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Brenton
This is further a weekly show for the people of Harmony Bible Church, where we seek to revisit and expand on Sunday sermons with the goal of growing deeper in biblical truth that transforms our lives. Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His offspring will be mighty in the land.
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Brenton
The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends. Who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever.
00;00;53;22 - 00;01;20;26
Brenton
He's not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm. Trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph over his adversaries. He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnash as his teeth and melts away.
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Brenton
The desire of the wicked will perish. Welcome back to further. I'm Brennan Grim. today we have Chris Carr back in here. How's it going?
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Chris
Pretty good.
00;01;31;20 - 00;01;56;16
Brenton
Good. So, I open this with Psalm 112, which is what Paul references in. I think it's first nine. in Second Corinthians nine and, I thought it was, a good way to start the show, really talking about, the, the attributes of a righteous man. And that's really what what Paul is talking about here.
00;01;56;16 - 00;02;13;03
Brenton
When we when we are generous, God will God will bless that. But also in the in the 10th verse there we see that, it it's foolishness to to the unbelieving. Any thoughts on that?
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Chris
No. I think it's great to kind of look back, at, the Old Testament, anytime it's quoted and, it's a great psalm. And when we should certainly seek to model our life after. For sure.
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Brenton
Yeah. I did want to, before we get going, see if there was any, more updates that you've you've found from the reverse offerings.
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Chris
Yeah, actually, we've been, getting quite a few stories in and probably we'll share, a couple more of them as we have time, this Sunday. But some, some really neat stories. I love how people are being creative. I love how God's opening up doors just, really share, share the gospel. and, just to, let, you know what the words here are good deeds and hopefully glorify God in heaven.
00;03;08;03 - 00;03;28;08
Brenton
Yeah. one thing I think that came out of it was, you really see families involving their kids in it. And so if nothing else, it's giving me more visibility to, to are giving, you know, it's easy to set up the autopay and it just happens. But when we can get our kids involved and show them through our actions, I think it's powerful.
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Chris
at the very least is getting people thinking about generosity and, that is, never a bad thing. So for.
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Brenton
Sure. Okay, so you said on Sunday, God doesn't want, giving to be a burden to us. He doesn't want it to cause us grief. And so my question here is, what if it does feel like a burden? How can we how can we start to find joy in the in the sacrifice of giving?
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Chris
This is a great question. I do think it really goes back to what we've been talking about repeatedly over the last three weeks is, the gospel is ultimately about God sacrificing on our behalf. And, that Jesus, you know, made the sacrifice to take on our burdens. which means that now, we can and, in many ways should be be willing to sacrifice to carry others, burdens and, that doesn't mean, by the way you say, what if it does feel like a burden?
00;04;37;27 - 00;05;08;03
Chris
And in some ways it you know that. Yeah, it's going to it's going to feel like a burden. But we can do it joyfully, because of what Jesus joyfully did. for us, I quoted Hebrews 12 on Sunday for the joy set before him. He endured the cross, despising the shame. And that joy was he, the author, verses a little bit later, bringing many sons to glory and we are those sons and and daughters.
00;05;08;03 - 00;05;31;20
Chris
And so, I think we can do it because of what Jesus did for us. I think we can also find joy in singing about how we can be a blessing to other people, and how God can use our sacrifice, to impact people's lives. whether it's to bring people to faith or to minister to them in very difficult circumstances, to see the gospel go forward.
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Chris
And of course, we've talked as well about we, have the opportunity to lay up treasures for ourselves and in heaven. And just like that should give us joy as like God's given me these resources and I then, you know, we talk about it in terms of sacrifice. And I guess that's one way respect, but it's not much of a sacrifice if I'm simply, investing in my future.
00;05;55;17 - 00;06;18;28
Chris
And if we really look at it that way, is. Yeah, sure, it might mean I have to put off doing something that I want to do now might mean I have to go without, it might mean that I don't get to experience everything that I get to, to, could potentially experience, but in reality, nothing that we, you know, we do without here for the sake of the gospel.
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Chris
We're not going to be paid, you know, 10,000 times fold greater. and having Jim Elliott, as, the missionary who was, was martyred by the Indians many, many years ago said he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. and so if we we look at it in terms of investment, I think that can, can can really, help us to do that.
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Chris
So you just think about this, you know, hindsight is 2020, but if you knew what Apple stock was going to be today back in, you know, the late 90s, would you have joyfully drained your bank account to buy as much Apple stock as you could have? I think everybody would have done that because if you you've bought a significant amount of stock and really you and you had to buy a significant amount, you'd be a very wealthy individual.
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Chris
and, and I think that's a fairly good illustration of how we can, actually look at joy, at the sacrifice we make now because we're investing in something that's going to pay off huge, huge dividends for all of eternity.
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Brenton
Yeah, yeah. And I, I think you you're right that there needs to be joy in our obedience, even if it is uncomfortable at the time. And that's, I think I think it is a natural consequence of obedience that we will that we will find joy in that. But, on the front end, that's kind of hard to acknowledge sometimes.
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Chris
Right? I did forget you're not really much of an Apple guy, so maybe that was it. I got.
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Brenton
I got an apple that right in front of.
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Chris
Me. Right.
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Brenton
okay, so Paul is clear that we shouldn't give out of compulsion. He says that explicitly, but when we're kind of starting out, even if it does feel like it's compulsion, is it is it right to just obey and do it anyway?
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Chris
Yeah. I wanted to give a little bit of a nuance there. I think that what we're seeing is, is not reluctantly when he says not under compulsion, he he's talking about how we shouldn't try to compel other people to get we shouldn't put pressure on other people. And so naturally, yeah, we shouldn't also, you know, give certain simply because, you know, we feel the pressure to, to do so.
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Chris
But to answer your question directly, you know, in Matthew six, in the sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where moth and rust don't corrupt and thieves don't break in and steal. And then he goes on to say, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And the point is, is that your heart follows your treasure.
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Chris
And so I do think that if we wait a lot of times, if we wait around until we are can joyfully give we we may never get to the point where we actually, you know, give. if you wait for your feelings to get in line with what you're supposed to be doing, most of the time, that's a, that's a that's going to be a faulty approach.
00;09;31;18 - 00;10;07;00
Chris
It's not going to accomplish what the Lord would want to see you accomplish. So I, I do think that there are certainly times and, this is true, I think often times when it comes to to giving, as we've got to, follow, what we see laid out first in Scripture and begin to, to give and, and then I think what we can often find is that when our, when our treasure goes into something or to, to, to the ministry of the church, to furthering the gospel to individual people, our heart starts to, to to follow along.
00;10;07;00 - 00;10;30;03
Chris
And we can we can get the joy of seeing how God works. And one of the things we talked about on Sunday is like one of the blessings, of generosity is the that God promises is give us to give us, more ability to be more generous. And that's really where I think you start seeing the joy flowing from is like, oh my goodness, God just is giving me more to be able to give.
00;10;30;03 - 00;10;33;15
Chris
And I'm making a bigger and bigger impact.
00;10;33;17 - 00;10;56;01
Brenton
Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know, just anecdotally in the in the church here, I think we've seen that as, as harmonies continue to grow. Right. I mean that's, that's been a, a common theme for us as, as we've kind of branched out and gone into more areas and been generous with, with the church's resources. I think we've seen God bless that.
00;10;56;04 - 00;11;26;20
Chris
Yeah, absolutely. Well, the last time we, walked through Second Corinthians eight nine was a decade ago. And, at this very time, we were when we went through this, we were in the process of launching the the Burlington campus, and we had to raise, what was at that time, somewhat significant amount of money today. It wouldn't would not be that much, not nearly as much as it was for us back then.
00;11;26;23 - 00;11;50;09
Chris
And yet, God, just you know, graciously and very quickly, provided that through the generosity of the people who were there at the time, who were part of our church. And now, a decade later, there are, easily twice as many people who are a part of our congregation. And that doesn't include all of the the region that that has come about.
00;11;50;09 - 00;12;16;08
Chris
Because God has, you know, people gave generously and God has continued to give back, to us more generously. And which people continue then, and it just continues on and on. And so our our church in many ways, and not just in the last decade, but what's it's been interesting in, in this, series have been researching and studying God's other stories of historically about what God's done in harmony.
00;12;16;10 - 00;12;47;28
Chris
And this has kind of been the story of Harmony Bible Church since its beginnings all the way back in the late 50s is like the people who began this church and and really honestly, I think the whole history of the church is people being faithfully generous. And, Lord, just continuing to bless it. And and honestly, there's not much of an explanation of, of Harmony Bible Church other than God's just blessing.
00;12;48;00 - 00;13;16;10
Chris
but blessing, a few people and then a growing number of people who've been joyful, generous because, you know, you and I are sitting here in the original auditorium as we're recording this and, and then, of course, across the street is this really, really big building, but we're surrounded here by corn and soybean fields, like, there's.
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Brenton
Are you saying it's not a popular strategy for the church?
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Chris
And. No, I mean, like Newton and, it really is. I I'm sure there are some other churches like us somewhere, you know, but it's it's a pretty unique, unique story that can only be explained by God's generosity and graciousness and then by people responding to that and, being being generous. And then God just continues to to dump blessings into our laps.
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Brenton
Well, and we started by talking about, you know, eternity is where we find our, our treasures here. But I think there's people listening to this show right now that have been faithfully giving for decades. They get to see the fruit of, you know, these these campaigns that started ten, 20 years ago. Get to see now what what it's become and what it's still becoming.
00;14;10;06 - 00;14;14;13
Brenton
And so there's yeah, there's certainly, treasures here as well.
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Chris
I should get it out sometime. It would have been great for me even read it here if I'd. I thought ahead, but, Nathan Williams, recently gave me an annual report from Harmony Bible Church from 1969. And, it was, one page front and back and just, talking about how much the Lord had been growing and blessing the church.
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Chris
And I think the offering for the year was like $26,000 or whatever the, the total, the year, but had been significantly more than the year before. And then, you know, it's it's just kind of cool to, to read the stories. Yeah.
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Brenton
Well, given the inflation, that's probably not too far off.
00;14;50;26 - 00;14;54;12
Chris
Everybody. It's all about inflation these days.
00;14;54;17 - 00;15;17;20
Brenton
All right. So so far in this series, the application has really been given to us as individuals. I'm curious about on the corporate level. So when we think of the, the, the church harmony, what what are the responsibilities of the of the church to, to be generous?
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Chris
Yeah. I mean, do you mean for us to, to corporately to be generous to individual people, to, organizations? I mean.
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Brenton
Yeah, I mean, I think because you had made the point in episodes previous that as individuals, our top priority should be giving to the local church. But then when those funds are collected at the local church, what what then corporately, as, as the church should should that money go toward.
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Chris
Sure. well, I mean, this is a little bit of a sticky subject, but, the, the scriptures, particularly the old, sorry, the New Testament would say that, those who, preach the gospel, those who administer the gospel should get their living from the gospel. And Paul quotes Old Testament, don't you know, muzzle an ox on the stretching out the grain and those kind of things.
00;16;17;19 - 00;16;49;03
Chris
So we have, responsibility to support those who are shepherding and leading and, carrying out, vocationally, the ministries of the church. We are responsible laity to send field what we call field staff or missionaries, our church planners, we certainly have a responsibility to care for and, the needy in our own body. this would begin with widows.
00;16;49;05 - 00;17;14;09
Chris
the New Testament talks about that very, very clearly. Paul addresses that, and, so, yeah, I think that that's the primary responsibility that the church is. I think the church has a responsibility as well to, to provide opportunities for, the people in our body to, to be, to be generous with time, talents and treasures.
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Chris
In this series, we're we're primarily focusing on the treasure. But, you know, one of the reasons that we have established a city, city Hope Foundation is to to give our people opportunities to to minister to the the needy in our community. And so it's not so that harmony will, necessarily fund it all. It's not so that we would necessarily do it all.
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Chris
But, but, but somewhat of a, a structure and opportunities. And we actually are seeing that take place in a pretty significant way.
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Brenton
yeah. That that's interesting. Do you think that that, has been kind of backwards with, with American Christianity as a whole? Do you think that churches usually kind of take the place of the individual in, in ministry in the community and kind of do all that on their own and don't really ask their, their people to get involved with it?
00;18;15;19 - 00;19;05;13
Chris
I think sometimes. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. I think we can we can look at this in another way in one of the reasons that we have may be so many, Christian nonprofits and, and Christian mission agencies because the, the church has quit, actually sending people out, to do mission work. the churches stopped actually caring for the poor and things that really the Lord would see, as the part of the mission of the church we just have, like, offloaded into, nonprofits or or church or many ministries that are related to the church or have been started by the church, but they're separate from the church.
00;19;05;16 - 00;19;41;02
Chris
One of my real concerns is, is that there there are so many organizations that that are Christian, but they're not church connected. and those get separated. And, and I think that that's, that's unhealthy. Yeah. because, you know, the the reason that we, you know, like you talk about college, ministries, those are great, but a lot of times they're disconnected from the local church.
00;19;41;02 - 00;19;56;23
Chris
And so college students will will go to a ministry, and then all of a sudden they're done college. And like, they have no connection with a local church, and they they don't get connected to a local church. What happens to them and their faith in those instances. And I see that, fairly often.
00;19;56;23 - 00;20;31;24
Brenton
Yeah. Well, and I think maybe, maybe it's kind of presented as a semantic difference, in a way. But when we, when we talk about the church's responsibility to, to the community or to, you know, whatever, I think that it's easy for us to conflate, like the church organization and the church as its people. Right? So, like, if we believe that the church is made up of individuals who are part of the church, then it's really our individual responsibility to go out and to be generous with our time share.
00;20;31;26 - 00;20;47;24
Brenton
And so, it just it seems like there have been a lot of, you know, bigger churches that will take your money. And then we're going to go do what we want to do. and so I just think it's important to not take the responsibility off of the, the members of.
00;20;47;24 - 00;21;18;01
Chris
The. Absolutely. That's a fantastic point. And I would say at the same time, it's not the church's responsibility to do everything like and I mean, as an institution or an organization, it's. Yeah, like if, if the Lord has laid it on a believer's heart to minister in some way, it doesn't mean that the church needs to start a ministry to, to me that like just like go and go and go and do it.
00;21;18;04 - 00;21;21;07
Brenton
under the leadership of your church, but. Well, but yeah. But still.
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Chris
Yeah, yeah. And, we want to provide some opportunities to that, but we're not trained to do every. We can't do everything. Yeah.
00;21;32;26 - 00;22;02;00
Brenton
Okay. So the the collection Paul is talking about in Second Corinthians specifically isn't intended for the poor in general, but for the needy believers in Jerusalem. and this this caused me to question the target of our generosity, both individually and corporately. When we think of being generous to the poor in our communities, we we tend to think of the poor in general and and not necessarily believers who are in need.
00;22;02;03 - 00;22;10;01
Brenton
is is there any place in the New Testament that calls us to give generously to the non-believing in our community?
00;22;10;04 - 00;22;31;09
Chris
Yeah. This is another great question. I'll begin with kind of the, overarching principle. I think that the the Bible as a whole teaches and it's stated most clearly in Galatians six nine and ten, Paul writes, and then let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.
00;22;31;11 - 00;22;56;18
Chris
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to, those of the household of faith. First thing I want to say here is Paul really likes this sowing and reaping. yeah. Analogy. he hits it again here, and but then second, let us do good to everyone, okay? So that that believers and unbelievers, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
00;22;56;18 - 00;23;30;03
Chris
So it seems pretty clear to me that that the church has a primary responsibility to care for those in the church, believers, those who are part of the body. That is the first and foremost priority. I mentioned earlier. For, widows, we give specific instructions that Paul gives to Timothy about the care for for widows. we see in acts six, you know, the origination of the deacon ministry is to care for widows.
00;23;30;03 - 00;23;54;07
Chris
I think we can include in that widowers and, children who are in difficult, situations, whether that be, you know, we've got single moms, whether we've got, orphans in foster care that and those kind of things. So we have a special primary responsibility, really, anybody in the church who who has a physical material need, that's where we go first.
00;23;54;07 - 00;24;16;10
Chris
But then, the passage, there's a let us do good, everyone. And there are numerous other passages, both in the old and the New Testament. first John three 1718 but if anyone has a world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against them, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
00;24;16;12 - 00;24;51;09
Chris
And the word brother. There it's been argued that that means brother like, Christian brother, Christian sister. I think that the brother there is, actually pointing to your fellow man, mankind. And, you know, you and I were talking before we got on here, and there wasn't necessarily a distinction in that, but the we have to today. another passage question is Matthew 25, the the sheep and the goats and, you know, Jesus tells the parable.
00;24;51;09 - 00;25;17;18
Chris
And then there's a question about how, you know, how do we know it was you, you know, and he says, when you did the least of these, my brothers, you did to me. And again, there's an argument that this brothers means fellow believers. I don't even think that that's how the verse actually reads. I think he says, you know, the least of these my brothers talking about, he says, my brothers, I'm talking to you.
00;25;17;18 - 00;25;38;10
Chris
And it's when you minister to the least of these that you are ministering to me. So I think sometimes people the wrong emphasis there. You can go to James two and there's this whole passage about, you know, a wealthy guy comes in and a poor guy comes into the church gathering and you give favor to to the, the wealthy person, and you ignore the poor person.
00;25;38;15 - 00;26;05;07
Chris
And there's really condemnation for that. Like, and that's talking about and the wealthy people that are actually unbelievers and interesting in the context. and then we can go to Jeremiah 22, and there's all kinds of passages in the Old Testament about caring for the poor. But Jeremiah 2216 and God's talking to the sons of Josiah. So Josiah was one of the few godly kings in the Old Testament.
00;26;05;07 - 00;26;34;09
Chris
And now he's he's, talking to the the sons of Josiah, those who followed up, who are not following in his steps. And he says he, Josiah, defended the cause of the poor and needy. And so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me? Declares the Lord? So to declare the Lord to, to know the Lord means to, care for the poor and the needy and the poor in the needy.
00;26;34;11 - 00;26;56;04
Chris
in the Old Testament. Yes. We're we're first and foremost the those in the Jewish community. But we also see that there were immigrants, and there are aliens that were sojourners that that there are actually clear commands for the people of Israel to, to care for these people in their midst. and then the last thing, Proverbs has a lot to say about this.
00;26;56;04 - 00;27;24;19
Chris
Proverbs 1431, whoever is kind to the needy honors God. And there's no real qualification between, you know, say, believing needy or unbelieving, needy. It's just period. Whoever is kind cares for the needy, honors God. So maybe that's, a little bit of an overview. There literally are dozens and dozens of verses about this, in the scripture. And so again, I'd say priority is we got to take care of our house first.
00;27;24;21 - 00;27;34;04
Chris
and, and then as we, as we are doing that, let's care for the poor and in the community as, we're able.
00;27;34;06 - 00;27;53;28
Brenton
Yeah, yeah. I don't know if there's anything to follow up on that. I think that's that's that's really good. I know one question that comes up a lot, in everyday life, it kind of pertains to this is how do we handle panhandlers?
00;27;54;00 - 00;27;55;06
Chris
You really want me to answer them?
00;27;55;06 - 00;27;56;00
Brenton
I really do.
00;27;56;02 - 00;27;58;05
Chris
Yeah. actually.
00;27;58;05 - 00;28;00;22
Brenton
That was a quasi submitted question, so.
00;28;00;25 - 00;28;25;22
Chris
Yeah. Well, it's interesting. I literally had a conversation with this about one with one of our members. after the service on Sunday. And, and I think it takes a lot of wisdom. I think really. What my conversation with this individual was, is that we want to have a gentle heart and a kind heart like our heart wants to.
00;28;25;27 - 00;28;52;06
Chris
When we see somebody who is at least presenting that they're in difficult circumstances. Let's, let's, let's be careful that we don't just turn a heart. We have a hard heart towards that. And it's easy. Our cynical heart towards it's it's really easy to, to to do. And let's try to, to avoid that. With the same time we also need we also need wisdom and thinking like is this the best use of, of of my, my, my resources.
00;28;52;06 - 00;29;11;24
Chris
And and you know, when, when you maybe see somebody on a street corner and their clothes look pretty new and they're there continually, we may need to consider whether or not like, this is really the best way to, to to give our money and to be generous.
00;29;11;24 - 00;29;43;05
Brenton
Yeah. It's good. As with every answer, it's a matter of the heart. Yeah. It's good. Okay. I got one last one. This was also a quasi I submitted one didn't come, come to the proper channels, but, I'll accept it. so, there's a call for obviously individuals to be generous here. when that's taken into a marriage, sometimes there's disagreement on how much or if you should or what.
00;29;43;07 - 00;29;54;05
Brenton
What kind of wisdom can you give to a marriage that, maybe one spouse is is willing to be generous and the other is not?
00;29;54;07 - 00;30;05;01
Chris
Yeah. it's probably along the lines of a similar question is, what if, one person in the marriage is a spender and one, person in the marriage is a saver?
00;30;05;03 - 00;30;11;13
Brenton
I was trying to avoid making this a Dave Ramsey show.
00;30;11;16 - 00;30;45;05
Chris
I think the, honestly, probably if there are, major issues here, the issue is not really about what we're going so much do with our money. It's it's like, where's our where's our marriage? and like, how are we communicating? And are we on the same page in big picture? And then you kind of go downhill, from that or downstream, I guess I should say, from that.
00;30;45;07 - 00;31;12;04
Chris
and so if there are major disagreements here, this is just something that, you know, the question is, are we both going to be submissive, you know, to, to, to the Holy Spirit and to God's Word? And are we going to move forward together in this? And are we going to, you know, both, seek to, to submit to so what the Lord would have.
00;31;12;04 - 00;31;49;15
Chris
So there there needs to be, ideally good communication, good discussion. There needs to be a willingness, I think, on both parties to, work together on this and to not, necessarily just draw a line in the sand. It's going to be my way or it's going to be, your way. I do think that, you know, the roles in, in marriage and, how God is called, husband to, to be the leader of the marriage plays into this.
00;31;49;15 - 00;32;23;26
Chris
So that's a whole topic, you know, that we could talk about in there. So I do think that that that plays into that. and and so I'd say this is like, suppose a, there's a woman who really wants to be generous and her husband does not want to be here, wants to be less generous. ultimately the responsibility, the one is going to stand before the Lord and have to answer for how a married couple has handled their finances as a husband.
00;32;23;28 - 00;32;49;18
Chris
and the wife will have to answer for how she has, responded to her husband's leadership. and, and then, on the other hand, let's suppose a husband wants is the more generous one and the wife is struggling with that. then I think that the husband, needs to be gentle and kind and listen to his wife.
00;32;49;18 - 00;33;12;16
Chris
And maybe it's because of, you know, a whole variety of reasons, but maybe she's got concerns about, you know, how we're going to pay for bills. And so there might be some real wisdom there. And so how are you gently going to, to, to lead? in, in that. And so yeah, it can these can be really, really thorny issues.
00;33;12;16 - 00;33;26;20
Chris
And that's why I think we've got to go back really to the Ephesians five passage and, and wrestle with those issues before maybe we, you know, try to tackle the, the, the generosity issue. Yeah.
00;33;26;22 - 00;33;33;08
Brenton
Yeah. So likely a symptom of a bigger problem. And if that's the case, probably seek some wisdom out from.
00;33;33;08 - 00;34;20;01
Chris
Yeah. From well, from, you know, an older pastor that I learned under, told me that, there are three primary causes of division, in marriages, sex, money and communication about sex and money. So, and really, it's a lot of times it's the third. It's the third, it's the how are we communicating and having these conversations and relating to words to one another, in all of this, but, I will put a plug in here for those who, younger people or, who are unmarried and may be married one day.
00;34;20;01 - 00;34;31;01
Chris
This is why you need to have these discussions in your premarital counseling and, wrestle through these things before you get married rather than years into it.
00;34;31;04 - 00;34;51;25
Brenton
Yeah. Good. Well, we'll wrap it up there. thanks for thanks for listening, guys. do you have any more questions? ask it for the podcast.com. the next week is our last week on the generosity series, and that will be, moving on to Easter. So we look forward to that and we'll talk to you next week.
Episode 61: Joyful Generosity
Episode description
In this episode, Brenton and Chris discuss his sermon from 2 Corinthians 9. Chris starts by giving advice to people who might find giving to be burdensome at first. They continue by discussing the role of both the individual in the church and the local church as an organization in generosity. They also consider who the recipients of our generosity should be. Should we give indiscriminately to both believers and non-believers? They wrap up by giving advice to married people when there is disagreement about giving.
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