Invest In the Kingdom

Invest In Your Ministers

Paul clearly states that those who devote their time to teaching the Word of God should be able to earn their living doing so. The understanding here is for those that learn from a Bible teacher should share financially with the one who teaches them, so the teacher can continue to teach. So why did Paul put this statement in his letter?

Some theologians believe that because Paul chose to work and plant churches that the Judaizers demanded that all churches have pastors that work and lead churches. Paul knew that this was not healthy for a church. Longevity in the pastor-ship is of tremendous value to the congregation. Pastors are able to establish strong relationships with people the longer they are with a church. Churches that have high pastor turnover, usually have spiritually shallow congregants. This is because they have not had consistent vision or teaching from the pastor.

My Story

I remember a time about 4 years ago that I was questioning my call to pastor Prospect so I reached out to my mentor Dr. Mitch Hamilton. He encouraged me to stay where I was until God showed me clearly that I needed to do something else. He also told me that it takes about 8 years for a preacher to become a pastor of a congregation. I ask him why. He explained that pastoring is being involved in peoples lives pointing them to Christ. It is not just preaching on Sunday. You have to allow life to come to them and you have to be their for them. This is something that you cannot rush. The ministry of presence in the times of trouble is what makes a good pastor. He is right! Because I know that I have been through many things with many of you. It is in these times that we have built friendships and trust.

Professional Pastors that are just looking for the next larger church are not healthy for the church. They are looking to build a career and not people. They move every 2-3 years to get a bigger church and a bigger salary. This is not healthy for a church.

A pastor is to earn a living pastoring. I was confronted about 2 years ago by a person that told me that I needed to get a job, so I wouldn’t be a financial burden on the church. This bothered me because it conflicted what God called me to do. So I prayed about it and the Lord reminded me of why I am in vocational ministry. I served bi-vocationally for about a year here and the Lord laid on my heart to leave corporate finance and surrender to vocational ministry. I was scared to leave what I was comfortable doing, but God gave me the faith I needed to step out and do what he called me to do.

He has used you to fulfill his call in my life. Prospect is very generous to me and my family. This church has provided for us well. So thank you!

You have brought on David and Kelly and are good to them as well. You are doing the very thing that Paul commands here.

Jesus and Paul affirm vocational ministry

Jesus also commands that people provide for ministers.

9 Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, 10 or a [j]bag for your journey, or even two [k]coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his [l]support. 11 And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay [m]at his house until you leave that city. 12 As you enter the [n]house, give it your [o]greeting. 13 If the house is worthy, [p]give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, [q]take back your blessing of peace. 14 Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.

Jesus told the disciples not to take any money for themselves. He instructed them to depend on those that they would minister to. If they would not provide for them then they were to dust their feet off and move on to someone who would.

8 I am not speaking these things according to [f]human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.” God is not concerned about oxen, is He? 10 Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops. 11 If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share [g]from the altar? 14 So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.

Invest In the Spirit

Paul gives a common sense instruction to invest in the Spirit and not in the flesh. If you invest in the flesh you will reap corruption, but if you invest in the Spirit you will reap eternal life. What you plant today is what you will get in the future.

Let’s say I go to the seed store and ask the sales person to sell me some seed for St. Augustine grass and he gives me a brown bag full of seed. I go home and plant and water it and Bermuda grass begins to grow. I will go back to the sales person and say I purchased St. Augustine, but you gave me Bermuda. And suppose he says I can guarantee that I sold you St. Augustine. How can I prove that he is in error. Exactly! By what grew from the seed I planted.

There are two types of seed a person can plant. Flesh seed and spirit seed. How can you tell the difference? By what they produce!

Flesh producescorruption

The flesh produces corruption. Corruption in this case is eternal punishment in hell. This means that if a person lives for themselves apart from the spirit of God, then when they come to the end of their life they will receive what they invested in. This person lives for themselves and by their own rules. IN essence they are their own god. You can chose to live this way and live a comfortable life here on earth. But their is coming a day when you must account for the life you lived.

Spirit produces eternal life

Conversely, If a person sows to the Spirit they will receive eternal life. It is when a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ that they receive the Holy Spirit. When a person receives the Holy Spirit they can begin to grow in the Holy Spirit. Ultimately this will lead to eternal life in heaven with Jesus Christ.

The best illustration of this is Jesus parable about Lazarus.

19 “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. 20 And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, 21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. 22 Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 And [r]besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham *said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

The rich man chose to invest in the things that brought him pleasure in life and did not help the poor man that suffered. The rich man lived for himself and did not have concern for the beggar at his gate. He sowed to his own flesh and is now reaping eternal torment. He desires for Lazarus just to give him a drop of water. Jesus says he can’t because of the chasm between heaven and hell.

Lazarus on the other hand was a man that didn’t have anything but his faith. Based on his presence in heaven, Lazarus invested in the Spirit. He is now being comforted by being in a place of eternal life where he will suffer no more.

Today we can chose to live for the things of this world and most likely, you will receive what you go after. You can receive the things of this world by working hard and spending your time try to earn the money that will bring you the pleasures of life. Their is nothing wrong with this unless it is what you seek for your contentment.

When we invest in the Spirit we are investing in the things that are eternal. This is supporting the church, missionaries, and other things that yield eternal things.

I was convicted this week in my spirit to assess the amount of interest that I spent on earthly goods relative to what I have given to the Lord’s work. If I have given more in interest to the bank than I have given to the Lord, their is a high probability that I am investing in the wrong thing.

Let me encourage you today to invest in the Spirit of God and not be distracted by the promises of fulfillment by the world. The only true satisfaction is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Ultimately it will lead to eternal life.

Invest in Others

Paul gives three directives.

1. Don’t grow weary in doing good

2. Do good while you have opportunity.

3. Do good to all people especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Don’t grow weary in doing good

Doing good can become very tiring because it requires a lot of energy. Good things go beyond good intentions. They require us to do something.

This can become tiring especially when there is so much good that can be done. We must chose what good we will do.

Often times we get tired when what we do does not get recognized or we are even thanked for what we do. It would be easy to say, well I will just stop doing it because it doesn’t matter whether I do it or not. It does matter! Even if people are not grateful for what you do it still matters.

Do good while you have opportunity

The window to do good is sometimes very small. We must do good while the opportunity is available. We cannot over analyze whether or not we should do something.

Good Baptist like to procrastinate by saying “let me pray about that” What this means most times is I can’t come up with a valid reason right now as to why I can’t, but give me some time and I will come up with one.

Friend let me encourage you to jump all over opportunities to do good because you might not have another opportunity. You will miss the blessing tied to the opportunity.

Do good to all people especially Christians

God calls us to demonstrate christ-likeness to all people. Even those that have a different faith or belief system than we do. We are to be respectful of all people. We never have the right to mistreat anyone!

We are to be good to fellow believers. If we are not good to one another, what do you think unbelievers and people of other faith think of Jesus?