Don't Muzzle the Ox
Notes
Transcript
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Introduction:
I can wait until Spring is here. Before to long I will be fixing the deck, cleaning out the fire pit, getting the grill ready. I love my back yard.
You see I love my back yard. That is where i drink my coffee and have my quiet time with the Lord.
I do all this work expecting to enjoy the fruits of my labor.
If you are into gardening, you are expecting to get the pleasure of the flowers.
People have said that the best jobs in world are when you find what your passionate about and do that for a living.
It is awesome when you can say I love my job, and a bonus when they pay you because you would do it for free.
You guys know my love for Bluebell homemade vanilla Ice cream.
I love their slogan, “We eat all we can, and sell the rest.”
There is a biblical principle of life that every person must learn. It is the principle of Sowing and Reaping.
What a man sows that shall he also reap.
What you put into something is what you are going to get out of something.
This is true for all aspects of life.
Jobs
Relationships
pleasures of life
There is a worldly principle that every person has to fight against.
The love of money. Something for nothing.
People stealing from others.
Swindlers and Conmen.
Get rich quick schemes.
The lottery.
A perfect world is based on the idea of giving. I give to you, you give to me. Everyone is taken care of, everyone is satisfied.
But thats not the world is it. The world want to take and not give. It wants reward with no labor.
The idea is to find what you love and sow into
So it is in the House of the Lord. This is what Paul is teaching this young Church in Cornith in Chapter 9.
Bible Lesson:
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.
To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.
Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.
I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry—it is no sin. But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well. So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.
Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?
Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
1 Cor 7
God sows spiritual things in your and expects to reap physical things.
God sows spiritual things in your and expects to reap physical things.
If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
God has chosen ministers to serve the temple. (The Body of Christ)
The temple is to take care of the ministers.
If the people take and don’t give the temple will not be sustained, and both are lost.
Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?
1 Cor 9:13
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
God gives so that you can give.
God gives so that you can give.
The support of the Temple of God has never changed.
God gives you 100% of what you get.
He requires the first fruits of 10% to be given back to the him to fund the work of the Temple. Remember you are the temple.
There is no other plan that God has for funding his ministry.
God’s people have always funded the ministry of the Lord.
When everyone gives everyone receives.
God withholds when you withhold.
God withholds when you withhold.
God is concerned enough about your priorities being right that he will withhold from you when you withhold from him.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.”
Hag 1:2
Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
Haggai 1:
Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.
You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
What you sow to matters.
Our priority must be God first.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.
You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.
Haggai 1:9
Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.
Haggai 1:10
When you get on the giving Principle with God he will always out give you.
When you get on the giving Principle with God he will always out give you.
God takes your 10% and turns it back into 100% of your need.
Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.
Mal 3:8
Our priority must be God first.
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
Closing Remarks
God take your 10% and turns it into 100% of your need.
You can’t out-give God.
Closing Remarks
So what principle are you living under.
Giving to Give.
Receiving to Give.
Receiving with no giving.