Authentic Christianity Means Giving to the Church

We appreciate Edward leading our songs this morning. He always does a good job, and if you’re visiting with us, we’re certainly glad you are here to be with us this morning. We have been doing a series on authentic Christianity at the beginning of the month, each month, and this will be the last in that series as we’ve been studying through the book of Galatians.

And maybe you recall that the book of Galatians is about correcting error in the church, and particularly in the churches of Galatia, where some false teachers had brought in the message that you needed to be circumcised according to the custom of Moses, and that you needed to keep the law of Moses.

And Paul made it clear in the book of Galatians that this was something that they did not need to do because by Jesus Christ we’re justified from all things that the law of Moses could not justify us from. And why have we been focusing on authentic Christianity? Well, just like the churches of Galatia had been affected by false teaching, so also today there are many religious bodies that are affected by false teaching in the world.

And so when you have something that’s broken, how do you restore it? And when you have an old house, what do you do? You’ve got to go back to the original plans, right? If you go back to the plan, then you can fix up that which is broken. And how do we go back to the plan for religious matters, for spiritual matters? We go back to the Bible.

And so that’s what we’ve been focusing on as we’ve been studying through the book of Galatians, authentic Christianity and being authentic Christians. Well, this morning, we’re going to be looking at Galatians chapter 6, and verses 6 through 10, and thinking about how authentic Christianity means giving to the church.

And so, this is your giving sermon for the year. And the elders always appreciate it when I preach on giving, and I’m thankful for their good support in this regard. But yeah, we’re going to talk about giving this morning because Paul talks about it. In fact, at all of these epistles that the Apostle Paul writes, there are sections in these epistles on giving. And we need to pay attention to those sections. And here specifically in Galatians chapter 6 and verses 6 through 10. Now look at what he says here in these verses.

Let him who is taught in the Word share in all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

“…and let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” And so, this passage is talking about giving, believe it or not. And Paul is talking about how our giving should be.

And so we have four things that we want to discuss here this morning. Now, one of the reasons he talks about giving here at the end of the book of Galatians is that some of the brethren who had been taken away by the false doctrine had stopped giving. And I know that, you know, sometimes when you have problems in the church, people start withholding their contributions because they’re so upset about this, that, or the other.

Well, Paul addresses this here and he says, now look, let’s not stop doing that. Let’s not stop giving just because we’re having some problems. We need to continue to give because when we’re giving, we’re giving to God. And that’s something that we’ve got to consider in our giving when we give.

But authentic Christianity involves giving to the church and authentic Christians give to the church. First of all, they give to support the gospel. Now look at what Galatians 6 and verse 6 says, “…let Him who is taught in the Word share in all good things with Him who teaches.”

And so this is talking about supporting the preaching and teaching of the gospel. And yes, we do that in a number of different ways. We’re not going to exhaust all of those ways this morning. We’re going to talk about a few of them. First of all, we do this by paying the preacher. How do we support the gospel? By paying the preacher.

1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 14 says, “…even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.” And so this is a command of the Lord. It’s not something that I’m making up, not something the elders are making up. It’s something the Lord wants us to do. It has a rich historical tradition under the Old Testament Levitical system, and it continues forward today under Christianity in this form. And so as we think about supporting the gospel, we need to be thinking about how we do that. And one way to do that is by paying the preacher. Another way to do that is by giving to mission works.

And our elders have, every year, put together a budget in which they have put together money for certain mission works that we want to support. And the Apostle Paul received money for mission work. He says in Philippians 4 and verse 18, Verse 18, “…indeed I have all and abound, I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you.” That was a mission gift that the church in Philippi sent to the Apostle Paul, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And so that’s how God looks at our giving as a sweet-smelling sacrifice when we give.

So we give to support the gospel by paying the preacher, by conducting and supporting mission work. Sometimes we give to support schools of preaching. And that’s another way that we can give to support the gospel. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 2 says, And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

In seed form, that’s the principle behind our schools of preaching and why we send money to preaching school students so that they can learn how to preach the gospel and they can go out and fill pulpits throughout the brotherhood.

And so we support the gospel by supporting schools of preaching. And there are many other ways that we can support the gospel by our giving. We have an internet ministry here, and that ministry is supported by the giving that we do, and it does great work. We’re going to be putting together a presentation on our internet work probably sometime in January, and we’ll have that for you so you can see the great impact that is having.

There are thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people around the world who benefit from our internet ministry. And I’ll show you the details on that. And what’s particularly exciting to me, as I’ve been looking at the statistics that we’ve been doing, is that China is starting to open up and let their people look at our website and our web pages.

And in past years, it’s been very small, just very few people. But now, as of the past three, four months, it’s been in the hundreds and thousands of people visiting from China, our websites. And so that’s pretty exciting news. And I don’t know if maybe the administration had something to say about human rights or something to China, but they’ve opened up and more people are visiting from China now.

And I think that’s a good thing because they need the gospel over there. And so we can support the gospel by giving to support our internet work. We have social media. We have literature, tracts, all of those things. Our giving goes to support the gospel in those areas.

And so, let him who is taught in the Word share with those who teach. That’s what the Apostle Paul said, and that’s what we want to do. But then secondly, authentic Christians give to the church to be spiritual. Our giving is a spiritual activity. It’s not carnal. It’s not fleshly.

It’s taking that thing that we use most of the time for carnal things, you know, for gas and for food, for groceries, for supporting and maintaining of our homes and things of that. It’s taking those carnal things, but it’s the things that we mostly use for it, our money, and then we’re taking that and we’re using it for spiritual activities instead.

And so this is what the Apostle Paul writes here. He says, It says, “‘Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap life everlasting.'” And one of the ways we can sow to the Spirit is giving of our means to the church. And that’s something we need to do to be spiritual people.

We don’t want everything that we use our money for just to be supporting carnal activities. If we sow to carnal activities, that’s all we’re going to get out of it. But if we sow to spiritual things, then we will reap spiritual things. And that’s what the Apostle Paul is discussing here.

We’re not going to fool God in this. Don’t expect to go to heaven and say to God, well, God, you know, I want to get into heaven. And then God says, well, I’m looking at your giving and your contributions here, and it looks like the only thing you gave to was yourself. And then, you know, you’re not going to fool God. God is not mocked. That’s what Paul is saying here. Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked. Okay. So we got to get out of this, you know, selfish thinking and think about how we’re going to lay up treasure in heaven, right? And that’s what he’s talking So, we reap what we sow. Now, this is not talking about karma here in Galatians chapter 6. Some people look at this and they say, oh, we reap what you sow. This is karma. No, it’s not. Karma is an Eastern religious doctrine, and it has to do with reincarnation and a bunch of other things, and it doesn’t have anything to do with karma, and we shouldn’t think about it that way.

What Paul is saying here is more along the lines of the principle of the seed. You reap what you sow. If you sow an apple seed, you’re going to get an apple tree. If you sow an orange seed, you’re going to get an orange tree. If you sow a cotton seed, you’re going to get cotton plant.

You know, I saw a bunch of cotton out in West Texas on our trip just last week and it hadn’t been, some of it had been harvested and a bunch of bales out there. Some of it hadn’t been harvested yet, but if you were to walk over to those cotton farmers and say, hey, I got a good deal for you. I got some really cheap seed that I want you to sow and they’re going to ask you, is it cotton seed? And if you say, well, no, it’s lima bean seeds, they’re going to say, well, don’t give us that because that’s not going to work here.

We need cotton seed. That’s what we need. Because they know the principle. You reap what you sow. That’s what Paul’s talking about here. And that’s what we’re talking about when we talk about reaping spiritual things. We’ve got to sow spiritual things to reap spiritual things. That’s what we’re talking about. And we do that by giving. And so this isn’t karma. Paul is not discussing earthly affairs. He’s talking about heaven.

And when we think about heaven, we’ve got to remember to ask this question, who is our master? Because there’s one of two ways that we can go. And just like Paul said, you can either sow to carnal things or you can sow to spiritual things. Which one is it going to be? And that’s what Paul talks about in Romans chapter 6 and verse 16.

Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey? You are that one slaves who you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. There’s really no middle ground here. You’re either sowing to carnal things or you’re sowing to spiritual things. Which way is your life going? That’s the question that we need to ask ourselves. Think about what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 24.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And so we’ve got to choose. We’ve got to make the choice. Are we going to be carnal or are we going to be spiritual? And we can make that choice by how we give.

And the more we give, the more spiritual we’re going to be because we’re going to be putting our faith and trust in God and not in ourselves. And so we reap what we sow. So are we sowing spiritual things? Authentic Christians give to be spiritual.

Where is our treasure? Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 through 21. Are we laying up those treasures in heaven? That’s what God wants us to be thinking about as we think about sowing to the Spirit. Where is our destiny? That’s another thing we need to be thinking about as we think about sowing to the Spirit.

There are two destinies, and we’re building one or the other, and we need to be building the one that’s going to lead us to eternal life. Now, as we continue to think about this topic, authentic Christianity means giving to the church, and another reason is to do good. So, we give to the church as authentic Christians so that we can support the gospel, so that we can be spiritual, and third, so that we can do good. And that’s what Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9 is all about.

“…and let us not grow weary while doing good. For in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.” You know, the constant temptation, I think, with our giving is, where does it go? How are we using it? And our elders do a good job of reporting on that. We report on our budget, and that’s published out in the foyer, and anybody can walk up there and see where all of our money is going and what we’re spending on what.

Right? And that’s important. We want transparency. But sometimes people think, well, I don’t know what’s going on with this money. Where is it going? What is it doing? And they don’t bother to check the bulletin board, you know. And so they think, well, you know, it’d do a lot better if I bought coffee, you know, because coffee’s going up. And it is going up, unfortunately. But, you know, sometimes people think like that. But let’s not get into that mindset. That’s growing weary while doing good, okay?

And we don’t want to do that. We don’t want to grow weary while doing good. If we do not lose heart, we will reap. What if a farmer all of a sudden decided, you know what, I’m just so tired of maintaining these little seedlings on the ground there. I’m just going to let them go. I’m not going to fertilize anymore. I’m not going to try to do it, put out any herbicide anymore. And, you know, we’re just not going to maintain that anymore.

What’s going to happen? He is not going to reap the harvest. He knows that he’s got to keep on doing good. He’s got to not grow weary in doing those things that he’s got to do every year, year after year, to get that harvest, to grow the crops, to make sure that they come up, and to make sure that his harvest yields plenty. That’s what he’s got to do.

And that’s what we’re talking about, but in a spiritual sense here, right? We’re talking about not growing weary while doing good. And we will reap in due season if we do not be faint, but we have to continue on the good effort.

And so what does it mean to do good? And this is something we all wrestle with, I think, on a daily basis. But let’s just listen to some of the scriptures and what they teach about doing good. Think about Isaiah 1 and verse 17. Learn to do good. And here it’s defined for us. Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.

Listen to Micah chapter 6 and verse 8. He has shown you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. And we’ve got to do good. And doing good sometimes takes patience. And you know, we don’t always want to deal with those unjust people or the people we have to rebuke because they’re oppressors. And sometimes we grow impatient with the widows and the orphans because it seems like it’s the same thing over and over again.

But what does the Scripture say? Don’t be weary in doing good. Keep on doing those things that we know are right, those things that we need to do over and over and over again. We’ve got to do them, and we’ve got to keep it up, because in due season, we shall reap if we do not faint.

And that goes for our contribution as well. Maybe sometimes, well, I put this check into play every week. What’s it going to hurt if I keep a few back for myself a few weeks out of the year? Don’t grow weary in doing good. Keep it up. Keep going. Keep doing the things that we’ve got to do. Let’s not lose heart. He has shown you, oh man, what is good.

But God wants that consistent, faithful walk that we need to have to be pleasing to Him. Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. We can do good by helping others to do good. Think about Hebrews 13, verse 16. Do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. God is well pleased. Now, we don’t always get the pat on the back. We don’t always, you know, get our head rubbed like Rocky does when he does something good over there, you know. But God is well pleased. And we can know that because the scriptures teach that.

That when we give, He is well pleased. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 18, Paul is telling Timothy, You teach them to do good, to be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share. This is part of the message of the gospel, our giving. And we have opportunity to give, we need to give.

Because it is good for us to do good. And we help other people do good when we give. And we need to help other people do good. And then finally, we authentic Christians give to the church to support the poor. And this is something we need to think about as well.

You know, Galatians chapter 6 and verse 10 says, “…Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Now, this verse supports the idea of the church giving to the poor, both those who are Christians and those who are not Christians, because we are to do good to all, that is, to everyone. Now, we have a special relationship with those who are Christians. We especially want to support them and help them, but at the same time, we don’t want to neglect any need that comes our way.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we’ve got to support every single poor person in the world. That’s not what it means. But as we have opportunity, that’s what the Scripture says right here. As we have opportunity, as those opportunities come up, if we have an opportunity to do that, we should do that.

We should give to those who have needs. And we do a good job of doing that here. We have those from the community who come in sometimes who need food. We have a food pantry for them. Sometimes they need help with the electric bill. Sometimes we help them with the electric bill. You know, it just depends on what the situation is. But sometimes we have our own people who need things.

And we help our own people from time to time who need things. And so that’s something we do as well. Think about Jesus and the things that He taught and He said. And one of the things He had to confront some people about was helping the poor because they didn’t want to do it.

In Luke chapter 18 and verse 22, Jesus was talking to a man there who thought he was righteous. And then he said, well, I’ve done all of these things. What do I lack? And this was Jesus’ answer. You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. And he didn’t like that answer very much because he had a lot of wealth. He had a lot of possessions and he didn’t want to give it up. He wanted it for himself.

He didn’t want to use it for others. And you see, that’s the mindset we’ve got to fight. We’ve got to think about helping others. And we’ve got to think about building that treasure in heaven, not just building treasure on earth.

Think about Romans 12 and verse 13. The Apostle Paul talks about the people that he was trying to help with that great contribution that they were taking up from the Gentiles and taking it back to Jerusalem. And he says, when you think about loving other people, you need to think about distributing to the needs of the saints and being given to hospitality.

You see, that’s giving to others, and that’s something that we’ve got to be involved in. And then in James chapter 1, verse 27, we read this, The word visit here doesn’t just mean to go and have a conversation with them, even though it’s included in that, but it means helping them with whatever needs that they might have, taking care of one another. And sometimes we need to do that. We’ve got to be aware of that. We’ve got to be know what those needs are.

And then we’ve got to answer those needs. And those are some things that we can do as Christians concerned about giving to the church. And so authentic Christianity means giving to the church. To do what? To support the gospel, to be spiritual, to do good, and to support the poor.

Therefore, we need everyone to give to the church here in New Boston. We’ve got a lot of good work coming up in 2026. It’s hard to believe that it’s just around the corner. We’ve done a good job this year. I’m not saying that we’ve done a bad job at all. I don’t think the elders think that, and I certainly don’t think that. We’ve done a good job this year giving, and I’ve noticed it.

I think it’s been the best giving that I’ve seen since I’ve been here. But we can always do better. You know, the elders, they’re going to meet this afternoon and talk about the budget. And that’s something that they’re always working on, they’re always thinking about. And we really don’t want them to have to cut anything out of the budget.

The best thing would be that the whole congregation would be able to give so much that it just took care of all the elders’ problems and they say, you know what, we’ve got so much money that we can afford to support all of these people and support all the things we’re supporting and we don’t have to cut back on anything. Now that would be great. It would be even better if they could say, you know what, we’ve got so much we can expand. We can give more. We can support more preaching students. We can support more missionaries.

We can keep up with the cost of living for whatever we need to keep up with there. We can help more people. That would be a great thing. I’m sure the elders would appreciate that very much. And so this morning, as we think about this topic, you know, we want to be good givers so that we can be involved in the work of the gospel.

Remember, we are laying up treasure in heaven. Why do we do it? Every day goes by, we do little things here and there, and we think, well, it’s just the same old thing over and over again. I like to respond to that by saying this, I’m laying up treasure in heaven every single day. And so are you. If your efforts are spiritual in nature, you are laying up treasure in heaven.

That’s what we’re working for. That’s what we’re working toward. And we want that treasure to be there when we get there so that we can all enjoy it together. And so this morning, as we think about laying up treasure in heaven, you know, one of the things we talked about was supporting the preaching of the gospel. And we preach the gospel here. And sometimes people respond to that message of the gospel, of hearing the word of God and believing it, We had a baptism here not too long ago because someone believed the message of the gospel, and that’s a great thing. And that one soul is worth more than everything in this world. And we’ve got to be thinking about that. We’ve got to be thinking along those lines, what can I do to get one more soul into the Lord’s church?

And that’s something that we need to think about. Maybe this morning you are that soul that needs to come into the church of Jesus Christ. And this morning you can do that through that process we just mentioned. And it’s the Lord’s process, just like it’s the Lord’s plan that we give. It’s something that we need to do to be pleasing to Him. And maybe this morning you’d like to do that. We’d be happy to help you. If you need to do that, you can come right now while together we stand and sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!