Financial Accountability in the Church

I invite you to take out your Bible and turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and find your place at verse 16.

The title of today's message is Financial Accountability in Church or in the

Church. As I began my studies on Monday of this week, as I do each week on Monday morning is when

I begin studying for the Sunday sermon, I did some research on the subject of church fraud and I came across story after story of people who have been stolen from, churches that have been stolen from, their money misused, defrauded, and it was actually very difficult reading the stories.

Like the story of the private school cook who was responsible for purchasing food for church events and for the school and he devised a scheme where he would intentionally buy more food than was needed in bulk and then when it wasn't used he would return it and keep the refund in his pocket and he did that over and over and over again.

Or the church daycare worker who managed to embezzle over $100 ,000 before being caught because she convinced the parents who were bringing their children to the daycare to write the checks to her instead of the daycare because she said the account was in her personal name.

I learned just this week and I did not know this but in the early part of the 20th century the

Southern Baptist Convention was in fear of having to close or disband because almost all of its money was stolen.

At one point in the, I think it was in the 30s, there was a man who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from their account, left them with almost nothing and to the point where there was talks of selling the seminary,

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which is their flagship seminary, they were like well we may have to sell this just to keep ourselves up.

Tom Linkenberger who is the Assistant Vice President of Property Claims at Brotherhood Mutual which is an insurance company that specializes in church fraud said this.

He said often church people can't bring themselves to believe that their pastor or a church trustee or a longtime member or a school cook could possibly steal from the church.

Normally it's one of the most trusted people in the church who's pilfering from the collection plate, diverting funds from the church budget or investment accounts to feed their spending habits or pay personal debts.

Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary which has a extension campus here in town has what it's called their

Center for the Study of Global Christianity and they have researched church finances and through their research they have come to the conclusion that more money, and I'll put this on the board, more money is lost to fraud than is given to missions annually because as they began to determine how much is given, this is globally, how much is given to churches, 37 billion dollars is the approximate amount that's lost to fraud, 32 is the approximate amount that's given to missions.

Now many of you know, some of you don't, but many of you know that a few years ago our own church was among those rocked by the pain of theft and deception and later in today's sermon

I'm going to share that story. Not because it's a story I enjoy telling, but because I want to tell you how

God has redeemed us out of that terrible situation. And that's a story worth telling.

But you may wonder why I'm even talking about this subject. Why am I talking about church fraud in today's sermon?

Well the reason why is because of the passage that we are in. In 2

Corinthians chapter 8 Paul is talking about an offering that he is collecting for the church in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem church was suffering with issues of poverty and dealing with the dual threat of persecution and famine.

And Paul determined to collect an offering from the other churches in Macedonia and Achaia and throughout

Asia Minor that he could take back to the church in Jerusalem to relieve them in their time of suffering.

Last week we studied 2 Corinthians 8, 1 -15 where we saw

Paul commending the Macedonian churches in that even though they were a poor people that they had given above and beyond their means to see the needs of the

Jerusalem church met. They had been given generously and he was calling the church in Corinth which is in Achaia which is south of Macedonia.

He was calling them to the same type of generosity. He was calling them to emulate the church in the churches in Macedonia.

Well in the midst of this section if you remember last week in verse 6 in chapter 8 verse 6 he mentions

Titus. Now you remember Titus was the one that Paul was waiting on.

Titus had been in Corinth and he was waiting on Titus to return to give him a report. And when he returned there was great joy in the heart of Paul because his missionary associate, his partner in the faith had come back to him and he was excited.

Well now he's about to send Titus back. And he's going to send Titus back with two other men with this purpose.

That they would manage the offering, that they would administer the offering that was being taken by the church in Corinth.

And as we're going to see in this text today that they would do so in a way that was honorable before God and men.

That they would have an upright standing when it comes to finances before God and before the people.

So let's read that. Let's stand together. We'll begin here in verse 16 and we're going to read all the way to chapter 9 verse 5.

But thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you.

For he not only accepted our appeal but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord.

With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. And not only that but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us for the glory of the

Lord himself and to show our goodwill. 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 sight, excuse me, not only in the

Lord's sight but also in the sight of man. 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.

As for Titus he is my partner and my fellow worker for your benefit. And as for our brothers they are messengers of the churches the glory of Christ.

So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men.

Chapter 9. Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints for I know your readiness of which

I have boasted about you to the people of Macedonia saying that Achaia has been ready since last year and your zeal has stirred up most of them.

But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter so that you may be ready as I said you would be.

Otherwise if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready we would be humiliated to say nothing of you for being so confident.

So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift not as an exaction.

Father in heaven hallowed be thy name. Lord you are holy and to consider to mistreat your church especially to rob your people is something that is so powerfully vile and yet is occurring throughout the world daily as people are pilfering your church.

And this not even to say of those who have made the mistreatment of God's people their ministry as they defraud the people of God by making false promises and false statements about your truth.

Lord so many wolves among the sheep I pray Lord that you would keep me from error as I preach this message.

Keep me from weeping as I have wept in preparation for this message as I have remembered a week of sorrow.

Lord as Mike and Andy and I and Jack we came to the conclusion that our trust had been violated our hearts had been broken and that we were going to have to stand before the people of God and tell them that.

Lord as we consider all that we're going to study today all we're going to talk about today all that we're going to hear today from the word of God Lord let us be diligent to hear it and God please keep me from error.

Please hold my heart in your hand. Please open the hearts of these people to hear and please God if there be unbelievers here help them to hear the call of the gospel which is that trusting in Christ is the only way to be saved and Lord let the gospel not be overshadowed in this message let it come out brightly and clearly and may your spirit do his work in Christ's name

Amen. 2nd

Corinthians 8 1 to 15 is Paul's commendation to the people to make an offering he's reminding them about the need for the offering he's telling them what the offering is for and he's telling them that the

Macedonians have been generous in their offering. But then when we get to verse 16

Paul shifts his attention from the the call to make an offering to how that offering is to be administered.

And it's funny I got to thinking about it this week and Mike prayed for the deacons and I didn't ask him to do that but it's funny how knitted our hearts are in many ways oftentimes me him and Andy just have a certain way that we're able to sort of think the same about things because the do you know what the word administered what's the root of that what's the root word administer what's the root word minister.

Where do we get the word minister from in the Bible what what one office is the office of ministry it's the deacon the deacon is the minister we often call the pastor the minister of the church but ministry is often done at the hands of the deacons and it's just funny how that worked out as Mike asked to call to pray for the deacons in the ministry that is done by the deacons and really what we're seeing here is really a even though it's not an office of deacon that's being expressed here it's a duty and that's the duty to administer something in the church to manage to steward something within the church and who do you give it to you give it to trusted men you give it to men who have been tested you give it to men who have been chosen by the church for this task and men that can be counted on men that are going to be able to be relied upon men that you know you can stand beside that's what a deacon is supposed to be that's why while the elders lead and govern the church the deacons show by example what service is supposed to be and I think the main passage in this if we were to look at verses 8 16 to 9 5 which

I do think is a unit which is why I'm preaching it as a unit but the main the main thrust of this is actually verses 20 and 21

Paul says we take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us and by the way the word generous there some of your

Bibles that may be translated liberal trust me it ain't that kind of liberal the word liberal means a large amount or a big amount or to be open right well when it says that they have been that Paul says we've taken this course what course we've taken the course to assign these men to do this for this purpose that this generous or large offering that we have received that is being administered by us does so in a way that is blameless and honorable in fact

I I put this up as a screen Paul wants them to understand that the receiving of this offering is going to be blameless what does that mean that means it's going to be above reproach how many of you have read in the

Bible that when you call a man to be the elder or pastor of the church that he's to be above reproach some translations say blameless doesn't mean sinless because it couldn't if it meant sinless then

I'm out Mike's out Andy's out you're out but to be blameless is to be a man of integrity literally it means to be a man who does not have outstanding things upon which you can hang accusations against his character

I say it's the difference between being a coat rack and a flagpole it's hard to hang something on a flagpole because there's nothing sticking out there's nothing to hang anything to but a coat racks got all these things sticking out that are intended to hang things on and now you see a man with a bunch of things sticking out you say that man is not the man you want in charge so to be blameless is not to be perfect but it is to be a man of integrity and Paul wants this offering to be that same way he wants that offering to be blameless in motive and method in motive he wants them to understand why they're taking the offering and in method he wants them to understand how they're going to take the offering he wants them to know why they're taking it because there's a church in need not because Paul wants to fill his pockets not because Paul wants to get rich in fact we read in the

Corinthian correspondence that Paul actually said to the Corinthians he didn't want to take money from them because he didn't want to be accused of someone who only did it for the money but he was taking the money the method the motive for taking the money was to help other churches and the method that were that was going to be used was going to be

I'm going to send you not one not two but I'm going to send you three men so that it would be honorable before God and before men you know sometimes people say well it doesn't matter what people think of me

God knows it's not always true because if your outward appearance before men is such that nobody can trust you you have no integrity you don't do what you say you're gonna do you can't be counted on to follow through then guess what

God takes the same thing we do I mean I mean honestly people say

I don't matter what men think well in one sense it kind of does you understand the integrity that comes with this is absolutely essential because of two reasons you want to be in you want to have integrity and transparency you want to have integrity and transparency and so that's what

Paul is talking about here everything is to be above board nothing is to be hidden everything is to be open to the charge everything is to be open so that there can be no charges of mishandling or manipulation the ultimate goal in administering the church and primarily administrating the finances of the church is integrity and transparency and so Paul is going to accomplish this by appointing three stewards that's the best title

I could come for them the word steward means manager in fact used to back when we had committees we don't really have committees anymore but back when we had committees what do we call the committee that was in charge of the finances they may remember stewardship committee the stewardship committee because their job was to manage the finances of the church they were to be stewards or managers of the finances of the church if you ever hear that word that big 50 cent church word stewardship well typically it has to do with money

Paul assigns three stewards to this task and what we see in this outline is we see the stewards chosen we see the stewards commended and then we see the stewards commissioned now you'll notice the two verses that I did not include in the in the outline there's 20 and 21 because I just gave them to you 20 and 21 or the heart of this where Paul says this is why we're doing this we're doing this so you understand it's blameless and honorable before God and before men but in the midst of that he gives us the choosing the commendation and the commissioning of these stewards so we're going to begin in verse 16 and read how they're chosen so let's go back to verse 16

Paul says but thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care

I have for you what's Paul talking about here he's talking about Titus you remember

Titus had just returned from Corinth well now he's going to be sent back and the reason he's going to be sent back is he's going to be sent back to lead this group of three men who are going to manage this offering that's being given to the church and Paul says something about him

Paul says God put it into his heart love you the same way I do to have the same care for you that I have so in that sense

Titus is going in a sense as a representative of Paul he's saying

I'm not coming at this point but Titus is coming to you and God has placed into Titus's heart the same care that I have for you it's almost as if I'm coming so in that sense

Titus is Paul's representative and then he says in verse 17 for he not only accepted our appeal but being himself very earnest he is going to you out of his own accord beloved he wanted to do it he didn't just do it because Paul said go do it he didn't just do it because the church needed him to do it he did it because he wanted to do it can

I say this to you if a man does not want to serve he should not be compelled if a man does not want to do the job he's not the man for the job

I mean just think on that I could probably end right there because that's enough to chew on for a whole week ain't it if the man ain't the one who wants to do it he ain't the one in fact go back to the role of the elder for just a moment what is the first qualification for elder when

I ask that question most people say above reproach that's not the first qualification that's right 1st

Timothy chapter 3 says if a man aspires to the office of overseer he desires a noble task he must then be above reproach the first requirement to be a pastor or an elder is you gotta want it a compelled pastor is not going to do what

God has called him to do because God ain't gonna do it because you didn't put in his heart to do it and the same goes for other areas of service in the church we can guilt you into doing things but it doesn't do any good for you and it really doesn't do any good for us either people can be manipulated into participating but that's not the way it's supposed to be is it service to God must flow out of a willing heart and what we're going to learn next week and I'm I tell you

I I'm ready to preach both if you want to just stay for an extra hour because next week we're going to talk about offerings and giving is also willing service must be willing and our offerings must be willing not under compulsion because God loves what cheerful giver cheerful giver now

I'm not saying a man can't be encouraged if you go to a man and say hey we think you would be a good whatever leader in this area and a man says well

I'm a little apprehensive about that I've never led anything before and we encourage him that's that's one thing but to make a man do it to compel him to do it to manipulate him to do it is not the man you want you want a man who

God has put it in his heart to do the job because he will do it as unto the Lord so we see that in verse 17 he says for he not only accepted our appeal but being himself very earnest he's going to you out of his own accord he wants to do it verse 18 with him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel now here's here's the fun part

Paul assigns two people we're going to see that the other one later Paul assigns two people to go with Titus and he does not tell us who they are and I and I Bob Utley is a

Bible commentator and Bible teacher I really like him he's got a nice southern way of speaking and and he said something funny about this passage he said

I think God does this just to give commentator something to write and you know what's funny all the commentaries

I read six or seven pages opining about who this guy is I guess we do need things that fill books sometimes

I don't have any idea who it is one good candidate stands out in my mind and that is

Luke because at this point Luke is ministering with Paul and Luke was known as a gospel writer so my assumption is he was probably a gospel preacher and Paul says this man is well known within the churches for preaching the gospel so that one fits but I wouldn't in any way stand up here and say you need to believe that because I don't know either

I'm just saying that's one good candidate there are other men who are good candidates Apollos was known for being a powerful preacher again that says he was well known for preaching the gospel so you go down the list as to who meets the qualifications who's in this area at this point in time who's serving with Paul it doesn't really matter what does matter is the next verse just look with me because it says with him we were sitting the brother who's famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel which means he's he's beloved for his integrity to the word but verse 19 and not only that but he's 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 the appointing of the churches is huge because what it means is this man was not a designee of Paul but was a man recognized by the church to do this job the churches had recognized him to do this job in one sense

Titus is coming with apostolic authority he's coming as Paul's representative he says he has the same heart that I have

God gave him the same heart I have but this man whomever he may be is coming on ecclesiastical authority he's coming with the authority of the church he's coming having been chosen by and appointed by the church you understand as a body there are times where we're all called on to speak to decisions for instance when an elder is chosen the elders put a man before the church to do what to affirm that man and you know what our

Constitution says if we don't get a 90 % affirmation we go back and figure out why because if if less than nine out of ten of y 'all think we're right then we need to go check out why because y 'all have the same

Holy Spirit we have we're called to a position of leadership we do have an appointed position of leadership and governance in the church that is unique but if the church does not understand or affirm what we're doing we need to figure out what's the problem and so in this we have this man who has been appointed by the churches to do this job and now jump with me just quickly down to verse 22 again jumping past 19 and 20

I'm sorry jumping past 20 and 21 excuse me going down to verse 22 it says 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 now if I didn't know who the first guy was

I ain't got no clue who this guy at least I gave you some options this doesn't tell us anything except it tells us one that he was earnest for them and it too it tells that he had been tested this was a man that in some way shape or form was trusted he had a desire for the

Corinthians and he had been tested and affirmed I think it's interesting that they chose three that Paul appoints three to go there's nothing in the

Bible that says there has to be three men doing something but there is some wisdom in that if you have one man by himself the danger of any man by himself is the danger of lack of accountability this is why

I'm not a fan of the single pastor model in churches I say

I'm not a fan I don't think it's biblical I'm not a fan of it I don't think it's biblical to have a single pastor who functions like a mini

Pope in the church that has no accountability I think that's dangerous can you have two yes

I think you can have two but the problem when you have two is you run the risk of division I'm not saying it can't function with two

I think two can work and sometimes that's all a church can have is two pastors and that's good but the benefit of three is you have a third voice when division comes you have someone within the three because it might not always be against the same two and there's always a third voice now again

I know we're talking about money today I know we're talking about finances but y 'all know also we got three elders and I think that's very helpful sometimes don't you guys

I mean I really do and also by the way we're talking about this a little while we also have three finance officers not because of this text but I tell you what when

I was reading this text I was like yeah I think we got it right this time because we did fail in the past I was part of that failure and I'm gonna

I'm gonna talk about that later we failed and I was part of that because I thought we put too much trust in one person but before we get there understand there's three men here they've been chosen they are chosen appointed for this duty for these reasons now let's look quickly at their commendation verses 22 and 23 we see their commendation it says and or 22 says is the verse about the the third man 23 as for Titus he is my partner my fellow worker for your benefit and as for these brothers they are messengers of the church is the glory of Christ so give proof before the churches of your love and are boasting about you to these men so again 23 and 24 is the commendation of these men and Paul says about them these powerful things he says

Titus is my partner and fellow worker partner fellow workers sooner gosh he is he is he is right beside me he's been beside me he's been in the trenches with me this is a man

I trust and I'm sending to him to you and the other two he uses the word apostle now we think of the word apostle we think of the twelve apostles we think of Paul being an apostle but the word apostle also can have a more general use in the church as one who is sent by the churches and it says in this the

ESV says messengers was the NSA messengers that word messengers is the word

Apostle loss it literally means they're being sent by the churches so again you've got one being sent as a representative of the

Apostle the other two are being sent as representative of the churches so give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men

I'm sending them to you demonstrate your love by receiving these men and then we get to chapter 9 and in chapter 9 we see the commissioning of the stewards the stewards commissioning notice what he says he says now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the

Saints for I know your readiness of which I boasted about you to the people of Macedonia saying that Achaia has been ready since last year and your zeal has stirred them up or most of them but I'm sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter so that you may be ready as I said you would be

I'm sending these three administrators to ensure that you're ready to receive the offering that you promised over a year ago remember 1st

Corinthians is written about 18 months before 2nd Corinthians and and at the end of 1st

Corinthians chapter 16 verses 1 to 4 Paul talks about this offering he says set something aside every week as you are prospered so that when

I come there won't have to be a collection it will already have the money have already been raised well here he's saying

I'm sending these men to make sure you're doing that because you said you were ready you said and you showed your readiness to do this but I want to make sure that you're ready why look with me at verses 4 & 5 otherwise if some

Macedonians come with me and find that you're not ready we would be humiliated Paul says if I come and by the way if I come

I might bring some people from Macedonia and you remember the Macedonians they were the very generous ones they were the ones who gave above and beyond their means they were the ones who gave him with even when they didn't have there there might be a few of them who come with me and if we come and you guys who are so prosperous and who should have been taking this offering for over years setting stuff aside every week for over a year when we come if we come and y 'all haven't done this yet I'm gonna be humiliated

I said that's harsh words but it's just the Paul's being honest I'm sending these three guys to make sure that you're ready in fact the word ready in the

ESV I think it's four or five times just in this section that your readiness you're ready you're ready when we get there why last verse verse 5 so I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead of you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift not as an exaction now the word exaction there in some ways can mean taken advantage of motivated by greed to be exploited but in this context

I think what Paul is saying is related to the idea of compelled or compulsion so that it will be a willing offering not a comp not when you get there everybody's running around feeling compelled to to raise money it's not going to be we're not going to have to exploit this when we get there we're not going to have to force this when we get there it's already going to be done so I'm sending these men to you for the purpose that they would manage the offering so that when

I come not only if I bring some Macedonians with me not only will we not be humiliated but we also won't be running around trying to do an offering that we should have been doing for the last 18 months so again chapter 8 16 to chapter 9 verse 5 is

Paul's choosing or telling the church that three men have been chosen to come to them to administer an offering so that it be done properly and not under compulsion as we see next week that's the way offerings are supposed to be not under compulsion but done so willingly all right all of this this entire section this entire text from the choosing to the commending to the commissioning of the stewards is all for the purpose of ensuring that finances in the church be handled properly that the finances be be handled correctly

Paul Barnett who wrote a commentary on this passage or on the whole book of 2nd

Corinthians he says these verses serve to remind all

Christians and church leaders to exert extreme care in all matters relating to money

I'll say it again these verses serve to remind all Christians and church leaders to exert extreme care and all matters really to church money and Paul was right we have to do that so I said

I was going to tell you this story on the day of the last presidential election

I went to vote at our local precinct

I was still living here in Jacksonville so I drove down to the church that does the voting there in San Mateo is where I met you remember

Chris years ago you and Chrissy met you while voting Mike and I were on the phone arguing about Genesis 6 not arguing but we were having a strong discussion about our differences of opinion as we often do and lovingly so but I remember that I just remember where I what we were talking about I remember what

I was doing I just had voted came back to the church and on my desk was a letter and I'm not thinking anything of it

I had had many handwritten deaths on letters on my desk over the years from our secretary I just figured it was said something like I'm going to lunch or whatever you know no big deal so I walk and I sit down Mike's on the phone with me

I open up the letter and I said

Mike we got to stop talking I said just stop listen and I read to him the letter and the letter said they said

Keith I've been stealing from the church for years I'm leaving to go out of town when you file the police report

I'll come back and turn myself in there was more in it but that was the gist at that time

Jack was still serving as an elder and I said to Jack I said

I said to Mike I called Jack Mike called I think Mike called Andy and we called Adam because Adams a police officer and a deacon and we began to research the accounts we had different accounts we had account for our checking we had account for our running savings and then we had a savings account that was set aside for our building fund and what we thought we had in there was not what we had in there the person that was in charge of the money had been manipulating financial reports even bank records to show us that we had amounts that we did not have and almost well

I would say all but what little was required to keep the account open was gone from our bit from our building fund less than a third of what we thought was in our checking was actually in our checking and our savings was gone

I wept along with others for a week at least as we began to uncover more and more deception of things that had been done how it was done how the money was taken how it was done without being seen the the type of subversive things that were done the person who stole the money did turn themselves in and they were eventually prosecuted for it it wasn't the kind of money that you can simply say we're not going to get any police involved it was

I mean if it would have been if she'd have stolen you know two three hundred dollars it still would've been bad but something like that can be understood and dealt with this was this was in the amounts that it would have been it was a legal issue and so here's here's the part that's interesting is is how how this person got caught because I want to credit

Andy and Mike and even like I said

I mentioned Adam earlier because I was blinded to this deception

I worked next to this person for more than a decade sometimes in the same office we had we the nursery used to be the church office we had two desks in the same room we were within touching distance of one another for a decade

I had handed this person my wallet my keys my kids

I've been by her bedside when she was recovering from cancer and open -heart surgery and never in my life what

I've thought that that would have happened those of you who've had things happen like this similar you know you felt the same way about the person who did it you never would have thought so one day

Adam is at a thrift store I know that sounds like a weird but I want to tell this story this is all part of it

Adam is at a thrift store and he sees this desk and if you've ever been in the

Sunday school room the Learning Center you see that bit we call it mega desk we had to cut six inches off of it just so Mike could see over it it's this huge desk it's a beautiful in fact we're we are gonna be redoing the pulpit is eventually

Lance is redoing our pulpit for us and we're gonna sort of model it after that big way I like it it's big nice thing and even though I can't stand behind it anymore

I just moving all around but anyway Adam calls me says I'm at a thrift or no I didn't call me I'm sorry he found this desk at a thrift store he said this would be a great gift for pastor

Keith to use when he's teaching he would really like this so he calls this person who's in charge of the money it was $200 which is a lot of money but not a ton of money for a nice piece of furniture and asked for the money and the person said we don't need it we don't need to spend that money odd thing okay so he called

Andy right called Andy next and Andy said buy it but then

Andy and Mike came to me and said something's wrong we've got a person who's treating the money like it's their money and we need to begin to investigate the money situation so I want to give a hundred percent of the credit to discovering this to everybody but me primarily our two elders and Adam who was part of all this as I was blind and I failed so what we did is we said we're gonna we're gonna investigate and we began to investigate and we said we're gonna put somebody new in charge of the money that's when

Kelly got involved and as soon as this person found out we were putting somebody new in charge of the charge of the money

I got a letter on my desk so just so you understand the letter on my desk was not a letter of repentance this person is still under church discipline from this church because they have yet to repent the letter was not a letter of repentance it was a letter of indictment because they know they knew they had been caught and it took months to unravel those knots didn't it

Kelly you and Tamara were wonderful in helping us fix all of these things that have been essentially destroyed now

I know this is a weird sermon and it feels like I'm storytelling right now but I wanted you to know one because if you're a church member you should at least know part of this because if you were here we told you this and if you weren't here and we usually tell you when you join the church because we don't want this to be a surprise if anybody ever says hey we've had this happen we don't want it to be a secret but here's what

God did we lost all that money I honestly

I was moving at the time I went to the other side do I need to stop the process of buying a new home because I am

I going to still get my this is my livelihood this is what this is how I provide for my family is that going to continue to be able to happen and I was saying it through tears am

I going to be able to continue to support my family do I need to go get a job not that I don't have a job I said a real job and they to their to again these men you will be paid and one thing if I have to if I can give any possible credit to the person who took from us the one thing she did do was when she met with the police she said she was the only one involved and she made sure to ensure that nobody else was nobody else helped her do this nobody else was a part of this she did this absolutely on her own but since then and I'm not going to give numbers today because if you want to know the figures you can go look at the bank count we make that available to anybody we have bank we have monthly statements you can look at but God has returned to us in less than four years and I know again because we mark it by the presidency right the day

Joe Biden got elected the day Joe Biden got elected we lost twice sorry the day he was elected was the same day that we found that letter so it's less than four years ago right we now have more than we've ever had in our bank account in this church because of what

God did that is in every one of you who has given and been and been financially contributing to this church to for the last four years you brought us back out of almost nothing absolutely praise the

Lord and I am thankful for that every time because one thing we

I'm going to tell you real quick here's some things we've done to ensure that never happens again one we went with a three three person financial three finance officers all three of the finance officers have the ability to count the money we have at least two count the money put the money in the bank and then all of the elders can see what's in the bank we don't see what you give and we make that a point we don't want to know what you give because we don't ever want to be in a position where we might treat someone different because we know they give more than another person we want to make sure we stay away from that but at any moment

I can take my phone and I can type in the account and I can see exactly how much is in the account right now and all of us can do that complete transparency among the elders and the finance officers six people we made it to where you could not sign a check by yourself that was how the money was stolen personal checks written to themselves which

I know seems foolish but when nobody's checking doesn't seem like that bad of a deal right well that's what it was done now no check goes out that's not had two signatures on it we've also become more transparent in this type we tell you what's happening we're transparent in our words you know where we are if you wonder how much is in the account you just ask so having said all that we're in a much better place than we were four years ago and for ten years before that we have been in place and we have responsibility in place to ensure that that never happens again where's the gospel in this message

I asked myself that question as I was writing it I'm gonna give you four thoughts as I close very quick thoughts number one this is a reminder of the depth of men's depravity only a person who doesn't fear

God would rob his people number two it is a reminder that even among Christians we should have methods of accountability because a man at best is still a man at best number three it's a reminder that God's work requires diligence and not a lackadaisical attitude

Paul took money seriously and so should we and lastly it is a reminder that there is forgiveness at the foot of the cross even for the thief because we stand willing and ready and we know we do because we talked about this many times if that person were to return and repent of their sin we would receive them they ain't getting a checkbook again but we received and forgiveness as Christ has forgiven us beloved if you have sinned against God that does not mean you cannot be forgiven that's the very thing that you need to recognize so that you can be forgiven and I say to this person if this person ever hears this message we still love you and we want you to repent and if you're out there today and you're you're dealing with sin understand repentance is a gift repentance is available and that's why in a moment when we take the bread and we take the cup we're going to be reminded of what was provided for us so that we could have that life and have that forgiveness

Christ's very blood was shed for thieves Christ's very blood was shed for you and me for all who would call upon his name and repentance and faith is that you today have you trusted in the

Lord have you repented of your sin and trusted in the Lord then this is for you and that's the gospel nothing we can do will ever be greater than what

Christ has done his blood can cover our sins so I call you today if you're a person who's never trusted

Christ trust Christ if you're a person who is trusting Christ keep trusting Christ and find in him the satisfaction of knowing you've been forgiven let's pray father

I thank you for your word I thank you for your truth I thank you for these men who were used by you in a mighty way and Lord I am sorry for my sins and my failures which

I am NOT unwilling to admit and I'm thankful that God you were able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think and restoring us and continuing us as a church

I pray that now Lord as we receive the table that we would be reminded of your goodness to us in Christ who though he was rich became poor so that in his poverty we could become rich and we pray this in his name