We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints, and this not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urge Titus that as he had stated, 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 the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by poverty might become rich. Gonna begin with story time this morning. Gonna read a little, short little story that MacArthur has in his New Testament commentary on this part of this particular passage. I'm not sure if this is a true story or not, but it's a good story nonetheless. He writes, the story is told of a Persian monarch who reigned in opulence and splendor, living amid the wealth and comfort of the royal palace. Yet his concern for the common people frequently drove him to dress as a poor man, leave the palace, and mingle with the lowliest of his subjects. One day he visited a fireman whose job was to heat the water in the bathhouse. This is not a fireman as we know a fireman. This is a guy that stokes a fire all day. So he visited the fireman whose job it was to heat the water in the bathhouse. Dressed in tattered clothes, the Shaw descended a long flight of steps down to the tiny cellar where the fireman sat on a pile of ashes tending the fire. The ruler sat beside him and the two men began to talk. At lunchtime, the fireman shared his humble meal of coarse bread and water with his guest. Eventually, the shah left, but he returned again and again, his heart filled with sympathy for the lonely man. The fireman opened his heart to this kind, compassionate friend who gave him wise counsel. Finally, the Shah could not bear to keep up the pretense any longer and decided to reveal his true identity to his friend. He then asked the poor fireman to name a gift that he could give him. To his surprise, the man said nothing but merely sat looking at him with love and wonder. Thinking that he had not understood him, the shah offered to make the fireman rich, elevate him to the nobility, or make him ruler over a city. But the man replied, yes, my lord, I understood you, but leaving your palace to sit here with me, partake of my humble food, and listen to the troubles of my heart, even you could give me no more precious gift than that. You may have given rich gifts to others, but to me, you gave yourself. I only ask that you never withdraw your friendship from me. MacArthur writes, that parable illustrates the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, heaven's king who left his glorious throne to become the friend of sinners. I share that story, begin with that story, because it illustrates the gospel. It illustrates that the gospel is not about prosperity, but it is about relationship. This fireman was offered anything that he wanted, but what he wanted most was a relationship with the king. He didn't want the king's things, he wanted the king himself. He wanted relationship with him. With many of the prosperity preachers and much of what we consider Christianity today, we're told that faith is about getting the king's blessings, getting God's things, getting his health, getting his wealth, getting his prosperity, name it and claim it types of things. You can claim certain scriptures out of context, but God is required to meet that if you rub the lamp the right way, so to speak. The gospel becomes about what God can do for you, be it solving your problems, meeting your felt needs, providing comfort and ease, a house with a four-car garage, even heaven. So often in Christianity, the gospel is about getting the goodness of heaven. You ever think about that? You think about all the times that folks will will go to evangelize kids in particular and they're so easy to lead in some sense because you can scare them with hell and paint this bright picture of heaven. Of course they're gonna choose heaven over hell. In fact, I remember there was a billboard I saw at a church once that obviously had their doctrine, I think, a little bit messed up, but they said, heaven or hell, it's your choice. There are folks that I work with that are pagan as can be that want nothing to do with the gospel, and I can remember them coming to work and joking about that billboard and saying, hmm, my choice. Well, I'll take heaven. But the point is, the gospel is not just about us getting to heaven. It's not about us and the goodness that God will show us. That is a benefit that we will have one day because of the grace of God. It is more about our relationship with him. It is more about wanting relationship rather than wanting things. Do we want heaven? Do we want to be in the presence of God? Or do we want the golden streets and the mansion over the hilltop kind of thing? So the gospel often becomes about what God can do for you rather than what we see as relationship with God, wanting God. We want his things rather than wanting him. The gospel is not about getting our mansion over the hilltop, rather the gospel is truly about reconciling you and I, lost sinners, to our creator God. The gospel is the good news of redemption and restoration through Jesus Christ. The gospel is the good news of restoration of a relationship with God that was disrupted in the Garden of Eden and is continuing in that disruption through all humanity until the saving grace of God through Christ restores us to fellowship with him. The gospel is about restoring a relationship with our creator. So we want to keep this in mind as we walk through our text here today. We see here, as Paul begins chapter eight, he writes, We want you to know brothers, the first phrase. We want you to know brothers. He's beginning a new thought here. Back in chapter seven, he was dealing with something else. He was dealing with an issue that he had with the Corinthian church. In fact, in chapter seven, we see Paul's talking about the Corinthians repentance that was brought about by his former letter that made them sorrowful unto repentance. And we see that language there in chapter seven. There were actually four letters, as theologians claim, that were written by Paul to the Corinthian church. We don't have the first letter, and we don't have the third letter. We have the second letter, which is what we know of as 1 Corinthians, and we have the fourth letter, which is what we know of as 2 Corinthians. So the third letter, the letter between 1 and 2 Corinthians, was referred to as the harsh letter. And we actually see that in Scripture referred to as a harsh letter. In chapter 7 it was referred to, it was this letter that brought about their repentance because there was this issue that they were having with Paul because of perhaps the teaching of the false apostles that we read about in the beginning of the book of 2 Corinthians. So we see that Paul has, in chapter seven, he's addressed their repentance and the restored relationship that they have. And that's what we see him concluding with at the end of chapter seven. So now he begins an entirely new thought. And this is on the subject of giving. And if you're familiar with this passage, we just listened to it, read for us by Sean. And we understand, you can see clearly from the language that this is about giving. Specifically, it's about giving a collection that they were taking up to deliver to the saints in Jerusalem at the Church of Jerusalem. In fact, we didn't read so far, but in verses 10 and 11, I want to read verses 10 and 11. 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. So now finish doing it as well so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. And basically what he's referring to there is that back in what we know as First Corinthians in his letter to Corinth, he Challenged them to give at that time that letter was written about a year before this one And so he challenged them at that time to be putting together this collection that that was then to be delivered to the Saints at Jerusalem Just to give you a little bit more background about and just so we can understand what's what's actually going on here The church at Jerusalem was very poor. It was a struggling church and Not that the churches in Macedonia weren't, which we'll get into, but there was at least three reasons why this church was struggling, at least financially struggling. If you recall back in Acts chapter two where the church began, it says that when the church began on the day of Pentecost, and you know the story, as Peter was preaching there in Acts chapter two, There were 3,000 that were saved to begin with, and then not long after that, 5,000 more plus were added to them, and likely more after that as the church continued to grow. So you remember, these were Jews. Many of them were Hellenistic Jews that came from all over the place to be in Jerusalem for the religious festival of Pentecost. The scripture names a bunch of the places that they came from, places like Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Egypt, Libya, and those are just a few that I can pronounce. I skip the ones that I can't. So all of these Jewish pilgrims were in town for these religious ceremonies, and they hear Peter preaching the gospel, and they get saved. And so if you think about it, all these thousands of new converts are there in Jerusalem, crowding the city perhaps, And they've just had this experience of salvation and the coming of the Holy Spirit that we read about there in Acts chapter 2. And, of course, the apostles are there. I mean, that's where everyone was gathered at that time. This is the beginning of the church. There is no church outside of Jerusalem at that point. This is day number one, so to speak. And so it is likely that many, if not most of them, actually decided to stay there. I mean, this was a new revelation, a new opportunity for them to be there at the beginning of the church age, so to speak. And they were likely wanting to stay where they could hear the apostles teach and hear more about Christ and learn and grow and be part of this body that Christ, you know, Christ is building his church. And that's what we see going on here, Christ building his church. And so likely they were staying there in this church at that time. They weren't ready to go back at this point and plant churches in their own towns and their own cities where they came from. They wanted to stay at Jerusalem with other believers. So you've got these thousands of people that are there and they don't have homes. They don't have jobs. They don't have gardens to grow food. They don't have any way to make ends meet, so to speak. They have no livelihood. And so that becomes a financial drain obviously on the new church. And so we see what happens then in Acts chapter 2 verses 44 and 45. We see it says that all those who had believed were together and had all things in common and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Then in Acts 4.32 it adds that the The congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. Acts 4.34 says that there was not a needy person among them. So this church, as the church was beginning, these folks gave up what they had in order to meet the needs and provide for these folks that had sort of invaded their territory, so to speak. And so that's reason number one, you've got all these folks that had needs that didn't have livelihoods and that they needed to provide for. And they did provide and they went to great lengths to provide even giving up their possessions and things that they had. But again, those things can only go so far. And as we understand, At this time, there was also great persecution within the church. The second reason that they were so poor, it's likely that these believers were ostracized. They lost their social status as Christians. Many of them, they likely maybe even lost their jobs because of their Christianity and their being ostracized and outcast from society. So those jobs, those that even had jobs at the time may have lost them. And by Acts chapter 8, we see the stoning of Stephen and we understand the persecution of the church. I mean, Paul was going about doing the things to, you know, he was, it was his business to persecute the church at that time. So as the persecution and the struggles increased, it's most likely that the bank account decreased because of those things as well, having to struggle against the persecution and deal with those that are being persecuted and are financially destitute and that sort of thing. And then thirdly, just the Roman economy itself. I mean, at this time, these folks were under Roman rule, and we know very well from scripture about the Roman taxation policies and how, you know, the folks there, you know, the tax collectors could extort extra money for themselves and became very rich doing so by collecting taxes for the Roman government. And so the Roman economy itself made for a very impoverished society. This heavy taxation and the extortion of the tax collecting system was very burdensome on the economy and the financial state of the people there. So they were poor because of that as well, because the government and those that the government had put in place to collect money were were driving them into the ground financially. So we understand that this community, this church community, was likely very much struggling, very poor. We understand the poverty and the difficulties that they faced. And so we see Paul here, who once had been the chief persecutor of the church, is now reaching out to other churches to help and to provide for these folks and to meet the needs of this struggling church there in Jerusalem. So really Paul's entire third missionary journey was in part collecting money from the Gentile churches that were abroad in order to bring money back to help this church there in Jerusalem. You remember that there were struggles not only, struggles between the the Greek church and the Jewish church. And so it is likely also another reason that Paul may be doing this is that Paul was hoping that the gifts from these Gentile churches would help in the spiritual bond and unity of the whole universal church because there had been this sort of chasm between the Gentile churches and the Jewish church, and so likely Paul was figuring that by gathering money and providing help from these Gentile churches, it was going to help ease the tensions and sort of bring the body together among these different churches that were scattered abroad. So Paul's project here was very important to help the church both in practical ways and also in the unity and the solidarity of the church. So he's again now writing for the second time to the church at Corinth to encourage their giving and to help with, to encourage them to help with the needs of the church at Jerusalem. And again, this was a project that was started a year before, as we see mentioned there in verses 10 and 11. So Paul has several points to make here as he begins with the fact that Christians give, that they have a heart to give. That's sort of point number one here. He begins in verse one with, we want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. It would appear that the Corinthians were unaware of the generosity of the Macedonian churches. And there were three Macedonian churches that are in view here. It was the Philippian church, the church of Thessalonica, and the church of Berea. So those three churches that we know well from scripture, we see them spoken of often in scripture. These were the churches of Macedonia that were giving to this cause that Paul is referring to here. So these churches, They are also in an exceedingly poor area. They had been under Roman rule for over 200 years. They had been ravaged with civil wars among the different Caesars and things that fought over land and that sort of thing. So the area was likely as impoverished as Jerusalem. But Paul is making known to the Corinthian church here what was generously given by these churches. Paul had previously instructed the Corinthians to give, again we see that in verses 10 and 11, but he actually tells them in 1 Corinthians 16 verses 1 through 4, I want to read this, this is actually where he instructs them the first time to be putting together this offering. So he writes in the first letters, what we know as 1 Corinthians, Now concerning the collection for the saints, so this is the saints at Jerusalem. Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me." So here he's saying, he's telling them how to go about putting aside money week after week in order to have a collection to deliver to the saints at Jerusalem. He says, when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter. He's actually referring most likely to Titus because Titus is the one we know from Scripture who actually delivered these letters and was likely going to be delivering the letter of 2 Corinthians as well and would be there perhaps to bring this collection back to the saints at Jerusalem. So that's what he's referring to there as he's encouraging them, challenging them, instructing them to put together this collection to give. And so, as he had instructed them before, now he is instructing them again and he's using the churches of Macedonia as an example. He's telling them to put a collection together And we don't really know why that collection had stopped. It seemed like it sort of halted in its progress. And again, it was probably because some of the false teaching of the false apostles that we read about in the beginning of 2 Corinthians, where they were coming and sort of speaking against Paul and saying that he was just out for money or just out for power or prestige and that kind of thing. So Paul got all of that kind of thing reconciled. And now he's encouraging them again to get back to this idea, to this project of giving. He says here in verse one, we want you to know about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. So he begins by calling their attention to the grace of God. So point number one is that giving is motivated by the grace of God. Their giving was a work of the grace of God, just as salvation through the gospel is a work of the grace of God. Paul is using the Macedonians here as an example or as a model for us. But he cancels out any human merit right off the bat. It's not human merit that justifies us. It is not human merit that he's looking at here as the cause for the giving of these folks in Macedonia. He cancels any human merit by pointing out that their giving was prompted by the grace of God. So first and foremost, it was the grace of God in their hearts that prompted, that encouraged, that gave these Macedonian churches the desire to give. The Macedonian churches were not motivated by philanthropy. They weren't motivated to get a pat on the back They weren't motivated by a simple act of human kindness that they wanted to give, but it was by the grace of God at work in their hearts. The effect of saving, sanctifying, and transforming grace is a heart that desires to give, and in more ways than just financially. The effect of saving, sanctifying, and transforming grace is a heart that desires to give, and to give generously, and to give sacrificially to those who are in need, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, as we see these folks doing. The kind of giving that we see here isn't normal. A millionaire can give thousands, but that doesn't really hurt his lifestyle. It doesn't change the way that he lives. What we see here is the Macedonians giving, their giving is beyond the kind of giving that, and it was motivated by their hearts through the grace of God. We think about Zacchaeus, I used him as an example in my last message, mentioned that his heart was changed instead of extracting and extorting money from others. And again, he was one of these guys, one of the tax collectors that caused this area of Jerusalem to be in so much poverty, but his heart was changed. And instead of extracting and extorting money from others, he wanted to give back fourfold what he had extorted. He wanted to give back even beyond what the law required. He gave back because he desired to give. That's the heart of these people in the Macedonian churches. They knew, as Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. They gave of the grace of God that was in their hearts. Their giving was not out of their wealth of riches because they had no real riches. Donald Trump dropping a Benjamin for a beggar on the street kind of thing. These folks were destitute and poor. But it was the grace of God that was at work in their hearts that gave them the desire to meet needs of others. Also, we do not see any double-mindedness in their giving. They didn't wrestle with the thought of, oh, what if the car breaks down next week? Or I guess in their case, maybe it'll be what if the camel breaks its leg or something like that maybe. Their giving was consistent with the idea of seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. We see that they didn't give from a possession of wealth. We see this in verse two, where it says, 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. This Macedonian region, as I mentioned, it was abysmally poor. They were destitute because of wars and things that had gone on there. The area and the people had been plundered by the Romans, they had been destroyed by civil wars, but they gave despite their circumstances. Verse two says that they gave in a severe test of affliction. This is point number two, that their giving was not hindered by difficult life circumstances or trials that they were facing. The word for affliction here literally refers to pressure, like in scripture it's often used as the idea of squeezing grapes, but in our vernacular it might be the idea of being squeezed in a vice or being under hydraulic pressure, being squeezed. These churches were in a test or trial that was under that, they were under that kind of pressure. In fact, they may have had as much or more poverty and persecution as the church at Jerusalem. And they were collecting, putting this collection together to give to the church at Jerusalem, even in their state that they were in. In fact, Paul says as much in 1 Thessalonians 2 verses 14 and 15, he writes, So he's telling the church of Thessalonica, You have become imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, which is where Jerusalem would have been. For you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. So both these regions understood what it meant to be under persecution, to be struggling with the difficult circumstances in life. And so the point here for us is that trials and afflictions are not an excuse for us not to give. These churches gave in spite of their affliction and the persecution that they suffered. More importantly, they desired to give. They desired to give in spite of the affliction and the testing that they were under. They were able to rise above their circumstances in life. They didn't let the trials of life hinder the grace of God that was in their hearts. They manifested the gospel in their giving. They didn't say, well, times are tough, and we don't know if we're going to have enough for tomorrow with all the difficulty that we face. And of course, the economy is in a recession, so we better watch out for number one first. No, these difficult circumstances had no effect on their giving. Paul told the Philippian church, one of these Macedonian churches, the church at Philippi, he told them in Philippians 1.29 that it was granted for them not only to believe but also to suffer for the sake of Christ. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4 says, Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. So there again he mentions their persecution and their afflictions that these churches were under, that they were enduring. But in spite of their persecution and affliction, these churches gave by the grace of God. It was the grace of God in their hearts and the grace of God that provided that they would have anything even to possibly give. There was no poor me mentality that they suffered from. They manifested the gospel in their giving. So Paul continues in saying then that their abundance of joy, so he's talking here about their testing and affliction that they were under, and then he goes on, again, referring to their abundance of joy and extreme poverty that has overflowed in this wealth of generosity, this wealth of generosity in their giving, and he speaks here of their abundance of joy. This is point number three, that these folks gave, these churches, the people of these churches gave with joy. They had an abundance, a surplus, it was even an overflowing of joy even in spite of their circumstances. Even in spite of their circumstances, they were joyous to be able to give, to help meet the needs of this other church. They did not give reluctantly or under compulsion as we are instructed about in 2 Corinthians chapter 9. They did not give reluctantly or under compulsion. They didn't give from a sense of duty because the law demanded a tithe. They didn't give out of a fear of offending God or of offending Paul or wanting Paul's, you know, they weren't concerned with the views of men so much. They gave because the grace of God that brought the joy of giving to their hearts. They gave freely and they gave joyfully because of the grace of God that brought the joy of giving to their hearts. They weren't just satisfied to give. They weren't just content to give, but they overflowed with joy in giving. They were happy to give. Giving made them joyous. It made them happy. One commentator says that they made joy of robbing themselves. That is how deep their devotion was to the Lord. Their joy rose above their circumstances. In fact, they made their circumstances more difficult by their generosity. They had joy in laying up treasure in heaven. Remember, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Their treasure was in Christ. So their abundance of joy overflowed in a wealth of generosity, but also their extreme poverty. This is point number four. Point number four is Their giving was not hindered by their poverty. I mean, again, I've already mentioned how destitute and how poor that they were. How does extreme poverty overflow in a wealth of generosity? Well, again, it's a matter of the heart. It's a display of the gospel in life. Really giving anything out of extreme poverty is generous. These folks were dirt poor. They were literally at rock bottom financially. yet they gave generously and sacrificially. They didn't wait until things got better or until the stock market improved. They gave as an expression of an unselfish and a loving heart. This was giving that overflowed in a wealth of generosity. The word for poverty here expresses the most difficult kind of poverty. It's not the common word used in scripture for poverty, which means just very little. This was a word that actually meant being destitute like a beggar. That's how destitute these folks were, and yet they gave. So giving is not a matter of how much you have, it is a matter of the heart. It is a matter of manifesting the gospel. In verse 3, Paul says, for they gave according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord. This is point number five, that their generosity, that their giving was generous. Paul says here, he uses the phrase, as I can testify. Well, he said in Romans 15 that he was bringing the collection from the Macedonian churches to Jerusalem. So Paul was there. He had been among these Macedonian churches on his third missionary journey as they were putting together these collections. He spent time with them. He knew and was carrying what they were giving. So he knew he could testify personally to what the Macedonian churches were giving. And he says that they were giving according to their means and beyond their means. They were giving sacrificially. They gave till it hurt. Paul told the Philippian church in Philippians chapter two to not look out for your own interests, but also the interests of others. Well, the Philippians got that message. In fact, they put the interest of others first, giving even beyond their means. It wasn't that they were just looking out also for the interest of others, they actually put the interest of others first. This does not negate the principles of stewardship, but sometimes giving beyond our comfort zone is an appropriate thing. It is a way that we can manifest the gospel. It's not saying that we need to take a vow of poverty necessarily, but we need to be aware that our giving is a reflection of God's grace. If our giving is always comfortable, then we're not being very sacrificial. If we're only giving what's comfortable to give, we're not sacrificing very much. If we think back to Romans chapter 12, we are to give ourselves as a spiritual sacrifice. We're not giving very sacrificially if we're only giving according to what is comfortable for us. Sacrifice means that you do without to some extent. It means that you give up something to some extent. You remember the story that Charles Spurgeon told about the poor gardener who had grown this prized carrot And though it might have been sold for a good sum of money, he made a gift of it to the king. He sacrificed to give. And the king was moved at his generosity and the kindness of his gift. So the king gave him a much larger piece of ground to work and to use for his garden. Well, one of the men in the courtyard had witnessed this transaction, and he was one who was a breeder and raiser of horses. And so he thought, wow, if the king will give so much land for a carrot, what would he give for a prized horse? So he goes and he gets his prized colt and he presents it to the king. The king accepts the colt, but offers nothing in return. When he questions the king, the king answers, the farmer gave me the carrot, but you gave the colt to yourself. The horseman was not giving sacrificially, he was giving greedily. He was a prosperity gospel kind of guy, I guess. The Macedonians here gave in proportion to their ability and beyond. The last phrase reads, of their own accord. And that's a significant phrase. They did this generous thing of their own accord. It was not of their own will, or rather it was of their own will and their own desire. It was not coerced. They did this generous thing of their own accord. It was not out of obligation. So I'm gonna say this very bluntly. If your giving is out of obligation, stop. Don't give. God doesn't need your money. I once heard a fundamentalist message that had the typical three points in a poem kind of thing. I don't remember the poem, but I can actually remember the three points, because it was nicely alliterated. He said that God wants your time, your talent, and your tithe. Well, guess what? God doesn't want any of that. God wants your heart. If God has your heart, everything else will follow from that. You might remember Pastor Mike actually taught about tithing back when we were at Servpro. I know some folks maybe weren't here then, so I wanna just briefly touch on that. Number one, we don't see Jesus or any New Testament writer mandate tithing. What we do see is just what we read here and in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 7, where it says, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. A tithe would be a compulsion. We give as we decide in our own heart, and of course that says something of how we manifest the gospel. So what about tithing in the Old Testament? The tithing under the Levitical system, if you understand it, it was actually a tax. Numbers 18 through 21 through 24 reveals that the tithe was given to support the Levites, the priestly tribe, in their priesthood, in their service to the Lord, because that was their occupation, so to speak. So the tithe was there to provide for them. So at that time, before they had a king, Israel was considered a theocracy, and the Levites constituted Israel's government under that theocracy that God had set up for them. Israel paid a 10% tithe for the priests, they paid another tithe to fund religious festivals, and they paid a third tithe every third year to provide for the poor. Like I said, really this is taxation. It is not giving. This is taxation. It is required giving. And we actually see taxation in the New Testament where Jesus tells us to render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But nowhere is there given in the New Testament a command to tithe. Nowhere in the church age do we see a command to tithe. There's plenty of instruction and command to give and to care for our pastor and those types of things but there is no fixed amount, there is no percentages. So the idea of tithing was really, it was really the idea of a tax that was put on the people to fund a particular thing and it was mandatory. We see nothing of mandatory giving, no fixed amount, no percentage that we are to give spoken of in the church age. Our giving in the church age is to be like the Macedonians. It is to be of our own accord. So this was not a tithe that was extracted from the Macedonians. They gave of their own accord. And then verse four, this is a great verse. It says, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. So these folks were saying, you know, even though they had nothing, they were saying, please, please, please take what we have. They were begging to be able to give. That was how much they wanted to give to this cause to meet the needs of this Jerusalem church, their brothers and sisters there. They were pleading to be able to give. They pleaded to be able to participate. They begged earnestly. They begged earnestly for the favor. And again, they saw this as a favor to be able to take part in this giving. The word for favor here is the same word that we see in scripture, the word for grace. They considered it a grace. It was a blessing to be able to contribute to meeting the needs of this church. And again, we understand it is more blessed, more favorable, more of a grace to give than it is to receive. Do we consider it a blessing to give? I think we often give out of God's grace to us, in other words, what he has provided us, but do we think of it as his favor to us when we give, that it is actually his grace to us in our giving. Our giving is actually his grace, not just that he provided for us, but the actual act that we are giving and able to joy in that giving, being joyous in that giving is a measure of his grace. What a blessing it was for us to help the pastor in the Ivory Coast with his dental needs. That was a grace to us that we could help. And though we may be a poor church, quote unquote, by American standards, that really wasn't a stretch for us to meet that need. But that is still laying up treasure in heaven. In verse five, Paul begins. And this, not as we expected. The implication is that the Macedonian churches gave more than what Paul expected them to give. He was surprised by their generosity and obviously this poor, this destitute of a church being that gracious in their giving, that would be surprising. And Paul acknowledges that, that it was surprising. He was surprised at their generosity. He says, this was not as we expected, but, and he says, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. They gave themselves first to the Lord. The word for first here is the word protos. It is not in reference to time, so we're not talking about time here, like they gave to the Lord first, made sure that they paid their dues there, and then they gave to us, but rather this is in priority. He's talking about this being first in priority, that they gave themselves first to the Lord. The Macedonians' first priority was to give themselves wholeheartedly to the Lord, and again, If we have a right heart, the piggy bank follows. That's what we see happening here. They gave themselves wholeheartedly to the Lord first, and then the piggy bank followed. John MacArthur says that the supreme act of worship is not giving money, not attending church, not singing hymns, but giving oneself. That's what we see in Romans chapter 12, verses one and two. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship, to present yourself. How much of ourselves do we sacrifice? Do we chafe at giving, not only money, but of giving of ourselves? Sometimes money is the easiest thing to give. Remember the king in the story at the beginning. It may have been easy for him to pay off that young fireman, to give him monetary goods. But the young man wanted relationship. He wanted to spend time with this guy, with this king. He wanted time with his king. He wanted him to be a part of his life. He didn't want him to just give him wealth and then go on. He wanted relationship. That's what the gospel, manifesting the gospel does for us. It allows us to have that relationship with our king. Do we want God more than we want God's things? Are we of the right heart attitude? Do we give ourselves, our being, first and foremost to him? It's easy to put a check in the collection plate and feel that we've done our duty. But what about giving ourself to someone who needs a friend? Someone who needs our time and counsel from the scriptures? Someone who needs an ear to hear or a shoulder to lean on? Those can be the hardest things, the hardest times, the most difficult things that we can give sometimes. But that's what Christ did. He gave himself. He gave his life for sinners like us. Would we not give our life for him? The Macedonians, it says, gave of themselves as first priority to the Lord and then to us, Paul says. That is manifesting the gospel in giving. That is what we see these Macedonian churches doing. Christ gave himself in accordance with the will of the Father to us. Remember the words of the Last Supper. He said, of the bread, this is my body given for you. And so we therefore give ourselves as an act of worship to him. Paul mentions that Titus had started this work in verse six here. He says that Titus likely delivered that first letter to the Corinthians, so he started this work in delivering that letter. And again, here he's referring to the likelihood that Titus would be perhaps bringing this letter and carrying the collection back to the saints at Jerusalem. And then he goes on in verse seven, he says, but as you excel in everything, and that's quite a compliment for the church at Corinth, considering all the correction that Paul has had to do with them, we see in the scriptures, all the struggles and all the growing that they had to do, but maybe through their trials and their corrections, they were growing. And so Paul says, but as you excel in everything, And then he mentioned some specific ways or areas in which they have excelled. He says they excelled in faith. The Corinthians had a strong trust and reliance upon God. He says in speech. The word there for speech is actually logos. It's often translated word. And it's likely referring to the idea of doctrine, that they were strong. They were strong in their faith. They were strong in doctrine. And they should have been strong in doctrine after all the teaching that Paul has done with them. And I mean, again, the second Corinthians would be his fourth letter. So he's instructed them quite a bit along the way and taught them doctrine. So they were excelling in doctrine after all of Paul's admonitions. And then it says knowledge, which knowledge is the idea of wisdom, the ability to be able to apply that doctrine to the issues of life. And he says, in all earnestness. So in other words, they had energy. They had a spiritual passion. in which they excelled, and Paul says that you excel in our love for you. So Paul and perhaps Titus and the others had a great love for the church at Corinth. That is why he spent so much time there, why he spent so much time teaching and correcting and helping them in their struggles. And so he's telling them that they excel in all of these things. And so he challenges them with that because the idea of giving is not outside, we don't manifest the gospel in giving outside of manifesting the gospel in any other Christian virtue. Paul says here, just as that you excel in these things, see that you excel in this act of grace also. Again, he's calling it an act of grace. So this church excelled in many Christian virtues. They manifested the gospel and its grace in many areas, and Paul was saying, get your heart right in the right place here too in the issue of giving. God's grace had produced those virtues in them, and Paul believed that God's grace would flow out through their giving as well. He trusted that they would manifest the gospel in their giving. He's not commanding them to give, He's not commanding them to give from an unwilling heart. That would be hypocrisy, the idea that, again, God doesn't need our money. He doesn't want us to give out of an unwilling heart. He doesn't want us to be hypocrites in our worship and giving. He doesn't want us to be hypocrites in our meeting of others' needs. God can provide. He's all, He's sovereign over everything. He can meet that need any way that He chooses. but it is his grace to us that oftentimes he chooses us to meet those needs. So he's not commanding them to give because he could provide without their help, but God's grace is shown through their help, and that's the point, that God's grace is shown through their help. They are showing the grace of God in their their giving, and that's what Paul is challenging them to do. He's challenging them to manifest the gospel in their giving, to show the gospel through their giving just as the Macedonian churches had done. Paul emphasizes in verse 8, he says, I say this not as a command. He's emphasizing this is not a command. This is not a tithe. It's not a command, but he says, to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. He's challenging them to show their love for this other church that was in need. Just as the Macedonians had given, so Paul wanted them to, in earnestness, to show their love to these fellow believers whom they had never met. And again, likely they had never met these fellow believers in Jerusalem, but yet it was an act of love by the grace of God that they would put together their resources to be able to generously give to these folks that they had never met. Love is an act. It is not a feeling. Paul here is not saying, you know, it's not the idea to be warmed and be fed, but he's saying love is doing something. It is meeting the need from a heart that desires to meet that need. That is the way that we show love. We have a heart that desires to meet the need, and then we meet the need to demonstrate that love. And verse nine then, of course, is our key verse here. This sums up the manifesting of the gospel and giving. Paul 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. This is what Christ did for us. Christ gave everything that he was, everything that he was in this life for us by his grace. in order to reconcile us to the Father. The word for here in verse nine ties this back to first eight where Paul has just said that this was not a command. Paul didn't need to command them to give because they knew the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul knew that they would manifest the gospel in their giving because of the grace that was shown them in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor. If you think about it, how rich was Christ? He was eternal God in heaven. Philippians 2 says, though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. That is what Christ did for us. That is how much Christ gave. He emptied himself, he divested himself of his place with God in order to take on the likeness of his creation so that his creation could kill him on a cross. And all that to fulfill the purpose and plan of God. in bringing lost sinners to himself. That is the grace of the gospel that we manifest in giving. That is the giving that we see that Christ accomplished on our behalf. Christ who was God did not count it something to be held onto, but he emptied himself. That is the gospel that we can manifest or that we can fail to manifest in our giving. Paul says that Christ is our example who gave everything for us. Do we manifest his grace in our giving? Again, this message is not implying that we need to take a vow of poverty. God blessed and made many wealthy people in scripture, but we must consider where our treasure is. We must consider where our heart is. We may not need to empty our bank account every week to fill the offering plate, but we need to consider our giving. We should examine our motives for giving and for not giving. It should be our heart's desire to manifest the gospel in our giving. We should desire to model these churches, at least at times, to model the churches in giving to specific causes, to meet needs, to provide for others that need to be shown the grace of God through our giving. And we need that grace of God shown to us in our giving. Is it our desire to manifest the gospel in giving first to God, giving ourselves, giving our whole being first and foremost to him, and then to us, to one another, to the church, to meet needs? We should examine our motives for giving and for not giving. It should be our heart's desire to manifest the gospel in our giving. May we grow in that grace. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the grace that was shown