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The next set of questions has to do with money.

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Who pays for church activities?

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Well...I think if you take a look at Jesus and the Twelve you'd see it was a pretty low overhead situation.

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At one point, they couldn't pay their temple tax and they had to go and get money out of a fish's mouth.

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At other times, like during what's classically called "the last supper," they apparently had a little money accumulated,

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because the rest thought that Judas was going off to go give money to the poor.

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Judas did have some money, I guess, didn't he, when he got the silver pieces?

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In any event, money wasn't something that was a big focal point for them.

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They were very low overhead. They didn't have a lot of possessions.

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They had a couple swords, right at the very end, amongst the whole bunch of them.

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They didn't take along extra clothes when they travelled,

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 implying that maybe they had some, but basically it was a low overhead situation.

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We (speaking as the body of Christ at large, universally) have made some major blunders...

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by strapping ourselves into big mortgages and advertising budgets,...

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using that to "do" things and to try to accommodate certain things that we consider priorities,...

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and in the end, making some bad decisions.

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"We can't say anything 'hard' from the pulpit" - (which that whole thing shouldn't exist anyway!)-

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-"because if we alienated some of the well-heeled members, we wouldn't be able to make our mortgage payment."

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Or: "We can't decide to send 50% of the people in the church off to another country,

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because then who would make the building payment and pay the salaries?"

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We've strapped ourselves in with all these Ishmaelic decisions,

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so that we have to make more bad choices just to keep the machine running.

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As far as money goes...It is certainly true that by the Lord's command...

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"those who labor in the gospel should earn their living from the gospel."

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Elsewhere, Paul exhorts: "Let the one who receives instruction in the word share all good things with his teacher."

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There are certain responsibilities for organically meeting the needs of those who have helped us spiritually.

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Peter, for example, pleaded with Paul, "You're the apostle to the Gentiles, but whatever you do, just don't forget the poor".

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Money needs to circulate for the giving that is a part of our lives.

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We need to "lay by in store" for certain purposes God has made us all aware of.

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And sacrificial giving is a very good indicator of where we're at spiritually.

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If we sow sparingly, we'll reap sparingly.

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So the process of giving and utilizing funds for God's work is all a very biblical idea.

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But it was never really God's intent for it to be run like Amway, Proctor and Gamble, or some major corporation.

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People pay dues to get in the door. They basically pay for the show.

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 Then the money is put in the budget which is made into a Lotus pie chart so the money can be distributed to different things.

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Making a budget, taking votes, holding board meetings, and using all of these business-oriented ways to deal with things...

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...was never God's heart or God's intention.

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If anybody is doing that kind of stuff, you need to stop! It's not God's Heart. It's not God's way.

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I know it seems logical, but so did Hagar and Ishmael.

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And it's not going to bear good fruit.

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You know yourself - you have already seen it in your own experience - all the chaos and difficulty that it's brought in your lives.

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I'm asking you to look at your universe a little bit differently. It doesn't have to be that way.

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God can organically cause people to care for one another's needs. And when there is a need, as in 1 Corinthians 16,

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and we have to pull together funds for a brother to get a car or for some other folks to go to eastern Europe,...

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we can do it, whether on a minute's notice or six month's notice.

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To print teachings, to care for needs inside of the church, to care for people in the community who aren't saved -

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- all those needs can be met by people "giving as they have been prospered,"

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"laying by in store," and "giving to anyone as they have need."

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We might even see "from time to time, people selling land and possessions" as they see needs arise.

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Those kinds of things are basic Christian living.

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But they certainly don't justify the religious way we've handled the matter.

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Like the peer pressure:

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I've known pastors - even in a "megachurch" in this city - who, when "the basket" was passed around,

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 always put in an empty envelope during the second service on Sunday.

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He already "gave" at the first service, but he didn't want people at the second service to think he wasn't giving.

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He put an empty envelope in the basket, in front of everybody,

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so that everyone could see his "giving" and be motivated to do the same.

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That's hypocrisy! That's manipulation! That's sin! That's not Christianity.

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But I remember back in the olden days, when that basket used to pass in front of me.

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It was like...[then he makes a face]. "I got to run out into the car to get my check book." I'd be in a frenzy.

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If I didn't have very much to give, I'd make sure I folded the money...

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and then I'd slide it underneath the pile, where nobody would see it.

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All that pressure and tension is not from God. We put ourselves and others in a bind.

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It's not right. It's manipulation, control, and trying to accomplish our own agenda.

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We feel in bondage to all this stuff we've created for ourselves--salaries, mortgage payments,

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things that God never intended in the first place.

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Paul got no salary! He wrote to the Philippians and said,

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"You guys used to be the only ones helping me, and then even you stopped for a while and then renewed it again."

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It was an organic thing.

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If you look through the book of Acts and through Paul's letters, you see that people would give as God called them to give,

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watching and praying and channeling it into the direction that seemed best and right.

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Giving is right. Utilization of money is a good thing.

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But accumulating property for this entity called "the church" is a bad idea.

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It will cause problems eventually in working out life together.

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There's been a big joke about our "average bank account." 

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Actually, we don't even have a "church bank account." It doesn't exist.

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 It's lives. It's neither here nor there. It's within us.

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But, at any given time, we've had an average accumulation of funds of just about zero during all the years we've been here.

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For example, a bunch of people might have laid down some money for use as anyone has need,

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and two days later we'd find a major need, and the money would be gone.

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It was as if God had stirred their hearts to give sacrificially in an illogical way with no known needs,

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and then - boom! - two days later, the need became clear.

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At other times when we've wanted to give a major gift to some folks in other countries,

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we've accumulated funds for several weeks, found out about a need, and then - bang - it's been there for them.

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That's really an organic, life-giving, freeing way to handle this thing called money, finances - this root of much evil in our lives.

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Nobody has to worry about inflation or cost-of-living increases or merit raises.

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That whole concept is of the world and and not of the New Testament.

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Certainly we want to give in a material way to those that have prospered us spiritually.

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"Let the one who receives instruction in the word share all good things with his teacher." Awesome!

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"By the Lord's command, those who have labored in the gospel should earn their living that way."

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That's awesome - but it's organic!

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That giving is because we love and appreciate each other. We give as God calls us, so there's a dynamic.

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Suppose person X has had most of his or her needs met by people who appreciate what X has done for them spiritually.

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What if suddenly X's life becomes somewhat less in touch with God, so that he's no longer changing lives around him?

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Then people will stop slipping money under the door or jotting that person's name down on an envelope with money for him.

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They'll stop because they're no longer finding the benefit of life.

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Suddenly this guy's got to go back to making tents.

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He's got to get a job now so he can support other people who are doing God's work.

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So when the giving is organic, God can raise up or sit down a man whenever He pleases.

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It's a very beautiful, very freeing, and very reasonable thing when everybody learns to walk in faith and obedience to the Spirit's voice

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rather than adherence to some external pattern, "guarantees," or worldly thinking.

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