Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
How many of you have a pet dog? Children seem to always want one, but when you bring them home, they need to be taken care of. Many times a parent will keep a keen eye on the dog dish, just to see if the child is keeping up with the needs of the animal. Some children will feed the dog all day long, simply because they love the animal, while others will completely forget about them, only taking up the task when the parent finally yells at them to get it done.
This reminds me of the Christian life.
You can do something out of love, or only when you are forced to do it. The preaching of God’s Word must be motivated out of a love for what Jesus has already done for us, and never by constraint.
1 Peter 5
¹ The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: ² Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
First of all, it is the responsibility of spiritual men to teach and preach God’s Word to the church, guiding their own families and children in the teachings of Christ. A woman’s responsibility is to submit to men, and to show love to others through their selfless and kind activities. They are to be role models of compassion, both in their homes and in their communities, being examples to the younger women by their loving deeds. They are forbidden from teaching in any capacity, as this responsibility falls completely upon the shoulders of men.
When men preach God’s Word, one must consider the motivating factor behind what they are doing. It is not supposed to be done by constraint, but willingly. To do something by constraint is to only do something when you are forced to do it. If you feel forced to do it, then it is not being done out love. It’s just like giving in the church. Offerings given to God must always be done freely, out of love, rather than feeling forced to do it.
2 Corinthians 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
A loving gift is a gift that is willingly given from the heart.
“Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.”
— Exodus 25:2
Imagine coming home for supper, when your wife comes out and throws some food on your plate and angrily says, here’s your stinkin’ dinner! In that case, I wouldn’t even want to eat the meal, because it wasn’t prepared out of love for me. I would have rather taken her out to dinner somewhere. The point is, that any deeds that we do must be done out of love for others, and with a cheerful heart. The same goes with the preaching of God’s Word. It is supposed to be motivated out of love for what God did for us on the cross. When we realize the suffering that Jesus went through for our forgiveness, it should automatically compel a person to preach and serve Him from their heart.
Our love for Him is ultimately proven by our actions. For example, Able loved God very much, and gave God a better sacrifice than Cain, which pleased God completely. His deeds proved His love for God. So you see, this is one reason why preaching God’s Word shouldn’t be done through constraint, but willingly. Our activities towards God must be a loving and selfless sacrifice of our thankfulness towards Him, as He so selflessly gave Himself for us. The greater the love for God, the greater the deeds one will possess towards His name.
The next point is that you are not supposed to preach God’s Word motivated by financial gain. Again, it is supposed to be motivated out of a love for the Lord, rather than the love of unrighteous mammon. You could probably get anybody to preach if you put an ad in the paper and posted a high enough salary. But those who showed up, would not be there out of a love for the Lord, but rather, the love of money. As soon as the money dried up, they would be gone, searching the want ads once again, and finding a job that pays the same, or even better.
When it comes to preaching, it is a voluntary thing that is done as a spiritual sacrifice and a gift to God. It has been ordained by God that those who preach the gospel can live of the Gospel, but even the Apostle Paul wasn’t doing it for that reason. He wanted people to give freely, out of love for God’s unspeakable gift that He has already given us. Everything that we do in the church needs to be motivated by love for Christ.
“So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.”
— John 21:15
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”
— Acts 20:28
The church needs to be fed regularly with spiritual food from God’s Holy Word so they can grow into maturity, but the true laborers are few and far between. We are in a day and age when society is surrounded by numerous false prophets. Do you think that if they simply claim to be Christian, that they are a Christian in their heart? How naive. They can appear as beautiful angels of light, but the truth is, just below the surface, their motives to preach are perverted. They preach to be rich. They preach to have a new sports car or gain access to high places of power. They preach to be noticed. They preach to be famous. They preach to wear a robe or stand in a high pulpit, and the list goes on and on and on. But God knows exactly who loves Him. He is watching each moment, and can see all the hidden motives deep within people’s hearts.
The Apostle Paul was an extremely kind-hearted and loving man, and his motives towards God were pure. Look how God rewarded him and used him to write most of the New Testament that we have today. Timothy was an exact duplicate of Paul’s faith, both in a great love for God and for the church.
Philippians 2
¹⁹ But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state. ²⁰ For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state.
God wants men to preach, but their motives must be pure-hearted. They must be based in a perfect love for God, a love that reaches far above all others, and the materialistic pollutions of this world. Feed the flock of God, out of love for God, and watch what happens.
So out of a pure love for the Lord, will you take upon yourself the great responsibility of…..
….. Feeding His Sheep
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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