Good morning mornings. We're going through 1 Corinthians chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

And today our text will be chapter 9, verses 14 through 18.

If I could trouble you to stand, if you're able, you can follow along with me as I read.

If not, that's all right. I am, if you don't mind, going to start

beginning in verse one. So follow along as we read where the Apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit writes,

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus, our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? Even though, verse 2, I may not be an apostle to others. Surely I am to you. For you are the seal of my

apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. Don't we have

the right to food and drink? Verse 5, don't we have the right to take a believing

wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Seifus, speaking of

Peter? Or is it only I am Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living. Who, verse seven, serves as

a soldier at his own expense, who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes, who tends a flock

and does not drink the milk? Do I say this merely on human authority? Doesn't the law say the same thing?

For it is written verse 9 in the law of Moses. Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.

Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes. This was written for us

because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.

If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? If others, verse 12,

have this right of support from you, shouldn't we have it all the more? But we did not use this

right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Don't you know verse 13 that

those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple and that those who serve at the

altar share in what is offered on the altar? Verse 14. In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach

the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. At this time, we're going to receive the

ties and offerings. No, I'm just kidding. We're actually going to talk about that in a moment. So,

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