Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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I'm in. So in Glatian six
hundred and ten, another one of Paul's
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epistles, he writes so then,
as we have opportunity, let us good,
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do good to everyone, especially those
who are of the household of faith.
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And here in Second Corinthians he focuses
on are doing good within the household
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of faith. The ministry is,
he puts it in verse or Chapter Nine,
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Verse One, a Ministry for the
saints, a Diaconeus, sounds like
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Deacon Saints. This is the Minister
Christians for other Christians and, as we
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explored last time, there are offices
in the church, officers who are called
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deacons. But we all have this
responsibility and in ministry we all have a
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responsibility of mercy and sharing for the
needs of others, and that's what Paul
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addresses here, this doing good,
this sharing of gifts, this ministry for
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the saints within the household of God. He speaks to it in this very
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particular time and situation. To put
it in a contemporary terms, imagine a
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situation where Paul was writing from California
to us here in Tucson about a gift
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we've been preparing for the saints in
Texas it's a similar situation here. Paul
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is riding Um Macedonia to the saints
in a Chaia and a particular city called
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Corinth about a gift that both the
Macedonians and the Achaeans, or the Corinthians,
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are putting together for Jerusalem. Christians
that are elsewhere, Paul says,
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in Romans, Fifteen, twenty,
six, Fordonia and Akia have been pleased
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to make some contribution for the poor
among the saints at Jerusalem, and this,
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of course, continues today. I'm
even within our own denomination. We
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are blessed, we personally have been
blessed in this local church by the gifts
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of others, people who don't know
us, people who have never met us,
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people have never seen and yet they
pray for us, they give to
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us and they share with us,
and we likewise have had opportunities to share
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with others that we know and love
because they are of the household of faith,
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even though there is distance between us. The particular, the very particular
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context in which Paul is speaking,
I find is interesting. He's been bagging
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about the Corinthians, he says,
for for more the year. They've been
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prepared with this gift and he's been
telling this to the Macedonians. The Macedonians
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have been inspired by the action of
the Corinthians. They have been their own
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heart. It's have been inspired by
others, and that's important because, as
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we're going to see, the Ministry
of Christ's mercy in the Church has this
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kind of round effect, this ripple
effect, this systemic effect. Happens in
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one part of the body, is
has effects on other parts of the body.
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So the Corinthians being zealous and excited
and giving a to give generously to
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the churches and the Christians in Jerusalem
is being little contagious. And the Macedonians,
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he says, have been zealous in
that because of them. But he's
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sending some brothers ahead to just make
sure that all is as he thought it
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would be, as he says it
would be, and it is a reminder
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that Paul is a human being and
that people are human beings and he wants
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to confirm them in their good works
and encourage them on their way. And
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so he sends these brothers ahead because, he says the concern he has is
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that he gets to Corinth perhaps with
some Macedonians and toe and the Corinthians aren't
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ready. This, he says,
would be humiliating for him, not to
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mention for you, right, if
the if the church has this reputation for
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being this great, giving, Generous
Church and then you finally show up and
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not so much, it would not
only be humiliating, but it would it
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would it would be shaming to the
cause of Christ, because it was out
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of that cause that they were promising
these things, out of that gift,
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that things were being prepared. And
so he says in Verse Five, I
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thought it necessary to urge brothers to
go ahead and Ara. I'm going to
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go ahead and turn this off just
because. So testing okay, I've never
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held a mic and preached before,
so I won't have my I don't know.
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Will find out how it goes.
So let's see, right. So
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I was reading verse six or verse
five. Paul decides to send these brothers
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out to to prepare, to to
get things ready, and to do so
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so that the gift would be ready, as promised, as a willing gift,
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not as an exaction, and it's
from that point that he then gets
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into the particulars about how it is
we are to give what is this Ministry
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for? The Saints Ministry, from
brother to brother, from sister to sister,
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from Church to Church. What is
that supposed to look like in the
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church? How does it function?
Where does it come from? What happens
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when it happens? And this,
of course, is very relevant for us
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because we still have needs in our
churches today. We still have gifts in
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our churches today to support one another, to lift one another up, and
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so it's this that we have in
verses six through fifteen, and explanation on
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the how of our giving. And
what we see is that Paul calls us
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to what we might call a grace
based giving, or, to put it
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another way, not all giving is
the same. Paul says in verse five
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that he wants the gift to be
given willingly and not as an exaction.
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You know the difference, right,
one is Voluntaryan one is forced. Kids,
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have you ever had the opportunity to
share with a brother and sister,
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a brother or sister, and you
say here, would you like some of
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my Legos, or here, would
you like a one of my cookies?
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And it's shared willingly from your heart? That feels good right, it's give
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it. It's a free giving that
you give that's very different kind of giving.
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Then, when your parent turns to
you and says give your brother your
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toys right, give your sister your
cookie, that giving is an exaction you
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are being compelled to give, you
are being forced to give. Now,
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the right thing to do in that
moment is to honor your father and your
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mother and to give your cookie,
to share your toys and to do so
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as willingly as you possibly can.
But you know the difference right the you
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know the difference between being told or
compelled to do something and being able to
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do something freely. Now what's really
interesting is that, because of the Gospel
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of God, he enables both of
those things together to happen together. He
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tells us to do good, he
puts a duty upon us, he compels
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us by his law to obey but
at the same time, by his spirit,
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he changes our hearts so that we
aren't grumpy about it, so that
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we do it in a way that
is, as he says later, cheerful.
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To explain this and to frame this, he says to us, he
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gives this instruction. Each one must
give as he has decided in his heart,
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not reluctantly or under compulsion, for
God loves a your full giver.
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So, when thinking about how we
give, the Apostle Paul tells us to
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think about what's going on in our
hearts. Right, am I doing this
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and I'm doing it with a closed
hand and I really don't want to do
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it, or am I doing it
readily, willingly as I have decided to
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give? This is important when we
think about the question about how much do
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we give within the context of the
Church? Are really anywhere else in life,
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but here we're focused on the church. It is, as the scriptures
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say, as you have decided in
your heart. Now some of you will
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say, I want something more specific
than that, I want an exact amount
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or a percentage or something. Well, you are free to give yourself a
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percentage and exact amount and once you
decide on that, that is what you
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ought to give. Some people want
that because they want to excuse themselves from
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giving more than they should or more
than they can. Other people want an
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exact amount so that they feel like
so that they can excuse themselves as a
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well, I could never give that
much. God simply says give as you
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have decided in your heart. Well, how do you make that decision?
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Will you make it based on some
of the things that are said here,
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and so we'll go ahead and and
go forward. As we go forward,
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let's continue to think about the ways, in the different ways to give and
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what it looks like not to give
freely. Sometimes people give and even very
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what are what feel like either to
them or two others as very large amounts.
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It's all relative, but a lot
of times we don't give that in
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the right Ray. We give it
to perhaps to prove something to ourselves or
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to others. Perhaps we do it
to earn something. Perhaps there are voices
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as we give. Even outwardly it
might look very free, but inwardly there's
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things whispering in our heart that's not
fair, or you're going to regret this,
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or you're not going to your you're
not going to get the thing that
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you want. Or maybe you give
it but you put others under compulsion.
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As we've been studying first Corinthians in
our men's Bible study, one of the
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things that we've learned is how there
was the system in this world in which
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Paul lived and of patrons and clients. The patrons would give gifts, very
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generous gifts, and there was no
expectation that the clients would pay them back
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financially. They probably never could,
but there was a debt. You'd have
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to uphold the honor of your patron. You'd have to show up when he
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asked, you'd have to be there. There was a kind of give and
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take re Lationship, their loyalty that
was expected. It may not the the
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the expectation of what comes back may
not always be financial. It might be
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something else. Paul wants Christians to
be giving in another way, not as
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though there are tenzero strings attached to
that gift. And a great example of
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this it are the Macedonians. If
you turn back, you'll, I think,
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as the Corinthians were inspired or this. The Macedonians were inspired by the
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Corinthians. I think we can be
inspired by the Macedonians. Listen, and
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this is just the previous chapter,
Chapter Eight. We're going to look at
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versus one through four. We want
you to know, brothers, about the
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grace of God that has been given
among the churches of Macedonia, for,
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in a severe test of affliction,
their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty
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have overflowed in a wealth of generosity
on their part. Notice what he says.
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They're he said. He doesn't say
out of giantormous bank accounts. There
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has been an overflowing of wealth.
He says out of a severe a test
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of affliction, or in a severe
test of affliction, and from an abundance
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of joy and extreme poverty, has
overflowed a wealth of generosity on their part.
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You see, generosity is not necessarily
measured in dollars. It's not measured
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in dollars here. It's there are
almost no dollars. They are extremely poor,
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he says, extremely afflicted, but
full of joy, and that has
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a full overflowed in a generosity on
their part, for they gave according to
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their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their accord,
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begging US earnestly for the favor of
taking part in the relief of the
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saints. Here you have these very, very poor Christians begging for the opportunity
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to give to other saints who are
in need. Perhaps you've seen this,
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or test are a seen this among
others yourselves and have been put to shame
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or have been inspired at those who, out of their meager resources, have
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given so much and with so much
joy where does that come from? That's
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what Paul's talking about here. Where
that comes well, that's what it looks
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like. That's what it looks like
to give cheerfully, to give rejoicingly,
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to give with the needs of others
in mind. So where does it come
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from? Well, to help press
this point and to help teach us of
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these things, Paul gives us a
proverb, a very familiar proverb, but
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he puts this Gospel twist on it. So the proverb is in verse six
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and he says the point is this. Right, that's always helpful to hear
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from preacher. Right, the point
is this. Whoever so sparingly will also
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reap sparingly, and whoever sow's bountifully
will also reap bountifully. So you know
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this proverb right you? You reap
what you sow. If you work hard,
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there's payoff. If you're lazy,
there's also payoff, but it's not
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a very good one. If you
plant one apple tree, you're going to
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get one tree full of apples,
if all goes well. If you plant
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a hundred apple trees, you're going
to get a hundred apple trees full of
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apples. If all goes well,
you reap what you sow now, unfortunately,
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sorry. The question then, is, what is it that these Christians
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reap when they sow their generosity,
when they give these collections of money for
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the poor in Jerusalem? What is
it they're reaping? Now there are these
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devils in the world who will tell
you that what you get is money.
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So you give a little bit of
money and you will get money back,
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and this is a great deal,
they tell you, because if you give
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to the church and you give to
x and Xperson's ministry, then you're going
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to get all of this money in
return and God is going to take care
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of you, and they put it
in all kinds of Christian language. But
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this is not true. This is
a deception that if you give, God
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will make you rich. That's not
giving, not giving as Paul describes it.
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That's giving with the hope of a
return. That's an investment, right,
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and investment to increase your bank accounts. But the people that claim these
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things, they miss the point because
of their own greed and because their ignorance
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of the word of God. You
don't have to look very far to see
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what Paul is talking about. He's
not saying give me money to the church
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so that you can become wealthy.
What is the harvest, right? What
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is it that you will reap bountifully? Let's read Verse Eight. And God
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is able to make all grace abound
to you, all grace about to you.
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I want you to as we read
these verses, I want you to
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notice the I'm going to use the
word excessive, but I don't mean that
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in a bad way, this kind
of overflowing, abundant kind of language where
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it's like all every abounding. Okay, look for those as we read.
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What is the harvest again? What
is the harvest that we get? And
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God is able to make all grace
abound to you so that, having sufficiency
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in all things at all times,
you may abound in every good work.
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Paul says, you will have sufficiency
in all things at all times, and
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the scriptures tell us that what sufficiency
is is food and clothing. God will
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take care of you, he will
provide for your basic needs. You don't
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need to worry about that. Ever, the abounding part is what in every
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good work, in all grace.
Let's read on in verse ten, He
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who supplies seed to the SOWER and
bread for food will supply and multiply your
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seed for sewing, so that's all
the sewing part. And increase the harvest
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of what your righteousness, it says. The abundance is not money, it's
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righteousness. Okay, so that's verse
eight. That's verse ten, now eleven.
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You will be enriched, he says
it, and it every way,
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to be generous, in every way
which, through us, will produce a
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Thanksgiving of God. You hear all
this agricultural language, like sewing and reaping
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and producing. Right. What is
the thing that they will be enriched with?
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More generosity. You so generosity.
What are you going to get?
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Generosity? And he what does he
say? Also which will also produce thanks
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giving to God. This is the
harvest. Righteousness, generosity, grace,
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these kind of things, and we
can keep going verse twelve, just one
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by one here, for the Ministry
of the service is not only supplying the
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needs of the saints but is also
overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. There
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it is again, thanksgivings to God. The harvest is praise, the harvest
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is thanksgiving. Yes, the needs
of the saints are going to be taken
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care of, and that's great,
but what's really great is the harvest of
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Thanksgiving, this joy of praise,
the people standing up and giving thanks to
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God for their work among them.
And if you'd think Paul hadn't covered it
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yet enough, he can. He
keeps going. In verse thirteen, he
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says by their approval of this service
they will glorify God. And continuing to
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then of the verse and the generosity
of your contribution for them and for all
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the others. I'm sorry, let
me read the whole thing. They will
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glorify God. Why? Because of
your submission that comes from the from Your
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Confession of the Gospel of Christ,
and the generosity of your contribution for them
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and for all others, while they
long for you and pray for you,
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because of the surpassing grace of God
upon you. So, when we look
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at this and we think, well, what good will come from me giving
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generously, even if it's very little
perhaps in the eyes of others, if
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it's generous and from my heart,
that's right. What that's the part that
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matters. If this is giving freely
and generously and cheerfully from my heart,
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be it smaller big, in the
eyes of the world, what good is
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it? Well, one good is
that it takes care of the needs of
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the saints. That's certainly good.
That's important. As we considered last time,
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we're called to love one another.
But what Paul emphasizes here is while
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that's good, there's this whole other
thing that happens Thanksgiving to God in us,
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in others, the prude prod the
production of more grace, the production
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of more righteousness. Paul can hardly
contain himself at the end of this passage,
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after talking about all this thanksgiving.
You says in verse the Fifteen.
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Thanks be to God for this inexpressible
gift. He's just so excited. II
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did not just about the money right
there. We don't know how much they
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gave it never says look at this
amazing amount of money. In fact,
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the amazing amount of money that's or
or the when the amount is talked about,
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it's talked about in relation to the
Macedonian's poverty, not the Corinthians wealth.
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Right, it's not this amount,
it's of money, it's the it's
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what's in their heart. And when
Paul sees what's in their heart and what's
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at work among the people of God
and what's a work in the churches,
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he is excited and thankful and he
leads them in this praise. Thanks be
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to God for this inexpressible gift.
So that's the harvests that's produced, and
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that's why I call the people that
would teach us sort of money making scheme
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here devil's because it's contrary to the
word of God. It's contrary to the
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very clear teaching of the word of
God. This harvest is not about making
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more money or enriching ourselves in this
world. It's about giving praise and glory
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to God. Ever, almost every
single verse in this passage says it.
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Well, where does all this come
from? Because this is the other major
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point Paul makes here and will end
with this point. Where does this overflowing,
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abundant general pocity come from, when
we know ourselves not to be so
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overflowing, generous, cheerful people all
the time? Where does that come from?
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How is it? What is the
source of that? And on this
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Paul is very clear. Look particularly
at verses eight, nine and ten.
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He says in Verse Eight and God
is able to make all grace abound to
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you, so that, having sufficiency
in all things at all times, you
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may abound in every work. So
where does that sufficiency come from God.
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Where does that abundance come from?
God? Where does that generosity come from?
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It's God, God who is able
to make grace abound in you.
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Now when we're talking about grace,
we're talking about gifts, we're talking about
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generosity, we're talking about God giving
something to us that we did not deserve.
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And he quotes Psalm one hundred and
twelve, verse nine here to really
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press this point. In verse nine, he says he has distributed freely,
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he has given to the poor.
His righteousness endures forever. Paul's not talking
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about the Macedonians here, he's not
talking about Corinth here, he's talking about
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God through his son, Jesus Christ. His righteousness endures forever because he is
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the righteous one, because he is
the wealthy one, because he is the
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holy one, the perfect one who
has all things. Jesus says that all
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that he has is all. All
he has all that the father is given
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him. He has everything that the
father has. He is God himself and
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from his divinity and from his and
from his accomplishment of fulfilling the law on
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our behalf, he he is this
generous king who can now distribute gifts to
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us, to distribute freely, and
so this is the gift of God.
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Right God doesn't come to us and
say, well, you know, I've
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looked at how you've set up your
life and I think you can be really
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valuable to my organization. I think
you have real gifts that you can offer
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and you can come in and you
can be a part of our team for
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a little while and we'll see how
it goes and if you do well,
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perhaps you can advance. It's not
what he says. He says you're a
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dirty, rotten sinner who is a
debt or to me. You've disobeyed me,
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you've ruined your life, you've ruined
the life of all the people around
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you, and now I'm going to
give you a gift beyond your wildest dreams.
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I am going to give to you
everlasting life. I am going to
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put you among a people that will
love you forever. I will put my
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love upon you and satisfy everything that
you could ever need and, on the
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basis of my righteousness, which endures
forever, I will then be at work
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in you, producing righteousness in you, so that you will no longer be
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a dirty, rotten sinner, but
instead you will be this holy one,
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this sanctified one, for me,
and you will be generous to others as
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I have been generous to you.
And you know what I'm able to do?
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It I god, says. God
is able to make all grace abound
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to you. He's able to take
people who are turned in on themselves and
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attach every kind of string to their
gift and are bound by the chains of
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their sins and their pride and their
need to take care of everything for themselves,
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and he snips all those chords and
he breaks all those chains and he
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releases us into the freedom of generosity, to cheerfulness, to joy. Whether
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we've got a little or a lot, it doesn't matter. We're okay and
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we're fine in Christ. That's what
God does when he gives to us the
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gift of his son on the Cross. And so that's why he says in
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verse ten, He who supplies seed
to the SOWER and bread for food will
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supply and multiply your seed for sowing
and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
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You See, God is saying,
not only am I going to take care
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of your your needs in this world, and not only am I going to
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take care of your needs your bodily
needs in the next world as well,
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in the age to come. But
I'm also going to take care of your
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hearts, this heart problem that you
have, this endem and enmity that you
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have between me and you, and
this enmity that you have between you and
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your brothers and sisters. I'm going
to take care of all of that so
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that you will increase in this harvest, this harvest of righteousness. God's gift
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to us is a gift that changes
us at it empowers us and it moves
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our hearts to give gifts to others
who then, as it turns out,
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are supplied by God through us and
we are supplied by God through them,
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and everybody links arms and raises their
voices to God and says, with Paul,
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thanks be to God for his inexpressible
gift. This is not about US
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scrambling around and judging each other and
trying to figure out who's giving what and
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how all that kind of stuff,
and being worried and under compulsion. It's
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about US relaxing into the grace of
God, knowing that we're going to be
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just fine because of all that he
has given us, and then sharing what
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we have without worry, without stress, with cheer and joyfulness, knowing who
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he is, knowing what he's done
and what he is doing even now among
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us. And so this is what
God teaches us in this chapter. Chapter
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he teaches us that in the church, the meeting of each other's needs is
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a good thing and it's a god
thing. It's a good thing because the
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ministry from the saints for the saints
results in a Thanksgiving and a praise to
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God, who is the giver of
all of these gifts in the first place,
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who empowers these gifts and puts them
to good use. The source of
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our gifts and the strength of our
gifts, in both our clothes and our
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food and in our hearts, is
the Gift of God in the Gospel of
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his son. Praise be to God. So let's pray
