Does Entitlement Rule Your Faith?

The people of our congregation are extremely generous. What is more, the Church as an organization has a very big ministry helping people with food, and doing what we can to make sure basic needs are met (though we’re limited in that!). Being that we’re limited in resources, we’ve had to also put safeguards up to make sure we’re not enabling those who would take advantage of our charity, and to protect the members of the body who need the help: it may seem unkind to say this (though it is not), we are willing to help those outside, but the members of the body of Christ take precedent when it comes to meeting needs. And yet, we still get people who come to us for help (whom we have helped), getting angry with us for not helping them in the way they feel we should. It’s like they feel we’re obligated to be charitable, though Scripture says we should all contribute, as we can, to the needs of one another.

In the same way, though it’s been there since the beginning, there are many who are members of congregations all over the world who share this mentality. “I don’t like the music,” “I didn’t get anything out of that message,” “I didn’t vote for that color of carpet,” “I pay my tithe, like anyone else, and I should have a say” and more are the many complaints preachers hear on a regular basis (and though I’ve not heard many of these at FCC, I have heard them repeated to fellow preachers, as well as a few to myself!). Being a member of Christ’s Church, like the charitable donations we give, seems to be treated like a commodity or product rather than a blessing to be passed along when one is able to bless others. We don’t seem to want to be a member of a body under the headship of Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit as instructed by the Scriptures. We seem to want to be members of a club where we have a vote and a say in day-to-day operations as investors.

The Church is not a product. I am not an investor or a member (like in a club store where we pay yearly fees for bulk items and deals), I am a sinner who was dead in sin and has been redeemed by the blood of Christ! I am owed nothing, and I owe Him everything! I am entitled to hell because my sin is an offense to God, and instead I get Grace upon Grace! As the Hymn says “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.” Therefore, let us bow our knees, our hearts, our lives to Christ. Let us test every thought, action and word against the Scriptures, and let us surrender to His power. Only then will we be empowered to be the Image of God that He created us to be!

James 4:1-12

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

1 Timothy 5

 Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, ² older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

Honor widows who are truly widows. 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. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. But 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.

 Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not. So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. For some have already strayed after Satan. 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.

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.” Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.