Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19950305.htm

GALATIANS: IDENTIFYING AND OVERCOMING LEGALISM
Part X: Overcoming Legalistic Methods And Thinking On Giving To Ministers
(Galatians 6:6-10)
  1. Introduction
    1. Money given by God's people for the support of ministers' salaries is always a delicate subject: (1) On the one hand, a minister may abuse his office by pressuring people through false guilt trips to give excessively so that he might live in the lap of luxury. (2) On the other hand, in reaction to this abuse, congregations may pa y the pastor so sparingly that his ministry is hindered since he cannot effectively study enough as he has to work so much to make a living.
    2. Both of these failures are countered by God's gracious format on providing the financial needs of pastoral staff as taught in Galatians 6:6-10.
  2. Overcoming Legalistic Methods And Thinking On Giving To Ministers, Galatians 6:6-10.
    1. In a grace-based ministry, God expects those who receive spiritual truths from properly teaching ministers to support the financial needs of those teachers accordingly, Gal. 6:6:
      1. The minister involved needs to work and plan enough to teach what is effectively God's truth so that the listeners are benefited thereby, v. 6b.
      2. According to the benefit received, hearers respond by meeting the material needs of the teacher, v.6a.
      3. In this way, the ministry avoids the legalistic problems listed in our introduction as follows:
        1. If ministers must work at preparing the Word to meet the needs of the flock, they are motivated to work well at this instead of coasting in the pastoral study. They can't coast as legalists can do where legalists can fleece the sheep with guilt trips without having to prepare effective messages!
        2. If ministers work at preparing the Word for delivery, they can present it well enough to fulfill the hearers so that the hearers will want to pay them enough to keep them in the study! Then the ministers don't waste their valuable study times on secular jobs trying to make ends meet!
    2. However, this plan can fall down easily if hearers fail to respond to the ministry of the Word from good teachers. Accordingly, God stands in as the motivating force to cause givers to give, Ga. 6:7-10:
      1. Hearers should not be deceived into thinking that they can privately, personally shirk their duties to remunerate good teachers. God keeps records and God rewards hearers based on how well they give in remuneration to how the teaching has helped them, Gal. 6:7-8.
      2. If we haven't noticed God's blessing us financially either if we are doing the teaching or if we are doing he listening, just WAIT and see the Lord come through! God will bless if we continue doing well as the teacher or as the giver in the pew in our respective tasks in this arrangement, Gal. 6:9.
    3. When we give, we need to keep in mind a stewardship priority schedule, Gal. 6:10.
      1. God wants us to do well to all men, Gal. 6:10a.
      2. However, He wants us to pay particular attention to supporting godly believers, Gal. 6:10b.
      3. Applied elsewhere, we have numerous priority guidelines with our resources. Here are major ones:
        1. We give to meet the needs of our immediate families first, 1 Tim. 5:8a with 5:4.
        2. We then give to meet the needs of extended family members, 1 Tim. 5:8b.
        3. We then give to meet the needs of brethren in Christ, Gal. 6:10b.
        4. We then give to meet the needs of people at large, Gal. 6:10a with Gal. 2:10.
Lesson: Legalistic hang-ups in Church giving disappear when (1) the pastor devotes his energies to laboring in the Word so that he can produce a ministry that really meets the spiritual needs of the hearers, Gal. 6:6b with 1 Tim. 5:17b. (2) Th en the listener is blessed and spontaneously provides financial remuneration in appreciation for this blessing, and that provides time for the pastor to continue to be a blessing with the Word through continued labor in the Word. (3) God personally keeps tabs on individual giving by the givers to assure that they stay motivated to give what they know they should, Gal. 6:7-8. (4) The giver and the teacher each trusts the Lord for the meeting of his own financial and spiritual needs respectively by continuing his respective effort in spite of seeming "dry spells" of blessing, Gal. 6:9. (5) Giving must be done using God's priorities of stewardship, 6:10!