God's Call To Give - Pastor David Houck | April 19, 2026

As he closes his letter to Titus, the Apostle Paul urges believers to engage in one more good work: generosity. In this message, Pastor David explores why Christians should seek to be generous.

Transcript

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I really do believe that today's um today's topic will be encouraging to many of us. So if you'd like to turn to Titus chapter 3, we will begin in verse 12. Said when I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I've decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenus the lawyer and Apollos on their way, see that they lack nothing. And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful. All who are with me send greetings to you, greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Father, we thank you for this word and for the truth of your word. And Lord, we ask for your help this morning that through the power of the Holy Spirit you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear what it is you are trying to speak to us today. And Lord, that also through the Spirit, um, you would soften our hearts so that we are quick to listen to your word, um, slow to speak about that which we don't understand, and uh slow to find offense uh when your truth conflicts with our selfish desires. And Lord, we ask that you would enable us and equip us to not just be hearers of the word, but doers as well. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. This letter from the Apostle Paul has placed a strong emphasis on good works. It has been a recurring theme throughout the entire letter. Good works essentially being lifestyles and behaviors that Christians should embrace, that Christians should live by after receiving the grace of God. It's a recurring theme, and Paul's instructing Titus, a young pastor in the island of Crete, to teach believers what these lifestyles and what these behaviors are. But since we know that this letter, along with all the rest of the Bible, is inspired by God Himself, these instructions not only apply to the church and Crete in the first century, but they apply to us, Lampson Road Community Church in the 21st century as well. And God, through Paul, has addressed how we should live as church leaders. Those of us who are Christian men, as Christian women, what a Christian marriage should look like, a call for all Christians to practice self-control, his call for Christian employees in the workplace, his call for Christians, how they should behave as citizens of a nation. And as we just read, Paul closes his letter with one last category of good works. In light of God's grace, Christians are called to the good work of generosity. And as a necessary reminder, all these instructions for believers are not to earn God's grace, but in light of God's grace. Twice in this letter, Paul laid out the good news of Jesus, the gospel message. The first time we encountered it was in Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 14, when he wrote, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. This is the gospel message. And you can see the order of events here. It began with God's grace. God's grace appeared through his son Jesus. Jesus who offers salvation to all and through the Holy Spirit within us transforms us and seals us for eternal life. But why? But why save us? As he said, to purify for himself a people zealous for good works. In other words, put simply, we aren't saved by good works. We're saved for good works. Jesus doesn't just offer us salvation so that we can go to heaven when we die. He offers us salvation for that, yes, but also so that we can live a life of purpose and meaning here on earth now. How? By taking part in the good work he's doing now, by being an active participant in the kingdom of God now. In chapter three, and we looked at this over Easter, he explained the gospel once again, and then he follows it up with this in verse eight. He said the saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. Says Titus, I want you to remind the people, remind your brothers and sisters in Christ of the good news of Jesus, of what God has done for them, so that in gratitude, so that in light of God's saving and transforming grace, they may devote themselves to the good and profitable works God has prepared for them. And then we read in verse 14, and let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need. Put another way, he says, let our people learn to devote themselves to the good work of helping cases of urgent need. It's a call to generosity. Not generosity so that we can earn God's grace. This isn't about earning your way into heaven or buying a ticket to heaven. It's a call to generosity because God knows it is excellent and profitable, not just for the people around you, but for you as well. For those who might be outside the faith or newer to the faith, um, there's a lot of people who question the act of giving in churches, might not really understand it. It's quite evident when you when I'm scrolling through Reddit on like a Christian Reddit page, and there's always someone, you know, in the true Christian Reddit thread who asks a question about tithing. And all these experts chime in. These people claim to be Christians and they and they completely condemn the practice of giving money in a church at all. The truth is, I think that this is a result of two things. One, a lack of proper teaching on the issue. They don't understand what the Bible, specifically what the New Testament actually says. And secondly, due to the abuse of this issue. Last week we looked at counterfeit Christianities. That Satan's desire to distract people from the good news of Jesus is to draw them back into the way of religion, into a fake version of Christianity that presents itself in many ways. But oftentimes, the teachers, the leaders of these counterfeit Christian faiths are in it for selfish gain. They're in it for power, for authority, for reputation, and they're in it for money. And so oftentimes, those people kind of ruin it for everyone. And that's Satan's desire to keep people away from the truth of Christian generosity because of the abuse of false teachers and prosperity teachers. So we need to cut through the garbage this morning and to go down to the core treasure of the truth of Christian generosity. So we ask the question: why do we give? Well, we give generously out of grateful obedience to God. Grateful obedience to God. Christian generosity is an act of obedience and worship to God. And when I say obedience, I don't mean that you, if you aren't generous or if you don't give money to the church or put money in the box or give online, that God's gonna punish you and you're gonna lose your salvation. As we go through today's message, I just want to point out that you won't find any verses from the Old Testament. Because there are many people, you know, many of these experts on Reddit who will argue that the act of tithing is strictly an Old Testament law and command. And these practices no longer apply to Christians today. Now, in the Old Testament, the tithe was this command for the Jewish people, God's chosen people, to pay a tithe, which is uh 10%, 10% of their income, which is typically produce, uh, to the leaders of the nation. There were actually three tithes, uh, two annual and one for every three years. So annually, the tithe actually amounted to about 23%. 23% of the income of God's people, they were to give to uh the government and the religious leaders of the nation. The most modern day uh example or comparison is essentially taxes. That's pretty much what it was. There were spiritual reasons and components to it, but it was taxes. It was taxes to pay the ministers of God's people, uh, the the um tribe of the Levites, who they did not have any possessions of their own. They relied upon uh other people's giving in order to feed them. Uh, and and it was for just the purpose of the government for the functioning and for all the religious practices and um uh you know uh to feed the poor in the nation. It was essentially a tax. And now this tax, this command to tithe, was fulfilled by Jesus. When Jesus came, he fulfilled all of the Old Testament laws and all of the Old Uh Testament ceremonial traditions that were given for the Jewish people. He did it for us so that we don't have to. That's why we can eat bacon, that's why we can mow the lawn. No amens, I'm surprised. That's why we can mow the lawn on Saturday. That's why men don't have to be circumcised, and it's why we don't have to pay 10% or 23% a year. However, that doesn't mean that we are no longer to be generous. Let's look to the very words of our Lord Jesus, Luke chapter 12, verses 33 through 34. Luke records that he said, sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart will be also. There are many Christians who argue that because Jesus fulfilled the old Jewish law, that giving in churches is now completely unbiblical, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Jesus, time and time again, said that his followers should be generous people, that we should even sell our possessions if need be in order to meet the needs of others. And in the statement, he provides the principle behind it. It's not just about the needs of others, it's about our hearts. We're prone to give our hearts over to stuff. Our time, our attention, our thoughts. We give it over to things, but those things are temporary, and those temporary things often distract us from the eternal things of God. So he says, don't accumulate all this stuff that's gonna grow old, that's gonna break, that can be stolen, that's going to lose value. Don't invest all of your time and money and effort into stuff that you can't take with you. He doesn't say sell all your possessions, give all your money to the poor, because if you don't, God will curse you. There are Old Testament verses that kind of speak to that, but that's because when God made a covenant with his people, he was very clear. He said, if you say yes to this agreement, if you're obedient to what I tell you to do, I'm gonna bless you. If you're disobedient from what I tell you to do, I'm going to remove my blessing from you and you're going to experience consequences. So in the Old Testament, you'll find verses that seem like a God is judging people and will curse people because they're not tithing. That was for them. That was a specific agreement that's not for us. Sometimes you'll hear a pastor use one of those verses to scare people into giving. That's taken out of context. That doesn't apply. Jesus says, this is an issue of your heart. It's for your benefit. It's for the benefit of your relationship between you and me. That you don't give your heart over to stuff, but instead you keep your heart focused on God. Our giving shouldn't be done out of fear. It should be out of gratitude. Gratitude for what? Gratitude for God's generosity, for the endless generosity of Christ. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. The whole reason we are saved, the whole reason we can call ourselves children of God, the whole reason we are co-heirs of heaven with Jesus is because God is endlessly, boundlessly generous. And God's own son, Jesus, left his throne in heaven to become a man, to live a life of poverty, bound by our human bodies, to do what we could not, to pay the price of our sins, so that we can inherit his eternal riches and his kingdom. There is no greater act of generosity than what God has done for us through our Lord Jesus. The question that we have shouldn't be, why should I give? The question we should have is why wouldn't I give? In light of what he has done for that. Why wouldn't I want to give? No. You're not free from giving, you're free to give. Our generosity should be deeply personal. It should be an act of love between us and our Heavenly Father. And what makes it pleasing to God is our hearts. God is happy. God is pleased when we give, when we do it out of love for Him. He is not pleased with those who give with the wrong motivations. And he isn't pleased, he isn't impressed by amounts and percentages. He's pleased by hearts. I mean, to be very clear, God does not need your money. Everything in this universe is his. All of your money is his. If he just wants money, he'll take it. He wants your hearts. And Jesus spoke to the issue of wrong motivations often during his ministry. He said, you could give duffel bags of money, my words, not his. You could give duffel bags of money, making a big scene of it, getting everyone's attention, in order to make yourself look good, in order to feed your ego, make you think that you're better than those who don't give as much. Or in order to just make you think you're a good person. He says, God's not impressed by that. In fact, the attention you're getting from others and that self-satisfaction you're getting is the only reward you're gonna get for that. Because you're not doing it for the right motivations. It's an issue of the heart. That's why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:7, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. My goal today, I want to be very clear, is not to guilt or shame or scare anyone into giving money to the church. My hope is that everyone at the very least walks away with a biblical understanding of why those of us who give give. And hopefully encourage those of us who give. And maybe if there's anyone here who doesn't give, that you will be encouraged and inspired to give. But if at the end of the message, at the end of service today, you think, yeah, I get it, I just don't really want to do it, then please don't do it. Because God doesn't want that. But if you do decide to, or you are now, and you want to give with joy, you might have a question, all right, the the tithe is out. How much? How much do I guess? Well, it's what you decide in your heart. That's what Paul said. We're not held to 10% or 23%, we're also not limited at 10% or 23%. Give whatever you feel God is calling you to give. If that's $5 a week, then five dollars a week. If it's 50% of your salary, then 50% of your salary. But if you say, I I really don't want to give it all, then don't give it all. Because God wants cheerful givers, not reluctant givers, not guilted givers. But you might wonder if you don't. Give well, how on earth could I be cheerful about giving away my money? Well, point three, we give generously because we trust God to provide. We believe that God is the creator, the sustainer, and the source of all good things. All good gifts come from God, including our money, our homes, our food, our clothing. They're all gifts. You might think, well, no, I mean, I work for it. Okay. Who gave you that job? Who put that opportunity in your path at the right time? You work with your hands, who gave you those hands? Who gave you the education that you needed? Who shaped every aspect of your life to enable you to earn your own money? It's God. It's all God's. And if you grow in your understanding of the rich, boundless generosity of God, if you begin to grasp even the tiniest bit of the truth that everything I have is from God, then it enables you to develop such a great trust in Him that you really don't need to worry about finances. Jesus said in Matthew chapter six, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. He says, Oh you of little faith, look around you. Look at the birds. They don't work nine to fives, but God feeds them. Look at the flowers, they don't do anything, but they're clothed better than King Solomon, one of the wealthiest men who's ever lived. Says, don't you think you're more valuable to God than a bird or a flower? Of course you are. So if they aren't worried about whether or not God will give them what they need, why should you? God knows what you need better than you do. So trust Him to provide. Of course, you work and you do what you can to earn money and uh earn a living and to provide for your family, but you do so understanding that still it is God who provides. Some of us really struggle with this. Say, God, I give you everything. God, I trust you with everything, except my bank account. I don't know if I trust you with. Trust me here and now as well. He says, if you just focus on serving God, he will take care of the little things. You don't need to worry about it. And our generosity is a very practical display of trusting God with our finances. It's saying, God, thank you for what you've given me. I know it's all from you. And so I'm giving, I'm choosing to trust in the giver rather than the gift. And I'm going to give some of what you gave me away because I know you will continue to provide. One of the practices of the Old Testament tithe was that it was to be the first fruits, meaning it was the first of the harvest that they gave, not the leftovers. We know that in the early church, we'll get to it. They would give on the first day of the week. It is to really display your trust through giving. I'd encourage you to consider doing it first, not last. Now that we have online giving as an option, still give in person, that's great. But one of the good things about online giving is that as soon as the paycheck hits your account, you can go and tithe. Or you can go and give. What if you run out of money? God's gonna provide. Because what happens if it's the other way around? Oftentimes we get to the end of the week and we say, Well, I don't really have much left over. Because we just spent our money, we blew our budget on things that we don't need. But to give first, to give on Sunday what you got on Friday, is saying, God, I trust what you're gonna do for me this week. I trust in you to provide. And giving with the right attitudes. When we know that we give with the right attitudes, we also know that it will be rewarded. We give generously because we believe in God's promises. We not only trust that God provides, we believe in his promises. All of scripture, Old Testament and New, is full of beautiful promises that God blesses those who are generous for him. Jesus said in Luke chapter 6, verse 38, give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And he's using imagery that they would be familiar with of grain in the marketplace. He says, whatever the grain is, whatever the amount of grain is that you give to God, you know, whether that might be your time, your money, forgiveness to others, mercy to others. Says, whatever it is that you give to others for the sake of God, it will be given back to you. And God will use the same measure, but it gets more beautiful than that. Says, so if you give a cup of grain to God, God's gonna give you a cup of grain back. No shortchanging, same measure. But he's gonna press that grain down to fit more. And then he's going to pour so much grain on the cup that it overflows. People in this time would wear robes. He's saying it will overflow into your lap. You will have to use your robe to carry everything God has poured out upon you. What a beautiful promise. If you give something to God, whatever it is, money, time, effort, energy, God's gonna give it back and more than you could imagine. He's gonna overflow the cup. I kind of think that a a good uh good illustration for that today would be French fries at five guys. You know, you order a cup of fries, and what do they do? They fill the cup of fries, they put the cup of fries in the bag, and they just pour out more fries on top. But this is so much better than five guys. Some of you are gonna get five guys after, probably. God promises to give, God promises to bless those who give. Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 6 through 11, he said the point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, he has distributed feet freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. Give and it will be given to you in more than you gave. Now, does this mean that if you start tithing, if you start giving to the church regularly, you're gonna wake up rich one day? No. Anyone who tells you that is full of it, and truthfully, all they're saying is, give me money and I'll buy a private jet. I mean, that that's all it boils down to. What were promised is that we will be given what we need, and then some. And what's the and then some for? For the sake of giving more. Says, I will give you everything you need, and then I you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way. Says you'll have sufficiency in all things at all times that you may abound in every good work. You trust God with your money, you start being generous for Him. He's gonna not only take care of you, provide what you need, He's gonna give you enough to provide for the needs of others as well. Now, what you need may not be the same as what you want. You're probably not gonna get that Lamborghini. I'm sorry. You're certainly gonna get more than you deserve, amen. And you're gonna be given enough to provide for others, to continue to be generous. Which leads us to this we give generously to help those in need. As Paul said in verse 14 of Titus chapter 3, he said, and let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful. So I might ask, okay, so we're supposed to give money to God, how do we do that? Does he have a bank account? Or uh are we just supposed to burn it like incense? No, please don't do that. If you are considering burning your money, uh just come talk to me. Uh, you know, uh I'll take it off your hands if that's what you need, but no. How do we give money to God? We give money to God by giving it to others in God's name. Think of it this way: while our hand extends the gift to someone else, our heart is extending it to God. We do it for God. When when someone gives a gift to my son, it makes me happy. That's how it is with God. We're giving gifts to his children, and when we're saying, Hey, I'm doing it in your name, that's what he cares about. So, who exactly do we give it to, though? Well, we give it to those in need, particularly fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. This standard was set before us by the early church. Acts chapter 2, verses 43 through 45 says, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. Now, this verse is often misinterpreted or misunderstood. This wasn't communism. They didn't sell all of their possessions and their homes and then just pile it all together and distribute it uh evenly. What they did was that if a brother, sister in Christ had a financial need, couldn't afford food, and maybe I didn't have extra food for them, but I had something that I could sell, then I would sell it so that I can buy them food. That's what they did. And we know they didn't sell everything because where did the early church meet? In people's homes. So people still owned things, people still had property, but they were generous. They provided for others in whatever way that they could. That is true Christian love, sacrificial love, seeking to alleviate the burdens of others. Too often we shop, we stop short of that, which is something that James, the half-brother of Jesus, spoke to. He said, What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Says, if you have a true faith in God, that faith is going to become evident by what you do. And it should especially be evident in how you give. He says, if you all right, so you believe in God, you believe he's the creator of all things, you believe he's given you all things, but then you see a brother or sister in need, and you say, Yeah, I'm not gonna do anything about it. He says, What kind of faith is that? Not a living faith. That's no faith at all. True faith is evident in the things we do and in how we give. Practically, what does this look like? Does it mean giving money to people at the side of the road? Sure. It can. It can also be that when you find out a fellow church member is struggling to pay a bill this month, you say, Hey, I'll help bridge the gap for you. And we don't enable bad habits. Paul also says that someone doesn't work, they're choosing not to work, if they just don't have money because they're lazy, then that's on them. Don't reward that. But if you see someone in need, especially a fellow Christian, you seek to meet it if you're able to. It also means giving to Christian organizations and ministries who support those in need. This is something that we do as a church. There are uh five different organizations that we support. Um, here are four of them: there's New Hope Family Services. New Hope Family Services provides um resources and free um sonograms and things for um women who are facing an unexpected pregnancy and whose only other alternative may be abortion. Uh they love and they minister to those people. They will provide food and clothing and diapers to those who can't afford it. They give free um, you know, sonograms and allow for the mom to see their baby. Uh, Kate and I actually, before we had um her doctor set up, we got um a free ultrasound through them. It was beautiful and it was incredible to meet them. Um and so we support them financially and the good work that they do. Um, really a necessary need in our community. We also support 99-1. Many of you have met uh Annie Bullard. Uh, she started 99-1, and what they do is they just go out and they love women who are working in strip clubs and who are sex workers, and they go and they bring gifts to them and they do Bible studies with them, and they just let them know hey, regardless of what the world may say, you have value, you have worth. Jesus died for you, and they'll help free people from those lives. So we give to them. We also give to the uh BCNY cooperative um program, the Baptist Convention of New York. They have this co-op program where Baptist churches give money to them and they distribute it to a bunch of missions and a bunch of organizations. And so um, and you know, it's all organizations and missions that we would uh believe and support. So we give to them as well. And then we give to Gideons International. Um, the organization you may know it is the people who put the uh the Bible in uh next to the hotel bed. Um, you know, when you open the drawer, there's a little Bible in there. It's from the Gideons. They actually do a lot more than that, by the way. But they um distribute Bibles, tons of Bibles, uh around the world and in the US, and they equip people to bring Bibles into schools and uh workplaces and to just share the gospel. Um, we had a friend uh who's a Gideon uh come here last year and he shared a course of just how to share your faith. So we support them and the good work that they do. So when you give to the church, if you're to give money to Lampson Road or whatever local church you belong to, uh, it not only supports the church's needs, but also organizations as well. And we here seek to care for our own. When we learn that there is someone in the church who is facing a severe financial hardship, we will get to get the leadership, we'll get together and we'll evaluate what we can afford to do for them. And yes, you give to everyone you can, but there is always an emphasis in scripture that it's family first, our brothers and sisters in Christ, because we're called to love one another. Next, we give generously to support those in ministry. As he said in verse 13, do your best to speed Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their way, see that they lack nothing. He mentions two men, Zenus and Apollos, here. Um, this is the only time we learn of Zenus. We don't really know of anything else about him. Apollos is pretty notable uh in the Bible. You first encounter him in the book of Acts. He became a very powerful Christian teacher. Um, but we know that there are teachers and missionaries for Christ. They were co-ministers with Paul. They were perhaps the ones who actually delivered this message to Titus. And so he says to Titus Hey, encourage uh the church to meet their needs, make sure that they have money, make sure they have a place to stay for the night, that they have decent shoes, that they're fed, give them cash for the road, uh, fill their gas for them. And send them on their way. It says supply for the needs of these ministers. I'll be the first to admit it. Whenever we talk about this, it gets a little awkward for me to talk about giving to ministers as a minister, as a pastor. It can seem very self-serving, which is something that I'm trying to avoid. But I do have a duty to preach and teach God's word. It's what I am paid for. So that's what I'm going to do. And scripture has some very clear things to say on the matter. In the Old Testament, as I mentioned, the tithe was used partially to feed Levitical priests. In the New Testament, Christians are still commanded to provide for the needs of those who work full-time in ministry, specifically preaching and teaching the gospel. Paul wrote to Timothy, Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages. Now it's on this issue that there's a lot of pushback. So why pay them? They shouldn't need that, right? And oftentimes when people argue this, they'll point to Paul and they'll say, Well, you know, Paul was bivocational. He worked two jobs. Paul was also a tent maker. And that is true. However, this was a personal choice of Paul. Not a it was a deliberate act of giving up what was rightfully his. There are a lot of people in Paul's life who challenged his role as an apostle. And so he defended himself and was like, no, I am an apostle. This is why. And this is one of his defenses. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 3 through 15. He says, This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as the as do the other apostles and the brother brothers of the Lord and Cephas, who is Peter? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? And he's being kind of sarcastic there. Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plough in hope, and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do we not have, or do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. In other words, Paul is saying, Barnabas and I had every right to seek payment for our services, because that is the command of Christ for the church. Pay your pastors. But knowing that this could serve as an obstacle for these particular people, he chose instead to work with his hands, work as a tent maker to provide for himself. But this was the exception, not the rule. In fact, we know that in other churches he did accept payment, because he said to the Philippians, I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. So don't say, hey, Paul is you know bivocational, he didn't accept payment. He didn't from the Corinthians, but he did from others. Because that is God's command for the church. Now the question is, how much? How much do we pay pastors? This is enough that they are well supplied. The goal for every congregation should be a livable wage that is reasonable for the congregation to give, which varies depending on where you live. Rent in New York City is $4,000 a month. You want to own a home in LA? Be a pastor in LA? Homes are a million dollars. All right, so the church has got to figure out what a livable wage is. It depends on family size, it depends on stage of life. I heard John Piper say a church shouldn't seek to make a pastor rich nor to keep him poor. The goal for every congregation should be to equip the pastor with what they need to do their job full time. It's funny that oftentimes the people who say pastors shouldn't be paid are the ones who demand the most from a pastor. Pastors shouldn't be paid, but I want them available 24-7 for when I need to call them for a prayer request. They better be visiting hospitals. They need to do counseling. There needs to be two services on Sunday and a Bible study every week, and they need to do it all for free. It's not gonna happen. Pastor Ronnie has often talked about, you know, just for fun, every now and then he'll scroll through, you know, job listings for pastors on one of the Baptist pages. And, you know, it'll often say part-time pay. Or no, it'll often say it's a part-time role. But what it really means is it's part-time pay. Because when you read through all the job expectations, that's not part-time. So if you want a pastor to perform at his best, to do what he is truly called to do, to serve the congregation well, then the congregation should do everything it can to ensure that he can do so. And the pastor doesn't even need to be the highest paid. Nowhere does it say that either. I mean, if we were to get more staff, and I'm like, hey, my family is fine, but there's someone else who has more medical needs and who has a family of six, and they live maybe a little bit further out and they have to commute, then give them what they need to be a livable wage. But it's not just about pastors. As a church, um, the fifth organization that we support is JCF Ministries International. Some of you know Jay, a missionary uh who has visited here a couple of times and spoken. He goes to Middle Eastern countries and he rescues Christians from persecution. Uh, people who are at risk of losing their lives, and many of them have lost family members and jobs and their homes due to their faith. And he goes over there, he ministers to them, and he he tries to get them to safety. So we give to him as well. People give to him support to him so that he can do the good work he's called to do. And lastly, we give to support the local church. If I can find that page of my notes. We give generously to support the local church. As a congregation of people who gather together on a weekly basis, who meet in a building that and who provide services, who minister to others, their financial needs. Might be surprised to hear this, but everything costs money. Nothing is free. As time goes on, things cost more money. As we grow and mature, so do our financial needs. We have new ministries here that we didn't have several years ago. Our building is aging and there is work that needs to be done. We have more staff than we did a few years ago. Yes, God will provide, but how does he do that? He does that through people. And the practice of giving to the local congregation finds its source in the early church. First Corinthians chapter 16, verses 1 through 2, Paul gave the instruction. Now, concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. It's a very practical instruction. When you get together, when you gather together on Sunday, that's when you give. That's when you give it to the church. It's what we're called to do as well. It's what many, most of you do. And that's a beautiful thing. And we never force people to give. In fact, you might notice on Easters or Christmas, when we do the announcement video, I take out the part about information of where to give because that's not what I want uh first-time attendees to be hit with when they get here. It is something that we hold as an expectation for those who voluntarily say they want to be a member. It's one of the expectations of membership. You say, hey, I'm joining the church. I want to pray for the church, I want to be involved with the church, I want to invite people to the church, I want to serve in the church, and I want to give to the church. But that's a voluntary commitment. And we're not one of those churches that asks for people's tax statements and do the math and say, you're only giving 9.5%, not the full 10. You know, we don't do that. But the hope is that whether it's this church or another church, you believe in what they're doing enough to want to support it, not just with time and effort and energy, but with money as well. If that's Lampson Road, if you believe in what we're doing, then I hope that you have a desire to support what we do. And not just so that we have coffee and not just so that there's heat or we have paper notes and pens, but so that we can do all of the work that we do and more. I'll close with this. Some people might be tempted to say that's great, but money's tight. I mean, look at the gas prices, cost of eggs and milk. Say I I'm not really in a place for it, I can afford to do it. Again, I don't want anyone to do it against their will, but I do want to encourage you that the key to financial peace isn't security, it's surrender. We often think that all of our financial worries will go away when we just make a little more, or when we have a bit more saved up, or when we secure that position, or when we have the bigger house, or we have the newer car, but that's not true. Some of you make more now than you did a decade ago, and you're just as, if not more, stressed about money now than when you were then. Some of you have the car or the house or the position that you always dreamed of having, and you're still stressed about money because it's never enough. Peace doesn't come from financial security. Peace comes only from being content with what you have. Paul wrote first Timothy chapter six verses six through ten but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. Many of our financial concerns, let's be honest, many of our financial stress and anxiety, a lot of it is just caused by a lack of contentment. We weren't content with the old house that we have. So we bought a bigger, newer one that we can't really afford. We weren't content enough to just buy a used car off the lot that can just get us from point A to point B. So we bought a brand new car with all the gadgets and gizmos and the insane monthly payments and the insurance that's just out of the roof. Because we weren't content to settle for the basics. We're not hoping our happy with our current phones or our closet full of clothes or the things on our shelves. So we just keep getting more beyond what we can afford, beyond what our budget has room for, and none of it satisfies. It just leads us further into worry and to want until we, as Paul says, pierce ourselves with many pangs, until it even leads us into financial ruin and destruction. And all of it is avoidable just by being content with what God has given us. Using our money and our possessions to bless others in his name rather than trying to fill that God-shaped hole in our hearts with stuff. And if we do that, we are encouraged by the promise that God will bless us with everything we need and more. Not just in heaven, but here now as well.