Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To the text of the word of God, it's time for the exposition of God's word.
We have many visitors with us today. I think it's important for you to know that one of our chief values here at Grace Bible Church is the systematic exposition of God's word. Meaning, we go through books of the Bible. Right now we're going through 2 Corinthians. Last time we finished chapter 7. Guess what comes after chapter 7? Chapter 8. Good, good, good.
You know these things. Chapter 8 and chapter 9 is going to be a 4-part mini-series focusing on the content of these chapters. And the title of it is going to be called Christian Generosity.
Some of you might be visiting for the first time and say, Oh man, I showed up when the preacher is talking about money. You know, we're just going through the book. And this Sunday we happen to begin in chapter 8. But you know, the word of God is alive. It is powerful. It is working. It is relevant for us today. And we're going to see how that happens as we look at this historical narrative in the New Testament. The subtitle for today is Liberality That Abounds.
The whole series, by the way, you'll find on the back of the bulletin. And with my apologies to those who disdain alliteration, but there it is. That maybe you might be able to remember it a little better that way. Peter Marshall at one time was the chaplain of the United States Senate. And during his tenure there was one lawmaker that came to him and was concerned about the issue of giving.
He said this. He said, I have a problem. I have been tithing for some time. It wasn't too bad when I was making $20,000 a year I could afford to give $2,000.
But you see, now I'm making $500,000 and there's just no way I can afford to give away $50,000 a year. Dr. Marshall reflected on this wealthy man's dilemma, but gave no advice. He simply said, yes sir, I see that you do have a problem. I think we ought to pray about it.
Is that alright? The man agreed. So Dr. Marshall bowed his head and prayed with boldness and authority.
Dear Lord, this man is a problem and I pray that you will help him. Lord, reduce his salary back to the place where he can afford to give. Generosity is a spiritual virtue and it is to be cultivated as evidence of God's grace at work in your life and mine. Scriptures speak much to the blessedness of generosity. Take Proverbs 11, 25 for example. The generous soul will be made rich and he who waters will also be watered himself.
It's beautiful imagery there. Proverbs 22, 9. He who has a generous eye will be blessed for he gives of his bread to the poor. It is a continual theme throughout scripture that we will see as we continue through this series. And as we approach chapters 8 and 9 now, this is the inspired word of the living God. In these chapters, we have a historical narrative. In that narrative, there are principles and examples for us to follow today as the Lord is speaking to his church.
And also, we are going to see how the word of God, although authored centuries ago, is quite relevant for us today. Let me read to you from John Dickerson's book, The Great Evangelical Recession. He says, the first decade of this century demonstrates the disturbing dip in giving. Some decline obviously results from the economic recession, but a number of studies show that giving was decreasing year over year during the boom years that preceded the recession. As Americans were refinancing their homes, sometimes pulling out tens of thousands of dollars in cash, their giving continued to decrease. The numbers on generational giving are stark. Folks over 75, it's not too many of us in here, folks over 75 give four times as much of their income as 22 to 44 year olds. Each generation gives significantly less of its income. He continues, and you can follow along with me now, not only are the heirs less likely to be evangelical, but the heirs who are evangelical are less likely to give, to give consistently or to give generously.
The shift away from evangelical values and beliefs grows more radical with each younger generation. Kind of gives us a hint of the work that we have cut out for us. The financial crisis is not a shortage of funds. We do not believe in generous giving. In Acts 20, 35, Paul records Jesus saying, it is more blessed to give than to receive. But we do not believe Paul or Jesus. More importantly, we do not believe Jesus simple direct statement where your treasure is there your heart will be also. If Jesus claim is true, then the heart of the typical American evangelical is not in Christ's kingdom. Our hearts are in our cars, credit cards, mortgages and retirement savings. You might think that's a blistering statement, but it is all based on study. It's all based on research.
He is just stating the facts. And so the word of God is relevant for us today as we look in these two chapters and we glean examples and principles of Christian generosity, of Christian liberality. Let me start first of all by giving you some background information of where Paul is in his statement to the Corinthian church here. And it begins with the question, what's going on in Jerusalem? What's going on in Jerusalem represents the needs of the church. It was the first century and the church started out among the Jews in Jerusalem, but they were quickly persecuted. Paul himself being one of the persecutors early on. But what was happening in Jerusalem was that the Christians, the Jewish Christians were being ostracized socially and economically. They were treated by the Jews as foreigners and enemies. This kind of gives us a background also of why the writer of Hebrews wrote that epistle.
Because many of the Hebrews of the Jews who were becoming Christian or were considering Christianity recognized the hardship that came with being Christian. You were shunned by families and friends. And they said, we're not sure we want this. We're not sure we signed up for this. I think we'll just go back to Judaism. It's a little easier over here.
It's more tolerable. But shops for Christians were shut down. Families rejected their loved ones.
Friends shunned their friends. And these Christians were finding that there was no means of support. If you remember in Acts chapter 2, it talks about how the Christians came together and they shared.
They had much in common and they shared their wealth with each other. The problem was they were running out of things to share. And it's not like the whole Christian community was going to be able to be supported by a few wealthy in the congregation. Here's what was going on. As they were being ostracized, as they were running out of means of support, the fact is they were all out materially. They were all out. Things were running out on them. And the church, the body of Christ, needed to rise up to the occasion to support those who were in need.
There's another factor that plays into this as well. You remember there was the influence of the Judaizers, those who were Jews who had become Christian, but who also believed that anyone who was a Christian, even if you were a gentile and you became a Christian, you still had to keep the law of Moses. And that was causing division in the church.
And the Judaizers, or the legalists, you could say, they were very judgmental of the Jews who didn't require gentiles to keep the law of Moses. And this was causing a division in the church. And Paul, wanting to bring a unity in the body, wanted to use this compassion, this offering of the gentiles giving to the Jewish Christians to bring a unity in the body through this compassion.
And this was his desire. We see evidence of this. If you were to look in Romans chapter 15, the apostle Paul writes, as he's writing to the church at Rome, he says, Now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints, for it pleased those from Macedonia, that's what you have mentioned here in 2 Corinthians 8, and Achaia, which would include Corinth, to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. So you see the continuity in the texts of scripture there. So that gives us some background information about what's going on in the first century church, particularly what's going on in Jerusalem, and why Paul is writing this to the church at Corinth.
Now, the next question is, what's going on at Macedonia? And this represents the generosity of Christians. This gets us into the text.
Look what he says. Moreover, brethren, I make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. This is a good tactic by the apostle Paul. Instead of diving right into going directly to the appeal to the Corinthian church to be generous in their giving, he begins with a shining example of Christian generosity. And he calls it the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.
That word bestowed can be translated lavished upon. It is a work of God's grace, and Macedonia would include churches like the church at Thessalonica, the church of Berea, the church of Philippi, all these that we're familiar with. These churches had the grace of God bestowed upon them. God was at work. The grace of God was at work in these churches.
And how did it manifest itself? Well, look with me at verse 4. These churches did this. They were imploring us with much urgency that we should receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on Weekdays at 10 a.m. .
