Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning. 9:45.
[00:00:07] Good morning.
[00:00:08] All right, we are in our second week in a sub series in Second Corinthians called generosity. So if you have a Bible, would you open to Second Corinthians, chapter eight? All right. So trust between leaders and those they lead is essential. Amen. Amen. All right. Good people want to trust their leaders, and good leaders want to be trusted. In the Garden of Eden, the devil was so strategic about attempting to erode the trust between Adam and Eve and God. And his tactics, by the way, have not changed. Millennia later, his objective is to erode confidence and TR between good leaders and the people that they lead. And his tactic, it's very simple. It goes like this.
[00:01:04] Cast doubt over God's trustworthiness. It's very simple. Cast doubt over God's trustworthiness. And so from the beginning, we saw this with Eve, and he wanted to put seeds of doubt in her heart about the goodness and the trustworthiness of God. And then it moved to the marriage of Adam and Eve. And then millennia later, he has been doing this over and over and over. So Satan knows that when there is no authority, chaos ensues. And when there are environments where there's no leadership and there's no authority, when chaos happens, this is a field day for demonic influence. This is where he goes to work. Now, sometimes, though, doubt over leadership needs to be cast when it comes to churches and when it comes to church leadership. This has been my personal experience. What I have found is that the vast majority of pastors, elders, deacons, and church staff are really good people doing a great job with the resources that they have. But if you just watch the news, you can start to believe that there is scandal after scandal after scandal. And everywhere you go, everyone might be on the verge of hurting you. Also, by the way, if all you read is the news at night, you might be in Bartlett, one of the safest cities in America. And you might be scared to go outside to your car because you might be afraid if this is all you watch, that everybody is dangerous and everything is dangerous, when the reality is that 99% of the time, you are safe. And the vast majority of people have eyes to see when danger is approaching. So when it comes to church scandals, I like to put things in their proper perspective. We need to remember that these scandals are usually one to two people, sometimes three, especially when there are crimes. But almost always it's one to two people, rarely three. And the majority of the elders, deacons, pastors, and staff didn't do the thing in fact, again, I like to right size things. If you pull back and you extrapolate, I'm going to give you past your math, but I'm pretty sure that this number is too small. Technically, if you step back, 99% of pastors, elders, deacons, and church staff are good people doing a decent job with the resources they have. But the damage of the 1% is horrendous. You can give me an amen to that one.
[00:04:11] And many of us have been wounded by the 1%.
[00:04:16] But we cannot let the 1% erode or destroy our confidence in the 99%, because once you allow that to happen, you give the devil a massive victory in your private life. Now, of the 99%, I'm gonna give you another statistic. And this statistic is 100% provable. It's not pastor math. This is an actual real number. Okay. Of the 99%, okay. 100% of them are imperfect.
[00:04:47] You can say amen to that one. That's fine. Won't be offended.
[00:04:51] Also, just to put it in perspective, 100% of parents are imperfect. Gotcha. And 100% of bosses are imperfect. And 100% of friends are imperfect. There is one perfect leader who is without error, and his name is Jesus. Everyone else falls short of. So for me, somebody who has been deeply wounded, I have chosen to trust those who have proven themselves trustworthy. And when the people that I have trusted are imperfect, my world is not shattered. And when I encounter the less than 1%, I make it a priority to go get the help and the healing I need so that I can grieve appropriately and overcome the things that I have been and proximity to now. Pastor Michael, you might be asking, what in God's green earth does this have to do with generosity? And my answer is, everything. All right, if you have a Bible, open them up to 2 Corinthians, chapter 8. If some of you are new with us, I need to set a little bit of context here. Before Paul wrote the book of second Corinthians, he wrote the book of First Corinthians. And I wanna read to you from this book because it sets up the text that we're gonna be in this morning. And so what you're gonna hear is that what Paul is gon an offering, that he is collecting a financial offering for a church, the church in Jerusalem that has been devastated and destitute from persecution and many other things. They are in desperate financial need. And so he is writing to the Corinthians, and he is raising an Offering for this church in Jerusalem, First Corinthians 16, verses 1 through 2. He says, now, concerning the collection for the saints, that's the financial offering for the Jerusalem Christians. He says, as I directed the churches of Galatia. So this isn't just a one church offering. This is happening with multiple churches around the Roman world in the first century. He says, so you also are to do. And then he gives directions on the first day of the week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come now, multiple churches from around the Roman Empire, all overseen by Paul and the apostles, collecting together, raising money to meet the financial needs of a destitute church in Jerusalem. Okay, before 1 Corinthians was written, Paul was in their midst. And let me, Let me just kind of share with you what happened. Paul is in person with the Corinthians, and he looks at them and he says, guys, huge need. And in Jerusalem Corinthians, you're the richest church in the area. I'm asking everybody, we're all raising money, right? And we're going to bring this money over to the church in Jerusalem. But you are the pacesetters. You. You gotta, like, you need to set the example. So I need you guys to go pray and what are you willing to give? And they came back and they basically, essentially were so overwhelmingly generous, it shocked Paul.
[00:08:02] And Paul left the Corinthian church and he went and told all the other churches the overwhelming generosity of what the Corinthians committed to give to this above and beyond offering for the saints in Jerusalem. Now, we don't know the exact amount, but we do know is that Paul would go to the different churches and be like, you're not going to believe what the Corinthians had dedicated to give. And to the poorer churches, he's like, I'm not asking you to give money that you don't have, but I want you to see that the Corinthians have committed to doing something really, really incredible. So he went to the churches in Galatia and he went to Macedonia, and he basically said, look at their generosity now. Follow their example, because we can make a huge difference for the church in Jerusalem. And then if you've been around this book a little while, the people start putting money away. They're keeping it, it seems, in their own houses. Every week they get their income. They set aside some money. They're waiting for Paul to come back. It's gonna be a year or so before he does. And then there's this small group of nefarious people called super apostles. And they come in and they are attempting to erode the confidence of the Corinthians, the confidence in Paul and the apostles. And they're super apostles because they're like, well, they're apostles, but we're the best apostles. And you can't trust them. Trust us. And I want to be crystal clear.
[00:09:24] What did the super apostles want?
[00:09:28] They wanted that offering.
[00:09:31] They wanted the weekly offering being stored up in everyone's home. And they knew Paul was coming back, so they started planting seeds. Don't. Don't give your money to the apostles. You can't trust the apostles. They're up to no good. Their character's no good, how you know it's going to be accountable. And so the people in Corinth, right, they started the offering. And it appears some of them, their confidence in the Apostle Paul was so shaken, they didn't know who to trust, that they stopped saving money for the offering that they committed to.
[00:10:02] In light of this, in 2 Corinthians, chapter 10, here's what he says. He says, I beg of you that when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some. So pause for a moment. He's like, listen, you made a promise.
[00:10:24] I am coming soon.
[00:10:27] And do not make me demand of you the money you gave because you made a commitment. You made a contract. You made an agreement before the Lord and these needy saints. So please do not make me come and be bold with you. And then he says this against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. He's like, when I come, I am gonna be bold with the super apostles. I am gonna be bold with them publicly. But for the rest of you, you made a promise, and so now it's time to follow through. All right? So I wanna help you understand what's going on in this context. So I'm breaking this message up into two parts. The first part, we're gonna talk about your part in generosity. And then the second, we're gonna talk about the leadership's part in accountability. So let's start with your part in generosity. And verses six of chapter eight.
[00:11:17] He says, accordingly, we urged Titus, remember that name. He's going to come up later. We urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. And if you were with us last week, the act of grace is this generous financial contribution that they were making to the Saints in Jerusalem, he says, but as you excel in everything Corinthians, you guys are so good at so many things, in faith, in speech and knowledge and all sincerity, earnestness, and in our love for you. See that you excel in this act of grace also. So your part in generosity, pray you guys already did that commit, you did that save. You've already started that, right? And when Paul arrives, the responsibility is to give the money they committed. Okay, so why is Paul. I want to just reiterate this. Why is Paul so bold with them about this gift? Okay, so if you take all of your 21st century baggage about pastors and tithing and offering and money requests, and you name it, whatever, you may parachute into this text and you may see Paul as abrasive.
[00:12:33] But at the end of the day, Paul already did the pastoral thing. Hey, guys, here's the vision, here's the need.
[00:12:41] Pray about it. And they have already come back and made significant financial commitments to the tune where he goes back and lets the Jerusalem church and other churches know. They start making plans off of the commitments that this church has already made and others as well. There's a lot riding on this. And so Paul's like, listen, if you don't follow through on this, not only am I gonna be embarrassed, you're gonna be embarrassed because I've bragged about you to all the other churches, right? But you're gonna leave the Jerusalem church in dire need. So, guys, we need to make sure this happens. Now, let me bring you back culturally, 2,000 years in the past.
[00:13:21] This is one of those moments where the Greco Roman culture and the Christian church have a shared value. And here's the value.
[00:13:30] To not keep your word is a disgrace.
[00:13:37] Different cultures around the world have different ways of handling when people don't keep their word. But in the first century, Christian and non Christian, if you made a commitment to not keep, that commitment was considered a spiritual or social disgrace. I want to give you three examples of how this might look in our modern times. Okay? The first example would be your average American evangelical church. And so here's the scenario. A church runs a capital campaign and a member pledges to give $10,000 over two years, a few months in the giving stops. And the church typically does one of two things. One, what the church would do is maybe they'll send like a generic letter to everybody saying, hey, thank you for your gifts and don't forget to keep giving, because we're making plans based on your commitments. And so that's one option. The other option which is the most typical is that the church says nothing.
[00:14:44] And here's why the church might say nothing in the normal evangelical American context. Because if a pastor calls you on your commitment that you put in writing, signed your name to, and calls you on your lack of follow through, you will call him spiritually abusive. And that's kind of the way. So in America, our thing is, like, I do what I want, you know, like, no, like accountability. We just. Accountability is seen as abuse way too much, right? So, like, that's a problem. So let me take you to the Nigerian church, though, because the Nigerian church is going to actually process this very differently. A member stands in front of the church and pledges a large gift for a building fund.
[00:15:29] Months pass, the gift doesn't come. And here's what the pastor is going to do. The pastor's going to call them in for a private meeting, and the pastor's going to figure out, hey, did something change in your life? Did you lose your job, whatever?
[00:15:41] But the pastor is going to call them to fulfill their commitment unless something changed in their life or they didn't have the money. Because it would be seen as a dishonorable, disgraceful thing in the Nigerian church. Not just for the person to commit to giving and not follow through, but it would actually be seen as negligent and terrible leadership for the pastor to not demand that they give. Okay, let's go to a different cultural context. Let's talk about a church in South Korea. They have a revival service. It ends with a pledge where you commit to giving money towards global missions. Everybody writes down the amounts they're going to give. The elders take all of that. They track all of the pledges. A person's gift, though, either never arrives or they stop giving.
[00:16:29] Well, in South Korea and other Asian contexts, this is going to be very different.
[00:16:34] The pastor is gonna go out of his way to make sure no one knows that this gift has not come through. The pastor is gonna set up a private meeting. And the pastor's deep concern is for the spiritual welfare and the reputation of this saint. Because in this culture, to not follow through on your word is considered dishonor. And to be dishonored culturally, to be somebody who makes promises and doesn't follow through, like, that's really hard to recover from. And so the pastor is gonna have a secret private meeting, and the pastor is going to be deeply concerned, not for whatever they're raising money for, but for the honor of this person, because honor is one of their highest values. It's interesting because Depending on where you're at in the world, financial commitments, okay, accountability to those things are handled differently. Is there a right? Is there a wrong? There are some dumb things you can do. But at the end of the day, leaders in each cultural context, they have to do things that are honorable to their people in their cultural context without violating biblical principles. Now we're parachuting into a cultural context 2000 years old in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. And so for them, it's very important to not give the gift they committed is a disgrace. And if Paul doesn't demand of them to follow through on their words culturally, he would actually be a really bad pastor. Look at verse 10, he says, in this matter, you guys gave and now you've kind of stopped giving. And I'm aware of this.
[00:18:10] This benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also to desire to do it. So, like, I didn't, like, manipulate you. I shared the vision. You went and prayed about it and like, you were so excited to make a difference in, in the Jerusalem church and, and to kind of be the pacesetter for all the other churches to say, hey, we're going to lead with generosity. You guys do the same thing. You were pumped about it. In verse 11, Paul says, Now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it, the desire that you had at the beginning, it might be matched by completing it out of what you have. And verse 12, Paul acknowledges life circumstances come up. He says this. He says, for if the readiness is there, it's acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. So if a Corinthian member made a commitment and they lost their job and they couldn't follow through on it, would Paul be a jerk and say, suck it up. You made a promise. Figure it out? No, he would say, life happens. Let's talk about it. Let's adjust. God doesn't expect you to give out of what you don't have, but what you do have. He says, I, I don't mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that is a matter of fairness.
[00:19:35] Next, in verse 14, Paul's acknowledging just a fact that everybody knows the Corinthian church was incredibly financially prosperous, did not experience persecution like the other churches, and had an abundance of unlike anyone else. So he says in verse 14, your abundance at the present time should supply their need, the church in Jerusalem. But then he says something really funny about the church in Jerusalem. He says, so that Their abundance. Like what abundance? They're broke. What do they have that we could possibly need? He says, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.
[00:20:17] So what abundance could the broke, destitute church in Jerusalem possibly have that the Corinthian church needed? Well, let me tell you, evangelists, church planters and apostles. In fact, the Corinthian Church would not exist if the destitute broke Jerusalem church didn't send out their apostles, didn't send out their evangelists, and didn't send out their church planters to plant churches all over the world. The church in Jerusalem was their mother church. And so at this point, he's like, you literally would all still right now be worshiping idols in a false religion, separated from God and destined to hell if the Jerusalem church did not generously send out their godliest, their smartest, their best, their apostles, their evangelists. And they went and sacrificed everything to go to your country community to bring you the gospel. To not support your mother church would be like if you had a loving mom and dad and they had a moment of tragedy or trauma, and you looked at them and said, sorry, can't help. Too busy.
[00:21:26] What do you mean? You're too busy for your mom and dad who have loved you faithfully your entire life in the worst moment and their moment of trauma, and you're gonna look at them and say, I've got other things to do. No. In those moments, for the people who raised you and birthed you and poured into you and loved you, well, spiritually or physically, when they're in their worst moments, we rise and say, I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you. And so Paul's like, listen, everything you have, spiritually speaking, they gave you those foundations. They sent the people, the human resources. Now what they need is your financial resources because they are dying, persecuted and broke, and you can make a huge difference.
[00:22:05] All right? That's their part in generosity. Pray, commit, save. And he's like, okay, you've been saving. You gotta keep it up. And when he gets there, you're gonna give it another leader's part in accountability, multiple eyes, checks and balances, accountable reporting and vetted leaders. Can I get another amen on this one? Amen. And these, by the way, aren't modern concepts. They are ancient biblical concepts. Look at verse 16.
[00:22:33] He says, but thanks be to God, we're going to see Titus again. Who put it. Who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you, for he not Only accepted our appeal. Please come over with the help the church in Corinth. But being himself very earnest, very sincere, he is going to you of his own accord. All right. So the first leader to oversee and shepherd this offering is the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul is known, respected, tested, vetted and loved by the church in Corinth. The second leader is Titus, who is also known personally by the Corinthian Church. He is also respected, tested, vetted and loved. We got two men. But this offering is so important and so large that what the apostles in Jerusalem and the leaders of the church wanted to make sure was that there was no room for nefarious behavior or accusations of any sorts. So what did they do? Look at verse 18. With him, with Titus. So it's not just Paul. It's not just Titus. With him, we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the Gospel. Do you guys know who this is? I don't either. We have some hunches, but we don't exactly know who it is. And you're going to find there's some unnamed people here. When Titus brought this letter to the church in Corinth, these people were with him. So they knew who they were because they were introduced the moment Paul came into town. Before they even read the letter, he says, not only that, but he, this famous evangelist, he's been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace, this offering that is being ministered by us. What's really striking here is now you have multiple churches, apostolic oversight. You have famous people, you have people known by the Corinthians. And we're not done yet. So you have Paul, Titus, the famous evangelist. And now there's another tested man in verse 22. And with them we are sending our brother, whom we have often tested. I love this. And found earnest or sincere in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you. So we got Paul, we got Titus, we got a world famous evangelist, we got another brother. We don't know his name, but they know him because he showed up with the letter. And this guy's like, I heard about the Corinthians generosity, and I wanted to be a part of this. I wanted to help you guys get this money and get it over to the Jerusalem church. I've seen what's going on in that church. I've seen, seen what you guys are capable of. And I cannot wait to see you make an incredible difference in their lives. Why go through this much effort to protect this offering? Well, because there are people like the super apostles who would like to pilfer it. And they understand this and they want to make sure that this is done above board, with integrity, with multiple eyes, with checks and balances and reporting structures that bring God in. Verse 23, he says, as for Titus, he's my partner and fellow worker for your benefit, like they know him. And as for our brothers, these unnamed people, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ and I love. This is just Pastor Paul talking to his church. So he says, give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men. In other words, this is the pastorally appropriate thing to do in this cultural context. He looks at them and says, you made a promise. You started saving.
[00:26:17] I want you to prove that you are people of your word. You are people of character. You do your part, and we're gonna do our part. We're gonna make sure there is accountability and there are checks and balances and there are reporting. And if you do your part and we do our part, we can make a huge dent for the kingdom of God in this special offering in Jerusalem. And I have so much more to say. We've got more, more to come on generosity. So I'm going to move to our. So what's number one?
[00:26:47] It's good and it's right for you to have confidence in your local church's leaders and processes. So here's how the church in Jerusalem did it. This is how the money was collected and delivered. Each believer, after they had already prayed and determined it. They set aside money weekly in their own homes.
[00:27:08] Paul gathered the funds with accountability.
[00:27:13] Paul sent trusted men to collect the money. The money was safely delivered to Jerusalem by these trusted men. The distribution of the money was overseen by the elders of the Jerusalem church and reports were given back to the churches. And by the way, this really hasn't changed. We tell people the needs, we have accountability and structures. We collect the money, we spend the money in the way we said we're going to do it. We report back. You can ask all the questions you need. By the way, this is the way any church or nonprofit or respectable organization that's going to receive funds and donations should work. It's not rocket science. It's super duper simple.
[00:27:57] Like more and more online, here's what we find.
[00:28:01] Being skeptical and untrustworthy is a badge of honor.
[00:28:08] I don't really find being skeptical and untrustworthy to be a badge of honor. And from my seat, when I get to watch churches leaders and their people, what I actually see is something very different. What I see in church after church, and as I listen to my friends process very candidly and privately about some of the challenges that they have, is what I see in most places is a really high trust from the church to the people and the people to the church leaders. What I see is that this trust isn't just demanded, it's actually earned over time as you get to know the leaders and they're vetted publicly and all that kind of stuff. But what I see on the ground in most churches, in my experience here, has been a relationship of high trust, and it's a beautiful thing. Now, I want to be clear. If I wasn't a pastor and I came to Village Church for the first time, I would want to sit down with two specific people. I'd want to sit down with Pastor Steve, and I would just want to say, talk to me about your budget, Talk to me about your process, Talk to me about how you do stuff. And I would sit there and listen. I would ask questions, and then I would have a whole separate set of questions, But I'd want to sit down with me and I would interrogate myself and have a whole bunch of different questions for myself. But one of the things I've learned is that I don't want to withhold trust from the 99% because of the less than 1%.
[00:29:25] So number two, past hurt does not need to destroy great relationships.
[00:29:36] Some of you are not generous to anyone because someone hurt you in the past.
[00:29:45] So I want to encourage all of us who have experienced some kind of hurt from spiritual leaders or authority in our lives, we need to be crystal clear on two things.
[00:29:58] Who hurt us and why.
[00:30:02] So let me give you the three primary ways that trust is broken. Number one, trust is broken because of untrustworthy behavior and some untrustworthy behavior, it is permanently disqualifying.
[00:30:15] Some just needs to be owned, confessed, and repented of. What I've found is that most people in church, they have a pretty high margin for imperfect leaders. If this is a big if, if the leaders are willing to own their failures and make them right. And so most people don't have the expectation of perfection from their parents, from their boss, from anybody, let alone their pastors and spiritual leaders. But the requirement is, well, if you do mess up, would you just own it and would you be humble about it? Many years ago, I was talking with a good friend, very wealthy friend, and he had given a lot of money to a local church. Ends up that the money he gave was pilfered by the pastor. That pastor was caught and held accountable. And one day I sat down with him and I, I said to him, how has that affected your ability to give? And I loved what he said to me. He said, it doesn't at all. He said, I gave that money to the Lord, not to that man.
[00:31:23] The Lord will deal with that man.
[00:31:27] And this was striking.
[00:31:30] The Lord had his rightful place in his mind and in his heart and his generosity. And you're gonna find that like sometimes broken men will do broken things. And it hurts desperately. But at the end of the day when we're talking about generosity, listen, when you find someone in your life who has a need and you give them a gift that meets that need, they may not use it the way you intended them. And the moment you give the gift to that person, you say, lord, I'm giving it to you.
[00:31:57] And sometimes that happens. But at the end of the day, our posture is this. I want to be wise, I want to be discerning, I want to be smart, I don't want to be foolish. But what I do want to do is I want to make sure that this is first and foremost for the Lord. All right? Trust is often broken. Second through misunderstanding.
[00:32:16] Goodness.
[00:32:18] I have watched misunderstanding unnecessarily ruin relationships. Don't raise your hand, but anyone else.
[00:32:27] If there had been a heart to listen, a heart of humility and self reflection on both parties, so many broken relationships could have been prevented. I've had a front row seat to multiple leaders and the people they lead.
[00:32:47] Conflict and brokenness. And what I have found with so many is that there was not something nefarious going on. What I found is that one or both parties lacked humility, the ability to just sit and to listen. And so much of the conflict that I see happening in churches is not about evil people conspiring to do evil things. It is massive misunderstanding and the inability refusal for both parties to listen.
[00:33:19] But trust is often broken. Number three, through external forces and the scriptures, they've warn clearly there are people and spirits whose intention is to erode trust between spiritual leaders and their people. Why?
[00:33:39] Well, for many, it's so that they can get something. But we're not surprised when this happens because the scriptures actually warn about this reality over and over again. Now something that just never ceases to amaze me actually blows my mind, okay, There are people this morning who woke up and their life purpose was to steal as much money from you and me as they possibly could.
[00:34:07] You get these. You get these texts, you get these scam emails, et cetera. And their hope is that one gullible person clicks on it, goes to the next level because their Social Security number, whatever, writes them a check.
[00:34:17] And some of them are really, really smart. You don't even see it coming. And before you know it, people are trapped in there. Whatever. There are literally people who wake up and this is their life purpose. Like, I cannot even imagine waking up and thinking, who can I steal money from today?
[00:34:33] And they're, I mean, they're all over the world. And there are people who wake up and their life purpose is to destroy a system, a country, a person, a business, an institution. Like, people legitimately wake up with this kind of, like, desire and they don't love you. And one of the ways they do this is to erode confidence. And so we just have to exercise an incredible amount of discernment. But this is the sad reality in a fallen world with fallen humans and fallen angels and sinners, like, honestly, every one of us.
[00:35:09] So we all have leaders. And when a leader breaks trust, we got to know, who is it and which of these is it just. Is it untrustworthy behavior? Is there a misunderstanding happening? Are there external forces at work so that we can deal with it appropriately? Okay, so how do we prevent these three things? Very simply. Number one, intentional testing. Every leader is tested and vetted, Period. And the closer you are to money for finances, the greater the testing and the greater the accountability. Number two, strategic systems. The vast majority of nefarious people can be stopped dead in their tracks with the right systems, structures, processes, and procedures. So at village church, if you are going to steal more than hundreds of dollars, it will require at least three people to nefariously collaborate together to steal that money. And it will probably be caught within one to two months because of the other reporting and accountability structures. So you're going to have to steal it and get out of town quick because we will find you. And if you are going to steal under a couple hundred dollars, it will require two nefarious people collaborating together to be able to do this. Now, you can't steal. Stop nefarious people from doing what nefarious people do. But anybody who has access to those dollars in ways where they could pilfer, we want to make sure that these are trusted men and women who have been vetted and proven themselves to be sincere, earnest, and responsible and maybe. And sometimes. And churches find this, and people find this in business, sometimes nefarious people get through. But if you have good systems of vetting and you have good systems of process and procedure, it is rare that two nefarious people get through, let alone, let alone three.
[00:36:58] Lastly, number three is transparent communication. Hey, everybody, here's what we're doing.
[00:37:04] Here's where the money's going. Here's how we're going to be accountable. Here's how we're preventing nefarious behavior. Any questions, ask anything you want. Because there should be this level of transparency when it comes to especially the expenditure of any kind of funds. Now, I want to close with three verses I skipped earlier.
[00:37:22] Paul's words perfectly sum up our heart as leaders of village church. Verse 19. We do all this for the glory of the Lord himself.
[00:37:35] We understand that how we lead can either create a barrier to Jesus or a connection to Jesus. We do not want to create barriers. We want to bring as much glory and honor to the Lord in how we do things as possible.
[00:37:50] We do this for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our goodwill. We want to have a good name. We want to be honorable and above board. And then he says in verse 20, we take this course. This course is vetting. This course is checks and balances. This course is all of the things multiple people, you name it. We take this course so that no one should blame us about the generous gift that is being administered by us. For we aim at what is honorable, not only in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of men. So Village Church, may. May you experience true healing from the 1%.
[00:38:34] And in your current context, wherever you're at, maybe you're visiting here, the courage to ask the questions that you need to ask.
[00:38:41] Our deep desire is that you would continue to experience renewed trust in spiritual leaders, that you'd be granted the wisdom and the discernment to see the things that you need to see. And at the end of the day, why are we doing this, what we're teaching through this book? We want all of you to experience the absolute, true, incredible joy of living a life of generosity where you are confident, where you are giving. And so this is a beautiful privilege that we have to give away generously to people in our life, to nonprofits, to missionaries, to our local church in a way that is just a reflection, a small reflection of the generosity of God in our lives. Amen, Vilchurch. Amen. Let's pray together. God, I thank you that we get to watch the super messy situation.
[00:39:26] And we're just reminded There is no perfect church. Every church has disagreements and misunderstandings and questions and things they got to work through. And I'm just so grateful that every church Paul oversaw, Lord, that he was able to help them work through these issues and to do it in a biblical way. So Lord, we are just instructed, thank you for this opportunity to see what's going on in the Corinthian church. Thank you God for what you've done in our own lives.
[00:39:54] Lord, we confess that globally the American church and village church is very much like the Corinthian church. We are blessed beyond our wildest imagination. And so Lord, I pray God that as we build our lives on biblical principles, you would just give us eyes to see the ways that we can be generous to intentionally build your kingdom. And so, Lord, we thank you for all of this and we love you and we pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen.
