Is Raising Support Crazy or Biblical?

Question: What do I do if God calls me to do something but I don’t have the resources to take care of my family? Paul answers these questions for us in I Corinthians 9.

{Note in introduction: Acts 6 – leadership genius of God. Separating everyone into there call and gift mix}

v6"Or is it only Barnabas and I who have to work to support ourselves?

Paul and Barnabas had a trade they could do to support themselves, while the other apostles didn’t. I have friends who have a mission from the Lord yet they also have a skill or gift in something that helps them pay the bills while serving the Lord in other ways.

When my Dad left the pastorate for the first time in 32 years last year to expand his ministry from a community to communities as an evangelist, he didn’t know how he was going to support themselves. He raised some funds for his overseas trips but didn’t feel right about raising his full salary until his vision had matured a little more. In the meantime, he continued to preach and serve where he could. Walking away from a capable and flourishing ministry to do what God called him to go out and do was no easy task, but he persevered, refusing to give into the temptations of other things. A vision was maturing, that’s for sure, just not at the pace he or any of us would have preferred. But God does things in “due time” so we did the best we could with what we had.

Dad, the natural salesman he is, felt the Lord leading him to take some real estate endeavors in Panama City, Florida where he had lived for over four years before moving back to Atlanta. He had dozens of quality contacts and the area all of sudden became one of the most booming in the country. Not only did his condo double in price, but in one month he connected over ten people to buy pre-sale condominiums. All he asked for was a finder’s fee. Dad had discovered that real estate could be his skill to support him while he began planting seeds for the vision God had given him. He’s even becoming a licensed agent in Georgia and Florida. Yet he continues to preach and will most likely be immersed into that again very soon.

I meet people all the time who are laboring with the vision God has given them and it’s easy to become confused when it relates to a money issue. It seems like everyone has a different outlook on it. I’m encouraged once again that the Word of God has all the answers to all my questions and I’ve got an ocean of em. I ask, “God, how? Should I really raise my own support or get a job or…?” The entire time I think God is looking right at me just simply whispering or many moments shouting in my ear, “My answers are found right there, see it…it’s called My Word…aka the Holy Bible, the spot where I said they would be.” “Oh! That’s a life-changing grip I now have.”

When God speaks to us all we have to do is trust and obey. And let me say, it’s not like this is a struggle we have to endure alone. Paul said in the next chapter, “And remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience.” David journaled about his constant struggle all the time, “O Lord, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I need you the most?”

And I think it’s just plain healthy to tell God exactly how you feel. When He says to cast all burdens on Him He means it. It’s a beautiful thing to me that men like David and Paul and Moses wrestled with God. He wants to be wrestled with. He’ll win but we’ll have answers and freedom and the knowledge that we are obeying our Heavenly Father. Read the Psalms and tell me he’s not fighting with God. He says things like, “Don’t rebuke me in your anger!...because of your anger, my whole body is sick.” If I were God I’d be annoyed, but our Heavenly Father is patient and understanding. Amazing.

7"What soldier has to pay his own expenses?"

The roman soldiers were paid in money and other things like corn. He’s using some common sense word pictures here.

"And have you ever heard of a farmer who harvests his crop and doesn't have the right to eat some of it? What shepherd takes care of a flock of sheep and isn't allowed to drink some of the milk? 8And this isn't merely human opinion. Doesn't God's law say the same thing?"

This is God – not only human reasoning.

9"For the law of Moses says, "Do not keep an ox from eating as it treads out the grain." F46 Do you suppose God was thinking only about oxen when he said this? 10Wasn't he also speaking to us? Of course he was. Just as farm workers who plow fields and thresh the grain expect a share of the harvest, Christian workers should be paid by those they serve."

God cares about us as he does oxen. There is a reward in our work.

11"We have planted good spiritual seed among you. Is it too much to ask, in return, for mere food and clothing?"

Every man has a right to support his family through others or work.

The rest of the chapter should be an encouragement as well. I’ll tackle it another day for sure…v. 12-27