0 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:09,000 Are there any fully supported people in the body, and how is their support arranged? 1 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:13,000 We’ve partially answered this question already. Their support is never "arranged." 2 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,000 There is no guarantee that anybody will automatically receive anything. 3 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:25,000 Yet there have been probably a dozen brothers who, 4 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:36,000 because of the life they have led in Christ and the way they have unselfishly labored among the people of God, 5 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:48,000 have received gratitude from those who have been benefited spiritually in their families, lives on the job, and so on. 6 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:55,000 As for "full support," there really isn't anybody in the church here free to assume... 7 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:58,000 that in any given week someone will automatically give them money. 8 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:07,000 I don't know of anybody who isn't also doing some kind of tent making, or isn’t at least prepared to do some. 9 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:09,000 Each one is always watching his circumstances... 10 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:15,000 so that as God leads other people to help make sure that he doesn't need to wait on tables, 11 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,000 he can be devoted to prayer and service with the word. 12 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,000 If God provides that avenue for him on a consistent basis... 13 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:28,000 by motivating a number of people to help organically, that's wonderful. 14 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:33,000 And that is God's way: that there would be people free to devote themselves to prayer and service with the word... 15 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,000 and to not have to wait on tables. 16 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:47,000 But someone on a salary? Someone who doesn’t have to be in touch day by day, week by week, year by year with the Spirit of God - 17 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:53,500 who doesn't need to be watching for His direction and trusting for His provision through His people? 18 00:01:53,500 --> 00:01:59,000 There isn't anybody in that category. Nothing’s been "arranged." 19 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:09,000 It has been a great benefit that brothers' needs have been met - help with automobiles, perhaps, or travel expenses, 20 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:20,000 or even food for their table, or freedom to take three weeks off a job without pay so they can do some work for God in another country. 21 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:31,000 That kind of giving and freedom has definitely been an earmark of God's working and generosity through His people. 22 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:35,000 If there were 10,000 people in the church here, 23 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:45,000 I would have to think that Jesus would raise up - organically - more and more people who wouldn't need to wait on tables anymore. 24 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:52,000 It's God's call, though. It's totally up to God how many people don't need to wait on tables from time to time. 25 00:02:52,000 --> 00:03:02,000 And even "the mighty apostle Paul" made tents from time to time. You can see that ebb and flow in his personal life. That was fine. 26 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:07,000 He worked night and day to supply for his own needs and the needs of his companions, he told the Thessalonians. 27 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:14,000 There's a time and a place that God would order something like that to happen for spiritual reasons. And that's okay. Who cares? 28 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:21,000 Serving Jesus and the body is not a profession, like doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, minister, pastor, "holy" man, or medicine man. 29 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:28,000 If you're hired to be a spokesman for God, you're living in the wrong covenant. 30 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:29,000 It's the wrong thing. 31 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:35,000 If you're living the life of God, and He frees you up to do more of this and less of that, 32 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:40,000 that's His business, and that's super. 33 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:46,000 How do you take care of the poor among you? 34 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:51,000 We have people (not many :) ) who are making exorbitant wages. 35 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:56,000 We have people who are earning very good wages from the world's standpoint, and still others who - 36 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:04,000 - because of education, particular talents, communication skills from their upbringing, or physical problems - 37 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,000 - are making very little. 38 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:16,000 We have a vast array (from Ph. D.’s all the way to those who didn’t graduate from high school)... 39 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:22,000 ...when thinking about different people's lives. 40 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:31,000 Yet if you were to go in their homes, you wouldn't find much discrepancy in the way one family lives versus another. 41 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:35,500 At least if there is a difference this month, it might be reversed next month. 42 00:04:35,500 --> 00:04:42,000 If you see this person driving a car that's kind of beat up this month, they might be driving a brand new car next month. 43 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:55,000 It happens constantly that housing and possessions are changing hands, depending on however God can use them best. 44 00:04:55,000 --> 00:05:00,000 If we don't count our possessions as our own - if that's the nature of Christian living - 45 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:04,000 - then it makes a lot of sense that there would be no needy among us. 46 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:09,000 If we are really relationship-oriented, we're going to know when there are problems. 47 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:14,000 The grocery needs and the transportation needs are going to be met. 48 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:18,000 God is going to provide in such a way that it's not socialism, 49 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:23,000 in the sense of some doctrine that everybody has to live exactly the same. 50 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:32,000 And I can think of one family who, long before they really met God in His fullness, 51 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:45,000 - because of the nature of their business - had a huge amount of wages, a vast amount of money, and a mansion with a large property. 52 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:55,000 But if you were to explore their lives, you would find - even in this case - that they would walk away from their huge possessions 53 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,000 and live in a two-bedroom apartment tomorrow if they felt that was God's will. 54 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:07,000 They don't care about it! Their generosity and their ability to not care about those things for themselves are very evident. 55 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:15,000 That's why David could live in his palace. It just wasn't an issue, because his heart wasn't attached. 56 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:17,000 His heart was in love with God. 57 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:26,000 So needs are constantly met, but without socialism, where everyone has to have exactly the same housing arrangement. 58 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:30,000 That's crazy! That’s not the way it is here at all. 59 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:34,000 But on the other hand, it's safe to say there are no needy persons among us. 60 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:43,000 Nobody is going to go without meals or clothing or people caring for them - 61 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:49,000 - helping them find work and training them, if necessary, so they can get a job. 62 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:54,000 All that kind of thing happens day in and day out. It's out of relationship. 63 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:59,000 There's no "benevolence program." There is no person in charge. 64 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:05,000 It's just people loving each other - and that love will meet the needs. It has for years and will continue to as time goes on. 65 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:15,000 One more way it's not like socialism is that there is no central committee, so to speak, making sure there is no needy among us. 66 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:20,000 If a person has some needs, the most typical way that those would be met... 67 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:25,000 is that he or she would wake up one morning and discover an envelope slipped under their door - 68 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:29,000 - and there's grocery or rent money! 69 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,000 It's at that level. 70 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:36,000 It's the organic, brother-to-brother-to-sister relationships. 71 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,000 And that's a typical way to do it, I think. 72 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:39,000 Yeah. 73