There is hardly a day
that goes by that you don’t hear somebody talk about their rights.
We have civil rights, human rights, gay rights, women’s rights,
and animal rights. This morning, I’m exercising my right of the
freedom of speach. And you will allow me this right, until my right
to speak infringes on your right to the pursuit of happiness that you
have planned for this day. In other words, even though I have the right
to speak as long as I want, when I’ve violated your right to the
pursuit of happiness, your body language screams to me that it’s
time to shut up & sit down. Either you look like a deer in a headlight,
or you start to nod off.
Now I don’t want you to think that this church is unique in this
area. For it is a problem that all preachers have had to endure. Even
the great D.L. Moody had a hard time keeping his audience’s attention.
And in those days, when it was time for the preacher to quit, the people
wouldn’t just tune the preacher out, they’d get up and walk
out the doors.
So one day, Moody came up an unique way to keep the people in their
sits until he was finished preaching. Let me tell you a true story.
When Moody rose to begin his sermon, he announced, “I am going
to speak to 2 classes of people this morning: first to the sinners,
then to the saints.” He proceeded to address the sinners for awhile,
and then he said they could leave because he was now going to talk just
to the saints. For once, every member stayed to the end of the sermon.
This morning I’m going to be primarily talking to the saints. So
for those of you are still in the sinners category, you can either leave
now, or you can go to sleep when you’ve heard enough. Seriously,
this message is primarily for the saints. I say that because although
the context of the passage deals with Paul’s unique position of
refusing to get paid, it also addresses the issue of fulfilling our
Christian duty.
If you notice on your bulletin it says that the ministers of this church
are the congregation. We include those words because we believe that
God expects all of us to be involved in some kind of ministry. Now if
I could get everybody in this fellowship to serve the Lord in some capacity,
I would be really excited. But what Paul say is that serving the Lord
is not really what matters. But what really matters is specifically
the motivation with which you serve him.
Do you serve him hoping to get something in return? Do you serve him
so that others will see you & applaud you for what all you do? Or
do you serve Him simply because you love Him, and serving Him is the
right thing to do? Paul’s motive for serving the Lord was simply
his love for Jesus. In fact, Paul boasted, and not in a sinful way,
that his only motive for serving the Lord was love. Paul was mortified
to think that someone might charge him with using the gospel for his
own personal gain--v. 15.
Please don’t think that Paul is using reverse psychology here.
He’s not doing what we do sometimes to get our way. Any of you
men ever been guilty of saying things like, “Can you believe our
neighbor went out and got in debt just to buy that new bass boat? Why
the last thing in the world I want is a new fishing boat for my birthday.”
You may say that with your lips, but on the inside you are green with
jealousy, and you hope your wife will go out and buy you a new boat
for your birthday.
Or any of you wives ever said, “Betty Lou called today, and bragged
that they are going on another cruise this year? Whatever you do, please
don’t you even think about us going on a cruise for our anniversary
this year.” Again, you may say that with your lips, but on the
inside you are dying to go on a cruise. All of us are guilty of those
times when we couldn’t find the appropriate words to come out and
ask what we want, so instead we talk about it as if that is not what
we want.
Now Paul doesn’t want them to think that he is doing that. He doesn’t
want them to think that they have to pay him to preach. He didn’t
want to become like the paid professional philosophers that the Corinthians
loved to go see. He wanted to be able to present the gospel free of
charge. Why he wouldn’t even let the church receive a love offering
for him while he was there.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand to hear churches
or ministries say, “This is a free-event but a $5 donation is required
to get in.” Or they say a love-offering will be taken up. How many
people can actually let a plate pass them by without feeling they have
to put something in it?
But not Paul. When he said it was free, it was free. Now we this is
a consistent pattern of Paul’s life that we see throughout his
epistles. Paul told us: “For you recall, brethren, our labor and
hardship: how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any
of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.” (1
Thessalonians 2:9) Paul wanted the gospel to stand out above everything
else in his life, so he made sure that there was never once an occasion
of finger-pointing of blame toward him that he was in it for the money.
If we could sum up what Paul was trying to say we could sum it up in
this statement: Paul’s purpose and motive in ministry was men,
not money.
What a refreshing statement that is in the light of all the television
evangelists of today. If Paul was has concerned about money as most
of today’s TV preachers are, we would not have heard of him except
for a footnote in the history of the church. Paul stands out because
he was different in his motive for preaching. It wasn’t for money,
or for his welfare, but it was for the privilege of preaching the gospel!
Secondly Paul had a passion for preaching the gospel--v. 16. What Paul
is saying is he has no choice. He didn’t sit down by the fire one
day and decide that he would go around preaching this gospel. Rather,
God placed within him a compelling conviction to do so.
So strong was this compulsion within him, that he felt as though he
would be punished if he didn’t fulfill it. Now don’t misunderstand
me, Paul’s not complaining. Paul tells us that “God had separated
me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal
His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.” (Galatians
1:15-16)
Because Paul knew that God had placed His hand upon him for the specific
purpose of preaching the gospel, he felt within him a passion to fulfill
that purpose. Let me explain what it is like to be under compulsion.
In the gospels we read of a time when Jesus had to compel his disciples
to get into the boat.
Now we don’t know why the disciples had to be ordered to get into
the boat. Jesus had just performed the miracle of feeding the 5,000,
so perhaps they didn’t want to leave Jesus in case he did another
miracle. Or perhaps it was because they knew that this wasn’t a
good time to be out on the lake.
The Bible tells us that later on that night, a storm came up. Since
some of the disciples were professional fishermen, they probably knew
that a storm was brewing. But whatever the reason was, the disciples
must have refused to get into the boat when Jesus first told them to
get in. Which is why Matthew tells us that “Jesus made His disciples
get into the boat.” (Matthew
14:22) The tone in Jesus’ voice communicated to his disciples
that they had no choice but to get into the boat.
How many of you teenagers have had your mother tell you to clean up
your room? Now how many times do you clean it up the first time she
asks you to? Or do you wait until she says in a very stern voice, “If
you want to go out tonight, you first have to clean up your room!”?
At that moment you are under compulsion to clean up your room, or you
know you will be punished for your disobedience.
In the same way, Paul also knew that God had placed within him a passion
for preaching that was so strong, that he couldn’t refuse to do
so. For Paul preaching was not a profession! For Paul preaching was
not a pastime that he did on the weekends to earn a couple of extra
dollars. Preaching was a passion, that drove his whole being and existence.
Paul had within his bones a fire to preach. It wasn’t something
he choose, but it also wasn’t something he could deny.
You can’t just choose to be a preacher the way you choose to be
an engineer or any other profession. You can’t go to school to
learn how to be a preacher. For it’s not really a matter of your
choosing, it’s a matter of God’s choosing!
I think the church would do well if there were more men in her pulpits
who were called of God to preach. I think the church would do well if
there were more men in her pulpits who were called of God to preach.
Once, some of the members of a church were complaining about their pastor’s
sermons. His sermons were consistently horribly boring. One dear saintly
older lady said, “The problem is whether he was sent, or did he
just went.”
The church would be in a healthier state if we had men who were sent
instead of men who just went into the ministry because they view preaching
as a profession instead of a passion. One of the greatest problems in
too many of today’s churches is that they are filled with men who
have no passion to preach God’s Word!
They’d rather teach you pop-psychology than God’s Word. Or
they’d rather entertain you with a monologue like Jay Leno or David
Lettermen. I’m not against preaching to the needs of the people,
nor am I against using humor. But I can’t stand to listen to a
sermon that picks out a subject that the preacher tries to wrap around
a verse or 2 to make it sound spiritual.
Do you know what that communicates about God’s Word? It says that
this man doesn’t believe that we also need the words that proceed
out of God’s mouth in order to survive. And when you get a man
who doesn’t believe in the power of God’s Word to change people’s
lives, you’ve got a man who’s not going to see any impact
in the lives of others with his preaching. Oh, the people may enjoy
listening to his sermon, but there’s nothing there that the Spirit
of God can use to transform their lives.
Using the standard of having a passion to preach God’s Word to
see people’s lives changed, I can honestly say that much of what
passes for preaching today is entertainment, not preaching. God strike
me dead if this is the case with me. I’ve got a lot to learn about
being a pastor, but there’s one thing I promise you, and that is
that I will never stand up here and open my mouth if I don’t have
a message from God!
My primary job when I stand up here is not to make you laugh, nor is
it to teach you how to cope with life. Rather, it is to communicate
to you what God has to say in his Word. Paul put it like this: “For
I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you.” (1
Corinthians 11:23)
And that is how you ought to judge the quality of my sermons. Don’t
judge them by whether or not they were entertaining. Don’t even
judge them by their length. But judge them solely on whether or not
I have taken the heart of the passage and passed it on you to.
Notice that along with the calling comes a clear understanding of the
consequences for not faithfully fulfilling that calling. Paul calls
this understanding a “Woe”--v. 16(b). The term “woe”
is always associated with judgment. The woe that Paul was worried about
was not because he felt he was going to lose his salvation, or some
kind of eternal reward. Rather it is an intense internal feeling of
remorse that comes from being disobedient. Hopefully, it’s like
the same kind of feeling you get when you sin.
One of the evidences of salvation is that when you sin, the Holy Spirit
makes you feel terrible until you confess. We see this in the life of
King after he sinned with Bathsheeba. For he says, “Your arrows
pierce me deeply, and Your hand presses me down. For my iniquities have
gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. I
am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my
heart.” (Psalm
38:2,4,6,8)
This feeling of woe doesn’t occur just when we sin. It occurs whenever
you disobey God. Remember, not only is it a sin to willfully do what
you know you’re not supposed to do, but it’s also a sin to
willfully not do what you know you are to do. We call these the sins
of commission and the sins of ommisssion.
Paul was so passionately in love with Jesus that he knew when he hurt
Jesus’ heart by being disobedient. He knew when his disobedience
quenched the Spirit. He knew when his disobedience grieved the Spirit.
I also want you to notice that the woe that Paul was concerned about
was connected with preaching the gospel. Paul knew that one of the primary
concerns of his heavenly Father was the eternal destination of the people
he created. So Paul was very concerned about seizing every opportunity
about presenting the good news of Jesus Christ.
He viewed his responsibility to preach the gospel just like the watchman
who sat on the towers in the Old Testament. His responsibility was to
blow the trumpet to warn the inhabitants of the city of an impending
doom. If the people don’t heed it, that’s their problem, and
their blood is off his hands. But if he falls asleep, and he doesn’t
blow the trumpet, and the people are destroyed, then their blood is
on his hands.
Paul knew that while only God can save people, he also knew that God
primarily uses us to get the message out. He knew that God will not
hold us responsible for the decision people make, but he will hold us
responsible for failing to tell people about Jesus when he gave us the
opportunities to do so. We see this when Paul was in Macedonian. The
Bible tells us that “Paul was compelled by the Spirit, and testified
to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. But when they opposed him and
blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, "Your blood
be upon your own heads; I am clean.” (Acts
18:5-6)
Notice that the Bible doesn’t say that he kept on preaching until
he wore them out and they gave their lives to Jesus just to get rid
of Paul. Instead, it tells us that Paul preached unto them the gospel,
and he let the results up to the Spirit of God. This should free us
all up to witness more for Jesus.
Now, before we put Paul on some pedestal, I want to remind you that
he was human just like we are. I’m sure there were Sundays when
Paul would have rather stayed in bed than go to worship service to preach.
I’m sure there were Sundays when Paul would have rather gone camping
than go to worship service to preach. We see this in verse 17 when Paul
says that at times he preached even when it was against his will.
So if there were times when Paul didn’t want to preach, why did
he? He preached even when he didn’t feel like preaching because
he understood the concept of stewardship. He knew that the Spirit of
God didn’t give him certain gifts to play around with.
He understood that as a steward, he was to take care of what was entrusted
into his care, and use it for the glory of his master. In actuality,
Paul understood what it meant to be under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
He knew that a servant is to serve his master in total obedience. Paul
understood that to be under Jesus’ authority, to honestly be able
to say that Jesus was his Lord, he had to submit to Jesus’ will
for his life. Paul knew that Jesus’ will for his life was to preach
the gospel. Therefore, Paul preached because he knew that he had been
entrusted with a sacred responsibility--v. 17.
It was this knowledge that freed him up from having to get paid to preach.
It was this knowledge that freed him up from having to be applauded
by the crowds. And it was this knowledge that freed him up from being
destroyed by his critics.
Now what is the quality that marks a good steward? Is it success? No,
the mark of good steward is faithfulness. What I mean by faithfulness
is simply carrying out one’s duty.
Jesus talked about this when he said, “But which of you, having
a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in
from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’? But
will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper,
and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward
you will eat and drink’? Does he thank that servant because he
did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you,
when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We
are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”
(Luke
17:7-10)
Just like Paul, there are some Sundays when I wish I could stay at home
rather then come over here and preach. But I don’t because I know
that it’s my duty. In fact, when I didn’t preach 2 weeks in
a row last month, it almost killed me. I felt like I wasn’t carrying
out my duties.
Finally, Paul was also motivated to preach the gospel because of the
reward for faithfulness--v. 18. Now if we could monetarily reward everybody
for what they did, we’d have a lot more volunteers. If we could
pay our Sunday school teachers, we’d never have to worry about
not having enough Sunday school teachers. If we could pay you to come
to next month’s workday, we have more people than we have work
to do.
Please don’t feel guilty, because part of the reason we don’t
volunteer is because we’ve been raised in a reward based society.
We give our kids money for making good grades in school. We even potty-train
our kids by giving them a M & M when they use the toilet instead
of their diaper. But what would you think if you had to pay your teenager
money to keep them from going to the bathroom in their pants? So somewhere
along the way we teach our kids that there are greater rewards than
money.
Paul didn’t preach just for the sake of getting paid. He preached
because he knew that Jesus would reward him for fulfilling his duty.
The reward we get now is the same reward we will get when we stand face-to-face
with our Lord Jesus Christ. For on that day, we will hear Jesus say,
“Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over
a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the
joy of your lord.” (Matthew
25:23)
My joy comes from preaching and pastoring. My reward is watching the
Spirit take the words I say and use them to transform you more into
the image of Jesus Christ. My flesh wants you to shout out “Amen”
or clap when I make a good point. My flesh wants you to come up afterwards
and say, “Pastor Bob, that was a great sermon.”
But my spirit enjoys it more when you come up to me weeks later and
say, “Pastor Bob, what you said a couple of weeks ago the Spirit
used to encourage me through a difficult time I just went through.”
Or you say, “I want you to know that the Spirit really convicted
me to repent of some sin by what you said a couple of weeks ago.”
When you say that, then I know that the Spirit is using my words to
bring about change in your life.
And that was the reward Paul looked for as well. He didn’t care
how much money he made. He was willing to preach for free, if this freedom
aided in someone coming to know Jesus Christ as their Lord. Of if it
aided someone growing more in the knowledge & grace of our Lord
Jesus.
In closing, let me say that I wish all of us were more like Paul when
it comes to being sensitive to fulfilling our Christian duties. For
if we were, then we’d be better spouses, better parents, better
kids, better workers & students, and we’d all love each other
a lot more than we currently are doing. I also can’t help but wonder
how much better we’d all be if we, like Paul, were willing to forfeit
some of our rights for the sake of others? How many of your headaches,
stomach aches, disappointments, and pity parties are directly related
to your constant longing to have your rights? Instead of demanding our
rights, let’s concentrate more on fulfilling our duties.
Men, how about loving your wife as Christ loved the church more than
you are currently doing? Wives, how about worshipping the ground your
husband walks on more than you are currently doing? Parents, how about
not provoking you kids to anger so much? Kids, how about honoring your
parents more in all areas of you life? And finally, how about working
harder for the Lord and not just for the pay check? You can do all these
things as long as you remember that these are part of your Christian
duties that were given to you when you made Jesus your Lord.
Let’s
pray
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