Why would a Christian give money? Some say that in order to get to heaven, you need to give a certain amount of money. Others say to get your loved ones out of purgatory faster, you need to give money. Some people say you should give money to the Lord in order that he might send more money back to you in this life. There was a preacher who sent out a letter saying, you can't out give God. We have figured out that if everyone who hears our program sends $67, we'll have all the money we need and God will give it back to you five times over. A listener wrote back, I believe that you can't out give God. So here's my deal. You send me $67 and I'll have all the money I need and God will give it back to you five times over. Bible doesn't teach anything like that. Giving money does not help anyone get to heaven. Salvation is a gift from God that He gives without cost. The Bible does not teach that giving can release anyone from purgatory. For one, there is no such place. And secondly, a person's relationship with the Lord needs to be set and right before you die. After death, it's too late to make any changes in that status. Giving money also does not guarantee that God will give you more money here on earth. So why then should I give money to the church or to missions or to people in need? That's our topic today. And over the next few weeks, we've been working our way verse by verse through 2 Corinthians. And we've come to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. The next two chapters are on giving. Our passage this morning focuses on this question. Why give? Why give? In answer to that question, we want to look and listen and learn. First, we're going to look at the example of the believers in Macedonia. Then we're going to listen to Paul's explanation of Christian giving, and then we'll learn from Jesus Christ himself and how he gave. Okay, Paul is writing the book of 2 Corinthians on his third missionary journey. This is a map of that trip that he's been taking. When Paul took this journey, he's got a couple of goals in mind. One, if we were to see a map of his second missionary journey, the one that came right before this, Paul visited a lot of these same places in slightly different order. But on his second missionary journey, this was the first time many of these people had heard the message of Jesus Christ. And we have brand new believers, brand new churches planted all throughout this region. So one of Paul's goals on this journey is just to go back and visit those churches, because they're brand new, and to explain to them what it is to follow Christ and help them as they're establishing themselves. Paul has a second purpose for this particular journey, this third missionary journey. He, and he's told them this ahead of time, as he goes through these Gentile churches that he's planted, he's taking up an offering. The offering that Paul's going to collect as he makes this trip, he's then going to take down to Jerusalem. See, the saints there in Jerusalem, they become impoverished. For one thing, there had been a famine in the area, and so the economy was bad for everybody, but it was more than that for the saints down in Jerusalem. Many of them were poor because they were Christians. See, they had converted from Judaism to Christianity. And so, some of them, when they said, I'm a follower of Jesus, were kicked out of their homes. Others of them, I'm a follower of Jesus, and their Jewish employer said, well, you don't work for me anymore then. And in addition to that, Jerusalem was the start of the church. If you remember Acts 2, people from all over the world had come there to Jerusalem and got saved. And many of these people from outside of Jerusalem stayed in Jerusalem because they wanted to be taught by the apostles and learned what it is to follow Jesus. And so all the visitors added to the stress. They were hurting in Jerusalem. So Paul wanted to raise money and take it down to them, but it was more than just to meet their financial need. Also, there was a divide that shouldn't have been there between the Jewish church and the Gentile church. The Jews were used to throughout the Old Testament, we are the people of God. Now in the church age, the Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ and there's one body. And yet the Jewish church kind of looked with suspicion on those Gentiles who now are following the one true God. And Paul wanted to bring a real unity. And so he thought that if I collect this gift from the Gentile brothers and sisters and we take the money to the Jewish brothers and sisters, I'll be uniting these two parts of the church in a real tangible way. So, all these churches that Paul's visiting here, they know ahead of time he's coming, he's going to collect money from them. In 1 Corinthians, Paul had said, I want you guys in the church in Corinth to be taking up a weekly offering for this, so that we don't have to take an offering when I come, it will be built it up and I can take it down to the church in Jerusalem. Okay, why give? First, we're going to look at what God gave the Macedonians. what God gave the Macedonians. Look at chapter 8 verse 1. We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. Grace refers to a gift that someone gives for free, especially if someone gives a gift that the person doesn't even deserve. So, this says God has given the churches in Macedonia some kind of gift. Now, this is where Paul is. When he's writing this letter of 2 Corinthians, he's currently in Macedonia, and God's been doing a work there in Macedonia that he's writing ahead to the Corinthians to tell them about. Well, what is it that God has given to these Christians? Well, it's certainly not money. Look in verse 2. The churches of Macedonia are in a severe test of affliction. Their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. These believers, like the ones down in Jerusalem, their Christianity has caused them to become poor. And in these churches here, you read the letters to Thessalonica and to Philippi, they're greatly persecuted for their faith. their being Christians has caused them to become poor. This happens in our world, in some places of our world today. Here's a man who, probably a believer, he lives in Pakistan. I read about this in a New York Times article. In Pakistan, being a follower of Jesus is not acceptable. And people don't give jobs to Christians. But we Christians need to eat just as much as non-believers do, or at least almost as much, right? And so Christians have to get whatever jobs they can get. This man here, he is a sewer sweeper. His job is to descend into the sewers and clean out clogged sewage with his bare hands. The article in the New York Times was highlighting how Christians have been dying because of the noxious fumes down there. It's the only job they can get. They need to feed their families. In fact, in July 2019, the Pakistani military placed advertisements for sewer sweepers in the local newspapers with the note, only Christians need apply. It's interesting, when Paul's talking about the Macedonian Christians, he says they're in extreme poverty, that literally that means in the depths Poverty this man knows what it is to be in the depths of poverty because of Christ and so did the believers in Macedonia and Yet God it says in verse 1. He's given these poor believers a gift. He has shown grace to them What is that gift that he's given to them? The answer is God gave those poor Christians a heart that longed to give He gave him a heart that longed to give and Look with me again. I'm going to verse three, but I want to start in verse one. So we get the flow. So verse one of chapter eight, 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. The math here doesn't seem to compute. So a severe test of affliction plus extreme poverty plus an abundance of joy equals an overflowing wealth of generosity. In fact, I think what Paul is saying in these verses is that he wasn't even planning on including the Macedonians in this collection. If you go back to 1 Corinthians 16 and read where Paul had been telling the Corinthians, Hey, I'm coming. I'm raising this money. What he said is we're going to gather money from, from Galatia and then, and then from you. And he skipped right over. He didn't say anything at the mouth of Macedonians. Probably he's not going to include them because he knows them. They don't have anything to give. The Macedonians are just as poor as the people down in Jerusalem that need the money. And so it doesn't make sense to go and ask them. But look at verse three. 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." Paul's like, I wouldn't have asked the Macedonians for money. That wouldn't have been reasonable. They don't have money to give, but they begged me. They wanted to have a part. Verse 4, it says, where it says they The word that's translated taking part that's often translated as fellowship. The word that's translated relief is usually translated service. And so what's happening here is Paul, the Macedonians come to Paul and they say, Paul, we, we want to be part of the fellowship. Like this is a worldwide church and we're a part of it. And we want to, we want to participate and we want to be able to serve just because we don't have enough money. Does it mean we can't do it, Paul? Here's some money we want to give, take our money. And Paul said, okay. Okay, God bless you, right? Now, we're gonna see down in verse 12, these people are giving beyond their means here. In verse 12, we're gonna find out that God doesn't even ask us to do that. God doesn't ask us to give beyond what we have. And yet, these people wanted to give so much that they did that. And a Bible teacher named Roy Loren tells the true story of a Christian businessman and a Christian lawyer who were traveling in Korea. and their tour guide as they went about Korea was a missionary that they knew that was serving there amongst the Korean people. One day the three of them are driving along and they see in a field by the side of the road a young man pulling a plow with an old man holding the handles. Right, so it should be an animal pulling the plow, but the young man is pulling. The lawyer was very amused by this and took a snapshot of it. He said, that's a curious picture. I suppose they're very poor. The missionary replied, yes, that's the family of Cheboy. When the church was being built, they were eager to give something to it, but they had no money. So they sold their only ox and gave the money to the church. And this spring, they're pulling the plow themselves. The lawyer and the businessman were silent for a few moments. Then the businessman spoke up and said, that must have been a real sacrifice. To which the missionary replied, they didn't call it that. They thought it was fortunate that they had the ox to sell. Well, that lawyer went back to the United States. He found his pastor. He said, I'm going to double my giving to the church. And besides that, would you give me some plow work to do? I realized I've never done anything sacrificially for the Lord. And that's the Macedonians. God has given them the grace of generous hearts. And so they gave according to their means and beyond their means. Why? Look at verse 5. Why would they give like this? And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Do you know why the Macedonians and that poor Korean farmer gave their possessions so generously? It's because first they had given themselves to the Lord. That's your blank on your sheets. If you're taking notes, why they gave, they had first given themselves to the Lord and then to his people. Let me quote S. Lewis Johnson here. He says, it's good to give money to the Lord. It's best to give oneself first to the Lord and then the Lord's people. You see, it's easy to surrender a part of what we have if we've already given him the whole thing. Here's the question each one of us must ask ourselves. Have I given myself to the Lord. If I've given myself to the Lord, then what's a little bit of money? The money's all his already because I'm his. Listen to the words written by a Christian in a previous generation. Ask yonder son, what are thou doing? And he will answer, if he could, the will of God. Ask those waves of the ocean and they will answer the will of God. Turn to a tiny flower drinking in the dew. What art thou doing? And the flower will answer, if it could, the will of God. Man, highest of God's creation, listen to me. What are you doing? Is not the answer thus. What I choose, I please myself. I do as I will. I assert my independence of God as though he were not. End quote. You know, God doesn't want your money, He wants you. He wants you to answer if someone says, what art thou doing? To say, the will of God. Romans chapter 12 verse 1 says this, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Our spiritual worship is to put ourselves in the offering box. And if we've done that, then parting with money when God asks us to do so is a no-brainer. The Macedonian believers show us how to do that. First, they gave themselves to the Lord and other Christians, and then they gave their money as God led them. Why give? First, we've looked at what God gave the Macedonians, which was a heart of generosity. Second, let's listen to Paul's inspired explanation of Christian giving. So in verse 6, we shift from Paul telling the Corinthians about the Macedonian believers, where he's at, and how they've sacrificially given. Now in verse 6, he shifts to, I'm about to come down and visit you and get your offering ready. So as we walk through this, we'll draw out four principles on Christian giving. The first one is this. God gives his children the desire to give. God gives his children the desire to give. Look down to verse 10. Verse 10, we get kind of the history of this with the Corinthians and this offering. Verse 10, he says, 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. Some of your translations say a year ago, you were the first to start this. And that's the idea. It seems like sometime last year to them, Titus came to visit them and Titus told them about this work. And they're like, yeah, we are in. And they were the first ones to say, let's do this. We we will support this. If you go back to verse six, he kind of highlights that chapter eight, verse six. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. Paul continues in verse 7. He says, you know, God's doing all kinds of things in your church there in Corinth It's not just giving that he's doing through you, but he's he's doing all kinds of things that are exemplary look in verse 7 He says 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 The Corinthian church was exemplary in many ways, and Paul lists some of them here. The church in Corinth, they had spiritual gifts. If you read through the book of 1 Corinthians, you'll find that this was something that stood out about the church in Corinth. They had spiritual gifts, and some of them were miraculous things. Here he lists some of the things that they have people in their church that have the gift of faith. Some there have the unique ability to trust God in the face of overwhelming circumstances. Do you know somebody like that? They have a gift of faith. Some there had spiritual gifts of speech, a unique ability to be able to speak God's Word with power. Others of them had the spiritual gift of knowledge, which I understand in this place to be, it's a unique ability to pass along spiritual knowledge to another person. I think that if we were able to go back to that time and just go and sit in the worship service in Corinth, we would be so blessed at what we would hear. Because they were so gifted at this, and we would be inspired, and we'd grow in our faith, and we'd be challenged as the Word of God was taught with power to us. Paul says, you guys are exemplary in that. It's not just that, it's not just that there's great teaching there, but they've shown how real their faith is. Notice in verse 7, he says, you're exemplary in all earnestness. If you've been with us for the past few weeks, Paul had just called them out on some sin. He said, you guys need to change your direction with regard to this sinner in your church. You need to discipline him. And here's some other things. And their response was earnestly, yes, you're right. We're going to do the right thing. And they turned directions. And Paul says, you're exemplary in that. You were earnest. And that's what God's looking for us. If we're caught in sin, then let's just be earnest. They're exemplary in that. Also, they're exemplary in their love, their love that they have between Paul and them. Verse seven, he says, in all earnestness and in our love for you. And so Paul loved them and they loved Paul. There's so many good things that God was doing in this church. And now Paul says, but don't let it stop there. Also be exemplary in your giving. Right, the end of verse seven, see that you excel in this act of grace also. Okay, so God gives His children the desires to give. Second principle we'll find in these verses is this. We must each turn our God-given desires into action. We must each, as believers, turn the desires that God gives to us into action. See, this is what God will do for us. He'll give us good ideas, good desires, things we want to pursue for His honor. But to be full of lots of good ideas doesn't do anything unless I say, okay, God, I'm going to actually do it. And that's what Paul is saying, you need to do and put this into practice. Now look at verse 10 and 11, second Corinthians eight, 10. Paul said in this manner, 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 as well so that your readiness and desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. How does God prompt us to do good things as His people? It's not normal now for God to speak to us in a voice we can hear. It's not normal that He would give us a miraculous sign and direct us in that way. God's normal procedure now is, as I'm in God's Word, and as I'm praying, and as I'm with God's people, He just gives me good desires. I want to put that into practice in this way. It just comes naturally to me by His Spirit. Philippians 2.13 talks about this, God's way of directing us. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Maybe as we go through the next couple of chapters here, God will lay on your heart, I want you to give to my work in some way that you haven't been. But that isn't going to do any good unless you say, OK, Lord, this desire is from you and I'm going to put it into practice. There's a step from the desire God gives us to it actually being a good work. Each of us has to take. Paul's given in the explanation of Christian giving here. So first, he said God gives his children the desire to give. Secondly, he says we must each turn our God given desires into action. Third, Paul says giving is not to be forced from the outside. Giving is not to be forced from the outside. Look at verse 8. I'll start just at the end of verse 7, and notice how Paul says, I'm not commanding this. End of verse 7, he says, see that you excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as a command. There's two extreme views on Christian giving, on how we ask people to give. One extreme view is the view that A Christian should, a Christian or a Christian minister, a Christian missionary, they should never tell people about their needs. They should just always, I'm just going to trust God. I'm going to tell him what I need and then he'll send me the support and some of the most godly inspirational people in church history have done this. Have you ever read the biography of J. Hudson Taylor, founder of China Inland Mission? That's what his philosophy was. I'm not going to tell anybody about our needs. I'm just going to pray and trust God to provide. And God did provide. Like, you look at it, and wow, look at that. He didn't tell anybody. He just told God, and God provided for them, and that was the way they went about it. But I noticed that that's different than what Paul does. I feel like he's going beyond what the scripture is, because here in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul talks to the church and he said, Hey, listen, I'm going to come and I want to, the Jerusalem church has needs and we want to raise a gift for them. And so as I come by once a week, I want you to be taken up an offering and I'm going to come and get it. I'm going to take it to them. Like he didn't stop short of telling them what the needs were. I feel like that can be an extreme to say, I can only talk to God about the needs. That's probably beyond what scripture says. The other extreme, probably uglier, the other extreme is when ministries try to compel people to give through manipulation or shame or making up a rule, you must give this amount. Some of you have told me about your former churches where every year when the annual meeting came, they would publish the annual report and everyone's giving would be listed in there. This is our annual meeting today, you can check the report, your name's not in there, but wouldn't that be compelling? Like, if I know my name is going to be in there and here's the amount, people would go, oh, mmm, look at the Holinskis, what in the world? Right? But it's ungodly, it's compelling, it's commanding, it's manipulating giving, it's forced from the outside. Pastor Warren Wiersbe once said this. During my years of ministry, I've endured many offering appeals. I have listened to pathetic tales about unbelievable needs. I forced myself to laugh at old jokes that were supposed to make it easier for me to part with my money. I've been scolded, shamed, threatened, and I must confess that none of these approaches has ever stirred me to give any more than I plan to give. In fact, more than once I gave less because I was so disgusted with the approach. Well, that's Or he could be like Mark Twain, who one time in a church service, there was a long emotional appeal for money. And so not only did he not give what he planned, but as the plate came by, he took a bill out. He's right about giving is not to be forced from the outside. It's not to be forced from the outside. Now think about it. This is the Apostle Paul that's writing. If anybody has the authority to be able to command someone to do something, the apostles, right? Because Jesus specifically commissioned these 12 men and said, you have my authority to lead the church and to give command. And so on other things, Paul had given commands. He just sent them this letter and said, listen, this man is sinning. You need to remove him from the church. And Paul's not slow to be able to give commands. But on this, he says, I'm giving, he says, I'm not going to command you. Because this isn't God's desire for our giving. It's not to be compelled from the outside, but the idea is our giving is to well up from our hearts. We long to give. Giving is not to be forced from the outside. But letter D, your giving reveals where your heart is. Your giving reveals where your heart is. Look at verse 8, if we finish the sentence there. He says, I say this, not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. So what's Paul saying? He's saying, well, I gave you the example of the Macedonians on purpose. So you could be encouraged that, listen, their faith is real. It's genuine. You can tell by the way they gave out of their poverty. And Paul says, now I want you to do the same. I want you to prove your love for Christ by your giving. I came across this chart this week, it's interesting to me. Budgeting experts, some of them say that this is what you ought to do with your expenses. So you make your budget, how am I going to spend my money? One theory is you should take 50% of your money and spend it on needs, and then 20% you should save every month or every week, and 30% you can spend on your wants. Looking at this chart and there's no giving on there. So if you're a Christian and you want to be giving, like compared to a non-believer, you're gonna have to take your giving out of some other area. Either you'll have less for what you want, or maybe you have to save less, or redefine your needs, right? Now, when we look in the New Testament, does God give us a command? You have to give this percentage. He doesn't. We're going to talk about tithing in a future week and specifically how that should work for us as Christians, but there's not a command in the Bible. It doesn't command you must give blank. You're not going to find that in the New Testament. What does the Bible say about how much we ought to give? What's it say? Here's what it says. Basically, it starts with this. You should love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your mind and your strength. And then the Lord says you should love your neighbor as yourself. And then he says you prove what you love by how you use your money. So let's say that someone was going to make a pie chart of how you've spent your money in the last month, the last week, And they took it, and they made a pie chart, and here's, you know, they spent this much on this, and this much on this, and they came up with it. And then without your name on it, they showed this chart to somebody else. Would the person, if they don't even know you, looking at the chart of how you spent your money, would they be like, man, this person loves Jesus. That's what Paul, his encouragement to us is, prove by your giving that you love the Lord, that your love for Him is genuine. Or would someone look at the pie chart of how you're spending your money and say, I can see what they love. It's this and this, things of the world. That's the challenge that God gives to us in our giving, is to prove our love for Him by how we use our money. It's not just money, we have to prove our love for Him by how we do everything in our lives. Okay, we've looked at what God gave to the Macedonians, which was a generous heart. we've listened to Paul's inspired explanation of Christian giving. And we're going to see more here. I'm not giving you everything today because it's chapter 8 and 9, right? But so far, we've seen God gives us the desire to give. We're supposed to take those desires and turn them into action. Giving is not to be forced from the outside, but it's a test of our hearts. And then third, we're going to learn from the Lord Jesus how the Lord Jesus gave. If you want to learn how to give, Look at Christ. Okay, look at verse 9. He says, 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. The title of our message today is, Why Give? The basic answer to that question is, I want to give because what Christ has given to me. As a Christian, that's my answer to that question. As a throughout this passage, Paul keeps referring to the giving as grace that when we when he first said this, he never uses the word money. He doesn't say, hey, Corinthians, give us your money. He keeps calling it grace. It's it's a gift that is free and undeserved. One of the one of the joys of being a pastor here, Lamar's Bible Church, our people give And the leadership has a heart for people that are hurting. And so sometimes we've had a situation where there's somebody in the community or somebody in the church. We've found out that they have a need and So what we've been, the leadership has proved that, hey, let's meet their needs, let's send them this money. And so as the pastor, sometimes I get to be the one that delivers the gift. And I remember some of these experiences. I walk up to them, I say, hey, Mars Bible Church wants to help you, the Lord loves you, here's a gift from us. And they look at it and they say, oh, well, you know I can't pay this back, and I don't feel like I deserve this. And I just love to be able to say then, you know what? None of us deserve the love of Christ. And he gave himself for us freely and we just like to be able to do the same thing for others. And it's just a beautiful picture of God's grace. Look here at this verse, the second half of verse 9. When you look in the original language, sometimes there's things that show up that it's hard to translate into English, and it's fun for me to point out those details. So you get to follow along with me in this. This is the second part of 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 in the order of the original text. And we'll read it, and then I'll point out some things that stood out to me as I studied it. So first, just in the original order, it says, For you, he became poor, being rich. In order that you, through his poverty, you might become rich. First observation from this is that he did this for you. Christ became poor for you. In the original language, you can emphasize things in a couple of different ways. One way that you can do it is if you take the words out of their ordinary order and you put them up front, you can emphasize it that way. Here in this passage, the for you comes out of where it ought to fit in the sentence and he puts it first. And so before Paul even tells us what it was that Christ did, first he says, listen, this is for you. Another way that you can emphasize things in the Greek language is the The subject is already in the verb. And so if you really want to emphasize the subject, you can say it twice. But you wouldn't translate this in English this way because it's going to sound weird. So the last sentence there, in order that you, through his poverty, you might become rich. Like that's what it says in the Greek. Why is you there twice? The idea is Paul saying, listen, Christ became poor for you, even you. And we're supposed to, like, ponder, think of what Christ has done for me. So that's the first thing that we notice in this text. What has Christ done for us? How is He given? Well, He's given to me. Second, what did Christ do? Letter B on your sheets. Christ went down into abject poverty, though He is rich. Christ went down into abject poverty, though He is rich. You see it there. For you, he became poor. That word for poor, there's two different Greek words for poor. There's one that's kind of like the average poor person. They're living below the poverty line. They're scraping to get the things they need to live. This isn't that normal word for poor. This is a word that was reserved for people that are destitute. Often they come to this word and they just translate it as beggars because they have nothing. And that's the picture that's being given. It says, for you, Christ became, you could say, a beggar. Not that he was begging, but that he was just so low. I was thinking about this this week. Now, what are we saying? Are we saying that in Jesus's life, that he, you know, when he was growing up, he had to be on the streets asking people for money to survive? Well, no, because his dad was a carpenter and he learned the trade. I mean, they were poor. But I don't think that what is being described is that, oh, Jesus had such a poor upbringing. I think what's going on here when it says, for you, he became poor, he's thinking about the huge switch for Christ that went from being in God's glorious throne room to being a human and then dying for us. See, for us, he became poor. I think what's in Paul's mind here is Jesus' death for us. He became poor, being rich. Think of this. With Jesus, the infinite became an infant. The one who carries the universe was carried in the womb of a woman. The one who uses the earth as a footstool was sleeping in a stable. The one who filled space with galaxies. I've been having fun following the James Webb telescope. Any of you guys noticed this? Like James, there's a new telescope they've sent out. It's an amazing feat of engineering. It's shocking. And it's taking new pictures farther out beyond what we've ever been able to see before. And the scientists have been surprised that they take this amazing telescope now, and they pointed at what used to be the darkest spaces in the sky, and they find out that thing is full of galaxies. We just couldn't see that far before. Like it's full of stars and wonder and glory, and Jesus is the one that created every single one of those galaxies. We couldn't see it before, but now we can. And that Jesus was standing at a carpenter's bench, learning how to make little things out of wood. The one who breathed life into Adam, and who knitted together every single one of us in our mother's womb, that man who gives life, he's the one that was put to death for the very humans that he granted life to. I think that's what we mean here when he says he became poor, being rich. This is interesting. He became poor, being rich. The idea of this being is that he didn't ever stop being rich. So even when Jesus was on earth, now you look at him and he's a human, And he's not impressive to look at, and he was beaten and crucified, right? Jesus came low. But Jesus Christ never stopped being the Son of God. So at any point in Jesus's life, if he decides, I'm gonna show him who I am, right? At any point, he could just show his glory and demand the worship that he is due. He became poor, being rich, the Son of God. Why did he do it? In order that you, through his poverty, so through his humanity and through his death, in order that you, through his poverty, might become rich. This is what Jesus did for us. Right? He didn't come to earth because he needed some money from us. He came to earth because we were desperately separated from God. Right? Jesus knew my sin and that I could never be with the Father. And so Jesus and the Father and the Spirit in their eternal plan, Jesus comes to Take the wrath that should have been mine to die in my place. He came to die for you, right? So that you, through his poverty, could become rich. Do you know that there's riches for every believer? I think that's your last blank somewhere there. He became poor so that every believer can become rich. It's not talking about money. He became poor so that every believer could become rich. We are rich in that we know God. We know Him personally. He is our friend. I can go outside and see this guy and praise him and he hears it and he enjoys it. He's my friend now. He's my God. I'm rich. I'm a rich man in this. Not only that, but I have forgiveness of sins. I can ask him for whatever I want. He's always been there with me in my difficult times. Boy, I am a rich man and every believer is. Through his poverty, we have become rich if we've trusted in him. A verse that talks about this, of the riches that we have as Christians. It's not only riches we have now, but riches we have been given that are ours to one day, like we'll be seen to be rich. 1 Peter 1, 3, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you. who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Christians, we are. We are rich. This is how St. Augustine said it. He said, Let the beggars come. Let the beggars come, for he invited them who, though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we beggars through his poverty might be enriched. Boy, are you here today and you haven't ever come to Christ and been made rich? Boy, you're invited right now. He invites you to himself. He has come. He became poor for you so that you might have riches eternally. All it takes is Jesus. I believe in you. I'm yours. Call out to him with faith like that and you'll be rich because you'll know him. God doesn't need our money. He didn't come to take from us. He came to give. He came to give us Himself. He came to give us eternal life. And then once we come to know Him, He gives us His heart. He gives us His heart of generosity, right? And so as we go through our lives, we want to give because He's making us more and more like Him. So our heart is like His heart. Let's pray. Father, we're far away from that now. Often we think this is my stuff and we hold pretty tightly to it. So will you remind us, Lord, what you've given to us in Christ? We, as your people today, we praise you for these riches that you've given to us. Will you also give us the grace that you gave the Macedonians? Will you give us a generous heart so that when you want us to give, when you give us those desires, we'll follow through and be like your Son increasingly and that we want to freely give? We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks everyone. God bless you.