Obedience is better than sacrifice according to God's Word. Saul sure would have stayed out of trouble if he had only listened to God, but he didn't and look at the mess he got in. All my life I have heard that word "sacrifice" tossed around the church, but I always wondered why it only seemed to matter to a few people in the church and not all of us. Just think about it a minute. How many people do you remember growing up who always wanted to talk a good game, yet when the opportunity came to put up or shut up they never showed up. When I was building a church 25 years ago over 1/2 of the labor was done by myself and two other brethren. Many said they'd help but never showed up. One of the men who talked a good game came to look at the finished product before our dedication and begin to criticize several things that we had done. He never offered to lift a hammer or drive a nail but could find fault with a lot of the things that we did. It was hard to keep my sanctification that day!
I was pastoring another church and we had remodeled the church facilities and before we could finish out the loan the bank required the old building to be painted on the outside before they would release the rest of the funds. I called a special work day because some areas were 30 feet high that needed to be painted and I do not like working that high up by myself. Knowing the situation and the timing of the loan I needed some help, but not one person showed up to help so I spent all day Saturday on a ladder trying to get it done. I was close to heaven that day because I don't like heights. Surely the Lord sent angels to watch over me that day while I was high up on that ladder.
I am not the greatest carpenter, but as I said in an earlier blog most pastors learn to do things because the funds are not always available when you need them the most. Yet nowhere do I find that God requires sacrifice of pastors alone. It is a communal thing involving the whole church. I will always wonder about people who say they love their church that fussed about everything and never did anything to help in time of need. They could always find a problem, but never came up with a solution. They wanted me to make the sacrifices because that was what I was paid for, but they never did. I praise God that more than 2/3's of every church congregation I served made the sacrifices necessary to maintain ministry and property. It was the other bunch that bothered me. The ones who only came to church when they wanted, but wanted to tell me how to run it. Or the one's who thought a $1 represented their right to dominate a business meeting but never lifted a hand to help. Someone had forgotten to tell them that sacrifice goes both ways.
I understand sacrifice as do most pastors. I left one church several years ago that never paid me several hundred dollars in back pay they owed me. I sacrificed just to try and keep that church together because of bad financial decisions they had made in the past. I have a loved one who pastored a church that he personally supported due to certain financial situations he inherited before finally selling the church, but never collecting a dime that was owed him. Were we bad money managers? Nope, it's just that a $1 won't pay debt that is so large your mind has troubled conceiving it. When you inherit debt someone has to sacrifice to get the bills paid.
Obedience IS better than sacrifice, but everyone needs to be willing to sacrifice to be obedient. If you vote to build a building and go in debt you should be willing to sacrifice until the debt is paid. You voted to go into debt so you ought to be man or woman of God enough to stand with your church through thick and thin. Too many people say one thing and then do another, and that includes those of us in the ministry as well. If God wants something done we better be obedient, but we must also count the costs. This generation has learned very little about sacrifice. That's why this day is thought of as the day of entitlement. A recent survey said that over 80 % of those under 25 say America owes them something. Sadly, I know a lot of those folks will never learn the meaning of sacrifice without being obedient to God.
Some people will say I am stupid for not getting my pay that I deserved. Some will say you should have gotten paid first and let the church bills go, but I wasn't raised that way. I only had one report to our international and state office from my church be late until a few years ago and that was because my clerk forgot to mail it. My dad always taught me that the church comes first and I bought into that and practiced it all my years of pastoring. Right or wrong, I did the best I could and I got the short end of the stick financially many times. I am sure there are plenty of other pastors that have done the same. Would I do it again? Probably-because I believe the reputation of the church must be protected and sometimes personal sacrifice is the only way to do so. But I would also emphasize before you make any decision today financially count the cost and make sure you have people willing to do the same. Make sure they are loyal to their church and will stick with you even when you disagree because if you don't you will be hurting in the end.
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