up these local churches in the region of Galatia to embrace a different gospel than the one the Paul had preached to them.

But Paul issues the command to not be deceived.

“Stand firm against the teachers who would lead you to embrace a different gospel, for there is only one true gospel!”

Paul went on to indicate that embracing a different gospel is itself a mockery of God.

Of course this deception may be broader than being about the gospel message.

It may be in regards to the need for supporting the local church with your finances as well.

Some folks deceive themselves in this matter, others are deceived by someone else.

I’m trying to be delicate in reference to the matter of giving.

Most preachers that I know, myself included, don’t like preaching on giving because we don’t want be accused of being greedy.

The third thing we see in our text is that believers share in the burden of the ministry by:

Sowing Spiritual Seed

You folks know that we like to plant a garden.

Before we moved here we never had a garden, although as a kid we had a huge one.

Though I am not a gardening expert I know enough not to expect to grow corn from bean seeds.

I do not expect to harvest potatoes from cucumber seeds.

You reap or harvest what you sow.

I take it that the seeds sown to the flesh refers back to and the deeds of the flesh.

And the seeds sown to the Spirit refers back to and the fruit of the Spirit.

We as believers have nothing to do with our own salvation.

It is totally the work of God in Christ Jesus.

We have been justified by faith, apart from any sort of work or merit which we have done.

We have been saved according to God’s mercy.

And from a positional standpoint we have been sanctified by God as well, since He set us apart for Himself from the foundations of the world.

But from a practical standpoint we are to be engaged in the process of sanctification.

As Paul wrote to the ,

The fourth thing we see in our text is that believers share in the burden of the ministry by:

Persevering in Ministry

It is easy to lose heart in doing good.

Sometimes we grow weary either in our private battle with the flesh or in the ministry of the church.

William Carey is considered to be the father of modern day missions work.

He went to India as a missionary and was there for seven years before he saw his first convert.

It would have been easy for him to give up and walk away from it all.

The same can be said of our ministry here.

We can easily get discouraged by our financial issues, or by the lack of growth in attendance.

I know I sometimes do.

But you see, the seed of the gospel has a different rate of germination than do the various types of seed that we plant in our gardens.

Garden seed is predictable.

You can look at the information on the back of a seed package and get an idea of when you will be able to harvest the seed.

Not so with the gospel.

Sometimes it takes decades for the gospel seed to germinate.

Philip Ryken related an account of a man by the name of Luke Short who was a colonist in Virginia long before the War for Independence.

When he was 18 Short heard the Puritan John Flavel preach a sermon.

Eighty-five years later, as Short was sitting under a hedge he recalled this sermon that he had heard, and he placed his faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, at the tender age of 103.

His tombstone has this inscription: “Here lies a babe in grace, aged three years, who died according to nature, aged 106.”

If anyone had the right to be discourage in ministry it was the Apostle Paul who was confronted with violent opposition just about everywhere he preached the gospel of the cross and the empty tomb.