Well, the sermon this morning is on money. Let me explain what's going on here. You know, Rip Van Winkle, he slept 20 years and he woke up and didn't know where he was. And I was afraid that when you heard this sermon, you would think you had slept for two weeks and you woke up and you wonder what had happened because I'm supposed to preach this sermon in two weeks. That's kind of when the mission emphasis starts. And so I was supposed to preach faith promise in two weeks. And then two weeks following that, I was supposed to preach on giving and going, which I will do then. But this week, I was supposed to preach, I was going to preach my sermon on repentance. And it's not that I think you people need to repent all that badly, but I can't preach that sermon in a few minutes. And so I thought either I preach on faith promised this morning, or I make a lot of people mad. I decided maybe I should preach on faith promise this morning. So that's the deal. You haven't slept for two weeks and all of a sudden woke up and found yourself at the beginning of the missions conference. And here's the thing. This gives you just two more weeks to think and pray about your faith promise. So that's a good thing, too, if you think about it. Well, our text this morning, and it is a great text, is from 2 Corinthians Chapter 8, the first seven verses. This is the word of God. 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 overflown any wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own free will, 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 urge 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 a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 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 by his poverty might become rich. This is the word of God. Let us respond together. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Father, as we consider the testimony that you have put in the Bible concerning the Macedonians, we pray that you will speak to us, that it will be your Holy Spirit, not the Macedonians speaking to us, but using their example, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well, Paul tells us that this is a very important example in the Bible. Notice that he says, we want you to know, brothers, It's like he says, you've got to know this about the grace of God that has been given to the churches among Macedonia. You see, he's talking about Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea. They are in northern Greece, and compared to the church in Corinth, which he is writing to now, they're a rather poor church. Corinth was a center of commerce, a center of trade, and the church there had great wealth. But in northern Greece, where Paul is taking this testimony from the Macedonians, they did not have that kind of wealth. And I don't think he's trying to lay a guilt trip on the Corinthians. But what he's trying to tell them is, look, these poor people, they have given their gift to the cause of the saints in Jerusalem. But you people, you have not. You're dragging your feet. You're not doing it. And he is trying to talk to them about the importance of their stewardship. And what we see in this example is that stewardship is hardly ever related to how much money you have. Notice the people with little have given much. The people that have much haven't given anything at all at this point. And right there is a very good lesson for us to think about. It is not how much you have. but it's how much Jesus you've got in your heart. Maybe you remember, because I preached the faith promise Sunday a year ago in your missions conference, and I used the illustration from Luther where Luther says, if I can convert a pocketbook, I can convert a soul. And you might remember I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's backwards. No, first you convert a person, and then they'll think about their giving, right? Except Jesus said, where your money is, there your heart will be also. Now why is that? Because you see, the material blessings that God gives us in this world are a huge idol. They are something every one of us needs to deal with and has to deal with, whether we're like Macedonians and don't have much, or we're like the Corinthians and we have much. Maybe you remember Fiddler on the Roof. Fiddler on the Roof happens to be my favorite movie. And Tevye there, he begins a song by first of all just in prose saying, So what would have been so terrible if I just had a little fortune? Remember that? What would be so terrible, God, if I just had a little fortune? Then he says, if I were a rich man, yabba-dabba-dibba-dibba-dibba-dibba-dibba-dibba-dum. All day long I bitty-bitty bum. He's just bummed out because God hasn't given him what he thinks he should have. And I think sometimes we all think that way. We think if we had just a little bit more money, then all of our wishes could be filled, all our desires could be filled, all our dreams could be filled, all of our comforts could be met. So here's the first point. I want you to see that dealing with your finances, dealing with your money, and this is the blessing of faith, of a faith promise. Faith promise makes us think about what we're doing with the funds that God has given us. And that business of money is a, the Mount Everest, maybe, of idols in our lives. If you've ever seen the movie Into Thin Air, you know it's a story about people that went up Mount Everest. A terrible storm hit, and many of them died. 330 people have died since 1993, when Hillary and Tin Sing were the first to climb, as far as we know, Mount Everest. I can tell you far more have died spiritually on the Mount Everest of stewardship. It is just a difficult thing for all of us to deal with and we need to remember that. We need to remind ourselves and that's why I am absolutely convinced the Macedonians are here. You see, Paul has never met people like this before. And I dare say you've never met anyone like this before. It says they gave out of their poverty. And they gave as much as they could give. And then it says they gave beyond their means. And then it says they begged to give more. Why? Well, we'll come to that in just a minute. But what you need to see here is that Paul is not holding them up so that you can look at them and say, wow, look at the magnanimous way in which they live and how generous they are and so on. Do you notice in verse 1, it says, we want you to know, brothers, about what? The grace of God in their lives. Right. The grace of God, and then in verse 7 it says, look, just as you excel in everything in faith and speech and knowledge and all other gifts of grace, see that you also excel in this gift of grace. I mean, this is just as much an act of God in your life through the power of the Holy Spirit as anything else. It really compares even to when the Holy Spirit regenerates you and you realize that you're separated from God and only by faith in Jesus Christ can you be connected to him. That is, of course, where grace begins. But grace moves out into every area of our life, and this area is also extremely important. Grace controls our lives in Christ and in our stewardship, it should do exactly the same. Now, the second thing I want you to see is this is not easy. If you say, well, I can handle this. You know, stewardship is an easy matter. I think, again, you need to see how they were able to do it. And it's the only way that the Macedonians could do it. Verse 5. And this not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then by the will of God to us. Notice that? First they gave themselves to Christ, then they gave themselves to this act of mercy that Paul was collecting money for, for the saints in Jerusalem. The order, and that's the only order that works. Because if I've given myself to Christ and I don't belong to Christ, I realize, as it says in 1 Corinthians 6.19, I've been bought with a great price. I now owe everything to him, and everything that I have belongs to him. That is the picture we see with the Macedonians. In many ways, the Macedonians are an example of what it means to live under the Ten Commandments and to really understand the first commandment. That is the umbrella commandment. All the other nine commandments fit under the first one. Thou shall have no other gods before me. And especially, we cannot have the God of money. You cannot serve God and money at the same time, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6. It says here that even though they were poor, with great joy they lived. And I think it's because they have slain the dragon of affluence in their life. It no longer controls them. As you grow in faith, you participate in God's kingdom work. And that's really what faith promise is all about. It is about deciding, how am I going to be involved in God's kingdom work? You can go. You can give, and one of the most important ways that we serve God is by our giving. Matthew 6.33 says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. What does that mean? That means if you don't seek God first, it doesn't matter how much you have, you don't have anything. You're poorer than the Macedonians. even if you are a multi-millionaire. And thirdly, and I think you know this, you're never going to be perfect when it comes to anything in your life, but especially your stewardship. We're all going to battle that. My wife and I, we've started the new year, and we always, at the beginning of the year, decide how much we're going to give. I think last year, you remember, I said we always give more, not because I would give more, but because she gives more. So at the end of the year, when we add it up, it's more than we decide. But we decide at the beginning of the year just to keep ourselves honest. So that we at least give this amount, and we give a little more every year, and when you get old like I am, it really, really adds up. But it's never perfect. And we never really conquer the idols in our life perfectly. So what is then our hope? That's why I read beyond verse 7. 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 by his poverty you might become rich. You see, he's not saying be like the Macedonians. No, he's saying here's an example of people that have been transformed by their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. But what he's really saying in this passage, as he asked them to give for the saints in Jerusalem, be like Jesus. He gave everything for you. And if you keep that in focus, it will help you to keep your stewardship in focus as well. What we do is simply give back to him. lovingly because of what he gave to us so freely, his very life on the cross. It's everything. A few weeks ago I used my favorite illustration. I'm going to use it again, the baby and the bum. Now it's a Christmas illustration, but you'll remember it's about a couple that has decided that they're going to go on Christmas Day to visit relatives in Los Angeles, and they live in San Francisco. And they get a late start on December 25th, and so evidently, when it's noontime, they're still pretty far north. They're in the big valley, you know, where all the vegetables are grown, and they get off the interstate at King City, and they go into a restaurant. And I suppose, again, because it's Christmas, the restaurant is empty, and they put their youngest in a high chair, and they put their oldest in a booster, and they order their food, and just about the time that the food comes, the baby makes eye contact with somebody that's sitting way over in the corner, a street person, a bum, ragged clothes, greasy hair, rotten teeth, a real bum. But the baby becomes enamored with the bum. And the baby and the bum began to communicate. bum says patty cake and the baby claps his hands and the bum says peekaboo and the baby hides behind his fingers and she says to her husband, I've lost my appetite, let's get out of here. He says fine, I'll pay the bill, you get the kids, I'll meet you at the car. So she takes her youngest out of the high chair, and then she takes her oldest out of the booster, and before she can turn around, the baby makes a beeline for the bum, and now the bum has the baby up in his arms, and he's hugging on the baby and kissing on the baby, and she said, all I could think about was germs. And I went over there, and I tried to get my baby away from the bum, but the bum wouldn't let go. But finally, he reached up, and he handed me my baby, and he said, ma'am, I want to thank you, Christmas, and nobody loves me, but you let your baby, you let your baby love me. She said, when I got to the car, my husband couldn't figure out what had happened to me. But I, all of a sudden, I realized, I was the bum, and Jesus, died for me. God let his baby die for me. You see, that's the foundation for all of our life, for our salvation and for everything, including our stewardship. David Livingston said this, By the way, he's buried at Westminster Abbey, a very important man. You might know him as a missionary to Africa. He's the one that opened up Africa to the gospel and started the demise of the slave trade. He said this, I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relationship to God. and his kingdom. If anything will advance the interests of God and his kingdom, it shall only be given away or kept as it relates to promoting the glory of God to whom I owe all my hopes in this life and in the life to come. That's the foundation of faith promise. So as you're thinking about your faith promise this year, think about the Macedonians. And think about the grace that God has put into their lives. And then, think about what the Lord Jesus has done for you, because as our text said, he became poor, so what? You could become rich. Let's pray. Father, we know that by nature we're not like the Macedonians, we're hoarders, not sharers. But the story you just shared with us, by way of the Macedonians, we need to hear. Quite frankly, it's a declaration of how amazing is your grace. You turn our hearts towards mercy and your work around the world and away from our own claustrophobic kingdom of one. Bless us as we pray over what you want us to do with faith promise this year. Let us more and more let the old man fall away and more and more let the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ grow in our hearts, we pray, amen.