Now we read from God's word. We are in the book of 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. And I'll start at verse 13 and read through chapter 8, verse 7. 2 Corinthians 7, 13 through 8, 7. Therefore, we have been comforted in your comfort, and we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I am not ashamed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our boasting to Titus was found true, and his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him. Therefore, I rejoice that I have confidence in you and everything. Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, that in a great trial of affliction, The abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing. imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us by the will of God. So we urged Titus that as he had begun, so he would also complete this grace in you as well. But as you abound in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us, See that you abound in this grace also. This is God's Word. We've come to a point of transition in the book of 2 Corinthians, and for the next two chapters, Paul is dealing with the topic of Christian generosity. He's talking about perceiving needs around us and giving to those needs around us. And so hearing this, maybe you're thinking, okay, so we're talking about charity. We're talking about charity. Well, Christian generosity overlaps with what most people call charity. But in some ways, Christian generosity really is a different beast altogether. Charity focuses on alleviating needs. And that's a good thing. There are many needs. The world is broken. There are needs all around us. People who need food, people who need stable housing, schools that need improvement. The list is endless, the needs, but Christian generosity while addressing needs, it's got a different focus. It's coming from a different place. Christian generosity in many ways is rooted in an identity, who you are inside, what you've become, what God has made you. It's out of that identity. that generosity comes out. And so in many ways, you could say that Christian theology produces Christian generosity. And that's what makes it a different beast. And so we're going to spend the next few weeks looking at what Second Corinthians says about Christian generosity. And maybe you'll be happy to hear that none of this coincides with any kind of fundraising. We're not in a capital campaign. We're not asking for any kind of contributions. But I do hope that all of us will see that this call to generosity It's much more than periodic fundraising. If you're a Christian, your theology gives you a generous outlook, a generous spirit. And so as we go into this for the next few weeks, look at our texts today, we see three things. I mean, two things. Wow. Okay, yeah, it's actually an hour earlier, isn't it? Two things, where we find joy, where we find joy, and then secondly, the generosity of joy, where we find joy and the generosity of joy. So let's start with where we find joy. If you're here with us and you're visiting, you're examining Christianity, You should know this about Christianity, true Christianity, real Christianity. It is filled with joy, lots of joy. There's joy at the beginning in Christianity. Think about the beginning, what the Bible tells us. God finds the world and humanity, what he made, he finds it very good. He finds joy in it. And it's not only there, the first people, not only God, but the first people, they're filled with joy at the beginning. There's this intimate delight that they have when they see each other, when they're introduced to each other. There's joy with God is beginning joy in humanity at the beginning. And really, we see joy, not just the beginning in Christianity. We see joy before the beginning, before there was anything. John 17 speaks of the glory that Jesus had with the Father before the world, it says. And so when we're talking about glory, this glory that was before the world, glory is that combination of dazzling light and delight and wonder, all of that together, it's rich with joy. And what we're told is before the world, there was this glory and joy, God the Father, God the Son, They gloried in one another. I have no idea what was that like, but it was, that was the existence before the world. John 17 says they shared glory and love before the world began. John 17, 24, Jesus says, Father, I desire that they also, whom you gave me, may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which you have given me, for you have loved me before the foundation of the world. And he says, there's this wonder, when you know someone, when you know someone who you would describe as wonderful, when you know someone wonderful and you love them and they love you, there's joy in that, real joy. And this is the doctrine of the eternal mutual love and delight in the persons of the Trinity. That's what's going on at the very beginning of Christianity. And Christianity is filled with joy, not just at the beginning of the world, not just before the beginning of the world. Christianity also tells us that we're filled with joy at the end of the world, at the end of all things, when it's all over. It won't be nothing. It won't just be burnt out dead universe with no energy. It will be bursting with joy. Heaven is filled with joy. Revelation 19.7, let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. So let me ask you this, if you're a Christian, if you are a Christian, is your faith One of great joy. Some people, it seems like when you look around and maybe some of the people that you know, it seems like some people have a faith, but there's little pleasure in it. There's little joy. They're sour and they're dour. But here's what you have in the Christian faith. You've got a joy that is real enough. and resilient enough to acknowledge the sorrow of this life and to coexist with the grief of this life. A Christian has joy in her tears. A Christian can ache. in the times of his rejoicing, it can coexist with that. And one of the signature times that we have joy reported in the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of Jesus is when a person turns to the Lord, when a sinner repents. Luke 15 says, there's joy in the presence of the angels of God when one, sinner repents. And you see this capacity of joy, but also sorrow existing together at the same time with the prodigal son, Luke 15, the younger son has ruined his life. He has taken all this potential and he's just dumped it into the sewer. And that's sad, but he returns home. And when he returns home, the father rejoices. He summons the entire family, the entire company family, family business. He invites them all to a celebration. There's great joy. But even as the father embraces the returning repentant son with joy, it had to be, it had to be mingled with the sorrow of all those lost and wasted years. Christian joy can bear sorrow. I had a time relatively recently where someone was telling me about some recent great errors that they had made, great sins that they had thrown themselves into. And they talked about it with tears. They had done great wrong. They had brought ruin, but they also had repented. And so they were tears of both sorrow and joy. Having said all that, where do we find joy? Where do we find joy? Here in this passage, verses 12 through 16, Paul and Titus both have joy, great joy. And their joy in this text, it's joy when they see others repent, it's joy when they see others grow. Specifically, when they are seeing Christ formed in other people, in the Corinthians. This is a high priority for church. This is part of what church is about, to grow in Christ. Galatians 4 and 19, see how joy and growth are linked. My little children for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you. Paul is saying, I have this deep longing to see Jesus replicated in your life. How I long to see Christ formed in you. The likeness of Jesus developing like one of those instamatic photographs, more and more, it's becoming visible. I'm seeing it as time passes. See how Titus has this joy in the growth of the Corinthians in their lives. Verse 13, he says the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. He's talking about when Titus visited the Corinthians in person, he found reasons for joy. Why? Why was he joyful? We'll look at verse 15. You recall from past weeks, Titus had brought to them a painful letter of rebuke to them. Paul had to send to them, the Corinthians, a corrective letter through Titus. And as we saw last week in verse 15, They got that letter and they responded to the rebuke well. They responded to it with heartfelt obedience to the Lord. Verse 15, Titus's affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all. How with fear and trembling you received him. And so when Titus saw in the Corinthians, obedience, growth, it gave him joy. And not only did he have joy, that joy that he received, It was contagious. Paul, when he saw the joy of Titus, over the growth of the Corinthians. Paul then also catches the joy. Verse 13, Paul says, we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus. And then in verse 16, therefore, I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything. This kind of joy, when you see people growing, when you see people changing, when you see people repenting, when you see them taking up a new way of living, a new way of thinking, a new way of responding, it's contagious when you see it. It's worth rejoicing over. And it's something like this. You can think of a child who has a garden, one of those backyard gardens. Spring has come. They prepare the soil. The child plants seeds in the backyard and the child weeds, the child waters, the child waits day after day, week after week, and then one day the child goes out One morning goes out to water and what does the child see those little green delicate shoots coming up and what's the reaction. Something something is happening in the garden, the child runs into the House mommy the seeds are sprouting there's great joy at the growth. And this is what it's like in life for those of you who are living the Christian life. Maybe you're a mom, maybe you're a mom and you're working on your child, working maybe with your son on self-control, or maybe you're working with your son on complaining or on temper tantrums. And as the Lord blesses your efforts and your son starts to obey, or your daughter starts to respond from the heart, It gives you joy, doesn't it? And when you tell dad about this new fruit happening in your child's life, when dad hears about the child's progress and growth, what's dad's reaction? The joy is contagious. Dad rejoices also. And for us, what does that mean? If you're not a parent, that means when you see other Christians in the fellowship, when you see them obeying the instructions of the Bible, your own happy meter moves up at least just a little bit more. That means when you see other Christians starting to take life challenges, life disappointments, but they take on themselves a Christ-like attitude in it, your joy increases. Their progress and sanctification gives you pleasure. And you know what that's like, don't you? Maybe you have recently heard the story of someone in church who faced something hard, someone hard, someone had terribly disappointed them. And even though the person was wronged, this person that you know was wronged, he earnestly forgave the offender from the heart. It was a struggle, but he did it. Or maybe you hear about a woman in the fellowship here who's worrying, terribly anxious, but she keeps on bringing her fears to the Lord. And she finds that as she does that, and as she works that out, trusting the Lord more and more, she finds that her faith is growing. And you hear that last Tuesday, instead of worrying, she had peace in her heart. Instead of fretting, she had the peace of Christ in her heart. And you rejoice when you hear that. It sparks joy for you because you see Not they're doing better and they are doing better, not just their personal achievements in forgiveness or in faith. You're seeing the Holy Spirit at work in the life of this other person. And that's worthy of praise. The Spirit is always worthy of being praised. Praise God for causing growth in that follower. There's another thing to see here, though, in verses 13 through 16. Did you notice all this talk about boasting? Paul talks about boasting. Before Titus goes and takes to the Corinthians this painful corrective letter, it says Paul boasted to Titus about the Corinthians. Verse 14, he says, Paul says, I boasted to Titus about you. Our boasting to Titus was found true. What's going on there with this boasting? Isn't boasting a sign of pride? Aren't we not supposed to boast? Well, two things to notice about this boasting. First of all, it is always appropriate to boast about the Lord. It's always appropriate to boast about the Lord. One, and only one is worthy of all praise and honor and worship. It's the Lord God, it's the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ. It is always appropriate to boast about Jesus Christ. Psalm 99 verse 5, exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill for the Lord our God is holy. Or Jeremiah 10, verse 7, this, speaking to the Lord, this is your rightful due. The Lord is worthy of being boasted about. And so when you see spiritual progress in another believer, the Lord gets credit for that. You're not flattering a human if you praise the work of the Lord in their lives. In fact, you should acknowledge it. You should acknowledge and praise the fruit of the Spirit when you see another Christian showing love instead of hatred. When you see another Christian, they're showing patience instead of anger. You should praise the work of the Spirit. When you see them speaking edifying words, instead of coarse jesting and filthy speech, or when you see in them kindness coming out instead of cruelty. You praise the gardener who produced those sprouts. You praise the Holy Spirit. Philippians 4.10, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again. He rejoiced in the Lord for the care that was coming out. So it's always appropriate to boast in the Lord and what the Lord's doing in someone else. Now, secondly, love sees the praiseworthy parts of problem people. Love sees the praiseworthy parts in problem people. Paul and Titus, they hold the Corinthians with great affection. They've got a lot of love for these Corinthians. Verse 15, it says of Titus, his affections are greater for you. It's increased. There was affection, and now it's even more. His affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience. And then chapter 8, verse 7, our love for each other. The love that we have for you, the love that you have for us, we're seeing that. And he's speaking to it. But these are problem people. These Corinthians are problem people. And when people have problems, this is what we're to learn here from what Paul and Titus are doing and seeing in these Corinthians. When people have problems, love also can see what is worthy of praise in them. Think about the context. The Corinthians had done wrong. They had done so much wrong that Titus needed to bring to these people a rebuke from Paul. But even in the Corinthians' state of sin, Paul also was able to see true good in their lives, true good that the Holy Spirit had produced in them. And so Paul was able, before Titus went, he was able to boast of them to Titus. Before sending Titus with these painful letters of correction, he also could boast of them. He didn't fall into the trap of totalizing them, saying their sin, that's the totality of who they are. He said, yes, they have this sin and it needs to be corrected, it needs to be addressed, but Let us also remember that there is good in them that the spirit has produced. What does this tell us about ourselves? What does this tell us about ourselves? If you're a Christian, what does this say about you? It says this, a Christian is a house under renovation. The owner has purchased the house. The owner purchased this house and knew that there were things that would need to be repaired. There's this porch out front that needs some rotten supports to be removed and replaced. The rot's got to be dealt with. But the owner, the purchaser also knows that there's a beautiful kitchen, a beautiful kitchen floor that was just renovated. And there are things about the house that are also just wonderful and that you love about the house. And this house is your house. This house is dear to you. You've got a vision for where it's headed. And even though you see a number of real things, maybe big areas that do need repair in the house, you also love things about it. You love the sunroom. You enjoy doing food prep on the new counters. If you're a Christian, you're a house under renovation. Now look around you in this room. Look around you in this room. If things are normal in this congregation, and I think things are wonderfully normal here, There is probably, for you, there's at least one person for you in this room or online, one person who you know has an area that needs some renovation. Some person in this room or online that you know they need to change, something needs to change about them. Someone here who you know has sin. Someone here in whom you see this has got to change. Maybe it's their idols. Maybe it's their grouchiness. Maybe it's just their lackluster, their lukewarmness about the Lord. And maybe you are absolutely right in your assessment of them. But if you love them, if you love them the way that God has loved you, you can identify their shortcomings without losing sight of their strengths, without losing sight of the goodness that the Holy Spirit has worked in them in their own ongoing sanctification. Can you see anything worthy of praise that the Spirit's worked in them? Can you voice it? Can you speak about it with sincerity? Can you boast about the Spirit's work in them, even as you need to correct them? How do you speak about the sinner in your house? How do you speak to that sinner in your house or in the flock? If he is a believer, God is renovating his life. If she is a follower of Christ, God is at work in her. And do you have a fondness, a fond endearment for this child of God? We've looked at where we find joy. Now let's turn to the generosity of joy, the generosity of joy. This is in verses one through seven. We'll look more about generosity in the coming weeks. So we're not going to be able to cover everything in this passage, but today I want to look at the link between joy and generosity, the link between joy and generosity, Christian joy. produces Christian generosity. We'll look at two things about Christian generosity, the magnitude of Christian generosity, and then the inner identity behind Christian generosity. First of all, the magnitude of Christian generosity. At this point, Paul turns from the congregation that was at Corinth And he turns to the churches in Macedonia. Macedonia is another place where Paul spread the gospel and built up the churches. Macedonia encompassed congregations like the Philippians, the Thessalonians, the Bereans. And Paul, at that point in time, spent some time laboring there among them. One of Paul's missions while he was there was taking up a collection for starving people in yet another place, in Jerusalem. Acts 11, 28 through 30, we learned that the elders had commissioned Paul to collect money from all the different congregations across the Mediterranean to bring famine relief to the believers who are starving in Jerusalem. And so while Paul was in Macedonia, Paul let the Macedonian believers know about the hungry people who are in Jerusalem. And he had done that also in Corinth. Paul had informed the Corinthians also about the famine relief collection that was in first Corinthians, chapter 16, and then verse one in this text tells us that something remarkable occurred when Paul was in Macedonia, he said when he was with the believers in Macedonia in those congregations. The grace of God was given to the people there. That means God did a work in them. When they heard about this need, this famine relief collection, they responded. What was the work that he did? Verse two, in a great trial of affliction, the Macedonians own affliction, the abundance of their joy and the deep poverty, their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. for I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, beyond their ability, they were freely willing. So there's something surprising here. And Paul was even surprised about it. Paul says the believers in Macedonia, they were poor. They were deeply poor. They were in deep poverty. The Macedonians, they weren't in a famine, but they were poor people. And yet, in spite of their having little ability to pay their own bills, they gave like they were rich people. It says, out of their deep poverty, they abounded in the riches of their giving. their liberality. It was like the poor widow whom Jesus saw and remarked on. She dropped in just a few coins into the temple treasury. She only dropped in pennies, but it was everything, everything that she owned. Here's how we tend to think naturally. Here's how we normally think. We tend to think the more you have, the more likely you are to give. If you're well off, you're more likely to donate to those in need. But that's not what we see here. And it's surprising. Verse three, the Macedonians gave according to what they could afford, but actually, yes, beyond what they could afford. And they did it freely, willingly, voluntarily. They weren't stupid. They weren't stupid. They knew what it would cost them to give, to give with liberality. Do you see here the magnitude of Christian generosity? It's one thing if you've got a billionaire, And the billionaire donates $50,000 to the needy. And that's a big donation. But proportionally, the $50,000 won't change anything about the billionaire situation. It doesn't really cost the billionaire. $50,000 for the billionaire, it's just a little fluctuation of the interest rates. But if a poor person, if a dirt poor person who doesn't have enough to fill the gas tank If a dirt poor person gives not $50,000, but just five bucks to a hungry person, the poor person's five bucks exceeds the billionaire's $50,000. The poor person's generosity exceeds the billionaire's generosity. That's just a financial example, but you can apply it to generosity with time. Giving your time to someone who needs it when you just have very little time to spare. You could apply it not just to money, to time, you could apply it to your emotions. Giving your relational energy to someone who needs it when you don't have much emotional energy to spare. You could apply it to career choices, where you choose to work. Costly giving up something in order to give to others or where you choose to live. All of those kinds of things. You can be generous with your priorities, making the needs that someone else has more important than your own personal needs. Letting someone else's needs take precedence over plans you already made. Generosity could be described this way. Generosity is something, a decision that you make that limits you. and great generosity will greatly limit you. So can you see that we're not merely talking about money, giving money? We're talking about giving. We're talking about giving yourself. And that's what he says here in verse five. Paul says, this is really what those Macedonians were doing, what they were giving. It says, they first gave themselves to the Lord. They gave themselves to the Lord and then to us by the will of God. And so here's what the challenge is. This is what the Macedonians were doing. This is what is being asked of all of us. Have you signed your life away? Have you indentured yourself to the Lord and to the Lord's people? Have you done it freely, willingly, but have you surrendered yourself to God? Have you surrendered yourself to others? This is what Lordship is. Jesus is Lord. This is what it means if he's your Lord. You don't live in this life. with the goal of building up a nice, comfortable world for yourself, trying to realize yourself. Who am I really? And pursuing that wherever that's going to end up. Your top priority is to build the kingdom of the king. And you're not the king. And part of doing that is fulfilling the king's second great command, loving others as you would want to be loved yourself. So verse five, they gave themselves to others by the will of God. Now, can you imagine how different that would be? How this world would be different? How the tone in your house, the flavor, the atmosphere, the tension, or the non-tension in your home would be if everyone was living that way? If we were all living that way? given to God, given to the needs of other people. Can you imagine how different the tone would be in congregations? In this congregation, if all the members in one congregation across all congregations, if we all lived for God, if we all gave ourselves to others generously, can you imagine what quarrels would look like when they came up? Or if there would even be quarrels, if you and I and all of us really gave ourselves to God and to others. Can you imagine an entire society like that? That's not really the society that we're living in, is it? But among people who believe, shouldn't our homes, shouldn't our friendships, shouldn't our congregations be places where the members, where we who identify as disciples of Jesus, if we gave ourselves entirely to God and to one another, No matter how much we have, no matter how little we have, this is a call to all of us. You might not be a person who's old. Maybe you're very shy. But you can give an overabundance from your poverty. Maybe you're not very educated compared to other people. Maybe you're just moderately, lightly educated. You can give from an overabundance of your poverty. Maybe you're not well. You've got a lot of limitations with your health. You're not healthy, you're sickly. You can give some kind of overabundance from your poverty. Poverty doesn't stop you from generosity. Now next, look at the, not just the magnitude of Christian generosity, look at the inner identity that's behind Christian generosity. Verse two, it's really curious. These Macedonian donors are poor. It says also that they're under great affliction. They're not only poor, they're having trouble. They've got problems. But in their trouble and lack, it says, they had an abundance of joy. They, in their poverty, in their trouble, had an abundance of joy. It was out of their great joy. It was an overflow of joy that gave so generously. Now here's something puzzling about that, and also something that totally makes sense. Something puzzling, something that totally makes sense. Here's what totally makes sense. Joy makes generosity easy. Joy makes generosity easy. When you're joyful, when you've got this inside you, a terrific soaring, When you've got that inside, maybe it's because you just got this acceptance notice that you had been applying for. You had so much hung up on it and you were accepted. It came in. Or maybe you've got your heart set on someone and that someone reveals that their heart is also set on you. They like you too. When you've got an abundance of joy inside, isn't it easy to be generous? When your joy is full, isn't it easy to give out of that inner abundance of joy? Joy makes it easy to be generous. That totally makes sense, but here's what's puzzling. Where did they get this joy? Or more pointedly, what gave these deeply afflicted, deeply poor Macedonians a joy in spite of their terrible impoverishment? that had to do with their identity, something about who they were inside so that their joy, it was impervious to whatever was going on outside, whatever was going on, whatever they lacked on the outside, it didn't affect, it didn't change, it didn't dampen their joy because of who they were. They had this abounding joy, whether they were wealthy, whether they were poor, it didn't change it. And I'll tell you this, I don't think it is possible to work up in yourself that kind of joy. It's not possible. An abounding joy that's impervious to the ups and the downs that are outside of you. But what if you had a new identity? What if there was a new person in you? Someone who wasn't you became who you were then. Could you have that joy, especially what if that new identity, that new person had that kind of abounding joy and generosity, this radical joy that produces radical generosity. That's what we see in the gospel. Joy makes generosity easy, but in the gospel. Jesus, before he got joy, he was so generous that he gave himself for us. He endured the cross. Jesus was radically generous with himself before having the joy. Hebrews 12, 2, we are looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." What that's saying is this, the joy for Jesus had not yet arrived. before he was radically generous. He gave himself fully to God, fully to us before the joy. The joy was yet set before him. He showed radical generosity towards us so that we could know the joy of our salvation. Jesus died, we could say. Jesus died to make you happy and holy. He generously spent himself for your joy. last week at our unity prayer meeting with a number of other local churches in this community, I was just reflecting back on some of the stories that I've heard from some of the people that were there. Stories about how God saved some of those people. Some of them were saved a long time ago, decades ago. But to this day, when they tell you the tale of how Jesus came to them, convicted them, and saved them, They will start to cry, even today, tears of joy of their salvation. I have to ask you listening today, has Jesus saved you? Have you tasted the joy of your salvation? If you're a Christian, when you find yourself feeling stingy, withholding yourself, Come back again. See who gave himself for you. Tap into the joy of your salvation. See how generous the Father has been with you, that you would be called sons and daughters of God. Now you go and do likewise. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you've been magnanimous with us We pray that your generosity would be magnified in our sight. It's never big enough in our perception. It's always smaller than it really should be. We pray that you would magnify your grace in our sight, even this morning. And we thank you, Lord. We thank you for your goodness to us, your grace. We thank you that you've loved us with a fullness of love. You didn't withhold love. And we thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.