Take your Bible and turn to Acts 18. And I hope you have the handout from last Sunday. If not, we have a precious dozen copies that we can hand out to those who need them. We're out? Okay, sorry, you're shot. So if you don't have a handout, you can share with somebody. Yes, you guys don't have one. Sorry, I should have printed more. I thought we were going to have more left over, and then we didn't. So if you're not within sight of a handout, find somebody who has one, and ask real quick if you can be their friend so that you're in sight, because a lot of the verses are on the handout. Let me review really quickly for us though. So, Acts chapter 18. We have Paul, the only place in the New Testament that tells us what Paul's job skill was. We have a lot of other places that talk about his work. This is the passage that tells us about the tent making, whether that's some kind of weaving or leather working seems most likely. We then have this switch in Corinth where v. 3 in Acts 18, he's working and he's going to the synagogue on the Sabbath and teaching, but then apparently during the week he's working. But then v. 5 tells us that somehow in conjunction with Silas and Timothy coming, Paul was occupied with the Word. So we had a change there from and then teaching the Word on the side as possible. And we have this shift to where he's fully occupied with the Word. We're going to talk about that a little more in the next service. But that word, occupied, is a really strong word. It's the 2 Corinthians 5.14 word for the love of Christ, compelling us. Word Jesus uses when He's talking about the cross in Luke 12, and He says, I've got to accomplish this, and I have this great distress until it's accomplished. This compulsion. This being completely consumed with the Word. We're using this as a launching point to bring together all of the things Paul taught about work and money. It's really some essential principles. So let's just review real quickly what we talked about last week on your handout. We have, first of all, Number one, we talked about the serious sin of idleness. So Paul encountered that in Thessalonica especially. And so we talked about how idleness is a sin that is just not really talked about in Christianity or in our culture much today. We emphasize that idleness is not the same thing as not earning an income. because there are many kinds of work that don't earn an income but are really important. But that idleness is itself something that can be definitely sinful. Then second of all, we talked about the blessing of working to enable generosity. So it's interesting to see that Paul did work so that he could do the ministry of the Word, but he also worked so that he could give. because Jesus had taught that there is this blessing in giving greater than in receiving. Thirdly, then we talked about the humility to engage in any type of labor, and so we talked about how it was unusual for Paul to do what was perceived as a very manual labor, working with your hands kind of a job, that people of his level of society and people of his education would not at all be expected to do. That was perceived as slave work. And you did not do that if you were a free person, a Roman citizen, an educated person. But that's not Christian thinking as we talked about. last week. We're willing to do any type of work if it might serve the Lord and serve other people. Then number four, the ministry opportunities provided by certain types of labor. So we noted in 1 Thessalonians 2 that Paul says we worked while we proclaim to you the gospel of God. It sounds like there was working and proclaiming going on at the same time. And so we noted that the kind of job Paul had was the kind of job that's conducive to talking to other people while you work. And surely Paul took advantage of that. And it's possible that Aquila and Priscilla were saved through that, just working together with Paul. So of course, not all jobs can be that way. And it's not that every Christian has to have that kind of a job, but it is something that Christians think about. Are there job opportunities that give me good contacts with people and chances to talk about the Lord? And then I think we finished up last week with number five. the joy and at certain times wisdom of not being a burden on others. So Paul said this several times, 1 and 2 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians 9. He talked about not wanting to be a burden on those he was teaching and especially not wanting to put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Not wanting there to be anything that would make people say, hey, you're teaching us all about God and everything, but we can tell you're just in it for the money. Why would we believe it when it's just a way for you to make money? So he did not want to be a burden on anybody else, worked hard so that there wouldn't be any obstacles. So we talked about how that can really be a joy to not be a burden on others. And then we said, we got to be careful because Paul also taught the Corinthians that there are going to be times when you need other people. And in God's graciousness, you have to receive. God intends for other people to be the givers and you to be the receiver. And sometimes we can get a little stuck wanting to always be the givers and not need anything from anybody else. And we need to make sure we don't think that way. So that brings us now to number six. And I'm going to start to shift now to what Paul taught about money and the ministry of the Word. These are not things that are easy, necessarily, for a pastor to want to talk about. I think it's very appropriate in the light of Acts, but also it's just, it's really easy to talk about it now because GBC has done a great job of trying to think about how to take care of their pastors and those kind of things. So there is no sense in which I need to teach this to try to get our church to do something. That's not what's going on at all. Just trying to help us think about what the Bible teaches because it fits with Acts. And it really does set the table for us thinking through Things like, what happens when we pay a second pastor? How does that fit into this picture? What is that for? So actually this teaching that we're doing right now is then going to be the platform for some more extensive discussion among our deacons in just a couple weeks. Number six, Paul taught about the necessity of avoiding covetousness and insincerity. Now that's true in general, But I'm referring to the ways in which Paul talked about that with the ministry of the Word. The necessity of those who are teaching the Bible not to be covetous or insincere. So you see Acts 20.33, I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. So that's what he's saying about Ephesus. Then 1 Timothy 3, an overseer must be, not a lover of money. It's one of the foundational qualifications. 1 Peter 5, Peter writes to the elders, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly. So let me just ask you briefly, what are some of the reasons why that's so important? What are some of the reasons why covetousness and insincerity... covetousness, let's just use that for now. Why is it essential that people who teach the Bible not be covetous? It's not a trick question. It puts the attention on them. It's kind of self-serving. It brings up questions about motivation, and the Bible motivation is so clear. The foundational Bible motivation is love, right? And so if there's some other motivation going on by people who are teaching the Bible, they're contradicting the Bible, because it gives us the foundational motivation. Good, Bethany. Thank you. Scott? I was just going to say, you can quickly discern between somebody who's manipulative and a culprit and somebody who truly loves his father. I've seen that for a while. So can it affect the teaching of the Word? I mean, that's what you're saying, right? So it can really change the way the Word is taught, right? When there's some motive other than love for God, love for others. Yes? It's also addressed in James 4. I'll just read verse 2. You lust and do not have, you murder and covet and cannot obtain, Much of that is because of lack of faith and not asking appropriately, due to faith and for its glory, to covet that which someone else has, and then that's going to cause what you just said. Right. And so you've got a teacher of the Bible who's, when you're teaching the Bible, your goal is always faith. that people would hear the word and believe it. And yet, if you're not trusting God yourself with something like money, then you're urging people to faith that you're not exercising yourself. Or people who sin, and you don't want to confront a big giver. You don't mind confronting somebody who's not helping the church financially, but if they're a big donor, uh-oh, you don't want to have to confront them. So you can see there, we've got a lot of reasons, right? God knew what He was doing when He said an overseer must not be a lover of money. Eric. I don't know anything about what you give, and if one of the offering counters tries to tell me something, I try to let them know that's not appropriate, because I don't want to have any idea about that. Okay, Daniel. I was just thinking of 1 John 2, 14 and 15. Do not love the world nor the things in the world, because if anyone loves the world, the Father is not in him. pretty big statement to say of a teacher of the word. Yeah, right, right. The love of the Father is not in him. He doesn't have the right motives. He doesn't have faith. Really, it's a foundational disqualification kind of a thing if you've really got a lover of money teaching the Bible. Somebody else? One more. Yeah. It's the Tenth Commandment. Yeah, it's right against what God forbade. What's that word for us? Okay, look at the next verse on your sheet. 2 Corinthians. 2.17, For we are not like so many peddlers of God's Word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. What's a peddler of God's Word? Somebody who teaches the Bible as his business, as his money-making opportunity. And that's actually the motive. He is doing it as a way to make His motive is making money, and so he's going to teach the Bible in the way that makes the most money, gets the most donations. 1 Thessalonians 2, for our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive. We speak not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed. God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others. We worked night and day so that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaim to you the gospel of God." So you see the connection there between Paul's work and not being a peddler of the word of God. Note in verse 5, they're words of flattery. And in verse 6, seeking glory from people. What does Paul say in 2 Timothy? In the last days, they're going to accumulate to themselves teachers according to their own lusts because they've got itching ears. In other words, tell me what I want to hear. And when a teacher of the Bible wants money, he's going to want to tell people what they want to hear. So for many reasons, anybody who's teaching the Bible has to constantly keep an eye on their heart, because you might not be covetous one year, but you might the next, right? It's not like you can just permanently say, well, thankfully, I don't have that problem. Any of you can have that that problem could enter any of your lives and we wouldn't see it coming. And it's not necessarily something easy to recognize. So, number seven, then Paul taught. So, after all those principles, the order here is important, because this is Paul's order too. After all those principles, now we get to this, the right of those who teach the word to receive pay. And Paul actually taught that strongly, and Jesus too. 2 Thessalonians 3, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. It was not because we do not have that right. but to give you and ourselves an example to imitate." Jesus, Luke 10, this is when he's sending the disciples out on a ministry trip. He says, remain in the same house. So it was appropriate for them to expect someone to host them and take care of them. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide for the laborer deserves his wages. What kind of laborer? They were laborers for Jesus, taking His teaching. But then it's 1 Corinthians chapter 9 that is the extended explanation of this. And so let's read straight through this, even though we've pulled out a couple of verses and will again. So you have this on your handout, right? 1 Corinthians 9, 4. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord in Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? 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? 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? Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, Is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right. but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. 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? In the same way, so now he's referring back to what we just read about in the gospels, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. That's about as strong as it can get, right? So Paul puts that principle together with all the other things he already said about generosity, and not being a burden, and no covetousness, and all those principles. Then he says, no, actually, Jesus commanded that those who proclaim the gospel get their living by it. 8. That flows right into this principle, though, the wisdom of not asking for or expecting pay for the ministry of the Word. Or another way to say that is the necessity of initiative from a church family. For Thessalonians 2, he's talking about work and pay, and he says, we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. He said to the Corinthians, if others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more. See that rightful claim? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right. In 2 Corinthians 11, when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone. For the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way. He was in need but did not ask for their help. So we, now whether we could say that's an, I don't think we can say that's like an absolute principle. I think this is Paul's example, and it suggests that there's wisdom in it. I don't think it's a rule. In other words, I don't think a pastor could never say to his church family, we're about to lose our house. You know, like a church family would probably want to know that. So I don't think it's a rule. I think it's a wisdom matter. but there is wisdom in not asking for or expecting pay for the minister of the Word. It is very difficult for pastors to talk to their church family about their own pay. I mean, it is hard enough for those of you who work in a regular work environment and have a boss. It's hard enough for you to go to your boss and ask your boss about your pay. What about when it's the people to whom you teach the Bible and shepherd whom you're supposed to try to go to about your pay. It is for pastors an extremely awkward thing. And I have I have had going to pastors gatherings and being around pastors of small churches. I have been in many conversations in which pastors have said OK guys my family's dying. I mean we're just not making it financially but our church doesn't isn't paying any attention to any of it. How do I what do I do. How do I even bring it up with them? You know, it's a very difficult position for a pastor to be in. And the best answer, which is, I mean, the reason why they're having to ask is because it's not there. But the ideal answer is that the initiative come from the church family in the first place. that if it comes from them. So that's why Paul says things like Galatians 6.6, let the one who is taught the Word share all good things with the one who teaches. So Paul's viewing it there as just kind of a natural response to the reception of the Word. As you receive the Word that is taught, you respond to that with joyful and loving provision. But you see there where the initiative comes from, right? The initiative comes from that response from those who are being taught the word. So that brings us then to really, really pivotal verses in 1 Timothy 5 verses 17 and 18. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor. especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, same principle used in 1 Corinthians 9, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages. Okay, so what is he saying here? First of all, verse 17, the beginning of the verse, Let the elders who rule well be considered, considered worthy. So can you see there that this is again a response, right? It's a response to their leadership. It's a response to their shepherding, a response to their teaching. Let them be considered worthy, that this would be appropriate. This is what should be done. Let them be considered worthy of double honor. Double honor. And I think it's most likely that what he means is the Bible teaches other places that elders should be respected. And so I think it's most likely what he means is there is respect that should be given and wages that you should consider giving. The double honor refers to the honor of your attitude and the honor of your provision for them. I think there are a couple of other options, but I think that's probably by far the most likely meaning of double honor, both respect and remuneration. However, a church needs more elders than they will be able to afford. I think that's just almost universally true. that the economics of the number of elders needed in a church family and the available finances don't match up. That's not new. I think that's reflected right here in these verses because what's the next word after double honor? What's the next word? Especially. In other words, he's helping a church prioritize. If you have a group of elders and you only have enough money to pay one of them or some of them, which ones of those elders do you prioritize paying? And what's the answer? Those who labor in preaching and teaching. Is preaching and teaching all that elders do? Can a church survive if the elders only preach and teach? It can't, I assure you. It can't. I don't know if you remember when we were going through the Dalrymple salary discussions and things, but we actually showed our church family what the pastoral roles here at GBC actually look like. And preaching and teaching is one of about 40 things on that job description. And so it's not as simple as just saying to the pastors, just preach and teach and don't worry about the rest of it. There is much more biblical responsibility than that because elders are told ultimately to oversee the whole thing. And so everything that goes into overseeing and shepherding and protecting and feeding and guarding is all responsibility of them. So a church is going to need more elders than they're going to be able to afford. And Paul teaches a church how to prioritize. So if you think of it like an order, you start with a church that can't afford to pay pastors at all. and maybe God provides for that church by other means, like Paul got gifts from Philippi that helped him do ministry other places. That's how Grace of Menaphe was started. This wasn't started by this church paying pastoral salary, but by other people paying pastoral salary, and then this church took that over as soon as they could. It was awesome. You know, and we started in fall of 2003, and by the fall of 2006, this church was completely paying for their own pastor. Well, that's the way it ought to go, right? You start at the beginning, and there's no way to do it. So, maybe there's some outside people who are generous and help. And then you move toward being able to pay one. And you ask the question, if we only can pay one, which one should we pay? And Paul says, pay the one who is going to primarily labor in preaching and teaching. And then if a church continues to grow and to develop, you can see how you would then work out the question of, how do we take the next pay and use it to continue supporting labor in the ministry in the preaching and teaching of the Word? How do we best do that? So I think that really is Paul's kind of understanding of how the financial thinking about pastoral pay would work in a healthy church. And again, I totally recognize that there are exceptions to that. there are little churches in little places who will never be able to pay their pastor. And there are men God calls to those places. And like my dad has taken care of sheep and mowed a lot of hay and milked cows, and he's done a lot of things. And we say, praise the Lord for that, because that fits with a bunch of other principles we saw, right? But then Paul says, when it becomes possible, consider it this way, think about it this way, and prioritize it this way. Questions about that? Tim. Comment and perceptions can be immensely dangerous. And so what you're almost alluding to, it seems, is equating faithfulness with financial success. or equating lack of finances with lack of faithfulness. So to use that example of the body of believers who can't pay their pastor, so does that mean that the pastor is not faithful? Does that mean that the body of believers isn't faithful? Even Paul himself, he said multiple times he was hungry. And we have the benefit of hindsight on that list of Paul where it was Well, does that mean that Paul was not faithful? Now, we have a benefit of hindsight that we know that Paul was faithful. But it's tough, present time. And we have to be careful of our perceptions. So let's put ourselves in the present time of Paul. The first time he was beat up, hmm, all right, man. You need to be a little more discerned. You need to be a little more smart. But wait a minute. Our perception of someone not being smart or not being wise and discerning could be someone's faithfulness, which it turned out to be Paul's. And then, what about the second time he was beat up? What about the second time he was shipwrecked? Okay, dude. All right, man. The first time you were beat up, I had questions. Now, the second time you're coming in, and let's do present time. If someone comes in here with black eyes for the gospel, wow. Is he being smart, or is he being faithful? Okay, now the second time, let's say a few months later, he comes in again with black eyes. Okay, we need to have a little closed door meeting when you talk about your smartness and your discernment and your wisdom. So going back to perceptions, that was out of the scope of finances, but back to the scope of finances though, yeah, talk about really being very, very careful I don't think Paul made any connection to faithfulness there. Paul said in Philippians 4 that he knew how to have great abundance and he knew how to be in great need. It was just different situations. It was just the Lord's providence in different scenarios. Yeah, there's a direct Old Covenant connection between obedience to the Lord and prosperity. God promised it to Israel under the Old Covenant. There is no New Testament parallel to that, certainly not something that Paul teaches. I think if we were to import that, we'd really be missing the point that every situation is different. And so we're not talking about measuring faithfulness. We're just talking about a local church family saying, here's what would be best if God would allow us to do this. You know, a lot of the way we think about finances is, here's what we would like to be able to do. If God would allow us to do this, this is what we would like to be able to do. And let's get to our next point on the handout because it connects to that. Scene number nine. the priority of each local church on providing for its own pastors. So Paul says something really blunt to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11. He says, I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. What's he saying there? Well, first of all, it's not wrong for another church to help support ministry in a different place. We do it with missions all the time. Paul did it with gifts from Philippi. What he's really saying is that the Corinthians were still doing that when it was way after they should have still been doing that. They should no longer have been, depending on that, they should have been paying their own leadership. But there are churches that can't, right? That's what we're saying. They're not at a place where they can do it. That was Grace Bible Church in 2004. But the key is that we say, that's our desire. Let's pray together. Let's seek together how the Lord might provide. Let's see what the Lord might do. Yes, sir, yes, sir. I didn't see nine. I was already looking at the second Corinthians 11. Ah, I beat you. and a lot of people don't like that word, but I just have this perception of Corinth. They were supposedly a very spiritual church, they had a lot of spiritual gifting going on, and the way I read into them, they're almost like a mega church. I mean, they're pretty big, but Paul's saying, I brought these other smaller churches to help me because you wouldn't take care of me. So in other words, they're a big church, a lot of spiritual gifting going on, but they're not taking care of him who's laboring to preach the gospel. So in this case, it's not some little, you know, podunk church out in the sub 40 that is having a hard time because it has hardly any, you know, monies coming in. This is somebody that really, I look at him almost like saying to their chagrin, look, you guys, I know you got substance, but I'm not going to burden you. And I did, So I actually took from these other churches to not be a burden to you. Yeah, I think that's probably right. Scott? You've got your givers. They don't even care about their pastor. The covetousness problem can be universal, right? And so when you've got covetousness in the pulpit, you've got a huge problem. And when you've got covetousness in the pew, you've got a huge problem, you know? Because it's just sin. It's just a mess no matter where you have it, in pastors or in anybody else. So all of that brings us then to number 10, which is our actual connection to Acts 18, to just circle back to Acts 18, Acts 18.5, when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the Word. And I think your mind goes right back to Acts 6, doesn't it? And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, it's not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word." So pair that with Acts 18.5. He was occupied with, consumed with, wholly devoted to the Word. But in Acts 6, was it money? that they needed to be able to labor in prayer and the ministry of the Word? What was it that they needed? They needed help. They needed hands-on people involved in ministry. And as we talked about when we studied that passage, there is nothing wrong with pastors helping provide food for widows. That's a beautiful thing. Not if... The pastors are spending all their time providing food for widows, and there's no laboring in the Word and doctrine to lead a church family forward through the Word, right? So in Acts 6, the need was for help. In Acts 18, it seems the need was for money. And so actually, those two things go together as the two big categories, the two ways that you help elders be able to really focus on prayer and the ministry of the Word or devote themselves to the Word is through the help, the ministry capacity of a church family. That's the phrase we use. The ministry capacity of the whole church family. You increase the ministry capacity of the whole church family so that everybody's doing the ministry of the Word. Everybody's doing the ministry of the Word in their own ways, with their own giftedness, with their own personality, with their own opportunities. Everybody's doing the ministry of the Word and the pastors are just leading that with the whole church laboring and preaching and teaching. You put that component together, and then if the Lord provides, you put the financial component together so that they can not have to be weighed down by trying to figure out how to pay tomorrow's bills, but just put their heart and their labor in the Word. And you've got what the Bible is teaching is the components for a really healthy situation in a church. So those two passages go together in a really foundational way And the underlying assumption in both, if you look back at point 10, is the value of allowing unhindered focus on the ministry of the Word. There are lots of different ways to preach. There are lots of different ways to come up with Bible lessons and sermons. I was just looking at I was just there was I saw an ad for a service that you can go on there and you can you can find outlines and Bible studies and sermon ideas for anything you can imagine. And it's designed for pastors you know creating sermons. And there are pastors who've got to do that because they don't have time. And so they've got to go I was at this conference in Allisterbeg two weeks ago. Lorraine came to know the gospel partly through Allisterbeg, so she's a fan. He was speaking at the Gospel Coalition, and he said, now I know. He said, let me tell you the points on my outline, because I know you're all going to go home and preach this on Sunday. He said, we've got to have something to preach on Sunday. It was a part of the text he wasn't preaching on, and he was like, I'm not really gonna talk about this, but let me show you a great outline, you can use it on Sunday. And he was being tongue-in-cheek, but life gets busy, so those kind of things can happen. But frankly, that's not what a church family should ever want to be the norm. That isn't what you want to be the norm. Because you want the teaching of the word to come from that person's, first of all, genuine understanding, not just what they heard somebody else say, Because you can't, you don't explain something well when you're just regurgitating somebody else's explanation of it. You know, like if somebody who really knows how to golf took me out and gave me a 10-minute golf lesson and then said, okay, now here's somebody else who's never golfed, teach them. Well, my teaching is going to be really thin because I got my 10 minute lesson and that's all I got. And I've only, right? So you want the teacher of the Bible to really absorb it themselves so that they understand it more fully. But more importantly from that than that, you want it to have hit their heart. You want them to have really connected with God through his word. You want them to have had time for God to use his word in their heart. And then you want them to have time, had time to prepare well. Because folks, you stand up in front of a hundred people and talk every week, and you're talking about the most serious things in life, and you're talking to a room full of hurting people, and you can say really dumb things, and you can really hurt people. You can't just step up and start shooting from the hip. because you're dealing with the deepest parts of people's lives. You're pressing them with who God is, and what faith is, and what eternity is, and what death is, and what life's really worth living, and how to think through all the suffering and stuff that's going on. So you want the pastor to have time to really, really understand the Word to have God really bring that word home to his heart, and then to be able to prepare to help people understand that word in the best ways possible, that it might not confuse them, or overwhelm them, or hurt them, or be too much for them, or be too little for them. Goldilocks, right? Like we talked about last Sunday. So for all those reasons, what both Acts 6 and Acts 18 suggest is there is a tremendous value in unhindered focus on the ministry of the Word. And of many, many reasons why we are excited about adding pastoral assistance at GBC, that is number one. That is what has been our driving motivation, though there are many other factors. Yes. Oh yeah. A serious sin of idleness. And I know what you were saying, but I've actually witnessed some ministers that unfortunately have a lot of idleness. So I looked up, because I already know this verse, it's very permanent for me. Ezekiel 16, 49. Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, And in abundance of idleness, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy. And I know, and I've been under some ministers, that they were watching Charles Stanley in the morning, and they were preaching Charles Stanley's message. when they had service and I've been around others like that well just like you're saying pre-made this or they listen to somebody else's sermon and then they re-taught that sermon they heard on TV because they're too busy watching a cooking channel or playing golf or doing other things outside of studying the Word of God yeah and I've been I've been around that So, you know, this is where what we're saying about the role of the church family is so essential. Because you don't want a church, a pastor can't be at the mercy of everybody in the church telling them what to do. But you do want a whole church saying to their pastor, look, these are your biblical priorities, and we're going to help provide for you so you can do it, but we're going to expect you to do it. Right? And I can tell you for sure, this church family holds me to it. And when I teach something like I taught this morning, I'm putting the pressure ultimately on me, aren't I? I'm telling you, here's what my job ought to be. Here's what I'm supposed to do if I'm faithful to the Lord. And this is not a church family that misses things. So, there have been several times in the history of our church when people have come to me and said, hey Tim, what's up with your preaching? And folks, I appreciate that. Because if I'm not walking with the Lord, if I'm not giving my time and attention to the Word, see, what's the Word? labor in the Word and doctrine. If it's not like labor, I'm not doing what I ought to be doing. Now, to be honest, right now, we do need pastoral assistance because I'm also trying to do everything else. So it is hard right now. But our church family is both gracious with me and they hold me accountable. And so I praise the Lord for you. Don't ever lose either of those things. always be gracious with me. Pastors can't always preach home-run sermons. Pastors have bad weeks, right? All those things happen. But always hold the people who preach and teach at this church, not just me, but anybody who preaches and teaches at this church, always hold them accountable for laboring in the Word and doctrine, because that's the way God called it to be.