Becoming a Macedonian Church

If you have your Bibles, if you would join me in 2 Corinthians chapter number 8, 2 Corinthians chapter number 8, and we're going to read verse 1 down to verse number 9, 2 Corinthians 8, says, Moreover, brethren, we make known to you, or if you like the old English, do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their generosity or their liberality, for to their ability or their power I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves, praying or desiring us with much eagerness or entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering of the saints. And this they did not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God.

In so much that we desired Titus as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith and in the word or utterance and knowledge and in diligence and in your love to us, see that you abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment but by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. And Father, we pray that the word of God today would find soft soil as it lands upon the souls of your people, that we would receive the word of God and apply it in humility and joy. Father, I am so thankful for Jesus Christ this morning, that you would love us so much that you would send your Son to die in our place. I pray every person here would know that they are known by God, that your thoughts toward us are more in number than the grands of sand on the seashore, as Psalms 139 tells us. And we pray that as your Holy Spirit draws men to salvation, that you would draw our hearts to yourself.

Those that are lost would be saved and the saved would be surrendered and with joy live a sanctified life. We've come today because you're worthy of our time. And so grant us ears to hear and a heart to obey, and we ask it in Jesus' name. And God's people said, men, you may be seated this morning. Well, last Sunday, I said my desire in this Eternal Impact initiative is to give us a clear perspective on reality, a clear perspective on reality in a world that is so distorted, that has created a view of life and reality that is not true. I think we're probably seeing some of that in our government right now, aren't we? Anybody glad that there's some waste being cut out?

Is that pretty good? Yeah. Can we give the Lord a hand for grace that allows... And that's such a blessing. But I think sometimes we can be skewed because the world can set the temperature to what we see and how we view things. And so we need to elevate our view from the temporal to the eternal, to invest our lives into the mission of both knowing Christ and making Him known, knowing that life is more brief than what we realize.

Time will come to an end very shortly, and one day we will all stand before God and give an account of our life. We should live in a way that reflects that reality. Listen to what one man wrote that I think helps put the temporary into a unique perspective. He writes, Mr. and Mrs. Thing are a very pleasant and successful couple, at least that's the verdict of most people who tend to measure things by the thing-mometer. When the thing-mometer is put to work in their life, the result is startling. There is Mr. Thing sitting down on a luxurious and very expensive thing, almost hidden by a number of large things, things to sit on, things to sit at, things to cook on, things to eat from, all shiny new things. Things to clean with and things to clean and things to watch and things to play, things for the long hot summer days and things for the cold short winter days.

Things for the big thing in which they live and things for the garden and things for the deck and things for the kitchen and things for the bedroom and things on four wheels and things on two wheels. And there in the middle are Mr. and Mrs. Thing smiling and pleased, thinking of more things they can add to their things. Secure in their castle of things, Mr. and Mrs. Thing may be secure in their castle of things, but what they need to understand, this is not the end of the story. The truth is, Mr. and Mrs. Thing, you will not be able to keep your things.

They will come to an end. Oh, maybe an error in judgment, maybe a temporary loss of concentration, or maybe you'll just pass them off to the secondhand dealer, or maybe they'll wind up as a mass of mangled metal being towed off to the thing yard. And what about things in your house?

Well, it's time for bed, put out the cat, make sure you lock your door so some thing taker doesn't come and take your things. And that's the way life goes. And then someday you will die and they only put one thing in the box and that's you. Perspective matters. It's important to realize this. It's never wrong having things, it's just wrong when things have us. And there is a delusion that we are born into this world with the focus of trying to accumulate things and we have the idea that he who gets the most things wins. And that's not true.

When they asked the question, how much did the rich man in town leave behind, the answer was everything. And so we have to recognize that life is very brief, it's very temporal, and we should live our life with an eternal perspective. Every day we're investing time, energy, resources into one of two kingdoms, a temporary and an eternal. And so to see priorities right, we need to see them through an eternal lens. And that's really what the passion and zeal of our focus of this whole initiative is, is to see through the lens of eternity, to see possessions through the lens of eternity, to see people through the lens of eternity. I pray that the last two weeks as we've preached on making Christ known that this last week did not go by in your life without you praying for somebody who's lost.

If you did not pray for somebody that's lost this last week, last Sunday may have done no good for you. Because we become hears the words but not what? And then if we hear and don't do it, then we've not.

We've deceived ourselves. It's kind of like saying, hey, I want to lose weight, paying 50 bucks to meet with this dietician. They tell me what to do. I go back home and eat chocolate. I consume that which does not benefit me in the long run, but boy, it tastes good.

That would not be a wise thing to do. And in the same way, friends, we must recognize that we have to apply these things to our lives. We must be those, because I can tell you this, if we can't pray for the lost, we probably will never tell the lost. So it starts with having a burden for a lost soul to be saved, and then it goes into a mouth that comes out to share the gospel with others. 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are an amazing set of chapters. There are two chapters in which Paul is using the example. This kind of rarely happens in the Bible, but he uses a church or a group of churches in Macedonia that have the right perspective, who live with eternity in mind, and he uses them as an example for the church at Corinth and really all the other churches to follow. He spoke of what a faithful and generous church looked like, and the Corinthian church should strive to be like this. And I just want to do what Paul did 2,000 years ago and elevate what this church was doing and what caused them to be the way they were so that the ministries could be cared for. Now who are the churches in Macedonia?

I have a picture up here if we could shoot up on the board. This will give you an idea of this region. So this is Israel down here, and this is Paul's second missionary journey. This is the city of Corinth.

This is who he's writing to. Above that is Macedonia. That's the region, and you have Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea. Those were the churches that are up in that region. So those are the churches that he's talking about specifically. And so these churches were examples of generosity and support. And if you remember in Philippians 4, when he comes to the end of that wonderful four-chapter epistle, he says, Now ye Philippians know that in the beginning of the Gospel when I departed from Macedonia, no church has communicated with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. You supported, literally, the church at Philippi, after he administered up there, they were the ones who were single-handedly supporting him in his ministry. He said, Even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. He said, Not because I desired a gift, but I desired a fruit that would abound to your account. In other words, as they gave to Paul, they were partaking in that ministry. Their giving allowed them to be part of the fruit that was being reaped there. What a blessing.

Wouldn't it be nice that Paul wouldn't have to constantly be making tents so he can go preach? I mean, are you familiar with that, I guess? Okay, so I jumped off the stage last week, and there was a lot of people that were more concerned about my leg than they were the message. They were like, Is it going to break? I had a major leg surgery years ago, and it stayed up. I appreciate all the emails and the skinny pictures a guy sent me of my leg, and the love is overwhelming.

I feel it all the time. But in chapter 8 and 9, it gives us a wonderful pattern of biblical giving, how we should be as a church. And what you find, the biblical pattern of giving was they gave toward missions works.

They gave toward missions outreach. They also gave to support those who ministered in the ministry. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul wrote his first letter to the church at Corinth, and he explains to them that those who minister of the gospel should live of the gospel or be provided for through those givings. In 1 Corinthians 9, 13, he says, Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the holy things in the temple? In other words, in the Old Testament, the priests, all they did was minister in that office.

They were taken care of by the sacrifices that were given. And he says, And they that wait at the altar are partakers of the altar. And in verse 14, he says, Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live or make a living from the gospel. You probably never heard me say this in 15 years, unless when I went through 1 Corinthians where it focuses on the importance of taking care of those who minister in the gospel financially through the giving of that. But you just need to understand that that's a biblical pattern.

And the reason that's important is this. When Braden goes out and launches a church next fall, he's not going to go work it like Burger King and then preach on the side. He's not going to go work at Tim Hortons and then minister on the side. Our church is going to support him.

We have dozens of other churches that will come alongside sister churches and individuals that will financially help support him so that he can focus on the gospel ministry. I can tell you, when I came here, it's a 60 hour week for years just doing something. Then it moved into 70 and 80 hours for certain spirits. And I had to back that down a little bit with the busyness of life and with kids and so forth. But I'm telling you, if guys that do both you have a ministry is consuming enough and that's why you it's just a very challenging thing to even and it's not the biblical pattern. So guys need to be financially cared for as they go out.

It is a right and worthy investment. Not only that, but giving was done to support poor people in the church. When the church was launched in Acts chapter two, 3,000 souls were saved. They were not all people from Israel. They were not all people from Jerusalem. They came from all over.

If you remember the Ethiopian eunuch, he had come around during a certain time in Acts 8, one of the feasts. So these guys were coming from different regions. Many of them did not go back home.

They just stayed there. It was the only church on the planet, right? So they stayed there and they were very poor and people were giving of their possessions, their properties. They were laying their entire property down at the apostles' feet and they were distributing to people as the needs were there because they didn't have any places to stay.

When people go to like Guatemala, you'll see that. People squat on a property because they set up a little shack because they have nowhere else to live. So this was the pattern. Poverty was very heavy and because they were in a very Jewish society, their jobs were really axed in a lot of ways. They were struggling to maintain work.

History also records that in March 23rd, 37 AD, there was a big earthquake that happened. There were crop failures. Christians were the poorest of the people in those days. When you read Acts 11, there were talks about a famine that had hit that area.

Very, very bad. And Acts 11, 29 says, the disciples, every man according to his ability determined to send relief to the brethren which dwelt in Judea and this they did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. So Saul is seeking to get funds to help support the churches and the people in the church there in Jerusalem. And so this is what's going on here. Now Paul had first mentioned this back in 1 Corinthians 16 and the church at Corinth is like, hey, we're going to do a lot. We're going to give.

We're going to be behind this. They were excited for it. What happened was a year had passed and they hadn't given anything.

They had over-promised and under-delivered. In our current terminology, they filled out the commitment card, but they never gave anything. And that's the idea of what's going on here.

And he's like, hey guys. So he brings up this situation for two chapters. He actually talks about it throughout the whole book, but he spends two entire chapters speaking about the churches of Macedonia and how they're such an example of generosity. And if they were willing to support churches and ministries then, how much more important is it today to not simply support somebody's physical needs, but the gospel need of those who are lost in this world, right? I have no shame preaching on the importance of giving to expand the gospel. I gladly say that. I will offensively preach that. I will provoke your souls as much as I can that it is more important to invest in the eternal souls of men than into our bigger possessions and our things. And I will proclaim that forever. And if you say, well, you're doing that so you can have more gain, examine my life, ask them what I make.

I don't care. I know God's work in my life and I know my love for you and my love for the gospel's expansion. And that is the goal of what we're doing here. And so what can we learn from these generous churches? And this is going to be so helpful for us as we examine this today and as we step into really a challenge that it's probably been about seven, eight years since we've done like a financial focus from our church.

It's been a long season. We used to do stewardship months every year for about the first six, seven years of the church and then we haven't done that since then. And so we've been taking a little bit more focus this year because of what we're looking to do with our gospel expansion. Now, what can we learn from these churches?

There's seven things I want to look at. First of all, we see in verse number one, why were they so generous? First of all, it is God's grace that allowed these Macedonian churches to be able to give. Their giving was based on God's grace.

Second Corinthians eight one says, Moreover, brethren, we make known to you, if you like the old language, it's we do you to wit, of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. It is important to understand the act of giving is an act that has its roots back to God. It was the grace of God that was the root of generosity.

In fact, at least eight times karas, which is the word for grace here, is related to giving. When your hand in life reflect generosity to help others, it reflects God, because God is not greedy. God is a giving God. He's a generous God. And when your life reflects generosity, it reflects God.

And here's why. We are born takers. We aren't born like, hey, I want to share. You don't go to a toddler room and find a bunch of people like, please play with my toy. No, you go first.

I will wait. Gladly, right? They're like, it's mine. They understand that statement.

They will slap you and scratch and bite and everything they need to take. We are born as takers. We're born as consumers.

We're born as seeking to get all we can. But we're born again to be givers, to be contributors, to seek to give all we can. And the reason for that is because Jesus is the ultimate giver.

He's the ultimate giver. And when the ultimate giver comes inside of a taker, he turns takers into givers. Therefore, if my life doesn't reflect a giving spirit in life, and I'm just talking about finances, I'm talking about the way you live, giving of your time, listening to people, caring enough about their pains to sit down and listen to them, slowing life down enough to minister to somebody with your abilities, serving them, giving in financial ways as well, all of that's included. But your life should be reflective of someone who puts others in front of our own needs. In essence, we love others as we love ourselves.

This is that reality. We become lovers of selves. Now, through being born again, we become lovers of others like we love ourselves. So I would ask, would you define yourself as a giver? Is your life defined as a giver? Do you have problems listening to people, slowing down and caring enough to find out what their name is, ministering to them, pointing out?

You know, I will say this. One way you can do that is when you come here in the mornings, take time to go around and greet people. What would you think if Pastor Josh came into Lighthouse and I got here, you know, I'm here at five this morning, but what if you come here and it's eight o'clock and I'm sitting in my chair just sitting here looking ahead? And for 30 minutes, I sit in my chair. I've been to churches where pastors do that.

I always concluded maybe they're just focused on what they got to say, but they just don't seem real friendly. Y'all with me? You ever seen me sit in a chair and not talk to anybody? I'm not trying to lift myself up.

I'm just saying the pastor should set an example. And so when you get here, take some time. Hey, I understand if you're like, hey, I'm kind of sick. I shouldn't be greeting a bunch of people. Then you sit in that chair and you look forward and you, right? I got it.

I got it. But think of a couple questions you could ask people like, hey, what's your name? How long you been coming here? You know, just, hey, where are you from?

You know, just get to meet some people. The Bible says be kindly affectioned. It commands it.

It's not a suggestion. It commands us to be kindly affectionate one to another, tenderhearted. In Romans chapter number 12, we are to, with brotherly love, we are to edify, build up one another.

Romans chapter 12 verse 10. So this is the spirit that we should have, a giving spirit with our time, our ears, our energy, our resources. Do you reflect that in your life? Do you reflect generosity?

I think about Zacchaeus who was a get all I can type of guy. But what happened when Jesus Christ came into his life? The moment he did, Zacchaeus stood up and said, Lord, behold, half of my goods I give to the poor.

Why? Because Christ invaded his life. And when you come into the greatest taker in the city, he became the most generous man probably in the city. That's what happens. And Jesus said in Matthew 6, 24, he said, you either serve God or money.

It's one or the other. Now, the beautiful fruit of a generous life is a result of being plugged into the vine of Christ. This is the grace of generosity that comes out. So do you reflect a generous giving heart? Do you give to benefit others? And if you're a teenager here today, learn to do that. Learn to minister and give to your parents. Give to those. When I finally got old enough to where I was married and having kids and when I had enough resources at all, when my parents came down, I always would try to grab the ticket and pay for them.

They get so mad. But I would. I would pay for it. I would pay for things. I never ever would expect them to pay for anything for me ever the rest of my life.

Ever. They've done more for me than I could ever ask. I want to give back. I cost them a lot. I mean, I, I killed the food back then, right? So be a giver. Do you reflect that? You know, it's interesting in the New Testament, there's only one quote from the life of Jesus's earthly life.

Now stay with me. Jesus's earthly life. There's one thing that he said that's not quoted in the gospels. Only one statement during his earthly life that's not quoted in the gospels. I'm not talking after his resurrection.

I'm talking while he lived on the earth. There's only one statement and it's found in Acts 20 verse 35. It got passed down through the people and Paul says this as he's leaving the church at Ephesus. He said, I have showed you all things, how that's so laboring you ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive. It's not in the gospels, but he said it. There's a lot of things he said that's not written in the gospels.

The Bible says the books of the world could not contain all the things that he said and did, but that is, that's a pretty significant statement, isn't it? We need to learn that. We need to learn that if we want to be a Macedonian people and follow their example, that's a key hard issue there. Secondly, not only is it the grace of God that allowed them to do that, but secondly, the Macedonian church gave in spite of their circumstances. Look at verse 2. It says, how that in great trial of affliction, their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their generosity or liberality. Paul elevates the amazing example of the sacrificial giving from the churches of Macedonia. In essence, they gave in spite of their circumstances. It says, how that in a great trial of affliction, they were under great persecution. They were enduring great suffering. Philippi, Berea, Thessalonica, they were facing the heat of persecution. Not only did they face persecution, but they also faced, it says, deep poverty. It's a couple of interesting words. The word deep here is bathos. It's where we actually get the word bathosphere, which is a device that they would hook up and take down into the farthest recesses of the ocean, and it means deep as being under the surface, very low. They were in bathos, very deep poverty.

This is tokeo. It is abject poverty, extreme poverty. They were in very deep poverty. So it says, how in trial, not only were you physically being persecuted, not only were you in deep poverty, but in the face of this, look at how they respond. It says, this abounded unto the riches of your generosity, liberality. These Christians were living literally above their circumstances. It says, the persecution turned in the sense that they began to have joy. It turned to their joy, not only joy, but abundant joy, and it abounded unto the riches of their liberality. So literally, when the grace of God came into their life, you took abject poverty and persecution, plus the grace of God turns into abundant joy and incredible generosity.

That's an incredible equation, isn't it? In other words, circumstances don't define generosity. Grace does.

Did you hear that? Sometimes people say, well, you know, I'll be more generous once I'm able. It's kind of like the person who says, I'll have kids when I can financially afford it. And we laugh because we know, right?

All the young people are like, what are you talking about? But if you have kids and you know, right? Who could not afford kids, but you had kids? Look around, right? If we went by affording, we would not have had you.

But you know what? God takes care of us, doesn't He? None of us were on the street starving. We found a way to survive because God's grace sustains. You know, giving is the same way.

I remember when all my life I really, to be honest, wasn't ever about like, can I afford to give? It was always, I just believed in the mission of God. I truly believe in the mission of God.

I believe that the gospel must go out and I believe that I need to support that. The hardest time for me financially was when we went to help my brother start a church in Chillicothe. And I was making really good money before that, went to help him start a church. Financially was the hardest two and a half years for the first two and a half years there that I've ever endured, pension pennies to make two pennies out of one. I was like, I mean, we were just tight as tight could be. But we always, even in that season, I was making eight and a half dollars an hour. Everything back then, the economy was just down where we were at in Chillicothe.

It was just so tough. And but in that time, we, and I don't say this to boast, but I'm saying we gave at that time 15 percent of our income to the Lord at eight and a half an hour. And we never borrowed a penny from one person. I never used a credit card one time.

I never was late on one payment. And we never stopped faithfully giving to the Lord, even when there was no way I was. It was never like we'd never even discussed like we're going to cut that down.

You say, why are you telling us this? Because again, I think a pastor needs to be an example to his people, because sometimes we don't even understand what generosity means. Sometimes people think giving one percent of their income is being generous to God. That's like giving five minutes to prayer. And it's like, you know, I really spent time with the Lord today. That's good.

You'd spent five minutes. You need to do that. That's fantastic.

But it should grow past that. And so this is and I say this to boast on the Lord. When he said church at Philippi, you have been the ones who were generous to me. He said, My God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory. And I saw God take me from making eight and a half an hour to making 1000 a day in two and a half years in a field that I didn't get a degree in. And then I went into ministry and I lost all that. So but I'm thankful. And I'm just telling you, God proved his faithfulness.

And I needed that. So when I came to Xenia, and it was so tight, and the finances were so tight, and we were a little flock, and we just didn't we needed to do construction, everything was all by faith. And I said, God, where is faith and insanity?

They seem to be meeting right now. This is crazy. I mean, we had a Christian builder who came to help us. He left because he said, That's crazy.

You guys could never do this. He left us. A Christian builder who that was his ministry, we're like, why do you leave us high and dry? He's like, you don't have the finance to finish it.

And he left. And what's crazy is we actually finished faster than he had planned we could have with the money. Is that the miracle of God? Some of us will clap but I'm telling you, if you understood the weight of all of that, the insanity, you'd be like, hallelujah, that's insane. That's crazy.

Like there was it was it was off the charts crazy. And I think one day, we're going to get to heaven. And there's going to be some Hebrew 11 places of our life, where you look back and you say, you know what, there was a lot of failures in our life. But God is not so focused on Moses and Abraham's and Jacob and all of their failures, but he is focused on their faith. And he says, Let me take you to Hebrews 11. And somehow, God doesn't mention any of their faults, but he mentions all of their faith. And I think in heaven one day, God's going to talk about the faith that we had. And I can tell you, it's really easy to sing.

And it's really easy to do a lot of things. But it's not easy to give God this. Amen. I was all with you till you pulled the wallet out. I was all with you preacher.

You lost me there. But I'm telling you, friends, this is this is where the rubber hits the road. It's true. It's true. And I love that Paul elevates this.

And I take no shame in talking about it. Do you give by faith or by circumstance? Thirdly, the Macedonian church gave sacrificially, verse three, for to their and I'm using some more readable words here. I love the King James, but I'm telling you, I anyway, for their ability, excuse the word power. It's just hard to understand for to their ability.

I bear record. Yea, beyond their ability or power, they were willing of themselves or they gave of themselves willingly. Not only did they give to what they were able to give, he says they gave past what they were able to give.

When you calculated it and crunched the numbers, they just went past what was logical. They did more than what was ever expected. Paul said when I when I looked at what they could do, they went way past what whatever could be thought they could do.

And I would ask the question as they gave to meet some different needs of the church there and also the people of the church at Jerusalem. I believe the greatest thing we can invest in is the gospel ministry. There's nothing more worthy to be invested. I think sometimes about these colleges, they get these big financial invest people give and big sums of money. These colleges that I'm thinking some of these colleges are proclaiming woke agendas. Wheaton College just backed off because they got afraid of some woke stuff. And I know some of these colleges have some good things, but I'm telling you it's tragic.

It's tragic. And there are some churches that have gotten woke and they need to go broke. Friend, if you give to something, give to the things of God. If you don't think giving is a reflection of your spiritual condition, read the book of Malachi.

When you read the book of Malachi, they had spiritually drifted from God. And God says you're robbing me in tithes and offerings. And he says, he says, you're saying what a weariness it is to give. He says, am I not a great king? He said, you give me polluted sacrifices.

Just read Malachi one. He said, he said, you should bring me the best you have. But instead you're giving me the leftovers in the Bible, giving reflected honor. He said, he said, offer that now to the governor.

Would he accept it? You're lame, you're sick, you're leftovers. And what's dangerous today is sometimes we give God our leftovers. And that could be our time, our energy, our minds, our resources. God should get the best. That's why I love church being on Sunday mornings. I say this probably once a month or more. I love that it's the first hours of the first day of the week that we can come in here and say, God, I give you the first cut.

I want you to take the first portion. I love getting up early, giving God the first portion of the day. But he says they were willing of themselves. And what you find in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul doesn't put a percent on this. He says, do it willingly, not grudgingly. God loves a cheerful giver.

I'm not putting any percents on things. You need to give just according as God moves in your heart and be generous and cheerful to do that. 2 Corinthians 9 says, every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, not because if he's manipulated or intimidated or feels compulsion, but does it because he loves Christ and he is cheerful to do it.

Number four, the Macedonian church wanted to be a part of helping others in the ministry. Verse four, he says, they were praying us with much entreaty. Again, praying us with much entreaty, what does that mean?

You're like, what does it mean? It means they begged us earnestly that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship in ministering to the saints. What was happening was, as A.T. Robertson said, apparently Paul was reluctant to push the churches of Macedonia because he knew how much poverty they were in and how much persecution they had, but they demanded the right to give. One man described them as beggars begging to be bountiful. In the words of the old Christendom, the early church father, he says, they did the begging, not Paul. That's a Macedonian church.

That's amazing. Who wants to stand before those guys before the Lord one day? You're up next, Josh.

Can I go before those guys, you know? Kind of tease them, but now why and how are they so generous? Well, the answer is in verse five, and this they did not as we hoped or expected. He said in verse five, this is why I want you to see this verse five, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. The reason they gave so generously of their resources is because they had already given their heart to Christ. They gave themselves fully to the Lord in everything they had now belonged to him.

They had truly given themselves to the Lord. Only when a person gives themselves to the Lord can they give the Lord their resources. As Warren Wiersbe said, if we give ourselves to the Lord, we will have little problem giving our substance to the Lord. Surrendered resources are result of surrendered wills.

Why is this? Because Jesus again is the ultimate giver, and when he comes in, the generosity will flow out. Generosity flows out of a life that has been given to the Lord. What is your giving say about your surrender?

I'm telling you, friends, it is a reflection. And notice it was God's will that they give themselves to the Lord. He says this was by the will of God. In verse six, the Corinthians said they were going to generously give, but they did not give. Paul urges them to that commitment and follow the example of the Macedonians. In verse six, he says, in so much that we desire Titus that as he had begun so he would finish in you the same grace also, that we would see fulfilled in you what is happening with these churches. Let me give you a fifth reason that they were generous or fifth example that we can follow in their lives. Fifth is the Macedonian church grew in their giving. Notice verse seven. Therefore, as you abound in everything in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all diligence and in your love to us, he says, see that you abound in this grace with this grace of giving also. One thing that God desires and requires of all of us is that we would be growing. We would be growing.

Are you growing? Are you growing as a Christian? He points out six specific areas. First of all, he says faith. Now, this is not talking about saving faith. This is talking about working faith, a faith that believes God and acts upon it. It ties together with inward trust that results in outward obedience. You believe him and you act on it.

So you should grow in your inward trust of God and outward obedience to that. Secondly, in utterance. Some translate this as speech.

I don't like either one of those translations. The Greek word is Lagos. Like if we were reading this in the Greek, we'd come across the word Lagos. What does Lagos mean?

It means the word. And as MacArthur said, Lagos refers here not to speech but to doctrine. Christians need to be growing in the Word of God and its teachings. I would ask you, are you growing in the Word and the doctrine and teachings of the Word of God? You should.

You must be. Thirdly, knowledge, gnosis. This refers to functional knowledge, application of doctrine, knowing the truth and then living it out. Knowledge is the ability to apply doctrine to the issues of life.

You should be growing in that. Number four, all diligence. Diligence speaks of eagerness, earnestness, being zealous, spiritually passionate.

Diligence is a great translation here for this. We need to grow in our diligence and passion to obey. We should be more passionate to do the things of God. Number five is in your love to us.

This is agape. This is the noble love of self-sacrifice. Christians need to be growing in their love for other people. You understand that you usually don't start out with the right amount of love for other people.

You have to grow into that. Marriage will teach you that, right? It's a giving up of self to love the other. And then sixth, it says in verse seven, see that you abound in this grace also.

Well, what's he talking about? He's talking about he's calling giving grace because it's based on the grace of God giving you the ability to do that. He says, you need to grow in your giving also. Now, God doesn't want us to be stagnant in our growth but to continue to grow. And I would ask you, are you growing in your giving? Growing and giving is not natural. It's something that must be cultivated.

You don't start off as a Macedonian giver but you grow towards that. Let me give you perhaps a four-step process that you need to do and I believe growing in your giving. Now, some people say, well, you just need to tithe and that's just tithing. Listen, I believe that is a principle that we should follow but it's not a command. There's not one verse in the New Testament.

I know because I have read through and studied that issue and I'm all for that but let me explain what I believe a four-step process should look like. Number one is you need to be an initial giver. You need to start giving somewhere.

Perhaps you've never given to Lighthouse. Maybe you've never given to a church before. And you realize now that, hey, I've started coming to church. I've given my life to Jesus Christ.

That's the starting point. You need to know Christ. Giving does nothing for your life if you don't know Christ.

You need to come to know Him. And so, but you realize that you don't want to just come to receive but you want to come and give. You don't want to just come and take. You want to be a giver. And what a blessing that you, for some people this year, and I don't know who gives what at Lighthouse. That's between you and the Lord. But it's important that there are some people this could be the first year that they ever give. Isn't that great?

I think that's fantastic. Wherever you're at, you need to start. That's like the person who said, I've never read the Bible. Well, then start.

I've never really prayed, we'll start somewhere. Well, you need to be a 10% reader. You may grow to that and I don't think 10% is the cap. I think you grow to it and grow past it. For some Christians, it's holding them back and they think they're being biblical. You're not.

You're not. You grow to and grow past and you grow is what God would want you to do. And so, you need to start somewhere. Start praying, start reading, start attending church, start attending life groups, start trusting God, start giving.

It all works together. He says, grow in that. And then step two, would you go from an initial giver to a faithful giver? As you give, grow to become faithful.

And step one, you may have given but not faithfully. It's very sporadic. It's like you're reading. I read once last week. I prayed one day. I went to church twice this month. Your giving is reflective of every other area of your spiritual. Is this making sense?

Is you see this? Your giving is a reflection of every other area of your spiritual life. You're just kind of sporadic. So, you need to go from this sporadic initial thing which is a great start. Start somewhere but grow and to be more faithful. And as you grow, be faithful. The Bible says, it's required in stewards of man be found faithful. One thing I want to hear when I stand before God, well done, now good and faithful, right?

This is what you should grow. You should grow into being faithful. You should be more faithful in attending, faithful in reading, praying, trusting God.

I can tell you, as people grow more faithful, they will grow. If you follow the Bevin family, we were sporadic church attenders our whole life. We would go some, cut off, go some, cut off. And then we got grounded in a church and we went. We went from Sunday morning to, we'd like, they have this thing called Sunday school. It sounds terrible. Terrible name.

It's always been a terrible name. We call it life group. So, let's go to school on Sunday, right? Or somebody like, oh, it needs to be Sunday school. You have a tattoo of Sunday school on your back maybe. But you go, we went and then we were like, you know, we go to Sunday school and then we're like, hey, they got this, they got Sunday nights.

These guys are nuts. And we went back Sunday night and we went to Wednesday night and I can tell you, as we grew spiritually, it just kind of organically happened. We just kind of were there. And I'm not being legalistic. I'm not your Holy Spirit and I understand some of you have to work every other week and there's different things that keep you from that. I'm just saying that there is a growth in attendance, there's a growth in reading, there's a growth in praying, and there's a growth in giving. Faithfulness becomes a staple of growth.

Tell me one thing that you can do well and that you're not faithful at. It works, doesn't it? It's just a part of it. But yet, it's important to understand that. Number three is a surrendered or generous giver.

Often people can start giving, they can be faithful to give, but they don't really understand generosity. I would compare this to someone who reads every day, but they just read like a couple of verses. I'm reading every day. I'm reading every day and I'm excited.

I'm like, yes. And I'm like, what have you been reading? I've been reading a verse of the day every day. Every day, a verse of the day. I'm reading a couple of verses, taking one or two minutes in prayer, and guess what else that looks like in their giving? It's like one or two percent goes to the Lord as well.

They're faithful, that's good. I'm not hitting on that. I'm not trying to beat somebody down. I'm like, hey, I had to grow in my life in all these areas, but there should be growth and you need to know that. And it's never talked about out loud like this.

Is it? Some of y'all, this is the first time you've ever heard anything like this. Just like you grow in reading and in prayer, you need to grow in giving. And I think you should look at like a 10 percent as a principle the Bible lays down. People say, well, that's under the law.

Of course it's under the law. But it was also before the law. Four hundred years before the law, Abraham gave a tithe of all that he had. That's what the Bible tells us in both Genesis 14 and Hebrews chapter seven. And then Jacob gave a tithe of all he had.

And Jacob was kind of a squirrely guy, wasn't he? Genesis 28, he gave a 10th of all that he had to the Lord. They were given. And what it is, is a 10th represented the whole. That was the idea.

It represented a 10th of what you have represents the whole. So a guy could make a thousand a week and be like, you know, I'm giving 20 bucks a week and I'm being faithful to do that. That's good. But that's so comfortable. Wouldn't it be?

It'd be real comfortable. I remember making some big old fat paychecks at this previous job I had before I went in the ministry and the guys knew I was making good money and they're like, are you tithing off that? These unbelievers would come to me and ask me. I'm like, well, of course, if I was faithful with a little, why would I be less faithful when he's blessed me with more? Does that make any sense? So it'd be like, God, could you decrease my income so I could afford to give?

You see, it's insanity. Jesus confirms the importance of giving in Matthew 23. I would say this though, I could talk about that for a while, but New Testament saints, I don't think should give less under grace than they did under law. And when you look at the Old Testament, these guys were faithful to give and when they weren't, God rebuked them. And I think Warren Wiersbe, Matthew Henry, both elevated tithing. Augustine elevated that. He said that they tithed in his day, but they were like, Augustine and Jerome, those guys were like, give everything to the Lord. I mean, they were, these early church guys were massive on that stuff. I don't believe it's a command and I don't think you're sinning if you don't tithe. I do not.

I don't believe that at all. I believe you can honor God and be giving under 10%, but I believe as you grow, you should be growing in your giving. And I believe the third step should really be growing to a generosity that says, I want to give you like that standard of principle of giving of a 10%. And then I think a fourth step, which I would conclude with of growth, would be a sacrificial giver.

This is where the Macedonians were. They went past generosity to now sacrificial. This is where you as a person have recognized what the gospel has meant to you, what it cost Christ, what it cost others to bring you the gospel that you wouldn't be saved if others didn't give. Lighthouse would not be here if people didn't give tens of thousands of dollars to this work.

We wouldn't have been here. And you recognize that and you're like, I want to give to see other people. And so you actually, this is where you begin to cut things out of your life so you can give. Like, this is where you say no to certain things in life. I'm not going to buy that new car because I want to be able to give here. I don't want to cut out of this.

So you begin to just remove some things from your life or keep yourself from some things in your life. Each year, me and my wife have always increased our giving and over 20% of our giving to the things of God. And I don't say that to boast. I say that to be an example.

But I'm telling you, I didn't start out there, but I have grown to that. And I think a pastor should have set an example to be a generous giver. And some of you give way past that.

I don't know what you give. That's between you and the Lord, but I know that there is generous people. So wherever you're at, I would encourage you to do what he says to the Macedonian churches as you grow in faith, knowledge, application of the truth, and diligence, and love for each other. He says, grow in your giving. That's why some of you guys, if you're at like a 10%, I'm telling you, you should say, hey, God didn't say to cap you there.

That should be something you grow to and grow through. Number six, the Macedonian church evidenced their love and their giving. Look what he says in verse 8. He said, I speak this not by commandment. Again, I'm not commanding you to do this, but occasion of the forwardness of others.

I'm giving you the example of others. And look what he says, I want to prove and to prove the sincerity of your love. You know what giving does? It evidences I love others more than I love myself.

I love others more than I love myself. Whatever we love, we give to. If I love some activity, I will pay money to get stuff in that activity, whether it's sports. If I love hunting, I'll pay for expensive gear. If I love cars, I'll pay for expensive cars. If somebody loves football, they'll spend money on watching them, getting things, memorabilia, nothing wrong with those kind of things. Nothing wrong with really enjoying things. It's just wrong when our love goes to that and God gets like a tiny little fraction. And the world's lost dying and going to hell and people are lost.

And we got people like Mitch and his wife that are willing to take like the some of the only vacation time they have all year to go down to Guatemala. It's not comfortable. It stinks to go down there physically, physically speaking, not smelling I'm talking about physically, you're a little bit of time change.

The food's not the same. Your body gets off. Sometimes you get sick. Water's not clean.

You've got to get bottled water. I've been. It's just physically you're not there because you enjoy it physically. You're there because it's like I want to minister into this world.

I love them more than my comfort. And when you when you get around that, you're like, hey, I want to stop by this guy and say, hey, how much do you guys need for that? And let me be a blessing to you. Let me support that. And when you see other ministries and I was talking to Eric Woodworth and they got a building that's getting lined up right now potential and I'll be learning more about that this week. And I'm like absolutely Lighthouse is going to get behind that. And I'd like to see our church give twenty five fifty thousand to that. You guys are like, oh, of course we will.

And maybe more. The world needs the gospel, right? We're not looking to build our little kingdom here. The generosity of people that you and I have, some of us have never met, has allowed the gospel to get to us. Numbers, I remember when we came to came to Xenia, there were little widows that were homebound in Chillicothe that I would go visit.

And they they said, we you know, we don't feel like we can do much. I said, can you just pray for me? And those little widows would pray for me.

All the time they would write me and I'm like, that's why souls are being saved down here because these little widows are praying there and I love them and blessing. And I remember one guy was in his 90s and we didn't have carpet for like a like a year over there. There was no carpet on the stage, on the floor. It was just really rough, really rough. We were using porta johns for a couple of months outside. This guy called and I was praying for carpet.

God, could we just get some carpet? It's just really rough in here right now. And a guy that you guys wouldn't even know, his name Stanley Lee, he's passed on now.

He died right at like 100 years old last year. And he, he said, he called me up one day said, Do you guys need anything? I was like, Yeah, why? He's like, I was gonna see I got $5,000 I was wanting to send over there. I was like, that sounds really good, Stanley.

Like that. I said, we actually need carpet, man. And it covered the cost of carpet our sanctuary. So was that a big deal? It was a big deal because everything was echoing like crazy in there. Little carpet soften the blow.

And it was just so much nicer. You think he's in heaven, like, man, I could have used that for something else. I'm just telling you guys, there are people on the other side of eternity right now, we are beneficiaries of their kindness to us.

All of us, it's trickled down to us richly. And the reason that many of you are sitting here is that could be the person beside you to help fund them gospel that got you the gospel. I had two men in my office yesterday in their 20s on their knees crying out with tears, confessing Jesus as their Lord so excited what God's doing, supernatural drawing them to this church at the beginning of this year. They're enthralled by the truth.

They don't know it didn't know how to be saved. And yesterday, they called out to Christ, aren't you thankful to invest in a ministry that's reaching guys like that? Amen. And a guy last Sunday and foundations, weeping, calling out to Christ and foundations in the week before calling out to Christ in my office right before service, God is reaping his harvest. And he's drawing souls to himself in a way that I have not really seen much in my 21 years of ministry.

He is doing a sovereign drawing to himself and I this I believe are the last days man. And I believe that if we can be a part of that, to be ready to share Christ, I had people come up to me this week, like, man, I've guys coming up to me and asking me about people who's leaving tracks with with, with like little QR codes and the gospel message and what is this and like they're they're curious and they want to know guys like man, I've been thinking about coming to church and I'm telling you, you just do a little bit. We get out of the thing life. We're not so focused on stuff in in the temporary and we say let's live for the eternal.

Let's live now as though we wish we would have lived when we step across the line of time. And so friends, this is what we must be gripped by and this is what the church at Macedonia was gripped by and let me close out with one last thought the churches of Macedonia followed the example of Christ. Look at verse nine. He said for you know the grace, you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was what?

Okay, that's where you guys are supposed to use that word. Okay, so let's start out over for you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became what? That we through his poverty might be rich. You know Jesus Christ is rich. He is very rich and Jesus Christ became poor wise.

He took on death. The table before us is a reflection of that that we might have life. Friends today, let us let us follow the example of this Macedonian church. Let's be a generous people. Let's be a people generous with our time, with our talents, with our resources and I encourage you to grow in that, to examine your life in that. One day we're going to stand before God and give an account of our life. Let it be said that we were faithful. Amen. Let's all stand this morning.