Welcome to Douglas Wilson's The Plodcast, presented by Canon Press.

Yeah. Yes, God, God, God don't never change.

Welcome to the

the podcast. I'm Douglas Wilson. This is episode 266. Good to have you with us.

So in a recent sermon I made a well it's not really a side point, it's sort of a foundational point, but it acted

something of a side point early on in the sermon, and I want to develop it a little bit here.

There is a tendency on the part of ecclesiastical establishments or

religious organizations to start at the wrong end. Jesus famously said that the Sabbath was not made for man.

Mankind was not created in order that the Sabbath might have someone to keep it. Rather, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

The parishioners, church members, were not created for the leaders to have someone to govern.

Rather, God established church government, elders, and pastors, shepherds, in order to give them to the people. It ought to be a gift to the people.

But there's a constant pressure to interpret the

benefit to the leaders and not to the people.

So, and Ezekiel points to this.

In Ezekiel 34-2 the prophet complains about shepherds who feed only themselves.

Shepherds who feed only themselves.

And at the end of Philippians when Paul is thanking the Philippians for the

financial gift that they sent he falls all over himself to say not that I'm

not bringing this up because I'm angling for additional giving or I want you to give me more.

I'm not talking about this because I'm the beneficiary. He said I'm talking about this because I want you to have the blessing of being giving people.

So he's keeping the focus in the right direction.

The apostle wants a blessing to accrue to the givers, but he makes sure that they understand

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