Preaching For The Money

The Bible speaks of those who "do the Lord's work" for the money. Micah 3:11 reads “The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.” Rom 16:18 also describes such when it says “For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”How do we tell who is preaching for the money or for other carnal reasons? Those preaching for the money won’t warn their audiences of what they (their live audiences) are doing wrong Gal 4:16, Ezek 3:18, Acts 20:31. Instead they will consistently choose subjects that their audiences already agree with, are already practicing, etc. - in short, they avoid stepping on toes.For example, it is easy to preach against Baptist doctrine when there are no Baptists in the audience.  But it might be hard to preach on fasting (Matt 6:16-18) when many Christians in the audience don't practice fasting in their lives, or hard to preach "swear not at all" (Matt 5:33-34) when many Christians in the audience believe it is okay to swear in the courtroom.  Many other such examples exist, but those two issues should suffice to make the point.We do need to encourage, motivate, and review with our audiences, but none of that will matter if audience members are in sin, and because we don’t warn them, they are eternally lost. Encouraging them serves little purpose in that case.Furthermore, Christian audiences tend to dislike those who teach the truths needed by the audience at hand. We see this from a passage like II Tim 4:3-4 - “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth ....” Limestone Prison Chaplain James Williams said on 11-3-2018 “They pay me so they can control me.” No doubt some congregations likewise pay their regular preacher so they can control him.I King 22:8 describes a man (Micaiah) who would not allow himself to be controlled in such a way - “And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.” Luke 6:26 teaches such men will generally not be well received by the churches - “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”