This morning, I want you to turn to your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 8. 2 Corinthians 8. And as we continue in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, we wanna be reminded of another implication of the gospel. I've titled this series, Gospel-Shaped Lives, because in 2 Corinthians, probably more explicitly than any of Paul's other letters, he shows us how the gospel works into every nook and cranny of our hearts, and how it affects and shapes everything that we do. So far in this letter, Paul has been defending his ministry to the Corinthians amid some misunderstanding and even some controversy. And as he's defended his ministry, he has appealed to them for the sake of Christ and the gospel to give him grace and deference, just as he has cared for them as a loving parent and has tried to shepherd them toward Christ. And as we've been going through this series, we've seen different facets and aspects of the gospel as they've played out in the life of this New Testament church. And we'll continue to see that in chapter eight. But in chapter eight and nine and 10, the apostle is entering into a new discussion. And the new discussion is particularly related to some of the commitments that the Corinthians had made that Paul wants to hold them accountable to. And Paul is going to be very pastoral, but also very direct in holding them accountable. Well, as we enter into this section, we are also beginning the season of the year called Advent. And today we're not starting with the Advent candle, we'll do that next Sunday. But this is the time of year when we're reminded of the incarnation of Jesus, that God took on flesh and became a human being and lived in this broken world among sinful people just like us. but he lived in such a way that he never sinned so that he could fulfill all the righteous requirements of God's law. And in doing that, Jesus voluntarily gave his life as a sacrifice for our sins. And we're going to be reminded of that over the next several weeks as we look at themes like hope, and love and faith and joy that all attend the incarnation of Jesus. Those same themes can be picked up and found really throughout the Bible. And as we go the next several weeks, I'm not gonna do a special Christmas sermon series. I'm gonna continue our study in 2 Corinthians. But I think it is significant that in the timing of where we're at in our series and where we're at on the calendar year, that the next several chapters talk about giving. And it's significant because during Advent, we think of God, the Father, giving his son, Jesus, for the benefit of sinners like us. And what Paul is gonna show us in chapters eight and nine in particular, is that in light of all we've been given in Jesus, we should be the most giving of people. So we are gonna talk about giving and giving generously over the next several weeks, but I want you to hear me clearly. It's not a reaction to something happening in our church life that I feel like I have to pull out some sort of pastoral stick and hit the church and say, don't forget to give. It's coming to the end of the year. We need money. That is not the intention or thought behind this at all. It's just God lining up the sermon series with the calendar, and it's what we need to hear and be reminded of. And I hope you'll catch even in today's sermon that the reason we give is because of all that God has given to us. Over the years, as I've had the opportunity to pastor and be around churches and be around Christians, it never ceases to amaze me at how generous Christians can be. And one of the things that I learned very early on in ministry when I was Still pretty much a kid, I was traveling with a summer organization called Neighborhood Bible Time, doing summer ministry with youth evangelism. And at the end of every week where I would spend one week at a church and do this youth program and then move on to another church and do it up to 10 times a summer, At the end of every week, most churches were very gracious and took up a love offering to give to me and the partner that I was working with. And that love offering was not given directly to us. It was sent to Neighborhood Bible Time, and they made it into a scholarship so that all the money that we would have received over that summer was sent in one check to our college to help offset the cost of our tuition. And it was a huge blessing, no matter what amount a church or individuals in that church decided to give us. We never asked for money. We didn't come for money. But most churches, just as a matter of course, decided that at the end of that program, that they wanted to give the youth evangelists some sort of love offering. Now, I grew up in a very large church, or at least large to me at that time. It was 1,000 people were there on a normal Sunday. And we had Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. And there were hundreds of people around all the time for everything. And my church, being large in people, was also large in budget. Even in the late 80s and early 90s, they were running million dollar budgets, which at that time would have been astronomical. And having grown up in that kind of a church environment, I was under the impression that most churches operated at that scale. I mean, that's just what I knew as a kid and as a teenager, so I didn't think anything of it. When I went out on neighborhood Bible time, I traveled to all kinds of churches, some of which were as large as 20 people and others as large as seven or 800 people. And the group of kids or teenagers that came out also ranged from as small as 10 kids for a week to as large as 600 kids for a week. So you can imagine the range of things that I got to experience. Well, one of those was in the love offering category. Having grown up in a large church, I was of the mind that surely if you go to large churches, you will get large love offerings because they have lots of people and large budgets. And small churches, you wonder how they will put their budget together and how they'll provide for their needs. Well, overdoing that youth program for three summers, I was shown again and again that the most generous churches were the most small churches. that the churches that gave the most in terms of effort and service for the program that we were running that week were the small churches because it was an all-hands-on-deck, everyone-involved affair. The churches that seem to be the least passionate and the least connected were the large churches because for them, it was just one more activity on an already busy calendar. And even as it related to the love offering, which I said was voluntary, there was no obligation to do that. There was no request for a church to do that. The large churches would usually just write a check and say, here, we wanna give you something for your trouble. and not to put numbers on it because that would be embarrassing, it was usually a tenth of what the small churches would give, which was mind-boggling, not what I expected at all. Well, fast forward in my life several years to when Crystal and I were working and doing our ministry in Scotland. And as you know, Grace Church was a part of our ministry in Scotland because you supported us on a monthly basis in order for us to be there as missionaries. And as a part of that, we also connected with other churches, and we had other people that were supporting us as well. And just like I learned on Bible Time, I learned with my ministry in Scotland, that it was sometimes the least likely people that gave the most generously to what God was calling our family to do. I can't tell you how many single widowed women on fixed incomes gave and helped us And we would almost cry saying, why? Why are you giving to us? You need to take care of yourself. And they would say, we can't, we have to give this because God has called us to do this and we want to partner with your family to do it. And it was incredible. What I saw in my ministry to Scotland was similar to what I saw in Bible time. The large churches that I thought would give a lot gave little, and sometimes the churches and even the families that made grand commitments that seemed to be more upwardly mobile, more upper middle class, or whatever phrase you might want to use, did not compare in their giving compared to those single widowed women. It's a convicting thing. And as we look at our passage this morning in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, I think Paul is pointing to a similar thing that he had observed. And that is that the churches in Macedonia, which are the churches at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, were some of the poorest churches that Paul established and had set up bases of ministry for the gospel. And those same poor churches had become some of the most generous partners in gospel ministry. It wasn't because they were large and glitzy with celebrity pastors. It was because they were filled with faithful Christians who were willing to suffer persecution for their commitment to Christ, that they gave joyously and generously in response to what had been given to them. So this morning, as we look in this passage, I want you to see the generosity that was provoked in the hearts of these churches and that Paul wants to stir in the hearts of the Corinthians as well. And may God give us the same degree of generosity in our own lives as God would use us to further the cause of the gospel through Grace Church and beyond. Let's read our passage this morning in 2 Corinthians 8, verses 1 to 15. Paul writes this. And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability, entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people. And they exceeded our expectations. They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God, also to us. So we urge Titus, just as we had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But since you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in love, we have kindled in you, see that you also excel in this grace of giving. I'm not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, Yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard-pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time, your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn, their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality. As it is written, the one who has gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Pray with me. Dear Heavenly Father, as we look into this passage, I pray that you would help us to see very clearly that your grace motivates selfless generosity. And help us this morning as we look through the details of this passage to be shown that generosity is not something that is forced, it's not something that is begrudged, but it is something that is the natural mature response to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And God, we rejoice that the churches in Macedonia were generous and gave out of their poverty. We also rejoice that the Corinthians gave, and they gave to meet the need of the brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. And God, in some ways that we don't understand at the present time, all of their generosity worked to expand the gospel that has ultimately led to us having the gospel all these generations later. So God, I thank you for ways that Grace Church has been able to receive and also give. Thank you for the ways that Grace Church has given generously above and beyond our own needs to help brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. Thank you for Grace Church's investment in my family, in the ministry at Scotland, and even the ministry here among Grace Church. And God, I also thank you for how Grace Church has been committed to the ministry at Bhutan to help the brothers there learn and be grounded in theology so they can take it to the churches and strengthen the churches in the country of Bhutan. And God, I pray that you would continue our generosity and even grow our generosity. Help us not to rest on past gifts or contributions, but help us to be looking at ways and means that we can continue to give and provide in the future. And even as the Corinthians had a desire that was started in them but not completed, I pray that you would give us desire to give and see your gospel multiplied, and then complete that desire by enabling us to give toward it. And we pray this for your glory and the growth of your gospel and the expansion of your kingdom. according to your will. And may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. As the Apostle Paul here is moving into this section of the letter, it is a departure from the previous section. And the departure is because he's no longer dealing with some of the interpersonal problems that they were encountering between Paul and one another and people within their church. But now Paul is moving their gaze outside of Corinth and reminding them of the brothers and sisters in other places among other churches. He starts here by reminding them of the Macedonian churches that they would have been familiar with, both through word of mouth testimony, as well as correspondence that would have gone back and forth. but he also reminds them of the need among some of the believers in the church at Jerusalem. So Paul is going to help the Corinthians grow in their faith and application of the gospel, not by simply becoming fatter and happier among themselves, but he's going to help them grow by pointing their focus outside of themselves and helping them see the importance of partnership and ministry. And as we look at 2 Corinthians 8, think about how these churches must have been connected to one another. That they were not just aware in the broad sense, but they were also aware in the specific sense of some of the people, some of the needs, and some of the opportunities. That would have made their opportunity to give even more personal and more urgent. In light of all of those interpersonal connections, Paul still had to encourage and remind them of their responsibility to give. You see, it wasn't just enough for the Corinthians to know there was a need, because he'll say in chapter nine, they'd known about this need for over a year, but they did nothing about it. They were either too busy or too distracted, or perhaps had other commitments that they needed to follow through on. Or even worse, the false teachers had been grifting from them and taking their money. Whatever the case, they were aware of the need, but they had failed to follow through on meeting the need to their full ability. So as Paul writes in the first seven verses, he wants the Corinthians to see that God's grace rightly applied produces generosity. And that's my first point this morning, that God's grace rightly applied produces generosity. The Macedonian Christians that Paul refers to here are people who had received the grace of God amid difficulty. If you go back and read Acts chapter 16 and Acts chapter 17, Paul was on his second missionary journey, and he was passing through Thessalonica, or excuse me, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, and preaching the gospel there, starting in the synagogues, and then going into people's homes. And it says that many people were being saved, and it says especially some prominent women were becoming Christians. Yet while some were responding to the gospel, others were becoming incensed that Paul was coming and teaching Jesus Christ. Most of them were coalescing around the synagogue and the leaders there, and they gathered mobs together. And they sent the mobs to attack Paul and Silas and other of his companions and to drive them out of those cities. And in fact, if you read Acts 16 and 17, you'll see Paul preaching, but also Paul leaving under cloak of darkness sometimes because he's trying to escape the mobs so he can continue to take the gospel forward. You would think in a church that was in Gentile territory, that had been persecuted from its very inception, that the last thing they would have on their mind is being generous with their offerings and giving to needs outside of their own congregations. And yet that's exactly what they were doing. Paul says that these believers rightly applied the gospel because they had received God's grace. Look at verse number one. It says, And brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. This was the grace that saved them, that made them brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. This was a grace that not only saved them, but a grace that sustained them through enormous difficulty and persecution. If they drove Paul and Silas and the others out of their city because of the gospel, I don't think the persecution would have stopped at that point. Those who would have continued to gather in the name of Christ and the church would have continued to receive persecution, would have continued to receive opposition saying, you have to cease and desist and quit doing this. But the Macedonians had received God's grace. And so much so that it says in our text in verse number two, that in the midst of their trial, they were overflowing with joy. They didn't see this persecution as reason to stop. They saw the persecution as confirmation that God was working. So often we don't see it that way ourselves because we want a life of peace and prosperity, and we don't want any difficulty, especially opposition. The snarky remark by a coworker sets us off for a whole day or week, and we wonder, well, what did they mean by that? And why were they so rude to us? Why do they think that I'm a religious fanatic? I don't wanna be labeled with those people. And we get all defensive and worked up. The Macedonian didn't have time to be bothered because they were so overwhelmed with joy for the grace they had been shown to be a part of the covenant community. This is incredible. And what's more, it says in our texts that they overflowed with joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. Think of the contrast that Paul is making there. Paul didn't say the Macedonian churches were in the most affluent suburbs of Greece, so they gave incredibly generously out of their affluence. It says instead that they were extremely poor. Now it does say in Acts 16 and 17 that some prominent women were converts to Christianity. That would imply that those women may have been women of some financial means, but the balance of the churches there were people that were not wealthy. And yet in their poverty, extreme poverty, he says, the joy of the gospel prompted them to give richly. They didn't necessarily give the most numerically, but they certainly gave a lot proportionally. And we'll talk about that later in the sermon, what that means, that they gave proportionally. But the Macedonians very clearly gave away their money. That's what our passage tells us here. they gave as much as they possibly could. Look at verse number three. It says, for I testify that they gave as much as they were able, even beyond their ability. This means very clearly that the Macedonian churches were giving as much as they could, and they were giving generously. And again, this giving was not for the benefit of Paul or Titus or Silas or other Christian workers. This giving was for the benefit of the collection being taken for churches in Jerusalem, where there was another level of poverty and suffering. The believers here gave as much as they could because they recognized how much they had been given. This is quite the opposite of how we sometimes think when we give as little as necessary. I mentioned in my Friday email, if you read those, they get longer and longer each week. So I'm testing your reading and I'm testing your comprehension. But at the end, I mentioned that next week, the elders plan to give out our church budget because we've adjusted our calendar year or excuse me, our fiscal year. to match the calendar year. So we'll start a new budget, Lord willing, on January the 1st. Well, many times in church meetings that I've been a part of over the years, the attitude toward church budgets is not one of how much can we give, but it's one of, well, how much can we cut? Do we really need this amount of money for that category? Like, I'm not sure I am following or understanding this. And it's very interesting how many times church budget discussions get down into strange weeds. And I'm not saying this to sort of preempt and say, you guys can't ask questions. That's not my point. But my point is we so often get focused on the wrong details. When Paul is reminding the Corinthians, the most important detail is to give as much as you can, even beyond your ability, he says here, as the Macedonians did. That doesn't mean give to the point of depriving yourself, but it means give beyond what you think you can do, because God can always provide more than you can give. Now, I'm not saying here to give recklessly or unwisely and fail to meet the responsibilities that you have in life or the responsibilities you have for your family. But I am saying that Paul commends the Macedonian churches for giving beyond their ability because they gave according to the need, not according to the accounting. And that is a significant difference. He also points out here that as they gave away their money, as they were applying the gospel, this generosity that was being produced in them also provoked them to give of their own free will. Look at the second part of verse number three. It says, entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people. This means very clearly that they gave of their own free will. It was voluntary and it was sacrificial in their giving. Does it strike you that he said of their own accord or entirely of their own, they begged with the apostle to be able to give to this opportunity? That means the apostle may have even himself been saying, now, wait a second, guys, make sure you take care of your own needs first and then worry about these other needs. but they were lunging into the opportunity to give because there was a situation that required it. And they wanted to do it because they recognized that this, it says, was a privilege and it was in service to the Lord's people. It wasn't simply in service to Paul and his personality as an apostle, but they were giving in honor of Christ and his work among other people. This giving of their own free will was the best kind of giving because they weren't giving under compulsion where Paul said, you've now joined some sort of pyramid scheme. And in order to stay in the scheme, your church has to pay X number of dollars or each member has to pay this amount. No, they were giving completely voluntarily. Over the years, I've seen all kinds of interesting things surrounding church and other religions. And I used to have a joke when I was a new pastor, and the joke went like this. If you join our church now, we're giving free membership. Complete joke, because we don't charge for membership at that church or at any church that I've pastored, and we don't charge for it at Grace Church either. Well, several years after telling that joke and my people getting used to it, I received a mailer from a company that sends information to all the new move-ins in a community. And that mailer would include things that new people needed to know about. And this was before the internet took over everything. So forgive me guys for going old school. But in this mailer, it would have things like, here are some local services you need to be aware of. Things like the trash company, the gas company, the electric company, all kinds of just practical details. And then churches would also advertise in those. And our church advertised in one. But one of the circulars that I received had an advertisement for a Jewish synagogue. And it said, literally, if you join now, the annual dues are only $4,000. And I took that back to my church group and I said, you guys thought I was joking about free membership. Here's a group that is not giving free membership, but they are giving a discount just now, if anyone's interested. And of course I was joking about that. But the point is, Christians have always held the view that giving is voluntary and free and up to God to prompt the individual. We don't put a price tag on your membership or on the cost of doing business for each family and say, you each need to give $4,000 to make this place work. But we trust that God will move in you, that you will be pleading for God to give you opportunities to minister out of the resources He has given you to bless others according to the gospel. The Macedonians gave as much as they could. They gave of their own free will, and they also gave more than any one guest they would give. They gave more than anyone guessed. Look, it says in verse number five, they exceeded our expectations. Paul doesn't say what his expectations were, but he knew they were in poor regions and that the churches there were not swimming in cash. And what they gave encouraged him and went beyond his wildest guess because the Macedonians had given sacrificially. You see, too many times we give assuming what other people might give and say, well, I'm sort of looking at the math here and it looks like if this family over there is giving a certain amount and another family is giving a certain amount, then I only need to give this amount. And again, we have a poor mentality of what can I get by with rather than how much can I give. Now, I'm not saying everybody does that, but I am saying it's very easy to show partiality in the church and say, well, they must be rich. So that's the family that gives all the money around here. But I can assure you, back to my opening illustration from neighborhood Bible time and our ministry to Scotland, that some of the most generous people in church are the people you would never, ever guess. And the Macedonians were those kinds of Christians that even Paul didn't guess that they would have given as much as they did. And yet they gave sacrificially. Well, they also gave in response to the gospel. And really this is what drove their giving. They gave completely. Look at verse number six. It says, actually it's not verse number six, it's verse number four. and five, they exceeded our expectations, and it says they gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. The Macedonian churches and the Christians that filled them were giving because they had given their lives to the Lord. It says, first of all, in other words, their highest priority was giving to God, no matter where that would lead in their lives. But by giving their lives to God, they blessed other people, and they blessed them through sharing of their finances and their resources. The Apostle Paul is commending the Macedonian churches for the Corinthians, not to shame or embarrass them, but to remind them that they too have been a part of that same experience of giving. that the gospel applied to their lives has also produced generosity in their church. And that's why Paul calls them to excel in this grace of giving in verses number six and seven. So in six, he says, we urge Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning to bring also to completion the act of grace on your part. What is he saying? He's saying, look, I've sent Titus to you, not only to report my letter, not only to send a word back to me how you're responding, but also Titus is there to help take whatever offering you can collect, and he's going to take it back to the believers in Jerusalem. So he wants, he being Paul, wants the Corinthians to finish this offering. so that they can report it back. This is something that in 1 Corinthians they had started. And in 1 Corinthians 16, Paul had addressed how they would go about raising this money by giving the collection on the Lord's Day. And as they did that, Paul said, then when I come back, we'll be able to receive that and take it to Jerusalem. Apparently the Corinthians had started with the greatest of intentions, but just never followed through. And Paul was now saying, this is the time to follow through. So let's bring to completion this act of grace on your part. Paul called the Corinthians to do what they had promised to do, because up until this point, their words were not consistent with their actions. Or to say it the other way around, their actions did not match their words. They were great at talking about what they were going to do, but they did not follow through with actually doing it. So Paul chides them a little bit in verse number seven, by saying, you do excel in these areas. You excel in your faith and in your knowledge and your earnestness and in your love and in your speech. But there's one noticeable area where you are not excelling right now, and that is in this grace of giving. For the apostle Paul, giving provided evidence that grace was at work within a Christian's life. Did you catch that? That Paul says that giving provides evidence of grace at work in a Christian's life. He's saying it's not enough to talk a great game and to know all the right things to say and how to act in church, but he's saying we also have to give according to how we've been given. God's grace motivated selfless generosity. The absence of God's grace encourages selfish hoarding. The absence of God's grace encourages selfish hoarding. As we think about this, Brandon has sometimes asked this question in our worship service, and I'm gonna butcher exactly the words you use, but he asked this question from time to time throughout the year, and that is, how would Grace Church be doing if everyone in Grace Church gave like you give? How would Grace Church be doing if everyone in Grace Church gave like you give? That is a convicting question because some of us give generously, some of us give sporadically, some of us give scarcely. And we should all be thinking not, what does everybody else give? And how does my giving sort of fit together with their giving? But we should be asking, what can I give? What is God entrusted to me that I can share through the church for the benefit of the gospel and kingdom? And if we look at that question seriously, it would affect the way our church operates and it would affect our budgets and our sort of reports and all those things. It would affect every church. This is not a strike against Grace Church to say, bad church, give more. That's not my point. But it is to say there is always room for us to assess and evaluate where we're giving. and how we could be giving more to the advance of the gospel. Well, all of this should be in light of my second point. The first main point was that grace, rightly applied, produces generosity. And the second thing that this passage shows us is that God's grace, rightly understood, creates selflessness. God's grace rightly understood creates selflessness. The very reason for all of their giving is because of what Jesus has done for them. Paul makes this abundantly clear in verses eight and nine, where he said, Jesus became poor to make sinners rich. Look at verse number eight. I'm not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. Paul is not saying here, I'm going to compare your giving to the Macedonians. We're going to do a running tally. And at the end of the day, we're going to give a star for the church that gives the most money. Now, he's saying, I'm gonna compare your giving to someone else's, and that someone else is Jesus. Look at verse number nine. He says, for you know that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich. If the standard is Jesus, we can simply never out give God because he gave the ultimate gift in his perfect sinless son who came and set aside all of the benefits that he had as the divine son of God and became human to the point of death on a cross. He gave His very life so that we could have eternal life. That is the incomparable gift. That is something that when we compare what we give, anything we give is worthless compared to that. And yet, God calls us to give out of response to what God has given to us. When we rightly understand the gospel, it won't simply be facts, figures, and information to digest, but it will make us selfless because of Christ's selflessness toward us. Paul compared the Corinthians' generosity to Jesus, not merely the Macedonians, because Jesus had given up his infinite riches that he had in heaven so that poor, miserable sinners like each of us might receive the rich inheritance of eternal life. Paul is not saying here that Jesus died so that you could have your best life now and be filthy rich, living in a mansion and driving whatever car strikes your fancy and wearing all the finest clothing. He's saying Jesus died so that you could have life and life more abundantly, the eternal life of forgiveness through Christ. That is a gift that we can never get over and that we can never adequately respond to. And yet the Corinthians had made a commitment to give to the need of those in Jerusalem. And Paul is saying, look, Corinthians, remember what Jesus did for you and respond to that accordingly. And as you respond, you will inevitably give generously. As they go on and Paul highlights what their response needs to be in verses 10 through 12, he says in verse number 11, "'Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.'" Paul is just simply reminding the Corinthians, give, give selflessly and do just as you had promised by finishing your gift and give according to your ability. Again, he's not comparing them to the Macedonians and saying, empty your pockets and take a vow of poverty. He's saying, give according to your means and give according to what you've been given. Paul called the Corinthians to keep their commitment. And he called them to give selflessly, to give absolutely selflessly so that there could be equality. And that's what verses 13 to 15 are about the equality, that some give so others, This is not an argument in this passage for some kind of socialism that Paul is saying all the Christians should give to one giant pool of money and we'll just make everybody the same. But he's saying when there's a need and you have the resources, give to the need. And then when you have a need, God will provide for you in some incredible ways. I can say over the years, I've heard the cliche and I've preached the cliche, you can never outgive God. But I can say more than that, I've lived that cliche. It's incredible that when you give, as God lays it on your heart, that God always provides for your needs. And I would encourage you more and more to give as God lays it on your heart, not simply according to what makes sense in your checkbook or in your online bank account, but give according to God's leading and according to your means. In the same way that Jesus followed through with the cross for our benefit, he expects us to follow through with our commitments for the sake of the gospel. If we say, for example, that we're going to be committed to the local church, then we must make attendance and serving first level priorities. That's what Paul is saying. They're committed to the church. in Corinth and then in Jerusalem, then make it a priority to give to the need. And we must also make the same priority. If we're saying that we're gonna support someone financially, perhaps a missionary as they take the gospel to another group of people, then we should set up the process to make that happen and not simply say we're going to do it. The same should be true with our church giving. We should make it regular and systematic rather than sporadic and spontaneous. If we say that we're gonna pray for someone, then we should pray for them right then and there, and then continue to pray for them as we're able, and ask them how that's going. We should follow through in our commitment. And if we say we're going to help around the church in whatever capacity, from setting up chairs to running wires for the sound system, to serving in children's church or the nursery, then we should make sure we get ourselves on the schedule and we do it. not just talk about how we've done in the past or how we might do it in the future, but do it now. Why would we do any of this? Because Jesus followed through on his commitment for our sake. Commitment has become a dirty word in the church of the 21st century, and I've even heard people in Grace Church reflect that commitment is a dirty word. Now, they wouldn't say it that way, But one conversation I had a few years ago with someone who no longer attends Grace Church, but they were here for a period, but they said to me, I'll do anything that you want. Just don't ask me to commit to doing it all the time. And I thought, well, what's the difference? The difference is they told me they wanted the freedom to not do it when they didn't want to. And I said, well, I get that, but life doesn't work that way. Like I can't say I wanna be a parent when it's convenient to me. But on those days that I'm tired, I'll let somebody else take care of my kids. I wish I could do that sometimes, but it doesn't work that way. And the same is true in church, that as we're committed to Jesus, he was committed to us to the point of death on the cross, that we must also be committed. And perhaps one of the reasons churches are languishing in the United States and in Western countries is because we've gotten away from commitment and we've committed to everything other than the church. I'll close with this illustration. But last year, at the end of the school year, Miles was invited to participate in the high school marching band. And Miles is in the eighth grade, so this would have been a privilege for him to go over and be in the band a little bit ahead of the high school schedule. And as we went to that meeting, the band director made No qualms about the fact that if you signed up for the marching band, you're gonna be there six days a week For X number of hours a day and he said and band will be your number one commitment He said we don't take excuses for doctors appointments. We don't take excuses for other activities if you commit to the band you are all in on the band and And I was almost startled with how direct he was about the commitment. We decided not to do it because we were not going to be able to be an all-in family for the band this particular year. But what hit me is in my lifetime, the church used to be that direct in our commitment levels to what we expect church members to do. But in my lifetime, we've backed away from that, and we've let every other institution in the world up the ante of commitment, while the church has said, all you need to do is show up on Sunday morning. Just come for worship, get here late, leave early, it's okay. It'll be all right. But it's not all right. We have to be committed to Jesus. We have to follow through on our commitment as he followed through on his commitment. And as we do that, it is for our eternal good. Think of it this way. If we're gonna spend eternity with Christ and his presence and with his people. Why would we spend as little time as possible with Christ and his people now? That doesn't make sense. We would only be shorting ourselves. So we should be preparing ourselves by being all in for Christ and his church and kingdom. And as we do that, we should be motivated by what Christ has given to us and know that God's grace makes us selflessly generous people for generations to come. What does that look like in your life? It'll be different for all of us. But to use the words of Paul here, give according to your means and your ability. Give of your time, give of your skills, give of your money and give for the sake of Christ. Don't ask how much do you need? Ask how much can I give? That's what Paul did. And look at what was accomplished in Paul's lifetime. By asking the question, how much can I give? He gave everything. And churches were established and the gospel exploded around the Middle East and around the ancient world at that time. If Christians would continue to do that, imagine the implications and the reach of the gospel in our own era, in our own day. It would exceed our expectations to say what Paul said here, and it would be incredibly amazing to God's glory. So let's work in that direction and be that kind of Christian in that kind of church. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we conclude this message, there is so much here for us to consider. And God, this is a hard message for us because it's convicting to think that this church group in Macedonia, as well as the Corinthian church, that they gave through some difficult circumstances. And they gave generously, exceeding the apostles' expectations. They gave willingly. They gave as much as they could, and they watched you bless the gospel through their giving. And God, I ask that you would forgive us for the times that we're faithless in our own giving, that we allow other priorities to sneak in and take over, whether it be something as simple as a marching band that we were given the opportunity to do, or something as innocuous as the priorities that we lay out for our Christmas shopping lists. But God, there are so many ways that we let the busyness of this world and the priorities of this world undermine the commitment that we should have to Christ and the gospel. So God, help us to be convicted by the example of Jesus, who literally laid aside all the benefits of being the Son of God so that he could enter into this world as the Son of Man and live a life without sin and die for us so that we could be forgiven. and have eternal life. And God, I pray that you would forgive us for minimizing that. I pray that you would forgive us for so many times not making your people and your kingdom a priority because we have so many other priorities in our lives. And God, I pray this morning that you would use this passage to reset our focus and to renew our call to give. And God, even as we enter into this church budget season, where we'll be discussing the details of line items and numbers that relate to what we have responsibility for and what we would like to do, help us to ask the question, not how much does Grace Church need to survive or to function? But help us to ask the question, how much can I or my family give for the sake of the gospel because of what Christ has given for me? And God, when we do that, I pray that you would exceed all of our expectations and literally blow our minds in an encouraging way that we would say, wow, what an amazing God, that you would do that through us. And God, we ask this because we need your grace to do it. And we pray according to this grace in Jesus' name, amen.