“Preach the Word …” 2 Timothy 4:2

“And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house … For I have not shunned to declare unto you ALL the counsel of God.” Acts 20:20, 27

—- EVERY penny you spend today …. you are spending God’s money for which you will give account. You are a steward. Read Matthew 25 to find out what happens to obedient and disobedient stewards of His resources.

—- Honour This! \ o /   Ask yourself: Is GOD first in your spending? Does He get the first portion of your income? Isn’t this how He told us to honour Him? Listen saints: “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” (Proverbs 3:9-10)

If I truly belong to Him, everything I am and have belongs to Him. Not just my life but also my resources, all of which are from the LORD (James 1:17; 1 Chronicles 29:14).

— Some who are greedy, covetous like to shout out that it doesn’t take money to minister the Gospel. To this I ask, Okay why then did Jesus have a treasurer if no money was being handled?

—- INTERESTING: WHY PAUL wanted people to give … Christ’s apostle stated: “NOT because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” (Philippians 4:17) Was Jesus’ apostle Paul a greedy, covetous, money grubber? Noooooo! Paul wanted the LORD’s saints to participate in HIS work so that they could lay up treasure in Heavenly places that is forever going to pay back the highest return/dividends. Let’s get some biblical perspective. He was Jesus’ messenger and wanted God’s people to help His work and lay up treasure in Heaven just like Jesus told us to do. Listen to the instruction of One who owns all: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21) Now, the specific way the LORD told us to honor Him in our stewardship, is to put Him first in it, right? … “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” (Proverbs 3:9-10)

Truth-seeking servants of the LORD in our day beckon God’s people to give, not for their own benefit but rather:

1) So Christ’s Great Commission is carried out by His people, and

2) So those who participate by their obedient stewardship, lay up treasure in eternity!

Christ’s called out servants are as Paul – they don’t just want your money. In fact, if they are Christ’s servants, they preach His Word instead of lying to people, and are therefore most likely living on the edge of broke. So, they are not getting rich in this world but only seeking to survive on the post Jesus called them to in order to carry out His work. Yet, anything you say about money and stewardship will be ridiculed. The greedy and covetous will be angry due to you speaking to their hearts which are unrepentant. When the truth is preached on this topic, they see you as the enemy because you are now tampering with their false god. The LORD is seeking to convict and bring them to repentance before it’s too late. Jesus says, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)

— IF YOU DON’T THINK STEWARDSHIP MATTERS TO GOD, THEN ASK WHY 16 OF JESUS’ 38 PARABLE INVOLVE STEWARDSHIP. ALSO, THERE ARE 500 BIBLE VERSES ON FAITH AND 2,500 ON STEWARDSHIP. DOES STEWARDSHIP MATTER? YES, THE WAY WE TREAT EVERY BIT OF GOD’S RESOURCES DOES MATTER MUCH TO HIM AND TO THOSE WHO TRULY FEAR HIM.

Saints, we are passing through in this life. This earth is not our home. Our home is with the LORD (Revelation 21). We are “strangers and pilgrims.” “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” (1 Peter 2:11) We are to become entrenched in Christ who is our life and not in this fleeting world and its comforts and trinkets.

—- THE GREAT apostle of Jesus, and all true servants of Christ, labor diligently to get His Bride ready for His soon return. In doing so, they preach, warn, and teach (PWT). Listen to Paul: “Whom we PREACH, WARNING every man, and TEACHING every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:” … In contrast, hireling wolves exploit their prey. They use them to build their own kingdoms and this makes up for over 90% of those doing ministry today. They are using the name of the LORD in vain – to build their own empires. They give you reasons why “God” is saying “we must expand.” And so they take up your money to expand their kingdom instead of Christ’s – which is in the hearts of men, not herded and corralled in some certain building on Sunday mornings. The hireling seduces you to center your world around his ministry and not Christ’s ministry at the right hand of the Father (Jeremiah 17:12; Colossians 2:18-19; Hebrews 7:24-25). The wolf builds His kingdom by peddling this pablum to the gullible who gladly give to support and bid God speed to this evil (2 John 10-11). All who participate are idolatrously / adulterously diverting their affections and resources away from Christ and will be judged together in “damnation.” (2 Peter 2:1-3; 2 John 10-11)

Okay, when Jesus said “I will build my church,” He could not possibly have been speaking of participating in building so-called church buildings because neither Christ or His apostles ever collected a dime to do so.

No, Jesus was speaking of building His kingdom (dominion of the KING) in the hearts of men when He stated “I will build my church.” (Matthew 16:16-18) In that very context, Jesus was speaking of His revealing of Himself in the hearts of men.

— Not long ago I visited a local church building based organization where it’s obvious that the “pastor” is well spoken (a good speaker) and things move fast. It’s an upwardly mobile, rather upper middle class clientele and things are popping. Yet we must observe and remember that wolves like to keep things moving fast so no one stops to actually think … about what is really transpiring. They don’t want their prey getting deep into Christ’s Word and therefore Him due to how this would disturb THEIR game. Let’s get a clue saints. Oh, and that very new local church organization is expanding rapidly. They are in a nice building already, busting at the seems, and buying a much larger, nicer building …. already, in a very short time.

Oh, I later found out that that pastor is linked with Joel Osteen and attends Osteen’s “leadership” seminars. God figure, right.

PREACHERS: Like it or not, you MUST preach what the Bible says concerning stewardship (Acts 20:20, 27). 1) It’s all over God’s Word, and, 2) Christ’s saints must be taught so they can prepare to be judge by their stewardship in this life.

You must be dead to self and therefore dead to what others might and will say or think. See Isaiah 51:7, 12. You were not bought by their sinful blood but rather by the blood of the only begotten Son of God whom you will soon stand before to give account.

There is the tendency that God-fearing men have. They seek to avoid preaching on stewardship and certain other Bible truth due to the prevalence of abuse of these doctrines, especially stewardship due to the greed-mongering false prophets of today (2 Peter 2:1-3). Yet, there is no justification for refusing preaching what Jesus and His apostles and prophets preached. Stewardship is a component of the full counsel of God’s Word and we are accountable to preach the Word of God on this important doctrine. The LORD will bless you in doing so.

So, let’s follow this faulty line of reasoning which I’m sure we’ve all fallen into. So, if we cease to preach something because others have misused those Scriptures, doesn’t this mean we have to cease preaching all of God’s Word … because it’s obvious that every single doctrine of Scripture has been abused, right?

This is not about us. This is about the crucified and risen LORD and Savior. We must never not preach something due to the self-centered perception of how some may interpret or read-into what we preach.

“Ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3

“…Ye are not your own? ²⁰ For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

The fact that something has been twisted and abused should more greatly motivate us to preach the truth concerning that which was falsely taught, right?

Listen closely:

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; ² Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; ⁴ And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. ⁵ But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” 2 Timothy 4:1-5

You must preach and teach and warn or the blood of those who went uninformed and un-warned will be guilt on your own hands.

“And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, ¹⁷ Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. ¹⁸ When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” Ezekiel 3:16-18

You are accountable to preach and warn and teach (PWT) the whole counsel of Holy Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. ⁷ So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. ⁸ When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” Ezekiel 33:6-8

Please give close ear to the great apostle. Hear His heart, the heart Christ gave him for Himself and His people:

Acts 20

“Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: ²⁰ And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, ²¹ Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. ²² And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: ²³ Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. ²⁴ But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. ²⁵ And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. ²⁶ Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. ²⁷ For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. ²⁸ 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. ²⁹ For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. ³⁰ Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. ³¹ Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. ³² And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”

You and I will soon give account to the LORD for whether or not we truly fulfilled His calling to preach His Word in His holy fear and love. I like this saying:

“Some will. Some won’t. So what!”

From Trinkets to Trust | Stewardship

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