If you have your Bible this morning, turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. And we're going to read just a single verse. This morning we will read verse 9. But before we do that, just two reminders, hoping you hopefully you notice the first one on the on the way in. That is, this is the week that our boxes are due back for Operation Christmas Child by Wednesday. So this is the last Sunday that those boxes will be received, and then Wednesday is the last day. And then secondly, just to remind those of you who signed up for the lunch today, just so that you remember to stay for that lunch you signed up for. Maybe you signed up some time ago, but just that reminder for the Compassion Child Care second Sunday lunch today, that reminder as well. The text we're about to read, we've already sung its themes in several different ways, but certainly that song, Living Hope, we came at it from just about every angle that you'll find in the text. And so keep that song sort of in the back of your mind as we stand together and read 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 9. 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 be rich. Just before we pray, I'll remind you that today is Veterans Day. Tomorrow's the day we actually celebrate the day, but had a brief conversation, a little Veterans Day celebration on Friday with a woman who told me how she and her husband went off to Iraq together, and only she came back. and didn't get a lot easier after that for a long, long time. And she put me in memory that as we come to days like this and our veterans, a lot of them have a vast array of different sorts of experiences that they come home with. And this day that we set aside to remember them, It's good for us actually to remember them and to pray in their behalf like this woman I talked to on Friday who so many come home but home is never quite the same place again. after you took that trip that's easily forgotten but not, I think, wisely forgotten. So let's go to prayer and we'll begin with our veterans today. Our Father in heaven, we think of all those men and women who served our country in the armed forces All different kinds of roles in all different kinds of places in the world. Some in this room. World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, wars in the Middle East in more recent days, Afghanistan and Iraq. And Father, we think of all of those who came home to find nothing quite the same. And they sometimes can feel like all they ever really received from their service was heartache and struggle and painful misunderstanding. And Father, we pray for all of those men and women today and ask that you would enable them to see that the truth that you express in Hebrews chapter 6 about your people generally in the service of your own mission is true in a very real sense for all forms of service, genuinely performed. That is, you are not one to forget the service. We as sinful people, we easily forget those who served us in so many different ways. We're almost famous for our forgetfulness. But we thank you on this. Veterans Day weekend for this structural piece that's built into our culture where we pause and remember, thankfully, men and women who served our nation, all of them at some cost, some of them at almost incalculable cost. for the impact that it has on the rest of their lives. And Father, we are all called as your people to serve you in soldier-like ways. The Apostle Paul speaking of himself as having fought the good fight as a soldier of Christ Jesus. And Lord, may we as your disciples look into the coming days ahead and see our calling as one of fighting the good fight, the fight of your gospel in a world of opposition, in a world of spiritual indifference. And there too, often, service seems to go unappreciated, unacknowledged, unrewarded in any meaningful way, and yet you promise us that you are not one to forget the service of your people in the world. And may we be encouraged and buttressed by that truth. Father, we pray for those who are serving you not only presently in the military, but also those who are serving you presently in the gospel service around the world. Two different kinds of soldiers serving in two different kinds of ways. One, the kingdom of the United States. for the short period of time that we live, but still notable service. And others, the kingdom of God, which will never end. Notable service. Now, Father, I pray that you would come and enable us to hear your voice as we read of your grace And may we understand it such as to be transformed into generous servants of yours because of the generosity that we have received in your Son, Jesus Christ. And we ask for it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Be seated. there's a question that you often hear and its meaning changes pretty much drastically depending on how it is asked and where you throw particular emphasis. In one way, it's sort of, it's a question, but it's sort of the equivalent of a different question, namely the question, right, how's it going? How's it going? Now that's not our question for this morning. Our question for this morning in its equivalent form is, what do you know? What do you know? It's just sort of a greeting. It's actually not some sort of a intellectual exam. It's just, what do you know? What do you know? Now, if you put the emphasis a little bit different, it turns into a confrontational accusation, right? If you say, what do you know? That's different, right? That implies you think you know more than you actually know, but I happen to believe that you don't know that much. What do you know? Or, finally, Say you're of Scandinavian descent, and you get something that you need to put together, and you read the directions, and it works. The thing actually comes together. And as soon as you're done, then you say, what do you know? What do you know? In other words, how surprising. This never happens. It never works. Things never go like that for me. What do you know? What do you know? Now, in our text for this morning, Paul could state that very common language slightly more specifically this way in verse 9 of chapter 8. What do you know about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? What do you know about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? And he believes that if you're a Christian, that you ought to know some really life transforming things about that grace, the grace. of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now if you're regularly here on Sunday mornings, you know that we just violated one of our sacred principles, right? I mean we just finished up chapter 7 last week and now we're in verse 9 of chapter 8. That is not done. You don't just jump over 8 verses and land wherever you want. Well, that's true. That's true. And we're not actually going to do that in the long run this time either. Next week we'll go back and we'll start with verse 1. But we've jumped ahead because pretty much everything in all of chapter 8 and all of chapter 9 that Paul has to say is grounded in knowing About this grace, that is, it's going to be two chapters of an appeal to generosity among Christians toward the poor in Jerusalem, very particularly, but just more generally. And why should they be that way? Well, because. They know something. About the grace. of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not just trying to get people to be more generous, he's trying to get people to understand that given their experience of Christ, they just must be generous by their nature. having understood who they have become and how they have become it in Jesus. I state our thesis for this morning this way. Christians are to know and are to be shaped by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians are to know and are to be shaped by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, five questions that we'll ask of this text and that the text by its very nature in its simple statement it just answers all five of these questions upon meditation. So question number one, what does it mean to know grace? What does it mean to know grace? Well, what does grace even mean? Well, most of you, if you've been around church at all, you've heard this little definition of grace A hundred times, right? Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is unmerited favor. Well, what does that mean? What's unmerited favor? Oh, upon a little reflection, we all know what unmerited favor means. That is, something really, really, really good that landed in your life, no thanks to you whatsoever. So, for instance, in my own case, I was born into a house where my dad loved me, my mom loved me, my sister loved me, my brother loved me a relatively large percentage of the time. Larger than average. It was truly a great, great place to grow up. Now, what did I do to get there? Nothing. None of it depended on me in any way whatsoever. It was simply placed into my lap. That's grace. That's unmerited favor. Here's this giant favor. How'd you get it? I didn't do anything to get it. It was simply dropped right into my lap. Now, the grace that Paul has in mind, you'll notice, is really particular. For you know the grace, and now here's the particularity, of our Lord, Jesus Christ, very particular. You know the grace of our Lord. This is the grace that comes from somebody far above us, our Lord. Second person of the triune Godhead. And by the time we know about this grace in an experiential sense, we are able actually to know him as, to use that personal pronoun, our Lord. You know the grace of our Lord through faith. The second person of the triune Godhead has become ours, our Lord Jesus. He's not just second person of the triune Godhead, but he is literally a man who was born into this world the way pretty much any other Man is born. No one would have seen anything different, miraculous conception. But at the same time, at the end of the day, Jesus is simply a human being, a genuine human being, as genuinely human as anybody in this room, as genuinely a human being as anybody who's lived on this planet as a human being. Remember how it's put in Matthew 121, "...and you will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus." Be a baby, and when that baby is born, you name him Jesus. He's a real human being, without question. Kids came to Mary and Joseph's house at some stage in Jesus' life, they knock on the door, you know, Mary opens the door, and say exactly what I used to say back in Rockford over at Mark Wiesenberg's house, can Mark come out and play? And they said, can Jesus come out and play? Right? People knocked on your door when you were a kid, and they named you, can you come out and play? Piece of growing up. Well, Jesus did that. He is a genuine human being. He is Lord, but he is Jesus. And he is also the Christ. That is, he's the anointed one. He's the long-expected Jewish Messiah. And if you have come to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. You're in a gracious place. Do you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? What does it mean to know grace? It means to know that unaccountably, in an unmerited way, in nothing that you deserve any credit for, you've come into a relationship with this infinite, at the same time, genuinely human, at the same time prophesied and planned person, the Lord Jesus who is the Christ. Secondly, second question, what does it point to when we say that Jesus was rich? For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, he was rich. Sounds like there's a regular verb there, but there's not. Actually, in the Greek New Testament, there's a participle there. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who being rich. Being rich. Now, if you think about that in the light of the rest of the New Testament, there's significance in the participle. Being rich. Not something possibly that he just once was. No, no, no, no, no, no. Being ever, always, continuously, no beginning, no end. Being rich. And that's exactly how Jesus thought about it. No beginning, no end, just the way it had always been. Being rich. He was aware of that. Scholars argue about the self-consciousness of Jesus all the time. The only thing we know about the self-consciousness of Jesus, you learn in the New Testament. And what you learn in the New Testament is he was quite conscious of such remarkable things. John 17, 5. Jesus prays this. It's part of his high priestly prayer. Now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. Go back before the universe exists. Here's Jesus being rich. Having always been rich, Being rich. Forever, eternally, always rich. After the creation, it all depends upon him. The whole thing. Hebrews 1.3. He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature, upholding the universe by the word of his power. He is rich. Who's that upholding the universe by the word of his power? That's Jesus. Rich in power. I don't remember how old I was when I learned it. It's one of those songs I just think I always remember having known. Can picture singing it in the old sanctuary at First Covenant Church in Rockford, downtown, because the kids were all together. And then we sang, he owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine. And on we went. From Psalm 50. From Psalm 50. Psalm 50, verses 10, 11 and 12. Every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you, for the world and all of its fullness were mine. There's the wealth of Jesus. Being rich. Having eternal being, upholding all things, owning all things. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, eternally unimaginably rich. Thirdly, what does it point to when we say that Jesus became poor? For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. From a state of being eternally and everlastingly rich, he enters a state where he shares all kinds of experiences with the average human being. In fact, every experience of the average human being except for sin. Again, we're told in the New Testament. Though it's a little irreverent, I think as I've said before, Joan Osborne pretty much had it right in that song she sang like what, 22 years ago or so. What if God were one of us? Just a slob, there's the irreverent part, just a slob like one of us. Just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home. Well, as irreverent as that may sound a little bit, it gets to the point exactly. That's exactly the point of the Incarnation. That is that Jesus takes the role of any other sort of human being. And not only that, but among human beings, he comes into the world and stays on the poorer end of the scale all his life long, economically speaking. Remember the account of his birth. We'll be looking at it just around the corner. Advent season, Luke 2. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar of Justice that the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and we all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn. There's the poverty of it, right? Manger, no place for them in the inn, lower rungs of society. He became poor. Those are symbols of of poverty that's going on on a much grander scale than anybody could have guessed. They laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Later in Jesus' life, when he's doing his three years of public ministry, Luke 9, 58, a guy comes up, thinks he'd like to maybe sign on with Jesus. Remember what Jesus says to him. Luke 9, 58. Foxes have holes, the birds, the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. He became poor. Now the ultimate example of that is what was already read and sung about extensively this morning. Philippians 2, 8 and being found In human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. He became poor, extremely poor, desperately poor. Next question. What does this poverty have to do with us. What does this poverty have to do with us? And the answer turns out to be it has everything to do with us. But notice how it shows up here. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake, for the sake of all believers, yet for your sake, he became poor. for your sake. And who are we? Well, we are those who came to faith in Jesus Christ, but we came to faith out of a condition by miraculous mercy, where we were dead in trespasses and sins. Here's how Paul put it in Ephesians 2, 1 to 5. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked. following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we also once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath as the rest of mankind." There we are. For the sake of people like that. And that's exactly what Paul goes on to say there. But God, Being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead. And our trespasses and sins made us alive together with Christ for by grace. Dead and trespasses and sins, chorus of this world, sons of disobedience, children of wrath for your sakes. For your sakes. he became poor. The one being rich, becoming poor, all about us. What's he doing being born into the Bethlehem manger? For your sake. What's he doing living the life of childhood into early adulthood and going through all the things that, for your sake. What's he doing gathering a group of people and going around and doing ministry with great opposition across Galilee and Judea, being opposed and lied about and slandered for your sake? What's he doing being arrested and beaten up and spit upon for your sake? What's he doing being nailed to a cross and hanging there and dying for your sake? That's what he's doing. For your sake. He did all of that. Being rich. For your sake, for our sake. He became poor. Why? Fifth and finally, and really most amazingly, we don't think about this very much. You can tell we don't think about this very much because we're not filled with praise, we're not overly optimistic, we spend a lot of our time second-guessing God on this, that, and the other thing, sometimes for quite profound reasons. But that's all still because we don't see how profound this is. This little phrase, in order that you, by his poverty, might become rich. In order that you, by his poverty, might become rich. Now, are you rich? So if you knew half of what's going on for me right now, you wouldn't even ask that. That's almost an insulting question. Well, I don't actually think so. Are you rich? And what if I asked you, is Warren Buffett rich? That's an easy one, right? Oh yeah, he's rich. He's rich. Forbes right now has 86 billion dollars. 86 billion dollars. Warren Buffett. I don't know if you've seen this on television. It's on television all over the place. You know, we're back to the... I mentioned this in my Sunday school class last week. Publishers Clearinghouse thing is out, you know. You can possibly win $7,000 a week for the rest of your life. Would you feel rich if you won that? $7,000 a week for the rest of your life. Now, some of you make more than that, but... but... 7,000 extra, even, a week for the rest of your life. Would you feel rich? Now, I mentioned that there's, when I say you could possibly win it, it's the possibilities, then, as I mentioned last week over there. I mean, you know, whereas in the last lotto thing, the chances of winning were one in 350 million, the chances of winning the Publishers Clearinghouse, according to their published thing, is one in 6,200,000,000. That's a little chance. It's a really little chance. But you know what? Here's what it would be if you won Warren Buffett's fortune. That'd be $33 million a week for the next 50 years. That's $86 billion without earning any interest along the way. That's just putting it in a mattress. $33 million plus a little. Chump change, the rest of it. $33 million a week for 50 years. Is Warren Buffett rich? Did I mention he's 88 years old? He's 88 years old. Is he rich? The Bible says, God says, it's appointed unto man to die once. Then comes judgment. You know, when you die, you are instantly and forever separated from all your ready cash. That has no place in your existence anymore, ever again. It just doesn't matter. And I ask you, is Warren Buffett rich at 88 years old with 86 billion dollars? Not that rich, certainly not rich in time. Are you rich? Forty years ago, the pastor, he wasn't pastor of Moody Church yet, he was actually a teacher at Moody Bible Institute when I was a student there, became pastor of Moody Church for more than 30 years. Erwin Lutzer. Erwin Lutzer. wrote a little book in 1978. Victor Books was putting together these little Sunday school curriculums so everything was divided into 12 or 13 weeks so you could use these things as a Sunday school curriculum and Erwin Lutzer wrote this little book on the book of Ephesians, 12 chapters long to be a Sunday school curriculum, and it bore this incredible title, a nice little white cover with gold letters on all the words, and the book was entitled, You Are Richer Than You Think. You Are Richer Than You Think. Book of Ephesians. What did he mean by that? He meant, if you're in Christ, something has happened to you that will turn out to be really unimaginably awesome. What's happened? Well, you become a fellow heir with Christ. What does he own? Well, he owns the new heavens and the new earth. He goes to create that place for you. If you end up there, how long do you stay? I remember Garrison Keillor talking about the people at Lake Wobegon. He said, you know, they're not, they're not, my people are not paradise people. You know, and when people from Lake Wobegon get to heaven, somebody asks them, how long are you staying? They'll say, oh, about two weeks. We've got to get back. No, no, we can't stay, no, I don't want to stay in paradise too long. We've got to get back. Well, it's actually, though, it's not that way. How long are you staying? Oh, you stay forever. Remember how John put it? Just looking at that across the way in our Sunday school class, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven. from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be among them as their God. He'll wipe every tear from your eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be any mourning, or crying, or pain any more." Former things have passed away. If you're a Christian, that's where you're headed. Are you rich? Are you rich? Oh, you are. Erwin Lutzer got it exactly right 40 years ago. If you're a Christian, you are richer than you think. And we're going to live out of that. Even though right now, of course, every tear has not been wiped away from our eyes and death is still around and there's plenty of reasons for mourning and crying and pain. And you know some of them because you have some of them. They're cutting into you right now. But not for long. Certainly not forever. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor in order that you, through his poverty, might be rich. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you, we praise you. For pulling us in, making us apart, causing us to be an inheritor of the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Who being rich, having no need of us at all. Who being rich, having need of nothing. Who being rich, for our sakes, became poor in order that we, by means of his poverty, might become rich. May we experience the richness of your grace in Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.