Ministry and Who Should Pay For It!

Jeremiah 50; Jeremiah 51; 3 John 1
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Scripture

3 John 1

5 Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through, even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church here of your loving friendship. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that pleases God. 7 For they are traveling for the Lord, and they accept nothing from people who are not believers. 8 So we ourselves should support them so that we can be their partners as they teach the truth.

Observation

“…And they accept nothing from people who are not believers.”

I believe that this is a very important principle that we need to remember when we are tempted to ask the community to help us with a project. I am talking about fundraisers for a mission trip or for some other ministry that we are trying to get money for. If God puts something on the heart of his people to do then God will provide the resources to do it from within His church. Right?

Going out and asking people who are not believers to help fund God’s work is a bad testimony for the church and makes no sense. What message is that sending to the world around us about our Powerful God? Isn’t it saying to them that we have a God that is weak and can’t meet the needs of His church? I personally think that all fund raising of a church should be done from within the church and if we do have to go to companies in our community asking them to support our project then we should make sure that those companies are run or owned by Christ followers.

Application

I will do a better job of teaching this principle to our church in the future.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, show us that we can depend totally on You. Help our churches look to You to supply their needs. Father I believe that You are more than capable of providing for our church and I thank you for how you have blessed us. You are a Mighty God. You have blessed us with every spiritual blessing. We are rich and we have so much. Thank you for being such a Generous God. You are Extravagant in Your love for us and You are Worthy to be Praised! In Jesus Name Amen.

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