Play

“Burdening the Church”

Gary Copeland
09/01/24 - Sun AM

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

Repeating the welcome to everyone and appreciating your interest in spiritual things.

Have you ever been just so sleepy that your eyelids feel like they're just super heavy.

You're like they're just little eyelids.

They shouldn't be this heavy, but you just can't even keep them open.

They are just that heavy.

Well, that's exactly what Peter James and John felt in.

Get Simone Matthew chapter 26 verse 43 they had heavy eyes.

They were weighed down eyes and similarly on the mount of transfiguration, those three men were heavy, they were weighed down, they were overcome with sleep.

Depending on your translation.

You'll get those various words from the scripture reading that Douglas did for us there in second Corinthians five, we read that in the body, we are weighed down, we are oppressed.

We have a heavy load, a great weight, a heavy burden, we are burdened and that's why we've grown and maybe the longer we live, the more burdens we have and the more we grown.

But I've met young people that are similarly burdened and groaning.

So that weight is not a good feeling that burden makes you feel bad.

So with that little brief word study in mind.

All these heavy eyes weighed down, burdened, overcome with whatever feeling with that word study in mind this morning's lesson has to do with some ways in which we burden the church.

How do you like that little picture I drew pretty good.

Yeah, I had a little help.

A little a, I help, I wanna talk about burdening the church, putting a weight on the church that makes the church groan things that are not appropriate.

These are avoidable burdens.

First way we burden the church that comes to mind is unsound doctrine.

And uh you'll know you'll notice in all these points that the churches across this fruited plain uh here in harvest in Monrovia and Huntsville Madison suffer with these things.

But there's an example in the scripture of unsound doctrine in acts chapter 15, the teaching was that new Christians that were coming to God that were not from a Jewish background.

They were going to have to obey the law of Moses.

Well, in teaching against that, Peter makes the point in acts chapter 15 and verse 10 that the law of Moses had been a burden.

He called it a yoke which Peter said, neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.

It acts 15 verse 163.

It was just too much, not that it couldn't be kept perfectly.

Jesus did, but everyone eventually fails in trying to carry it out perfectly.

And so putting expectations from the law of Moses on these new gentiles coming to the gospel of Jesus would have been placing on them an unfair burden and besides a whole useless burden.

And there's a whole other thing about mixing the covenants that is inappropriate.

But the conclusion of the discussion was to lay upon those new Christians as verses 28 and 29 say no greater burden.

Then these essentials and then he men mentions abstaining from idolatry, abstaining from eating or drinking blood, abstaining from eating things that had been strangled and abstaining from sexual immorality.

And so teaching has a weight to it, but we need to avoid putting on excessive teaching.

And in this case, mixing the covenants when we mix part of the old covenant with the new covenant and whether we're talking about instrumental music being brought in or using incense as part of worship or developing a priesthood according to some human order, we are burdening the church.

There's another way in which unsound doctrine can burden the church.

Some churches set expectations that go beyond what is written and they make church rules, whether they're imposing just their own ideas or preferences of the leaders or forcing certain cultural norms on others.

I actually heard of a church.

I think it was in this area.

I don't remember the details, but uh they actually kept a collection of neck ties hanging in the lobby so that any men that were expected to wait on the Lord's table.

That's when we were passing the elements through the audience.

They were expected to go grab one of those ties if they weren't wearing a tie that morning and put that on so they could serve at the Lord's table.

Well, don't you think that's getting a little bit out of?

That's third Timothy. Right.

In other words, some scripture that doesn't even exist, that's just not appropriate, that's making up rules and enforcing things that are just beyond what is written.

And now here's the disclaimer.

Don't get me wrong.

Don't misunderstand, please.

We, we live in an increasingly casual society.

Pretty much the only time you'll see me in the ties when I'm doing something up here in front preaching or something else.

But I want us to understand that we can show an irreverent attitude toward worship and toward God.

By the way, we dress some examples.

Uh We know this is not the playground, we don't wear playground clothes when we come to worship.

Some clothes are simply not appropriate for worship and some clothes draw attention to themselves.

Even though they're perhaps formal, they may be too formal.

They draw attention to themselves and so are by definition, not modest.

They're, they're so out of step with everyone else around them.

Some t-shirts should simply never be worn, right?

But much less when we're worshiping, they're just distracting messages and whatnot images.

Some churches add other writings to the scriptures.

They supposedly have different revelations.

They have their own creeds, their own statements of faith, their own church laws, they're burdening the church by making church rules.

They're adding on things that God has not put on the church.

And this is what Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing Matthew chapter 23 verse four.

And my references are from the legacy Standard Bible this morning.

They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders.

These are the church leaders of the time, the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders, they tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders.

Think about that big rock on the, on the church, right?

But they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.

So unsound doctrine burdens the church another way in which we burden the church is by shirking.

It's funny we've got one of our invitation songs, something about or no, I just one of our regular songs talks about the shirkers.

I will leave the shirkers.

So I had to kind of say, ok, that's not a very modern term, but shirking just means ignoring leaving to one side.

I'm not attending to something that I should attend to.

And so shirking my own personal responsibility, right?

I let someone else do it.

I figure, well, somebody else is going to do whatever an illustration from the body is very simple.

If I expect my left hand to do all the work in picking things up or just in doing things on a daily basis.

Well, that's not fair.

I got a right hand.

It ought to be pitching in doing what it can. Right.

I mean, this is a simple illustration.

I realize this is kind of the opposite of what Tim preached recently.

Uh, Tim preached on what I would consider burdening myself by not accepting help from others.

Well, now I'm talking about the other way where I burden others by not doing what I'm expected reasonably to do myself.

Here's another illustration.

This gets back to something.

I mean, I, I read this back in the other millennium.

I have memories from back then. Yeah.

Some of you all do too with me in the 21122 seventies.

One of the church bulletins talked about a little story about four people.

I said, oh, who are these four people?

Well, they are named anybody, somebody, everybody and nobody.

And it's a simple story and you can fill in the blanks yourself or extend it into as many verses as you want.

But basically everybody knew that anybody could do it and figured that somebody probably would do it.

And so who ended up doing it?

Nobody?

All right.

So shirking our responsibilities, ends up burdening other people.

The scriptures say that we are to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ Galatians six verse two.

But at the same time and in that same paragraph, it says that each one will bear his own load.

Verse five, many translations say his own burden.

You'll notice though, I like the legacy Standard Bible for calling in one verse Burdens and another verse lows because they are different Greek words.

And Mr Vine, the, the dictionary writer of Greek words uh describes a pretty good job of does a good job describing the difference between these two words and maybe there's not a big theological point to be made, but, but a burden is something that refers to the weight of a thing.

And so by implication, this is something that's just too heavy for somebody to carry, they're going to need help.

So somebody else comes to the aid.

So we bear one another's burdens when things are that heavy, but each one will carry his own load and that's a different word and it just talks about something that you put on someone.

And so reasonably, you understand that a person can be expected to be able to carry that.

And so the practical question is, what's my load?

Right?

It's anything I can be reasonably expected to do.

Can I send a card?

I'm not good at that, but I can, I can speak an encouraging word.

I can walk up and greet somebody new.

I'm the last one out.

I can figure out how to close those gates back in the parking lot at the risk of embarrassing him.

Um Hi, Nate Nate Smith.

Uh Really caught my attention recently.

He's just taken it upon himself to go through the, uh, through the auditorium and pick up the trash after the Lord's supper because we use these little individual containers and that leaves trash behind.

And I just love that.

He just took it upon himself.

He just saw it eat, he took care of it, something he can do, appreciate that very much.

And so many of you do the same thing.

So my burden is to do what I can for myself.

And then when someone else has a burden, a big weight, it's too heavy for one person.

I pitch in and try to help.

Third way in which we burden the church is by misusing the treasury.

The New Testament examples and instructions establish a very clear pattern for the work of the church.

And once we identify the work of the church, the neat revelation that the insight that I had in fairly recent years was that once we've figured out what the work of the church is, we've already identified what the work of the church, what the use of the treasury is to be.

I mean, they, they're the same thing, right?

Whatever the church is supposed to be doing as, as a collective, that's what our collective funds are to be used for.

And so with that in mind, we think about passages such as first Timothy 21122 that talks about the church being the pillar and uh and ground of the truth.

I'm probably quoting from a different translation than the legacy standard now.

But to uphold the truth in other words and to adorn it, to make it look good.

First Corinthians 234 emphasizes edifying each other.

That's the work of the church talks about in our assembly.

Let all things be done for edification.

I believe that's verse 234.

But that whole chapter is about us building each other up.

It's from Ephesians four.

That's the purpose of the body.

We're supposed to be mutually building each other up.

Uh Hebrews 246.

These are things Tim pointed out a few weeks ago and first Corinthians 23000 talks about us helping the Saints financially, both here and we have needs from time to time in this congregation and also other congregations.

And we know that in this global society, we have connections across the globe.

We just sent another almost $163 this week over to Zimbabwe because they, those brethren are starving, they're down to one meal a day in a lot of times that that's pitiful.

We're sitting here just with more food than we know what to do with.

And so at least we're doing something and that's use of proper and good use of the Treasury to send money, to send funds to other Christians, to help them with their burdens.

We see in acts two acts four acts six acts 216, all those are chapter numbers we see examples of the church pitching in and they lay things, they lay the collective funds and items at the apostles feet there in Jerusalem and in Antioch, the brethren were selling their possessions to help the needy members.

They were sending money to meet the needs of other churches.

In Second Corinthians eight and nine, those two chapters we often read before we take up the collection, we have a lengthy discussion of what they were doing back then.

And we know from First Corinthians 211 that that's still what we're supposed to be doing that as there are needs identified, then we take up collection to meet those needs.

And you'll notice that in chapter eight verse 228, in chapter nine verse 12, 3 times a particular Greek word is used and it gets translated as need or lack.

And so we're talking about the poor, right?

As Romans 15 verse 26 says this money is being collected for the poor among the saints.

And so that's the work of the church.

That's the use of the treasury.

I want to point out that from acts chapter 61 of those chapters that we mentioned, we see there that there was a daily distribution or a daily serving is the word uh to certain widows that were there among the church in Jerusalem.

Well, we know that the the Apostle Paul later left very clear instructions about widows and about how to help them in first Timothy chapter five, he made it very clear that explicit that not just any widow should receive regular support from the Treasury.

Uh That's what verse nine of first Timothy five calls the number or the list.

In other words, these people are just going to be receiving regular help and we find out that they had qualifications because the use of the treasury has limits.

So there in first Timothy five, Paul gives qualifications of those widows who are to be helped on an ongoing basis.

And he specifies in verse four, if any widow has Children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents for.

This is acceptable in the sight of God.

He teaches that the believing child must take care of the widow in his or her own family.

And that as verse 16 says, the church must not be burdened.

There's our word again, right?

The church from its collective funds has a load.

We have all this identified work to do and those, those funds are there for that purpose for those purposes.

So we send to preachers and we use it to edify each other.

And then we use the money to help saints who are poor and who are needy and lacking.

But I want to point out that the funds are finite.

They are limited, right.

Their use is regulated by scripture, both by command and by example.

And when we task the church with taking on from the Treasury, more than is specified in the New Testament, then a few things happen.

Individual Christians may be shirking their responsibilities.

We're leaving the New Testament pattern and we are burdening the church.

The treasury has limits both practically and doctrinally.

You know, it's funny.

Here's an illustration.

Some people in society every time they see some good work, some need arise, they look to the government to solve all their problems.

But as I read recently on that very wise source of all knowledge, Facebook, there is no such thing as government help, right?

And I mean that in the sense of if we say, oh, let the government pay for it, I'm saying, let my tax dollars pay for it, right?

Eventually I am on the hook for that because I'm paying the taxes and those taxes are being used in that way.

Well, it's similar, it's not a perfect uh illustration or analogy because the church can't print its own money.

But I digress a little bit.

But I'm just saying that when we're using collective funds, we're using it for our collective actions and this collective work that we have identified, that's what the treasury is for.

And when we get out of those bounds, we're misusing the treasury and we're burdening the church.

And it said in that case, very specifically, the church must not be burdened similar maybe way in which we burden the church is by getting out of bounds.

There are boundaries and I want to approach this maybe from a little different angle.

I've showed you, I've shown this congregation this uh Venn diagram years ago, but we're different now.

We got new people and it's wonderful.

And so I will not be ashamed or shy about uh firing this up again.

As Tyler Loveless said, oh, we engineers love a good Venn diagram.

So go ahead and bring it on again.

So when we're talking about things that we do, they fall into two categories, the works of the individual and works of the church.

And so when we look at scriptures, we see as one of them was read by Quinn this morning from uh Matthew 113.

Although it's not listed in that list, it could be an individual.

Christian can help all the needy. Anybody.

We see my neighbor, it doesn't matter non-christian, any widow, my pocket is there to help God has given me blessings as an individual and I'm there to share those, those things with other people and help them.

So in that type of benevolence, I as an individual can help all the needy, I can spend my money any way that any good wholesome way that I see fit.

Acts chapter five.

When Peter is talking to Ananias and Saia, he makes that real clear while you had your possession, you didn't have to sell it.

And even after you sold it, you had complete control over the money.

Nobody's obligating you to do good works with these things.

It's up to you.

And so I have that right to determine how I'm gonna spend my money.

And so when we're talking about marrying and raising Children, obviously, that applies to individuals, talking about working, talking about eating a common meal.

These are things that belong in the home.

These are things that go with the individual and there are more scriptures than just those.

But those are at least able to serve as examples to describe the work of the individual.

And on uh a spiritual side of things, we know individuals can go out and preach and pray, sing hymns, discipline the Wayward members.

We do that as individuals.

We do that in the home and we help needy saints, all the widows, even the true widows, we can do that from our pocket.

Now, that's where the, the Venn diagram becomes useful because that list there of preaching and praying and singing and disciplining and helping the needy saints and true widows.

Those are things that the church can also do.

So when we draw the circle and say, what's the work of the church?

We see that yes, there's going to be some overlap.

But there are certain things that belong only to us as a collective, as a body.

Take the Lord's supper, do a deep dive on these passages and you'll find a theme in there, a common, common teaching and that is that we take the Lord's supper together, right?

We come together, we come together as a church, we come together to eat.

It's talking very specifically about the Lord's supper.

And so acts chapter 20 verse seven.

Uh these several verses in First Corinthians 11 throughout that paragraph, part of which was read for us by Jim this morning before taking the Lord's supper, we come together to do these things.

This is a collective activity.

And so as such, we learn that the Lord's supper is not to be an individual activity.

We do it as a body when we come together.

Similarly, the Treasury that obviously belongs to all of us, that's a collective action.

And once it goes out of my pocket into the treasury, then it belongs to the group, it belongs for the work of the body, the collective.

And so when we look at these versus uh now, even on another level, more closely, we will learn a very important thing.

And back in the 19 fifties, when a lot of these ideas were being debated publicly, uh some made, the statement had the teaching that there's only one circle, right, that anything that the individual can do, the church can also do, right?

Because they see that area of overlap perhaps.

And they say, well, look things that the church does, the individual also can do, which is true.

But there are limits to that.

And so when we see verses like first Corinthians 1122 and the Apostle Paul says, what?

Don't you have houses to eat and drink in or do you shame the church of God?

Yeah, we have houses to eat and drink in.

And so we see already that there have to be two circles.

It can't just be one circle.

Listen people that, that have this one circle idea.

They've got the church doing all this stuff over here.

They've got the church into the, in the food business.

They've got the church, they've got Starbucks and mcdonald's and whatever else in their church building and they're into, into business and they're taking some of the profits from, from these sales.

They're, they get all kinds of works going on.

Uh, they don't marry and raise Children.

I get it.

But, but they do put up, uh, but nurseries. Right.

And so they hire people and they've got staff and they've got this whole childcare thing going on and they do that as a church and they use the, the church collective funds to do that.

Uh And so they get into all kinds of other things, uh, talk about spending money any way they want.

Uh, they figure, well, if the individual can do it, the church can do it.

And so, uh, Lord willing, uh, my next opportunity in this pulpit to preach will be early next year.

I'll get into more detail.

About those kinds of things.

But we see that there must be two circles because not only does Paul say in First Corinthians 1122 do you not have houses in which to eat and drink or do you despise the Church of God and shame those who have nothing.

He says down in verse 34.

Let's see where verse 34 pops up.

It's there on the individual side.

Uh And also there in that context, regulating the Lord's supper.

Paul specifically says, if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home.

And so Paul is addressing the Corinthian church is un praiseworthy practices, right?

And he gives a command that both solves the problems that are being that are arising in the, in the taking of the Lord's supper.

And one which goes beyond that and applies generally at all times.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, there have to be two circles, common eating and drinking belongs at home, not in the assembly, not as a collective, it's not a, a church activity, it falls under the work of the individual and that fits with the pattern that's established by the early church in acts chapter two, verse 46.

That's there on the individual side because it says the Christians, there were daily devoting themselves with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house.

They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.

So we've got 3000 plus members.

They're not all eating in one home, right?

This is something that the individuals are doing that this work is distributed through the homes.

And so we can also know that there must be two circles from the passage that we mentioned earlier in first chap.

First Timothy chapter five verse 16, the legacy Standard Bible reads, the church must not be burdened.

And so you'll remember that's in the context of helping widows, but not just any widow, an individual Christian can help any widow, but the church's funds are limited to helping true widows.

So we maintain the two circles.

All right.

What have I said?

Main takeaway points are that as an individual, I have a load to carry and I should never burden someone else with a task that I can reasonably be expected to do.

And in the same way, the church has a prescribed work to accomplish.

And we have teachings that are regulated by the New Testament.

We should never ask the church to do something outside of its realm that is, that belongs to the work of the individuals.

And we must never add to the inspired teachings. Ok?

Now, as we're drawing to a close, let's go back to the second Corinthians passage, second Corinthians chapter five.

And let's read the three verses that come before the passage that Douglas read for us in chapter four, starting in verse 16.

The Apostle Paul says, we do not lose heart.

But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day for our momentary light affliction is working out for us, an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Now, that's heavy.

That's a burden that we want.

We want that eternal weight of glory.

So no matter how burdensome this life becomes, the coming glory outweighs it right far beyond all comparison.

And I like how he's playing with those words, our light affliction and this eternal weight of glory.

So we will have burdens in this life that inevitably come from living in the body.

As he mentioned, there, our outer man is decaying, but there are also burdens that we bring upon ourselves unnecessarily.

We all we've all done it.

And I'm talking about sin.

And if you haven't dealt with your sins according to God's plan, then you need to unburden your soul because that's a burden that you don't need to be carrying.

Matthew chapter 11, starting verse 28 Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and catch it heavy laden and I will give you rest.

You've got to come to Jesus.

You've got to believe in Him as God's son, as the savior of the world.

That's why you come.

He says, take my yoke upon you.

That yoke was a wooden apparatus that that went over the necks of two animals to keep them working together.

Jesus says, take my yoke upon you.

You accept him as Lord.

You say he's going to be the one directing where I go, you start that by confessing his name by being baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.

And then he says, and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.

It's a lifelong pursuit.

He says for, I am sorry.

He says for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

That's the load that he's going to place on you.

It's a permanent yoke.

It's a lifetime commitment, but it is light compared to the burden of sin.

If you're living under that burden of sin, unburden your soul, give yourself over to Jesus, become a Christian, become a follower of Jesus Christ because as the apostle John said in first John chapter five verse three, his commandments are not burdensome.

They are something we can bear, we can do so gladly in hope of that eternal weight of glory.

So if you have any need this morning, spiritually that we can help with, help you with, we'd encourage you to come to the front while we stand and sing