Giving Up Rights to Effectively Serve

Transcript

GR 1327
06-04-06
Giving up Rights to Effectively Serve
I Corinthians 9:15-18
Gil Rugh

We're studying the book of I Corinthians together, and we're in chapter 9, so turn in your Bibles if you would to I Corinthians 9. We're really talking about the marvelous grace of God bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ, a grace that has brought to us a gift, that gift being life. In his letter to the Romans the Apostle Paul wrote that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We've been justified as a gift by His grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Almost piles up redundancy, a gift by His grace. A gift is something undeserved or unearned, grace is something undeserved, unearned. We've been given something that we did not deserve because of God's grace which we did not deserve that has come to us through Jesus Christ, His death on our behalf and our believing in Him.

It is on this foundation that the Apostle Paul is building his discussion in
I Corinthians 8-10, for he is talking about how we use the liberty and freedom that we have entered into in Christ Jesus. There has been some disagreement that has developed in the church at Corinth, disagreement among believers. It centers around the issue of idol worship and the eating of food offered to idols. The Apostle Paul is laying a broader foundation, a deeper foundation before he gets into certain specifics of that matter. He's talked about the rights we have as believers. We have the right to eat whatever foods we want. There are no binding restrictions on us in Christ regarding partaking of certain foods or not partaking of certain foods. However, we must understand that in this area as well as other areas where we have liberty or rights as God's people, it doesn't mean that it is always the best thing, the proper thing, the right thing to use our rights. So Paul is discussing how we should use the freedom that we have in Christ.

And in chapter 9 he's using himself as an example. As an apostle he has the right to be supported by those that he ministers to. He established this by using examples. For example, in verse 5, do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles, as the brothers of the Lord, as Cephas? These men traveled with their wives, had wives, and supported both them and their families by the gifts of the people they ministered to. He used the example from everyday life in verse 7, soldiers are supported as they carry out their responsibilities. Those who own vineyards benefit from their labor in the vineyard, those who care for flocks benefit from caring for their flocks. In other words, the laborer is worthy of his hire. Beginning in verse 8 he established that from Old Testament scriptures. Verse 9, the Law of Moses says you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing. And that teaches us a principle that those who labor should benefit from their labor. Not just because God wanted to see that oxen are cared for. What is true for the oxen is true for His workers as well, that we should labor in hope. Verse 13, the priest and the Levites who were responsible for the ministry of God's Word and the spiritual care of God's people in the Old Testament were supported by God's people. God made provision, when the people brought sacrifices and offerings, that a portion of those were to be given to the priests and the Levites, so that they were supported in their ministry.

So Paul makes the application to himself. Verse 11, if we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you. So I am working in God's field, as he talks about it in I Corinthians 3. I am sowing the seed of the Word of God, you are receiving spiritual benefit from my ministry. Is it any big thing that I should reap material benefits from you, that I should be supported by you, that my needs would be met by you. That principle of reaping from what they have sowed, of benefiting from the labor, Paul says applies to me. It's to be true of me also as a servant of God.

But Paul's point in doing all this, in establishing what his rights are, in what he had the liberty and freedom and more than the right to do as an apostle, he spends all this time to make the point. But I choose not to use that right to be supported. In other words he's setting an example, not just so we would learn about the Apostle Paul's lifestyle, not just that we would have some examples on being paid for the ministry, but that so we would learn that whatever our area of service as God's people, we would learn how to use our rights properly. When Paul concludes this section over in chapter 11 verse 1 he'll say, be imitators of me as I also am of Christ. So the Spirit of God is giving Paul as an example for all of us to learn that there are times when the best thing to do is give up the use of our rights for the benefit of other believers, for the furtherance of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In verse 12 of chapter 9 Paul said, if others share the right over you, do not we the more. Nevertheless we did not use this right, and that's his point. He spends all this time belaboring what his right is so that it can be clear to them he didn't use his right in this area. We did not use this right. He makes the point down in verse 15, but I have used none of these things. The point is the Corinthians were caught up in arguing what their rights were, this was creating a conflict in the church because some did not understand that that was a right, a liberty. And those who understood it were determined that no one is going to limit me, no one can tell me what I should do. I don't live under anybody's authority, anybody's law. I know my liberty in Christ, I know my freedom and no one will put restrictions on me. That's not a godly attitude. Paul's approach to it is softer, let's talk about how we want to use our rights, be careful that our knowledge doesn't stop with knowledge but it leads us on into love, as he started chapter 8. Let me use myself as an example, he says. I'm an apostle, I have the right to be supported in my ministry. That's a general principle of life, that's what the other servants of the Lord are doing in their apostolic ministry and so on. That's what the Old Testament specified. That's in verse 14, what the Lord directed during His earthly ministry and he sent out the 70 two-by-two and he said you are to be supported by those you minister to. They should provide for your lodging, they should provide your clothing, they should provide your food. So this is the principle established in life, it's established in the Old Testament, it's established in the earthly ministry of Christ. And it's God's plan that those, verse 14, who proclaim the gospel get their living from the gospel.

Now in verses 15-18 he's going to elaborate on why he didn't use that right. Then beginning with verse 19 he'll show that even though he is free he has chosen to enslave himself to others for the sake of the gospel. For Paul everything has to be shaped by his service for the living God and what will make his service most effective. The end of verse 12, we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel. Down in verse 23, I do all things for the sake of the gospel. It's not about my rights, it's about the gospel; it's not what I can prove I am free to do, it's what will make me the most effective servant in the proclamation of the gospel.

So he begins in verse 15 by explaining and elaborating and why he didn't use his rights to be supported by the Corinthians. Verse 15, but I have used none of these things, and I am not writing these things so that it will be done so in my case. For it would be better for me to die than to have any man make my boast an empty one. I have used none of these things. This is not just true of Paul's life and ministry in Corinth, this was the general pattern of the Apostle Paul's ministry. Wherever he went he made it a practice not to accept material support from those he was ministering to. When he came from Asia Minor at the call of God into Greece, he first ministered in a major way in the city of Philippi. Then he began his journey across and down toward the southern part of Greece, and he went from Philippi to Thessalonica to Berea to Athens to Corinth, all Greek cities where he had a ministry. Now when he ministered in Thessalonica before he came to Corinth, he followed the same practice. He didn't accept money from the Thessalonians either.

Turn over to I Thessalonians 2. Paul ministered for a relatively short time, from what we can tell, in the city of Thessalonica. And shortly after leaving Thessalonica he wrote this letter back to the believers that had been established there. And in I Thessalonians 2:9 Paul says, 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. You see we worked day and night so we wouldn't be a burden to you, so you wouldn't have to pay or take of your possessions to support us. You get an idea of what Paul's life was like. We sometimes think as we read these letters of Paul that he got up early in the morning and from early morning to late at night he did nothing but teach and preach the Word of God. You know what Paul did for a good part of the day? He toiled and labored with his hands to make a living so that at the end of a hard day's labor, then, he could get involved in the ministry that God had called him to. So that on the Sabbath day he could be in the synagogue preaching the Word, and so on.

Look over in his second letter to the Thessalonians, II Thessalonians 3. In verse 7 he talks about the discipline he exercised and he's going to talk about that at the end of I Corinthians 9, when we get there. Then look at verse 8, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you. Not because we don't have the right, there's our word right, the authority. We have the right to be supported by you but we chose not to exercise it. Labor and hardship, we kept working night and day so we wouldn't be a burden to any of you. Remarkable to think. We think of Paul in full time ministry, and he was, but you know his full time ministry was more like what many of you are doing for much of his life, than what I'm doing. Because he was working hard all day long. But you know, Paul never lost sight of what his life was about. It was about his service for Jesus Christ. He doesn't talk all the time about how hard it was working all day, the difficulties in the job, the difficulties with people he had to work with, on and on and on. We almost, it's just in little glimpses he mentions it. Because for Paul that wasn't what he really did, what he really did was serve the Lord with the gift God had given him, even though that may not be done until after a hard day's work. On the Sabbath day when he might have had some freedom to minister in the synagogue or teach God's people in a special setting.

So Paul is following this practice wherever he goes. Come back to Acts 18, and you have the account in this section of Acts, in chapter 16 he's in the city of Philippi, then in chapter 17 he comes into Thessalonica, which we just read from the letter to the Thessalonians. And then to Berea, then his ministry at Athens, and then in chapter 18 he arrives at Corinth which will be in the southern part of Greece. In the northern part where Philippi was, that was Macedonia, the province of Macedonia. They call it the county of Macedonia. The southern part was the province of Achaia. And he comes, after he leaves Athens, to Corinth as Acts 18 opens up. And there he met some Jews who had been exiled from Rome by an edict of Claudius, which secular history tells us about, and Claudius declared that all the Jews had to leave Rome. And Priscilla and Aquilla, husband and wife team, end up coming and settling in Corinth. Isn't it amazing how God uses.......... Here you have the emperor of Rome, Claudius, giving a decree that all Jews must leave Rome. What a tragedy, what a terrible disgrace. All in the plan of God. It means that Aquilla and Priscilla will be in Corinth. And they were tentmakers by trade and so was the Apostle Paul. So verse 3 tells us, he stayed with them because he was of the same trade. And they were working, for by trade they were tentmakers, leather workers. So we know what Paul did to make a living, to provide for himself, to pay for his lodging, for his clothes, for his food. He worked hard, laboring night and day, taking care of himself.

So that's what he did at Corinth as well. Now I want you to note. Look at verse 5 in this chapter. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, remember Paul is in the southern part of Greece, in the province of Achaia, Macedonia is in the north. Philippi, for example, is in Macedonia. Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word. What does that mean? Well when Silas and Timothy who had been left behind by Paul to continue the ministry that had been established in Philippi, finally arrived in Corinth following Paul, they brought financial gifts from the Philippians that enabled Paul to break off his manual labor and devote himself more fully to his ministry. Now I mention this because I want you to note, it doesn't mean that Paul never accepted gifts from believers, but he did not accept them from the people he was ministering to at that time.

Turn over to Philippians 4:15, but you yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone. So you are unique. You're the only church that sent money to support me in my ministry in other places. For even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Paul wasn't even in Thessalonica a long time, but more than once someone came from the church at Philippi with a financial offering and said, this is to help support Paul in his ministry. So you see Paul would accept money from the Philippians when he was ministering in Thessalonica, or when he was ministering in Corinth, because then the Thessalonians couldn't say, oh Paul is here preaching to us because he wants money. Because Paul wouldn't take money from them. The same at Corinth. But when the Philippians sent money to support his ministry in other places no one could say he was ministering in Philippi for money. So he was very careful that he did not accept offerings from those he was ministering to. Now these obviously didn't support him completely all of the time, because while he was at Thessalonica he still had to work. We think it is hard to make a living today, you have to work long hours. You had to in those days as well.

So Paul could tell the Thessalonians he had to work hard night and day so he wouldn't be a burden to them, even though at times the Philippians supplemented him. And a great testimony, the Philippian church. Paul says in verse 17, not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance. I have amply supplied having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent. You know what? They are sending another gift. You know where Paul is when he writes this letter to the Philippians? He's in prison in Rome and the Philippians continued this pattern. We want to be part of Paul's ministry and the ministry of God's Word wherever he is, and so we sent another offering. What you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. Any wonder he said in verse 17, not that I seek the gift itself, I seek for the profit that increases to your account. I am most pleased, not that I benefit, but that you benefit, because what you have sent has been a sacrifice that has been well-pleasing to God, he says at the end of verse 18, though they are the greatest beneficiaries of their gift.

Come back to Acts 20. We see that Paul didn't accept money from those that he ministered to while he was ministering to them. But on other occasions he did receive gifts from churches that he had established and now they were helping in his ministry in other places. In Acts 20 Paul is talking about, before he crossed over into Greece he had a ministry in Ephesus. There was a church established there and Paul talks about his ministry in Ephesus. What happens after he leaves Greece, he stops and calls for the elders to come meet him in a nearby city, near Ephesus. He's on his way to Jerusalem and he needs to get back. But he calls the elders from the church at Ephesus and he addresses them. And I want you to note what he says about his ministry when he ministered in Ephesus at a previous time. Verse 33, I have coveted no one's silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the needs of the men who were with me. In everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord that said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

You know what? Before Paul ever went to Greece it was his pattern. He spent three years in Ephesus and he tells the Ephesian elders, you remember what my pattern of ministry was when I was with you. I worked hard to support myself, my own hands ministered to my needs. This was a driving passion of the Apostle Paul that he is going to give some explanation for as we proceed in I Corinthians 9. But I have to say I am reminded that the Apostle Paul just didn't have the luxury every day just to study and teach. The Apostle Paul was working hard at what we would call a secular profession—a leather worker. Hard work trying to make enough a get by. You know, labor, toil day and night so that he could fully support himself so that he could do what he really believed God had called him to do, and that was preach the Word.

Come back to I Corinthians 9. Now Paul is not telling the Corinthians about his rights because he wants them to step up to the plate and start to support him. Verse 15 he say, I have used none of these things and I am not writing these things so that it will be done so in my case. Don't misunderstand, I'm not writing this to you so that you will start sending me money. For it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one. This is really an emotional statement. You can tell the way that Paul expresses it. We have smoothed it out in Greek, but it is the kind of choppy sentence that happens when a person gets emotionally wrapped up in what he is saying, when he says that it would be better for me to die. And then the sentence breaks off. No man can make my boast an empty one. We have smoothed it, than to have any man. But he says it would be better for me to die. No man can make my boast an empty one. Two sentences, they don't flow. The first one breaks off and Paul is so passionate about this. I will never give anyone any reason to raise an issue in this area. And so don't misunderstand, I'm writing here to give you an example of the proper way to use your rights. Don't get the idea that I am looking for anything from you, because I'd rather die than do that. That's why he could speak so glowingly of the offering of the Philippians because Paul wasn't sitting there thinking, these churches ought to be supporting me. And so when they did Paul is just amazed, and then he can tell them, you understand, this was given to the Lord. You are the real beneficiary, but I do appreciate it.

Verse 16, for if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of. For I am under compulsion, for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. Paul does preach the gospel, but I have nothing to boast of in preaching the gospel. We look at it and say, Paul preached the gospel, what a person. I mean, think of his reward, think of his glory. But Paul says, that is no credit to me because I don't do this voluntarily. I'm under compulsion, I'm under divine necessity. I didn't volunteer to preach the gospel, I was drafted, I was placed under necessity by God Himself to do this. So I have nothing to boast about. Don't think, oh Paul, he stepped up to the plate, he was willing to volunteer himself and sacrifice everything to become a preacher of the gospel. Paul says, don't give me any credit, this wasn't my choice. I was placed under compulsion, God put this necessity on me. It is something I must do, if I don't do it, woe is me. Remarkable statement, strong statement. Paul is under divine necessity.

Turn over to Galatians 1, Paul gives his testimony here about what God had done in his life. And it's a strong testimony. Beginning in verse 15, but when God, who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace was pleased to reveal His Son in me, so that I might preach him among the Gentiles. Now note, Paul says this goes back to before I was born, this goes back to where I was still in the womb. God set me apart, called me through His grace. That was the plan of God. His salvation was the work of God before his birth. I want you to note, not only his salvation, but his service. God set me apart, verse 15, from my mother's womb. He called me through His grace when He was pleased to reveal His Son in me, so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles. You know what, Paul says, my salvation, it delivered me from the penalty of death and hell. That's true, but it's not what he says here. My salvation has provided for me the wondrous inheritance in heaven. That's true, but it's not what he says here. God saved me so that I might preach for Him, my service. Verse 16, He was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles. We'll get to this when we get to the spiritual gifts, but it ought to be established in your heart and mind right now, God saved you to serve Him. God is not looking for volunteers, He's made the decision, He's called you to Himself in His sovereign plan. And in His sovereign plan He has appointed your service. That's not an option. I don't say, well, I think I'll volunteer. You better find out what God ordained for you to do as one He has called to Himself, and be about doing it. That's an inseparable part of your service, that's where Paul is going by the time we get further on in chapter 9. We aren't volunteers, when we get to chapter 12 and talk about the gifts, God has provided His Spirit to enable us to do the work that He has ordained for us to do when He called us. He just didn't get a group of people together, I think I'll save this group of people. Look at the crowd we have, now I have to decide, what am I going to do with them? Get a conference of angels together, how do you think we could best use this group. You know I saved them, now I have to find something to do with them. No. Nor did He say, I'm going to save them and then I'll wait until they get old enough, then I'm going to see what they want to do. From the womb God determined He was going to call you to Himself and use you in a certain way in serving Him in the ministry that He has appointed for you. Divine necessity in our ministry.

Come back to Jeremiah 1. This is true of Jeremiah the prophet as it was of Paul. One of my favorite portions of the Old Testament, the call of Jeremiah. I have to be careful when I read my favorite portions because I always think, I'll take a break and preach that. Almost did that recently in Jeremiah 1 again. Verse 5, before I formed you in the womb I knew you. I placed my favor upon you, I chose you for myself. That's what He means when says I knew you. Of course He knows everybody in the womb with that general knowledge as the omnipotent, all omniscient God, all powerful, all knowing. Jeremiah, I chose you like Adam knew his wife and she conceived, that relationship of intimacy was established. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I consecrated you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nation. You see that connected with God's call to salvation is God's appointment to service. As I mentioned when we get to the spiritual gifts in chapter 12 we'll find out that's true of all of us. Sad that some Christians wander around thinking that they may do the Lord a favor periodically by serving Him. Understand, whatever you do to put bread on the table, to pay the bills, that's not what you do. What you do is your service for the Lord. He ordained that the time that He chose you for Himself, and that goes back before the womb. In fact in Ephesians 1 Paul says that goes back before the foundation of the world. So Paul says that was true of me, it was true of Jeremiah. We say, oh these are just exceptional men. No, this is true of all of us, that He has divinely appointed our service for Him.
Paul is concerned that people understand his passion for his ministry. And he can boast that he serves the Lord, but it's not a self-centered boast. He wouldn't let any man make his boast an empty one. If I'm under divine compulsion to serve the Lord......... Turn to Jeremiah 9, this is what Paul has in mind when he refers to Jeremiah here. When he talks about boasting and my boast, he's not boasting about how great he is as an apostle, not boasting about his abilities, not boasting about what a great sacrifice I make. Verse 23, thus says the Lord, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, let not a mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches. You know we as believers need that reminder. Sometimes you meet people you haven't seen for a long time, believers, and you say, how are you doing, how is your family? Oh things are going well, I got a promotion, our kids are doing great, they graduated with honors and they have great jobs and are making lots of money and have a fine home. Wait a minute, wait a minute. We all like to brag about our kids, so to speak, and now our grandkids. But what really matters. How are they doing spiritually? Where are they in their walk with the Lord? The first thing that comes to my mind when someone wants to know, say, God has blessed us greatly. Our kids are walking with the Lord, are involved in serving Him. We praise the Lord for that. That doesn't mean you don't say where they are living, what kind of job they have. But that's not what ought to come first to my mind. I don't want to boast about wisdom, they graduated with honors. Boast about oh, they got an important job. They're really rising in the ranks. Boast of their riches, oh they're doing well, making far more money than I ever did. Does that matter? Anybody care how much Paul made as a tentmaker? Anybody care how big his business was? Not really. That's why he doesn't talk about those things. Here is a man working all day to make tents and leather goods and it hardly ever comes up for mention in his letter. Why? Because that's not what matters. What matters is my service for the Lord, my diligence for Him.

But let him who boasts, boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, righteousness on earth. For I delight in these things, declares the Lord. That's what Paul says, nobody can make my boast, my glorying an empty one because I'm boasting in the Lord. My ministry, my message is about Him and what He has done for us in Christ, and I am a living example of that. So there is the proper kind of boast. Let me tell you about my Lord, let me tell you about my Savior, let me tell you about what He has done in my life, let me tell you about how He has placed me in His service. But don't you have an important job and make lots of money? My important job, my greatest rewards are in my service for the Lord.

One of the very wealthy men in Philadelphia of a bygone century, I believe it was John Wanamaker. If you are from Philadelphia you knew about the Wanamakers. And at one time they had a vast wealth in their department stores. But he was asked one time about his job and his great wealth and the department stores he has. And he says, that's not my job. I do that to provide a living. My job is teaching Sunday School, that's what I do. That was the proper perspective. That's what Paul is talking about, and that's what God is speaking through Jeremiah.

Come to I Corinthians 1. Paul puts this in proper context. At the end of chapter 1, he talked about the foolishness of the cross. But he says in verse 28, the base things of the world, the despised God has chosen. The things that are not so they might nullify the things that are. So that no man may boast before God, but by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord, quoting from the section we just read in Jeremiah. So verse 29, so that no man may boast before God. Can't boast of his abilities, his intellect, what he has done because it is all of God. So any boasting we have is in our God, glorying in Him. Paul will quote that from Jeremiah again in II Corinthians 10:17.

Now jump back to Jeremiah 20. Paul said I am under compulsion. Woe is me if I don't preach the gospel. And in Jeremiah 20, we saw in chapter 1 he had been divinely appointed to his role as a prophet. Remember what Jeremiah's response was? Oh Lord, I can't do that, I'm just a youth. Oh Lord, I can't do that, I can't speak. I mean do we ever stop and think of what we say when we talk to God? I mean, think of God sitting on His throne and we come before His throne and we speak nonsense. I mean, what is wrong with us? God says to Jeremiah, I called you from the womb, from the womb I knew you. I consecrated you to be a prophet and Jeremiah opens his mouth and says, I'm just a kid. And so God didn't know how old Jeremiah was. Lord, let me remind you, I'm only a young man. God doesn't need reminding. You know what God tells Jeremiah? Be quiet, don't tell me you're just a kid. I mean God invites us to come with confidence, but not with cockiness before His throne. We don't come to tell God how it is and Jeremiah is a great prophet, but even there he had to be rebuked and God had to tell him, don't tell me what you are, don't tell me what you can do. I have appointed you, you'll do what I tell you.

Even when Jeremiah didn't feel like doing it, look at verse 7 of Jeremiah 20. Oh Lord you have deceived me and I was deceived. You have overcome me and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long, everyone mocks me. You think that when the call to Jeremiah is so strong in chapter 1 and he's got a ministry divinely ordained by God you can expect success. Jeremiah says, I was tricked. None of this has worked out the way I would hope. I've become a laughingstock all day long, everyone mocks me. For each time I speak I cry aloud, I proclaim violence and destruction. He had to preach about sin and judgment. Because for me the word of the Lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long. I'm not accomplishing anything, I'm just making more trouble for myself, my life is going from bad to worse, humanly speaking. But if I say I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name, then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire, shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in, I cannot endure. I'm under divine compulsion, I can't not serve the Lord, I can't not do what God has appointed me to do.

That's what Paul says, I'm under compulsion, divine necessity. You say, well they were unique. You understand, you have been called to God to enter into His salvation through faith in Christ. You have been divinely appointed to service, you better be living as though you are under divine necessity. That's where Paul is going, because we are His servants.

Come back to I Corinthians 9. Look at verse 17, if he didn't preach, he'd be under judgment, the end of verse 16. For if I do this voluntarily I have a reward, but if against my will I have a stewardship entrusted to me. Now let me make some comments about this verse because I don't think it's too clear the way it is. If I do this voluntarily, meaning of my own free will. In other words, if I had volunteered for this job, if I had chosen this responsibility as a preacher of the gospel for myself, I would have a reward in it. But if against my will, that translated against my will may give you the wrong idea. It's the same word as we have it voluntarily made negative. So if I do this voluntarily or of my own free will I have a reward. But if it's not of my own free will, if I didn't volunteer for it, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. That's what he said in verse 16. I do this by divine necessity, God placed me under compulsion, I'm required to do this. So you might think if I volunteered for it there would be great reward for me, but I didn't volunteer for it. This wasn't something I chose for myself of my own free will. I have a stewardship entrusted to me. I mean, that has to be so because this decision was made for him when he was still in the womb. Just like it was for Jeremiah. We read in Galatians 1, Paul said that God chose him from his mother's womb and determined he would be in Christ so he could preach the gospel. So Paul said I didn't volunteer for this. We get a wrong idea and people paddling around churches thinking well, I may do something for the Lord and I'm sure He'll be very pleased. Woe to you if you don't do what God has ordained and appointed for you as His servant. Woe to me if I do anything else. So Paul says, I don't get any credit for preaching the gospel. I'm like Jeremiah, I didn't have any choice. You don't have any choice about what your gift is, we'll see that when we get to chapter 12.

What then is my reward, verse 18. That when I preach the gospel I may offer the gospel without charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. Verse 17, I didn't volunteer, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. The word stewardship is a compound word, house and law, house-law. It was a servant entrusted with the care of the household or a portion of the household. Paul said I am a servant in God's household, the church. That's all I am. There is no credit for me for doing what a steward does. Jesus told a parable, we won't turn there for time, but in Luke 17 He told a parable of a slave. At the end of that parable He said to His disciples in Luke 17:10, so you, too, when you do all the things which you are commanded to do, say this, we are unworthy slaves. We have done only that which we ought to do. When a slave does everything he has been told to do, there is no extra credit. He just did what he was required to do as a slave. Jesus said to His disciples, remember that, you are my slaves. So you do everything I tell you to do, don't think you've done anything extra. You've just done exactly what a slave is told to do. A household is such a slave or a servant.

Turn over to Colossians 1:25, of this church I was made a minister, a diakanus, a servant. According to the stewardship, there's our word, a stewardship was entrusted to me. According to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God. Paul said I was made a servant in God's church, I have a stewardship, a household responsibility entrusted to me, which is the preaching of the gospel. When I do that there is no extra credit, I've simply done what God called and gifted me to do.

All right, come back to I Corinthians 9:18. What then is my reward? I mean there is no reward for me in doing just what a slave is to do. It is when I preach the gospel I may offer the gospel without charge. Paul had to preach, he had no choice, but he didn't have to preach for free. As God's slave, God had given him the right to be supported by those that he preached to, that he ministered to. But Paul says, I choose not to use that right. That is where my reward is. My willingness to suffer, not because he liked pain, but so he could go beyond what was required in his ministry with a desire to be more effective in that ministry. We all know what it's like, there are people who do their job and we have people who go beyond what is required in their job and do more. If they had done just what was required, they would have met the responsibilities, they would have been a good employee. But there are some who go beyond what could be expected. That's not required of them, they don't need to do that, but they do. And it makes them more effective, makes their work more effective. That's what Paul said, I preach the gospel, I offer it without charge so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. That's his great blessing. I'm a servant, I have to preach, but I don't have to preach for free. I could have an easier life by accepting money from those that I am ministering to. I wouldn't have to work all day, day after day to meet my own needs, but I don't think I would be as effective as a servant doing that. Now you'll note, there is no criticism here of Cephas, Peter, who did accept money from those he ministered to. No criticism of the other apostles, no criticisms of the brothers of the Lord, all those he used as examples who did accept. I'm talking about my right. You know what we do when we think we're going to go beyond what's required, we quickly want to put the pressure on other people and look down on them if they don't do what we do. Then we want to elevate ourselves because we didn't use our right, and we've lost total perspective. But Paul's perspective is on who he is and the One whom he is serving.

Verse 12, the end of the verse, we endure all things so we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. Verse 23, I do all things for the sake of the gospel. You do what you believe God would have you do, you use your rights the way you believe God wants you to do, but let me tell you, I'm driven by this. If giving up this right will make me more effective, then I'll labor and toil and wear myself out to be more effective as God's slave in the work He has called you to do. What an attitude. Now we're not talking about rights, we're talking about being effective as servants in the task God has given us. And it's not about what my rights are, it's about what will make me more effective. All of a sudden the whole tenor of the discussion, I'm not in a debate with you over these are my rights, the reason that you ought to try to put restrictions on my rights, no reason that my rights and my liberty ought to be restrained by you. When I'm having that kind of discussion, I've lost my perspective. I'm a servant, here's what I must do. Now is there anything that I could do that would make me more effective? Maybe some rights that I have that I could forego that would make me more effective in ministering to you, in carrying the gospel to the lost.

That's what Paul's emphasis is. You know Paul is aware, false teachers were roaming around, already they were infiltrating the church, even as Paul ministered. And their goal was greed. Peter wrote to the elders in I Peter 5 and warned them to take the oversight of God's people, but don't do it for sordid gain. Now we're told that Peter was supported by those he ministered to. He's not telling the elders that they can't take support from the people they minister to, but that better not be their motivation. In his second letter in II Peter 2, the opening verses, down about verse 3, he talks about false teachers who will make merchandise of God's people. In their greed they will exploit you. Then later in II Peter 2 he uses Balaam as an example, who loved the rewards of unrighteousness.

Turn to II Corinthians 2 and we'll conclude. Verse 17, Paul has talked about his ministry of giving off the knowledge of Christ everywhere he went. And he says in verse 17, for we are not like many, literally the hoipaloi, a Greek expression, sometimes we use it in English, the hoipaloi, the masses. We are not like the many, peddling the Word of God. Peddling the Word of God, what a disgusting phrase. Paul says there are many teachers going around and all they're doing is peddling the Word of God, they are hucksters. They adulterate the Word, they make whatever adjustments in the Word they need to, to make it more salable, to be more popular, to reap more benefits for themselves. We speak from sincerity, transparency, as from God we speak in Christ in the sight of God. Paul didn't want his ministry in any way to be tainted, didn't want any hindrances to be put in the way of the gospel. We sometimes do that in our ministry here. We'll have a concert or something and we won't take an offering. Why? You as God's people would give and be glad to support, but that's an occasion where you also invite friends and we don't want them to think that they were invited here so we could get their money. I sometimes make mention, if you're a visitor, do not feel obligated with the offering, you are our guests. Because what? We don't want any misunderstanding here. God's people give, we don't talk a lot about money here because we believe the Spirit of God will use the Word of God as we submit to it to move God's people to give gladly. And we give the gospel. It's a free gospel, there is no charge, I don't want money from unbelievers. I don't want people to think that we charge for them to hear the Word of God. God's salvation is a free gift, He paid the price in full. You simply receive it by His grace by believing in His Son.

What we're learning from Paul is we can have a more difficult life by giving up some of our rights, but we can have a more effective ministry by doing that as well. May God give us the grace to be willing to deal with our rights in such a way.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for your grace as manifested in the Apostle Paul, a man who had no reason, no right to boast in himself, no right to claim glory for himself as one who preached the Word, for he was under compulsion. But Lord, he was willing to forego even the rights that you gave him, to suffer greater hardship, greater difficulty that he might be even more effective in the service that you had called him to do. Lord, may we have this attitude with our rights. Thank you for the many faithful people in this local church, Lord, who have given themselves when they are tired, when they are weary, when they feel like it and when they don't feel like it, because they recognize they are your servants, they do it for the benefit of other believers, for the furtherance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, may even in our most weary times may we experience your refreshing, we experience your joy, we are reminded we are privileged and honored to be entrusted with a stewardship in your household. Thank you for the free gospel, the free salvation, free to us because you paid the price. Thank you for life in Christ. In His name we pray, amen.