And you may be seated. This morning we are in 2 Corinthians 8, verses 1-15. If you're using one of the few Bibles, that's on page 967. 2 Corinthians 8, 1-15. Here the Apostle Paul encourages the Corinthians to participate in a collection It's an offering for Christians who are in Jerusalem in conditions of persecution and poverty to inspire their Corinthians to give. Paul tells about how the Macedonian churches to the north, and this is where he's currently working, have been digging deep to give to this offering. 2 Corinthians 8, starting in the first verse. We want you to know, brothers, about 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 in 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. And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 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 by his poverty might become rich. And in this matter I give my judgment, this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need so that their abundance may supply your need that there may be fairness. As it is written, whoever gathered much had nothing left over and whoever gathered little had no lack. This is God's word, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we are grateful for this word of the Holy Scriptures, and we ask that you would use this word to cause us to understand and also embrace our calling as Christians to give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ and to one another in all ways, including practical and financial. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. very young children can do some handy Christmas shopping at the dollar store because the dollar store is full of little delights and you know, it's easy on a kid's budget. We had an incident when our kids were tiny that they each bought themselves the same, they bought the other the same gift at the dollar store. It was a It was a reacher grabber, you know, one of those poles with a, you squeeze it and it has a little claw? And I think they were both delighted to get that gift from one another. So that was a big hit. I mean, what's not to like in something that makes your arm twice as long? You can do handy things, you can play a trick on somebody, there's all kinds of stuff you can do with a reacher grabber. You know, the Apostle Paul is talking about giving, and this is a kind of perpetual activity in the Christian church. We're to be generous toward one another. Our giving, and here he's especially talking about financial giving in the context of this gift, giving extends our reach. You're concerned about somebody's situation in your heart, but then your dollars are something you can deploy to meet that person's need. It's a practical extension of who you are. That's why giving is so important. It expresses our hearts and here Paul encourages the giving of the Corinthians and what he says applies to all of us as we in fact give one another give ourselves, that is, to the Lord Jesus Christ. So this morning we explore what giving means, and we talk about how far generosity can go, because the Macedonians are a great example of dedicated giving. How far generosity can go, and then secondly, why generosity is good. We'll talk about how it's based out of the work of Christ and what God does in it and through it that is so healthy. Okay, first of all, how far generosity can go? The example of the Macedonians in verses one through seven. As I said at the beginning, the Apostle Paul, he's taking a collection for poor Christians in Jerusalem suffering persecution and poverty. We could piece this together from the data we have in 2 Corinthians, but we don't have to actually guess at it because in other letters of Paul, he talks about this offering very specifically. In Romans chapter 15, 25, he says, the Greek and Macedonian churches have been pleased to send a collection for the poor in Jerusalem. And that's exactly what he's talking about here. The Macedonians, where Paul is currently ministering, and so that would include the congregations in Philippi, in Thessalonica, in Berea, and maybe others. They are giving remarkably to the impoverished Jerusalem church, although they themselves are in the throes of grinding poverty. Paul calls it a severe test of affliction in verse two. But as we look at what is going on and just scanning these verses, we see in verse one that God has given them the grace, the desire to contribute. In verse three, he says that their contribution has even gone beyond their apparent means. It's incredibly generous for the resources they have. He says in verse four that they beg him for the favor of contributing. And then in verse five, probably the most important thing, he says, they give themselves first to the Lord, the Lord Jesus, and then by the will of God, to us. And this gets at the idea of extension. In the giving of this gift, they are actually sending, as it were, their very own heart, or they're extending themselves. They are giving themselves to the Lord Jesus in this act of service. They are giving themselves to Paul because they trust him with the administration of their offering. And in that, they're also giving themselves to the needy brethren in Jerusalem. It is interesting just to think about their circumstances and also the manner in which they give. It seems to be a general rule that when you yourself are in poverty, it is impossible to give in a detached manner, because when you're poor, A dollar means food. It's very tangible in that way, and so the Macedonians know the meaning of money, and they are giving with all their heart, with earnestness. And the Macedonian example reminds us that whether we're giving out of a condition of poverty, or whether we're giving out of a condition of plenty, or somewhere in between, it is really the earnestness that counts. As we dedicate ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and under him we give ourselves to his people, the church. And we could say, though this text deals with giving to Christians, we could say beyond that we seek to do good to all mankind and love our neighbor as ourself. So we are in Christ, extending ourselves to the Lord Jesus in service to him, and beyond him and through him to others. This is a kind of extension of who we are. Speaking of extension, I can't help remembering when I was a young boy, I entered band in elementary school, playing the trombone, and I had to have an extender. My arm wasn't long enough to reach the end of the slide, so they had to put a little handle on it that enabled me to get all the way down to the last position on the slide. Yeah, it's very cute. In a couple years, my arm had grown into the trombone, and I didn't have to use the little handle anymore. extension. In our giving, again, we extend who we are. We are able to express, as it were, if I can just use the analogy of a melody, we're able to play the melody that's in our heart as we extend ourself through our generosity or gifts. It's also true that if there is within us reticence and reserve that leads to a lack of giving, that is also an extension of us. So either way, whether we give or whether we withhold what we could and should give, that is an extension, an expression of who we are inside. And what we want to be, of course, as Christians is well-rounded Christians who are seeking to serve Jesus in lots of ways, including the giving and financial. And that is what Paul gets at as he gets into verses six and seven. In verse six, he says, basically, Titus is gonna come collect your giving. And then in verse seven, he appeals to the Corinthians and he says, you excel in so many things. And then he names a string of things that are mostly intellectual and spiritual. He says, in your faith, in your speech, in your knowledge, in your earnestness, And these are all more or less intangibles. He then says, you excel in our love for you. To excel in being loved, that's also a pretty special thing. But they need balance. They need to make sure they're excelling in practical matters. He says in verse seven, see that you excel in this act of grace also. We see later down in verse 10 that apparently, although they intended to give to the church in Jerusalem, their offering had kind of lost some steam. It had sort of petered out. And that's actually not too surprising, given that they and Paul are going through some hard times. It seems like they had sort of lost their momentum. And Paul encourages them and says, look, you need to be well-rounded people, excelling not just in the intellectual, spiritual realm, but in practical good works. The point is that Christians and churches need to be balanced creatures. so to speak. Thinking of this, the image of a T-Rex came to mind, you know, like gigantic, strong back legs. That might be sort of like the Corinthians intellectual power, and Paul just saying, like, make sure the other end isn't so wimpy, you know, like, you need to make sure that you're practically putting to use your values, you need to come into expression in what you do, and in this case, in what you give. And what Paul's encouraging them to, it's important to emphasize, it's not about amounts. It is not about reaching a certain dollar amount of giving. It's about proportion. Do we give meaningfully in proportion to what we have? And it's about the heart again. Are we in our giving extending ourselves to the Lord and to others? Are we offering ourselves in our gift? Sometimes it can be the case that in our generosity, ironically, we're not extending ourselves, we're dismissing others. In other words, someone comes to you in need, and it's like, okay, I will give you X, and then that kind of dispenses with that. Generosity can be a way of sort of sending someone on their way, but that's a kind of cold, transactional, It's a way of giving without giving what matters most, which is your affection, care, and heart, and regard in Jesus. Again, what we seek to do in giving is to extend ourself, our love, our care, our prayers, together with our practical help. So we'll come back to the practicalities at the end of the message. We have that Macedonian example, which is very striking, really inspiring. Moving on to verses 8 through 15, we see why generosity is good. And here Paul mentions three particulars about giving and the goodness of giving that aim to inspire our own practical help to those in need. In verses 8 to 9, What we see is that Christian giving mirrors the free grace of Christ. And that's a mouthful. There's a lot in there, and all of that's important. The free part, the free grace, and of Christ. Regarding free, notice that Paul starts by underscoring our freedom. He says in verse eight, I say this not as a command. And then he says, in effect, I'm using the Macedonian's earnestness to bring your own genuine love out into the open. I'm just prompting your love to come into the open. I'm not ordering you, he's saying. Because Christian giving at its most pure or proper, or maybe we'll use the word healthy, Christian giving at its most healthy is not something done in response to a command as much as it is a joyful decision to share what we have. And most properly, it comes out of a place of joyful freedom. We violate the spirit of generosity if we push people into it or if we guilt them into it. And Paul here brings up the example of the Lord Jesus in verse nine. And there's so much packed into verse nine about Jesus. Though he was rich, yet he became poor. This describing how the Lord Jesus Christ, in his incarnation, clothing himself with our nature, veils, as it were, his divine glory, hiding his majesty, as it were, under a veil of flesh. Christ also then suffering for us, as you know, and then giving up his very life as a sacrifice for our sins. Christ. giving all in order to impart to us the riches of God's favor and the glory of eternal life. He became poor that we might become rich. And though Christ does this according to the will of God, he does it also quite freely. He is delighted to carry out the Father's will and he is willing and even we could say eager to redeem the church as he gives himself for us. We could say that when God brings us, when he saves us and brings us into fellowship with himself, he brings us into a fellowship, and we could even use the word an economy of giving, because God himself sends the son to us. Christ is God's gift to us. Christ then in redeeming us, he and the father pour out the gift of the spirit upon us. And the spirit is in scripture called a gift. So it's God gifts us His Son, and then Father and Son gift us the Spirit. And then as God gathers us to Himself, remember what Paul said about the Macedonians. He said, first of all, they gave themselves to the Lord. For the Lord gathering us into Himself by His giving then enables us to, out of joy and gratitude, to give ourselves back to Him and back to one another. Christian giving is a duty. We're told in Scripture to love, and we're told in Scripture to give. But notice here how Paul doesn't want to command it, because although in certain respects we can call it a command, we also know that, as Paul said back in chapter 3, verse 17, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So the Spirit having changed our hearts makes us glad and willing to give. not as those who have to be ordered to do it. We want to do it. And it's such a privilege as well to enter into this realm of giving and to give freely as we contemplate what Jesus has done for us. And we think about how he humbled himself by clothing his divine glory and then how he gave himself for us. We are amazed We give Him honor, and the honor of Jesus for what He did will ring into all eternity. And we look at that and we say, at one level, that's far beyond what I could do. And it is, because Jesus Christ, our Savior, is without parallel. And yet we also notice with great joy that Christ is at work in us. As we've seen already in 2 Corinthians, that as we behold his glory, the spirit drawing our hearts to Christ changes us more and more to be like him. So Christ enables us by his grace to be givers like he is. And we are amazed at him, and we are amazed at what he is gradually, by his grace, enabling us to be. So the generosity means mirroring the free grace of Christ, verses eight and nine. Following on from that, generosity befits ourselves, it benefits us in verses 10 through 12. Paul says in verse 10, and in this matter, I give you my judgment, this benefits you. And when he says this, he means you're completing this project of giving to the church in Jerusalem. He says it benefits you. And he doesn't quite spell out what he means, but we know based on the rest of scripture what he means and how it benefits. They're gonna be benefited as soon as they hand their collection to Titus. Actually, they're gonna be benefited as soon as they decide to contribute. because for them to care about their brothers in Jerusalem is already a benefit. They are in that growing in the grace and compassion of Jesus. Proverbs 11, verse 17 says, a man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself. as we extend ourselves as people, for good, hopefully, but also for ill, if we are unkind or cruel. Not only is that an extension of who we are, but as we extend ourselves that way, we grow stronger in that direction. Do you see that? It's like we're gaining muscle, or we're gaining more inertia for good or for ill. And in that sense, as you consider the tremendous benefit of growing in goodness and growing in Christlikeness through giving, consider the value of generosity and see that really in a sense, to not give, to fail to give, would be too expensive. Right? We can't afford stinginess. Stinginess is too costly. It will cost us too much to withhold what we ought to give to other people. It's a benefit to us to be generous. Verse 12 adds an important proviso. It says that we give according to our resources. Verse 12 says, for if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. I don't imagine that the Macedonians, for all their heart, gave a very big dollar amount. They just didn't have it. But it was acceptable according to what they did have. And again, that reminds us that God knows your state, and he knows once you buy your groceries and pay the electric bill. make your credit card payment and everything else you have to do, how much you have left and he knows then what you're giving and what it's worth is. So just remember that the Lord is the judge of such things and that ought to be a comfort to him, to us rather. Because in seasons when we feel like we're basically just able to give a widow's mite, because that's all we can do, we know the Lord sees it and he credits it. He credits it according to what we have. And then finally, in verses 13 to 15, in light of the fact that God has set up the church as an arena of giving, or we can say that the church is, we could even call it a society of mutual assistance under Jesus. Therefore, it is only fair to give to others because they will do the same for you. It's only fair. Friends, God does not gather us into a realm that we could or should call strictly transactional. When he gathers us into his Son, Jesus Christ pays for our debts and gathers us into a realm of grace. Therefore, having received so much grace, it is only right and fitting, fair in that sense, that we would freely give to others. And also, as Paul brings out, because they are also going to give to us when we're in need, because that's what we do for each other. It's fair for us to give to them when they're in need. In the final verse, in verse 15, Paul recalls, he quotes from Exodus, and he's recalling how when God sends Israel manna, the bread from heaven, he told them to gather an omer apiece, that's about two quarts, Verse 15 quotes from Exodus and says, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. And if we ask, how is it that everybody ended up with an omer, there are two ways of construing this. Some people see it as a miracle of equalization. Like, no matter how much you had, it all came out the same in the container. And so that's possible. Another take on it is that as some people over-gathered, but then shared what they had with those who had less, it was all equal between them. That's another possibility. And I think the second possibility, although kind of ostensibly less miraculous, might actually be more miraculous, right? The people who gathered much would share with others. No matter which way you take it, the way Paul applies it is more like the second way of construing that event. That is, it is only fair to help when God has given you the strength and the ability to gather a little extra that somebody else really needs. And so in that sense, too, it's fair. The fairness that's being taught here is not the fairness of equal possessions. It's not as if we should each have The same in our bacon count and the same in the pantry. Human beings, of course, try to implement that system from time to time. It never works. It kind of sends incentives in all the wrong directions and it ends in a kind of chaos and a bloodbath, as you know. God's not, he's not setting up that kind of a communitarian system per se. What he's talking about, though, is fairness in taking your turn. When you have, when God has enabled you to have the strength and ability to gather a little extra, it's only fair that you want to give that to somebody who has some need. Because again, when they have a little extra and you're not able to support yourself, they're gonna give to you. Because that's the way we roll in the church. This is a fellowship or an economy of giving. So in the church we operate with this paradox that giving is free, but on the other hand it's not optional because the grace of Christ abounds to us all and we're called to give to him and to his people. You might be sort of wondering what I'm driving at in this message. Well, nothing in the sense that here we are in 2 Corinthians, we just get to this point, right? And I don't have a... I guess we just gave the thank offering, so if I was going to apply it to that, it's a little too late, although maybe you still have your envelope, so you can take what I say as applied to that. But as I said before, generosity and giving is just part of our lives. We give, of course, to support the budget and the ministry of the church here at Grace Vienna. We have special things like the thank offering. And then God sends people into your lives who happen to need some support and help. Maybe it's financial help, or maybe it's just, I don't know, practical help, or the kindness of one kind or another, a listening ear, a supportive word. He calls a person beside you who needs a little top off in some category. And we are to give them according to what we have and with a generous heart. That's the main thing. I want to bring a couple, just reflect on a couple of things here at the end. One thing that comes out to us is the importance of embracing opportunities for giving, embracing opportunities. You know how when you're walking in a city, and you have to sort of like get diagonally somewhere. So you come to a corner and you could cross one way, you could cross the other. But then you see that down one way is the panhandler. So you're like, I think maybe not. So you might head the other way. Choosing not to go that way. And look, I know that panhandling is totally fraught, right? It's hard to tell what somebody needs and whether giving is going to do more harm than good in any particular situation. So I'm not burdening you to give to every panhandler. I think that's a complicated question. What I'm just pointing out is that where are we choosing to go? In other words, There's a temptation to sort of, not talking about panhandlers anymore, but just in terms of what we are open to. There is a temptation to live in this way, all things being equal, I think I'll keep my money in my pocket. All things being equal, I think I'll keep my money in my pocket, is a sort of habitual way of living. And the fallacy in that way of living is that money in the pocket is riches. That's the fallacy. Who in our passage is rich? It's the Macedonians, because they're benefactors, they're sponsors, they're patrons, poor as they are. They have taken the role of a patron through a willing spirit. And Paul then comments about Jesus sponsoring us for our salvation to his great cost, to his eternal praise. That honor of following Jesus with a giving spirit, that honor is not an honor to be lightly passed over. Opportunities for giving are not something to avoid, but to seize. That's the first thing to just think about. And then secondly, more broadly, our Lord Jesus Christ has made us into a community of sharing, in fact of radical sharing, habitual sharing. So when you come across, and here we're focusing especially on Christians, when you come across a Christian in financial need, or somebody who needs practical help, they need a ride, they need help shopping, going to the airport, there's a missionary who needs their stuff stored or they need financial bookkeeping or something you can do while they're on the field. There's somebody who needs your prayer. They need your sympathy. They need it and you have it. Give it. In Jesus' name, in that readiness, that extension of yourself in Jesus Christ is so pleasing to the Lord and so good for us. If the readiness is there, Paul says, it is acceptable according to what a person has. If I have something they need, then under Christ, in this economy of grace, it is only fair for me to supply their need according to what I have, because Jesus has been so good to me and because when I need something, then under Christ, they're going to be there for me as well. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the free grace of Jesus and we pray that you would grant us more and more to reflect his spirit and serve one another as a reflection of his great and saving sacrifice. Help us to step into this honor and privilege with freedom and with joy for your glory, for our own good, and for the blessing of our fellow Christians. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.