Tag: support

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Exodus Devotions

What we all need

Carrying burdens

“What you’re doing is not good,” Moses’s father-in-law said to him.

“You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you. You can’t do it alone.” (Exodus 18:17-18)

“You can’t do it alone.”

I found it interesting that Jethro told Moses that not long after the battle against the Amalekites.

Moses literally couldn’t keep his hands up as he was interceding for the Israelites before God, but Aaron and Hur supported him until victory was achieved. (Exodus 17:8-16)

And now Jethro was telling him again, “You can’t do God’s work alone.”

That’s something we all need to remember.

Our leaders may seem like “super-Christians,” but they can’t do their jobs alone.

They certainly need our prayers and encouragement. But they also need us to do our part in ministry as well.

God has given each of us gifts to minister to others. Ministry is not just the job of the leaders. It’s the job of every Christian. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

But beyond that, all of us need support in our Christian lives.

Our personal ministries to our families and those around us can get heavy. Life itself can get heavy.

So let’s not try to live our Christian lives on our own.

Let’s support and encourage each other so that our load will be lightened and we’ll be able to endure. (Exodus 18:22-23)

As Paul put it,

Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

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3 John

Walking in truth and love (part 2)

Support our missionaries

As we look at 3 John, we see many of the same themes that we see in 2 John, and for that matter in 1 John: those of truth and love.

Here, though, we have a very practical application of these things: the support of missionaries and other ministers of the gospel.

As we saw in John’s last letter, there were many traveling teachers who went from church to church, missionaries if you will.

They seemed to be not only going to the churches, but preaching to unbelievers as well, as John makes specific note that they received no support from the “pagans.” (7)

Because these missionaries were doing this service for the sake of Christ, John encouraged Gaius, the recipient of this letter, and apparently a leader in the church, to support such people in giving them a place to stay, and providing food, drink, and other needs that they might have.

(This is in sharp contrast to what John told the church in 2 John 1:10 concerning false teachers).

Many Christians don’t think of this, but by supporting missionaries, we are walking in truth and love.

We walk in truth in that we support the spread of it to those around us. And we walk in love by helping those who preach it.

In doing so, not only are we showing love to those missionaries, but love for those they take the gospel to.

Unfortunately, a man named Diotrephes refused to do this. He was another leader in the church, but instead of living a life of truth and love, he lived only for himself.

John said that he loved to be first (9) and would have nothing to do with the leaders of the church and those missionaries who spread the gospel.

Instead, he spread gossip about them. More, he threw people out of the church who tried to support the missionaries that had come to them. (10)

In short, out of his pride, Diotrephes told his congregation, “I don’t recognize these people, and neither should you.”

Unfortunately, there are pastors like this. Because they are so concerned about their own position, they refuse to work with anyone else outside their own organization.

What’s even worse is when they refuse to accept any authority besides themselves because of their pride.

But John tells Gaius,

Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. (3 John 11)

In other words, “Don’t be like Diotrephes, Gaius. Walk in truth and love as we do and as you have been doing until now.”

How about you? Do you support the truth and those who preach it with your finances? Do you support your pastor? Do you support the missionaries you know?

Do you seek to bless such people who are working for the name of Christ?

Or do you instead snipe at them from behind?

This world needs Jesus. But they will never find him if we are not walking in truth and love. And one big way to do that is to support those spreading the gospel.

Are you?

Categories
1 Timothy

Supporting and honoring our pastors

Honor your pastor

Pastors are not perfect. And because they’re up on the pedestal at church, they often become easy targets for criticism.

More, far too often, we neither honor nor support them the way that God commands us to.

And God does command us to do this.

Paul wrote,

The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 

For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.” (1 Timothy 5:17-18)

Paul tells us here how we are to look upon our pastors and elders in the church. We are to consider them worthy of not just honor, but double honor. We are to respect them and support them.

How are we to support them? With our prayers, first and foremost, but also with our encouragement. And with our finances.

Sometimes people argue that tithing is not a New Testament command. I happen to agree with that.

But most people who make such arguments usually stop there and say, “Therefore I have no obligation whatsoever to support my church financially.”

But Paul makes it crystal clear that is not true. He says you do have an obligation to support your pastor financially.

Put it this way.

If your pastor is forced to work an outside job in order to support his family (remember that Paul said in verse 8 that a person that fails to do this is worse than an unbeliever), how much time can he put into the message on Sunday?

How much time can he put into counseling those who are hurting?

How much time can he put into all the pastoral duties God has given him? Not much.

And yet one of the main complaints that people in the church have is that their pastor is not fulfilling his obligations.

If you’re making that complaint, let me ask you: “Are you supporting your pastor financially so that he can?”

More, are you supporting him in other ways? Are you praying for him? Are you encouraging him with your words? Are you seeking to take the burden off of him by actually participating in ministry so that he doesn’t have to do everything himself?

Or are you just simply sitting in church waiting to be ministered to?

The church is a body. Each person has a part in it. Are you playing your part?

Now don’t get me wrong. There are times when a pastor is to be criticized. Paul will go into that later. But there are fair criticisms and unfair ones.

And among the unfair ones are criticizing him for not doing all you feel he should be doing, when you’re not doing all that you’re supposed to be doing.

So before you start criticizing your pastor, look at yourself. Are you honoring and supporting your pastor? Are you doing everything you can to make his job easier?

Or are you just sitting on your chair at church, taking potshots at him?

Where is your heart?