Unlimited Grace

Bryan Chapell: Grace at its very heart, what the gospel is doing is saying to God's people spiritually, when you cannot provide for your own holiness, for your own righteousness, when you cannot get rid of your own sin, God and his merciful generosity has provided for you.

Chris Sobak: So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's episode, Pastor Bryan shares a lesson from 1 Timothy 5. In the next lesson from this series entitled Mission Network, Dr. Chapell focuses on the ways in which we as believers are called to use our monetary resources to serve others and the Lord.

You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, check out the new daily devotional podcast called Daily Grace. Pastor Bryan will guide you through a devotion each day to help focus your attention on God's grace as you study his word. Watch and listen to each episode when you visit unlimitedgrace.com today. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the first part of a message called Money.

Bryan Chapell: Some wise words from an unlikely source: The Dirty Guvnos, an alternative country band, saying things that it may take some of us a lot of life to discover. When I was younger, I only dreamed of expensive things and all the places that I'd go. I only wanted then to show my ship was under control. Oh yeah, my ship was under control. Now I just want to be free from all the things I think I need.

At its heart is just a recognition that the things we think we need and all the expensive things for which we yearn are sometimes bondage to our hearts. And it's that reason that the Lord Jesus speaks on the subject of money so frequently. We sometimes forget how often Jesus talked about money. He actually talks about money more than he talks about hell. He talks about money more than he talks about heaven. One quarter of all the parables are on the subject of money.

Why does Jesus talk so much about money? It's not because he needs it. It's because Jesus knows, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And it's concern for our hearts being free, being united to him in the joy of the gospel that calls upon our Savior to speak not only so plainly about money, but even to have his apostles do the same.

In the same book that I was just reading to you, the Apostle Paul quotes those famous lines that you will know: "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." But before getting to the all kinds of evil roots, the Apostle's already covered in this book the things that money is good for. It can't be all bad. Even the Lord himself says, "A laborer is worthy of his wages." If the Lord says the wages are something that worthily comes to his people, then it can't be all bad.

But what good actually is money? In this particular passage, there are three things identified almost as case studies as we look at the issue of how the church cares for widows in need. We are learning that the church is supposed to be concerned with its money for issues of mercy, for issues of family, and for ministry.

Widows are what are addressed in this particular passage, but if you were to look at other passages, you will find that the apostles and Jesus talk to us about money in terms of the poor, the imprisoned, refugees, sick, and orphans. Many times, the Lord says, for the sake of mercy, the church and the people who have money should be using their money for mercy.

Now, why is mercy important? Because it messages the gospel. If you just think about what mercy is, if it's truly mercy, it's about helping people who cannot help themselves, providing for those who cannot provide for themselves. That's a physical message, but it's reflecting a spiritual reality. Because grace at its very heart, what the gospel is doing is saying to God's people spiritually, when you cannot provide for your own holiness, for your own righteousness, when you cannot get rid of your own sin, God and his merciful generosity has provided for you.

As God has spiritually provided for those who cannot provide for themselves, we are giving object lessons of that in the church's ministries of mercy. We are showing physically what God intends spiritually to occur by his grace. And the process for that in verse nine in this passage is just specifically directed at widows, a process we may not recognize as much anymore, but the verse says, "Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband."

If there is a widow who does not have a husband who's able to provide for her at this point, or whose husband is dead and his estate does not provide, the church is to identify by enrollment, by a list of some sort, those who were in need. And that process is expanded across many planes as the ministry of mercy is put before the church throughout the Old Testament and including in the New Testament.

We find means of expressing the gospel, not just because mercy messages the gospel, it's actually maintaining the truths of the gospel. Why would you help someone who is over 60 years of age in this culture that the Apostle's describing? Because he's describing someone not able to physically provide or marriageable at this point, not able by work nor able by marriage to be provided for for themselves.

That means that the church is providing for people simply for the gospel's sake, to message the dignity of individuals not because they can provide, not because they can give back to the church, not because it's an advantage to anyone to help them, simply because there is someone made in the image of God who has dignity before God. We talked about this before in terms of our work. The reason we know that our work honors God is because people who are made in the image of God do it, and because God dignifies them, their work has dignity. Their work is actually worship as people made in the image of God do it.

So when we take care of people made in the image of God, we are affirming their dignity before God because the church is desiring to take care of people despite their ability to give back. When I was a pastor in southern Illinois, I can remember a time in the church when two women began to attend, who did not have relations in the church. They didn't have much money, many of the things of this world. And one got to a very depressed state and made an attempt on her own life.

That got the attention of the church, got the attention of the elders. And in one of the very honest discussions that the elders had, the question came up, "Why were we so unaware of these women and their plight while they've been attending our church? They're in our church." And one very wise and compassionate elder, who by the way had been an elder in this church before being a member in that church, he just said it very honestly. He said, "The reason we did not know about them is because it was not to the advantage of any of us to pay attention to them."

They are made in the image of God, and therefore the church is showing the dignity to persons to whom it extends its mercy, not because it's to advantage to us, but because we are demonstrating the gospel in the dignity that God intends as we take care of others made in his image. As we are maintaining the gospel, we are to help those who cannot help themselves.

But maintaining dignity takes a certain turn in this passage as the Apostle also cautions about not helping those who can help themselves. There was an age limit in that society on the widows who would be helped. And the reason the Apostle explains in words that are kind of hard for us to hear, because he says if there is someone who can take care of themselves, they should do it because he's expressing the church was apparently helping widows who had other means or could take care of themselves. And the consequence was they didn't have to take care of themselves anymore.

So he begins to describe, they began to spend time in other people's homes and in other people's business, so they become busybodies and slanders. Their relational needs being taken care of without dependence upon God, just in dependence upon the church and its generosity. And the consequence is, the Apostle says, they become so lack of concern for the things of God that their passions, their sexual desires, actually lead them into relationships with men who are not believers, and therefore they end up abandoning the faith because they're not thinking about God anymore.

It's kind of an interesting set of dominoes the Apostle saying, "Church, make good use of your money. Yes, help those who have need, but don't help those who shouldn't be helped whose help will actually create a dependence that will make them forget their God." Now we wrestle with all those issues in the church. Some of you know the book by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett called "When Helping Hurts", where the church out of generosity, wanting to express ministry, sometimes is unwise and is not considering where are we actually creating dependence rather than creating independence, helping people to find their dignity in their work.

And that can be particularly hard in a society where there may be institutional poverty, long-term racism, or injustice that makes people unwilling or unable to find work. And we wonder, "What is our role here?" Regardless of what we may think is our role, what the Apostle is saying, if you'll look at verse 16 in particular: "If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them, let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows."

Even if the decisions are difficult, the Apostle's saying the church still has a duty. And the duty is still to find places that it can show mercy because it's trying to message the gospel and maintain the gospel. Sometimes, our own hardness of heart and lack of generosity in the church says because we fear creating dependence, we check off of having responsibility. And the Lord is saying, "This is hard work." I so admire the deacons of this church and those who are helping in the diaconal ministries as they are trying so much to weigh out, how do we take the mercy that we intend to extend and make it actually helpful to people? And sometimes bear the brunt of people who are saying we shouldn't be doing that mercy, that's the government's job.

It'd be a strange church that is not concerned to message the gospel or to maintain its message in society by simply giving up on mercy messages. That ministry we are called to because among other things it's not just showing the gospel to those outside the church or those in need in the church. The right use of money is actually showing the gospel to our own families. That is why actually in verse eight, the Apostle says, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

It's not that our mercy is meriting salvation. It is because this ability to care for other people, this willingness to care for other people is showing the hand of God and the heart of God to people. And if you won't do that, if you won't show the heart and the hand of God to people, your own family doesn't begin to understand the gospel. The family itself is damaged. If you just want to find out how wide is the responsibility of sharing the gospel, recognize who is being told here not to be worse than an unbeliever because they are caring for their family.

We almost always take that verse eight and apply it to heads of households. But if you'll back up in the passage just a little bit to verse four of chapter five of 1 Timothy, you'll read these words back in this care for widows discussion: "But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God." Who's actually being addressed in terms of not caring for their own household? Here it's actually children and grandchildren.

And that's not the end of the people being concerned. I'll take you to verse 16 again: "If any believing woman has relatives who are widows." Now assuming here that the believing woman are those actually the widows with means that have been described a little bit earlier. If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them.

Chris Sobak: You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. If this program has been a blessing to you, I want to share with you a new way in which you can receive daily encouragement from Dr. Chapell. We've recently launched a daily devotional podcast entitled Daily Grace. If you've already signed up to receive daily devotions by email, this podcast is a great companion piece.

You can watch and listen to Pastor Bryan share these devotions daily when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. You can also find this podcast on all major podcast platforms or watch it on YouTube. This is just another way that we want to serve you with Christ-centered content and help focus your attention on the grace of God that pervades all of scripture. Let us know what you think of this new podcast. We're always encouraged to hear from you. And now, more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.

Bryan Chapell: And even now in our society, we recognize sometimes the wage earner says, "It's my money. So I can provide for my hobbies and my freedom and my interest and my bank account." And the needs of others are made secondary. And the Apostle Paul is pretty clear here. Those who put their self-indulgence, the language of the passage, above the needs of their families are worse than unbelievers because they're denying the gospel. Care for those who cannot take care of themselves in the way that they're dealing with things.

Now there's lots of things that go into sometimes people not providing for their families. It may be self-indulgence, maybe some form of addiction, whether chemical or gambling or careerism or workaholism, that gets directed toward me rather than the concern for those that God has put in my life to care for. It happens in lots of ways. Senior care can be neglected because that's not my generation, the Apostle Paul is dealing with that.

Sometimes we forget the eternal care of our children. A few messages ago, I reminded you that public schooling began as a movement within the church as people seeing the dignity of all made in the image of God said in the church it is our responsibility to educate future generations so that a society may flourish. That's part of the church's responsibility as we begin to see the dignity of all persons. But what about that understanding that some of us may recognize at times that the Christian education of our children may actually cost a lot out of our bank accounts?

And yet if I'm concerned for eternal things and I have questions about what schooling may have influences upon my child or the particular personality or the way in which a particular child may be affected means I may make decisions that are very necessary for my child. It may cost us a lot. Kathy and I, because of the age range of our children, we recognize we have paid tuitions for Christian schools for over 25 years consecutively. And people look at us and say, "You are crazy." And we say, "Hey, what else were we going to spend it on?"

Actually kind of mean that. If heaven is real, if the eternal good of our children is part of our responsibility, then we make decisions for the good of those that God has put in our own households, recognizing that our money is actually given to us in part for mercy but also for the best care of our families that God has given us because that is an expression of the gospel itself.

What does the gospel say? When we have been saved by God's grace, we are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens and members of God's household. He is our Father whereby now we cry, "Abba, Father." The family itself is a message of the gospel. In Roman society, so many people were converted because they saw the unique ministries of families, the unique character of Christian families, and people said, "I don't know that kind of love. I don't know that kind of selflessness and compassion." And what was being exhibited in families became the powerful messaging of the gospel.

And when we are using our funds, whether children, grandchildren, widows, or heads of households, for the care of those in our family, we're actually messaging the gospel as God intends. Well, that's not the last of the reasons that money is being used for God's purposes in this particular passage. The last is, beyond mercy and beyond family, money is resourcing God's ministry.

Verse 17: "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching." The double honor, not just office, but also provision if there is full-time labor in the preaching and teaching of the word. Verse 18: "For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain." Well, I don't necessarily like being compared to an ox, but there it is. Because the laborer deserves his wages.

Our money is also to be providing for ministry. Okay, we've suddenly come to the point in the message that everybody dreads. Our money is supposed to provide for ministry. And now my goal is to see how guilty I can make you feel. No, that's really not the goal. That's what you dread. Do you know what I dread? I dread the inevitable, "Oh, here we go, praise the Lord and pass the plate" smirk.

You don't want to be manipulated and I don't want to be a manipulator. And I recognize that there is great tendency to move away from these passages because you and I have a dread of what we may do to each other. So let me just tell you honestly what I believe. God's people want to support Christ's cause. You rejoiced today when all these people were up here, when the mission team was getting ready, when you heard about people who are providing for us to worship in this wonderful facility.

And you rejoiced to say God is at work in this place. And when you meet people who are rejoicing in generosity, you recognize your own heart longs for that. I want to be a part of God's cause, Christ's purpose. I long for this.

Chris Sobak: That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you've missed anything that you'd like to hear once again, just visit unlimitedgrace.com. And when you do so, you can sign up for Pastor Bryan's daily devotional sent right to your inbox. Once again, go to unlimitedgrace.com or you can give by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223.

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