Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Let's pray and ask for God's blessing as we come to the reading and preaching of his word.
[00:00:06] O heavenly Father, it is in your light that we see light. It is by your grace and work in our hearts that we believe that we are being conformed to your image, image of your son, the glorified son, who now sits at your right hand, ruling and reigning over all things, and in a very special way over us, your people.
[00:00:40] Because he lives, we live, and we know that nothing can separate us from you.
[00:00:49] So we ask that you would give us a heart for you, for the things that you love, for righteousness, for your church, for the lost, and for all good things.
[00:01:06] Lord, we ask that you would bless us and help us to grow in our trust and obedience to you. We pray this in Jesus name, our precious savior. Amen.
[00:01:20] Let's remain standing and turn to two Corinthians as we continue reading and hearing God's word preached through this letter tonight.
[00:01:30] This morning. Two Corinthians, chapter eight, verses 16 through 24.
[00:01:44] Last week we saw how Paul calls the believers there in Corinth and throughout time to be supportive in the work of the church, to build one another up and support one another, even through and here, particularly through financial means.
[00:02:05] We saw and thought about what it meant to do that, why we do that, and the Lord's calling to us in that.
[00:02:13] Here in our passage, he talks about the process around giving, how money is to be handled in the church. He gives us reasons, important reasons, and models for us to consider. So let's give our attention to God's word. It is for us, for our benefit. Two Corinthians, chapter eight, verses 16 through 24.
[00:02:41] 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.
[00:02:56] 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 goodwill.
[00:03:17] But 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 in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of man.
[00:03:31] And with them we are sending our brother, whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you.
[00:03:43] As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. And as for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.
[00:03:52] So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men.
[00:03:59] May God bless his word to us. Please be seated.
[00:04:30] So last week, as I mentioned, Paul gave us instructions from the Lord about excellence in our giving, excellence in the ways in which we support the ministry of the church, which ultimately, as we see in this passage, is not just the ministry of the church, but it is the ministry of the Lord through his people.
[00:04:57] Do you remember, if you were here with us last week, the context in which all of this is happening? It's helpful to remember that and to know it.
[00:05:07] There are poor saints, people who are struggling in very difficult ways in Jerusalem. They're having a hard time. And so what Paul is doing on behalf of the Lord is he is gathering up donations from churches in areas other than Jerusalem. He's gathering up those donations to then go support the work and the people in Jerusalem.
[00:05:35] So these brothers helping these brothers, one of the core aspects, the central things the Lord Jesus gives us to do, is mutual edification.
[00:05:47] Mutual referring to that, brotherliness, sisterliness of togetherness, one anotherness. As the scriptures often talk about. Edification is a word that means building up, right? Strengthening, building up.
[00:06:06] Maybe you've heard of an edifice, right? A building term. Edification means building one up. So how are these people at this point in time building up? The saints in Jerusalem, they're listening to them.
[00:06:22] They're hearing their need. They're paying attention to the reports. They know that they have need and they are coming to their aid.
[00:06:31] Now, those who are coming to their aid, we notice in the passage we looked at previously, have both wealth and poverty among their midst. It's not just the very wealthy who are coming to the aid of the churches in Jerusalem, but it is all the people in Macedonia. We read in chapter eight, verse two, that in a severe test of affliction, out of their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty, these Christians overflowed their giving in a wealth of generosity. They gave according to their means. And beyond it, Paul says, of their own accord, Corinth was likely a different situation.
[00:07:20] Corinth was this very important metropolitan city, like a New York City or a Los Angeles or something like that, important metropolitan city where no doubt there was poverty, but also great wealth. And some of the issues that we see people struggling with in the church of Corinth and the things they're wrestling with. And throughout the letters, we see that there is very likely wealthy people in that congregation.
[00:07:52] And so we see the Church of the Lord in all of its various parts and all of its various degrees, then coming together to the aid of these saints in Jerusalem and coming, we see from their own heart. You keep hearing these words of their own accord. Of their own accord. These are people who are giving, not under compulsion, not under guilt, not under some sort of demand from Paul or some passive aggressive move on his part. No, it's of their accord. Of their own accord. Earnestly, cheerfully, willingly. Verse four of chapter eight. The Macedonians were begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. Don't leave us out, the Macedonians are saying. Don't leave us out as being a part of this work. Just because we don't have as much money as other people, it doesn't mean we don't want to be a part of this. An amazing heart of generosity, which, of course, is flowing from the generosity of the Lord. We've considered Paul's words and the ways in which he's helping us to understand that our lives and the lives that we live are lived in Christ, who, as he says, became poor himself so that we might become rich. Not rich monetarily as a primary aim, but rich in love, rich in generosity, rich in the worship of the Lord.
[00:09:34] There is this act of grace we can say, using Paul's words, that God is doing among his people. He's taking people that are separated, disconnected, polarized, against one another for all kinds of reasons, including wealth, class, education, backgrounds, culture, all these kind of things. And he's bringing them together.
[00:09:59] The Lord is bringing all of these different people together.
[00:10:04] And instead of being against one another, they're for one another. And instead of being against the Lord, they're for the Lord.
[00:10:13] Instead of being turned inward, now they're turning outward, no longer needing to protect themselves and their idols and their desires, but knowing that they have everything that they could ever need in this life and the life to come in. The Lord Jesus, who came into this world to give us everything that we could possibly ever need, including material things.
[00:10:39] He provides for us our daily bread. He tells us to pray for our daily bread in the Lord's prayer. He tells us he'll take care of our food, he'll take care of our clothing. He tells us that in the life to come, we have an inheritance that is being stored up for us, kept for us, that is imperishable undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for us, a place that is described in revelation as so beautiful and refreshing and healing and life giving and life supportive in every possible way, spiritually, emotionally, communally, materially.
[00:11:25] The Lord just provides.
[00:11:29] And when we have this infinite source of provision, it creates this kind of ethic and motivation of generosity that allows us to give beyond our means, even, as Paul says of the Macedonians, with a sense of trust in the Lord.
[00:11:47] That's not to say that we don't exercise wisdom, as we thought about last time, that we don't exercise intentionality. We should be purposeful in planning and how we give and how we support and do that wisely. And we see that emphasized yet again in several ways here in our passage today.
[00:12:09] Last time, if I could put it this way, Paul talked about it's not just good intentions, but you actually have to do the thing.
[00:12:17] It's not just about our desires to be generous, but it's actually being generous. He says, complete this, finish it. Well, if you can imagine the desire here and the deed done over here. In our passage, Paul talks about that process in between.
[00:12:40] He talks about the doing, and he talks about it from the point of how we handle money in the church, how we handle money, the process of how things work. And he calls us to handle his money. We could say with honor, with blamelessness, like a dancer or musician, we are called to be graceful in our giving, not just generous and gracious, but there should be excellence and confidence building, trust building things in the actions and in the process of how we handle money.
[00:13:26] The Lord cares about all of these things, and it's generated from the things he's doing for us. I want to think about those more with you this morning.
[00:13:37] So in our passage, Paul explains what he's doing around that process of collecting this gift and why he's doing it that way.
[00:13:47] Let's think about those two things.
[00:13:51] First, what is he doing?
[00:13:55] He tells the corinthians that he's sending three people to come and collect the money.
[00:14:02] One of the things that many people have noticed and a bit of wisdom that people have, commentators and others have gathered from this is that Paul is creating a certain amount of distance and space between him and the money.
[00:14:16] That's a wise thing to do.
[00:14:20] He creates some distance between himself and all of the handling and all of the dealing of these things. He sends these three brothers, he calls them fellow Christians and trusted Men, to help handle this process.
[00:14:37] It is interesting that he sends not one or even two but three, there is wisdom in this. There's accountability.
[00:14:49] There's encouragement. There's mutual support.
[00:14:52] Let's look at each of the three as we consider what Paul is doing, this process that he is laying out for them.
[00:15:01] In this particular instance, as he comes to collect this money, he sends these three trusted brothers. The first one is named. The second two aren't. The first one is Titus.
[00:15:12] We read about him in verse 16, and we read that this act of grace that the church is doing on the behalf of others, again, as we keep seeing, begins with God. Notice what he says, thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you.
[00:15:37] So he says, you know me. You know the sincerity of my heart, the earnestness of it. Titus has this as well, and it's not there by accident.
[00:15:48] It's there because of what God has done.
[00:15:52] And then he says in verse 17 that he describes this. He not only accepted our appeal, which probably means that he agreed to go, right? Hey, Titus, would you please go to Corinth and help with this process? He not only accepted that, but we read that he, being himself, very earnest, he is going to you of his own accord.
[00:16:19] So it's like he gets the request, and he doesn't just say, yeah, I think I can schedule it in. He's like, absolutely, I will.
[00:16:29] Of course I will. He is earnest and sincere in his own desire. He said, I would do it anyway, right? He wants to do it of his own accord. Just as they are giving of their money, he is giving of his gifts, of his time, of his own personal resources, his traveling, all of these sorts of things. His service, he does it of his own accord.
[00:16:54] So we see this cheerfulness, this mutuality of edification and service coming from all these different angles as the Lord works his grace in his people.
[00:17:07] So that's Titus.
[00:17:11] Then we come in verse 18 to a second person, and Paul says, with him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the Gospel.
[00:17:24] I'll read verse 19 in a moment, but just pause here.
[00:17:28] He's a famous preacher, right? We have these in our day, right? People that are well known for their preaching of the gospel, respected, trusted, looked to because of their excellence in delivering, in administering the word of God to us. The same was true in the early church. There was this brother who is not named here, but whom they knew as one who was famous, well known in all the churches for his preaching of the gospel, right? The kind of person that you would listen to on the radio or go to a conference to hear. Here is someone like that.
[00:18:11] He says two things about him. One, which is this note about preaching, which I think has the effect of saying, you already trust him, right? He's already famous and accepted broadly for this work of God that he does. But then he adds to that, too. Not only that, he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us. Here we see an important aspect of our church government and the way that we function.
[00:18:42] We serve and work together in not only the mutual support of one another, but also in the calling and the sending of officials, we might say, of people who are given a specific calling and task.
[00:19:01] In other words, we don't have in our churches people who just decide that they will go in the name of the church and just go do things and call themselves ministers or whatever.
[00:19:14] Here today, as back then, we see this man is being appointed by the churches.
[00:19:22] There must have been some process, probably through representatives, elders, and pastors, by which this brother was sent, some process by which his name was put forward and a vote was made, and they agreed together to send him for this particular and very important task.
[00:19:51] 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.
[00:20:00] The third brother that is mentioned is then in verse 22. And with them, so we have the famous preacher and we have Titus. We then come to this brother, and with them we are sending our brother, whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters and who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you.
[00:20:27] Earnestness. Earnestness. Earnestness. Toward you. Toward you. Toward you. The Corinthians are giving of their love towards the saints in Jerusalem, joining that love with the churches in Macedonia and others to give right. And as they do that, there are these others that are coming to them in love.
[00:20:51] What an amazing thing in all of this. The Lord of working together.
[00:20:57] What else do we notice about this third brother? We notice that he is one who has been tested, just like Titus, just like this preacher. He has been tested, and not just tested once tested, often.
[00:21:12] Sometimes people, young men, if I could put it very bluntly, sometimes older men, too, who want to be ministers of the gospel. They don't like testing.
[00:21:28] They don't like taking exams. They don't like having to do work and service for the church. They don't like having to be put in situations where they have to prove themselves and get feedback and correction.
[00:21:42] That's just too bad.
[00:21:45] This is how it works.
[00:21:47] We need those who are called to lead and to serve us. They are to be attested. And here we have this man who has not just been tested once, but often tested.
[00:22:00] We don't know exactly in what ways, but nevertheless, he has been found earnest in many matters, different kinds. Titus is similar. I won't do a whole biography of Titus now, but we see in these letters of Paul, in acts, in the letter that is written to Titus by Paul, called Titus, we see a man who is given a lot of different tasks and a lot of different responsibilities, and who continues to serve in the name of the Lord. This third brother is like that. He is earnest in many matters and who now is more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you.
[00:22:49] So let's pull these three brothers together as we picture them in our minds. And how can we summarize what Paul is doing?
[00:22:59] He is sending to the church in Corinth, this church in this larger region of Achaea. He's sending tested and trusted people to collect this offering.
[00:23:14] And what do we see in all of them? And as a collection, as a group of servants, this team, this service team, what do we see?
[00:23:25] We see a heart for service.
[00:23:28] We see an appointment. We see a provenness. We see a heart for people and courage, or they are stalwart. They are not people who have been asked to do something once and then kind of gave up because things got hard. There are people who have proven themselves consistently over time to be able to do difficult things out of love and care for others and in the name of the Lord.
[00:24:06] Well, there are many lessons to draw from this, but before we do, let's think briefly about why Paul is doing it this way, why these people? Why this kind of action? To collect money, right?
[00:24:21] To handle some money.
[00:24:24] All they're doing, right, all they're doing scare quotes, or whatever those are called, is collecting this money and taking it to Jerusalem.
[00:24:34] Well, we could think about certain things, about the difficulties of the task, right. We are not doing electronic fund transfers here.
[00:24:48] We are not simply plugging in bank account information, and they're taking the money from one place to another.
[00:24:58] There's probably a safety concern. Bandits and other things like that is a reasonable thing to think about. Accountability in this process. What guarantees, the Corinthians might ask that one of these brothers is not going to kind of pull a Judas and betray the Lord through the taking of money that doesn't belong to them?
[00:25:24] These are the kinds of concerns that are naturally and should be. We can even say in the minds of people there are legitimate real and dangers and concerns around the handling of money.
[00:25:38] What other reasons does Paul give here in our passage for why the process is important, why the space between the desire and the done, that doing portion is important?
[00:25:54] Well, one reason he mentions is in verse 19.
[00:26:00] He says, we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord himself, for the glory of God.
[00:26:12] What does it mean to do it for the glory of God?
[00:26:16] One, it's to recognize that God is involved in this work.
[00:26:21] They do it carefully and they do it with excellence. Because of the excellent one, because of the excellent Lord. They are not doing this on their own behalf. They're not doing this just to impress people or check off marks or be useful or something like that. They're doing it because their heart is after God and they see his work, his actions, in their own hearts, in the hearts of others and all throughout the world, as God is joining these people together, lifting them up, binding them together, all to the glory of his name.
[00:27:00] As I mentioned before or hinted at, at least these things don't happen apart from God.
[00:27:08] The Lord's glorious power, his majesty, his awesome grace, is on display in the work of his people.
[00:27:18] To then do things in a sloppy, haphazard way. To do things in a way that is sinful, like stealing or lying, is not to do things for the glory of God. It's to do things for the glory of man, for self, out of sinful desires, sinful pleasures, sinful fears.
[00:27:41] Paul and the brothers and the churches are doing these things in this way. Why? For the glory of God, for the excellence of his name.
[00:27:54] A second reason that he gives is to show our goodwill. That's at the end of verse 19.
[00:28:02] He wants to demonstrate that their hearts are good, that what they're doing comes from a place of genuine love. He says something similar to the church in Corinth. He's wanting the Corinthians to mirror in some ways his own actions and the actions of these brothers. When he says in verse 24, give proof before the churches of your love.
[00:28:29] Bear forth fruit. Show the proof. Not as though he doesn't believe it's going to happen. He does. As we see at the very last verse, he says, give proof of our boasting about you to these men.
[00:28:44] Just as Paul sort of boasts about these three brothers and talks about the wonderful things that the Lord has been doing in their lives, he's been talking about the Corinthians, too.
[00:28:55] I know, in the church, and we like to harangue. I don't know if that's the exact word I want to use, but the Corinthians, right? There's a lot of trouble in this church. We have lots of reasons to believe. There was lots of hardship, lots of difficulty, big problems. Paul talks in a passage we looked out a little letter ago about a very sorrowful letter, a hard letter that he wrote to them over some things that he needed to say that were pretty tough stuff.
[00:29:27] But let's not forget that there is a lot to be thankful for about this church as well. Paul's boasting about them. He knows what the Lord is doing in them. He knows that despite their weaknesses and their struggles, the Lord is producing fruit about fruit in them. And he says, it's time to prove this. It's trying to show it. Let these works be shown as genuine, ultimately, why? Not for the glory of us, but for the glory of God. This is his handiwork. This is his work.
[00:30:03] He wants the will of himself and of these brothers and of the churches, all as a whole, to be shown forth as good.
[00:30:14] There's all kinds of reasons for that which we won't get into now.
[00:30:20] One of them is, of course, Witness the testimony that we as a church are bearing to the world the reputation that we have and are called a good reputation that we are to have and to maintain.
[00:30:37] This is the final why I will mention about why this process, why this kind of attention to detail Regarding the collection and handling of money.
[00:30:52] Paul says in verse 20, we take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us.
[00:31:02] We take this course, verse 21, for we aim at what is honorable. That's his aim, what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight, but also in the sight of man.
[00:31:18] Apollo says other things in the New Testament, says other things that remind us that we are to fear God above man, that we are not to be people pleasers, right eye service kind of people that just kind of do Things externally as a way to make other people happy, when really our primary COncern ought to be the Lord's sight. And that's always true. He's listed first here as well.
[00:31:44] But that doesn't mean that the way that other people think about us doesn't matter at all.
[00:31:51] It does matter to a degree, to a proper degree, to the degree that he mentions here. He says, we aim what is honorable not only in the Lord's sight, but in the sight of man. Now the world may not see it.
[00:32:07] Sometimes the Lord puts things right before the eyes of men, and men ignore it. They may not see it. They may deny it. They may even persecute us for doing what is honorable. Just because we do the right thing, just because we act with integrity, as Peter says, doesn't mean we won't suffer for it. It doesn't mean the world will all of a sudden clap and cheer and say, you've done so well, o church of the Lord Jesus Christ. How wonderful you are. No, Peter says, don't be surprised when the fiery trial comes upon you because you have done the right thing.
[00:32:42] But doing the right thing still matters.
[00:32:46] It's a testimony to the Lord and what he is like and who he is. And as I keep saying, ultimately that's where all of this comes from, what we see exemplified in the character of these men, these three men of Paul himself, and what we see, that the call for a certain kind of living in the life of Corinth and the life of us here in Tucson, these things, this fruit is first and foremost coming from the Lord's own character himself.
[00:33:25] We represent him. We administer him, we bear forth his fruits, his life.
[00:33:33] We entrust ourselves to him.
[00:33:36] Psalm 33 four says, for the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.
[00:33:44] All his work is done in faithfulness, and so should ours be, especially if we can say that when we are ministering in his name.
[00:34:00] First Thessalonians, I'm sorry, two corinthians 118. The Lord connects these two things, our actions and his actions. When he says, but as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no.
[00:34:19] As God is faithful, Paul says, our word to you is not yes and no.
[00:34:26] He is shining forth in himself by the grace of God, the work and character of the Lord, the faithfulness of the Lord, the excellence of the Lord. That all his work is done in faithfulness is ultimately the hope of our salvation.
[00:34:47] It's not just our trust and how money gets handled. It's everything.
[00:34:53] One Thessalonians 524 says, faithful is he who calls you, and he also will bring it to pass.
[00:35:03] Consider the work of the Lord Jesus when he came into this world in the fullness of time, at the perfect time.
[00:35:12] Consider how there were moments in which he paused and delayed and moments in which he acted, moments in which he stepped away, and moments when he entered in moments in which he said, it's not my time, and moments in when he said, my time has come.
[00:35:30] In all of it, he acted perfectly and with faithfulness and with excellence.
[00:35:38] He was intentional, he was purposeful, and he did it all for the glory of God.
[00:35:45] That's, of course, a great example to us. But it's more than that.
[00:35:49] It's the hope of our salvation, because the Lord acted in that way, because he's faithful and not forgetful. Because he's faithful and not neglectful, or falls down on the job or messes things up, or gets a little greedy sometimes. Because he's faithful.
[00:36:10] Paul says he will bring our salvation to pass.
[00:36:17] All of his promises will come true.
[00:36:21] This work that he's doing in the church, we can say built on a solid rock because of who he is.
[00:36:32] So as we think about how we apply these kinds of things, we have to think first and foremost about him doing things for his glory, of course, and doing things with faith in him that ultimately what we do and how we do it, and our planning and our policies and our procedures and all of these things are done for him and through him and because of him, our integrity. We can say this coherence, the connection between our hearts and our actions, that alignment, that integrity is, that starts with God's working in our hearts, doesn't it?
[00:37:28] As I keep saying, if it were apart from the work of God, we would not be people like this.
[00:37:35] Thanks be to God, he starts, who put in the heart of Titus this same earnest care I have for you.
[00:37:45] So as you look at your own heart, and if you find there sins of theft, greediness, covetousness, if you find in yourself places in need of healing fears in which you clamor after the riches and things of this world, in which you are stingy and difficult, and you need healing, there, the promise is that you can go to the Lord who is faithful and find healing. You can go to the Lord who is gracious and he will be gracious to you.
[00:38:23] This is also true for those of us who struggle with legalism, who get the job done, but whose arts are not in the right place, who are dependable and faithful, and can make sure that things happen in the way they're supposed to happen. But we do it for man, and we do it to prove something, and we do it to atone for something. And we do it so people will think well of us.
[00:38:50] For those of us who struggle with that, we also have the grace of the Lord Jesus to change our hearts and make us servants of him instead of servants of ourselves.
[00:39:04] These instructions that Paul gives to the Corinthians also encourage us to be helpful and supportive of each other. We see that by the example of these men and the call to the church in Corinth to follow a similar path.
[00:39:20] And finally, I'll say, as a last point of application, we see this in all of this, we are to bring these principles into our own practice, that when we collect our money, as we do here at covenant, that we do so faithfully, as we handle it, we do it with accuracy. We have multiple people that look at the gifts that come in and sign off on them. There's accountability and transparency. There are professionals who look over it, audits that are done accounting, that is checked and double checked. These are important things.
[00:40:01] And I guess it's a good opportunity to say thank you to the team of people that supports and does that work out of their own generosity and service from their hearts. It's an important thing that you do, and we are thankful that you do it.
[00:40:20] As we think about that and as we think about how our own actions play into all of these things, as this last point of application, I want to say that the scripture here calls us to trust in the Lord ultimately, as we both decide what policies and procedures are necessary for the handling of money, as we look for wisdom in refining those and fulfilling those, but as also we look to the Lord's wise providence, bad things happen, mistakes happen, sin creeps in. Our trust ultimately has to be in the Lord who keeps his church, protects his church and uses us. And as he does that in us, we will be, as he says here, the glory of Christ.
[00:41:12] For we are the body of Christ who even now is glorified. As we trust in him, God will be glorified and his light will be made known. Some will stumble over that and fail to see it, and others will see the work of God and come to him. May God do that work in us as he did it in Jerusalem and in Macedonia and in Corinth. Let's pray.
[00:41:41] Our heavenly Father, we look to you for our salvation in all aspects of our lives, not just our end and our salvation from death, from hell, from your wrath, but, Lord, also in the mundane things, the little things that we do in our lives today. We pray with particular concern around how we handle money in our congregation, and not just in our congregation alone, but we have in mind the churches at large. And so, Lord, we pray to you for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters in other places. We ask that we would be honorable in this manner, that you would preserve us from greed and from other kinds of sin.
[00:42:33] Lord, we ask that you would help us to be diligent and careful in the ways in which we live our lives before you, in areas of money and in others, knowing how careful and diligent you were for us.
[00:42:50] Let us put all of our faith in you for the forgiveness of our sins, for the sanctification of our lives, Lord, for everything.
[00:42:59] May you be glorified. May our heart long for the glory of your name, that many would see you and praise your name all over the world.
[00:43:14] May the gifts that we give go to the work that you are doing in your churches for worship, for witness, for the building of our community and our lives together.
[00:43:27] Help us to be generous and cheerful and be earnest in all we do because of you. And for you. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
