Generous Like God | 2 Corinthians 8:1-7 | Pastor Andrew Coleman | 04/06/2025

we study the Bible here in the life of

our church we just want to encourage you

to have notes in front of you take a pen

and take your Bible as we come again to

our series entitled Our Generous God

this is a series that we've embarked

upon we look at the flowing generosity

of God from before the creation of the

world in himself to right where we are

today and as we look and we've already

sung of it this morning as we look into

the hope of eternity the great joy of

the promises of eternity God is a

generous God we looked our first Sunday

um at the fact that God's love is what

means his generosity it says to us that

he loves us and so he is generous to us

god is a God of love and that love

results in generosity generosity in

creation generosity in salvation

generosity in patience with us he is a

generous God well then we looked last

week at our response to God's generosity

how do we respond to him and today we're

going to be looking at how do we be

generous like God with our life do you

have your review let's look at it we

just kind of mentioned this a little bit

number one God's love means that God

generously gives himself to others

that's exactly what he does and the

motivation of it is seen in John 3:16

John 3:16

one of the most quoted verses in the

Bible hopefully you can read this you

can quote this with me right from your

heart right now look what this verse

says let's say it out loud together for

God so loved the world that he gave his

only begotten son that's what it is god

what was the motivation for him giving

his love god is a God of love look at

the next part there we looked at the

fact that God created all things he owns

all things and he generously gives all

things you can look at Romans 8:32 2

Romans 8:32 2 Peter 1:3

Peter 1:3 James 1:7 Psalm 84:11 over and

James 1:7 Psalms 84:11

over and over again we see that God is a

generous God and he does not withhold

anything that is good to those who are

his children he is a generous God that

gives us all things notice the next part

there god's generosity is seen in

eternity past that's before the creation

of the world it's seen in the present

that's the age of humanity of when we

live on the earth and in that which is

to come eternity future and so we see

that he gives uh this across the board

he's a generous God we see that in his

nature as the trinity we see that in the

redemption of the cross and we see that

in his promises for eternal life in

heaven how should we respond to him we

said three things last week do you

remember what they are it's three things

if God is so generous how should we

respond number one receive him he gives

himself to you receive him it begins at

the cross he gives himself through the

cross that can reconcile you to himself

there are numerous people that I've

spoken with this week um and some are

saying "I I'm I'm dealing with this i'm

trying to figure this out how does this

work how do I receive him?" I want to

say to you that he is calling you to

come to receive him we receive him by

turning in repentance away from

ourselves and our sin into belief in

Jesus Christ as the Messiah the one who

can pay for our sins and so we receive

him number two if you've received him

and he's given you freedom from sin and

forgiveness of sin then number two you

can rejoice in him and rejoice in a way

that nobody else can rejoice that hasn't

been given this gift of God the gift of

eternal life you only you not only have

a reason to live but you also have a

reason to die and that's something to

rejoice about you know the world is

terrified of dying very often and some

who are not terrified of it they they

are sadly greatly

disillusioned i met a guy one time who I

invited him to church and he said ha me

go to church it was actually for Easter

sunrise it was over here on Hollywood

Boulevard um I invited him to come and

he said ha you don't understand i'm the

devil i'm not going to church and I said

"You're the devil." I said "Sir you're

not the devil but I think you're going

to meet the

devil." I honestly said that to him and

I said "I'm

serious you're not the devil but you're

going to meet him if you don't turn away

from that." You know there's some people

that say "Well I'll see you in hell you

know or I'll fight you in hell," or

whatever it is they they speak very

cavalerely about those things they're

severely delusional in that when we

consider the realities of a fallen world

and we consider the words of God that

warn us about turning away from him oh

the grace that he offers us that we

would not be cut off from him that we

would not endure the due penalty of our

sins but that we are completely and

totally forgiven and not just forgiven

but called his child and listen to this

called

righteous that he counts unto us

righteousness he it's the scripture says

he imputes the righteousness of Christ

he presses the righteousness of Christ

upon us he clothe us in a robe of

righteousness this is the robe of

Christ's death on the cross for you this

is the gospel and so we can rejoice in

him and no longer carry the burden of

our sin and no longer walk in the way of

delusion number three if we have

received him and we rejoice in him he

calls us to imitate him he calls us to

act like him to be like him to be godly

that means godlike and how is God he is

a god of generosity so he calls us to

generosity and he calls us to gladness

do you see there on the outline this is

a very important verse from last week

ephesians

5:es 1 and two do you see that there

below number three imitate him let's

read that verse out loud together okay

i'd like to ask you to read let's do it

strong from the start um so we don't

have to do it two or three times let's

do it strong from the start and let's

read this because it's so critical this

is where we see and this isn't the only

place that the Bible says this in fact

the Bible says over and over and over

again that we are to be like God we are

to act like God let's read it what does

it say ephesians 51 and 2 therefore be

imitators of God as beloved children and

walk in love as Christ loved us and gave

himself up for us a fragrant offering

and sacrifice to

God god was the sacrifice of the cross

god given to God on our behalf this is

the son in perfect obedience to the

father offering up his life and listen

to this this is the father accepting the

perfect sacrifice of the

son so that you may go

free in just a few days on Good

Friday we will gather in this room at

the table of the Lord it was on that

Good Friday that Jesus was in the tomb

for us that Jesus went all the way to

death for us god of

God that would lay down his life for us

take the the perfect holy sinless God

would take Andrew Coleman's sin and take

your name your name your sins if you

will come to him he takes your sins upon

himself so that you can go free what a

generous gift what a generous God who

gives to us and he calls us to be like

him to be imitators of God so this

morning I want us to look again at this

and how we can look at this generous God

and how we can be like him how we can uh

be honest like him and the story really

starts and and this is really a

continuation in a way from last Sunday

because uh last Sunday we looked at 2

Corinthians 9 today we're going to look

at 2 Corinthians 8 so we're backing up a

little bit and it's a bit of a story i

want you to see the story do you see

this map in front of you i love maps

they help me understand the Bible um

it's a good thing to have a map and to

be able to study the Bible a little bit

but um notice um what is the central

body of water in this map mediterranean

the Mediterranean Sea okay a little bit

of geography challenge here what is

below the Mediterranean Sea africa

africa very good what's above the

Mediterranean Sea europe okay europe and

Central Asia okay so that's good um and

then what is to the east side of the

Mediterranean Sea middle East israel

middle East very good israel in the

Middle East and here we see this next

one here jerusalem so you have your

orientation on this the great city of

God this is God's plan this is where God

began all of his work among his people

this is just the place that God chose

down he could have chose to do this in

Reikovic Iceland he could have chose to

do this in Buenosares i know we have

some people who think he did um but um

he could have chose to do this in Havana

or or Washington DC or Phoenix Arizona

but you know what he chose to do it in

Jerusalem and so he chose to work in

this special place on a place called

Mount Mariah which would eventually

become the place of sacrifice for us and

so this is where he chose to do it and

so um we see that salvation comes is

bought and paid for just outside the

city walls of Jerusalem and the gospel

begins to go out from there the gospel

goes across North Africa across Egypt

and across North Africa and the gospel

goes up around the Mediterranean Sea

takes off flourishes the apostles are

going they're preaching the gospel and

before very long the Apostle Paul on

numerous missionary journeys is going to

places like Macedonia and Aaya and so

forth so this story takes place in a

place called Macedonia and uh Corinth so

notice where that is this is modernday

Greece so that part that says Galatia

over there that's Turkey that's modern

day Turkey but modern day Greece is

Macedonia all the way down to Corinth

what is one of those big cities that you

see very popular city that's next to

Corinth

athens that was the center of the Greek

Empire what's at Athens the Acropolis

right these massive centers of Western

civilization

um in this um but we see um Athens is

not one of the letters in the New

Testament but a little town called

Corinth is and uh we're going to see

that but not only Corinth but go on to

the next slide there guys this area

called Macedonia up to the north has

several key places you see Philippi what

book of the Bible was written to the

church at Philippi

Philippians was written to that place a

church that was there what about

Thessalonica or um I don't know it's

ever since I went there and heard them

say it the way it's supposed to be said

it's Thessaloni can you say Thessaloni

thessaloniki sounds a little strange

right we change it for English but

Thessalonica um and Berea um there's not

a book of the Bible uh listed but Berea

is mentioned numerous times so there

were there were churches up in this area

called Macedonia and there were churches

down in Aaya which is where Corinth is

now I want you to look and zoom in with

me at Corenth corinth is placed at an

ismouth so right next to this and notice

that line right there through the middle

of that do you know what that is that's

where two bodies of water the Adri the

Aian and the Adriatic come together and

there's this narrow section of land that

is there and this is very interesting

back in the time that this was written

there was not a canal cut through this

ismaths an ismaths is when two large

land masses come together at a narrow

point kind of like in Panama so um just

like there's a Panama Canal there's also

check this next picture out there's a

Corinthian canal now it's quite an

amazing thing i've been there i've stood

on that bridge that's right there in

front of you and I have seen and look

it's not very long it's It's rather

short but massive ships go through that

deep canal um isn't that amazing

wouldn't you like to be on a cruise ship

going through there

but cruise ships go through there

warships go through there container

ships go through there and you know what

here's what's interesting while there

wasn't a canal there there were ships

being hauled and rolled across that

landmass in Paul's day so there wasn't a

canal but it was a narrow place and if

you were a merchant instead of having to

go and sail all the way around that

southern part of Greece listen to this

where there's very often bad weather

there's great winds that are in that

area so a lot of times when they would

seek to go sail around those treacherous

islands and those land masses at many

times of the year they couldn't get

their products through there and so what

they did was there was a road that was

on top of that ground and you could with

your ship you could come up there and

your crew now that's not the road that's

this is Hang on back up just a little

bit um I I want you to imagine though

there was a road there and they had logs

huge round logs and those ships would be

pulled with horses and mules and and

slaves pulling those ships across that

ismouth and it was safer and faster than

sailing around now when that happened

did the sailors pull the ships

not usually you contracted with a group

to pull your ship across the isithmas so

what does that mean the sailors were

doing they're bored what do sailors do

when they get

bored they act up right you've heard the

term curse like a sailor i know a few of

you are sailors in here we're not trying

to demean you it's kind of like talking

about lawyers that's an easy target

right um but sailors were a rough crowd

and why because they weren't with family

they were actually going from from port

to port to port with no accountability

of family no accountability of many

people who knew their morals were often

very very loose very rough and Corinth

was a place where they would hang out

now you can go to the next slide so

Corinth is right there by this mountain

and on top of this mountain was actually

pagan temples with harlots

a thousand harlots would come off of

that pagan temple in the top of that um

numerous times of the year and those

harlots would come down those

prostitutes would come down into Corinth

for all of the guys that were sitting

around waiting on their ships to go over

so now go to the next one you see the

ruins that are there today there was a

church there called Corenth

and that church you can imagine was

seeking to be a church but they had a

hard

time there were there were pure there

was a period in that church when they

became very very worldly and very

immoral and the apostle Paul wrote to

that church and said "You people need to

repent you are far from God you are

acting in ways that are not from God you

need to repent and do you know that they

did they repented of their

sin and second Corinthians is one of the

letters that he writes and he recognizes

that they repented of their sins and not

only did they repent of their sins but

they started to get their house in order

they started to act like Christians

should act under the holiness of God

because of the salvation of God in their

lives and as part of that Paul was

sending Titus to them paul was going and

preaching to them and Paul was including

them in the call to give and to give

generously to an offering that they were

taking in fact Paul had tried to get

them to participate in financial relief

for the believers in Jerusalem so you go

back to the Jerusalem slide notice this

jerusalem was under great uh difficulty

because of a plague and and because of a

famine and there was also persecution in

Jerusalem and so the church in Jerusalem

there were many believers there and they

were really suffering so all of these

other places were taking an offering to

help the church in Jerusalem and so that

is that is more of the picture of what

we deal with here and this passage and

this even this series this morning as

we're about to read this passage this is

so good for

us because God calls us to be

generous like him with our whole

life and like the Corinthian church that

was dealing with great ungodliness

around them listen to this we deal with

great ungodliness around us

and if you think about it with me what

has been in the

headlines on a global sense in the last

several

weeks a

war and not just a war in Ukraine not

just a war in Israel not just saber

rattling in China but listen to this

there's also a war that has been going

on

forever over the things of this world

over

wealth and without any political

commentary whatsoever I simply want you

to

recognize this morning that humanity is

always in this fight for

stuff in this fight for

wealth and that that goes on at the

micro level at the little village

somewhere off in Vietnam or somewhere

down in Uruguay that that is that is at

every level in every society that we are

struggling with that so what are the

ways in which we see it we see it in

tariff wars we see it in prices we see

it in corporate issues of sometimes one

company treating another company bad or

one company treating employees bad or

employee to

employee we see it in

workcoholism when we're obsessed with

work because we want more of the things

of the world and we feel like this is

our obligations this is the only way to

do it and there's not a balance in our

lives maybe we see it in theft

we see it that humanity typically is not

generous like God and it brings great

stress upon our

lives it brings great stress upon our

world it brings great stress upon our

relationship so I I want you to

interpret with a Christian worldview

when you see country to country when you

see person to person business to

business when you see fight and struggle

and you see underhanded means and you

see intimidation you see all of these

things listen this is the result of

living in a sinful world and our desire

for more or desire in some cases for

survival

and so when we see this we see that we

are in a war it may not be a shooting

war but it is in an ideological war and

in an economic war that we often find

ourselves and then we we feel that

pressure upon ourselves and our family

and our house and our

future and so this is a very powerful

passage

um these passages this concept that

we're looking at about God's generosity

that the fact that he flies way above

all of

this he owns it all and the sooner we

realize he owns it all he can cause

anything to happen if he can create from

nothing he can he can cause anything to

happen concerning our lives and he calls

us to lift up our eyes from the soup

that we're

in of

stuff and of pressure of life he calls

us to lift up our eyes and to see who he

is and how he acts and then listen to

this to see what he offers to us what he

promises to us in this life if we will

look to him and if we will live like he

is and so notice here with me this

passage of scripture and I'm going to

read it and then we'll look at a couple

of background issues here so in 2

2 Corinthians 8:7

Corinthians 8:7 look what it says we

want you to know brothers this is Paul

writing um we want you to know brothers

and who's he writing to in this one the

Corinthians so he's he's writing to

those people down there at the

Corinthian Canal that church that have

been through a rough time that was doing

better we want you to know brothers

about the grace of God that has been

given among the churches of where

macedonia that's to the north

for in a severe test of

affliction their abundance of joy and

their what

extreme poverty have overflowed into a

read it out loud wealth of generosity on

their

part for they gave according to their

means as I can testify and beyond their

means of their own

accord begging us earnestly for the

favor of taking part in the relief of

the saints now what does that mean the

relief of the saints that's the offering

for Jerusalem now remember with me

saints are anyone who knows Jesus Christ

um we're not talking about statues in

Rome we're not talking about Old

Testament figures alone we're talking

about anyone who has come to faith in

Jesus Christ if you have come to faith

in Jesus Christ the Bible declares you

holy you are considered by God a saint

of God and so this is talking about

Christians this is talking about

Christians in Jerusalem so notice what

it says here they they earnestly for the

favor they begged for the favor of

taking part in the relief of the saints

and this not as we

expected but they gave themselves first

to the Lord and then by the will of God

to

us verse six accordingly we urged Titus

that as he had started so he should

complete among you talking about the

Corinthians so Titus had gone there

originally to receive part of the

offering from the people at Corenth

encountered all of these problems with

Corinth but he says look at verse 6

accordingly we urge Titus that as he had

started so he should complete among you

this act of

grace that as you excel in everything in

faith and speech and knowledge in all

earnestness and in all our love for you

so that you excel in this act of grace

also we're going to see what that means

first of all number one fill it in we've

already said it paul is writing to the

church at Corenth you understand that

number two Paul commends them for

repenting of their great sinfulness

that's in the chapter before in verse 7

he commends them for that and in other

places in 2 Corinthians so he commends

them for repenting of great sinfulness

number three Paul is taking a widespread

collection for suffering Christians

where in Jerusalem so Christians are

suffering everywhere but God had led

them to take an offering for the

Christians in Jerusalem number four Paul

tells the Corinthians about the great

filidan the great generosity of the

Macedonian people and so he's he's

lifting them up as an example to them

number five Paul challenges them to give

of

themselves give of all of themselves and

that means including their money

including their money and so this is

what God calls them to do through the

Apostle Paul now it is so interesting to

me that um with Christians

um a lot of times when money comes up in

this room right here in this setting

with you here with me here with all of

us here in this

room that for some people there's a

great joy that this is brought up there

was a lady that used to sit right back

here about where Maggie's sitting and

her name was Dixie um and Miss Dixie

would sit there and she would come up to

me after the service and she'd say

"Preacher you don't preach on money

enough." So she was with her name was

Dixie Sawyer she's in heaven now but she

was a member of this church for 60 years

and she would come to me and she said

"People haven't discovered the joy of

giving." She said "You you got to help

him discover that." She said "You need

to preach on money more." And then you

know you preach on money and then

there's somebody that says "If you ever

talk about money again I'm never coming

back." It's amazing the polarization of

this because the ones who have

discovered the joy of trusting God see

how essential it is to their life and

the joy that's in their life there's I I

shared Wednesday night that during

CO when nobody was able to come to

church for a few

weeks that there was the pastors were

here I was here the church staffs many

of the church staff were still able to

come to work and there were some who

would drive their car over here elderly

people that we believed were at a

greater risk that would come over here

and they would say I it's man it's

Monday and I I want to give i don't want

I want to give or I was paid and I want

to give there were numerous people that

came and said I you can't keep me from

giving i may not be able to come to

church and worship but I am not going to

miss giving back to God it's amazing

they were intent on it instead i mean

the maximum excuse not to give co You

know and here they were saying "No I I'm

not going to miss that." You see we

don't need to get all tense about money

we don't need to get all upset about

that we just need to begin to see it as

God sees it and we begin to see it as

God sees it the creator of the universe

it can cause all things to happen at any

time we can start to see his heart his

generosity and man and and the scripture

says it old Testament and New Testament

all this money stuff this is just a

test it's a test young person it's a

test young man young woman it's a test

of what is going to rule your life what

are you going to live for are you going

to live for the things that are passing

away or are you going to live for the

things that are eternal are you going to

sink your teeth and your trust into the

one who owns all things or are you going

to

scramble after getting a little bit more

of the things that you won't be able to

keep these are exactly the words that

Jesus would use at different points

exactly the sentiment in fact notice on

the bottom of your outline here Paul

writing this Paul is like Jesus when it

comes to talking about money what do I

mean by that well first of all Jesus

spoke more about money than what jesus

spoke more about money than

what jesus spoke more about money than

heaven or hell you think well heaven's

pretty important aren't we i mean isn't

that a great thing isn't that where God

that's where Jesus came from that's

where he's going to it's what he came to

bring us to well listen money is such a

big deal in this earthly life he spoke

more about it because it's very

consequential it's consequential talk

about consequence what about

hell he spoke more about hell than he

did about heaven in case if you're

wondering about that but you know what

he spoke more about hell he spoke more

about

money because the ma fact of the matter

is our obsession with the things of this

life can take us to hell in fact that's

exactly what he says when he says it's

easier for a camel to go through with

the eye of a needle than it is for a

wealthy person to enter the kingdom of

heaven why because the more you have the

more you're tempted to focus on the

things of this life as opposed to the

things that are eternal notice the next

one here out of 39

parables 11 of them were about money

did you know that okay now I know it

doesn't take a really strong

mathematician to figure this out but

that's roughly what percentage of all

the parables are dealing with money

how many parables

40 right about 40 39 40 parables right

11 of them that's about what 10 so what

does this mean

25% of the parables are about

money this is

amazing notice

this the Gospel of Luke is saturated

with teachings on earthly wealth so when

you look at the gospels it's interesting

that Luke who was a physician who was

more of a Greek mindset Greekbased

thinker is dealing with the issues of

wealth because earthly wealth is such a

powerful thing in fact in Luke 12:34

Luke 12:34

Jesus says this "For where your what

your treasure is there your heart will

be also." And so this is this is really

important for our lives that we think

deeply about this big subject concerning

our relationship with the Lord and our

relationship with others and our life

that is before us i mean it's in the

news headlines you know I I hope the

next time you see a news headline a news

story maybe this afternoon or tomorrow

or whatever it is I I hope that you see

wow this is the world scrambling for

it this is part of the

curse and the world is is going after it

tooth tongue and

toenail and God has the answer to

it the key is does he have the answer to

it in our own hearts let's read the

passage again and let's see this again

and then we'll just kind of really mine

out a few truths from it this morning

look what it says up there in the box on

the top of the page we want you to know

brothers about the what the grace of

God that has been given among the

churches of

Macedonia for in a severe test of

affliction their abundance of joy and

their extreme poverty have overflowed

into a wealth of generosity on their

part for they gave according to their

means as I can testify and beyond their

means of their own accord begging us

earnestly for the favor of taking part

in the relief of the saints for this not

as we expected but they gave themselves

first to the Lord and then by the will

of God to us accordingly we urge Titus

as he had started so he should complete

among you this act of grace that as you

excel in everything in faith and speech

and knowledge and all earnestness and in

our love for you see that you excel in

this act of grace also and that's

talking about being generous

so number one notice the Macedonians act

of grace that's what they're calling it

here that's what the Apostle Paul calls

it under the leadership of the Holy

Spirit and it's this key word it's the

word carus um some of you um have met

somebody named Caris or Carus and that's

a beautiful name it it means grace um

but that's the Greek word for it um and

grace occurs eight times in chapter 8

where where we are now and chapter 9

where we were last week eight times it

shows up notice in this one and uh look

at the screen in front of you notice

what it says in verse one uh they want

you to know brothers about the grace of

God look down in verse six accordingly

we urged Titus that he had started so he

should complete among you this act of

grace and then at the very end he says

"See that you excel in this what?" Act

of grace and that is said stated several

more times in the rest of chapter 8 and

in chapter 9 so I what I want you to see

here is that this is talking about the

undeserved favor of God in our salvation

that's where it begins so because God

saves us we are called to to act like

God in having grace toward others and so

it's also the undeserved gifts of the

saints let me just say to you that the

believers in Macedonia the believers in

Philippi Thessalonica the believers in

Corenth they were under no obligation in

this way to give but they gave in grace

they gave in generosity that we see this

tremendous this tremendous motivation

this tremendous um plan of God of grace

and so as grace has been shown to to you

God calls you to show grace to others um

so as salvation has come to you God has

called you to show help and grace and

help to others look at number two notice

the Macedonians extreme

affliction and deep poverty so what we

know about Macedonia was there were a

couple of Roman towns um in that Greek

area that were very powerful and very

rich but you know what those Roman towns

were doing those Roman colonies were

doing to all the surrounding

towns raping them

economically the Roman towns would exact

great taxes upon the locals that were

around them and the Roman towns would

exact Rome's uh Rome's uh tremendous

decadence on the other on the other

towns that were around them and what we

see in this is that the church just like

the other people in those areas were

suffering so in Macedonia it's not just

in Jerusalem where they're suffering we

see that in Macedonia there was a lot of

suffering and we see in the scriptures

as well as secular history that there

were great persecutions happening in

Macedonia and so the Christians were

under pressure up there they had less

and they were struggling and they were

persecuted so they we we see this

extreme poverty in fact severe

affliction is what it says this is an ex

this is persecution and harassment so

they're being harassed by the Romans and

they're being harassed by the pagans and

around them and then there's this

interesting word look at verse two with

me for in a severe test of their

abundance for severe test of their of

affliction their abundance of joy and

their extreme what does it say their

extreme

poverty have overflowed now that's

translated extreme poverty but you know

what word is used there that talk about

the depth of their party it's the

extreme poverty or the

baos that's the that's actually the

Greek word there the deep the deep

poverty so these are really deep now

that word baos you know what that comes

to mind when I think about

that look at this

thing what's that thing

now you talk about a crazy dude look at

the next

picture there he

is where's he going to

go he's going to go down in the water

right because what was that thing called

a bathosphere do you see that on the

side of this one a

bathosphere and so a baosphere is for

the depths that's the word that is used

here talking about these people's

poverty it's like the depths of the sea

and I've included they're down to the

depths poverty these were poor people

who were giving and finding the joy of

God in their

giving basically fill it in they were

the poor and picked

on they were the poor and picked on and

yet unlike other places they were found

to be generous and

joyful generous and joyful well notice

the next part here we see in verse 2 and

three notice the Macedonians generous

and sacrificial gift that's what it was

it was generous and sacrificial and we

see it not only in verse two and three

but also verse 5 look what it says in

verse two for in a severe test of

affliction their abundance of joy their

extreme poverty have overflowed into

what a wealth of generosity on their

part so they're not just generous but

they're wealthy in generosity that means

they're really really generous look what

it says for they

gave according to their means so from

what they had as I can testify and

beyond their means you know what the

indication there is they went out and

found other ways to get more to give

more do you see that they found a way to

get more to give

more do you know that there's some

people in this room that you have

experienced that kind of generosity from

someone else i've heard stories before

about some of you that said "Well maybe

it was my parents or maybe it was

somebody else." I mean I've heard Eric

Spie talk about the fact that he went to

Sheran Hills Christian School and while

he was at Sheran Hills Christian School

his single mom had a really hard time

paying for it and so you know what she

did she went out and got other jobs so

that he could go to this

school she went beyond her means to give

more she got other jobs to give more and

then after he became the headmaster he's

looking through old files and his file

comes up and he looks at his file he

opens it up and he discovers that a

member of this church had heard about

his circumstance and a member of this

church started helping with his tuition

and he never knew it

and I mean do you think those people

that were in this church that were

giving toward that need do you think

they knew that he they were giving to a

future

headmaster no they were giving to a kid

that got kicked

out mr speed got kicked out of the

school i would have kicked him out too

he was horrible

i'm just going to leave it at that

because he wants to say "Yeah you were

kicked out as well." Which is

true but I want you to think about the

generosity i want you to think about not

just the means but going beyond to get

more have you ever given to something

like that have you ever given to a cause

where you thought "I got to go get

more." That was the attitude of this

what else can we give i I remember one

time when we were raising money for a

mission trip Marcy kept bringing stuff

out of the house that we were going to

sell and I'm like "Hey we we kind of

need that." Um Oh no this is going to

Africa you know and I'm just going "Oh

good night here we

go you can't outgive

God he knows and he sees." And the

Macedonians they they had found out the

joy of

giving and nothing was going to stop

them they begged to

participate in

this do you have that attitude high

schooler do you have that attitude

middle schooler because if you start

working on that now it'll make it a

whole lot easier when you're later is

that right folks amen if you learn to

give

now you will you know with young people

in this day and time we we have raised a

lot of snowflakes we've taken off all

the pressures from our young people

pressures to work pressures to be

disciplined pressures that we and and we

kind of very often we don't we don't

properly train them in work ethic and in

sacrifice and giving part of the reason

that in our society today we now have

community service hours that they have

to have in order to be able to graduate

that's a good thing but it it's because

our society is broken down and teaching

children to

serve and so we have to mandate

it we live in a selfish world now I'm

glad to say that we got a bunch of

middle schoolers and high schoolers in

this church that are glad to serve they

look for ways to serve and they'll

they'll come help with younger they'll

help with that they'll help at campus

care day they'll help on special

projects and so forth they're like I'm

here to

serve but I want us to see that this is

the giving heart of God coming out in

his

people so number three the mass

Macedonians generous and sacrific

sacrificial gift we see here it went

beyond

expectations and we see that in verse

two we see it especially in verse three

and then look in verse five look what it

says and and this what does it say not

as we

expected it went beyond expectations a

question for you do you give beyond

expectations

look at number

four the Macedonians eager and joyful

emotion about this can you put out there

to the side cheerful do you remember we

looked last week and it comes from the

next chapter for God loves what a

cheerful giver that's the kind of giver

that God

loves so notice this the Macedonians are

eager to give look at verse four look at

verse four begging us what begging us

what what's the next word

earnestly they're like pleading with the

Apostle Paul and with Titus begging us

earnestly for the favor for the favor of

taking part in the relief of the saints

now if I wanted to put that in good old

Southern Baptist terms it might be

reversed into cajoling

uh you know bribing everything else to

get them to enter into the obligation of

giving

no I hope that's that's not our attitude

toward giving the Macedonians they were

like "Can we please be a part of this

we'd like to

give we found the

joy notice this so number four the

Macedonians are eager and joyful in

their emotion in giving and they viewed

it as a fill it in they viewed it as a

privilege they're saying um they were

begging us for the favor of taking part

in the relief of the saints you see they

saw it as a privilege to do

that occasionally I meet someone that

that really is their attitude toward

giving they say you know if you were to

somehow know about it or whatever and

you say "Well thank you." They go "No no

no no don't don't say thank you this is

my

privilege this is my privilege to do

this." As opposed to the guy that's

sitting there going "Golly that was a

Disney vacation I gave away." Or there

went the new

dishwasher or golly I was really hoping

for a different

car

boat gave a boat to the new

building you know if that's your

attitude you're missing out that's not

the attitude of the

Macedonians the Macedonians had the

mentality of it was a privilege look at

number five here the

Macedonians they had a compassionate

motivation so they didn't just have the

right emotion like we looked at last

week but they had the right em

motivation like we looked at last week

they had the right motivation look at

verse four in verse four begging us

earnestly for the favor of taking part

in underline that in the relief of the

saints so their motivation was I want to

help i want to be a part of relieving

their

pain and their

suffering when we give into the life of

missions when we give into the life of a

friend when we give into the life of the

church the attitude is this my

motivation is I want to help with what

is needed i want to help in this do you

see the scaffolding around this building

would you like me to to just say "Oh

well the scaffolding people came and

they put up all that scaffolding for

free." That's not true

all the work that is being done you know

whether it's for the church or whether

it's for the the the single mom or

whether it's for the people that I spoke

with last night in India for the

forwardance of the gospel in that place

there are needs around us that we have

the

motivation to

help jesus comes helping us he comes

rescuing us he comes relieving us of our

sin debt he comes healing

us in our

brokenness oh the motivation of giving

fill it in they viewed it as a privilege

to help relieve the suffering of fellow

Christians that's what they were doing

that's what they wanted to do they

didn't just view it as a privilege but

they viewed it as a privilege to help

relieve the sufferings of fellow

Christians and notice what they gave we

see this in verse five right right out

there to the side verse five that's what

you want to go up there and look look up

in at the top of your outline in verse 5

and this not as we expected but look

what it gave but they gave what

themselves can you circle that they gave

themselves they gave themselves first to

the Lord and then by the will of God to

us

you see the greatest thing that you can

do is both to give yourself to God and

to receive from God his

son this is this is this beautiful

interaction between heaven and earth

this is this beautiful interaction

between the throne room of heaven and

the dungeon of your sin and self the

throne room of heaven says "If you'll

receive me I'll come in and I'll set you

free." This is what he calls us to do

and so this is they give themselves

first to God and then they give

themselves to others that's letter A and

then letter B notice what else they do

they gave their money that's right they

gave their money as a help to those in

need their willing

sacrificial gift became a visible

manifestation of their

Christlike love and we see that here

that as they gave we see this look at

verse six accordingly we urged Titus

that he had started so he should

complete among you this act of grace but

as you excel in everything in faith and

speech and knowledge and all earnestness

in our love and in our love for you that

you

excel in this act of grace also this is

an act of grace where by which we can

participate in that we show the grace of

Christ to others

what a beautiful

picture of God working in the most

unlikely circumstances you know you

would

expect you would expect this letter to

be written from somewhere like

referencing the believers in Rome that

were in the capital city with all the

money Christians in Rome or you would

expect this to come from you know the

these kind of accolades these kind of

commendations these kind of bragging on

their giving to come from the people up

in Antioch that had a whole lot more

money or maybe down in

Athens or maybe in Corenth that had a

lot more money but instead what we see

is this poor persecuted section is the

is the group that is giving the most

didn't Jesus do that with the little

widow woman that came into the temple

one day in the most unlikely of places

the poorest of them all there in the

temple that day she comes in and she

puts the widow's

might and Jesus sees it and it's like he

stops everything he li read it yourself

he lifts up his voice and a loud voice

and he says "Everybody stop look this

woman gave more today than anybody

else because she gave all she

had she gave more than the largest

amount of anyone there that day you see

and we'll we'll look at that next week

as we as we look at how God works

through our giving and how he helps us

with that and he and he inspires us with

that this is beautiful this is the way

of God

and yet Satan wants you to not know

this satan wants this to just be a point

of stress for you satan wants to keep

you away from learning some key things

that will bring blessings to your life

that you never

saw he wants to keep this from your mind

and from your heart he wants to distort

it

and so we see this look at this the call

to action and we see it in verse 7 he

says "But as you excel in everything in

faith and speech and in knowledge and in

all earnestness," this is talking about

look up there at verse 7 all these

things faith speech and knowledge in all

earnestness he's saying "Look as you

become superch Christians you know kind

of visible on the outside you know

you're growing in knowledge of God

you're growing your your your speech is

becoming more and more seasoned like a

Christian like God instead of like the

world speech would be a big one there

because we're talking about Corinth and

what is one of the phrases cursing like

a sailor right yeah okay less

inhibitions whatever knowledge growing

in knowledge of that

earnestness so they're growing in their

passion for

God and in our love for you he's saying

that you're realizing how much we Paul

and Titus love you guys um you're you're

growing in that but he says "See to it

that you excel in this act of grace

also." What he's saying is see to it

that you excel in

giving can you put that down there

beside that right down below that under

the box in giving in giving

generously see that you grow in

that there's roughly 40% of the people

in this

room that have not grown in

that 40% of the people in this room

have very very little compared to what

God has given

them this is to all of us

this is all maybe maybe it's through

this that you would start to say golly I

want I want to take a step of faith in

this area of my life and there's so much

about this in the New Testament there's

so much about what God can do in your

life as you learn to trust him with the

daily stuff like the daily stuff of

money trust and obey for there's no

other way to be happy in Jesus but to

trust

and obey

That's

learning this act of

grace it is

interesting that for Marcy and me the

issue of personal finance and

giving has grown our

faith

greatly our faith that was very small

sometimes when

God prompted us led us through a sermon

through a friend through somebody's

example to

give as God pushed that our faith grew

you know if you're not giving in such a

way that your faith is not

challenged I want to encourage you that

I don't think you're giving in a

biblical

way god calls you to give in such a way

that you're being ch like Lord how's

this going to

work and I can tell you that from

personal experience and most of the

people in this room that would love to

get up here and talk about this they

would love to get up here i mean the

genuine people that I know have just

grown in this area of their life they

they would say the same thing oh I've

learned to trust him because as Carrie

Johnson said two weeks ago his shovel is

a lot bigger than my shovel i shovel out

and he shovels in and he is always

taking care of my

needs this is what God does

notice what he says here or in um this

like Jesus Paul calls Christians to give

fill that in to give i I left that word

out to give everything including money

to the needs of others in the work of

the kingdom of God's kingdom look at

verse eight i say this not as a command

but to prove by the earnestness of

others that your love also is genuine

you see your giving can can reveal a

genuine faith verse N for you know the

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that

though he was rich yet for your sake he

did what he became poor he gave his life

away he did not hold on equality with

God a thing to be grasped philippians 2

says "But he gave up the glory of heaven

to come and be born in a manger

yet for your sake he became poor so that

you by his poverty that means Jesus

humbling himself to the cross so that

you by his poverty might become rich

that means that you're given all things

in God which is what the scripture says

in Christ we have been given everything

pertaining to life and godliness you've

become rich because of him the world

doesn't get this message doesn't

understand

it but we are privileged to see and

follow Christ's example in generous

giving and why for the sake of

others god wants to do a work in the

lives of others through you through your

giving and you can be like our generous

God our God is a generous God would you

stand to your feet and look at that

slide for a minute our generous God are

you learning about God's generosity i

hope you're learning about God's

generosity and I

hope that you are being set

up to become generous like him let's

pray