Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 20, 2022 | 1 Corinthians - Living off the Gospel

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November 20, 2022 | 1 Corinthians - Living off the Gospel · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Morning, everybody.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to see you.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so this is sort of we're going to continue our series in First Corinthians, but this is a service of praise, really of thankfulness as well.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so, if you would, would you bow your heads as we begin this morning with prayer message?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for today.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you are a God of many, many uh blessings, Father, far more than we can often count.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, God, as we think about our lives, as we think about the situation that you've placed us in, Father, not that there are not difficulties, but Lord, there is always a reason to praise you.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so, God, I ask that uh you would help us uh today, this morning, this week, Lord, beyond that, all year long, to develop a heart of thankfulness.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we're thankful for the sodos and and their story and how, Lord, you are the one who changes lives.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Father, we are just happy to be here to witness it.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so, God, we are we are thankful most of all for Jesus Christ.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, Lord, we ask that uh I asked specifically that you would help me this morning as I bring the message from 1 Corinthians.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name I pray.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, how many of you have ever had like a ring of keys and you don't know what some of the keys go go to, right?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, yeah.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um that landed a lot better than who knows the MBA, by the way.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: But um, anyhow, so you have a ring of keys, you don't know what some of the keys go to, but they go to something, right?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like there is a door or a lock somewhere that they go to.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: This morning, our passage in 1 Corinthians uh is kind of like one of those keys.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is because there's it's a very specific situation that Paul is gonna be commenting on.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you might think, you're like, what in the world does this key go towards?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna see, really, um, that it involves how we relate money with ministry and ministers.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we'll kind of develop that as we go on.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I just want you to be able to see, too, that as we get into this, that there is always a purpose to God's word.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: There is always a purpose to the things that he is teaching us, even when it seems a little obscure, right?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the other thing I'll say before we get into uh sort of this topic is there are some of you who come with really different experiences of how you have seen money and ministry sort of relate to each other.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you have seen uh Christian, sometimes Christian pastors and leaders handle it very poorly.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you came from an old country church where um they didn't have enough money to be able to give their pastor a living wage, and so you saw a lot of rotation that hurt the ministry or or disrupted it.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um maybe you are have are new, maybe you haven't been a Christian for a very long time, and you're like, why do they talk about giving?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Why do they talk about any of these things?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because isn't the gospel free?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be a great point that we'll get to later on.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, we're gonna bring all of those things together, and we're gonna try and understand what Paul was saying in his context and his situation, and then see how it applies to us and it eventually will.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So with that, we are in chapter 9, verse 1.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh as we begin, Paul asks a series of four rhetorical questions.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Am I not free?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Am I not an apostle?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are you not my work in the Lord?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, because you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul asks these four questions here, and in the rhetorical, each one of them uh has the automatic answer of yes.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, Paul, you are free.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And by that he is not just talking about a social situation, but the freedom in Christ that we've been talking about.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Am I not an apostle?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yes, Paul, you are an apostle.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And an apostle is a very specific title to apply to those who were with Jesus in his ministry, but specifically, they had to have seen the risen Christ, right?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: The 40 days that Jesus uh was on earth and um, or excuse me, after his resurrection when he appeared to people.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Those 40 days, seeing the resurrected Christ, you had to be in that group in order to be able to uh call yourself an apostle.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't just that, but that was one of the marks.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So uh relevant is that there's no such thing as an apostle today.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: That was a very specific designation for Christian leaders back then.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: There weren't many of them, and they were sort of the first generation in the church, right?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking too much about apostles, but it's it's the a lot of the early church fathers, they were then disciples of those apostles, and so on and so forth.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Have I not seen Jesus our Lord, right?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that makes him an apostle?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Are you not my work in the Lord?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now here we're we get to something already very early that's super important to understanding not only the text, but seeing how Paul sees his job.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And really that job being the one to proclaim the gospel and the one who planted the church in Corinth, he says, I'm not working for you, right?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I work for the Lord.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I work for the Lord.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna see that the fact that he works for God and not for men is going to drive how he views not only this relationship with money and with ministry, but how he's able to say some of the things he's able to say and the attitudes that he has.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Are you not my work in the Lord?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord is always the one he boasts in.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says earlier in chapter two, I planted, Apollos watered, God gave the growth.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Are you not my work in the Lord?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if I am not an apostle to others, because Paul also refers to himself, he's kind of got a bit of an inferiority thing going on here, because he, remember, uh, when Jesus was crucified and killed, and then later on, when like in Acts, when the first martyr of Christendom, outside of Jesus, I guess you could say, was Stephen, and he was stoned, Paul was there holding the clothes of those who were throwing stones at Stephen.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so when Paul later saw the risen Christ on his road to Emmaus, uh, we understand that he didn't see himself always as kind of fitting in with the rest of the apostles.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm the least of them.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, he was one, and he had the authority because he says, You are my seal of apostleship in the Lord.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that the Corinthian church exists is a sign of God's favor on Paul, that he used him for that kind of work, right?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the fact that they exist, even despite the troubles and the turmoil and the conversations they're having, Paul says, My work that I did there, when I lived there for 18 months and loved you and cared for you, he says, all of that is a seal, a sign that I am an apostle.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: But as we're about to see, though, he's going to move on and say that being an apostle of the Lord and being one who serves him in ministry, there are certain rights associated with that.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, my defense to those who examine me is this don't we have the right to eat and drink?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't we have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife like the other apostles, the Lord's brothers and Cephas?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Or do only Barnabas and I have no right to refrain from working?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Who serves as a soldier at his own expense?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink the milk from the flock?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, commentators have kind of disagreed on why Paul is giving such a defense.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Is it because some people in the Corinthian church are fussy with him and so he is responding to their criticism?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Is it because there are people outside of the church who have a problem with the way that Paul is acting and sort of living this life as a teacher, which is relevant for the community, you know?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: That was sort of a role that people played, a traveling teacher, but yet not accepting funds, and so he's disgracing their community, maybe?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Or is it a hypothetical defense where Paul says, basically, you haven't asked me this question, but here's the answer, you know, right?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like here is the defense for anybody who might have a problem with what I'm doing.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: No matter that particular interpretation, it doesn't affect really how we walk through the text, right?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: For Paul is going to give this defense and he's going to talk about the right.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he says to be accompanied, um, to, well, he says first to have the right to eat and drink practical needs.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Then he says the right to be accompanied by a believing wife like the other apostles, right?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that signifying term.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's a specific group of people he has in mind.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord's brothers and Cephas.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So to skip to the third one, Cephas is the name of uh Peter, right?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we're talking about the other apostles, which will include the rest of the disciples and a couple other people.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord's brothers now.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: We know that Jesus had half siblings, the uh uh full children of Mary and Joseph.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so we know that he had brothers and sisters, and we know that he had at least four brothers, right?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so two of them we get in the New Testament.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: James, who wrote the book of James, right, and uh is the leader of the church in Jerusalem.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have Jude, who wrote the book of Jude.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh in Matthew, we're told that his name is Judas, but would you want to be called Judas after what happened to your brother?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: You'd probably go by Jude too, right?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyhow, those two, and then perhaps the other two, um, were traveling around and had picked up the ministry of Christ and were doing it.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yet Paul is going to contrast with them and saying, Yeah, but you are treating them a little bit differently than you were treating me.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then he sort of throws Barnabas in with himself, another missionary.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he says, verse six, do only Barnabas and I have no right to refrain from working?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning you supported the ministry of these other individuals, these other apostles, the brothers, and Peter, who has particular significance in 1 Corinthians.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: You might remember all the way back in chapter 1, when there was kind of a faction that had developed around him.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Anyhow, but he's drawing a point here.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You supported them, but you haven't supported me.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, uh, when do only Barnabas and I have no right to refrain from working, what he means is that he, in order to support his ministry, uh, one of the things he has had to do is work bivocationally.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: That while he was working in these communities, he also served as well, we normally translate as a tent maker, um, but it's very possible that in Corinth, in this sort of maritime community, he was repairing sails and doing things like that.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Regardless, hard labor that required most of his time and energy, and so he was having to divide it.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So he wasn't necessarily happy about this, or at least the situation.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 7, Paul gives three examples, which I think the meaning is all very clear to us.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, being a soldier, being a farmer, and being a shepherd.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: All images that are the Bible's filled with those ideas.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And his point here is they all have the ability to benefit from what they're doing.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And as we go on, he says, you know, uh, right, he's building a defense.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Am I saying this from a human perspective?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't the law also say the same thing, meaning the Old Testament?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: For it is written in the law of Moses, do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is God really concerned about oxen?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't he really saying it for our sake?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, this is written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plough in hope.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he who threshes should thresh in hope of sharing the crop.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: If others have this right to receive benefits from you, don't we even more?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: So now the the argument shifts, right?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: The defense from this um this practical nature, right?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: The farmer gets to enjoy the wine from the vineyard and so on.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And now he moves into it is not a human perspective, but a godly perspective that this should be the case.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's quoting here Deuteronomy 25.4, and he he quotes it.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's a short passage there.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the meaning in Deuteronomy 25.4 is about an ox, right?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: A beast of burden that has a yoke and is and is uh taking part in the harvest of the grain should not be muzzled when it basically has a break, so that it can bend down and it can eat of the grain that it has been harvesting.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: It can participate in the fruits of its labor.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul's whole thing is not that that's not about an ox or that God doesn't care about an ox, but he says, well, okay, we can apply that to humans.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Just as we say in the New Testament that God cares about all the sparrows, right, and all the little birds and all the daisies of the field, does he not then care more for you?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, okay.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: If he cares for the beast of burden, then he cares for those who are also ministering here in this context.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul gives this example.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Isn't he really saying it for our sake?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, this is written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's something that they should be able to look forward to.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul, we'll get to it later on, but right now Paul's just talking about being an individual minister himself, right?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: He is this itinerant preacher who's going around all the Mediterranean, his ministry to the Gentiles, and he is preaching and he is doing all of these things.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he says that there should, he's developing this idea.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I have a right to be able to receive material benefits from you in not exchange, and that's a critical point, but out of an overflow basically of love for what he has presented to them in their faith.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning, there are many of you, right, who have jobs where they produce a physical outcome, and some of you who have jobs that produce, you know, something that is not tangible, whether maybe you are a teacher or you are, well, I guess you can you could say that there are a lot of tangible outcomes there.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: But really what we're saying here is Paul says, um, my work was spiritual work.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can look at stories and transformed lives and say that there's a change there, but really what's happening is the faith of somebody.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: He says, that that's kind of my business here.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And later on he's gonna say, and I and I enjoy being able to preach the gospel and do all of these different things, right?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: But he's he's kind of saying, but if our faith is the most important thing in our life, then way down the list comes the material benefits of being able to do it.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Shouldn't I be able to look forward to some of these things?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: If others have this right to receive benefits from you, don't we even more?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: The guy who planted the church.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if I were to ask you, where do you think he's going with this argument, right?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: You would probably say, Well, he's probably gonna ask him for money.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's kind of seems to be where he's leading here.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's given like eight reasons why he has a right to be able to do this.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: It would be a good guess.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the right guess.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, we endure everything so that we will not hinder the gospel of Christ.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you know that those who perform the temple services eat the food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the offerings of the altar.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should earn their living by the gospel.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we're holding two things in concert here, right?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: We've got two balls in the air at the same time, and we need to keep them both up in the air.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And one of them is this idea that he says at the very end, right, those who preach the gospel should earn their living by the gospel.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's holding that one up, but then at the same time, he says, I'm not exercising that right here in this particular community because I don't want to hinder the gospel of Christ.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Our mind goes back to chapter 8, which we talked about last week.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, that was all about food offered to idols, and Paul says, I don't want to put a stumbling block before a single person so that their journey towards Christ is hindered because of something that I'm doing.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And in that context, it was technically enjoying the freedoms of food offered to idols, but really they should use that freedom and sacrifice it, like Jesus Christ did when he was on the cross, freely going and freely giving up his freedom in order for the benefit of others.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says you should do that with, in this case, right, the the meat.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately he finishes out chapter 8 there by saying, if somebody would basically come to Christ because I stopped eating meat, he's like I'd be a vegetarian my whole life.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we take that context, right?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: We take eight because the Bible flows together, we take eight and we move it to nine, and now we see his point here, which is he's he is using the rights of his as a and as an apostle to be able to reap a material benefit from them and to be supported by them financially.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I've set that aside in order that in this case, uh basically there wouldn't be a stumbling block for people here, right?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: That there would be nothing that is hindering the gospel.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: So then the question becomes what would have hindered the gospel about Paul being supported by this community?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we we have to speculate a little bit, but there's probably a pretty good answer, which would be that Paul, like many other traveling teachers, okay, uh, sort of had a profession, and I'm I'm excluding right now this bivocational tent-making thing that he did.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: But in terms of his preaching of the gospel, he filled a role that many others in the Greek community did as well, which was basically being a traveling teacher.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And in Greece, it would usually be like stoic philosophical thought, right?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: They had a bunch of people who went around making their money talking about philosophy.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Super exciting.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And they would gather patrons as they went, right?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: They would gather patrons so that they could spend all of their time talking about philosophy and stoic thought and other such things.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh they would also, wherever they landed, they would expect to be compensated by the people that they were teaching.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was sort of this exchange, this very direct exchange.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul sets that aside.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Not entirely.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna end up seeing that what he's doing here in Corinth was an exception kind of to the rule.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: But it must have been that for Paul, in this community with a lot of non-Christians and sort of new Christians, that he thought that engaging in that kind of relationship would be harmful to his message, right?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't want to inject this pay-for-play system into the gospel of Jesus Christ, that somebody, not knowing Jesus, would say, you know, basically what, I have to pay$5 to hear about how I might be saved?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says, I don't do that.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we understand it, right?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: We understand and appreciate the fact that he's doing this out of love so that his message would not be tainted.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we see this a lot today, too, with celebrity endorsements, you know?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Joe Montana does not wear sketchers' shoes, okay?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: He has a commercial that says he does.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you he doesn't.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yet that's sort of positioned as a way to sort of bring authority behind it that he was paid to make this announcement.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul here says, you know, I don't want to hinder the gospel of Christ, right?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: One, yet I do have this right.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: So he sets this right aside.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, as we go to our final passage here, we're going to see that he's also not doing this as some sort of passive aggressive way to like then get money, right?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because that'd be the other way to do it.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just be like, you know, please, no, don't.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like the person who gets into a fight and they're like, hold me back.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're telling their friends, like, hold me back, hold me back.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And their friends are like holding them back, but it's really just, you know, for show.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then they release their friend, and then he's like, No, no, no, no, like, hold me still because I don't want to fight.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Paul's not doing that.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: His feelings are genuine.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's a real reason why he is setting aside this right.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to see as we finish out this morning this passage Um how strongly he feels about his decision to forego that right in order to benefit others.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 15 For my part I have used none of these rites, nor have I written these things that they may be applied in my case.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: For it would be better for me to die than for anyone to deprive me of my boast.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: For if I preach the gospel I have no reason to boast, because I am compelled to preach.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: For if I do this willingly, I have a reward, but if unwillingly I am entrusted with a commission.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: What then is my reward?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: To preach the gospel and offer it free of charge and not make full use of my rights in the gospel.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Couple things to break down here, right?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, For it would be better for me to die than for anyone to deprive me of my boast.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so what's fun here about this phrase is in the Greek, you don't see it here in the English translation, but it's um Paul basically doesn't finish a statement.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like if you were to get so excited that you don't finish your sentence and then move on to the next.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul did here.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: It says, For it would be uh better for me to die than, and than is actually where it breaks in the Greek, and then it's sort of like he goes to a Thought, and then he says that no one would deprive me of my boast.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: For it would be better for me to die than no one should deprive me of my boast.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Paul feels very strongly about this.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast because I am compelled to preach.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: See, Paul talks about boasting a decent amount, but it is never for any other reason than boasting about what the Lord has done through him.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we take that part in verse 1 where he says, You are my work in the Lord, right?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so now he's able to talk about the work that he has done, but continually deflecting any praise that might be drawn to him on to God himself.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, I have no reason to boast because I'm compelled to preach.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says, basically, like when Jesus Christ transformed my life when I was walking down the road and he blinded me, and he said, You know, Paul, you will understand what it means to suffer, right?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: You are going to serve my church, you are going to do all of these things, and you're no longer to be somebody who persecutes me.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Man, my life was changed.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm now compelled to preach.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a portion of Paul that says, and if I didn't, then I can't tell you what that would mean.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I don't, I don't get stoned, I don't get shipwrecked, I don't get beaten, I don't endure starvation, I don't travel around as this bivocational itinerant minister for the benefits package.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: He says, No, I have a deeper reasoning behind all of these things.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I am compelled to preach.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: There are a number of you who work in fields that are not necessarily compensated the way that you deserve.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: You're a teacher, you're a social worker, you're a farmer, right?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're a nurse, you're an EMT.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: There are many positions like that.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a portion of you that says, I'm doing the thing that I have been called to do, and if I weren't doing it, I would be in the wrong profession.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so much so with Paul as well.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: He says, This is what I was made to do.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just doing my job.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yet he says, What then is my reward?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I do get a reward from it to preach the gospel and offer it free of charge.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we have to ask a question here, which is, how?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: How is Paul able to offer the gospel free of charge?
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Not because it's pay-for-play, but as he mentioned at the very beginning, he says he has needs for food and drink.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as we kind of head into some application here, we're going to see that we need to take this in context also with something that Paul reveals in 2 Corinthians.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Letter to the same group of people, but he kind of elaborates upon this point.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a danger that we can have in taking, you know, verse 18, when Paul says, Hey, I love it when I can preach the gospel free of charge, and we divorce entirely the relationship between money and ministry.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because up until this point, Paul has talked about it a lot, but we could shoehorn verse 18 into this unnatural space where it doesn't belong, if that was where we stopped.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: But as we go to 2 Corinthians 11, 8 through 9, Paul says, basically, how was I able to offer it free of charge?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: I robbed other churches by taking pay from them to minister to you.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: When I was present with you and in need, I did not burden anyone, since the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: I've kept myself and will keep myself from burdening you in any way.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, he's using robbed as a euphemism.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't like, you know, steal the money bag, but he is going to these other churches, and we know that, for instance, the Philippian church, the church in Philippi, is financially supporting Paul.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: That throughout his missionary journeys, they are sending him money and that they are sending individuals.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: We get this in Acts 15, or 18, 5, where Paul receives, while he's in Corinth, a delegation that includes Timothy and Silas.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: And though we aren't for sure, almost always that would have included a financial gift as well from the churches that they had visited into this new community, right?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Even at the end of 1 Corinthians in chapter 16, he instructs the Corinthians to begin gathering money weekly so that when he returns to them, he can gather that up and take it to the church in Jerusalem, right, where James is at.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, though, even in 2 Corinthians, when he returns there, he's going to continue keeping himself from burdening them.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: But what is happening here is not that Paul's ministry does not require money, but that that money is coming from another location.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: So as we kind of combine all of these things together here, we have to look at sort of what it what is Paul saying, right?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: The key on the keychain, it does fit a lock.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so we also have to be able to hold those two ideas together that Paul was talking about, meaning that ministry has practical costs that we have to consider and be aware of.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yet we also need to be cognizant that we are not imposing on anybody a situation where the gospel might be hindered because of the way that we are acting or speaking.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we walk that lane together, okay, I have two main points for you.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that money helps to further the gospel.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: I know that that might sound like an extreme statement, and for some of you it sounds like a blasphemous statement, but I'm not saying that ministry requires money.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: You can share the gospel, you can disciple people, you can love your neighbor, right?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can go and do good deeds, you can develop your relationship with Christ without a dime.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can do all of those things, and you don't need money.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: You can fulfill the Great Commission on your own without money.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: But to say that ministry does not multiply opportunities for the gospel, excuse me, that money does not multiply opportunities for the gospel would be untrue.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: We just have to look to Jesus.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Luke 8, verses 1 through 3.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Afterward, Jesus was traveling from one town and village to another, preaching and telling the good news of the kingdom of God.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: The twelve were with him, meaning the disciples, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Mary, called Magdalene, seven demons had come out of her, Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod Steward, Susanna, and many others who were supporting them from their possessions.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: So here is where we would go like let's go, girls, right?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh thanks be to God for the strong, entrepreneurial, uh skilled women who were supporting Jesus' ministry out of their own businesses, right?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: The reason that Jesus and the disciples and some of those following them were able to go from town to town and village to village, preaching the good news of God is because they had people who were supporting them, those who had benefited from their ministry and then also wanted to support it so that others might benefit, right?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is not, I don't think it is wrong to say that regarding Jesus' earthly ministry, he reached more people because somebody supported him in this way than if he had been reliant upon his carpenter trade back in Nazareth and needed to stay there for many months out of the year to save up money to then go and do these things.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's ever been an example of does Jesus need money to share the gospel?
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: No, absolutely not.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to contrive it that way.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus got more opportunities to share the gospel, and Jesus was free from the burden of being bi-vocational because he had supporters.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: So then we get to something that is eminently practical, which is the fact that TBC has practical ministry costs as well.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Last year our utility bill was$135,000.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: We replaced a boiler here in Mulvaine Building so that we can have heat when it's cold for$207,000.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: The pastoral staff, which disciples, trains, evangelizes, sets the vision, plans, studies, does a whole number of things, various to different jobs, is$57,000 a month.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Our missions budget is$45,000 a month.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: That includes 35 individual missionaries or missionary couples and 21 gospel-centered organizations that we support.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Camp Catapult, which is our uh children's um camp that we do uh VBS basically during the summer, um, was$10,500.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we didn't ask anybody to, anybody who came of the 475 plus kids, they didn't have to pay anything.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Or the Christmas light show, which last year cost$50,000.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this year it's going to cost a little bit less.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Last year we had to buy a few things, but this year it'll be about$35.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I share these things with you to try and impress upon you the nature that Topeka Bible church, in its totality of ministry, does require money in order to fulfill sort of the scale and the outreach and the evangelism and the kind of teaching that we are trying to do.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: That does require money.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so there should be an understanding of some of these practical costs.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, at the same time, if the only reason that you were to give or to consider giving, right, to TBC is because I told you how much a boiler cost, then we've kind of miss the point.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's something deeper here, right?
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just that we respond to a need, but we look forward to fulfilling the Great Commission with Jesus Christ and using sort of the church as a vehicle to do it.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's best equipped.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: So then we have to balance this out on the other side, which is that we say that though ministry multiplies opportunities for the gospel, money multiplies, I keep saying that, money multiplies ministry for the gospel, we can't hinder the gospel.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where Paul's other statement came about, right?
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Where he says, but in certain contexts, in this case for the Corinthians, he says, I'm not going to ask them for any sort of money, make use of my right, because I don't want those who are unbelievers, and I don't want those who are new Christians to associate this with some kind of pay-for-play scheme, right?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't the prosperity gospel where you give money and bent good things happen to you.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so then we also look at the ministry of TBC, and we say that, for instance, the light show, which last I shared with you last year was$50,000.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Last year, about 5,600 people came, about 33% of whom had never been to the light show before and saw the gospel presentation, right?
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that is a non-zero sum of a percentage of people who just live in Topeka, Kansas.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can look at the Camp Catapult that I mentioned, right?
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: And when we talk about all the kids who are invited and the bike rally that we did here at Loman Hill Elementary School so that kids from our community could come and that they could be a part of that ministry, as well as many of your kids as well, we didn't charge a dime.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why is because we never want somebody to be able to say that money is the reason why they could not hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Or when it comes to the light show, why we didn't ask people$5 per ticket, even though there were a lot, there was a lot of work that went behind that.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because nobody who comes should have to think that Jesus has a dollar sign associated with him.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: But behind all of these things, and you can I could keep going, you know, we could talk about the fact that the nursery's operating over in the cab and the supplies associated with that, that somebody shouldn't have to pay for child care, you know, or that um uh the ministries that I mentioned, that uh the missionaries, that we are supporting 35 of them individually or as couples, so that in the context in which they live and work and minister for the gospel, they don't have to burden those communities by asking for money.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're happy to do all of these things.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: But just as if your house was on fire, or someone's house was on fire, and a firefighter came to put out that fire, it would be wrong for them to ask for them to cut a check so that they could put out the fire.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually how fire stations used to work.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, somebody else provides the engine, provides the salary for the firefighter, provides all the equipment so that this person who is in need can have the fire put out.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: So these are sort of the lines that we walk here, right?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: We we desire and we recognize the practical needs, but also that over and above that, we don't want to hinder the gospel for anybody who might be desiring to learn more about Jesus.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so, even over and above the practical needs, we shoulder the cost so that somebody doesn't have to have that relationship with Jesus associated with money.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we do this.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's so important.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, as a final passage that I want to share with you, though, I do want to look to back to 2 Corinthians, or forward to 2 Corinthians, uh, where Paul talks about this a little bit more, and then we'll we'll close with some final thoughts.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians 9, 6 through 8, Paul says, the point is this.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Each person, each person should do as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or out of compulsion.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to twist your arm, since God loves a cheerful giver.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: We can imagine Paul here talking about the practical needs of his ministry, right?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: We can talk, we can see here that Paul, in his discussion with the Corinthians, was not trying to inform them that what he was doing was free in its totality, but rather that there were others who had contributed and were working together so that they might be able to hear the gospel.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a financial relationship.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: And later on in 2 Corinthians, we see that the language that Paul uses to talk with this community about their money has changed.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: And now, months, years hence, from when he has visited them the most recent time, he had collected the money that he instructs them in 1 Corinthians 16 and had gone away for those in Jerusalem to support them.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now he says, Hey, you should think a little bit about what it means to be able to return the gift that was given to you to give, so that others might be able to hear the gospel, and that they would not be hindered in their journey towards it.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: There would be no obstacles put in their way.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we can combine all of these things and say that our relationship between money and ministry, um, it's possible that it's healthy.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in the Christian world it looks unhealthy, and I recognize that.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: But that God has given us money as a tool to be able to fulfill the Great Commission.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: And there are many, many ways in which we fulfill the Great Commission, but to think that for over 80 years Topeka Bible church has existed without the generous support of people who have attended would be untrue.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just as it would be untrue to say that Paul's ministry existed without the financial support of other churches and individuals.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, within that space, right, God has called us to give.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: God has set up churches to be the mechanism, the vehicle by which the Great Commission is brought to the ends of the earth.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's an individual call as well, but if you've ever seen a racehorse, we've got a thoroughbred versus some other ministries, things that aren't churches.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we're racing against a donkey, okay?
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: The church has been positioned and built specifically to be able to do this mission.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not that other things aren't important, it's not that other things aren't effective, it's not that parachurch organizations aren't desperately needed to do all of these things, but to abdicate a responsibility to support the local church is just that.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's that we have given up on a responsibility.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, I say with great joy and thankfulness as we celebrate Thanksgiving here in a couple days, this church is filled with generous people.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: This church is filled with those who have made the decision to invest in more eternal things than temporary things.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so I don't want make this, I don't want to make this sound like some sort of diatribe against people who aren't giving.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's truly thankfulness for those who have provided the leadership of this church the opportunity to put on a light show, to be able to do uh, you know, the camp catapult, to be able to offer meals for free at Fed and Lead, to say that anyone in the community can come and join in grief share, that these messages can go online and anybody can watch them who stumbles upon them without having to put in their credit card information.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for doing that, so that the gospel might not be hindered.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, and to close, I think that if that is not, if that is something that you have avoided, if you don't feel the urge to give towards the Great Commission, I'd say two things.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: One, I think 2 Corinthians tells us that you shouldn't give reluctantly or out of compulsion.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want a single dollar going to this church where somebody feels like their arm was twisted for it.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, I really think you should consider if you trust in Christ and if you know him and if you understand what that gospel means, I think you should want to see a church, this church or maybe another church that you might go to, that they might grow and strengthen their ability to multiply the ministry because of money.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that we don't have to look at these two things as mutually exclusive, but rather that God has given us a tool, an ability to basically throw gasoline onto a fire that is burning, right?
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that is shedding light into the entire world.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: We want that light to get even brighter.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you burn cash to do it.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, with that, I my goal is not to inflict guilt, but to empower you and to thank you and to just say, for those who give thank you, for those who don't, I pray that you would consider it and consider what it might mean to make an eternal impact for God's kingdom.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for this week.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: As we are going to be celebrating, many of us, Lord, with our families, um, those who have come from far, and we get together and we talk about all the things, God, that you have blessed us with.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Father, might we first of all remember Jesus Christ and the blessing that he is to all of us?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: The gift that you have given to us freely, as Romans 6.23 says, Lord, that we may take it, God, that we may accept your son without a dollar bill in our hand.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I also thank you for the ministry of the saints who have gone to TBC and supported TBC and Father, many other organizations financially, so that others might be able to hear that gospel as well and know that it is a free gift also.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: And Father, I also ask that as your spirit moves and works in the hearts and minds of people who go here, God, that they might consider what it might mean to grow their financial relationship with this church.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, grow their financial relationship with your kingdom because, Father, everything else is wasting away.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the gospel endures forever.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: Father, what a great investment that is.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: And God, finally, I pray that you would bring us peace.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: God, that you would help us to walk this relationship out in a way that helps us to see the beauty of the gospel and not responding to practical needs.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, not responding to boilers and furnaces and windows, but God responding to the work of the gospel, that we might get excited about that.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, that we would look forward to it and be excited to see, Lord, how you are going to use our resources to grow your church.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we boast in these things, not for ourselves, but for you.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we pray all these things with a thankfulness.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it's in Jesus' name.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I hope you do have a great week with your family for Thanksgiving.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: And or if that's really not your story, I hope you're still able to focus on thankfulness this week.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: We love you guys.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.