Faithful Workers (2 Corinthians 8:16-9:5)

2 Corinthians 8, starting in verse 16.

Thanks be to God who put the same concern for you into the heart of Titus.

For he welcomed our appeal, and being very diligent, went out to you by his own choice.

We have sent with him the brother who is praised among all the churches for his gospel ministry.

And not only that, but he was also appointed by the churches to accompany us with this gracious gift that we are administrating for the glory of God himself, and to show our eagerness to help.

We are taking this precaution so that no one will criticize us about this large sum that we are administering.

Indeed, we are giving careful thought to do what is right, not only before the Lord, but also before people.

We have also sent with them our brother.

He, or we have often tested him in many circumstances and found him to be diligent.

And now even more diligent because of his great confidence in you.

As for Titus, he is my partner and co-worker for you.

As for our brothers, they are the messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.

Therefore, show them proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you.

Now concerning the ministry to the saints, it is unnecessary for me to write to you, for I know your eagerness, and I boast about you to the Macedonians.

Mecaiah has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.

But I am sending the brothers, so that our boasting about you in this matter would not prove empty, and so that you would be ready just as I said.

Otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, would be put to shame in that situation.

Therefore, I considered it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance the generous gift you promised, so that it will be ready as a gift and not as an extortion.

Lord, I thank you for today, and I thank you for your word.

I ask that you would be glorified as we study your word, that you would fill me with your spirit to rightly teach, and that you would fill the hearers with your spirit to rightly divide and discern what is of you.

Be glorified, help us to grow closer to you, and as a result to one another as we study in your name.

Amen.

Alright, go ahead and have a seat.

So as we are going through 2 Corinthians, we have two options all at the beginning to summarize.

Either we can do, as we continue to go deeper and deeper and deeper into the book, a 25-minute summary of everything we have gone before, or like a 30-second summary.

There is no middle ground.

Just can't do it.

And so this is going to be the 30-second summary today.

Ultimately, we have here Paul speaking to the Church of Corinth, which is a divided church, some of them which are very loyal to him and to the gospel, some of them who have gone after what we call the super apostles, and those who are very, very impressive looking and seem very apostoly, and therefore, that's a word, don't look it up, and therefore are leading them astray, really, and leading them into gospels that are not the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

And as a result, Paul is brought into question of what he is teaching because he's not that impressive when he shows up.

His letters are pretty heavy, but when he shows up, they're like, this guy?

This is the guy telling us what to do.

And that is largely in a nutshell what we have been going through.

He is dealing with basically diffusing a church bomb of emotions, of hurt feelings, of difficult topics.

And the cool thing about Paul is number one, he doesn't just avoid it.

One thing I know about Paul from the scriptures, he's not a bored guy.

He has a lot to do, obviously.

He's very, very busy for the gospel.

And so he could very easily just focus on a different church that likes him better.

But instead, he sees the need, he sees the relationship and the importance of the Church of Corinth, as well as this mission that they're on here, and he doubles down into working through this with them.

Number two, he doesn't just steamroll them and say, This is how it's gonna be.

Jump on board.

If you're basically, if you're not on the bus, you're under the bus, come on, we're going forward.

He is actually very sensitive and caring as how he's going to navigate this.

He was going to show up again after the painful visit where things went south.

Instead, it seems he may have sent a letter, or maybe this letter, we don't know for sure.

He's sending envoys with this, but he is proceeding with boldness and sensitivity for the purpose of the mission at hand.

And what are we talking about specifically right now, this mission at hand that they have?

Gathering money from all of the surrounding churches to take care of the body, uh, assumedly Jerusalem, to deliver money to them to take care of them in this.

Now, when we read this, we go, well, yeah, that's that's what they're doing, right?

But imagine, okay, a little bit of context first.

This church was planted out of Shoreline Calvary Chapel in Morro Bay.

Pastor of that church is uh Pastor Ed.

What if Pastor Ed came here and stood up here or sent a letter, even better, and said, We're going to give money to a church in Santa Cruz.

Everybody, all of the churches in our network, gather the money.

I'm going to send somebody and we're going to send your money off to Santa Cruz.

We might be like, huh, that's interesting.

In a very similar way here, Paul, who found this church, is asking them to give of their finances to help a church they're not actually personally connected to.

Geography lesson, Greece, Jerusalem, not the same place.

That's as good as you're gonna get here.

We don't have a map today.

So, with that, he is asking them to actually provide for a church that really doesn't personally benefit them.

Which, from what we've seen in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, really isn't in their wheelhouse of what they like to do.

It's a very affluent area.

They have two ports, they have uh one thing they're not lacking is money.

And they tend to like to build their own camps and build their own things.

We saw that in 1 Corinthians with I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas, all these different places to where they can show how they are even better than their neighbor.

And here he's asking them to participate in what the Lord is doing here to take care of a church that doesn't actually benefit them, because that's what the body of Christ does, because Jesus.

So, with this in mind, we saw the what last week.

Super awesome unpacking of what that looks like, the distribution of the money.

And there was a specific analogy in there that was like amazing of the like breaking it down to in-and-out gift cards.

Go back and listen to that if you haven't already, because that was like the best exposition I've heard of that.

And then here we have the who.

That was the what, this is the who.

So, in verse 16, thanks be to God, who put the same concern for you into the heart of Titus.

For he welcomed our appeal, being very diligent, went out to you by his own choice.

Pausing there for a moment.

Titus, who is Titus?

Here's what we know about Titus.

We know from Galatians 2, 3, he's Greek.

He's a Greek follower of Jesus.

He was not compelled to be circumcised, so he was not Judaized in his salvation.

He is Greek through and through, a follower of Jesus through and through.

Where is Corinth?

In Greece area.

So he is basically a local in terms of cultural heritage with that.

He also has a good rapport with Corinth.

We saw that repeatedly in the previous chapter in verse 7, 13, and 15, that Titus and Corinth seem to get along pretty well.

So it is also possible that he, and seems likely, but we don't know for sure, that Titus delivered this letter to the Church of Corinth as he goes with uh as he goes to administer this and get the gift in order with that, that he brought the letter with him to do that.

So Titus is a Corinth homeboy, and they like each other, they're good with that, and he has the right heritage to actually put them at ease with that, and he is also a co-worker of Paul.

And it's interesting to see here what we learn about Titus.

The concern that Paul has for the Church of Corinth is also the same concern that God put into the heart of Titus.

So Paul and Titus are like-minded in that the Lord put this concern for the Church of Corinth in their heart.

And in verse 17, he welcomed our appeal and being very diligent, went out to you by his own choice.

So Titus was asked by Paul and company to go to Corinth, and he didn't say, okay, I'm gonna say that I'll go to sure, I'll go to Corinth.

Fine.

Whatever.

If I have to, or I really don't want to, but I will, or please don't make me go.

He wanted to go to Corinth.

I wouldn't want to go to Corinth.

But he wants, he wanted to go to Corinth on this ministry.

And he's called diligent.

This is a word that's gonna pop up twice in the who of this passage.

And we hear diligent, and we have a whole bunch of different thoughts and ideas of what that means, and a lot of nuances, but here's the cool thing about diligence.

Diligence has its root in haste or earnestness, like a burning desire, like a passion, a driven passion.

Diligence, well, I'll put it this way.

We have children in high school, in junior high, in elementary school.

Diligence is a word we use a whole lot in our house.

Not because it because they're actually amazing kids, but because that's kind of a thing in school.

But diligence in that context tends to mean do what you don't want to do well.

And that's not what this word means here.

It doesn't mean keep pushing when you don't feel like it.

Here, it is a burning desire and a just an intent and purpose and urgency.

Purpose and determination.

That is a mark of Titus and his ministry and desire for Corinth.

Is purpose and determination, you might even say with joy.

He doesn't say, Titus is my longest tenured person here, and I'm going to send him there because he has the longest experience.

Diligence is not just tenure, diligence is desire.

And sometimes those can actually be antithetical, depending on where you are.

That desire and determination and drive versus long-standingness can actually work against each other.

Because on one side, there is a passion and excitement, and on the other side, there's a I just want to do what I've always done.

I'm just gonna I'm just gonna stay at the course here.

And I have my experience tells me that's gonna work.

On the other side as well, that sometimes passion and excitement can wreak havoc on everything if not tempered by experience.

They work hand in hand with that.

But one thing that we see about Titus he wants to serve, he wants to go, he wants to work in this way, which is really cool to see.

Moving forward, we have our next character here that's being sent to Corinth.

We've sent with him the brother who is praised among all the churches for his gospel ministry.

And not only that, but he was also appointed by the churches to accompany us with this gracious gift that we're administrating for the glory of God Himself and to show our eagerness to help.

Who's this guy?

The brother.

We've sent with him the brother who is praised among all the churches for his gospel ministry.

If you ask 50 Bible scholars, you will get 52 opinions on who this guy is.

We don't know.

Corinth knows.

The churches at that time know, Paul knows, but it's interesting here that he just calls him as the brother who is praised among all the churches.

So, what we know about them is this person is in fact male and also praised among all the churches for his gospel ministry.

This is cool.

Why is this cool?

He is not, it doesn't say, we've sent with him the brother who is praised among his own church.

In his own little bubble.

He has quite a platform and a rapport.

He's praised among all the churches.

This is a crazy thing.

It's gonna sound foreign.

I promise you it's true.

Churches can work together.

I know, I know, it's crazy.

But it is true.

Not only is it true, but it is often good when it is anchored in the gospel, of course.

So, this guy doesn't have a name in this passage, but he does have a reputation, and he has a reputation among all the churches.

I find this funny, because number one, Corinth is really big on names, right?

We saw in 1 Corinthians.

They want to be known by the right guy.

Whether that's Paul, whether that's Apollos, whether that's Cephas, who's Peter, all of these different people, they want to be on the right team to show that they are the uh the best form of follower of Jesus in best standing.

And here we have the opposite to where this guy doesn't even get a name.

But he has a reputation, and that reputation is not isolated in Corinth, it's not isolated in Macedonia.

This guy is uh known in all of the churches in the area for not for his charisma, not for his commanding presence, for his gospel ministry.

Isn't that cool?

That's isn't that a better resume than having name recognition?

That's like this guy, we're sending this guy who is known everywhere for not because he is super awesome and useful and charismatic, but he's useful, he is faithful in his gospel ministry.

I love it.

That's so cool to see.

I wish there was a reasonable way for us to always just almost rotate ministry teams with like-minded churches, because it's amazing what we will find out about each other when that happens, and how well and how poorly we actually tend to work together in that sense.

It's a it's a beautiful thing.

For those of you who have been in a church body for a long time and then jumped to a different church body geographically or for a different reason than that and serve, you find out a whole lot about number one, yourself, but number two, about all the assumptions that you make about what ministry actually looks like.

Because when we stay in one little bubble forever, we think that that church is how everything should go.

That's the only way to do things.

Not only that, but it's the right way to do things.

Everything else is the wrong way to do things.

And if you don't do things according to that way, you're doing things the wrong way.

Which is very problematic when it comes to, I mean, not even secondary, tertiary issues, but different ways like how we shampoo the carpet, things like that.

It's amazing that I don't think Jesus cares.

But sometimes we can fight about these things as in in bodies of Christ and go, well, we do that better because we are, we come from the of this church, at the original church of Ben, God forbid that ever happened, uh, then this is how we do this and how it's always been done.

When you get outside of your bubble and into all of these other places, it kills that tendency and possibility.

That's what I'm getting at here.

And that's a big deal for Corinth to see, because Corinth likes to build platforms and silos.

Paul likes to knock those things down.

So this brother prays among all the churches for his gospel ministry.

It is possible this guy, it is likely this guy is mentioned in chapter 12, when Paul's in verse 17 and 18 says, Did I take advantage of you by any of those sent to you?

I urged Titus to go.

I sent the brother with him.

Titus didn't go take advantage of you, did he?

Didn't we walk in the same spirit and in the same footsteps?

So as Paul is defending himself here and the people he sent, he mentions this guy again as the brother.

I don't know, maybe that's his handle and how he's known as.

He is the brother.

The guy.

So, with that in mind, though, they know who he is, and his service is the identity there.

And it extends beyond just a singular bubble.

He was appointed by the churches.

So it takes it outside of Paul.

Titus is cool with Paul.

They work together, they know each other well with that.

Paul has a great deal of influence with Titus.

This guy seems to have been appointed by the churches as a whole.

So it's easier potentially for Corinth to accept and digest when that happens.

Because why am I saying that?

Paul has to tread somewhat lightly here, which doesn't necessarily seem to be his strong suit.

And he has to fulfill a ministry while caring for these people and not further hurting and offending them.

And so here he's sending along somebody who has all the church's support, not just Team Paul, which is cool to see.

Because, well, I'll put it this way: if you have an individual or a church and you have a rocky relationship with them, does your next correspondence say, Can I have some of your money?

That's kind of a triggering topic with that.

And yet that's what's at hand here, and obviously it's not for Paul, it's for the church, assumedly in Jerusalem, but that's a touchy subject.

So here he's sending not only somebody who knows Corinth and who loves Corinth and has that diligence and that drive to work, but he also is sending this guy who has a rapport with all the churches in the area.

And continuing in verse 19, he was appointed by the churches to accompany us with this gracious gift.

That's the what?

The gracious gift that we are administering for what?

Why are they doing this?

Glory of the Lord.

Glory of the Lord, and to show our eagerness to help.

It's cool to see here we have a vertical reason and we have a horizontal reason.

They are taking care of other believers, they are spreading their affluence and wealth, and even if even if they're not affluent or wealthy, distributing their money to help other people.

Number one, for the glory of God, because that is what glorifies the Lord when the church body takes care of each other.

And also to show our eagerness to help, to demonstrate to others that we are excited and eager and desiring to do so, to actually be in that.

So it's not only just to glorify God, but also to demonstrate to the other churches that we see this as a good and healthy and beautiful thing.

You have a vertical, you have a horizontal thing.

We get a little more information in verse 20 on what this showing our eagerness to help.

Where it's taking this precaution so that no one will criticize us about the large sum that we are administering.

Indeed, we're giving careful thought to do what's right, not only before the Lord, but also before people.

So, they are gathering from a bunch of different churches a large sum of money.

They don't have Venmo.

They have to gather it, they have to transport it, keeping it safe the whole way, which I just see the Robin Hood cartoon and just carrying it.

But whatever.

All the way along the road, and then give it to the church for their well-being.

So that's a lot of trust because once it leaves Corinth's hands, they have no idea what happens next.

They have no idea, no way to track that.

And so Paul here is showing concern to do what.

Is right, and so that no one will criticize them about the large sum that they're administrating, and to do what's right again, vertically before the Lord and horizontally before people.

And it's very easy for us in our zeal to say, Well, I am going to please the Lord, and all y'all can just get behind that.

He cares here about how this affects other people.

He cares about the witness of how this is happening as well.

He cares about being above reproach in this way on the horizontal.

He cares about not only the glory of the Lord, but also being above reproach in their perception of how he handles this.

Again, Paul's kind of a big deal.

It would be easy to say, I don't need this kind of drama in my life.

And instead, he sees the need, and he not only does he not just run over them, but he's taking very, very, very great care to be above reproach.

Okay.

Verse 22, we have potentially our third guy here.

We've also sent with him, them, our brother.

So there's the brother, and then there's our brother.

It's complicated.

We have often tested him in many circumstances and found him to be diligent.

Same word.

Same exact word.

Only two times in scripture, this word in this form is used.

Other noun variations are used in other passages, but those two words happen right here.

That same haste, earnestness, purpose, determination is also in this brother.

What's special about him?

He's been tested in many circumstances.

We see in 1 Timothy 3 qualifications for elders, overseers, and for deacons.

And in the category of deacons here, which are people who serve, who work, just apply that.

In 1 Timothy 3.10, they must also be tested first.

If they prove blameless, then they can serve as deacons.

This testing is crucial in demonstrating the quality and the trustworthiness of their work.

If we're not careful, we can find people that we and plug them in based on their charisma or based on how personally useful they are to us because of a skill.

It's amazing how many worship leaders I've met who have an immense calling on their life because they sing real good.

Doesn't mean they don't, it's just those are do not equate in that sense here.

What is equivalent is the diligence for the kingdom, for the gospel, not just a personal desire and not just, hey, he does something well that benefits me.

But rather, he's been tested in a ministry setting and found worthy.

Found worthy of this service and is diligent as such.

So we have a couple of diligent guys here.

This individual is going with the going with Titus and the other brother, and he has been tested.

Let's see what happens.

I'm sure it'll go fine.

But rather, he has been tested and already found faithful before he even went on this mission.

So verse 23, a little bit of summary here.

As for Titus, he is my partner and co-worker for you.

So there's that personal relationship, Titus.

As for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.

He's taking this sensitive, touchy topic of money, and he's sending somebody who is personal relationship with Paul and rapport with the Church of Corinth, and sending a couple of guys who are tested workers and have a relationship and a reputation among all of the churches, not just Paul land, together to be able to do this sensitive thing.

To put the Church of Corinth at ease.

Paul is bending over backwards to put an offended church at ease, which is really cool, because like I said, it would be easy for him to be like, I don't have time for this.

But instead, this is again the dealingness we see in Paul.

So, 24, what does he tell?

That's all that background of the who.

And verse 24, therefore show them proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you.

So, the first exhortation in this passage for the Church of Corinth.

As these people are coming, show them proof before the churches of your love, show them proof of your love, and show them proof of our boasting about you.

Paul's gonna take the next few verses and get somewhat uncomfortably shrewd in his communication here, to where he's telling them, okay, I'm sending these guys, how you treat them will demonstrate your love.

It will also demonstrate that we didn't boast about you to other churches wrongly.

And also, this isn't in my eyes, it's in the eyes of the other churches.

So he's telling them to receive these guys and do this work diligently and give uh generously as proof before all of the other churches of your love and are boasting about you.

Because we don't live in a bubble, we don't live in isolation, and so all of these churches working together, he's kind of asking them, are you going to play nice?

Please tell me you will.

We told everybody you will.

I don't want to look stupid in this.

I I know that you're not going to make me look bad here.

Continuing on with this shrewd speech.

And this is, you know, for those of you who have raised children, who have managed employees, who have managed volunteers, all of these different situations, when you start using this language, it's not a demonstration of your confidence in the individual, but you're basically telling them, and I know that you're going to do the right thing, right?

Right?

You're going to do the right thing, because I know that we've already taught you that, and I know that you're going to do what you should.

Right?

Kind of what we see here with Paul's writing here.

Verse 1 of chapter 9.

Concerning the ministry to the saints, it is unnecessary for me to write to you.

I don't even have to be writing to you about ministering to the saints.

I don't even have to tell you how to give to the whole body of church.

It's not necessary for me to do what I am very clearly doing right now.

Because I know your eagerness.

And I boast about you to the Macedonians.

Hekiah has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.

This is kind of messed up.

Because what he is telling them is I know you're eager, and because I know how eager you are to give in this way to the things, I told your neighbors to the north that you have been ready since last year to do this.

And because they are here, that they are really stirred up and excited in the Lord about what you've done.

That's uh I'll keep using the word shrewd here, but he's basically telling them I told another church that not only are you so excited, but that you've been ready for a whole year for this.

And they were really excited for that.

But I'm sending in verse 3, the brothers so that our boasting about you in this matter would not prove empty, and so that you would be ready just as I said.

So I'm sending these guys to you just to just to demonstrate that what I said was true is true.

And so that you would be ready just like I said you were going to be.

So I'm sending these guys to you.

I'm not checking up on you, I'm not doubting you, I'm just sending them to prove what I told your friends in Macedonia you were already doing.

So get go.

Otherwise, verse 4, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, would be put to shame in that situation.

Goes even a little bit further and says, if the Macedonians come with me, and I just might bring some Macedonians, by the way, with me, and if we show you, find that you're unprepared, we're gonna be put to shame in that.

But not only will we be put to shame in that, but you guys are gonna look really bad.

So be ready, please, because I don't want to be, I don't want to look bad.

I know that you guys are gonna look bad too, but I really I don't know, I'm just worried about me.

Therefore, in verse 5, I considered it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and to arrange in advance the generous gift you promised so that it will be ready as a gift and not as an extortion.

Which sometimes you gotta wonder like, did Titus read this before he delivered it?

He's like, this isn't, this is an unextor.

Okay.

So he continues forward.

I'm sending the brothers to you to arrange in advance this generous gift you promised that I told your neighbors would be ready since last year.

I know you're excited to do that, to help others to benefit.

So I sent these three brothers, one of them who you love, who's tight with me, the other one all of the churches have a great rapport with, this other guy who's tested, and I'm sending them there to arrange this generous thing that you promised to us was going to happen, by the way, I told your neighbors you were going to do, and so that it would be ready as a gift and not as an extortion.

So it was mentioned last week, and I mentioned it again this week.

Like, does this make you feel like a little bit uneasy how Paul is going about this?

It's kind of one of those weird things of like, he's really uh kind of uh leveraging them in this situation, but it's important to remember, number one, he's leveraging them in the situation that is a part of what the whole body of Christ is doing together.

But secondly, what they apparently agreed to do either before this fallout happened or in the midst of it or after.

So it's not like he's telling them, hey, do this thing you didn't want to do.

They were already a part of this and planning to move in this direction, and he's carrying it on to completion.

Who loves being middle management?

Nobody?

Yeah, exactly.

He gets to be the individual who is executing the actions to make this come to play with individuals who are a little bit unruly, who don't like him very much, and he needs to make sure this job gets done, and he's taking every precaution to do that, and every wording and everything to make sure that this happens.

Why?

Why is he willing to do this?

What okay, here's the question: What does Paul get out of this?

Nothing.

This is there's no net benefit to Paul.

Corinth is not going to like him more when he says, give me your money.

He is not going to uh be expanding his own platform when that happens.

He doesn't get any of this money in any way, shape, or form.

We'll see later.

He worked so that he wouldn't have to do this, even though he didn't have to.

What does he get out of this is he believes in the mission of what is happening for the greater goal of the body of Christ together.

Which is cool to see, and something we overlook because I don't know, maybe it's just me, but when I read this, sometimes I get this idea of like, oh, that's a cool thing that they used to do as Christians.

But now we kind of do our own thing.

And we see just a beauty, as it was mentioned last week too, in Acts about the giving and about the selling of property and land and taking care of one another and all these things.

This is extending beyond the borders of a person's church into the wider church as a whole.

And this is a beautiful mark of the body of Christ.

When, okay, I'm gonna say this.

Do me a favor and sit on your red flags for a minute before you hear what I'm saying.

Don't throw them yet.

It is a beautiful act of the kingdom of God when churches work together.

When churches can cross over their own walls and work together and blend together for the kingdom of God.

Can that be abused?

Absolutely.

Can that happen to actually dilute the gospel?

Yes.

Does that mean we shouldn't try?

No.

And that's the difficulty here.

If we are going to let fear be our primary motivator, we will never work with other Christians.

We will never work with the Christians in our own church.

We'll just build our walls and be protective.

And I'm I'm I'm car this is in caricature, but this is what hurt people do.

This is very common.

I'm not trying to pick on anybody, I can do this, everybody can do this in their own way.

So know that I'm not trying to pick on anybody in that way.

But just know that ultimately this is, if there's one thing we pull out of all of this, it is beautiful when churches work together.

We see in Psalm 133 how delightfully good when brothers live together in harmony.

It's like fine oil on the head running down the beard, running down Aaron's beard onto his robes.

It's like the dew of Herman falling on the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord has appointed the blessing life forevermore.

It's a beautiful, joyous thing when believers work together.

Paul is not going to let his offense in Corinth hinder that, and he's going to do everything he can to promote that.

Now, what if we're Titus or the brother or the other brother?

What does this mean for us?

It means that our role is diligence, is eagerness, is care for the other.

And that is a beautiful thing to be faithful in this way.

To be faithful in caring, working, serving.

Because again, this doesn't give Titus any benefit.

This we we learn a lot about Titus in the book of Titus, thank you, exactly.

And although we don't know as much about these other brothers, they're doing this for the kingdom of God, not for their own platform and not for their own benefit.

And so ultimately what we hear the exhortation I see in all of this is number one, if we can work with other churches where well we let me just say a really, really important thing really fast.

There are primary issues, there are secondary issues, there are tertiary issues.

The primary issue is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Faith, salvation by faith alone in Jesus.

Secondary issues are things like how we do baptism, how we do communion.

Tertiary issues are all of the things that we as churches argue about and call primary issues.

And I'm not going to list them all here because I'll probably offend everybody, including myself, somehow.

Hard is to unravel that when you offend yourself.

With that, if we can work together with other churches to where we can agree on the primary issues and the secondary issues, potentially depending on the severity of the relationship there, it furthers the kingdom of God not only as believers, but also in our community.

Wouldn't it be weird if our community saw Christians working together?

Wouldn't that be cool?

Wouldn't that be a sign to them of the beautifying work of the gospel?

If Jesus, now granted, he's Jesus, but if he can get the 12, okay, minus Judas, we're not going to pick Judas, the 11 together and have them serve and minister and have them be the foundation of the explosion of the church and the gospel of Acts, I mean, surely we can work together as well.

So those are the big things.

If I can leave you with a couple things.

Number one, without any violation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If that is not a factor, it is beautiful when churches can work together and not attack each other.

Secondly, it is beautiful if we serve diligently, not just out of default, and diligently in a way that blesses others and serves others, not just ourselves.

Not only as we see Titus and the brothers do, but also as Paul does, as you continue to dial and dive deep into this relationship, that is treacherous.

It's a beautiful thing.

So with that in mind, may we be people who can work together for the kingdom when it truly is the kingdom, with diligence, with eagerness, for the benefit of others.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for today.

I thank you for the blessing of your word.

I thank you for your gospel.

It's the power of salvation for all who believe.

May nothing we ever say or do violate that or subvert that.

Be working mightily and be glorified in your name.

Amen.