What church do you belong to Corinth or Philippi?
Word of the Day. April 6,2022 What church do you belong to Corinth or Philippi?
Beloved,
Why does the Lord ask His people to love and support the servants God has sent them to establish the Kingdom of God in their hearts?
Do we see the five fold ministers as employees of a great big Christian company? Do we see them having a job and getting paid for it?
Or do we see that they have been chosen by God to invest their entire life for him and into those He sends them to love and care for them.
I realize we have hirelings in the church today serving God for money. I realized that even in the prophetic gifts they prophesy for money and want to be your personal prophet as long as you support them or Apostle.
There will always be those money changers in the house of God until the fullness of the mature sons of God manifest who like Jesus will take the whip and drive them out of the house. For Jesus said, "my house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.
Yes, we have all seen great access in the area of money, with men building Walmarts they call churches and mega this and that, but the true Kingdom of God is a complete dependance upon God for everything and to love and care for each other as Christ loves us.
It is interesting that in Matthew 10 where he commissions and sends out His disciples He gives them this instruction.
5 Jesus sent them out with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, 6 but only to the people of Israel—God’s lost sheep. 7 Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.[a] 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure the lepers, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!
9 “Don’t take any money with you; 10 don’t even carry a duffle bag with extra clothes and shoes, or even a walking stick; for those you help should feed and care for you. 11 Whenever you enter a city or village, search for a godly man and stay in his home until you leave for the next town.
12 When you ask permission to stay, be friendly, 13 and if it turns out to be a godly home, give it your blessing; if not, keep the blessing. 14 Any city or home that doesn’t welcome you—shake off the dust of that place from your feet as you leave. 15 Truly, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off at Judgment Day than they.
Isn't that a strange commandment to send them out on their missionary work? Who tells them not to make provision for themselves before they go? He says, don't take extra provision with you that could weigh you down. He says to them: for those you help should feed and care for you.
That really hit me even more today then ever before and I have shared this in churches and for Pastors and leaders for the people of God to see that the one that is laboring for them IS PART OF THE FAMILY AND SHOULD BE CARED FOR BY THEM BECAUSE GOD HAS ORDAINED IT THAT WAY.
In the Message Bible it says it like this: “Don’t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don’t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.
9-10 “Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.
Jesus is laying foundational Kingdom love here of the connection of the Body Parts with the 5 fold ministry gifts He is going to give them. He shows them how they need each other for mutual love, care and support and how important it is for the body to receive those God has sent to them.
Not only is God looking for them to welcome not just the message they bring, but also the ones that bring the message. He is saying they should be loved and cared for as their own family.
Jesus said, He that welcomes you welcomes Me, and He that welcomes Me welcomes the Father that sent me.
Beloved saints of God, are we as a kingdom people welcoming Him? Are we seeing the Kingdom gifts God is sending to us as His messengers sent to us for our benefit? Are we seeing to it they have all they need to live for their lives and family to do the work of God out of pure holy love?
What I am speaking of is not a demand. It is a Holy expectation from God's pure holy love to see each other correctly, to love each other correctly.
In the book of Acts chapter 2 42-46 the love of God was so powerful that no one thought of what they had any more as their own, but they knew it belonged to God.
Those who had possession sold them and laid the proceeds at the Apostle's feet to give to those in need. Beloved, that is Kingdom love in action.
The Bible says, "there was not a need one amongst them and because of this and their prayers and staying in the Apostles doctrine, they were able to walk in great signs and wonders and God added to the church daily to be saved.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 9, the church at Corinth lost sight of what I am sharing with you. They lost sight of the words of Jesus how they were to love, serve and provide for his messengers.
The lost sight of their spiritual Father's Paul and Barnabus who labored night and day with them. They forgot the price they paid to nurture then in the Lord and that true value for their lives.
They just got visited by Peter who brought others and his wife and the church at Corinth blessed them and cared for them as they should.
Yet, Paul and Barnabas who gave their lives for them in prayer, tears, labor, sweat and blood to bring them to Christ and establish them as disciples they neglected them and did not make a way to provide care or love them like they did for Peter.
Was Paul jealous, upset that they were not provided for? No, they wold rather work with their own hands and make tents to force the church at Corinth to provide for them as God commanded.
Paul rejected that help and served them regardless if they gave them the love or care that was due to them by God's word. His love for them didn't come with a paycheck, but a lovecheck, that he would lay his life down for them regardless of whether they would help, support or bless Him.
Beloved, nevertheless he had to rebuke them and correct them for their hearts were not right before God and each other. This slight of love and care for Paul was a big deal before God. God instructed Paul to correct them. Let's read that correction from the Message Bible
9 1-2 And don’t tell me that I have no authority to write like this. I’m perfectly free to do this—isn’t that obvious? Haven’t I been given a job to do? Wasn’t I commissioned to this work in a face-to-face meeting with Jesus, our Master? Aren’t you yourselves proof of the good work that I’ve done for the Master? Even if no one else admits the authority of my commission, you can’t deny it. Why, my work with you is living proof of my authority!
3-7 I’m not shy in standing up to my critics. We who are on missionary assignments for God have a right to decent accommodations, and we have a right to support for us and our families. You don’t seem to have raised questions with the other apostles and our Master’s brothers and Peter in these matters. So, why me? Is it just Barnabas and I who have to go it alone and pay our own way? Are soldiers self-employed? Are gardeners forbidden to eat vegetables from their own gardens? Don’t dairy farmers get to drink their fill from the pail?
8-12 I’m not just sounding off because I’m irritated. This is all written in the scriptural law. Moses wrote, “Don’t muzzle an ox to keep it from eating the grain when it’s threshing.” Do you think Moses’ primary concern was the care of farm animals? Don’t you think his concern extends to us? Of course. Farmers plow and thresh expecting something when the crop comes in. So if we have planted spiritual seed among you, is it out of line to expect a meal or two from you? Others demand plenty from you in these ways. Don’t we who have never demanded deserve even more?
12-14 But we’re not going to start demanding now what we’ve always had a perfect right to. Our decision all along has been to put up with anything rather than to get in the way or detract from the Message of Christ. All I’m concerned with right now is that you not use our decision to take advantage of others, depriving them of what is rightly theirs. You know, don’t you, that it’s always been taken for granted that those who work in the Temple live off the proceeds of the Temple, and that those who offer sacrifices at the altar eat their meals from what has been sacrificed? Along the same lines, the Master directed that those who spread the Message be supported by those who believe the
Message.
15-18 Still, I want it made clear that I’ve never gotten anything out of this for myself, and that I’m not writing now to get something. I’d rather die than give anyone ammunition to discredit me or question my motives. If I proclaim the Message, it’s not to get something out of it for myself. I’m compelled to do it, and doomed if I don’t! If this was my own idea of just another way to make a living, I’d expect some pay. But since it’s not my idea but something solemnly entrusted to me, why would I expect to get paid? So am I getting anything out of it? Yes, as a matter of fact: the pleasure of proclaiming the Message at no cost to you. You don’t even have to pay my expenses!
19-23 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be an example to you.
Beloved, now let us contrast that with the church at Philippi and their heart attitude in welcoming, loving the gift that God sent to them in Paul. How do they see him? How do they love him?
Philippians 4: 10-14 I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty.
Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don’t mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.
15-17 You Philippians well know, and you can be sure I’ll never forget it, that when I first left Macedonia province, venturing out with the Message, not one church helped out in the give-and-take of this work except you. You were the only one. Even while I was in Thessalonica, you helped out—and not only once, but twice. Not that I’m looking for handouts, but I do want you to experience the blessing that issues from generosity.
18-20 And now I have it all—and keep getting more!
The gifts you sent with Epaphroditus were more than enough, like a sweet-smelling sacrifice roasting on the altar, filling the air with fragrance, pleasing God to no end. You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes.
21-22 Give our regards to every follower of Jesus you meet. Our friends here say hello. All the Christians here, especially the believers who work in the palace of Caesar, want to be remembered to you.
Beloved look at this section of this passage with me: You Philippians well know, and you can be sure I’ll never forget it, that when I first left Macedonia province, venturing out with the Message, not one church helped out in the give-and-take of this work except you.
You were the only one. Even while I was in Thessalonica, you helped out—and not only once, but twice. Not that I’m looking for handouts, but I do want you to experience the blessing that issues from generosity.
18-20 And now I have it all—and keep getting more!
The gifts you sent with Epaphroditus were more than enough, like a sweet-smelling sacrifice roasting on the altar, filling the air with fragrance, pleasing God to no end.
As I close, I ask you a personal question. How are you tending to God's messengers, the 5 fold ministers God has put in your life? Do you see them as an the CEO of a company that gets a paycheck? Do you see them as their company to provide and care for them?
Or can you see your part as the Body of Christ to love and care for those God has sent to you? Will you tread the mouth of the ox that feeds you?
What if the servant of God does get a paycheck from the church? Does that lesson the love for them? Does that not mean should you care about them and their family making sure they have enough out of the love of God for them?
Most men and woman of God will never share their needs with the people because the don't want to burden others with their need. Many minister work 2 or 3 jobs to pay for everything themselves and often go without.
Most will suffer the lack to not burden anyone, but that is not right before God if the people they are sent to never understand their God given responsibility to love and care for those God uses to teach them the ways of God.
May God open our eyes to see the true love of the kingdom of God. It is an important part of Kingdom life to provide for those God has put in our lives to nurture us in Christ.
Many true ministers have poured out and poured out and gotten very little in return not they they want it, but pray that God will touch others for them as God touched them for others.
No one has to give anything to anyone. Giving is always between you and God. Many ministers make a living by selling books, tapes because they get so little love and care from the people they serve.
I know personally I can't sell anything God has given me. Freely I have received freely give. Everything on our website and we have is free no strings attached.
I have been blessed because God is connecting me with those who have the heart of the church at Philippi. I know God will supply all their needs according to His riches in glory.
May the Lord open our eyes even more today to see if we are numbered in the church of Corinth or the Church at Philippi.
