2 Corinthians 8:1-15

We are in 2 Corinthians.

So some of you have been with us for a while, studying through this letter that Paul the Apostle wrote in the 5th century, 55-56 AD.

Some of you are brand new, and some of you are brand new to the Bible.

So the book that we happen to be studying on Sunday morning, just step by step, going verse by verse through, it's called 2 Corinthians.

It actually was a letter that Paul wrote to a church he planted in the city of Corinth.

And this is the second letter that was saved by the church, and it became a letter that was copied and distributed amongst the early church and then included in the canon of Scripture by the early church.

So we're in chapter eight.

And just as as by way of opening, I sent in my email this morning this question.

The question is this well, first of all, we'll go back to blessable images.

How does receiving the grace of the new covenant change our actions in really practical ways?

We have this saying here as a church that God designed us to be blessable, image-bearing, covenant partners.

That's what you and I were designed to be.

You are blessable.

In other words, when we look in Genesis chapter 1, it says that God created the man and the woman, and he blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

So humans are created with this capacity by God to be blessed people, not just static, but to be blessed.

There also in Genesis chapter 1, it says that we're bare the image of God.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Animals don't bear the image of God.

Fish don't bear the image of God.

It was humans that were to be his image bearers.

And probably the easiest way to understand that is like if you have an idol in your house, like if let's say you had like a little Buddha, that Buddha is like a representation of the God of Buddhism, right?

If you had a, let's say you had some pagan idol in your home, it is an image of the deity itself.

Well, God didn't want his people, the God of the Bible didn't want his people to have images or to worship graven images because he said, You are my image in the earth.

You're my representation on the earth.

You are to carry out for on my behalf the ruling and the reigning over creation.

So we're his image bearers, but then we're also made to be covenant partners.

And if you go through scripture, you see that God is continually revealing himself, relating to people in covenant, that he wants to have not just a relationship, but a covenantal relationship with his people.

And for those of us now living 2,000 years after the death and resurrection of Christ, we, when we come to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are entering into the new covenant and all that is promised by God under the new covenant.

And it's outlined in Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah, chapter 31.

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

There are three parts to the new covenant that God's going to write his law on our hearts, no longer writing on tablets of stone like he did with Moses, but God writes his law on our hearts.

The second thing that the uh Jeremiah 31 says about the New Covenant is that God is the one who is teaching us individually.

And he says, no longer do you need your neighbor to teach you to know the Lord, but you will personally know me.

So under the New Covenant, we have a personal relationship with God that's not mediated by a high priest.

And the third thing under the New Covenant is that there's the promise of forgiveness of sins.

You remember under the Mosaic covenant, forgiveness of sins came through temple sacrifice.

But under the new covenant, there is this promise, this ongoing, massive promise of human forgiveness from the guilt, and that is accomplished through the death of Christ.

And there's no more need for animal sacrifice in the temple, but Jesus' death on the cross accomplished the forgiveness of sins for humanity.

And so we say that we are blessable image-bearing covenant partners.

And the question is what does it mean?

Or how does receiving the grace of the new covenant, all of the work of the new covenant as we receive it, we call that grace, what does it change, how does it change our actions in practical ways?

That's really what we're going to see this morning as we go through this text.

Just as a really quick recap of Paul's life, just to kind of frame up chapter 8 of 2 Corinthians, one of the things that you need to know is that Paul was a Jewish scholar who was a zealot persecuting Christians in the mid-third century, like 35, 36 A.D.

And on his way to persecute followers of Jesus in Damascus, God confronts Paul with this vision, this light shines from heaven, this voice, Paul hears this voice saying, Paul, why are you persecuting me?

And he says, Who are you, Lord?

And the Lord says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

And so Paul has this radical conversion where he realizes that these Jesus followers are following the true Messiah, the Jewish Messiah, and that Jesus is the promised Messiah that Israel had anticipated for years, and Paul was getting it wrong.

And so he's radically converted, becomes a follower of Jesus, and then he takes a 10-year sabbatical in obscurity, and he re-kind of learns his theology with Jesus at the center.

But then in Acts 11, we see that there is this prophet who comes from Jerusalem to Antioch, and his name is Agabas.

One of them named Agabas stood up.

This is in the church in Antioch, and he predicted by the Spirit that there would be this severe famine throughout the Roman world.

And this took place during the reign of Claudius.

And so God speaks through this prophet Agabas to the church.

And the response of the church is this each of the disciples, according to his ability, they determined to send relief to the brothers and sisters who lived in Judea.

And so the church gets this word in advance.

God allows for the church to have a heads up on this famine that would occur.

And they decide, well, God's spoken to us.

We need to respond by putting together resources so we can send relief to the followers of Jesus that are in Judea.

But look who they entrust this gift to.

Saul in the next chapter is going to have his name turned to, he's going to become, or in two chapters, he's going to become the Apostle Paul.

So early on in Paul's ministry, he is doing this work where he's taking on the behalf of other churches money and resources back to Jerusalem to care for the original band of brothers, the original group of Jesus followers in Jerusalem.

That's really important as we look at chapter 8 of 2 Corinthians because Paul is again putting together, he's encouraged these churches that he's helped start.

He said, let's put our resources together and send money back to Jerusalem to take care of the saints who are in Jerusalem.

Now, we don't know the exact story, but we know that this church and the Christians, the disciples, back in Jerusalem were struggling financially.

They faced a lot of persecution, both from the Jewish community and from the local government.

It was a really hard place to be a follower of Jesus.

And because of just their decision to follow Jesus, there was a lot of social fallout.

It was hard to get business, it was hard to do work just because of their affiliation with Jesus.

And so in Paul's first letter, I know I'm throwing a lot at you, but I'm trying to catch you up here.

In Paul's first letter, in 1 Corinthians, at the end of 1 Corinthians, he tells them about this effort to put together money as a church to take with Paul back to Jerusalem.

Let me read it to you.

This is in 1 Corinthians 16.

Now, about the collection for the saints.

Do the same as I instructed the Galatian churches.

So I'm going to show you a map in just a minute.

But Paul's planted churches all over what we would call Turkey today, all over southern Europe, Macedonia, all the way down Macedonia into Greece and into Achai.

And so Paul's encouraged all these churches to put this collection together for the saints.

On the first day of the week, what's today?

Sunday.

It's the first day of the week.

That's when the church was gathering with their public gathering.

On the first day of the week, each of you is to set something aside, save in keeping with how he is prospering.

In other words, he says, church, look at what how God's blessing you, what you have, and how you're prospering, and save some of it, put it aside so that no collections will need to be made when I come.

So what Paul wants is for the collection to happen, the church to be organizing this gift, this financial gift, in advance of Paul's arrival.

Because Paul didn't want to show up and have to be the one that was doing the collection of money.

He was having the church itself, the church leaders, do the collection of money.

When I arrive, I will send with letters those you recommend to carry your gift to Jerusalem.

So Paul's wrapping this process in accountability.

He's saying, we're going to send letters from your church, and there are going to be people from your church that participate in this financial gift.

If it is suitable for me to go as well, they will travel with me.

So that's what Paul outlined in his first letter.

Now, the book that we've been studying, the letter that we've been studying, is written 10 months after this was written.

And so we're going to jump into 2 Corinthians chapter 8.

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

Let me read to you the first five verses from 2 Corinthians chapter 8.

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia.

In a minute, I'm going to show you this map of where Macedonia is at and where Paul has traveled.

But he says, we want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia.

During a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy, their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

I can testify that according to their ability and even beyond their ability, of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints.

And not just as we had hoped.

Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God's will.

So what Paul does here first is as he now turns his attention in this letter from the ministry that he's doing.

We spent chapter, basically chapter two through chapter seven with Paul explaining New Covenant ministry and the dynamic of his relationship with them.

He settled an issue of forgiveness that needed to be extended to one of the people in the church who had was in ongoing rebellion to God.

That person had gone through a church discipline process, and then he had changed and decided, like, I don't want to be a dummy anymore.

I'm ready to stop being like that, and I'm ready to do what God wants me to do.

And Paul's like, hey, you guys need to welcome that guy back into the church.

But there is more than that going on.

Like, um, and and Paul has been explaining the new covenant all throughout the first seven chapters.

But now in chapter 8 and 9, he turns to this very practical matter of we want to put our money and resources together to bless the saints back in Jerusalem.

And so he's gonna start off by saying we want you to know about the other people's giving.

Now, just put yourself in Paul's seat for a second.

Anytime we talk about other people's uh money and relationship with money, that can be pretty uncomfortable, right?

It's not even comfortable for me.

Like when we're here at church, I there have been times where we don't even do like an offering.

I just don't like the money piece of church and of nonprofits.

Just like it's messy because it's something that happens between you and God.

And yet there is money, is a real part of it.

Like we're gonna pay$365 to use this space this morning, right?

I get paid by the church.

My salary comes from the church.

The the um uh stuff that we use up here is stuff that we pay for out of the tithes and offerings that come from the church.

There's ongoing expenses, the website.

All of those things are things that like when we give to the church is covered by those expenses.

But it monies can be really uncomfortable, and Paul really feels like hey, church, you need to not just be taking care of your pastor or your elders locally, but your giving should go beyond that.

We need to do this extra giving to take care of some of the original Jesus followers back in Jerusalem.

And Paul's gonna explain the logic of this as we go through the chapter, but I just want you to see how artfully Paul encourages, without commanding them saying, you must do this.

He's putting a little bit of pressure on them, helping them see how appropriate and how fitting their participation financially would be.

So just appreciate that as we go along.

So he starts off by saying, I want you to see how the other churches were giving.

The grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia.

Let me go forward here.

So, what what's going on with the map, the geography?

So Paul wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus over here.

This is the Adriatic Sea, the same on Google Maps today, nothing's moved, it's still the same geography, right?

So, but now this is not called Asia Minor, this is called Turkey today.

And so Paul was over here doing ministry in Corinth, it is over on this isthmus.

This is a chai.

So literally the letter that we're writing, we're reading is written to this church in the city here, but it was intended to be spread and passed to all the little churches that were all over this geographic region.

And this is Macedonia.

Um, Europe starts properly right here, right?

So this is considered the continent of Europe.

And one of the first churches that Paul planted in Europe was this church in Philippi.

And then we also have Thessaloniki or Thessalonica, and we have Berea.

These all these churches or these cities are spoken of in the book of Acts.

And Paul explains what it looked like to start churches there.

And so what Paul is saying is, I want you to know about how God's grace took hold of the saints, the Jesus followers in each of these churches, and how they radically have given.

But notice how Paul describes their giving.

He says it's with they were in the midst of a severe trial brought about by affliction.

So these churches that are giving from Macedonia, it's not like they're having, like they're just killing it financially.

No, they're going through some really difficult stuff.

And their abundant joy, their extreme poverty overflowed in the wealth of generosity on their part.

So even though they're in the midst of poverty, they, Paul's like, you gotta hear this.

They have been so generous.

I can testify that according to their ability, even beyond their ability, of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry of the saints.

You see, these churches around Macedonia, they saw it as a privilege to give to this work that Paul had talked about.

And that is what the new covenant grace of God.

Remember, God under the New Covenant is writing in our hearts.

That's the power of God's grace.

It's not that Paul, like a new Moses, is like, thou shalt do this, and there's lightning and thunder on a mountain, and people are terrified, and so they're obeying Paul.

No, under the New Covenant, it's radically different.

The grace of God is just this internal motivating factor, this resource of God's love and power that's giving these people vision, like it's our privilege to give.

That is how giving should work.

If you're ever a part of a church where there is a sense of obligation, like, oh, I've got to pay.

And there are those there's churches like this in Baltimore City.

Some of you have gone to those churches where you feel like, you know, there's an ATM in the in the lobby, and you got you got this sounds like this is hitting home for some of you.

It's like we're gonna pass the bucket, not once, not twice, not three times, you know, and we're gonna keep doing it.

That is not giving according to the grace of God, because the grace of God is like, it's just an internal motivating thing.

It's not something where we're showing off what we're giving, it's not something that we're doing to earn God's favor.

No, it comes from this overflowing work of God's grace inside of us.

And he says it's not, and so again, going back to the church, it's not just so, not just how Paul and Titus and Timothy, it's not just how they had hoped for participation, but look at they instead gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by the will of God.

It's just this incredible, incredible act of generosity.

And so generosity is not produced by abundance, it's produced by grace.

It's not a matter of you looking at your budget and being like, oh yeah, I could spare this one, two, three percent.

No, it's it happens in relationship with God where you sense God's work in you, and you're taking steps of faith, of like, I'm gonna give this because I think this is what God wants me to do.

Let's go to the next section that grace makes love visible.

So we urged Titus.

You'll remember that Titus is a co-worker with Paul, and Titus had been working in Corinth while Paul's absent over in Ephesus.

He says, so we urged Titus that just as he had begun, so he should also complete among you this act of grace.

So remember, Titus was in Corinth, but he left Corinth to touch base with Paul, and now Paul is sending Titus back.

And Titus is going to get back to the church before Paul does.

And Paul is telling Titus that just as they as they began, he should also complete this act of grace.

So keep going in the grace that God's, this work that God's doing in you, keep going.

Keep going.

Now, as you excel in everything, so this is going to be some hyperbole from Paul.

Paul's Now going from, here's the example of other churches.

Now he's going to lavish them with some praise and some affirmation.

And this is sincere, but it may be a little bit exaggerated.

Okay?

He says, now you excel in everything.

Like you're so good at faith and speech and knowledge and in diligence and in your love for us.

Excel also in this act of grace.

Now, when he says excel in this act of grace, what he means is get your money together so that you can have your money ready to join with all the other money that's going to Jerusalem.

But he calls it an act of grace.

He doesn't even call it money here.

He says, excel in this act of grace.

I am not saying this as a command, rather by means of diligence of the deemed diligence of others.

I'm testing the genuineness of the love.

Do you see how tactful that is?

He's like, I'm testing you.

How genuine is your love?

I'm not commanding, because who was the who commanded in biblical history?

Moses, that's right.

Moses commanded the children of Israel to do this and that.

He says, I'm not commanding, because no, we're under the new covenant.

Instead, by means of diligence, the diligence of others, I'm testing the genuineness of your love.

Is your real, is your faith real?

You say you're a follower of Jesus.

Paul's like, show me, show it to me.

The proof, let the proof be in the pudding, right?

Let it be something that is real.

Let the rubber meet the road in your spiritual life.

That you're not just talking, you're not just saying, oh yeah, that sounds good, but you're actually showing up.

You're actually doing this.

It reminds me of um Miss Crystal.

She runs Baltimore Relief Network and the Compassion Center, and she'll get applications from volunteers.

And after a volunteer will apply, then the next step is like to have a conversation with Crystal.

And then based on that, the person either is approved or not approved to volunteer, and they'll say, the people will say, Oh yeah, I want to help.

I want to help.

And it's amazing how many people say, Oh yeah, I'm all in, and they don't ever show up.

You know that.

I mean, you're used to humans.

Like in your own experience, you know that people will talk a good game, but they'll fail to show up.

And that's what Paul here is doing.

Paul is saying, listen to me, saints.

Listen.

What needs to happen is that there needs to be a genuineness about your love, something that the church in Jerusalem can touch, can feel, can taste.

That was my commitment.

When I came here to Baltimore to start Haven City Church, I wanted to see, my question was, God, what does it look like for a church to really love the neighborhood where it's at?

Like, what does it look for for you, Jesus, to be made real in us and through us here in the midst of Fell's Point?

And I think that together as a church, we've walked in that.

We're seeing what that kind of thing looks like.

Let's go to verse 9.

This is really the centerpiece of this passage.

He says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So he's been talking about the grace of God working in them, but he says, let me take you back to the grace of God, what the grace of God looked like in Jesus.

What did the grace of God look like in Jesus?

Though he was rich, what does that mean that Jesus was rich?

He's Lord.

He's in heaven, right?

He's the Lord of Lords, the King of kings.

Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor.

What does it mean that Jesus became poor?

What?

He came from heaven to earth, right?

He put on a human body.

He clothed himself in flesh, and he didn't just do that, but he went to, he humbled himself to the point of the cross, died for our sins, and then rose on the third day.

That's what he means when he says, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

Paul says, here's the practical example of what grace looks like in the greatest human that ever lived, Jesus Christ.

God was at work in Jesus.

Jesus was God, right?

And I know the Trinity is like, whoo, that's a little bit trippy.

But Jesus was God, humbled himself, became poor for humanity, so that you and I might become rich.

And that is the working example that Paul gives of what grace looks like.

New covenant grace follows that template.

Let's look at verses 10 through 15.

And in this matter I am giving advice because it is profitable for you, who began last year not only to do something, but also to want to do it.

So he's referring to their willingness.

A year previous, when Paul was there, he says, You were willing.

Who began, you began last year not only to do something, but also you wanted to do it.

Now also finish the task.

Follow through.

Get it done.

It's not just good enough to say you're willing, that it's a good idea, but you've got to finish the task.

So that just as there was an eager desire, there may also be a completion.

You see, it's not just good enough to come to the table with your intent.

It's not just good enough to say, yeah, God, we agree, but if we go back to Genesis chapter 2, we see that God brings about the fruitfulness of the land, because God makes it rain, and the humans are the ones tilling the earth.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

God's work in the earth, the fruitfulness that He chose you to bear, He picked you to bear fruit, like to be a fruitful human.

That fruit comes about by not just a willingness, but in a carrying it out, an actual finishing the task according to what you have.

So what do you have?

Paul's like, he's not asking them to produce a million dollars.

He's like, no, what do you have?

And from what you have, I want you to follow through on your eagerness, your willingness to actually give.

For if eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he doesn't have.

This is the principle that Paul's laying out.

You have eagerness, the eagerness is there.

You're like, yeah, I want to follow God, I want to be a follower of Jesus.

Okay, great.

So you've got an eagerness, you have a willingness.

The gift, though, is acceptable according to what the person has, not according to what he doesn't have.

In other words, for in this particular case, they're putting together their money.

What's acceptable is the actual gift.

That's the proof of their eagerness.

For you and I, it's like you come to church, you feel the prompting of God's Spirit, knocking on the door of your heart, of like, hey, this is what should be happening in your life.

This should be changed here.

This is what fruitfulness looks in your life.

This is the vision I want you to have for life.

This is what it means for you to walk with me.

That's great.

That's great.

But it's really accepted in the economy of the kingdom as you obey and actually do it.

Are we tracking?

Are we understanding?

Yeah, it's not about eagerness, it's about obedience.

It is not that there should be relief for others and hardship for you.

He's not like, he's not saying, look, I want you to now be poor, so that those guys over there should be wealthy.

No, but it is a question of equality.

What do you mean, Paul?

What do you mean by equality?

He's like, thank you for asking that question.

At the present time, your surplus is available for their need.

So some of you have, you can look at your resources and you're like, I have more money than I need to be able to do life.

I've got a surplus.

And Paul says, it's great.

You have a surplus.

God in his economy has given you a surplus so that you can be a generous person, so that their abundance, so that their abundance may in turn meet your need.

So Paul says there's an ecosystem here.

We're taking care of one another.

So that when you have a surplus, you're able to take care of them.

When they have a surplus, they can help take care of you, in order that there may be equality.

Final verse.

He says, as it is written, the person who had much did not have too much, and the person who had little did not have too little.

So he's just drawing out the picture of like, listen, the grace of God is very practical in your life.

As you look at what you have, the resources that you have, what's in front of you.

It may be money, it may be relationships, it may be opportunities, open doors that you have, it may be some resource beyond money.

It may be that you have a property or some other, you may have a vehicle, and it's just like, Lord, I have this surplus here, and I want to use it to participate in what you're doing.

That's just the right way of looking at your stuff, right?

You've got time is probably one of your greatest resources.

And the idea is that God, by his grace, is working in you.

There's no commandment of thou shalt not know.

There's this writing of God's Spirit on your heart that this is what he has for you.

That's that is the work, that that is the like the Monday through Saturday work of the Spirit in your life, right?

Different from church, just the normal part of your life where the Spirit of God is just gently at work in your life.

I want to illustrate this.

There are parts, so so we get to see Haven City Church in this sense.

But as a church, just in the DNA of our church, we've been walking in this idea of look, we want to make the grace of God something that our neighbors can touch, that they can taste, that they can feel.

That's been the original vision for our church.

And I just want to show you just some pictures very quickly.

This is in 2017, before we even were gathering on a Sunday morning.

It's actually a picture of Hudson back probably 14 years old, right there, in that picture.

We had somebody that called us up and said, you know, it's almost Thanksgiving.

We want to give your church 180 turkeys, frozen turkeys, for to give away for Thanksgiving.

And so we went and we parked this U-Haul right in front of City Springs Elementary School.

And we gave, it was primarily residents at the time that were in Perkins homes, and we gave away 180 frozen turkeys.

This was just six months after we had, we were managing the Compassion Center.

Then fast forward from that, now you have the Compassion Center, which is no longer belongs to Haven City Church, but we were the stewards over that relief center for seven and a half years, for eight years really, um, until it went and became something that now is independent under Baltimore Relief Network.

But we cooperate heavily.

We many of us volunteer still over there, and and the director of it happens to be my wife, Crystal, and we're now distributing out of the or that center is now distributing six million dollars.

And as a church, six million dollars worth of food happens out of that place because of our investment.

Do you see here?

There's some Spanish.

That is that is the nickname that this the Latino community has for our church.

Does anybody know what that means in Spanish?

What does that mean?

The small grand church.

The small grand church, yeah.

The little big church, the church that's little, that does big things.

That's what they that's what they call started calling us as we started going, right?

So we've got the you've got the compassion center.

And many of you know of the compassion center, three blocks from here.

But there's something else that you don't know about very well, which is called the Food Access Coalition, because in 2022 we had so much food, to borrow Paul's word, we had a surplus of food.

But at the same time that we had a surplus of food, more food than we could literally fit into the building, we had a bill, we had a budget of$6,000 a month to pay for the truck.

The lease on the truck, the driver, the insurance, and the fuel.

Those four things.

About$6,000 a month.

And it was like, man, we're a tiny church.

We got a budget that's like maybe like one and a half person's like full-time salary.

How are we gonna pay for this truck?

And yet we had all this food.

So we started what's called the Food Access Coalition.

This is a map of some but not all.

There's 180 pantries now that are of part of the Food Access Coalition.

So I spend my week, Monday through Friday, taking surplus food that we don't need in the Compassion Center, and we route that food to different churches around Baltimore City.

Our surplus becomes their game.

Now, we we share.

Now, just so you know, there's a uh a relationship there, there's a monetary relationship.

So the fruit, food that's given to each of these churches is free.

But we share in the cost of transportation.

So what happens is our surplus goes to other churches that are meeting needs around the community, and those churches are in turn helping cover some of that$6,000 budget for transportation so that our church is not doing this heavy lift on paying for the truck.

It's this beautiful thing.

Let me just show you this last week.

On Monday, our church took food to feeding the flock, Baltimore.

We gave them three pallets so that they could feed a neighborhood of about 300 households.

On Tuesday morning, we had Manna Bible Baptist Church.

Their food pantry was supported by by us and our truck.

And then after we dropped off there on Monday, we went to the Mack Lewis Foundation, which is in East Baltimore, um, just kind of by where's Mac Lewis?

It's by Church Square.

Uh church on Church Square.

Um and what else is up there geographically?

I can't remember, but they took two pallets of food and gave it out to their neighborhood.

Um, and then the afternoon uh we gave food to Aspire Behavioral Health.

There's a Christian, couple Christians that work.

This is for-profit, but they augment their um for-profit work by also caring for the community there.

I think that's on Northern Avenue.

That's just Tuesday.

Wednesday, Canaan Missionary Baptist Church got pallets of food.

They got four pallets of food and gave it out to their um community and supplied and restocked the Bee More Fridge Network uh refrigerators.

That was Wednesday.

Thursday, we took food to the tribe of uh Lion of the Tribe of Judah Church with Bishop Bowens and First Lady Um Bowens.

Um and then after that, we took food to Health Focus Foundation.

They got three or four pallets, three pallets, and their food initiative, they're over on Bel Air and Bishop Bowens is in West Baltimore.

So that was Thursday, and then Friday we sent four pallets to the Psalm 91 ministry up over close to Pimlico.

We're a tiny church, and yet God has entrusted to our church this not just the four to five million dollars of pallets that goes distributed out of the compassion center, but another four to five million dollars worth of food that now gets spread all over the city.

I love that.

I love the fact that God has let us, yeah.

That God has let us be a part of something at that scale is awesome.

Paul, after 2 Corinthians, he writes to the church in Rome about the same offering that's put together.

Here's what he says Right now I'm traveling to Jerusalem to serve the saints.

Because Macedonia and Achai.

Achai, remember that's where Corinth is at?

So now he's writing after 2 Corinthians and he's saying, Macedonia and Achai, they were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.

Yes, they were pleased and indeed indebted to them.

For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual benefits, then they are obliged to minister to them in their material nature.

You see, Paul's like, look, y'all know about Jesus because of the saints back in Jerusalem.

That's how you, that's why you're spiritually rich, is because those people back there.

So it only it only makes sense for us to care for them and their physical, their material needs.

So when I have finished this and safely delivered the funds to them, I will visit visit you on my way to Spain.

Beautiful thing that that Paul has done and he's working on.

I think for us as a church, what is think about it this week like what is the Spirit of God by his grace?

What is he authoring in your heart?

It may not have anything to do with money, but it may have this action tied to it.

I know it does.

It may just be the words that you speak that you're blessing people.

It may be how you use time.

It may be some other resource or opportunity that you have.

The question is, is what is God's grace?

Like just it's bubbling up within you, and and the disobedience would be to just like push it back down because God's the one that's like bringing it up in to flow out of your life.

Lord, we want to respond this week in obedience to your spirit.

We want to go with you.

We don't want to receive the grace of God in vain, but we want to be workers together with you.

And so, Lord, help us to hear what your spirit is saying.

Help us to respond to the work of your spirit in our life.

Thank you for that internal, that internal work that you're doing.

Thank you, Jesus, for letting us act upon the grace that you've poured out upon our church, that we're serving and loving our neighbors, that we're that we're able to participate in this neighborhood in this way.

And God, you've started a good thing, but we want to do even more.

We want to make you known even more in this neighborhood.

We that you are the real savior of people, not just spiritually, but in material needs.

You are able to save.

And Lord, all we've been able to do is just take what you give to us and pass it on to our neighbors.

But Lord, we we we still look around and there's a great, great need in our neighborhood.

So, Lord, would you just continue to just pour into us so we could give to others around us?

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.