OPEN HEAVEN [24 APRIL 2019] CARING FOR THE SHEPHERD

 Open Heaven 24 April 2019: [Wednesday] Daily Devotional By Pastor E.A Adeboye – Caring For The Shepherd

CARING FOR THE SHEPHERD – Wednesday April 24^th 2019

Memorise: If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your canal things? 1^st Corinthians 9:11

Read: 1^st Corinthians 9:6-14 (KJV)

⁶ Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?

⁷ Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

⁸ Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?

⁹ For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?

¹⁰ Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

¹¹ If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?

¹² If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

¹³ Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

¹⁴ Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

Bible in one year: Genesis 29:30, Jeremiah 23:33-24:10, Hymnal: Sing hymn 4

Message:-

The word ‘Shepherd’ is commonly used by Christians to describe pastors, evangelists, missionaries and others who play leadership roles in the Body of Christ.

OPEN HEAVEN 24 APRIL 2019 CARING FOR THE SHEPHERD

 God expects members of the Body of Christ to provide all that is necessary for the health and welfare of Church leaders, as they labour to see to the spiritual wellbeing of the flock of Jesus Christ. Caring for the shepherd can take the form of gifts or voluntary service from individuals or organised groups. Care can also come in the form of wages from the ministry or church through which the shepherd serves God. In this sense, wages can be defined as any form of economic compensation received in exchange for labour or services rendered. This may also include accommodation, provisions and additional benefits in cash or kind. The Holy Spirit revealed God’s mind on this matter, saying in 1^st Corinthians 9:13-14:

“Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preached the gospel should live of the gospel.”

Open Heaven 24 April 2019: [Wednesday] Daily Devotional By Pastor E.A Adeboye – Caring For The Shepherd 

The Bible clearly teaches the right of pastors and spiritual leaders to receive care and wages in any form considering appropriate by members of the Body of Christ they are serving. Galatians 6:6 says:

“Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.”

Open Heaven 24 April 2019 Wednesday: Prayer Point 

Also, in 1^st Timothy 5:17-18, the Bible instructed that the elder who rules well and labours in teaching the word and doctrine should not only be appropriately compensated but should also be counted worthy of double honour. Above all, our Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly hammered on the fact that the workman in God’s vineyard deserves whatever care or wages he or she receives (Matthew 10:10, Luke 10:7).

Moreover, caring for shepherds ordained by God is a route to irreversible blessings. Some ignorantly see this as a means of making pastors rich, but the Bible and life experiences speak for themselves: the widow of Zarephath, the woman of Shunem, the words of Jesus in Mark 9:41, and testimonies too numerous to mention all serve as examples to follow in this regard.

Prayer Point

Father, grant me grace to consistently take care of Your shepherds in Jesus’ Name.

Open Heavens Daily Devotional Lessons was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical Churches in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.

Bible in one year: Genesis 29:30, Jeremiah 23:33-24:10,

³⁰ And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

Jeremiah 23:33-24:10

³³ And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the Lord.

³⁴ And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man and his house.

³⁵ Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the Lord answered? and, What hath the Lord spoken?

³⁶ And the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lordof hosts our God.

³⁷ Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the Lord answered thee? and, What hath the Lord spoken?

³⁸ But since ye say, The burden of the Lord; therefore thus saith the Lord; Because ye say this word, The burden of the Lord, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the Lord;

³⁹ Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence:

⁴⁰ And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

24 The Lord shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

² One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

³ Then said the Lord unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.

⁴ Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

⁵ Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.

⁶ For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

⁷ And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

⁸ And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the Lord, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:

⁹ And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.

¹⁰ And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.