Question and Answer Program No. 91

So if you're in a church context, and this is where the question is coming, yes, serving can be a burden. There's a responsibility attached to any ministry service opportunity. But if you're serving in the church and ministry, make sure you're doing it according to your spiritual gifting and your desire.

You might be in the wrong role. I think of 1 Timothy chapter 3, where Paul is recruiting for that office of elder, pastor, teacher, in the office. And he says, if anybody desires the office of an elder, it's a good thing.

Wait, he just said, if anybody desires that office. Do you ever read the Bible or listen to a message and you end up with some questions? I sure do. And here at Wisdom for the Heart, we want to help you with that. One day every month, Stephen sets aside his normal Bible teaching to answer questions that have come in from listeners. My name is Scott Wiley. Stephen and I are here in the studio with our producer, Rob, and we're going to play some of those questions for you and give Stephen a chance to answer. I'll come back and give you a phone number that you can call if you have a Bible question. But here's the first question that we received from James.

Hi Pastor Davey, this is James in LeRae, Virginia. And in Galatians 5, starting at verse 19, it says, the wrong things, the sinful thus, are clear, being sexually unfaithful, not being pure, taking part in sexual sins and other things. It says, those who do these things will not inherit God's kingdom. So my question is, if you do those things, the Bible says you will never, ever, ever get to heaven. So that's what I'm troubled about, because I've done those things. I'm truly sorry I did them.

I'm trying very hard not to do them, but I do them over and over and over again. So if you could address that question, I would truly appreciate it. James, thank you so much for calling in with that question. Stephen, that's probably a question that a lot of people have had as they've read that passage.

Absolutely. There are a couple of things, James, keep in mind as you study the word. The first word is context. And if you start at verse 16, in fact, Scott, he's reading from Galatians here, chapter 5. If we start at verse 16, he sets the stage. Paul writes, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

So right away, the believer has a choice that he can make. If he walks by the Spirit, a little later on, Paul is going to describe what that looks like. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and on and on, verse 22 and forward. But if you don't walk by the Spirit, you're going to walk by the flesh.

And what does that look like? Well, if you go to verse 19, he describes it. He gives us 15 violations of God's will. But if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law.

What he means is there's no charge against you. Now, verse 19, the deeds of the flesh are evident. They're immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envies, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. In other words, this list is not exhaustive. He simply says, and other stuff like this, okay?

The list could be as long as your arm. And then he basically says, and here's James' question, I'm warning you that those who practice such things are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, it's possible for a Christian to do them, but Paul inserts this warning that, hey, we ought to be able to tell the difference between a believer and an unbeliever. So that leads then to the question, does that mean a Christian doesn't do these things? Well, I gave you the first keyword, that's context. The second keyword is tense.

The tense of the verb is present tense, so you could understand it this way. Those who practice such things, those who live for these things, those who cherish these things, those who long to do these things are not on their way to heaven. There is a difference between a believer and an unbeliever. An unbeliever longs to sin. A believer longs not to sin. An unbeliever thinks the great weekend coming means he's going to get to do all these things that Paul listed, and as many as he can get into a weekend, the better he's going to feel. A believer is smitten, is grieved, hates it, fights it. So that's the idea here with Paul.

In fact, there's another text. If you go over to Romans chapter 13, you'll find Paul giving a wonderful parallel text where he says in verse 13 of chapter 13, let us behave properly as in the day. Well, why is he asking the Christian to do that? He's asking us to do that because it's possible for a Christian to not behave properly.

What does it mean to behave properly? Well, he goes on, not in carousing and drunkenness, sexual promiscuity and sensuality, strife and jealousy. He's taken some of the same words from Galatians chapter 5 and he's brought them over here into Romans 13. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 14, and make no provision for the flesh.

So this is your goal. I like to think of a believer who's an individual whose toes are pointed in the right direction. That doesn't mean you can't trip or fall. You're capable of behaving incorrectly, sinfully. It's possible to grieve the Holy Spirit.

It's possible to live and look like someone who's living for themselves. Paul says don't do that. In fact, if that's what you long to do and that is your practice and you never repent and you never feel badly about it, you're not going to heaven anyway. In fact, heaven would be disappointing to you.

It would be anticlimactic. There are no weekends in heaven like the one you want. And so, James, that's the kind of individual he's addressing. By the way, if you want to, go over to Galatians chapter 6, verse 1, and he follows up this text, and I'm going to turn there myself, Scott, and I know I've got to wrap this up.

We have other questions. But if you look at Galatians chapter 6, verse 1, he says, Brethren, okay, he's writing it to Christians, brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. So it's possible that a brethren, a brother or sister, can be caught. That idea, by the way, isn't the idea of God catching the person. It's the idea of a person being overtaken, entangled, caught up in this sinful behavior. And so here's the practice of the church.

Rather than kick them to the curb saying, you're on your way to hell, no, you know, they may be a believer who's been caught up in a sinful practice and they need help and restoration. All right, we've got to quit, Scott. We sure do. But that is so helpful, I think, Stephen. There's not a person listening and there's not certainly a person in this room who can't look at a list like that and say, well, wait a minute, I've done some of those.

Absolutely. So that is such a helpful answer. James, thank you so much for calling in. Friends, let me give you the phone number that James used to ask Stephen that question. He dialed 910-808-9384. Now when you call that number, no one is going to answer.

It's set up simply for you to record your message. We're going to play that message on a future broadcast and allow Stephen to answer. That number once again is 910-808-9384. If you jot that down, you can call that number anytime you have a question about the Bible or the Christian faith. Stephen, here's your next question. My name is William and I listen to your program on VVM in Tampa, Florida.

My question is, I was told that if a person sends money or they support our pastor or an evangelist that preaches the true Word of God and he wins souls by preaching the Word, that he will receive rewards and that we all who support him will share in the rewards that he has. And I would like to have you comment on this for me. Thank you very much. William, it was good to hear from you and we hope you're doing well down there in Tampa.

Thanks for listening to us on VVM. They've been a faithful ministry partner to us. Stephen, you know, I think William's question, we need to just acknowledge the fact that we are one of those ministries that's supported by the gifts we receive. And so we want to make sure we give an answer that's rooted in God's Word to William's question. Absolutely. And William, I immediately go in my mind to the book of Philippians. So that's probably a good letter for you to read because there's more in there that we're going to cover. But it answers your question. Let me at least address the particular part of your question that asked, are we sharing in the fruit that comes from ministries, preachers, evangelists that bear fruit for Christ?

The answer is absolutely yes. And thankfully, Paul wrote a thank you letter to his supporters. We call it the book of Philippians. And in Philippians chapter one, as he writes this thank you letter to his supporters, he says, here's how I feel about you. You're in my heart.

Why? Well, because since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. Well, what does that mean, partakers of grace? He's saying that they're going to partake in the blessing of God that he's received.

He makes it even clearer in chapter four. If you go to verse 15, he explains that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone. Now, Scott, I could really go off here and just preach a little bit, but let me at least say to you, William and listeners, can you imagine no church supporting the apostle Paul, but this church in Philippi?

Wow. They were the only ones that saw it. They were the only ones that caught the vision, and they were the only church that supported him when he began to preach the gospel. So here's what Paul is saying to them. Verse 16, you sent a gift more than once for my needs.

This is a financial gift to support him. Now, Paul quickly clarifies, you know, I don't want the gift itself. That's not the main idea here. He writes, but I seek for the profit that is the fruit which will increase to your account.

There's your answer, William. Paul very clearly says that that supporting church, those believers that financially supported him, are also a part of receiving the profit or the fruit, and it will increase to their account. So simply put, you support someone, you tag along as well in the reception of the fruit that God is going to give them. And that's very encouraging, by the way, as you support missionaries, as you support church ministries, as you support pastors and evangelists, as you send in your gifts to BBN, as you support those ministries that are profitable to the ministry of the gospel, whatever their fruit is, you're going to be a part of it one day as you stand before Christ.

Isn't that exciting? So here's a church in Philippi. By the way, those believers are still having fruit increased to their account because we're still studying the letter, and people are still being saved because of the Word of God delivered through the Apostle Paul. Thank you, Stephen. What a great and helpful perspective. And William, thank you so much for calling in with your question today. Let me give you that phone number one more time that you can use if you have a question regarding the Bible or the Christian faith. It's 910-808-9384. That's the number that this listener used. Hello, my name is Bobbie.

I'm calling from Raleigh. I would like Pastor Davey to please explain Mark 11, verse 24, which reads, Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. I know that the Lord is not going to give us everything we want. That's clear to me. So I would like Pastor Davey to give the context and just explain clearly what that scripture is saying, and hopefully I will be able to articulate it and share with others. Thank you very much. Appreciate your ministry, Pastor Davey. Well, Bobbie, thank you so much for calling in with your question. And Stephen, I'm glad that you're getting nothing but easy questions today.

Well, yeah, that is a great question, Scott. And I like the fact that she also wanted to know about the context. There's that word again. So if you back up into the chapter, Jesus is cursing the fig tree, and he's wanting to encourage the disciples' walk of faith in his word and the word of God always being fulfilled. I think it's helpful to know that when he says, look, if you have faith, if you trust the word of God, you'll be able to take that mountain and throw it into the sea. And immediately all of us wonder if we'd ever have faith strong enough to uproot a mountain and cast it into the sea. The Lord is obviously speaking with an idiom here.

He has a euphemism, and that's why it's in quotations. And if you go back to the first century, it was the belief, and this same expression was used of uprooting a mountain and throwing it into the sea. That expression was used for rabbis and theologians who could solve difficult problems. And it was impossible to reconcile those difficult problems, and these rabbis had the ability to think through it. And that's the idea that the Lord is perhaps suggesting here, and that is that there are some impossible situations and some difficult things for you to understand. You take them to the Lord, and the Lord will resolve them eventually.

He will solve the problem eventually. He's not suggesting you're going to have enough faith to take a mountain and literally throw it into the sea. It's a euphemism for the ability to think through a difficult, impossible situation. But I think, Scott, she's also just sort of addressing the subject of prayer at large, and I think it's helpful to keep the right perspective in prayer. In fact, if you turn over to Mark, if we stay in the same Gospel account, and we look at the Lord himself praying, he says this in verse 36 of chapter 14 in the Gospel by Mark, and here's the Lord praying, and what is he praying? Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. That is, you can solve impossible situations. However, for you to remove this cup from me, and this is the request of the Lord, is there any way around the dilemma of the coming separation he's going to experience with his Father?

Can we solve this another way? And then he ends by saying, yet not what I will, but what you will. When the Lord taught the disciples how to pray, he did the same thing.

He taught them how to pray, to ask for the needs that they had, even daily bread, but then he points them back to the will and the glory of God. So if you can keep that in mind as you pray, yes, you present your needs to him, yes, you have some really difficult things that need resolving, you present them to him, and you trust his word, and you know he hears you, and eventually acknowledge the need for his will to be done. And so I can tell you this in my own personal life, no matter what the request is, no matter how difficult the situation is, I'm going to have the thinking, the process, the perspective of Lord, not my will, but your will be done. You see, my prayers are not to have Stephen's will done in heaven, but to have God's will done on earth, and that's the prayer that he delights most in. Thank you, Stephen, and thank you, Bobby, for calling in with your question.

I hope that that brings some clarity to that passage of Scripture and helps you with your own prayer life. I'll give you our phone number one more time. This is our Bible question line, and it's 910-808-9384. Stephen, let's go to your next question. Hi, this is Debbie.

I'm from Florida. I just have a question about a servant's heart. We're supposed to be like Christ and serve others before ourselves and put others before ourselves, but to what extent, if it makes us unhappy or miserable, is that really a servant's heart? I guess I'm just having an issue with deciding how far do we go to serve others, and is it selfish to say no to serving?

Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you very much for all you do. I love your program.

Have a great day. Hi, Debbie. Thank you so much for calling in with your question.

Stephen and I listened to it just before we came on air, and Stephen, I think we agreed. We wished we knew a little bit more about Debbie's story, but I think that you have some good help for her. Well, let's just jump in.

Debbie, again, thank you for calling. Yes, we're to serve one another. That's the command of Christ for the church, for the believer, and there's a heart that's engaged in serving. Listening to your question didn't sound like you were unwilling to be a servant. Let's agree that a servant doesn't decide in the morning whether or not they feel happy about it or appreciated because of it.

They're servants, and their will is the will of the master. But in this culture, your master is the Lord, and you want to do his will, and I think there's probably something that's overwhelming you in serving. You did ask the question, is it selfish to say no to serving, and the answer is, well, absolutely, you have to say no. You've got to say no to something, or you'll be saying yes to everything.

There's simply no end to the needs. So if you're in a church context, and this is where the question is coming, yes, serving can be a burden. There's a responsibility attached to any ministry service opportunity. But if you're serving in the church and ministry, make sure you're doing it according to your spiritual gifting and your desire. You might be in the wrong role. I think of 1 Timothy chapter 3, where Paul is recruiting for that office of elder, pastor-teacher, in the office, and he says if anybody desires the office of an elder, it's a good thing. Wait, he just said if anybody desires that office.

In fact, that's a very strong word in the original language, epithymia. It has to do with passion. If it's your passion to be an elder, that's a good thing, to be a church leader. In other words, it may not be your passion, and that's fine too. So, Debbie, do an assessment. Do an assessment of your time demands. Serving in some way doesn't mean that you have to serve in every way, and every need in the church then isn't necessarily God's will for your life. So you may need to do an assessment on the demands you've got. Maybe you're being pulled in too many directions. Let me use the analogy in the family. I think it's a good thing for kids to be involved in sports, but I see parents taking their kids to two and three different sporting activities every week.

They can't keep enough gas in the car. Make a decision to do one and say no to two others. So do an assessment of your time demands.

Do an assessment of the effectiveness of your service. Is it bearing fruit? Does it seem to be a blessing to the people? Does it seem to be a blessing in your own life?

Are you seeing progress? I don't know, Debbie. Again, we wish we knew more, but you might be doing too many things, or you might be involved in the wrong things or the wrong role. It doesn't mean that you don't have a servant's heart, but you can only invest your heart in so many areas. If I take the analogy into marriage, I don't know if you're married or not, but you said yes to one guy and no to a hundred others.

Don't worry about the hundred others. You said yes to one, so you give your life to that one. I have found as a pastor, Scott, and I know you have as well, we have people that will come to our church. They've moved in from other places of the country, and they're just completely wiped out, and they feel guilty, and we put them through a process of new members where we give them a gift assessment. We know the danger of being pastors and wanting people to do all sorts of things, right? Oh yeah, absolutely. I am responsible for mobilizing several hundred volunteers every Sunday, and it takes a lot of people.

It does, and you love it when people say yes, but you have to be careful that you allow people to say no, you know, for the right reason. Debbie, we hear a servant's heart even in your question, by the way, so hopefully we've nibbled around the edges enough to give you some insight of perhaps why you need to make some decisions in the future as you look at your schedule, your calendar, your energy, your giftedness, and be willing to say yes, and be willing to say no. Thanks, Steven, and thanks, Debbie. And Debbie, if we really didn't get to the heart of your question, why don't you call us back at our office number? That number is 866-482-4253. Now, the Bible question line that Debbie used to ask her question where you could record your question is 910-808-9384. Steven, we have time for just one more today. Hi, Steven.

This is Marty in Holladay, Florida. I'm just finished reading Deuteronomy 33, and in the listings of blessings that Moses gives Judah and Simeon aren't mentioned here, and I'm wondering why. I appreciate an answer. Thank you.

Bye. Well, Marty, thank you so much for calling in with your question, and Steven, I've never noticed that before. Well, it's a great question, and I think we have enough time to answer pretty quickly, but Marty, go to verse 7, and you'll find he does mention Judah, and don't feel badly about that. I read the Bible all the time and miss stuff, but Judah is mentioned, but you are right that Simeon is not mentioned, and there's some good ink spilled on the reason why there's a good debate.

It's really not clear. I think most conservative scholars go to Genesis 49 and verse 7 where Jacob prophesied that God would scatter Simeon in Israel. In other words, they didn't receive a tribal portion of land, only a few cities in Judah when Joshua divides the Promised Land, and it's because the Simeonites became absorbed, they sort of filtered out into other tribes, especially into the tribe of Judah, as a matter of fact. So they didn't retain a distinction, and that's probably the best answer, although that raises another question, and that's the fulfillment of God's promise to reconstitute Israel as a nation and these tribes, and so it kind of sent me over to Revelation, chapter 7, and it is encouraging to see there that those Jewish evangelists are representing a portion of them, the tribe of Simeon, and so there seems to be clear evidence that each of the tribes are reconstituted in the Millennial Kingdom. God does keep his word, and by the way, there are no lost tribes. You're going to find them all again as God restores Israel to the land during the Millennial Kingdom. So thank you, Marty, for that question. Judah's mentioned Simeon isn't.

Maybe that's exactly why, but Simeon is going to come back on the scene one day. Thank you, Stephen, and thank you to Marty and everyone who called in with a question. We're so grateful to have heard from all of you today.

We would like to hear from you, friends. Write to us and let us know how God's using Wisdom for the Heart to bless and encourage you. Our address is Wisdom for the Heart, P.O.

Box 37297, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27627. If you prefer to communicate electronically, you can send an email to info at wisdomonline.org. Wisdom for the Heart is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and we have a YouTube channel. If you'd like to see full length sermons of Stephen's teaching, you can find them there. I sure hope that you have a great weekend. Make sure you join us on Monday right here on Wisdom for the Heart. Thank you.