Polemics - Discernment - Chutes & Ladders: Parachurch Organizations

Now, the New Testament has a great deal to say about the Church, which is the body of Christ. Jesus began talking about the Church in roughly the last half of each of the Gospels. And so, in John, for example, in chapter 14, 15, and 16, there's quite a bit of instruction to the disciples. on the night of the Last Supper regarding the church.

So there's quite a bit of instruction. Then, of course, you have the Book of Acts, where you have the beginning of the church and the development of the church, the expansion of the church, and then the rest of the letters, the epistles, as they're called, to the churches.

We have an elective. We haven't taught it here for a while. But we have an elective called God's Intent for the Church. Brad Mastin asked that I go through that with him because it's instruction. What does the Bible say about the church? And for a dedication book to the guy who was president of the seminary where I went, he's home with the Lord now, They were pulling together different people writing different chapters and they had me write this one on the church. So at any rate, here is God's intent for the church.

We have, aside from the introduction, the universal church and the local church. Why is there a distinction between the universal church and the local church? What's the difference between the two? Yeah, let's take it for instance. I just went over to Poland and spoke at a church there, and then I went down to Uganda and spoke at a church there. And that's the local church there in Poland, and the local church there in Mbale, Uganda.

So those are the local churches, but together all those who have put their trust in Christ for salvation are a part of the universal church. And even so, are those who have gone before us, Apostle Paul, Timothy, are those who have gone before us part of the universal church? And the answer is yes. So it's back in time, in the present, and forward in time, all the way up to the day of the rapture, that's the universal church, and then it's all over the globe, wherever that is.

So the local church is what exists here and now, and there was a time when Holly Hills didn't exist as a local church, but the universal church has been there since Acts chapter 2. The purpose of the church, which is an important distinction because there are some churches that operate with a different purpose. The truth is a lot of different churches operate with different purposes than we do or even what's revealed in scripture. Baptism and the Lord's Table are the two things that we go through as a ritual, so to speak, And we see them as symbolic. And so to explain what those are, to talk about biblical church structure, there are three main church structures that are used and variations on them. One is a congregational vote. And my understanding is that that was voted out here several decades back. That was the last vote we had. That was the last vote is to vote it out.

There's that approach, there's the apostolic succession approach, and the idea that you've got bishops and then sometimes higher levels than that, and then elder run. The Baptists have a variation on it, where typically you'll have one pastor, and then deacons. So those are some of the forms that are out there. What we say is that the elder run church is what is biblical. The others have been concocted by tradition.

Qualifications of an elder, qualifications of a deacon, elders and deacons in practice, because the Bible also, aside from the qualifications, has guidance on what is the ministry of the elders and deacons, as well as what are the operating criteria for elders and deacons. And some of those things are things that I just got through teaching both in Poland and in Uganda. Both places ask for teaching on that. Spiritual gifts, and what does the Bible say on that?

Church discipline, which is dealing with believers and dealing with an individual sin, not piling it on. with the idea of restoring a believer to fellowship with the Lord and with the church body. And that's the goal of it. It ultimately could end up with someone leaving. Then we have biblical worship. The Bible does have direction on what does worship look like.

And I would say a central verse on that is Colossians 3.16. Then we have Christian education. What is the content of Christian education? How is that done? And we have a particular approach to it here at Holly Hills, starting with the kids and then carrying that up into having the electives that we have, the main service, those are all thought through. And then selecting a church, why stay at a church and when to leave it.

Here are the kind of range of teachings out of the New Testament. None of this is made up other than we describe what some other churches do that aren't necessarily biblical, but at least describe it and acknowledge it. But most of this is just simply what the Bible says regarding the church. Now, all this draws upon material from the New Testament and is a summary of the teachings of the New Testament regarding the church. And some of these sections have been included in our newly adopted policies and procedures that we have put together, about 40 pages. Over half of it is just simply Bible teaching.

So, let's turn now to what exactly is a parachurch organization. A parachurch organization is a ministry, business, association, group of people, or organization that seeks to influence, equip, facilitate, advise, promote, or make some provision for churches. Christians in general were to evangelize the saved, the unsaved. So examples of parachurch organizations would be seminaries and Bible colleges. Christian publishers and bookstores, organizations that promote a particular viewpoint about creation or evolution, missionary recruitment and sending, Christian health care cost-sharing organizations, a fellowship of Christians in particular professions and occupations, and public outreaches of churches, however, are not parachurch organizations.

So for example, we have the Holly Hills website that is an extension that reaches outside. And we have people listening to the Holly Hills website from different parts of the country and even different parts of the world. But that's still a part of Holly Hills Bible Church as an outreach, not as a separate parish church organization.

Now, have I missed some? In my miscellaneous list, are there others you can think of that We've got specific programs that are put out there, a Christian radio station, that would be another example. You've got Christian TV stations too, but I'm not too impressed with any of them. So yeah, you've got that. I mentioned seminaries and Bible colleges. You've also got Christian schools, and some of those are an extension of a church. Some are, some are not. So you've got that. You also have particular missionary organizations.

I know my dad in earlier years used to have some connections with Mission Aviation Fellowship, where they would go and fly different people around. I knew a fellow back in Ukiah, California who retired from a mission aviation fellowship and had all kinds of stories to tell. Just amazing. So yeah, there are lots and lots of different things. My dad also had some connections with Bible translators, particularly one of those dealing with the Tarahumara Indians in northern Mexico.

We can just go on under lots and lots of different organizations. Church camps is another one. Think about it, there's all kinds of different things like that. Some of them are connected to politics. you know, where they're trying to have an influence on political situations, you know, the outcome of elections and that sort of thing. So there's things of that sort. There are things where you'll have the association, you know, the Christian Medical Association, for example, you know, that kind of thing. Police and firefighters oftentimes will have, you know, Christian units. So yeah, there's a great many of these.

So I guess one question is, since the Bible doesn't really address these organizations, are they biblical? Since the Bible doesn't address it, are they biblical? Yeah, in other words, if you look at it, the Bible does address churches, doesn't it? Are all churches biblical? No. Everything that calls itself a church isn't biblical. And sometimes, as we mentioned earlier in this class, they may not teach biblical gospel, they may not be operating biblically or have biblical doctrine.

So it's possible even for churches, about which much is written, to be off track. Now if something is not specifically allowed, is it prohibited? Now, so that's one thing, although parachurch organizations, and there are lots of different kinds of them, although they're not specifically addressed, it doesn't mean that they're unbiblical, right? So I was asking kind of a trick question here. It doesn't mean that they're unbiblical, it simply means that the Bible doesn't directly address them.

But I would suggest to you that there are some principles that we can use to help guide us in dealing with them. Because in fact, there are parachurch organizations that do a lot of good. And some that don't, but there are some that really do a lot of good. So let's take a look here, top page two.

So I asked this question again, it's kind of a trick question in a sense, but I put down about five principles. that are a measure. And one of the things, using these principles, it can help guide a Christian organization that is a parachurch organization in terms of what they say and communicate and do. But it can also be a good measure for, is this one I ought to support? Is this one I ought to support?

So here's the first one. Parachurch organizations should hold to a biblical gospel. And let's just say it directly, the biblical gospel is Christ died for my sins, was buried and rose again. Do I believe it? Then you're saved. That's it. It's that simple. Can you give me an example of an unbiblical gospel?

Ask Jesus into your heart. Ask Jesus into your heart. Let's invite Jesus into your heart. And what's the problem with that? Nowhere does it say invite Jesus into your heart. Is Jesus waiting for an invitation? It's not the gospel. Someone was carrying out a parachurch organization in which people were asked to make a commitment to Christ. And Mike's comment was, well, too bad nobody was saved. Because what's the problem in making a commitment to Christ? It's the same problem with inviting Jesus into your heart. It's not the gospel, right? So what's the problem is we need to deal with the sin issue, and it is by faith, not by commitment, invitation, anything else, right?

So, that's key. Yes? Ah, yes, here is Lordship Salvation. John MacArthur has been a spokesman for that significantly, where you've got to believe and make Him Lord. By the way, there is a word for super-believe, and that's not what the Bible uses. It's the epi-prefix, epi-pustule, and so the Apostle Paul could have said to the Philippian jailer, you know, you need to epi-pustule. That's not what he said. There's a word for it, he didn't use it. So lordship salvation falls on several different fronts, but that's one of the ways that salvation, you know, the gospel has been doctored.

Any others? Surrender your life. Surrender your life to Christ. Is there some validity to surrendering? It's after you're saved. This is out of Romans 6. This would be if it's equivalent to yield. Right? Yield your members. So that's something after you're saved to yield your members. But just walking up and saying I surrender isn't going to work. Right? And the key there is as those that are alive from the dead. Yes. As those that are alive from the dead. Yes.

I have a question about the yielding. allow yourself to kind of be yielded? I don't know how exactly you say it. It's a deliberate act of presenting yourself to the Lord because otherwise in the sin nature there's a presenting as well and you're picking sides. But that would be a mindset. Pardon? It's a mindset? It's a deliberate act of will, and the sequence of verbs is know, Romans 6, 1-10, reckon or consider, and this is 6.11, and then yield. Know, reckon, yield is the sequence in Romans 6 of verbs. Yeah, Gary? Water baptism? Ah, yes! Water baptism saves you.

What's interesting is that The church got unbiblical fast after the time of the apostles. I mean the apostles were constantly dealing with this false teaching and that false teaching and what not. But the church got unbiblical fast. You got Clement from Rome started up this nonsense about apostolic succession and bishops having some higher level of authority, and of course that got carried over for centuries in Catholic and Orthodox churches and all that.

So that started. By 170 A.D., pastors began to be called priests. By 220 A.D., the church began to see baptism in the Lord's table as spiritually effective. That is, they accomplished something going through the motions. So this drift is rather amazing, just within a few generations of the Apostle, things were going downhill fast. So this parachurch organization should hold a biblical gospel. 1 Corinthians 15, 1-5 is a very clear statement of what the gospel is, what the content of the gospel is that needs to be presented and believed.

If an organization is about evangelism, that's of course very important. Why is it also important for organizations that aren't all about evangelism, but have other purposes? Even if I say my thing is medical missionary, I go and do medical procedures and provide medical care in places, third world parts of the country, and my purpose is primarily that, but the gospel still, in those situations, is critical, and in fact there's opportunity because of being a medical missionary. Yes? and I'm treating people and they pray to the Lord, someone will ask me what the gospel is and I need to be ready to give them just the straight shot gospel.

You need to be able to give it to them straight and not have any of these other little alternatives that we've talked about here. The biblical gospel is that Christ, the Son of God, died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. If a person believes that, they're saved. It's that simple, but it's amazing how easily it gets distorted. Okay, the next one.

Parish church organizations should hold the biblical doctrine. So here, for example, deacons who are in a position of serving in various capacities, 1st Timothy 3, 8 and 9, deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-pronged, or addicted to much wine, or fond of sword and game, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 1st Timothy 4, 6, and pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. Timothy and Titus were apostolic delegates, that is, here's Paul, the apostle, and he would tell each of them to appoint elders, and then give qualifications for the elders that he's having them appoint. But between the first and second Timothy and Titus, you have about 50 times doctrine, teaching, instruction. That's emphasized in both of these guys, and their books are not that long, so continually harping. And by the way, that sound doctrine pair of words is very common in both Timothy's letters and the one to Titus.

It is rare for a para-church organization to have a doctrinal statement that's as detailed as we have now. At Holly Hills we've got it up on the website. Copies of it. It's the first thing in our policies and procedures manual. But I have a few examples of different parish church organizations and their doctrinal statements. So here's one for YWAM, Youth with a Mission. It's a global movement of Christians from many denominations dedicated to presenting Jesus personally to this generation, to mobilizing as many as possible to help in this task.

And I won't read it all, but I'll let you read it. And then just let me know what do you think when you read through that. So I believe it's my understanding that the Great Commission is not for the Church. But it was for the apostles. Specifically for the apostles, right? And yeah, it needs to be understood that that's particularly for the apostles, for their ministry.

I think we can learn things from it. Absolutely. We can learn things from it. And also, go is not an imperative, right? As you're going. It assumes that you will go, it doesn't command that you go. So fulfilling what they say is fulfilling the Great Commission. That's not our job. It's not our job. The Great Commission to the Apostles. Yes.

As citizens of the God Kingdom, I mean right off the bat, that's true law. I'm sorry, it's what? It says right off the bat it says citizens of God's kingdom we are called to. Yeah, so citizens of God's kingdom and of course one of the questions, what do they mean by that? As opposed to, you know, because if by that you mean the coming millennial kingdom, well, it's not, we're not there yet, right? And by the way, where are you citizens? And we have heavenly citizens, right? Heavenly citizenship. So this is at least not clear. It's at least not clear. Is there anything else in there you look at and say, well, it caused me to wonder? Yes?

After salvation, it says God has made salvation possible through the death on the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that's good so far, isn't it? So far, but then that repentance, faith, love, and obedience are being, I mean, it's just, Yeah, it doesn't say clearly what is the gospel. In other words, here's the content, he died and was resurrected, so far so good, but what do I need to do with that? And the only thing that's appropriate is belief, right?

Is faith. Let's talk about repentance, because you will find passages in like an Acts that will talk about repentance. So what's repentance? It's change of mind. It's not crying real hard and sobbing and making promises to God. It's none of those. It's simply a change of mind.

And in a Christian context, the word repentance means a change of mind so as to end in belief. So, you know, people will talk about, well, you've got to repent and believe. Well, it's somewhat redundant. Because repentance in a Christian context is to end up in belief. to end up in belief.

And so that can be confusing. Loving and obedience are something after I'm saved. So it's not clear from this statement how I'm to respond to the gospel, which is simple. It's by faith in those things that have been presented. So they've got the right content. The response to the content is not clear.

All right, let's take a look at the next one. This is the National Evangelical Association, which I think has gone through a name change. It used to be like National Association of Evangelicals or something. So anyway, I want you to read through that. It starts with, We believe the Bible to be inspired. And let me know what you think. Yeah, isn't that interesting? There's the National Evangelical Association, which by the way, as put out there, it's not copyrighted on purpose, so that a whole bunch of other parachurch organizations can adopt it. A number of churches, by the way, have adopted it as well.

But yeah, as you talk about this whole thing, we believe that salvation from loss, of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential. How's that happen? Is it Satan who believed all this? Yeah. It's amazing. Here's a simple statement, and so far so good. But a lot of this you look at and say, wait a minute, it's missing something. And part of it is, what's the gospel? It's not just who he is, but what he's done. Yes. In other words, I believe that Christ died for my sins, what he did, right? He was buried and he rose again, what he did. And so, you're right, it's not just simply who he is.

It does say that. Right, but it doesn't say it by faith. Right, it doesn't say it by faith, yes. It all sounds good, but the quality that is missing is that You, you know, average Josephine or Joe walking the street, you're a sinner, here's what you need to believe. So, you know, it's almost like me saying, here's Berman, here's all of that to you, but not ever thinking about that. It's not first. It's not first.

It's correct. It's kind of like Christ. It's like, OK, he did all that, but he cared. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it's simple. It's been adopted. This has been adopted by a number of parachurch organizations and churches as kind of a model. That's why they purposely not copyrighted it so that others can adopt it. But yeah, it doesn't quite get there. All right. Now we've got one more at the top of page four. Here's a statement of faith for the Christians for biblical equality. And what do they mean by Christians for Biblical Equality? When I was finishing up seminary, Nancy worked in the office to pay my tuition. And she got a call from these folks. And basically their theme is that there's no distinction between men and women and their roles in the church and That sort of thing. So anyway, that's their theme.

So take a look through it and let me know what you think. It first doesn't list off how three essences play out to me. That God is eternally existing in three persons. Yeah, it talks about God and it talks about Christ deity and humanity. So far so good. It doesn't get there in terms of explaining anything else about God.

Yes, and what you see of the last two items, they've done a little bit of jumping here. We believe that women and men are equally created in God's image, and I would agree with that. The scripture does agree with that. The two terms are image and likeness, and you'll find both, or one or the other, from the Old Testament on into the New Testament. So far so good. Given equal authority, is that correct? That is not. That's not correct. And stewardship of God's creation. Now, let's ask this question.

Before you were in Christ, who were you in? Were you in Adam and Eve? No, just in Adam, right? Christ had to be through Eve because of the authority structure. Through the womb, right? That's why Genesis 3.15 says that Eve's seed would be her womb. That's right. It would be her seed. So, from the very earliest pages of the Old Testament on into the New Testament, you have a consistent pattern.

And no, before I was a believer, I was not in Adam and Eve. And Christ is the last Adam, right? And not the last Adam and Eve. So things about my position, things about who Christ had to be born of, that he was born of a virgin, all those things connect up. So then, the stewardship of God's creation, who is that set upon? It was ultimately Adam, right? It was Adam. And Eve was Adam's helpmate.

And then the next line, the last one down, we believe that men and women are equally responsible for and distorted by sin. So again, that doesn't recognize Adam's singular error, right? And then resulting in shadow relationships with God, self, and others. So those last two are particularly twisted from what scripture lays out.

But that's their theme, right? One of the guys, who at least was, I don't know if he still is, was on the board, wrote a book on how to interpret the Bible. And when they adopted that at the seminary where I went, I parted ways with them. We're not doing that, you know. Okay. So number three.

Parachurch organizations should hold to biblical practice inside the organization and in the organization's interaction with others, both Christian and non-Christian. Why is it important that they hold to biblical practice both inside and outside? Why does that matter? Because operating out of the dynamic nature of the Presidency Yeah, in other words, let's say you have inside the organization, you've got the biblical doctrine, you've got the biblical gospel, and you've got that all right, but there's a mess going on inside the organization.

Years ago, it was over two decades ago, I was looking for alternatives to the usual, Christian alternatives to the usual insurance arrangements. And so our family was a part of what was called Christian Brotherhood Newsletter, which is a Christian medical cost-sharing organization. And at one point I was just looking at some of their stuff and I said, something's not right here. And so I switched to Christian Care MediShare. And just a couple months later, it all blew up. There had been affairs inside the office and things were not doing well inside the organization. It blew apart. So things being right inside is important. How about with the people outside, both Christians and non-Christians? Why is that important? Well, there's things that are qualities of a breeder's life that need to be reflected there.

Thirty years ago, I was a marketing manager for an electronics company in the Silicon Valley. And one of our company's dealers sold our product in the southeastern United States, sold a unit to Heritage USA. This was Jim and Tammy Faye Baker's dream. Basically a so-called Christian theme park was their idea. A lot of that includes utilities, underground utilities, and that's what our company sold as location and analysis equipment for underground utilities.

Our dealer, who by the way was a Christian, Our dealer sold them one of our units that we manufactured and sent them an invoice that was the amount that they had agreed on. And they only paid some portion, like about half of it. And so they said, well, where's the rest of the money? They said, that's all you're going to get.

And if you want to fight us, we've got a whole raft of lawyers over here to battle you. So, instead of battling them, one of the things that eventually came out was that Jimmy Baker was cheating on his federal income taxes. Of course, that just reflects what was going on before.

Jessica, you used to, before Abby was born, work at a video duplication service in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that did video duplication for ministries, so-called ministries. all over the United States. They were notoriously questionable in their business practices. And as it turned out, when some of the people found out Jessica was a Christian, they were highly offended because they had associated Christianity with these terrible, terrible organizations. And one of the other people in the office had to come and say, Jessica's not that kind of Christian.

Because that's what they associated her with. It is important for the sake of testimony. It's important for the sake of the relationship with other Christians. It's important for the sake of integrity, for things to have consistency both inside the organization and on the outside, both ways.

So that's what we mean by practice here. So let's take a look. Just a thought. You know, Ephesians 4, it is the maturity of Christ that he is growing us up to, not the maturity of the local or universal church. He's in charge of that. We are the objects of his work, too, to the standard of Christ himself. One of the doctrinal statements here said that we're to love and serve the Church.

I looked at that and said, wait a minute, that's the wrong focus, isn't it? And that would fall into the TV evangelists too, wouldn't it? I mean, they're focused on building it. a glorious organization. An awful lot of those things are just to crunch out money. That's it. Well, yeah, but it's like the Kermit thing. Let's make something that glorifies God rather than being glorified by God.

I think one of the measures One of the measures that is often used, a pastor probably ought to be paid something in the range of what's the mid-range for his congregation. As opposed to some of these televangelists like we were looking at recently where these people have a net worth of tens of millions of dollars. What's wrong with this? That kind of situation, you're looking at somebody who's in the business of religion to make money.

That's it. Instead of having a good biblical purpose. So, the next one. Parachurch organizations should conduct themselves in cooperation with or even in support of biblical local churches. So we refer here to 1 Timothy 3, 14 and 15, I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long, but in case I am delayed, I write to you so you know how we ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. So the parachurch organization should not be in competition with, detracting from, or positioning itself as an alternative to the local church. So the local church is what has biblical validity, and assuming it's giving out a biblical gospel and has biblical doctrine, it ought to get the priority, and not the parachurch organizations.

So this is important, because there are parachurch organizations that just pump people for money. And this especially is true of the ones where the figurehead at the top has worked millions. I was just wondering, how do we discern then on the para-church level where are the limits that you can go as a para-church organization? Were you better into substituting your ministry for the local church?

I think it starts with a mindset of the para-church organization that they realize that the local church is priority. And especially if you've got some of them where by the time you look at it very long, you say, hey, these guys are in it for the money.

Here's a for instance, Joyce Meyer. She has this organization where she is teaching men and women. Her income, and by the way it is listed, posted there, her income for her organization was a hundred million dollars last year. In the range of about a hundred million dollars for this bookkeeper. That's what her occupation was, right? For this bookkeeper turned teacher. Yes, she has all sorts of things that she's doing.

She lists that she's carrying on evangelism. I can't say that her gospel is the right gospel, because after all, if you don't believe that Jesus went to hell and had demons dancing up and down on top of him and laughing and throwing a party, but then you can't go to heaven, right? That's a part of her gospel. So I guess we're not saved, right?

So anyway, she's got various things going on, things providing for people and what not, but her net worth is about $25 million and her extended family, her children, are all very well cared for, very well provided for. She has several multi-million dollar homes. Something's wrong there, right?

So a part of it comes with the organization has to understand this principle at the outset and operate and conduct themselves accordingly. Yeah? I guess my question relates to can a parachurch organization teach biblical principles or is that a function of the local church and the parachurch? organization ought to be directing people to the local church.

Yeah, now let's, you know, one of the reasons why that question becomes difficult is so many local churches are not doing their job. They're not doing their job. But when you try to be inclusive then in a parachurch organization that diminishes your documentation. You don't step on people's toes in those churches. One of the things that happens is if the local church is not carrying out its job, then it becomes easier for the parachurch organization to step out of bounds.

I go over to the Denver Seminary, and you've got these little business cards you can pick up at the office and the library, and it talks about equipping. I said, wait a minute, pastors and teachers are supposed to be doing the equipping. What Brad Mastin years ago, just after I met him, he was saying, well I'd like to go to, and he named three seminaries, I wouldn't send anybody to. And I said, well why would you want to go there? And he said, well I've been told by pastors multiple times, if you want to study deeply, you want to go to seminary. And I said, well I don't want to speak ill of anyone, but those pastors are not doing their job. that the equipping job is the church's job.

A seminary, and even though I've mentioned it a few times this morning, a seminary is not ultimately God's intent for equipping people. What you do is you take someone for several years and you take them out of the church context to be taught by people who in general are probably not pastors. And then you teach them all these academic things and then you put them back in the church and it takes about five years for them to thaw out before they're any use. Not to become unpopular, but there's just something essentially wrong with having to pay that much money to learn the biblical principles. Because a seminary degree is a private education which is just the people who do that will never be able to pay that debt off.

And that in itself, that's an unbiblical principle. So the whole thing is Marcus. A seminary that is connected with the church, I think, has a chance of operating more biblically. It certainly isn't guaranteed, but at least has a chance of operating more biblically. But the idea of having some independent seminary It just doesn't have any biblical foundation to it.

So yeah, part of the problem comes because churches have lost sight of what their purpose is, and that's one reason why we cover that in God's Intent for the Church. Churches have lost sight of what their purpose is and how they're supposed to conduct themselves, and therefore the para-church organization more easily It steps out of bounds and takes steps into areas that aren't its job. In addition to it, once you've done that, drift in the organization, whatever it is, doctrinal and practice drift, far more easily comes about also.

5. Parachurch organizations should operate by biblical motives, means, and opportunities. The motive should be grace. The means should be the means that the Holy Spirit provides. Empowerment enablement, and energizing. And then the opportunity is the opportunity the Lord has put before us.

So if any of those is off-track, then you've got a problem. So for example, if the church, if the para-church organization is not grace-motivating, and not grace-motivated, then you've got an issue. Quite often a lot of them are squeezing people. Give us more money. You get all this asking for money, asking for money, asking for money. Sometimes on a legal basis. Part of the problem is that churches have gotten off track as well. For instance, you hear about tithing and people give sermons on tithing and all that. Do you know that the tithe never applied to finances?

You tithed of your, if you were a Jew living in the land of Israel and was operating biblically, you tithed of your agricultural production, that's it. It was to provide food for those of the tribe of Levi. That's it. It was not to shell out some money. If you happen to be a person who sold cloth goods, and it was dyed processed cloth, you didn't tithe that. It's what you grew either in the way of plant production or animals. That's it. That was the tide. There were many offerings on top of that.

A great many offerings of all kinds and in fact the Jews would put out somewhere between a quarter and a third of their income quite frequently into all the different offerings and what not. For the temple, you had the half shekel tax that everyone was not required to give, it was actually voluntary. So you had that, you had people paying for the animals, the food production, the tithe of only the food production, the agricultural production was given to the Levites in their storehouses.

But now it's been converted into something that the Bible doesn't even describe. And those churches where they go beat people over the head with, you know, you've got a tithe, no foundation for it whatsoever. And most people aren't doing agricultural production, we're not Jews, and we're not giving it to only people in the tribe of Levi. There's nothing about it that fits. It's been quite distorted in order to beat people over the head. But in parachurch organizations, it needs to be grace-motivated, not legally motivated.

Is this the Lord's work, and the Lord's doing, or is this, we've got to go out and do this, because it's our thing? Is it truly the Holy Spirit enabling and empowering, or am I just making a to-do list that seems Christian? And then, really, is this God's opportunity? Is this the opportunity that the Lord has prepared Is it God's opportunity or is it somebody else's opportunity? I would suggest to you for these televangelists we've been talking about, it's not God's opportunity, it's their opportunity to make megabucks. So I'd suggest these five principles are key for both guiding a parachurch organization And, in terms of what we should support as believers, there is a stewardship with what the Lord has given us, and what ought we to support or not? Somebody's given Joyce Meyer over $100 million a year for her organization, and Benny Hinn's is bigger. It's $200 million. $200 million for his. Just super big bucks. A lot of it is just going into lavish lifestyle.

There's no biblical connection, there's no biblical basis. People ought not to be given big sums as a matter of their stewardship to an organization that's unbiblical in several respects, but basically is really there to just make a lot of money. Other thoughts, questions?

Christ is going to build his church. What? Christ is going to build his church. Christ will build his church. It's his and not somebody else's, right? Yes. Morgan? So my understanding of the Old Testament to be, was it a form of worship or was it simply as a provision for the Levite tribe? Well, let's see.

It was part of the law. It was right after the food laws and right before the laws about letting your land life fallow. And it was only agricultural production. And it says to take the agricultural production, one-tenth, to these storehouse cities. And by the way, if you live too far, and the law doesn't say what too far is, if you live too far, you still set aside a tenth and throw a party. The law says so. Yes? Can we instate that one? What's that? I said can we instate that one? Oh, we have to put aside 10% towards the party.

Yeah, and of course what would happen is the rabbis would have all, you know, they've got to go and define everything, right? And so what's too far and all that. But the reality is that there's nothing about the tithe that makes any sense to apply it to the church.

It was agricultural production. It was to provide for the priests and Levites. It was to put into the storehouses. And it was just simply a part of the law. It was for the Jews living in the land. And by the way, what would be the result What would be the result if they obeyed that law along with the rest of them? It would be that they would be blessed physically, including having good crops.

So is having good crops something that's what we're really aiming for? Well, not so much. There is nothing about it that fits. But nonetheless, that gets used. I've seen it, you know, bring a whole tithe into the storehouse and put that in the offering box. But there's nothing of it, not one bit that fits. Nobody wrote a check. Nobody put silver down. None of that ever happened in Old Testament times and was never commanded.

Okay, let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you have in fact laid out some things that are pretty simple, pretty easy to understand, to guide and lead in parachurch organizations, not only for those organizations themselves to operate by, but for us in terms of what we support with good stewardship. And so we do pray for discernment, for wisdom in these things, and for understanding and insight, and that we apply these biblical truths as we go along in our Christian lives. We just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.