Brothers and sisters, would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. Second Corinthians, chapter 8. So we talked to you this morning about grace and graciousness. We're looking in between these series on the three formulae and between the series on the Apostles Creed and baptism in the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments. We're looking at Paul's teaching on giving in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. We've already looked at the first 15 verses of chapter 8. Where Paul talks about grace and generosity, how the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ makes us generous. Because Christ who became poor for our sake gave everything for our sake is the inner motivation by the Holy Spirit for us to do the same, for us to be generous people in terms of the things that God has given as our stewardship for the kingdom of heaven. We'll come in a few weeks to chapter 9, where he talks about grace and gratitude. It's out of gratitude or thankfulness that people become cheerful givers and willingly almost contagiously become people who like to give to the Lord in his work. But in between those two thoughts, Paul has a section here that at first reading doesn't quite frankly appear to be very much about giving. He talks about some men that he was sending to the Church of Corinth, Titus and two other people who would collect the money from them and would be examples to them of what a generous spirit was. I know that the train of thought in this passage is difficult to connect with what went before what comes after, but here's what Paul is saying. When the grace of God moves in a person's life, they become a generous person. And they become a motivation, a prod, so to speak,
an exhortation to other people to be gracious as well. Because we never give our money in a vacuum. I want you to notice that. We never give our money to God in a vacuum. We always give our money to the Lord through someone else, whether it's through the people in your church or the missionaries on the field or some agency that's doing some kind of ministry of mission, we're always giving to people to do the Lord's work. And therefore, our trust in these people is fundamentally important to our generosity towards the Lord. The grace of God will move in people's lives so that they become trustworthy, servants of Christ, and that will enable us with good conscience to give generously to them, knowing that they will use what we give them for the fervents of the gospel. And Paul talks about that by using three men as an illustration of that. Chapter eight, beginning in verse 16. But thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus, the same earnest care I have for you. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he is going to you of his own accord. With him, we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our good will. We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us for we aim at what is honorable, not only on the Lord's side, but also on the side of man. And with them, we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest and many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. And as for our brothers, they are messengers or literally apostles of the churches, the glory of Christ. So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men. Now we know who Titus is. He's a rather well-known person in the New Testament. He's one of two young men along with Timothy whom Paul refers to as his son in the faith. It appears that Titus joined Paul and Barnabas when they went to Jerusalem on a private visit where they met with Peter and James and John and received the right hand to fellowship for their ministry and were sent out to be apostles to the Gentiles while the other apostles would be apostles to the Jews. Titus was a faithful servant, a bold little fella, and he was sent on various missions to Macedonia and then to Corinth when he was a troubleshooter like Timothy. And when Paul would be anxious, especially about the Corinthian church, he would send Titus to them repeatedly. And here he sends Titus again to collect the offering that they had pledged for the support of the church in Jerusalem that was under persecution and was starving. And he said, you know Titus and you can trust him because he is a well-known entity. But we're also sending with him a man he says who was famous in the gospel. And with him we are sending the brother who was famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. It literally reads for his famous in the gospel. Whether he was a preacher or a minister of the gospel, we don't know the early church thought this famous brother was Luke, but to be honest with you, we don't know who he is. But they knew who it was because Paul has no need to tell them his name. But he also is going along with Titus to handle these money so that it is not just Titus alone who's collecting these monies, but also this famous brother. And with them a third man who they say is a tested brother. And with them we are sending our brother who we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because it was right confidence in you. We also don't know who this person is and probably neither did the church in corn, but Titus would introduce them to him. And he would be along with Titus and this famous brother messengers it says in the ESV, but really the word is apostoloy. They were apostles of the church. They were commissioned for this great service. These men were part of a traveling man that went with Paul. And there was a great appeal that came out from the church of Jerusalem in the early years of Paul's ministry that asked for funds to help them. They were persecuted. They were suffering a great famine in drought. They had lost their jobs, an excommunicated from the synagogue been divorced by their spouses, banished from their families. They were in dire stress. And so the mother church, it wasn't an ironic thing. The mother church asked the missions to give money back to them. And so Paul, wherever he went, he had this as part of his message. In fact, when he went down to meet with Peter and James and John in a private meeting, he said, they gave me the right hand to fellowship to take part in the ministry. They only asked me that I remember the saints who were in need in Jerusalem. And this I promised to do. So everywhere the Paul established a church, whether it was in Macedonia, or Asia Minor, or Galatia, or Kaia, or Greece, or Rome, he always reminded them that one of their first duties as fledgling churches was to collect money and send it back to the mother church in Jerusalem. And we're told in Acts chapter 20 that there were a number of men who traveled with him. So Peter, who was from Berea in Macedonia, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica in Macedonia, Gaia's and Timothy from two different cities in Galatia, Ticacus and Trophemus who were both from Asia Minor and Luke. And now these other men that he mentioned. So from all of the different churches, and all of the different presbyteries or regions, where he started these churches, these people picked one young man, who was trusted by them to collect their money and to join this traveling band with Paul and to take it to Jerusalem and deposit with him. And it was meant to motivate all of the churches to give generously. Look at chapter nine beginning in verse one. Now it is superfluous for me to write you about the ministry for the saints. For I know your readiness of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia saying that a Keia or Greece has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers so that are boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter so that you may be ready as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians came with me and find that you were not ready, we would be humiliated to say nothing of you for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you had promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift and not as an exaction. And sending these three men to them. Paul mentions three character traits of a trustworthy minister. They were men with a reputable character. They were involved in honorable work and they were earnest to serve the church. Reputable, honorable, and earnest. I want to look at these things briefly this morning. I want you to follow Paul's train of thought. Look at who he begins. But thanks be to God who put into the heart of tiniest the same earnest care I have for you. Paul is clear that these things of a good reputation and honorable character and an earnest heart are a result of what God puts in a man. Every minister of the gospel is a sinful wretch like every one of you. And it's only by the grace of God that he, as Paul would say, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And the grace of God first works in our character before trickles down to our wallets and pocketbooks. It's the grace of God that changed these men. And therefore, it's the grace of God that can change us to do the same. First point, the grace of God will produce on us a reputable character. Thanks be to God who put into the heart of tiniest the same earnest care I have for you, for he, not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, is going to you of his own accord. With him, we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being administered by us for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our goodwill. Timothy and this famous brother have what we would call a reputable character. They are known to be people who have an earnestness about the church who are famous. The word literally means well-known, well-known in their gospel labors. And they have been entrusted with the church. They've been appointed by the church to do this serious ministry because they are trustworthy men. They're men of good reputation. Grace Paul is saying has a way of producing in both ministers and in members of the church, a reputable character so that we trust the men who are asking us to give to the church, to give to faith promises, to give to mercy ministries. And that today is a major problem. Increasingly all around us, it's in the headlines it seems every other week. Some well-known famous pastor falls into adultery or homosexuality or pornography or stealing from the church or plagiarism or lying. You've been reading the news. How one of the most popular preachers among young people in particular has had to resign his church because first his wife committed adultery and then he committed adultery. He's the fourth or fifth of several pastors in the Miami area alone in the past six months or a year who've committed adultery. We know that the founder of the Acts 29 network was fired and disowned by those people because of his abuse of staff, his lying, his mishandling of funds, his foul language. The founder of the Institute of Basic Youth Conflicts has been accused by 60 different women of some kind of sexual misconduct or molestation, 60 different women over the span of 40 years. There was a bishop in Atlanta who had to settle privately out of court for the millions he built out of the church and for having sexual relations with a young man. And yet he remains a bishop in that church. We know all about pedophile priest and homosexual bishops and lesbian pastors. I got to thinking this week in the office that I personally know by name. I mean, I have had friendships and relationships with 14 men in the BCA who are no longer in the ministry of Mary because they left their wife or another woman or a man. They were addicted to pornography and would not repent of it. They lost their jobs because of plagiarism or lying. Gambling, alcoholism, drug abuse, and it's discouraging.
What was the root issue with these men? I think it's pretty simple. They neglected the grace of God and so they fell from grace. They were, if I could put it bluntly, more concerned about being famous than having a good name.
They wanted to be on the preaching circuit and they wanted to write books and they wanted to blog. They thought that everybody in the world needed to hear their constant stream of consciousness. They were puffed up with themselves. And in the process as they pursued the world and its affirmation, they neglected their souls, their marriages, their families and their churches, and all came crashing down around them. Paul mentions three things that we should look for in men to trust. First, they display an earnest care for their churches like Titus. It was so earnest to care for these people that it was own volition, not because it was his responsibility. He was involved in churches in another place. He took his vacation to travel to them and to encourage them. Secondly, these men were renowned for the things of the gospel, not the things of the world. And thirdly, they had been appointed by the church for this serious ministry because of their reputations. They had earned the right to be trusted. You know, trust is a funny thing, folks. Nobody owes you it. None of you owe me any trust, not one of you. Trust is something that I and other ministers have to earn. I realized that this is discouraging for you. It's discouraging to me. But I also want to remind you that there are men out there who earnestly care for their congregations and have no desire to be celebrity pastors. They have no ministry outside the church. They're not going around all the churches trying to tell them how to fix things up. They're contented just to be a pastor, to people like you. There are men whose lives are immersed in the things of the gospel. They're not distracted by traveler writing books or hobbies or whatever. They just content to preach the word and to work the gospel into your lives. And there are men who over time have been entrusted by things in the church in greater measures of responsibility. Because of the good reputation they have. Pastors are like policemen. A few bad ones can make you feel bad about the whole group, but I want to tell you something. 99% of our policemen are out there risking their lives to keep you safe every Sunday. For low pay and not much esteem because they are men and women of noble character. Just because a few do things in cities around us or in our city doesn't mean we write off the whole group and you know that's the same about pastors. You know, the headlines never say, John Smith, unknown by anybody, concludes 40 years of faithful ministry and has led many people to God very quietly. That's never in the headlines, is it? Ever. But a few bad pastors can rule the whole bunch and are thinking, don't let that happen, folks. Look to the average pastor on the average street corner and you will find like the average policeman on the street corner. A faithful man who has for very little renown and even less pay and lots of criticism undertaking the earnest charge to care for your souls and is worthy of a good report. Here's the second thing he mentions that the grace of God will protect us for an honorable work. Verse 20, it's as important because this is why he's putting this paragraph about these men in the middle of this statement about giving. We take this course of action. We take this course so that no one should blame us or literally it should be better translated, accuse us about this generous gift that is being administered by us for we aim at what is honorable and not only in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of man. He points into a second character trait of a faithful trustee of the riches of God that he is a man or woman of honor. We aim at what is honorable. This is why Paul writes this. He's saying in a sense when it comes to handling money, the church gives to ministry and missions a great deal and those who handle that money must take special care to ensure that they handle the money in an honorable way in the eyes of both God and men. Now how did Paul handle this? It's brilliant. Here's what he says. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 16, by the way. He'll tell you how he decided to handle the same in a letter. The first letter he wrote to the Corinthians. The first four verses of 1 Corinthians 16. Now concerning the collection of the saints as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper so that there will be no collecting when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem if it seems advisable that I should also go, they will accompany me. He says, first of all, he's going to send to the Corinthians men with a letter of recommendation. He's going to certify that these men who will be handling the money are trustworthy. Secondly, he says, they are only to trust those whom they have accredited. They will pick their own representative out of the church in Corinth in Greece to add to this band of men. We don't know who he was, but he was in that group if the Corinthians gave so that they're giving to someone who was a known entity. And thirdly, Paul appears to never touch the money. I want you to notice the very last verse of that little passage. 1 Corinthians 16.4 If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me. It appears that Paul's not even intending to travel with this large sum of money back to Jerusalem. He's going to entrust these men to do it. Paul's the fundraiser. He was doing what I do. He was preaching about your giving. He let other people touch that money. You know, we handle this here at Christ Covenant Church. We have an audit every year in which I sign a statement that I signed on Tuesday, certifying that I was unaware of any fraud, conflict of interest, or mismanagement of church funds. I'm held legally accountable for what I sign. I have no signature authority over one penny in budget. There are seven pastors on the staff. I'm the only one that has no budget. I don't have authority over one line item. When I want to get something, it's like an act of Congress to get me money. Okay? And I like it like that. I can't sign a check here. I can't get into the church funds. And you know, I don't want to. Not only that, but I preach on stewardship out of my own life. I say this not to be melodramatic, but I give you permission if you want to. To go see Sandy Spitz and say, for the last nine years that he's been here, I would like to see Pastor Ross's giving record to the church and you're free to look at it. I will never, and I have never asked you to give a penny to one thing that I have not first given generously to. So my internal mechanism and the outward checks and balances will guard me from ever being tempted to take money from the church. And guard you from any accusation that I have been less than honorable when it comes to money. There are few things that will ruin a pastor's reputation quicker than the misuse of funds. And Paul says, we are taking great steps to ensure that these men are involved in an honorable work without any question to their integrity. Thirdly and finally, the grace of God will promote in us spiritual earnestness. And with them we are sending our brother, verse 22, whom we have often tested and found earnest and many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you as for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. And as for our brother, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. So get proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men. Four times in this passage, Paul mentions the word Spooday, translated in the ESVS Ernest, but really means zeal. These men were zealous. They were not perfect, but they were not put on. They were not always right, but they were always righteous. Not faultless, but never fake. A man who is what he preaches and how he appears. Because this word Spooday has the meaning of genuineness. There was nothing fake about them. Their love for the church and their zeal for Christ and their life for the gospel comes out so that it's hard to deny that this is really who they are. We live in an age of celebrity pastors, people who look so good on the outside, but you know, nobody ever gets closer than to really see what's on the inside. They're fake. And the falseness of their life cannot bear the weight of reality in soon. It collapses for everybody to see. One of my great heroes was Dr. James Montgomery Boyce of the 10th Presbyterian Church. My friend Rick Phillips, who was one of his associate pastors, said that the Sunday that he died, a young lady who had come to know Christ and the church and had grown under Dr. Boyce's ministry came and put her head on Rick's shoulder and just wept. And she said, I'm going to miss Dr. Boyce so much but she said, the thing that's going to make me the most sad is that I never really got to know him. And Rick said, oh, but you did. For what Jim Boyce was in the pulpit, he was in the office and at home and having lunch with you. He was a genuine man with a zeal for Christ. I realize that that's hard to believe now with all of the pastors falling all around us. But Paul says, here's our job description. This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God and moreover, what is required of a steward is that he be found trustworthy, earnest, zealous, genuine, happy to be like John the Baptist so that Christ might increase. Because you see, that's who you're giving your money to. To Jesus Christ and all the other boys in the picture just work for him. We're just hired hands. It's not our calling to be concerned about our legacy or whether we've been honored or whether or reputations or what they should be. Or if a little right up in our pictures hanging out in lobby isn't as glorious we think it should be. And that's not our calling. Our calling is to be stewards of God's grace, bond slaves of Jesus Christ, you begone to say a spectacle to the world, a fool for Christ and the scum of the earth. And in earnest, man is proud to bear those titles for Jesus Christ. Because when grace works in our lives, we can be sure that it's working in the lives of those who are preaching grace to us. We can be sure when we see a person who's good reputation, who's of honorable work and interest in the gospel who knows genuine and earnest in his soul for the things of the Lord, that that person can be trusted with our money and can motivate us to be the same. Look at chapter nine, verse five, last verse. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go ahead of you and bring in advance for the gift you have promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift not as an exaction. Twice he mentions the word gift according to the SV, but it's really not the word gift. It's the word eulogya, which means blessing, littlely good message or benediction. Your giving, he says, is a blessing. It's a good work. It's a consecrating benediction upon the people who receive the benefit of your gift. It is part of your message to the world. It is a measure of your consecration to Christ. It is the thermometer of your earnestness, of your honor, of your good name. What we give to the Lord speaks more about us than perhaps anything else we do. And when the grace of God works in your leaders, turning them into godly men, with godly preoccupations and godly passions, when they have been a blessing to you, then it calls us to respond. And to be those same kind of people and how we are a blessing to other people. There are two things we could look at in life. We always have the choice to look at what's wrong with the world, what's wrong with the church, what's wrong with pastors, or policemen, or teachers, or mom and dad. But if you really burrow it out into that, my friends, that's just a soul looking for an excuse why they don't have to do what they ought to do. Or you can look at the people whom the world never seems to notice, judge the earnestness of their life, the honor of their endeavors, the good name they've earned over a lifetime at a great cost. And you can say, no, that's the kind of person I should be. And those that pursuits I want to invest in with my money, that's your choice. I guess it's whether you see the cup half empty or half full. But I encourage you to look to Christ because then we have no excuse. Christ who became poor on our behalf so that we might be rich in Him has called us to be a blessing to other people by giving to His great cause. And I can find for the life of me nothing wrong with Jesus Christ. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we have all around us, we acknowledge great testimonies and spiritual moral failure on the part of our leaders. And yet we don't want to focus on those things. We want to do what Paul said in Philippians. We want to let our minds dwell upon the things that will lift us up, things that will encourage us and strengthen us and motivate us to do what you have called us to do. We want our minds to dwell on that which is true just and pure, lovely and commendable, that which is excellent. Things worthy of praise. We want to think about these things. What we have learned and received and heard from you through your son and his apostles will be of seen in these great men of the faith. We want to practice these things so that the God of peace will be with us and the peace of God will be in us. Most of all, we want to be faithful. For that is what you've called us to be. It is required of a steward that he be faithful. You tell us. Faithful in the means of grace you've given us to enrich our souls and faithful in the ministries and in the stewardship you've given us to express that grace that we received and to bless other people by sharing it with them. It's always hard for us to give because what we give to you is something we must take from ourselves and yet your grace can enable us to be a blessing to do so willingly and not as Paul says as an exaction, as a tax or a duty but as a privilege and a joy. And we would pray that you would work through our spiritual leaders and in their lives and in ours to be that kind of people and to claim your promises that we would receive exceedingly abundant, beyond all we could ask or think and therefore be able to give above our means because of the grace of Jesus Christ who worked in us. And all this we would pray for our own peace of mind with the strength and purity of the church for our children and grandchildren and the generations yet to come and for the cause of Jesus Christ. Revive us again, we pray. Renew your church and help us to be faithful in all we do, including our stewardship. We ask this for our good and for Jesus' sake.