That's a wonderful challenge for us, is it not? Tonight, in the book of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians. Tomorrow, as I said this morning anyways, is the annual meeting for the Intermountain Baptist Fellowship and at Heritage Baptist Church up in Great Falls. It starts at seven o'clock tomorrow evening, the first service, and then all day Tuesday, I suspect there's probably a schedule of events in the vistas that's out on the foyer. Brother Dwight Smith is the keynote speaker. So if you'd like to hear Brother Smith do some preaching, he's our keynote speaker for the annual meeting. And so let me encourage you to come and be a part of that if you're able to do so. And with that, It just seemed appropriate. It's been a while, I think, since we've talked about this. We're Baptists, amen? I was just reviewing today a little book written by Dr. Ford back in 19-something or other about the history of Baptists. It's quite an interesting read, actually. He starts with Baptists in Virginia and works his way back. Each chapter is the previous century. Usually, we kind of start at the back and work to the front. He did it backwards the other way. But that was quite interesting. At the end of each chapter, he says, so where did these Baptists come from? So it caused you to take a step, one more step back, one more step back. And it's quite interesting. Now as Baptists, we have various distinctives. We call them the Baptist distinctives. They're not just for Baptists, there are other groups who have some of these distinctives, though I suspect Baptists, whether they claim the name or not, those who ascribe to the doctrine that we hold to, hold these things as distinctive of them. And we've kind of done a study on that on Wednesday nights. We can use the mnemonic of the name Baptist, B, biblical authority. That's the foundation. Everything's got to flow from the Bible, okay? If it's not in the Bible, then we are on some thin ice and we have to be careful. A, autonomy of the local church. There's no authority outside this congregation that controls this congregation. Jesus is the head. Okay? We answer to Him. The priesthood of the believer, that's pretty precious. As I said just during communion, I'm not your doorway. You don't come confess to me. Please don't. I don't have time to hear your confession. You don't have time to hear mine. Okay? Nor do you want to. Okay? Go to the Lord. I can't do anything about yours because I'm working on my own. Okay? He's the priesthood of the believer. That's a precious, precious truth. Two offices or officers. It depends on who you're reading when they define these. Pastor and deacon. Individual soul liberty. That's very precious to Baptists. Okay? Which is why Baptists were so significant in the Revolutionary War. is because England wanted to control not just the economy, but even the preaching in the pulpits. And the Baptists were like, nope, we're not for that. And as I was sharing in the government class in school, if it wasn't for John Leland, Baptist preacher in New England, we may not have the Second Amendment. That's how serious that is. That's our heritage. John Leland was a Baptist preacher. He had great influence in James Madison and so forth when it was time for the ratification of the Constitution. What was missing was the Bill of Rights. That wasn't there. Hancock was slated to become the delegate in Virginia in the ratification process, and he was not for the Bill of Rights to be included. But the Baptists were quite insistent, and Leland was going to run as his opponent and was favored to win. because of, so James Madison, he talks to James Madison, and Madison agrees to guarantee that there would be a Bill of Rights with the first 10 amendments. And so Leland bowed out, Madison opposed Hancock, Madison won, the Constitution was ratified. If it hadn't been for our Baptist forefathers, we may not have freedom of the press, freedom of religion. There would have been toleration, but not freedom. And those are two very different things, actually. Master, are you kind of puffing Baptists? No, but I'm tired of Baptists not knowing their own history and their own heritage. I'm not an interdenominationalist. I am a Baptist. I'm not a non-denominationalist. I'm a Baptist, unashamedly. I know some Baptists I'm ashamed of, but I'm not ashamed of being one. Historically, what that means, okay? Individual soul liberty, so that's pretty important for us. Of course, a saved church membership, you shouldn't be a member of a church if you're not saved. How can you do the Lord's business if you don't even belong to the Lord, okay? Two ordinances, baptism, Lord's Supper, and the final S, sometimes it's added, is separation of church and state, which just means each has their own realm of jurisdiction that they should function within. and neither one dictates to the other. And those are good things. Now, the reason I'm mentioning all that is because some struggle with the concept of autonomy of a congregation and being in a fellowship or an association, convention, denomination, whatever kind of word maybe is used. How do we reconcile that? Is it unreconcilable? Well, biblical authority says I have to go to the Word. I gotta go to the Bible. Okay, what does God say about some of these things? Now it's important for us to, out of those four words, fellowship, association, convention, denomination, they're freighted with meaning. But it's pretty simple, fellowship, it has to do with action, joint action together. Whether it's formalized or it's informal, it's folks integrating together to accomplish something. An association just means there's a relationship. There's a joint relationship of some fashion. This Thursday is the Legion meeting, is it not, Rick? Second, see I remember, I'm getting better. That's an association that I am a part of now, even when I forget to go. Convention, oh that's a hard one. Because of history and what happened both in the Southern Baptist Convention in days gone by as well as what was then the Northern Baptist Convention. But we shouldn't get hung up on the word without recognizing what does the word mean? A convention just relays the concept that there's organization. It's not helter-skelter. It's not a free-for-all. There's kind of an order to how things should function. Denomination, that's just a description. If I asked you, do you have any greenbacks in your wallet or in your purse? Don't raise your hand. I don't want you to be subject to possible theft, okay? But if I asked you to raise your hand, you could say, yeah, but I could say, well, what denominations are they? Right? And you'd say, oh, ones, tens, twenties, hundreds, you know, whatever. Oh, I got a bunch of Benjamins, you know, whatever. The word denomination just means a description. It's a common description. There's something in common, okay? How do I reconcile the fact that I'm going to a fellowship meeting with the F as a capital F, not a little f? Dr. Clarence Sexton, who's in heaven now, often would say, fellowship is with a little f. Well, he had a church the size of a small town. Okay, so there's like 2,000 people there at Temple Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. That's a lot of people. He's not a pastor, he's a mayor. Okay, just go to the campus of Temple Baptist. It's like multiple buildings and lots of acreage, and then there's the college campus. He's, you know, that's a lot to manage, okay? And sometimes when ministries get so big, they don't need anybody else. They're self-sufficient. Internally, they have everything they need. But churches that size are not the rule. The average size Baptist church is like 100 people. That's like us, okay? If we get everybody to come at one time, we kind of get there, okay? We haven't recovered yet from COVID, and I'm tired of saying that, but that's true. So we gotta go get some new ones. That's a whole separate issue, okay? But you know what that means is we have an obligation to the Lord that's bigger than us. It's actually even bigger than the megachurches because the obligation is to the world. Go ye into all the world. It's not go ye into all of Yellowstone County or Montana or America or North America or This hemisphere, okay, whatever, okay, it's the whole world. That's bigger than any church. In fact, it's bigger than all the churches put together. That's a big responsibility, which means we need each other. Now, I'm not, I just told you, I'm not an interdenominational, non-denominational, I'm not an ecumenicist, I'm none of those things. I'm a Baptist. So I'm not implying that we're supposed to hold hands and sing kumbaya with everybody who claims to be a Christian. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is it is valid that there's some ministry functions that we can't do by ourselves. So we have to find somebody that we can join up with, not, I'm using that in a very loose sense, okay? We can go together, so all right, pastor. Is there biblical support for such function? Yes, there is. There is, and here we are, 2 Corinthians chapter eight. I want you to notice right off the bat in this text, there is a regional relationship Okay, verse one, moreover brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the, what's the next word? Churches, notice it's plural. It's not the church of Macedonia, it's the churches of Macedonia. We're talking everything after Paul gets the Macedonian call, and he gets the vision of the man who says, come over and help us, and he leaves there. And what happens? The church of Colossae, the church of Thessalonica, the church of Corinth, all those churches on the other side of the isthmus between Asia and Europe, boop, he popped over. He's talking about all those churches collectively. The churches of a region, okay? There's not the church of Macedonia as if they're a homogeneous unit, but they're individual congregations, okay? The churches of Macedonia. Notice the plural noun, okay? That's important. Verse two, how then in a great trial of fiction, the abundance of, next word? their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. Please notice the plural pronouns. It's not just a slip of the pen or a slip of the tongue that he said churches instead of church. He's highlighting even in the pronouns that he's writing, they're a collection of individual congregations. Okay? And we could go on, four times in verse three, two times in verse five, and it's implied, you get the idea. Verse four. praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. I want you to notice the word praying. That's the action. It's the idea of begging, imploring, beseeching, that kind of a thing. The churches collectively, and I'm highlighting that because we can't tell because we're reading English, okay, but the verb is in the plural form. They collectively are asking Paul and his associates to do something. So it's a regional relationship between these congregations. They know each other. They know each other. They wanna work together. They're connected. That's what we have in the inner mountain. We have a regional relationship. We know about First Baptist down in Cody, don't we? Heritage Baptist in Great Falls. Faith Baptist in Lodgegrass, okay? Bible Baptist in Sydney. Fellowship Baptist in Miles City. Fairview Baptist in Great Falls. They're not part of the fellowship, but they are regionally in the same region. I'm thinking specifically of churches that are part of the inner mountain. There's a lot of other churches that we work together with and different functions, but specific churches that identify themselves with the inner mountain. The point is we're in a region and we know of each other. And at times we pray for each other. and the needs of that particular congregation. Like, First Baptist and Cody, now is without a pastor, and so we're praying for them. God would help them, give them the right man. We're praying for Brother Fisher as he's in that transition now. God would bless him, whatever's next in his life or his family, okay? The point is, we're in a region and we know about each other. We're not isolationists. We cooperate together. There's a regional relationship. Now, that relationship, though, has what I'm calling fraternal obligations, fraternal brotherly, okay? Because of the relationship, a relationship brings obligations. Notice, please, verse 6, okay? insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also." Now, the grace he's talking about is the churches of Macedonia were aware of a need somewhere else, and they bonded, said, hey, we want to be a part of that. Brother Miller, our missionary in Bolivia, is coming off the field. Now, years ago, when he was single and just begun on deputation, because he was known to the churches in our region, many of those churches are his supporting churches. They said, hey, we know Brother Miller, he went to camp as a kid, and he went to such and such a Bible college, and we've known him all his life, and we wanna get on board with that together, okay? And so these churches, even though they're poor, these are poor people, that's verse two, talks about their deep poverty, and yet they got on board with this need, okay? And Titus is kinda helping coordinate some of that. That as he had begun, so he would also finish and you the same grace also. Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all diligence and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. The idea of grace there is gift or the gathering of funds for this need, okay? I speak not by complaint, but by occasion, of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. For we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. So there it is, God's gift to us, that's his grace. And herein I give my advice, for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year, Now, verse eight. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. But the point is, the forwardness he's speaking of is the boldness of the church of Corinth to say, we're gonna do something about that need. And when the poor churches in Macedonia heard about it, they said, Wow, we can do something. Maybe not what they can do. Presumably the church of Corinth is in a big city and it's like a big urban church, okay. So a larger church has more resources. That's not a surprise, okay. But the testimony of that church spurred the action of a collection of smaller churches. They said, if they can do something, we can do something. Maybe together, all of us can at least match what they're doing. I'm just creating the scenario, okay? There was the effects of a testimony. The forwardness of Corinth caused the boldness of the churches of Macedonia, okay? There was the promise of treasure, verse 10. 11 and herein I give my advice for this is expedient for you who have begun before not only to do so but also to be forward a year ago a Year prior to when he's writing this Church of Corinth had said we're gonna do Whatever okay They were bold and telling talking about it now therefore look what he says Performed the doing of it Can I say it bluntly? Put your money where your mouth is. You said you were gonna do something. Okay, now's the time to do it. You had a great testimony and that boldness was a great blessing and it spurred others. Now, don't fall short of what you said. You gave your word, now keep your word, okay? Because, What's taking place is a joint participation. the churches of this region are now joining in this opportunity with the church of Corinth and presumably perhaps other churches that are in the sphere of Paul's influence that he knows of, maybe Ephesus, maybe others. Verse 13, for I mean not that other men be eased and ye be burdened. He's not saying I think you ought to pay the whole bill. That's not what he's saying. Just you should do what you said you would do. but by an equality that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want that their abundance also may be a supply for your want. I thought how could that be because we got poor churches giving not as much as the rich church and it sounds like the rich church is footing the bill. They got the cash but the poor churches have the submission. Because what did they do first? They gave, verse five, but first gave their own selves. Wow, that's a different kind of gift, isn't it? And that can be encouraging. You're like, wow, if he could do that, I can do something. See how they work together. They're in cooperation with each other, okay? Now, Which brings me to the close, and that is congregational delegation. So they're gonna do something. Okay, so how's it going to be accomplished? I mean, what's the mechanics of it? We can yak all we want, but eventually the gifts gotta get to the one who needs the gifts. How's that gonna happen? They can't FedEx it. You can't, you know, send it in a PayPal gift card. How's it gonna get there? Okay, look at verse, our text verse, which is verse 23. Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you, or our brethren be inquired of, they are the messengers of the churches. and the glory of God. There were individuals who were chosen to take the message on behalf of the various congregations. What does this mean for us in the Inner Mountain? Camp? How does camp get done? Does camp have its own staff? And we just send kids to camp, you know, send and forget? Or do we have to participate in that? Yeah. All volunteer. Yeah. All the work JD and Heidi does and their whole family, they go and work on buildings and stuff and kind of coordinate others who help with that. It's not just JD, he's not doing it all by himself, but he's the contact man. The grass has got to get mowed. We don't pay for a grass mowing service. That's Rick. He's the grass mowing service. Okay. We don't pay the, you know, the camp pastor doesn't get paid. And before we had a program coordinator, the camp deans never got paid. In fact, nobody got paid except the cooks and the evangelist. Everybody else who worked at camp, which was a lot of people, a lot of people, they gave of their time. But that wasn't one church. I mean, there's been preachers in our fellowship over the years that says, oh, Brother Wis, you guys ought to just take the camp. I don't think so. That is a big job. I mean, we may have been contributing huge amounts, both in dollar bills and in personnel, but we couldn't do it by ourselves. It takes others coming alongside, okay? So I want you to notice here, go down to verse 18. Well, let's go to verse 16. But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. For indeed, he accepted the exhortation, but being more forward of his own accord, he went unto you. And we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches. There's somebody with Titus. He's not even named. We don't even know his name. But all the churches knew that guy. And they all said, yeah, he's the guy. Man, we love him. He's not even a member of their church. But everybody knows about him. And he has a part to play. Hmm. A man who's honored of the churches. But continue on. Look at verse 19. What's the next word? chosen of the churches, he's just not known by the churches, the churches picked him specifically to travel with us with this grace, meaning with this gift. Let's just say they've gathered 10 grand. I'm just arbitrarily, you know, I don't know, what would a sack of gold be worth in the year 53 AD. Okay, I'm just being arbitrary, that helps us. So there's $10,000 been gathered and the church says, man, that's awesome, we can really help those people. Maybe we ought to send somebody along to kind of help with that. Who can we trust? Oh, we know the guy, Brother So-and-so, that's already honored amongst the churches. The churches chose him. Now, how are they gonna do that? They must have communicated somehow, sent letters back and forth. Hey, who would you want to go? Well, we want Brother Charlie. Okay, hey, that's what we were thinking. Let's go ask the church down the road. Oh yeah, Brother Charlie, he's the guy, okay. In some fashion, they had to vote and appoint, didn't they? I don't think it was formal with ballots and counting and all of that, but somehow, he's not just known, but those churches collectively picked him to go and be their representative, okay? As we get to the end now of the passage, Verse 24, it says, wherefore show ye to them and before the churches the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf. Because of this ministry opportunity that's bigger than any one church, it needs multiple churches. Churches actually, there's at least three regions involved. There's the churches of Macedonia, there is probably the churches in Asia Minor, Ephesus, et cetera, and then there's the churches in Israel where this aid, according to the commentators, is going. That's three regions are involved, and these congregations know each other. And this is a lot of money, and they want accountability, or they should expect accountability, amen? That's only appropriate that they know the funds we've gathered for this means don't get stiphened off for, you know, $5,000 haircuts along the way, right? So before the churches, they have to prove their love and their boasting. They have to work together. A joint ministry function that several congregations from differing regions participated in without external ecclesiastical authority. Paul didn't say, you have to give this much, this is how much you're accounted for, and I'm gonna show up and you better have your money gathered, okay? That's not what's happening here. Paul is not the local pope. He's just encouraging them. This is what you said. But he has no authority to demand. He has influence to encourage. There's no authority outside of them. That's how we reconcile the concept that here's a church that's autonomous. We don't answer to anybody. We don't answer to Pastor Scheer is not in charge of this church. Brother Mix is not in charge of this church. Okay, Brother Evans, nope. Brother Bacchus, Brother Hoover even, even though he's a member, and he's the field rep for the Intermountain. He's not in charge of this church. He's not the authority that tells us what to do. A Baptist association is voluntary. and the association is not binding upon the congregation. Whatever the gathered messengers, as it says here, the messengers of the churches, whatever the messengers decide in a meeting can only be given as consultation to the individual congregations. They are not bound. Okay? It's a fraternal voluntary function together to accomplish things that are bigger than us. We cannot do camp by ourselves. We couldn't do that. We couldn't staff it. And that's because how many of you can just give multiple weeks in the summer without pay? I don't see any hands up. Yeah, maybe if you're retired you could do that, but can we staff enough for three weeks of youth camp and cooks and preachers and activity people? It would be more than we could do. And I don't think at present we're the largest church in our fellowship, but we are one of the lead churches in our fellowship, and we can't do that by ourselves. We need others. We, in fact, even need people who are not part of the fellowship, actually, to come alongside and partner with us, because the ministry function is bigger than us. And that's only one thing we do. If the Lord gives us a vision, there's more things that we could do collectively as a group of churches. We have to do that together. That's how we bring those things. It is scriptural that we have a fellowship of churches that works together, and it may feel kind of formal, like we're just about to appoint messengers right now. I don't know of any huge things that are gonna be voted on other than officers. Not like a couple years ago, we had a very serious issue we were gonna vote on. I don't know of anything like that. But those messengers that we appoint, they're there representing us. Unless everybody expects to go, I don't think that's gonna happen, okay? So what am I supposed to take out of this sermon, Pastor? Here it is. This book is the guide. Even in matters of how do we do camp, How do we do camp with other churches? This book has to give us the guidelines of how we function, even within the Intermountain Baptist Fellowship. And if we can't find it in the book, then we're gonna have a problem. Okay, it's gotta be rooted in the book, what we do and how we do it, that's important. Father, we thank you for your love and grace. Would you help us now, please? I pray, would you guide and direct, please, in Jesus' name, amen.