2 Corinthians 8 - Pastor Jonathan Shelley | Stedfast Baptist Church

Amen.

As we transition here in chapter 8, we're kind of getting into the topic of a church blessing

another church financially.

That's kind of the subject matter that's being transitioned in.

And the Apostle Paul says here in verse number one, more brethren, we do you to wit of the

grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia how that in a great trial of affliction

the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded on the riches of their liberality.

The word here wit is that they want them to know they want them to understand the grace

of God and they want them to understand that Macedonia it's a near area to where they're

at in Corinth.

It's kind of north, it's the same general area, but it's a different section of Greece.

This is where he is traveled to after having visited them.

So he's gone off into Macedonia, he's going to come back through, and in some sense Macedonia

is almost like the northern portion of his journeys typically, he's taking these big

long journeys and kind of looping back and it's kind of in a sense you know where he's

going the most northern then as he returns is going to come back through Corinth.

And he's trying to say, hey, I want you to understand something about the church

or the churches in Macedonia and how they had a great trial of affliction.

So you know it's not like just one church in the New Testament suffered persecution, it's

pretty much just the theme of all the churches.

All the churches are suffering persecution, affliction, they're going through hardships,

the general consensus is people do not like the church, they do not like the people

of the church, it's not something that flows well with the world, and this should

be expected.

I mean the Bible says, yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer

persecution.

We see the first godly Christian in the Bible, Abel is slaughtered by his brother

Cain.

And so if you're going to be of this world, well you can kind of get along, but if you

are contrary to this world, if you're godly, if you seek the Lord, in many cases

you will be persecuted, you'll be hated, you'll be afflicted, and wherefore

because you're righteous, because your deeds are righteous and because theirs

are evil.

It's just that simple, they can't stand someone being better than them or

being more godly or being more righteous than them, and of course part of

being a Christian is to separate yourself and be more godly and righteous.

So the more separated you are, the more godly, the more righteous, the more

you're going to suffer persecution.

Really if you want to not suffer persecution as a Christian, then you

basically have to not be godly, and you have to not separate yourself.

What would this look like?

It would be the non-the-dom church today, the non-the-dom church doesn't

look really any different than the world, in many cases it doesn't act very

different than the world, and it's not even separated from the world in many

cases, considering the fact that a large percentage of many non-

denominational churches today have people that are not even saved.

And so it's not really going to be an institution, it's not going to be an

area where you see a lot of persecution, a lot of fliction, a lot of angst

against them, because they're trying to just conform to the world and act

like the world.

That's why you see roller coasters inside, that's why you see them

performing literal Hollywood movies for their particular services.

How much more worldly can you get than actually showing a Hollywood

movie for the service?

I mean, I can't really even understand, and it's kind of silly,

like even the movie theaters are struggling and failing, why would

the church think that this is a good business model?

I don't know.

But nevertheless, unfortunately, you have to realize that serving

God and being godly is not always going to be popular.

There's going to be some affliction, there's going to be some

difficulty, and these churches also suffered a great trial of

affliction, but it's like despite their great trial of affliction,

the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded under

the riches of their liberality.

So it's saying that even though they're going through a really

difficult time and a lot of persecution, they were still

very joyful during that particular trial of affliction, and it

knows this as an abundance of their joy.

So they're just so happy, they're just so joyful, they have so

much good fellowship, camaraderie, and it says they have a deep

poverty, meaning that they're not really a rich church, they're

not rich individuals.

So the church doesn't have much money, probably most of the

individuals in the church don't have much money, but notice

by not having much money and having a lot of joy, the Bible

says it abounded under the riches of their liberality.

Now, liberality would be generosity and giving.

So it's kind of funny how this works, because in verse two,

it's saying their deep poverty is causing them to be more

liberal.

Like how does that work?

How can you have not very much money, but you're giving a

lot of money?

I feel like there's a little bit of tension in the text

about this particular subject, and I want to address that

because this would just be my way of possibly addressing this

is perhaps they don't have a lot of money.

So in a sense, they're not spending it on things that

they could, and they're just end up giving it to this poor

saints in Jerusalem.

And we're going to prove that from the text here as a

Bible study, we're going to go through a lot of verses,

but I'm just kind of giving you my idea of this.

I think it could be similarly said, let's say like us,

for example, us as a church, in some categories we could

be considered kind of poor as a church.

If we're comparing ourselves to just big churches and

larger churches in the world, because you look at a church

like Gateway, they're running a $60 million budget,

well they would consider us very poor.

Obviously if you look at us compared to a small church

that's running 50, 60 people, we have a lot more

money than them.

So I don't know exactly what's the right comparison,

but I'm just saying in some context you could say that

our church wouldn't really have like just a ton of

money necessarily.

But if we did, let's just say we had millions of dollars

in the bank, well we might be tempted to just try to use

all that to just buy a nicer building and invest it

and then kind of do all this stuff.

But since we don't have millions in the bank,

we're not really even necessarily tempted with

whatever extra income we have to worry about a

building because we don't even have the down payment.

You know, we don't even have the extra money

or the extra funds.

So it's almost like by not having an expensive building

and not paying, I don't know, 30, $40,000 a month

on a building, then we have that extra money

to then fund maybe more soul winning or other things.

So it's almost like by not having some of the

greatest riches we could possibly have,

or having excess funds in a huge quantity,

then we can use our disposable income

more liberally potentially.

That's just an idea of how this could possibly look

or what this could possibly mean.

There's other ways to look at it,

but I really wanna focus on this word liberal

for a moment because in today's culture

being called liberal is a really negative thing.

When we think of a liberal,

we think of a blue haired feminist

that's supporting Lindsey Clancy.

And so, and of course that's true,

but why are these people called liberals?

What does that mean?

Well, let's go back in the Bible

all the way to Deuteronomy chapter 15

Deuteronomy 15 · chapter mention

and just see what the Bible says about being liberal

because here's the thing.

The word liberal is actually a good word.

And it's a positive word.

So obviously I don't believe in quote bad words,

but there are words that are negative, right?

There's words that have a negative connotation.

There's words that have a positive connotation.

This is kind of a positive word.

But in our modern vernacular, for most conservatives,

we think of a liberal as kind of a negative word,

a derogatory term even potentially,

but it's not because of its etymology

and it's not because of what the Bible says about it

because being a liberal according to the Bible

is a good thing.

And we can't allow the world to hijack

the Bible's definition of words.

But at the same time,

we have to understand that there's gonna be differences.

The Bible being translated in 1611

is a different culture than in 2026.

And so sometimes words,

while having a little bit different understanding

in that culture,

they can be hijacked in a modern culture.

Another word like this would be in the book of James,

chapter two, verse three,

it says someone wearing gay clothing.

Well, the word gay in that particular verse

means something different than if you said,

hey, someone's wearing some gay clothing in 2026.

Now, typically, if you heard that,

you would think of someone as being like

a sodomite reprobate freak, okay?

And maybe being a tranny.

That's what you get in the imagery there.

Whereas in the Bible,

it's trying to say something that's wearing

happy, bright, vibrant clothing, okay?

And then again, the word gay would be happy.

It'd be happy, bright, vibrant, pleasant.

But that's like the opposite

of what a sodomite reprobate is.

So why is that the case?

Well, it's bad people will often take good labels

and use that and label themselves with this

so as to kind of shield who they really are.

Same way that they use the rainbow,

which is a good thing.

I mean, the rainbow is a sign from God.

A rainbow is a positive token from God.

It's supposed to be a blessing to mankind.

And then we see that same community using the rainbow

and trying to trash it and trying to make it

become a derogatory thing, a negative thing.

It's associated with evil, with filth.

Whereas it's a positive thing.

And so it's kind of like an unfortunate fight

that we have to go through in our culture

sometimes over words.

And again, with a liberal, it's the same thing,

that a liberal is a good word,

someone that gives generously,

but then we have the Democrat Party by and large

trying to take that label and call themselves liberals.

And so they're trying to make it seem like they're good.

And of course, why?

Well, in America, you kind of have the two-party system.

You have Democrats, you have Republicans.

Republicans are considered more conservative,

especially fiscally.

And you have Democrats that are considered more liberal.

But in the sense that, from a government perspective,

the government likes to tax us more heavily

and then, quote, create more programs

that they then call themselves liberal with,

but the problem is the government is not very good

at actually running programs.

They steal a lot of the money

that they're supposedly taking from us,

from the taxes, to fund these liberal programs.

And in many cases, these liberal programs

are not even actually helping people

that we should be helping.

They're helping the degenerates

and disgusting people of society.

And so a lot of people say,

oh, the liberals or the Democrats,

they are really generous with other people's money,

but they're not necessarily generous with their own money.

And see, that is the problem with our democratic system,

or I say democratic, I mean the Democrats specifically

in our political system is that they would love

to give everybody money that's not theirs.

And again, they're mostly not even giving money

to the people that they claim they are.

They're lining their own pockets.

They're shuffling it around.

There's a lot of fraud.

There's a lot of deception.

They just want the money to be taxed from us

and then they'll figure out a way to get to it.

But at the end of the day,

a liberal is someone that would, by nature, be generous,

and there's nothing wrong with that.

If someone was to give a lot of money away

or to help people, that's a positive thing, okay?

So in Deuteronomy chapter 15, the giver is 14.

Deuteronomy 15 · chapter mention

Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock

and out of thy floor and out of thy wine press

of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee

thou shalt give unto him.

So you know, you have a servant

or you have someone that was working for you

and they're gonna be let free.

The Bible says, hey, you would furnish this guy liberally,

meaning you would be very generous

at whatever you gave to him.

Go to Isaiah 32, go to Isaiah 32.

The Bible says in Proverbs 11 verse 25,

Proverbs 11:25

the liberal soul shall be made fat

and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.

And again, the word fat in our modern vernacular,

we typically think of someone as being obese

or overweight, whereas from a biblical perspective,

fat is talking about a positive sense

of having abundance, of being blessed.

And so it's saying, hey, the liberal soul

is gonna be made fat in the sense that, hey, you give,

God's gonna give a bunch to you

and you're gonna be blessed greatly

and you're gonna be financially taken care of.

That's what it's trying to say.

Isaiah 32, look at verse five,

the vile person shall be no more called liberal

nor the churl said to be bountiful.

Again, this is crazy because of our modern understanding

of words, but again, why would the vile person

no longer be called liberal?

It's because it's saying that liberal's a good thing

as a positive word and society

is no longer gonna be upside down.

And notice, there's no new thing under the sun.

He's saying, hey, even back then, at that time,

the Democrat Party was considered liberal.

But you know what?

It was a false word used for them

because they're not actually really liberal.

And also the churl is not really a bountiful person.

It's just saying like,

these are the labels that people are giving them

but it's saying God's gonna punish them,

God's going to take them to task,

God's gonna judge them and no longer will that label

actually stick to these type of individuals,

he's gonna course correct.

And so of course, that's kind of the context.

It is in verse six.

For the vile person will speak villainy

and his heart will work iniquity to practice hypocrisy

and utter error against the Lord

to make empty the soul of the hungry

and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

Now this is what the Democrat Party

and our liberals of today are actually like

is they speak villainy, meaning they speak evil,

they're saying things that are wrong, harmful,

disgusting, they work iniquity.

Notice this, they practice hypocrisy.

They say they're very generous

but in fact they're not generous at all.

They're very selfish, greedy person

and whatever they're doing is actually harming

the poor person because notice it says

to make empty the soul of the hungry.

So he's gonna have hypocrisy

and he's gonna utter arrogance Lord

to make empty the soul of the hungry.

So all these liberal programs that we have in society

often what they do is they actually harm the poor

and they harm the communities

that they're supposedly trying to help

and they're not actually doing good to them.

You could think of like the Black Lives Matter group

which was supposed to like quote help black people

but all it did is it caused other blacks

to give money to this particular program

and the particular leaders of this

was like three lesbians or something

or like two lesbians and another chick or something.

It was like, it was basically two,

it was like three ladies, a couple of them were lesbians

and essentially they were just buying themselves mansions.

They're going out there and they're just,

they're getting hit pieces written for them by the media

and then they'll set up GoFundMe's

to just have everybody in their community give money

when George Floyd dies of an overdose from drugs

or something and then they basically just line the pockets

of these other, these black lesbians

which again what is being black

and being a lesbian have anything to do with each other?

They don't, they're not even congruent whatsoever

and so they're just lining their pockets

and all we did is we just made black people more poor,

we took more money away from them

just to line the pockets of the vile person,

of the actual reprobate and it's just like

that's exactly what the Bible is saying was happening

in the book of Isaiah in Jerusalem

where you had the vile people just lining their pockets

while taking advantage of the poor suckers.

All the people that think that, oh man,

I'm helping the cause, I'm helping black people

but in fact they're doing nothing to help them

and in fact they're kind of just stigmatizing

the entire black community if that was even a thing,

even more and making people despise them even more

and dislike them even more, it's not helping them,

it's not gonna help them get jobs,

you know they're destroying businesses

and of course they're destroying businesses

in their own neighborhoods which then by and large

creates food deserts in their own areas

and causes companies to get out of there,

it causes companies to raise prices in their areas

because it's just so expensive to be in an area

where there's high crime and theft

and it's just hurting them even more and more and more

and it's just showing the hypocrisy of this vile person

who gets the label liberal but they're not liberal at all.

It's a lie.

Says the instruments also of the churl are evil,

he devises wicked devices to destroy the poor

with lying words even when the needy speaketh right.

It's just saying look, I mean these people

they're just destroying the poor, they're harming the poor,

they're lying to the poor, they don't care

about these people, they create instruments

to destroy them called payday loans

or some kind of a payday cash loan system

or planned parenthood where they're just literally

targeting black areas to put planned parenthoods

to cause them to have more abortions

to just try and destroy and weed out

these people from society which again Margaret Singer

and other eugenicists, their goal was to eradicate

black people from America, that's why they have birth control,

that's why they have organizations like Planned Parenthood,

I'm sorry Planned Parenthood

and they basically just wanted to destroy

whole groups of people and they do it with lying words.

Yep, they're considered liberal

and isn't it funny the same people doing this to them,

you can't even get these black people to not vote for them.

Isn't that crazy?

It's crazy how people just fall for lies

and they basically vote in their own destruction.

There's so many people that are just voting for

and asking for their own destruction,

they trust in oppression, they think like

I need more handouts, not realizing the handouts

is what's destroying them.

Not realizing that the people that are giving them

the quote handouts don't actually care about them,

don't actually love them, would never give them

a dollar out of their own wallet,

but rather just want to continue to tax other people

and give away their money for free

while they're lining their own pockets.

And it says verse eight,

but the liberal devises liberal things

and by liberal things shall he stand.

So he's contrasting in verse five

a vile person that gets the label liberal versus

verse eight an actual liberal.

An actual liberal is someone who devises liberal things

meaning what he creates actually gives people money

and actually blesses people,

whereas the churlish person is creating instruments

that destroy the poor with lying words.

So he's doing the exact opposite

even though claiming the title.

So an actual generous person is trying to help poor people

and give back to the poor people

and do good on the poor people

and then notice it says by liberal things shall he stand.

So God's the one looking down from heaven.

He'll notice who's actually liberal,

who's actually generous and he'll take care of that person

and that person will continue to be standing upright

and doing his thing.

Whereas the guy who is actually destroying

and taking advantage and ripping people off,

he'll get destroyed, he'll be taken down a notch.

And so we wanna make sure that we don't think like

well, why don't we just do what they're doing

and rip people off too?

Why don't we just take advantage of the poor as well?

Why don't we create our own system

of high interest loans

and why don't we create our own

used car salesman schemes

and why don't we create these credit card schemes

and all this stuff

and why don't we just take advantage

of these poor derelicts ourselves?

And it's just like, well, because God's gonna punish you

and judge you for that.

And the person that's actually generous,

God's gonna make sure he continues to be generous

because you know what?

God wants to fund the generous person

so that he can keep helping the poor person

and God cares about the poor people.

Go to 1 Corinthians 16,

go to 1 Corinthians 16.

It reminds me of being at Wells Fargo

just because they were like the most evil institution

that I was aware of at the time.

And just how much there's ripping off poor people

with overdraft fees.

And please don't constantly get feed to death by a bank.

If you're a young person,

make sure you're not taking more money

out of your bank account than you have

because the bank will charge you $35, $40, $50

every time you go over.

In fact, Wells Fargo specifically has a policy

where they try to reverse engineer your transactions

just to charge you more fees on purpose.

Okay, so it's like, you have,

because they'll say like,

oh, we have all these transactions

pending over the weekend.

And so instead of us actually going through

and identifying them from a chronological order,

we're gonna go ahead and take the largest items

and pay them first and we'll just change the order

and just kind of change how it worked.

Well, this can really screw some people up.

I would see it.

Somebody would, over the weekend,

they would go out and they would just get like a dollar

Coke and they would get like $2 this

and they would just go to the movie theater for seven bucks

and then they just have like 10 transactions

that are all like less than 10 bucks.

And their mortgage is gonna hit on Monday

and they didn't realize that they went over by like 50 bucks.

So they went over by 50 bucks.

So it would have been just one overdraft fee

for when their mortgage hit on Monday.

But they'll say, no, no, we wanna make sure

that your mortgage gets paid.

So what we did is we took the mortgage

and we put it first and then the next largest

and the next largest.

So then because you went over by 50 bucks

and you had 10 transactions, it'd be like $2 Coke

is now a $50 Coke.

And your $1 Coke, now it's a $51 Coke.

And they would just sit there and hammer it.

So someone would come in and they'd say,

hey, I'll pay the $35 for going overdraft

but I don't have $600 because of what you just did to me.

I don't have $300 because of what you just did to me.

And it was just, it was just nasty.

It was nasty, it was evil.

And of course it wasn't like,

oh well, we wanna make sure your mortgage gets paid.

They were gonna pay it no matter what, okay?

The bank wasn't really worried about it.

They were just figuring out a way

to chew you even harder.

And it was gross and it was disgusting

what they were doing to people,

preying on people, taking advantage of people.

And of course our manager would never be in the store

on purpose just so she would never have to do

a reversal on the overdraft fees.

And we ended up finding out that the managers,

for Wells Fargo, they got bonuses paid out

specifically on the percentage of the overdraft fees

they collect at their branch.

So of course they don't wanna be there

and they don't wanna reverse them

because that's how they get paid out.

They had to have like 92.5% collection

on all the fees recorded in the system

in order to get a bonus.

And it was like, we hit like 91% or something.

I know, we hit 91%.

So our manager and like our district managers,

like all the managers are showing up

and they're just like really mad

that we only got 91% of our overdraft fees.

It's like, good night, how evil is this institution?

But I'm telling you something,

you know the bank is not a liberal.

The bank will come after you

and the bank is not there to be your friend.

And hey, you know, you should have a big buffer

in your checking account, your savings account

and stuff like that.

So you make sure you never go on the overdraft

because they will take all of your money.

And I just remember talking to one of my managers

about it when someone was getting like ripped off

in the tens of thousands.

They had had over $10,000 in overdraft fees

in a particular year.

And I was saying like, hey, we need to help this person.

And they were like, hey, if you call this person,

I'm gonna fire you.

And I said, they said, because if you call them,

they're gonna be mad at us

and they're gonna want us to reverse some of these fees.

And then we're gonna not hit our bonuses,

you know, we're gonna have all these consequences

or whatever.

And I was just, I was like thinking like,

yeah, but this is just evil, we're doing this person,

like we're just taking all their money,

it doesn't make any sense.

And she's like, well, you know what?

It's their fault for being stupid

and just not paying attention or whatever.

And it's like that, that's the justification of these people.

It's just like, oh, well, they're poor because they're stupid.

Oh, they don't have money because they're dumb

and they're foolish and they're making bad decisions.

So then they just take advantage of them.

And you know what?

That's the wrong attitude.

It's a wicked attitude.

It's an evil attitude.

And you don't just take advantage of someone

just because they're stupid or because they're poor

or because they are in a bad situation.

But of course, that's what the rich do

is they love to just take advantage of the poor

and the weak and the widow and anybody they can

and they just rip them off, reverse mortgages.

Evil as hell, I'm just telling you.

It's just anything they can do

to just get their hands on money.

And it's just gross the system that's been created.

Instruments created to oppress the poor and destroy them.

And so, you know, we as Christians

need to be the opposite.

We need to be liberal.

We need to be creating devices and instruments

that bless people.

And you know, from a church perspective,

you know, we believe that we're an independent

fundamental Baptist church.

We answer as a church to no other earthly institution.

You know, our hierarchy in a sense

goes straight to the Bible and to Jesus in a sense.

So like our church is answered to the Bible

and answers to the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's not a human body or some earthly body.

There's not the Southern Baptist Convention

that can come and take us to task.

There's not some episcopacy.

There's not some ecumenical council.

There's not some group.

There's not some bishop.

There's not some pope.

There's not anybody that can exercise authority over us.

We are an autonomous church.

We're independent in that sense.

But does that mean that we should have

an independent mindset that if another church

is in need or they have some kind of a burden

that we shouldn't consider them

and wanna bless them?

No, we shouldn't be like that.

Hey, we're independent from an autonomous perspective.

We're independent from a polity,

from a governing perspective.

But at the end of the day,

we're still a part of Christianity

and we should just love other churches too.

And we shouldn't just be so independent

that we don't care about other churches

or we're not paying attention to other churches.

We should still love other churches.

And here in 1 Corinthians chapter 16,

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

look at verse one.

Now concerning the collection for the saints,

as I have given order to the churches of Galatia,

even so do ye.

Think about what Paul's saying.

He's saying, look, I'm gonna get some money.

I'm gonna, we're gonna collect money for other Christians.

And notice I told all the churches in Galatia

that they're gonna do it too.

So it's like all the churches of Galatia are raising money.

The church is in Corinth raising money

and we learn from 2 Corinthians

that the churches in Macedonia are collecting money.

For who?

Well, we'll keep reading.

He says, upon the first day of the week,

let every one of you lay by him in store

as God has prospered him.

There will be no gatherings when I come

and when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve

by your letters, them will I send

to bring your liberality onto Jerusalem."

So the whole point is like Jerusalem

for some reason is having like severe poverty.

There is a part of Acts where there's a testimony

of there's gonna be a dearth in that portion of the world.

I don't know if the timeline is exactly right there

or not if it's related to the dearth,

but there's some poverty that's afflicting

this group of people.

And so the apostle Paul on his journey

is collecting money from all these different areas

and they're gonna come and bring this as a gift,

as a blessing unto the saints at Jerusalem.

And so they're collecting and raising money.

Now, some people would falsely understand this

and they would say like,

oh, see there's no tithing in the Bible,

in the New Testament, you just give money if you want to.

That's not the context of this.

This isn't the tithe,

this isn't money for their church even.

This is money for a completely different group.

So this has nothing to do with the tithe.

The tithe is the Lord's number one

and tithing goes to your church.

And if we have this attitude of we don't give money to church,

we don't tithe, we just randomly collect money

for other churches every once in a while,

well then how the heck are we gonna

actually have a church?

How are we gonna actually function?

Like that would be silly to just take this passage

and then use it as a proof text

that tithing doesn't exist in the New Testament.

It's just a different subject.

It'd be silly because it's not what's being brought up.

This is not, they're like,

oh, well we just collect money every once in a while,

you know, just because.

It's like that's not what this is talking about.

This is specifically a gift to a specific church

that's separate from what the tithe would be

or what their church is doing.

That is the context.

It says in verse four,

and if we meet that I go also,

they should go with me now,

I will come under you when I shall pass through Macedonia

for I do pass through Macedonia

and it may be that I will abide, yay,

and winter with you that you may bring me

on my journey where the story goes.

So he's kind of bringing up,

hey, I'm going through Macedonia,

then I'm gonna come see you.

Same thing he's bringing up in 2 Corinthians, okay?

So again, what's the liberality

that's mentioned in verse three?

That's their generosity, their generous giving,

and who is it targeted for,

the saints at Jerusalem, another church.

So is it wrong for a church,

is it wrong for our church to give money to another church?

No, not at all.

That would actually be biblical.

Now, do we have to?

No, there's not an obligation

and he's gonna tell us in 2 Corinthians,

go back to 2 Corinthians if you haven't gone over there,

but he's gonna tell us that this isn't a commandment,

this is being liberal, being generous.

Being generous is not a commandment,

it's a free will decision.

In the Old Testament you had

what's called a free will offering.

A free will offering is that of which

you don't have to give.

You're giving it of your own voluntary free will,

you just wanna give something to the Lord

and so you would just bring some kind of an offering.

So in the Old Testament you had the tithe

and then you had free will offerings, okay?

That's the same concept we have here in the New Testament.

You have the New Testament tithe

and then you'd have what was considered

a free will offering.

And what would be a free will offering?

Well, of course this could be given to your church,

it could be given to a different church

and then I would say in a similar way

it's kind of like almsgiving just to the poor in general.

Whoever you seem to know or like

or you wanna help out, you wanna bless somebody

and you just decide to give them some money,

that is a free will offering.

You don't have to do it.

We see a free will offering given

by Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts

and they die not because they had to give that money

but rather because they lied into the Holy Ghost about it.

So one of the principles that we should learn

from free will offerings is number one,

you don't have to do it.

And number two, if you do do it, don't lie about it, right?

Because it's not about the praise of men

and that's why the Bible tells us in Matthew

and Jesus emphasizes like whenever you're doing

your almsgiving, let not your left hand know

what your right hand's doing

and that it should be kind of done in secret.

And again, I'm not saying it has to be like

you're a ninja and you sneak into someone's house

and lay money down on their counter

or something like that.

I don't think that we have to be over the top.

Isn't the spirit that you're not blowing a trumpet

and letting everybody know?

And isn't it that like at the church,

not everybody knows, I mean,

Ananias and Sapphira, everybody knows their money

but if you were doing what was right,

not everybody would know that you're giving the money.

So again, there's nothing wrong

with giving money to a church.

There's nothing wrong with even technically being public

but if it's gonna be public, you better not lie about it.

And then in general, you should probably be,

if you're giving almsgiving, it should be done in secret.

You shouldn't be trying to do it for the praise of men

or seeking the praise of men.

That would be the wrong attitude.

It's similar to the Old Testament,

free will offerings, not something that's the tide.

You know, I hear this lie often

where they'll say, oh, well,

tithing's done away in the New Testament

because in the Old Testament it was 23.5%.

Who's heard this kind of weird crazy,

okay, no one, all right, me.

It's like, they'll be like, well, technically,

if you did all the tithing in the Old Testament,

it's like 23.5%.

The word tithe means 10th.

It's kind of weird that they come up with this idea

of 23.5% or something like that.

That's just some derived Jewish understanding.

I'm sure the Jews think the tithe is 23.5%, not 10.

I'm sure a Jew came up with that.

But let me explain it.

The tithe is 10 because that's what it means, right?

The free will offering would just be over in abundance,

whatever you feel that you can deliver.

And of course, that is kind of the context.

Now, in verse three, he says,

for to their power I bear record,

yea, and beyond their power they were willing

of themselves praying with us,

or praying us with much entreaty

that we would receive the gift

and take upon us the fellowship

of the ministering to the saints.

Now, he's saying, look, I'm gonna testify, excuse me,

of their power, meaning their ability to give.

And it says, and beyond their power,

they were willing of themselves.

So he's kind of like almost saying like,

whatever they had to give,

they kind of seem to give more

than what it even seemed like they had to give.

Like that's how generous these people were.

And of course, you kind of see in verse two

the riches of their liberality.

There's an example of this.

What about the woman who gives her two mites?

Now, when Jesus Christ is commenting on this,

he said that she had given all of her living.

So that seems to be more than what she should be giving

or what is reasonable,

but it's just like the riches of her liberality.

That she just loved the Lord so much

that she literally cast in all of her living

in that particular moment.

Now, you know, I don't know her situation.

I don't know what's really going on.

I don't think that she's putting herself

in a financial burden to necessarily do that,

but it could just be that, hey,

she just had, this is all the money she has

and she's just decided to give it to the Lord.

But I don't think that she's like maxing out

her credit cards or doing something financially foolish

to bless the Lord.

It's that she has this money

and she's just giving it to the Lord

and the Lord's gonna take care of her.

Maybe she's living with someone,

her son or a brother-in-law or whoever

and they're taking care of her needs.

She has a little bit of money

instead of spending on herself.

She's like, I'm just gonna give it.

And she's like, hey, this is all she had

and she gave it to the Lord.

Because in this chapter, it's gonna make it clear

that you shouldn't be giving money

that you don't have to give.

But there's kind of like abundance

and then there's kind of like,

maybe a reasonable portion

and it's like they're giving even just more

than just their abundance.

It's like they're even tapping into maybe

their own personal funds

of what they would like to buy

for themselves selfishly or something.

They're just like, hey, I'm just gonna give this

to the saints at Jerusalem.

It says that they wanted to be a partaker

or a fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

They don't wanna be left out.

It's like, hey, we're taking a collection for Jerusalem

and they're like, well, we wanna be a part of that.

We don't wanna be taking,

we don't wanna be missing out on this opportunity

to bless them and to help them in their time of need.

And so they want to be a partaker

in a fellowship and notice that they wanted

the apostle Paul and his companions to receive the gift.

So they're like, hey, we're giving this money

and isn't there, there could have been, we don't know,

but based on the language here,

there could have been a little bit of a standoff.

Like, hey, we want you to take this

and he's like, well, I don't know

because you guys are so poor

and they're like, no, we insist, take it, okay?

And there's a lot of aspects to giving and receiving.

I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong

with an initial refusal potentially,

but if someone's insisting,

I believe you're supposed to take it, okay?

That would be the right thing to do.

You don't wanna refuse receiving a gift from somebody

that's trying to do the right thing that's trying to bless.

So you could kinda see there's sometimes

that little bit of standoff,

but then you just go ahead

and basically receive the gift

or you go along with what is being offered.

Someone's like, hey, let me get that

and you're like, no, I'm fine.

And then they're just like, okay, move on

and it's like, move on.

But they're like, no, no, I insist.

It's like, it'd be rude to not receive that or to take it.

I'm not saying you have to initially refuse.

They could be like, you want this?

You're like, yeah, like, let's go.

And that's a good attitude.

It's a good attitude to receive gifts.

Don't be someone that's so prideful

that you can't receive a gift.

And if someone's insisting, you know, take a gift.

You know, I would only refuse a gift

if it's just like, you know,

it really is not something that I should receive

or just it doesn't make sense.

There's not appropriate or something.

But if it's something that can be received,

you should do your best to try and receive it.

Be thankful for it.

And hey, this church is wanting

to bless the saints of Jerusalem.

Hey, I don't know if you guys should.

It's like, we insist it's all right.

We're gonna receive that gift

and you're gonna get to partake

and be a part of the fellowship of the ministering

to the saints.

He says here in verse number five,

and this they did not as we hoped,

but first gave their own selves of the Lord

and then the us by the will of God.

So he's saying, you know, they're doing this

not because we were wanting this to happen,

but they just love God so much.

And, you know, they wanted to do

whatever the will of God is in verse six

and so much that we desired Titus

that as he had begun,

so he would also finish in you the same grace also.

So just as these guys blessed us,

we were also desiring and hoping that Titus

would be able to come back to your church

and take the same collection.

So just like these guys were so happy

to bless the saints of Jerusalem,

we wanna send Titus so that you guys can also bless them.

Verse seven,

therefore as you abound in everything

in faith and utterance and knowledge

and in all diligence and your love also to us,

see that you abound in this grace also.

I do wanna mention that in times past

in reading this chapter,

the language is kind of dense

and you know, I struggled to understand this chapter.

So in times past, I kind of misunderstood

what the language is saying here.

I kind of thought that it was saying like

they were sending Titus to like preach for them

and then they're like sending money

as like a trade-off,

but that's just not really what's in view.

That wasn't really the right way to look at it.

Titus is simply the person responsible

for collecting the money physically

and taking it to Jerusalem.

And here what the apostle Paul is trying to do

is he's trying to get this collection from everybody.

Now it makes sense why they would want

to do this kind of stuff.

Obviously when you talk about money,

everybody gets squeamish and uncomfortable.

But for the apostle Paul,

he cares about the work of the Lord thriving

and doing well and he understands

that Jerusalem is in need.

So instead of just like one church blessing them,

he wants all the churches to bless them

so that they'll then get the max reward,

the max benefit of the blessing from all of these saints.

And then the work of the Lord is gonna thrive

and it's not gonna be diminished

or it's not going to be hampered by his refusal

to collect money from everybody

or to let as many people participate as possible.

And there could be a temptation, people are weird.

There could be a temptation for someone to say like,

I wanna be the only person helping them financially

so that I get all the credit or I get all the glory

and or someone could decide not to wanna offer

this opportunity to people for the reason of like,

oh, why do you want to get money from everybody?

There's all these different agendas

and things that people will put on you about money.

But Apostle Paul's trying to make it clear like,

hey, I love the saints of Jerusalem.

It's more blessed to give than to receive.

This is a good opportunity.

We want all the churches that are willing

to participate in this, to participate in this.

Titus is a good guy and we're collecting money

and give it to him.

You can also see why in this greater epistle,

there's a lot of accusations against Paul.

Why?

Because there's probably people saying like,

oh, they're collecting money for themselves

or hey, I don't know if they're digging into that money.

Anytime money's involved, accusations, slander,

railing, people getting upset.

Of course, people that aren't working hard,

people that are reprobate, whatever.

They'll come up with all kinds of excuses about money.

They get all offended about money.

They don't want anybody to have money but themselves.

Think about Judas.

Judas is the one who's always getting upset about money.

But why?

Because he was a thief and he's taking what's in the back.

He was really mad about money being spent on Jesus.

Just this oil and this ointment being put on Jesus.

He got so mad about it that he betrayed him

to the Pharisees.

That's how mad he got.

He got so mad about it that he allowed the devil

to enter him and to become demonically possessed

to then betray the Lord Jesus Christ,

betray the innocent blood for 30 shekels of silver.

That's how mad he got about it.

And so when someone's getting really mad about money,

especially that's being used for churches

and for the things of God,

that's a big red flag for that person.

They wanna be like, oh, these people are bad.

It's like they're projecting in a sense.

And it's like, oh, why was this money wasted?

It could have been given to the poor.

Oh, Judas sounds like a liberal.

But he wasn't a liberal.

He was someone that hated the poor people

and was ripping off the poor people.

And he was a thief.

And you notice again, a holier than thou attitude

in many cases.

And it's like the person that's just constantly

making a big deal about money

and just always like obsessed with money.

You know, it's kind of a red flag.

And then you kind of wonder, it's like, okay,

let's talk about some modern day applications

for some of these things, right?

There was one person that I could point to

that said, this guy is talking about money the most.

Like, here's a guy where if you go on every single

one of his posts for his sermons,

the first thing listed is donate to our church.

And it's the only guy constantly raising money

and talking about money and making a big deal about money.

And it's just like, who is it?

Oh yes, it was Roger Jimenez.

And it wasn't like, it's not like what I'm saying,

it's just my opinion.

This is something that a lot of people noticed.

It was like, there's this one person

that's just always about raising money

and trying to talk about money

and getting all these collections at whatever.

And then we find out, oh, why was that happening?

Because he's taking half of the money that's being raised.

And that's after he's getting called on the carpet.

At first he was taking all of it.

Then it was just like half until basically it was exposed.

And then it's like, okay, well,

let's stop letting this guy be the money,

the guy holding the bag, okay?

Now again, I'm not saying that Roger Jimenez is Judas, okay?

Don't hear me wrong.

I think he's saved and whatever.

But anybody can get a bad attitude, a bad spirit.

And we wanna be careful about the person

that's just all obsessed about money and things like that.

But at the same time, there's nothing wrong

with raising money for other Christians.

And so that's why they love this vehicle

because they wanna be like, hey, let's raise money.

But the apostle Paul, if you think about it,

he's like, I'm not collecting the money,

I'm getting Titus to do it.

Yeah.

And in a modern day, if we're raising money for people,

it makes sense that it's like,

why do I have to be a quote clearing house

for other people or other churches?

I don't necessarily need to be that.

Maybe we just let it go straight to Titus

or we go straight to that particular person.

And so let's be honest about our situation

with Pastor Stuckey, we're not a clearing house for him

and we don't wanna be.

No verity about his church was acting

like a clearing house for them.

And that just gave temptation for them

to take money that they probably shouldn't have.

Well, let's just be honest.

They shouldn't have taken it, okay.

And in reality, it's like, hey,

we wanna help out that church,

but we don't wanna be the clearing house for them.

It's like, give money directly to them.

Go to soulwinningbaptistchurch.com,

give money directly to Pastor Stuckey

and to that ministry.

If you wanna bless them and support them,

and you know, we too wanna bless them and support them.

You know, and I don't wanna be like,

hey, we are the only church

that can bless them or support them.

I hope every church blesses them and supports them, right?

You know, we had like a Baptist by show,

we were trying to like encourage other people

and other churches to bless that particular work

because we just don't want that work to be diminished.

And let's just be honest, of new IV churches,

that church is probably one of the more poor churches

in the world because it's in the Philippines.

In the Philippines they don't have the same amount

of money to be able to bless their church with,

to raise.

I mean, they have a sizable church,

but it's just again, the people in that country

are poor in comparison to Americans.

And so it's like, hey, we're trying to raise money

because we don't want the work

to be diminished in the Philippines.

And we wanna help that particular work in the Philippines.

And you know, we're gonna kind of get into

this next subject, but it kind of relates

to the same topic is, hey, if we promise to help them,

we wanna make sure to deliver on that promise.

And that's what the church at Corinth did.

The church at Corinth is saying like, hey,

we wanna help the saints at Jerusalem.

And he's like, okay, well then y'all go ahead

and collect all that money.

That's what he's saying in 1 Corinthians,

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16 that we read.

Go ahead and get it all collected and get it all ready

so that then when we come back through

or Titus comes through there,

he can gather that, he can get that money

and take it to them.

Okay, so it's like they're getting prepared

for what they claim they were going to do.

Like it's one thing to say, I wanna help you,

I will help you.

And there's another thing to actually do it.

And we probably all know that person

that said like, I'll help you financially

or I'll give you this money.

And then when you actually ask for it,

it's not there anymore.

Or they're not actually gonna step up the plate

or they're not gonna actually deliver.

Or you work for a boss.

It's really annoying when you work for a boss.

He's like, hey, in two years you're gonna get a promotion.

It's like four years later,

you're like, where's that promotion?

You know, it's just kind of like,

we don't wanna be that kind of person

where we promise the moon and we can't deliver.

He says in verse eight,

I speak not by commandment,

but by occasion of the forwardness of others

and to prove the sincerity of love.

So he's saying, I'm not getting money from you guys

as a commandment.

There is no commandment for you to give money

to the saints at Jerusalem.

But why am I doing it?

Because of the forwardness of others.

Because of what the Macedonians were like.

The Macedonians were so excited to give money

and they kind of like inspired me

to provoke other people to do likewise.

And then secondly, to prove the sincerity of your love.

Why?

Because they're saying like, hey, we wanna do this.

It's like, all right, put your money where your mouth is then.

Go ahead and prove the fact that you did wanna help them

that you were willing to step up to the plate

and actually do it.

He says in verse nine,

for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

that though he was rich, yet for your sakes,

he became poor, that you might,

through his poverty, might be rich.

And here, and I give my advice,

for this is expedient for you,

who have begun before, not only to do,

but also to be forward a year ago.

So he's using Christ as an example,

like Christ has all these riches in heaven

and then comes down to earth as a humble servant,

dies on the cross,

to then give us the riches of becoming co-inheritors

with him, joint heirs,

and that we're gonna inherit and rule and reign

on the new earth with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so he had to become poorer

so that we could become rich.

And he's just saying by that example,

like we should have Christ's attitude and Christ's mindset

that sometimes we have to spend

and be spent for others to have riches.

So think about it this way,

going on a foreign mission trip

might cost you a lot of money

and you're gonna go somewhere though

and you're gonna give someone an eternal gift,

you're gonna get them rich spiritually

by getting them saved.

And so by you being poorer,

and I'm not saying you're literally poorer,

but you're just basically taking some of your money

and you're spending it on mission strips,

you can give riches to other people

and get them saved and the eternal gift of salvation

and it's a blessing to these other individuals.

I mean, if we just all said,

you know what, we're not gonna do that,

we're gonna just take all of our money for missions

and we're just gonna invest in the stock market

and we're just gonna keep compiling it.

I mean, we could have a lot of money over time.

I mean, a lot of people are doing a lot of mission strips

and we're spending a lot of money on mission strips.

I mean, we're talking hundreds,

probably hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

If we take all the money we're spending as a collective

plus the church is spending as a collective,

we could be doing other stuff with that.

We could be building this great cathedral

with naked babies painted on the ceiling

and you know, whatever.

It's like, instead we're gonna just go

and give the gospel to people, right?

And again, the same with Christ.

Like Christ has all these riches in heaven,

but he became poor so that we could be saved

in the same way that sometimes we have to spend our money.

But you know what the Bible is saying

is that if you're a liberal person,

then God's gonna be li-

He's gonna give liberal to you.

He kind of like takes care of you

because you're taking care of other people.

So you think like, oh man, I'm wasting all my money

but then it's like God's gonna take care of you.

He's gonna take care of you now

and he's gonna take care of you in heaven for sure.

So it's just like, it's the best investment

you can make anyways because even if you invested

all of your money, I mean, think about it.

Let's just say you invested $10,000 every month

from now until you're 70 and you're like,

all right, I've got $50 million in my 401k and then you die.

What did it even accomplish?

And then like your kids are spoiled brats

and they just take your $50 million

and just destroy their lives on drugs

and alcohol or something.

Oh, that never happens.

Happens all the time.

Like, I mean, think about it.

You know, when I'm 70, I can't even really do any,

I don't know, I'm just like,

I'm like, what am I gonna do

with $50 million or $100 million

whenever you're 70 anyways, you know?

It's just like eat a gold plated burger, you know?

Have you seen those things?

They like wrap burgers in gold

just because they can't make food

any more expensive, I guess.

It's just like, you know,

they have to get a duck liver that's fat, full-graw, you know?

It's just like, why not steak?

You know, I was just like, hey, why not brisket?

It's like at some point saving money becomes frivolous.

Now again, I'm not against retirement.

I'm not saying don't have a 401k.

I'm not saying don't plan for the future.

But I'm saying this, like what's the point

in just laying up treasures on earth

where moth and rust, doth corrupt

and thieves break through and steal

rather than laying up treasures in heaven, okay?

And that's the whole point that's being stated here.

He's saying I'm giving my advice in verse 10.

He's saying this is expedient means this is good for you

who have begun before.

So he's like, you already gave some money

and it says not only to do,

but also to be forward a year ago.

He's like, not only did you kind of like

already maybe chip in some money,

you guys said like we really want to give more even.

We want to kind of like help the situation.

So it's like, you said you want to do it.

All right, it's time to do it.

Verse 11, now perform the doing of it

that as there was a readiness to will

so there may be a performance also out of that

which he has.

So he's saying, hey, let's do it then, perform it.

Give us the money.

Show me the money, right?

He says in verse 12, for if there be first

a willing mind, it is accepted according to that

a man hath and not according to that he hath not.

So God is looking down from heaven and saying,

hey, I like it when you are offering

what you have to give.

Some people would say, I'll give you a million dollars.

I just don't have it.

It's like, well, how generous of you?

If I had a million dollars, I would give it to you though.

Would you though?

You know, it's like that isn't accepted.

It doesn't really work.

It doesn't really mean anything.

Okay, what is accepted is offering what you do have.

He's saying, hey, what you have and you offer of that,

that's what God cares about and that's what God considers

and that's what's important.

Not what you would give.

Not what you hypothetically would like to give.

What you can give.

You know, the woman giving the two mites

is gonna have great riches.

It wasn't based on how much.

It was based on what she had

and what she was willing to give.

He says here in verse number 13,

for I mean not that other men be easy burdened,

but by an equality that now at this time

your abundance may be a supply for their want,

that their abundance also may be a supply for your want,

that there may be equality.

As it is written, he that had gathered much

had nothing over and he that had gathered little

had no lack.

So my misinterpretation of chapter eight

typically was kind of based on this statement,

which it's still a biblical principle.

It's just not necessarily what the text is saying about Titus.

But he's saying like, hey, there's kind of this equality

that they have a want and you're supplying it.

And then on the flip side, it's almost like

also may be a supply for your want,

that there may be inequality.

In some senses, Jerusalem is sharing its riches

of prophets, apostles, preachers

that are going out and evangelizing the world.

And they're supplying their want and their need,

whereas they don't have any money.

And so these rich Greeks are able to basically

collect all their money.

These Gentiles are able to give their money back

to the saints at Jerusalem.

And so there's equality.

He's saying it's not that we're just wanting

to enrich the saints at Jerusalem.

We're not trying to set up the pope here.

We're not trying to set up the Roman Catholic church

where if you go there, it's this lavish,

multi-billion dollar corporation

where they're just rolling in it.

And then every other Catholic in the world

is just this poor impoverished person.

No, he wants it to be equality.

And the equality is we're all kind of sharing in a sense.

Y'all are giving y'alls abundance

and then we're giving y'all our abundance in a sense.

It's like, hey, we're fat with preachers.

You're fat with cash.

Let's swap a little bit here.

And again, that's just my interpretation.

But the principle's for sure what the text is saying.

The text is saying that, hey, there should be this equality.

And it's not that we're just trying to enrich

a particular church or a particular institution.

We're just trying to kind of help those that are in need.

Now, if no one's in need,

we don't even need to give money to them.

We don't even need to raise money for them.

There's no point.

It's just like, hey, this particular group

is needing some money.

So why don't we chip in and try to help them

so there can be equality?

We're not trying to say like,

hey, let's bless a church in the Philippines

so that they can be rich.

It's to supply their lack.

It's to supply their want in a sense.

Not to try and just enrich one church over another.

We want them to be some level of equality,

some level of balance here.

And he uses an Old Testament principle applied here.

Notice, I love this because verse 15,

which is quoting the Old Testament,

it's kind of like talking about the manna.

They would like gather manna.

And if you gathered a lot of manna,

you ended up eating all of it.

And if you didn't gather much money

or you didn't gather much manna,

you ended up being satisfied anyways.

It was just like, it just kind of always

worked out somehow.

And it's just kind of what's interesting

is that that has nothing to do with this at all.

But then he's just using it to prove

that you can use biblical principles as Old Testament

in any way you want.

You know, it doesn't have to be like,

well, you have to know the context of this is manna

and this is the Old Testament,

this is the ancient Israelites and blah, blah, blah.

That's the Old Testament.

Yeah, well, the Old Testament, same principle,

applies in the New Testament about giving, okay?

And I mean, gathering manna has nothing to do with giving.

I mean, he's eating.

It's gathering food.

It's like the exact opposite of giving.

You're gathering, okay?

But he uses the principle here

and applies it in the text

because you can use biblical principles

to any way you want.

As long as it's obviously within the framework

of what the Bible teaches, right?

We understand that he's using this principle

that's a true principle

and then applying it in a new way or a unique way.

This is good preaching.

This is topical preaching.

He says in verse 16,

but thanks be to God,

which put the same earnest care

in the heart of Titus for you.

For indeed, he accepted the exhortation,

but being more forward of his own accord,

he went unto you.

And we have sent with him the brother

whose praise is in the gospel

throughout all the churches

and not that only,

but who was also chosen of the churches

to travel with us with this grace,

which is administered by us to the glory

of the same Lord in declaration of your ready mind,

avoiding this that no man should blame us

in this abundance, which is administered by us,

providing for honest things,

not only on the side of the Lord,

but also on the side of men.

So saying, look, I'm sending Titus.

I'm sending another guy

that has a great reputation of all churches.

They're coming here for this grace

to bless this other church.

Everything we're doing is honest

and the sight of all men.

It's for an honest purpose.

It's transparent.

It's transparent who's coming.

And again, it's transparent that this is not a commandment,

that you guys are the ones that promised it

and we're just taking you up on what you said.

I mean, doesn't that seem pretty clear

and pretty honest?

It's like, if a church says we want to give $10,000

and we need you to carry the check,

it's like, okay, we'll do that for you.

You know, what's not honest

is when you call Roger Jimenez

and you say you want to give large sums of money

to the Philippines church, can you give it to them?

And he says yes, and then he doesn't.

That's not honest.

That's not right, okay?

What would be right is for you

to actually transport the money legitimately

for it to be open, transparent,

for people to realize what's going on.

And again, it's just kind of sad

that these things happen in the world today.

But they do.

He said in verse number 22,

and we have sent with them our brother

whom we have oftentimes proved diligent in many things,

but now much more diligent

upon the great confidence which I have in you.

Whether any do inquire of Titus,

he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you

or a brethren being inquired of.

They are the messengers of the churches

and the glory of Christ.

Wherefore show you to them and before the churches

the proof of your love

and of your boast of our boasting on your behalf.

So again, he's just reconfirming,

these guys are good guys,

they're the messengers, give them the money.

Verse 24, show you to them and before the churches,

the proof of your love.

So he's like, prove to these guys

and all churches that you guys really love Christ.

You really love the saints of Jerusalem.

You really love the brethren.

And notice and our boasting on your behalf.

So the apostle Paul was kind of going around bragging

about the church at Corinth as being very generous.

He's calling them liberal.

He's like saying, hey, the liberal saints at Corinth,

look how generous they are.

They're promising to give all this money

to the saints of Jerusalem

and they love the saints of Jerusalem

and they love Christ.

And he's like, go ahead and prove that,

because I've been going around telling everybody

how much you love to give

and I've been telling everybody

that you guys have made these promises

and I've been bragging about you guys.

So go ahead and just do it

so that I don't look like silly

for having told everybody you're gonna give them this money

because it's really embarrassing.

It's really embarrassing as a messenger.

If someone came to me like, hey, I need some money

and you're like, you know what?

I know somebody that wants to give you money.

They told me they want to give you money.

And then you go, you're like, hey, they need that money.

And you're like, I'm not gonna give it to them.

Now you're gonna feel really embarrassed

when you have to go back and be like,

yeah, that guy wasn't gonna give you money.

I'm sorry.

It's like really embarrassing

about that particular situation.

And so, you know, if you make a vow,

if you promise to do something like this,

you're supposed to deliver.

You know, I just want to go to like,

go to chapter one.

I'll just read a couple of verses for you,

but the Bible says in Deuteronomy 23,

when thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God,

thou shalt not slack to pay it.

So if you promise to do something,

especially in a spiritual context, you better do it.

The Bible says, when thou vowest a vow unto God,

defer not to pay it.

That's Ecclesiastes chapter five.

The Bible says in Psalm 15, which we've been singing,

he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeeth not.

Meaning, hey, you make a promise,

you need to deliver on that particular promise.

Psalm 76, 11, vow and pay unto the Lord your God.

Psalm 116 verse 14, I will pay my vows on the Lord,

Psalms 116:14

now in the presence of all his people.

Hey, you make an oath, you make a promise to other Christians,

you better make sure to deliver on that promise.

Don't go back on it.

Psalm 66 verse 13, I will go to thy house

Psalms 66:13

with burnt offerings, I will pay thee my vows.

So you make a vow, you offer something to God,

a free will offering even, then you have to pay it.

Now, this is where you have to understand free will offerings.

A free will offering is truly, you don't have to give it,

but if you promise a free will offering,

then you do have to offer that to God.

So it's like, hey, I didn't have to,

but if you vow it, then you do.

Now again, think about this practically.

You live somewhere in Israel, you don't live in Jerusalem.

To offer a sacrifice, you have to travel to Jerusalem.

So you could be like, hey, I've got this sheep

that I've been raising and in six months,

I'm gonna go take this sheep to Jerusalem

and offer it as a sacrifice as a free will offering.

Well then you could say, I have a vow on it,

like this sheep is spoken for.

It's basically given to God.

And this is where this idea then gets twisted

by the Pharisees in the gospels

when Jesus Christ is bringing it up,

that they would say like,

someone's like, parents is coming to them

and asking for help.

And they're saying like, oh no, no, it is Corbin.

And again, that's a weird thing.

It is Corbin, meaning it's a gift.

Meaning like, hey, I've already vowed this to God

so I could never give it to you

because I've already promised it to God

and you're not allowed to go back,

even if it was a free will offering

on something you vowed, you're supposed to pay it.

But again, they were lying about it.

They weren't gonna really sacrifice it to God.

They were just saying that to get their parents off their case

and not actually honor their father and mother.

And again, the honor there was actually

in a financial context, not just a respect.

But it was saying like, hey, you should give money

to your parents if they are in need.

But they're saying, no, I've vowed this unto God

and I can't go back on that, I can't take that away.

So again, if you make a free will offering,

promise to God, you're supposed to deliver.

You could maybe argue, and it's not in the text,

this is just an idea, that that's what

Ananias and Sapphire maybe did,

is that they may have said like,

hey, we will give all of the money from this sale to God

and then when they sold it,

they kept part of the price back,

gave it to the church and that's how they lied

into the Holy Ghost is because they're saying,

hey, I was gonna give this.

But it's like, hey, when I go into the house

with my burnt offerings, I will pay you my vows.

And it's in the presence of all those people.

Like I'm not gonna lie about it,

I'm not gonna go back on it, I'm gonna keep that word.

And of course it's not a scapegoat to not help your parents,

it's to simply, because you actually love God.

James five says, my brethren swear not,

but let your yay be yay and your nay nay,

unless you fall into condemnation.

The Bible tells us not to swear.

And swearing in the Bible, not in our culture,

in the Bible is like making some kind of

over the top statement.

So it's like, you know, people will say like,

I swear to God or I swear on the Bible.

And instead of just saying like,

hey, did you promise this to God?

It's like, yes, that's the right answer.

It's like, hey, did you promise this to God?

I swear to God I did it.

You know, or I swear on the Bible.

You shouldn't ever do that.

Because it's basically pointing to the fact

that the person's lying and they feel uncomfortable

about the fact that they're lying.

So instead of just saying yes,

they use these over the top statements.

And again, not only are they lying,

they're invoking God in their lie.

They're invoking spiritual things

because, you know, men swear by the greater

to essentially affirm something that they've done.

And again, maybe it's possible occasionally

some people invoke this

because they're just trying to convince somebody.

But it's definitely a need to persuade.

And it's often coming from a place

of someone that's actually lying about it.

So you should just pay attention in this world.

When someone, you're questioning them,

you're trying to figure it out,

and they just immediately go to swearing.

You know, it's kind of a red flag,

like, oh, this person's probably lying.

This person's probably being deceitful

when they go and they start saying these kinds of things

invoking some other power.

You know, it's like Tyler Baker.

When he was getting fired, he's like,

I swear on the Bible.

You know, I didn't do this.

I swear.

It's like, why are you doing that?

You know.

But what did he say in 2 Corinthians chapter one, verse 17?

He says that his yea is yea and his nay is nay.

Okay, I'm not gonna read the whole verse here,

but he's trying to make it clear.

And again, that language seems a little bit confusing.

He says that with me, there should be yea, yea, nay, nay.

And he says in verse 18,

but as God is true, our word to you was not yea and nay.

Like, it's really confusing for me.

Maybe it's not for you.

But he's just saying like, when I said yes,

it was really a yes.

And when I said no, it was really a no.

You know, some of you kids know that your parents,

when they say yes, it can be changed.

And so you like, you just keep pestering them.

You're trying to turn that yes into a no,

or you're trying to turn that no into a yes,

and whatever.

And the boss is saying like, no, my yes is a yes,

and my no is a no.

Okay.

And he's like, don't try to like question the fact

that when I promise something, I'm gonna deliver.

And he's like, God never does this.

God is always yea and yea, yes and yes, no and no.

He's not gonna change or alter.

And the same way there's church,

hey, offering money to somebody needs to be yea and yea.

I'll just close on one last thought is, you know,

when I knew that things were getting weird

and trauma and stuff with, you know, the new IB

and I saw that pastor Jimenez, you know,

a former now was separating from us.

I just kind of got worried about the work

that's going on in the Philippines.

Just because I love, you know, the gospel

and I love soul winning and I love those, you know,

that stuff.

So I had reached out to Pastor Stuckey

and I just said, hey, I just wanna let you know

that like, if he separates from you

and you're just kind of left high and dry

or you're not getting finances or something,

our church would love to just support you

because we just love you and love your church or whatever.

But nothing came with that.

I mean, I just said that to him

and you know, it was really easy to say

but it's like several months, fast forward six months,

nine months, I don't know, timeline

but just fast forward a lot of time.

Then he's calling me and he's like, hey, you know,

like what are you sad or whatever?

It's like, well, we're not getting any money

and things are like shady and whatever

and it's like, can you help?

And it's like, yeah.

And you know, it'd be wicked for a church

to say like, hey, we'd love to help you

and then go back on that.

It's like, nope, yeah, we'd love to help you.

And not only us, we want everybody to help you.

We want all the churches to help you

because you know what?

We want the work to be thriving over there

and you know, Pastor Stuckey is a really good guy

and he's really sacrificial

and he deserves to be supported.

And that's why I'm really excited

about him coming and preaching for us

and I'm really excited to have fellowship with him more.

I'm excited to go back to the Philippines

and to work with them.

I'm excited to see the people that are in this church.

Obviously, of course, that's not to diminish

or take away from what our evangelists,

evangelists, Duncan or Bannock has been doing

and accomplishing over there.

But you know, we shouldn't just be selfish

and say, oh well, our church is doing good

and our evangelist is doing good

and nuts to you guys, you guys made your bed

with a bad actor, with a bad person.

You guys can continue to just fail

while we'll just continue to thrive and do our thing.

No, it's like, hey, we should try

to figure out an equality here

and we should try to bless them too

and try to do good to them too.

And we're on the same team.

Our church is independent, but we're on the same team.

And when you're on the same team

and you have a team mentality,

it's not always about you

and you're willing to help other people more.

And I hope that you won't have this attitude

of just despising other Christians or other churches,

even if they're a little different,

even if they don't always agree with us,

even if they're a weaker brethren

or whatever they put beans in their chili or whatever,

it's like, hey, we can still love them

and we can be graces to them

and they're still on the same team.

And we should just love other Christians

and love other churches and love the gospel

and wanna support them.

And it's not always about us.

And if you promise to help people, you better deliver.

Don't be someone that says,

that has this great swelling words of vanity

and promises the moon and promises

to do things for people

and you can't keep it.

Be careful what you vow to God

and be careful what you say.

And if you do vow something,

if you promise something,

make sure you do deliver on that.

Let's close in prayer.

Thank you Heavenly Father so much for your word.

Thank you so much for the generosity

that's demonstrated in this chapter.

Thank you for liberal people

and liberal Christians that exist in this world.

Thank you so much for those who love

to just bless God's people and bless churches.

I pray that you would help us to have a similar attitude.

The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver.

I pray that you would help us

that if we were ever to give,

if we ever felt compelled to wanna bless people,

that we would do with a cheerful and a happy heart

and that we would do it

because we just love the saints.

We just love God.

We love the gospel.

We love the work of the ministry.

I pray that those who bless the works in the Philippines

and they bless other churches and they bless the poor.

I pray that you would just be liberal with them, God.

That you would pour out a blessing to them.

And I pray that you would help us

to not have a bad attitude about money

but rather be cheerful givers in Jesus name we pray amen.