This morning we're going to be in the book of Luke, and we're going to read two verses out of the book of Luke that are going to serve as the basis for our text. In the message this morning, Luke chapter number 16, Luke chapter number 16, and we're going to be reading verses 1 and 2. Luke chapter number 16, verses 1 and 2. As we read Luke 16 verse 1, the Bible reads, And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward. We are in the midst of a mini-series, if you will, entitled Considering Biblical Missions, and today we're getting into part two of our series, and we'll talk about that out of Luke chapter number 16. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time we could be in your house today. Lord, I pray that we never take that flippantly, that we do count it a joy, and we're glad when it's time to come to your house and serve and worship you. And Lord, as we come into your house, it is your desire that we be taught the Word of God, that we be challenged through the Word of God. Certainly, Lord, not only as to our doctrine, but our practice as we Desire to interpret appropriately what your word says to us and Lord this affects every area of our life Every area of our church and so Lord as we look into this very important topic missions missionaries and mission support would help us to want to Find out what your word has to say that we would be in compliance with you and your word Lord as we investigate this topic help us not to approach it with a a haughty heart, a heart that is desirous to find negatives and to be critical. But Lord, certainly that we would just desire to know what you have to say and that we would shine a spotlight on what it is that we're supposed to be doing. And may you receive honor and glory in it. It's in Jesus's name we pray, amen. As I mentioned, last week we started this mini-series, Considering Biblical Missions, and I shared with you that I had been burdened for some time to preach on the topic of missions. The desire was not born out of a critical spirit of bitterness or a desire to be nitpicky and just call people out. That is not the intent. But as I mentioned, we must be open to considering doctrine and practice. Every area of our lives and of our church life must be open. We must not shy away for fear of being criticized. I remind you of what Solomon wrote in Proverbs chapter 29 and verse number 25, where he wrote, The fear of man bringeth a snare. But whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be saved. And so our desire today is to not be arrogant or haughty and trying to pick a fight or find fault, Lord, with those that would say that they're doing the work of the Lord. Our intent is not to be negative at all, but it is our intent to please the Lord. It is our intent to look into what the Lord's Word has to say and then obviously mold and shape what we do based upon his word and his will. I also shared with you last week that it is my belief that there has been a gradual erosion in missions practice and I base this upon years and years of supporting missionaries, and knowing missionaries, and reading missionary letters, and receiving missionary letters from missionaries that I don't know. And I believe it is incumbent upon us to investigate what the Bible has to say about mission work, missionaries, and supporting mission work. I told you last week that our emphasis would be on three questions that a church should ask itself. Last week we considered the first question. That first question was, does the church understand what constitutes a scripturally approved mission work? And we'll give you a refresher on that a little bit later in today's message. Now today, it's our intent and our desire to look at and talk about the second question. And that second question is this. Does the church consider her stewardship accountability to the Lord? And in examining that, no doubt we will get back to our text verses in Luke chapter 16 verses 1 and 2 as well. We will look at various other aspects of our stewardship accountability. And then lastly, Lord willing, not next week because we will be having joint services with Faith Baptist Church, but perhaps a week after, we will look at this last question and that last question is this does the church conduct a submissive assessment of the missionaries effectiveness and that's going to deal with missionaries that we support in evaluating the work that they're doing so we want to get in today into this question and considering this question does a church consider her stewardship accountability to the Lord? It's very clear in Luke chapter 16 verses 1 and 2 that the principle of accountability for a steward is very clearly taught by the Lord Jesus Christ and this is the Lord speaking to his disciples as we see in Luke chapter 16 verses 1 and 2 and we'll talk more about that as we get into the message and so considering biblical missions part 2 does the church consider her stewardship accountability to the Lord there are three facets that are at the forefront of a church considering her stewardship accountability before the Lord and these are the three facets that we will talk about today the first facet there is a requirement In this particular facet, we want to clearly enunciate that the church is accountable for the funds it expends, or for its expended funds. The second facet, there is a responsibility. Here, we will see that the church is expected to support missions. And then the third facet is a review. The church is to examine how funds are expended. These are three facets that are at the forefront in our church, at any church, considering our stewardship accountability before the Lord. And so we begin this morning by thinking about this first facet. There is a requirement. And in that requirement, we see that a church is accountable for its expended funds. This is a requirement. In other words, here we are talking about the church's attitude about the Lord's money. And I believe that all too often, as a church, we can get lulled into the idea that Well, we give the tithes and offerings, and so it's our money. And we can do as we please with it. Well, that's the wrong attitude. It is not our money. We don't give to the church. We give to the Lord through the church. And so, we have to consider that in any funds that are expended, we are accountable to the Lord for how we expend those funds as a church. And so, when we think about this requirement, that the church is accountable for its expended funds, we think about, first of all, the fact that we as a church to obey the precepts of Jesus the head of the church as it relates to finances we as a church are to obey the precepts of Jesus who is the head of the church as it relates to finances just like we are accountable for obeying Jesus who is the head of our church and in any matter. We are accountable to obey him as it relates to finances. This means that we have to grasp that Jesus is the divine owner of every New Testament church. Now, I preached on this topic almost a month ago, and it isn't my intent to go back and cover those areas, but I will let you know that if you go back and you look at that message that we preached on the Lord's church, We were celebrating our church anniversary. You'll find that we went into depth and detail about how that Jesus is the head of the church. He established the church. He says in Scripture, it's my church. And so, He is the head of the church. He is to have preeminence in all things. He is the divine owner of every true New Testament church. And I don't mean this morning to compare the church to a business. But I would say, by way of illustration, the employees of a business don't own that business. They're not the owner of the business. They work for the business, right? And so the owner of the business determines the course that that business is going to take. They determine the business practices. They determine what the money is going to be spent on and so forth and so on. The employees don't do that. Well, guess what? Jesus is the owner. He's the divine owner of every true New Testament church, and as the head of the church, He maintains authority over every true New Testament church. Now, with that in mind, we secondly want to point out that Jesus has delegated authority to operate His church. He's the divine owner of the church, but He has delegated authority to operate His church. Now, because Jesus has authority over His churches, He is able to delegate that authority. I remind you of Matthew chapter number 28. We looked at Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20 last week. But I remind you this morning of Matthew chapter number 28 and verse number 18. Matthew chapter 28 verse 18 reads, And Jesus came and spake unto them, this is His church, right? Saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Now, at this point in your attendance here at Tabernacle Baptist Church, you should know that There are two words, actually there are three words that are translated power in the New Testament. These are three Greek words, but you know that one of those Greek words is dunamis. And it literally means might or power, right? We get our word dynamite from that. But the other Greek word that we make mention of frequently, in which it is translated power in our English Bibles, is the Greek word exousia. Exousia. And what does that Greek word mean? It means authority. Authority. Jesus is literally saying, all authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Now think about this. If he owns the church, and he has all authority over the church, then is it not within his rightful purview to delegate that authority? Of course, to operate as a church, the church has to have the delegated authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me show you this in the book of Mark. Turn over to Mark chapter number 13. And again, this is a passage that we have looked at and considered before. We're just going to read one verse in Mark chapter number 13. But I want you to see what Jesus is saying here in Mark chapter 13, verse number 34. Mark chapter 13, verse number 34. For the Son of Man Who is that? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Is this a man taking a far journey? Where is Jesus now? Where did he ascend to? To the right hand of the Father, right? And what did he do? Who left his house? What is Jesus' house? It is the New Testament church. Paul wrote about how that we ought to know how we are to behave in the church of the living God, which is the house of God, right? And so Jesus is not walking physically here on this earth. He ascended into glory, and He's at the right hand of the Father, and He left His house, His church, or His churches here on earth. Now watch. and gave authority to his servants, who are his servants. They're the members of each individual New Testament church. Jesus left his church. He established his church during his earthly ministry. The first church that ever existed, the church of Jerusalem. He left this earth and ascended into heaven. In fact, the Bible says that the 11 saw him ascend up into heaven. Go to Acts chapter number 1 and verse 8 if you want to read about that along there in those verses. But he left authority to his church, to his servants. Now watch. And to every man his work, this is all of the individual responsibilities within the New Testament church, the pastor to pastor, the members to do what the Lord has equipped them to do according to each of their spiritual gifts. Now watch. And commanded the porter to watch. There is responsibility that comes with delegated authority. And the Lord has delegated authority to His church to operate his church here on this earth. The Lord doesn't physically come and pay funds to the power company to keep the lights and the electricity on in the building, does he? He has given us his approach to how his churches are to be funded, and how is that? It's through the ties and offerings of the individual members, and he has instructed that we are to carry out his business. He has delegated us the authority to do that. There are certain obligations that we have in having a building, and we ought to be wise stewards and pay those obligations as a good citizen. and as a good person that wants to have a testimony that honors the Lord here on this earth. And then there are other things, and the word things is always very generic, right? There are other things that we are to spend the Lord's money on. And we are not to do that flippantly. We are to seek the Lord's counsel and consider how we are spending His money. So, there's a requirement. The church is accountable for its expended funds. And of course we are to obey the precepts of Jesus, the head of the church, as it relates to those finances. And secondly, we are to observe the same principles as we observe in our personal finance. We obey our head, the precepts of our head, in how we spend the Lord's money. And secondly, we observe the same principles as we observe in our personal finances. Now, I want to make sure that you understand that I am assuming, and of course that's a big assumption, but I'm assuming that we are following the Lord's guidance in how we handle our personal finances. I will tell you that there are many that do not do that, that are the Lord's people. They do not wisely handle their finances. We are to observe the same principles as we observe in our personal finances. Now this means, in observing the same principles as in our personal finances, it means first of all that we submit to God's ownership of all of our finances. Did you get that? We submit to God's ownership of all of our finances. Let's go back to our text verses in Luke chapter 16. Notice in Luke chapter number 16, verses 1 and 2. And he said also unto his disciples, this is Jesus speaking to his disciples, there was a certain rich man which had a steward. The same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods now. Let's let's make sure that we're properly defining in identifying the pronouns and the antecedents The same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods Who was accused? The steward was accused unto the rich man that the steward has wasted the rich man's goods Whose goods were they? They were the rich man's goods. And he had a steward that was responsible for administering his goods or his funds, and the steward had acted unwisely. Look at verse 2. And he called him and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee, given account of thy stewardship? For thou mayest be no longer steward. The Lord is saying that because the steward did not properly handle the rich man's goods, he was going to be removed from that position or that office of being steward. Now what are we driving at in these verses? We are clearly and emphatically wanting to point out that all that we have in our personal lives and as a church is not only because of the Lord, but it still belongs to the Lord. There are some people that never get past that principle. You say, well man, I put in the work, and I went to school, and I got a degree, and because of that degree, I got a good paying job, and I work X amount of hours a week, and man, I work myself to the bone, and I'm doing what God told me to do, and I'm going to enjoy my money. Well, it is not your money. Who gave you the ability to go to college and get an education? Who gave you your brain? Did you do that on your own? Now, I don't want to sound like Barack Hussein Obama, okay? You didn't do that on your own. But I'm talking about as it relates to our accountability before the Lord. You are blessed. You ever think about that? I think about my own life. And how that I have been so blessed by the Lord. I grew up, you know my story. My dad worked at a tire factory for 30 years. Came up to Akron, Ohio from Covington, Virginia. He had nothing. He had served in the military. Came up to Akron to get a job working at a tire factory. He was not a white collar. I mean, he was a working man. He was a lunch pail guy. And you know this. Dad said, hey, look, if you want to go to college, you're going to have to do that on your own. You're going to have to join the military. So I joined the military. And thank God I wound up in the Air Force after a brief vacating my common sense and joining the Army. And I'm kidding about that. I'm joking. I love our folks in the Army. I'm just kind of more partial to the Air Force. I retired from the Air Force, OK? And I think about all the advantages that I have because of that. And why did I do that? You are such you just had such a plan for your life No, the Lord impressed that upon me the Lord gets the honor and glory for that here I am You know 50 years of age wanting to go to law school to make a difference and help victims And how was I able to do that? Well, I paid for it with my Post 9-11 GI Bill. Well, where did that come from? That was entirely a blessing of the Lord and The Lord gets all honor and glory for everything that we do. Because we have what we have, it is because of Him. And He owns everything that we have. Do you understand that in your personal lives? Look, this idea that this is my money and I've earned it, and you look at the money, you open up your bank account and you say, oh, I've got this amount of money, I'm just going to go blow it on this. Well, you might blow it on that, but you better seek God's counsel first. You better understand that God has a requirement that we are stewards of what He has given us and lent unto us, and we are accountable unto Him. The word steward, okay? Watch here. There was a certain rich man which had a steward. It literally means a house distributor, an overseer, an employee in that capacity A fiscal agent or a treasurer. Do you get an idea of what a steward is? A steward is entrusted to handle the property of another. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, and just hold on here for a minute because I'm going to read this definition. I think it's important for us to grasp. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament gives us this definition of steward. the manager of a household or of household affairs, a manager, superintendent, now get this, whether freeborn or, as was usually the case, a slave, to whom the head of the house or proprietor has entrusted the management of his affairs, the care of receipts and expenditures, and the duty of dealing out the proper portion to every servant, And even to the children not yet of age, he is the manager of a farm or landed estate and overseer. That's a pretty detailed definition. And yet it gives us an idea of what the Lord is talking about in Luke chapter number 16. The rich man delegated authority for the management of his goods to the steward. As one preacher put it, The simple definition of a steward is, it is simply one who has been freed from the slavery of sin, entrusted with his master's wealth, and expected to invest and disperse that wealth so the master will get the most benefit. That's what we're supposed to do in our personal finances. That is what we're supposed to do in our church finances. In our personal finances, here is guidance and counsel that you could go to multiple seminars to, and you can go to these get rich quick schemes, and you can go to all these different seminars on how to make money in real estate, and how to do this, and how to do that. But I'm going to give you one simple proverb, and you know this well, that will help you build wealth in your life. And here it is. Don't spend more than you earn. Don't spend more than you earn. If you don't spend more than you earn, you're going to be fine. In fact, I love Dave Ramsey's counsel, not all of it, but a lot of it on finances. And Dave Ramsey continually points out that teachers, who you all know don't make a lot of money, in numerous instances wind up millionaires. How do they do that? Because these are wise stewards who are not spending more than they earn, and they're saving and putting away and allowing interest to accrue on the account. Now, of course, that's a painting with a broad brush. Obviously, not all teachers, you understand that. But if you're interested in that, look at Dave Warhamsey's website, and he'll give you some statistics and insight on that. So we are to no doubt submit to God's ownership of all of our finances. If we as a church approach every dollar that we spend with this attitude, this is the Lord's money. The Lord is the head of the church. These are his goods. We are stewards of his goods. How would he want us to spend his money, what is the most effective use of his money, if we have that attitude and that approach, I think that we'll be right with the Lord. And think about this, specifically how it relates to mission support. We are not to flippantly just send money anywhere. We are to evaluate, and we're going to talk more about this later in the message. We're to evaluate and see what God's will is, and that leads us to the second point. As we're talking about observing the same principles as we do in our personal finances, we're to submit to God's ownership of all of our finances. But secondly, we're to seek God's will as to how to spend our finances. Now you all know my story, right? I drive a 2010 Nissan Altima. If you're not paying attention, it is now 2024, soon to be 2025. In January, we bought that vehicle in January 2010. In January 2025, that vehicle is going to be 15 years old. You know what I do? I drive by the BMW dealership over there, Offenburg, and I look at those vehicles and I say, I'm going to go buy one of those. Or I look at some other types of vehicles, right? And then I just say, man, I just don't sense the Lord is wanting me to do that at this point. There's nothing wrong with my 15-year-old Nissan Altima. Yeah, it's got some bumps and bruises. Some things on it don't work. But you know what? I drive it to work, and it gets me to work fine, and it gets me home fine. I've driven it on trips. Cody took it to Louisiana. And as far as I know, he made it OK. He didn't have any problems or difficulties. What is God's will for how I spend my finances? How about this? And we're talking about this first facet, a requirement. The church is accountable for the funds that it expends. How about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse number 2? In 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse number 2, the Bible reads, moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. It's a requirement. And so if we are stewards of what the Lord has entrusted unto us, and we clearly are according to what we read in the Bible, then we must be faithful to what His desire is and what His will is. I can only conclude that we are to be wise not only in the way that we spend the Lord's monies but in the way that we we spend the Lord's monies on missions and mission support and I say whether that's a one-time gift or whether that is a continual ongoing support now look this church obviously we have taken hits through the years we we have we have lost members we are not able to do as much as we once could But you know yourself, and I won't mention examples this morning, but there are times where we helped missions out, we helped pastors out, we spent large sums of money in helping meet particular needs. And yet in all of that, we ought to have been praying what the Lord's will and desire is. It is, to me, dangerous. If we read of a need that somebody has and we don't seek the Lord's will and pray to Him about helping meet that need and we just off and send money. Have you done your due diligence? Do you know that this is what the Lord wants you to do? Well, we're going to talk more about that a little bit later on in the message. We're talking about three facets that are at the forefront in considering our church stewardship accountability. The first facet, there's a requirement. Our church is accountable for its expended funds. Now the second facet is this. There's a responsibility. The church is expected to support missions. That is an expectation. In other words, how else Could the Great Commission be fulfilled in Matthew chapter number 28 and in the book of Mark? How could we go into all the world there aren't funds to send people whom God calls as missionaries into all the world and so there is an expectation that we support missions it's an expectation turn with me in your Bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter number 8 and we're going to spend a few moments here in 2nd Corinthians chapter number 8 and And we're going to read a number of verses, but I believe it's necessary for us to gain the context of what we're talking about this morning. We're saying that there's a responsibility that the church is expected to support missions, and that means, first of all, that we need to see the expectation. Now notice 2 Corinthians 8, begin reading in verse number 1. Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves, praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift. Now watch. and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. in so much that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Therefore, as he abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. Now, what's he talking about? He's talking about giving money. He's talking about giving funds for the support of others. Now watch verse number 10. And herein I give my advice, for this is expedient for you, who have begun before not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago. Now therefore perform the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which you have. For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. Now watch. For I mean not that other men be eased, and you burdened, but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality, What is Paul laying down as an expectation? That there would be cooperation in meeting the needs, and specifically, I would say this morning, in meeting the needs of missionaries who are called of God to go out and preach the Word of God. I do not want anyone that might listen to this series on Sermon Audio to come across, and I don't know how you could if you listen to all the messages, to come across that I am anti-missionary. I am not anti-mission. I believe that the Lord has called men to go forth unto the foreign mission field and even here in the United States and to do the work that he's called him to do and I believe that they're worthy of that support. In fact, how did this church get started? I was functioning as a missionary under the authority of Faith Baptist Church in seeing this church established and so There are worthy works that we ought to see that there is an expectation for us to be involved in this. Now sadly, on the other side of that, there are works that are not worthy, that are not scriptural. I don't say that to be mean-spirited, I don't say that to attack anybody, that's just the reality of what we're dealing with. I love what W.B. White, who in 1946 wrote a book entitled Baptist Distinctives. And you know that I read a lot of older quotes because we need to see where we came from and what was believed prior to this day and age. W.B. White wrote in Baptist Distinctives in 1946, the mission of every Baptist church is exactly the same. The Lord gave the same commission to each church. The responsibility of each church reaches beyond its own immediate influence to all areas of need, clear to the end of the world. No church can do this as well by itself as it can in cooperation with other churches of like faith. Some would be unable to go far by themselves. And so it's the idea of cooperation in helping send forth missionaries. And when I say send forth missionaries, I'm talking about providing financial support for these men that are called of God to go to a particular field, to go out and do the scriptural work that the Lord has called them to do. I'm saying that there's an expectation for churches in our church to support missions. We see that expectation, but now I want you to consider these biblical examples. And first of all, as it relates to biblical examples, I want us to look at some biblical examples that show us the principle of cooperation. The principle of cooperation. Now here, I'd like for you to notice in Acts chapter number 11. In Acts chapter number 11, verses 29 and 30, listen to what the Bible reads in Acts chapter number 11, verses 29 and 30. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas, and so on. So what we have here is the principle of cooperation in meeting the needs of those saints. And then in Romans 15, we see this principle of cooperation again shown by way of example. In Romans 15, verses 25 and 26, the Apostle Paul Here, writes, but now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints. Verse 26, for it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints. which are at Jerusalem and so again you see that these churches and these individuals hear of a need and what do they do they give selflessly of their funds and of their finances of their resources to meet that need it is a principle of cooperation and then not only do we see this principle of cooperation that we should look at as it relates to examples but we should also secondly consider Paul's personal communication Because the apostle Paul was what? He was a missionary. He was a missionary. God called him to go to certain places. to preach the gospel. We looked at that in Acts chapter 16 last week. We looked at Acts chapter number 13. Paul was sent to certain places, and I want you to see how Paul was funded in doing the mission work that he did. How about this in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 16. In 2 Corinthians 1, verse 16, he writes to the church at Corinth, "...and to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you and of you to be brought on my way toward Judea." Do you see what Paul is saying? He's saying that he went to Macedonia, he came back into Corinth from Macedonia, and how was he able to do this? He was brought on his way here, according to the word, towards Judea. It says, "...and of you." you the church at Corinth to be brought on my way towards Macedonia in Thayer's Greek lexicon the words to be brought on my way literally mean to fit him out with the requisites for a journey to provide what he needed for a journey and so this is what the Apostle Paul is saying to the church at Corinth you helped me on my missionary endeavor and then for a little bit more lengthy of a read I would ask you to turn to Philippians chapter number four Philippians chapter number four I want you to note what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Philippi in Philippians chapter 4 verses 10 through 17 Notice Philippians 4 verses 10 through 17 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished Again wherein you also you were also careful, but you lacked opportunity now stop. What's he talking about? He's talking about the money that they were giving to him, the support that they were giving to him, to do the work that God had called him to do. And we're going to show you that in the following verses. Notice verse 11. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound everywhere, and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Watch verse 14. notwithstanding ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction now you say well see here it is they they wrote him letters and communicated to him in his affliction that's not what that word communicate means let me give you the definition of the word communicate in the Greek it is to share in company with to co-participate It is translated, that same Greek word is translated fellowship and partaker in other places in the New Testament. Literally what Paul is saying is that they partnered with him in giving funds to do what God had called him to do. That's what the word communicate means. He says, notwithstanding ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now look at the context, verse 15. Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me, watch, as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. It ought to be clear to you that Paul is talking about financial support. in carrying out the missionary endeavor. He says that no church communicated except you. Then in verses 16 and 17, for even in Thessalonica, ye sent once and again unto my necessity. That is the communication that Paul is talking about. They sent funds. Verse 17, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Now, that's an interesting verse, verse 17, isn't it? Because the Apostle Paul, as we know from other passages in the New Testament, was a guy who was willing to work. And he did work. And so it wasn't like he was trying to leech off of the churches to provide for his need. He worked and he labored, and guess what? There were other churches that were led of God to support him. And Paul is saying that in your support of me financially, this resulted in blessings for you from the Lord. There are blessings, and we don't give to get, but there are blessings when we follow the leadership of the Lord and the will of the Lord in providing and in cooperating with missionaries who are doing scriptural work that God has called them to do. And I say that we ought to support missions. We have a responsibility, the church is expected to support missions. Isn't it amazing that through the years here, there were times we were able to support numerous missionaries, at what I would consider to be a high monthly rate. And here we are now, where we're down. And we're not able to support as much as we were able to support. That's all in God's purview. We will support what we have the ability to support. And I'll talk more about that here in just a little bit. And so the second facet that is at the forefront of considering church stewardship and accountability is that there's a responsibility. The church is expected to support missions. And now we move into our third and final facet, and we'll spend a few moments here this morning. There is this facet, a review. A review. So there's a requirement, a responsibility, and a review. Now what is this review? In this review, the church is to examine how funds are expended. The church is to examine how funds are expensive. We ought to conduct a review. And here, in this particular facet, we are posing the question of what or which missionary or mission merits the Lord's funds. We're talking about before supporting them, we ought to conduct a review, we ought to see whether or not and examine whether or not our funds are being expended and should be expended in a proper way. Right? Now next week, not next week, but the next time we get together and we talk about this topic, we're going to conclude this series, Lord willing, by considering and looking at what missionaries on the field that we support are doing. and in evaluating that but now we're talking about the area of stewardship and establishing the fact that we are accountable to the Lord for the funds that we expend and so we ought to we ought to conduct a review we ought to examine how funds are expended and we ought to consider what or which missionaries the Lord would have us support and by the way when I talk about supporting again I make the point maybe not on a monthly basis, but even on a one-time offering. I mean, we should seek the Lord's guidance and will on that. We should not flippantly say, hey, let's send this person this amount, and this person this amount. We ought to ask what the Lord wants us to do, and then follow the Lord's guidance. And so, when we conduct this review, And we as a church examine how our funds are expended. We have to first of all think about the areas that we are to analyze. There are areas that we are to analyze. And I would say this, that a church ought to never obligate finances without doing her homework. without conducting a review. I just talked a little bit ago about buying a new vehicle. Is there anybody here, you know, you're going home today, right? You're driving by a lot. You say, oh, you know what? I got this wild hair. I want to buy a new car. And that one looks good. And I'm just going to go in. And I'm going to pay what they want for that. And I'm just going to buy that car. Hopefully, there's nobody that would say that they would do that. Hopefully you would do your research, and you'd say okay. I want to budget this amount of money I feel like this is what the Lord had me do and I want to make sure I look at it You know is this a reliable vehicle is this something that the Lord would be honored in you know I mean hey, let me go out and buy a Brand-new Corvette well that would be real feasible for me a Baptist preacher and a prosecutor wouldn't know what? I'm not gonna go out and buy a brand-new Corvette I Do we do our homework? Now, if we would say, as we should, yes, I would do my homework in buying a new vehicle. Should we not do our homework in the funds that we expend in the Lord's work? So what are the areas that we ought to analyze? Well, first of all, we ought to analyze the four requirements that we studied last week. If we're talking about supporting a missionary, we ought to go back and review the requirements that we studied last week. First of all, is this man a competent missionary? Is he qualified? And we talked about being a competent missionary involves the call to the work and so forth and so on. Secondly, does this man exhibit a compassionate motivation? What's his purpose for doing this? Does he just want to go to Hawaii? Hey, I'll raise my hand, send me to Hawaii. But what is his purpose in going? Does he have a compassionate motivation? Thirdly, is it a compliant mission? And I remind you of what we studied last week. It is not mission work if it does not involve establishing churches. Now you can disagree with me, but you try to fulfill Matthew 28 verse 18 through 20 without involving a local church. As I asked last week, what are you going to baptize people into? You preach the gospel, the Lord saves, you baptize those whom save, the intent is to start a New Testament church and then you turn them over to the Lord after you teach them all things that the Lord has commanded. That is scriptural missions. It's a compliant mission. And then lastly, is it a correct method? We're not going to support a missionary who is sent out by a board association, fellowship, or the like. We're not going to do that because that's not scriptural mission work. For it to be scriptural mission work, there must be a correct method and that means that they are sent out of a sponsoring true church. And we studied Acts chapter 13 verses 1-4 in laying down the groundwork. So our intent is not to re-preach that. Our intent is to simply point out that we have to start there. We have to consider the four requirements. And then secondly, we're talking about areas that we ought to analyze. We ought to analyze the missionary's sponsoring or sending church. You ever think about that? Hey, we're going to consider this missionary. We really like what he's doing. What about his sponsoring church? I mean, how much or what do we know about his sponsoring church? Remember, the sponsoring church is going to have authority over this missionary and this mission work. They're going to be responsible for his actions and his work as a missionary. He's going to rely on his sponsoring church to faithfully administer the funds that are sent to him for support. Can we rely on the sponsoring church giving that missionary 100% of the funds that we send in support? See, these are all areas that we maybe never think of. But we ought to analyze the missionaries sending church. We ought to analyze this question when we think about the missionaries sending church. Is the missionary constantly changing sponsoring or sending churches? Because that's a sign of a problem. This guy's got his fourth sponsoring church. They say, well, what's wrong? What happened with all these other churches? We ought to do our homework, right? So, we ought to analyze the missionaries sending church. And then thirdly, We ought to consider the missionaries doctrinal and practice beliefs. And I say doctrinal and practice beliefs because just because somebody believes right doctrine doesn't mean they practice it. And so we ought to consider their doctrinal and practice beliefs. Do we know what the missionary believes? This is so important and it's a very elementary question. You know the Apostle Paul as a missionary and in training pastors to do the work of an evangelist or a missionary made it sure that those folks in those churches knew what he, Paul, believed. Do you understand that? In fact, listen to this. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse number 10. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse number 10, Paul writing to Timothy. And what did Paul... We looked at this verse last week when Paul was talking to Timothy by way of writing. He said that he's going to do the work of an evangelist. What's an evangelist? It's an evangelist. It's a preacher of the gospel. It's not a pastor. It's a missionary. It's a man who's called of God to go out and do missionary work. That's an evangelist, right? And so Paul, writing to Timothy, wrote this. but thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, and patience. And so, Paul's doctrine and his manner of living, his practice, was open for all to see. He said, you've known my doctrine. Do you know what the missionaries that this church has supported believes? We ought to. I don't know what they believe. Well, I don't know if we're in agreement with what they believe. Well, I don't know if we're in agreement as to the way that they live their life and the way that they practice things in the ministry. Paul wrote again to the church at Philippi, and we read Philippians chapter 4 verses 10 through 17 a few moments ago, but in Philippians chapter 4 in verse number 9, listen to this. Philippians 4 verse 9 Paul wrote those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you and so Paul is again saying you know my doctrine you know how I live we ought to know that about the missionaries that we support I've mentioned this before and I say it again here's a question that we ought to pose Could I, could we, join the church that the missionary that we're supporting is starting? If we can't join the church that the missionary that we support is starting, then what are we doing? I mean, if we don't have such commonality and unity of belief that we can join that church, maybe we shouldn't be supporting that missionary. Now, how do we get to know the missionary's doctrinal and practice beliefs? Well, I believe a survey or a questionnaire is a good tool to use to find out exactly what they believe. I know people are critical of surveys and questionnaires. Look. we're accountable to the Lord. These are the Lord's money. I love you, brother, but I don't answer to you. I answer to the Lord. We're not trying to please men. We're trying to please the Lord. And so, we have to know what these missionaries believe. We have to know how they live. And then, fourthly, we're talking about areas that we ought to analyze. Fourthly, we ought to consider the missionary's philosophy as to his work. the missionaries philosophy as to his work now look I'm gonna just put a warning out there some people are gonna like this some people are gonna like some of the things that I have to say here in a few moments and I again want to assure you I don't do this out of you know being mean-spirited or critical but we're accountable to the Lord and we ought to consider these things and I don't believe it's being nitpicky I believe we ought to support sound scriptural Missions right so we're talking about analyzing the missionaries philosophy as to his work and that means first of all The type of work the type of work and when we talk about the type of work We pose this question Just what is the missionary doing? What is the missionary trying to establish? because remember mission work involves starting churches Missions is not babysitting. It's not cleaning house. It's not providing clean water. It's not providing orphanages. Missions, according to Matthew 28 verses 18-20, by the way, all of those things are good. They're good. But it's not mission work. Mission work is preaching the gospel baptizing those whom the Lord saves Organizing them into a New Testament Church and teaching them the Word of God that is mission work It's not wrong to go over and help build buildings and that kind of I think that's worthy But God doesn't call people to do that full-time as mission work that is not mission work right and so what I Is the missionary trying to do? What is he trying to start? We have to think about the type of work. And we ought to ask this question. Is he attempting to start an independent Baptist Church? An independent Baptist Church. Because this has implications on other areas. Because an independent Baptist Church is what? An independent Baptist Church is self-supporting. It is self-supporting. An independent Baptist church doesn't depend on mission dollars from the missionary or from churches in the United States or wherever. An independent Baptist church is self-supporting. This means, now hold on to your seats, because again, people aren't going to like this. But it means that we're not obligating funds for items that the people in the mission work should be providing. Do you understand that? We are not church welfare. We are not to be providing for items that the members of that church or that work should be providing. We don't ask people to provide us a building. We don't ask people to provide a salary for me. We do what we can here with what the Lord gave us. Otherwise, we are not an independent Baptist church. We would not be self-supporting. We're to be self-supporting. Here's a thought. here's the thought because a missionary asked churches to finance something does not mean that it's God's will that churches finance that it does not mean that it's God's will that we finance that and look I I get how this works and I'm not being critical but you know missionaries will ask you to pray about something And what they're really asking is for you to be led of the Lord to support and contribute financially to what they're doing. Some missionaries have become very bold in what they ask for. And look, I am not trying to be mean-spirited this morning, but I am telling you, I am telling you, that doctrinally, you and I as Baptists, and why are we Baptists? Because we believe that Baptists practice and believe what Jesus practiced and taught as it is recorded in the New Testament. If we want to ensure that Baptist churches continue, we better make sure our doctrine and our practice is right. We better make sure that we're seeing like produce like. Okay? And Baptist churches are independent churches. They are self-supporting. They are self-governing. They're not controlled by the missionary or the missionary sponsoring or sending church. So they're self-supporting, they're self-governing, and they're self-propagating. When we support a missionary, and that missionary establishes a church, do you know that we are saying that we are okay with the church that that missionary established establishing another church just like it with the same doctrine, practice, and beliefs? So we better make sure that we're OK with what we're supporting. They're self-propagating. They reproduce and carry out the commission as the Lord revealed in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the book of Acts. And so we need to be careful as it relates to the missionary's philosophy as to his work, the type of work. Is it an independent work? And secondly, here we go. Put your seatbelts on. People won't be happy. Is it indigenous? Is it indigenous? What does the word indigenous mean? It means originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country. It means native. Look, in order for missions to be appropriate, they're not only conducted with a view to establish independent baptism. self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating. But they are indigenous. Indigenous. You all know this book. Very dear to me. Local Church Missions. A doctrine and practice manual by Charles K. Johnson. We know him as Brother Ken Johnson. He's with the Lord now. Brother Ken wrote that work. I referenced to this last week. He wrote that work in 1984. 1984. And I want you to listen to what Brother Ken wrote about the principle and the concept of indigenous mission work. Listen to this. It is long overdue. Folks, this is 1984. If it was long overdue then, then it's long, long overdue now. He wrote, it is long overdue to state emphatically the principle of indigenous missions is the scriptural principle in which missions will self-perpetuate. In other words, in order for self-propagating churches to exist, we must be establishing indigenous churches. Now listen. Long after Yankee dollars are dried up, churches will continue to exist if they are totally self-supporting and autonomous. I'm going to come back to that. Some feel it necessary to pour in funds for buildings, salaries, any expenses simply because a country is poor by the artificial US standard. This is totally false in its application. If their monthly income provides a home, it can also provide a church building of equal status. Now what's Ken saying? It's not the church's responsibility here that support a missionary to send money to build a building for a church in Uruguay, Brazil, or whatever country you want to say. It is not the church's support that support that missionary. It is not their responsibility. You know whose responsibility it is? It's the members of that church in that country that are native to that country. I love what Brother Johnson wrote here when he said this. Long after Yankee dollars are dried up, churches will continue to exist if they are totally self-supporting and autonomous. Does this not fit in line with what we've already talked about, about the way that we handle our own finances? When you give people something, they depend on you giving them something. And when people are not forced to work, They become reliant on the people that are providing them the funds and the food. And they will never work. Why should they work? They're getting the handout. And folks, I'm not being mean this morning, but what are we doing? We've got to get a hold of this. Sponsoring a missionary is not to be providing church welfare to other congregations. Now look, let's get very close to home. Where are we meeting this morning? In a storefront. You know why we meet in a storefront? Because we can't afford to buy land. And we can't afford to buy a building. I'm going to get up tomorrow and I'm going to go to work. When I was functioning as a missionary on this field, you know what I did every morning? I got up and I went to work. And we didn't ask anybody to buy us a building. You know why? Because it's not their responsibility to buy us a building. As a local church, we are to be self-supporting. If we can afford to meet in a storefront, that's what we do. If we have to meet in somebody's home, that's what we do. That's proper. That's appropriate. And I believe what Brother Johnson wrote in 1984, that it is high time that we accept what the Bible teaches. We are to be self-supporting. When we are not self-supporting, we teach these folks to rely on mission dollars to carry out the work of the Lord. Now, certainly, this applies to foreign fields, does it not? But what about missions at home? I'm just going to pose this question. Is it scriptural to send a missionary in the United States to start a Spanish-speaking church in the United States? We're talking about indigenous missions. We do not send missionaries to Peru to start an English-speaking church. In fact, the only avenue that I know of in sending American missionaries to a foreign field to start an English-speaking work are those works that are established near United States military bases, where you have people that are in the military there for a certain amount of time, and they're going to be there for a certain amount of time, and they're going to be leaving. Gimentini, you all were in the Netherlands. You attended a mission work in the Netherlands for a brief period. He didn't preach in English, did he? Why? Because you're in the Netherlands! What would have happened if you would have said, I demand that you preach in English. You're in the Netherlands. Okay? He's going to speak Dutch, because you're in the Netherlands. So I ask again, why are we, or why would we send missionaries to establish Spanish speaking churches in the United States? Who are these missionaries ministering to? Who are they ministering to? Are these people here illegally in our country? If they're here illegally, what would you do about that, missionary? Why are they not learning English? Why would you not send them to your home church and they can learn English and be a part of that church, again, as I mentioned, like Lehigh Valley Baptist Church did last week? These are tough questions. But you know what I've learned? These are questions that nobody asks. Nobody asks them. And because nobody asks them, stuff goes on unchecked. Again, I'm not trying to be mean-spirited. I'm not trying to be harsh. I'm asking questions. Why would you come to the United States and start a Spanish-speaking church? People that are here, and by the way, I am completely pro-immigration. I am anti-illegal alien. I'm pro-immigration. I'm anti-illegal alien. If you come to our country, Is it asking too much for you to learn how to speak our language? If you're learning how to speak our language, why do you need a Spanish-speaking church? Again, I'm asking questions. What are you doing with these people that are here illegally? Are you following the law? Because, I mean, my goodness, if you're a missionary and you're not going to follow the law, how can we possibly support you? These are tough questions. They're questions that I've never heard anybody ask, but we ought to be asking. Indigenous. Indigenous missions. That's the concept. So we ought to analyze these areas. As to the type of work, and then how about this, and I'm going to get in more trouble here, but I've already dug a hole, so be it. The timing of the work. The timing of the work. Is this really a mission work? or is it really a church that should be organized into a church but it's not organized into a church because when you organize it into a church guess what stops the mission funds okay now look I'm not trying to be mean okay but what is your reason for not organized now look I think that just like we when we organized there are certain requirements that we had to meet in order for Faith Baptist Church to authorize us to organize us into a true church and I'm all for that but but what is the reason for some of these churches not organized okay why are you not organized as a church I'm gonna give you one illustration you'll remember this we at one time here at Tabernacle Baptist Church supported a missionary here in the United States this missionary had a building a very nice building very very nice building they had 65 people attending we had less than 20 and we were sending them $200 a month what what are we doing okay what I mean look there are missionaries that have been attempting to start churches for 40 years in the same location what are we doing now Don't take from this that I say we evaluate a missionary's effectiveness by the number of souls that are saved, because the missionary is not responsible and cannot be responsible for the number of souls that the Lord saves. Right? We plant, but the Lord gives the increase. But that doesn't alleviate us from our responsibility of considering and asking questions, when are you going to organize? mean you have as many people as we have and you have a building but you're not organizing and you haven't organized for 20 years what is it that you're waiting on is it is it to continue to receive mission funds if that's the case is that not dishonest I'm not accusing anybody of that but I am asking the question and I am posing the question what are we doing so there I said it. We ought to analyze the areas. And then lastly, bear with me, I know we've gone long this morning, we ought to assess our ability. We're talking about the fact that we review The funds that the church expends, we're examining how we expend those funds and who we're expending them on. We ought to, first of all, analyze these areas, but secondly assess our ability. And that means that we have to approach missions giving and participation and cooperations in missions giving with a proper attitude. And here I'm going to take you back to 2 Corinthians chapter number 8. We've already read a great portion of 2 Corinthians chapter 8, so I don't want to go back and re-read that, but I do want to just point out a few verses that relate to us having a proper attitude and approaching our ability to give with a proper attitude. Now watch, 2 Corinthians 8 verses 1-5. Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, now watch, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves. praying us with much entreaty that we should that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the minister to the Saints and this they did not as we hope but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God and then watch here in verse number 12 for if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath a And not according to that he hath not. The Lord doesn't expect you to give what you don't have. But He expects you to approach giving with the proper attitude. That we would not be so tight fisted that you're going to have to pry my money out of my cold dead hands. that we love the Lord and we want to give to the Lord through the local church and we want to be involved in worldwide missions and home missions by supporting missionaries that are truly conducting scriptural mission work and we want to sacrifice to do that you know that means that we may have to stretch ourselves that means that we may have to give a little bit more than what we would normally give trusting that the Lord will provide what we need Do we ever step out by faith and give that which the Lord would lay on our hearts to give? I love what Spurgeon wrote on this. Listen to this quote from Spurgeon. Little do they dream that they are thus impoverishing themselves. Their excuse is that they must care for their own families, and they forget that to neglect the house of God is the sure way to bring ruin upon their own houses. Our God has a method and providence by which he can succeed our endeavors beyond our expectation or can defeat our plans to our confusion and dismay. By a turn of his hand, he can steer our vessel in a profitable channel or run it aground in poverty and bankruptcy. And so it is. We ought to be willing and have a proper attitude. So, as we assess our ability, we approach with a proper attitude and then we ask the Lord the amount that we should give. Collectively as a church, we do that. Individually, we do that. Once we've prayed about it, and we have peace in providing financial support, yes, we believe this is a missionary that the Lord wants us to support on a one-time basis or on a continual basis. We ought to ask, what can we do? What does the Lord want us to do? How much can we afford? And here's an illustration. Should we support four missionaries at $50 a month or one missionary at $200 a month? What's the right answer to that? Well, we got to pray and ask for the Lord's guidance and counsel, right? We don't just flippantly do it. We do what the Lord wants us to do. And I want to close here with a word to members who have left this church that might listen on Sermon Audio. You have left this church in an unscriptural manner. And I know that you go on to Facebook and you post these great swelling words to missionaries that our church has supported in past years. And I want those folks to remember that when they write those great swelling words, maybe they should let the missionary know that, by the way, this church had to cut your support. because they left in an unscriptural manner. Now I don't say that out of mean-spirited, but when you're posting these things on Facebook, and you're all lovey-dovey, and our church had to cut their support because you left in an unscriptural way, right? Look, people can leave a church, okay? But you ought to do it scripturally. And you ought not to do it in an improper manner. And you get mad at the preacher, and you leave, and you take your money with you, and that only affects you. No, it doesn't. It affects that missionary that's on the field. we ought to consider those things when we do the Lord's work and so folks what are we doing we have to be involved in supporting missionaries but we have to do it in a way that honors and glorifies the Lord we have to ask this question does our church consider her stewardship accountability to the Lord we looked at three facets involved in that a requirement The church is accountable for its expended funds. A responsibility, the church is expected to support missions. And thirdly, a review, the church is to examine how funds are expended. If we are approaching these things with the right attitude before the Lord, I believe the Lord will bless us and he'll allow us to continue to be involved in mission support. Let's pray.