What does Jesus' example teach us about giving and grace?
WATCH
Giving Grace, 1 of 4 from May 25th, 2025
"When we have received it, we share God’s gracious generosity."
2 Corinthians 8:1-9 by by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)
SUMMARY
This sermon explores the concept of Christian giving, emphasizing that it's not just about money but about the grace of God manifested through generosity. Pastor Michael explains how the Macedonian churches, despite their severe affliction and poverty, displayed abundant joy and generosity. He highlights that true Christian giving stems from first giving oneself to God, then to others, following Christ's example of sacrificial love.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 Whose priorities shape our spending habits?
💬 How are we giving ourselves to God first?
💬 How does God’s richness towards us change how we see our thrift towards others?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
📖 Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-9
📖 Background on relief offering (1 Corinthians 16:1-6)
📖 Famine around Jerusalem (Acts 11:28)
📖 Story of faith in Macedoina (Acts 16-17)
📖 Jesus’ teaching on money & our heart (Matthew 6:21 & 24)
📖 Jesus’ example of generous love (Philippians 2:6-8)
📖 God’s demonstration of love (Romans 5:8)
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[The following transcript is automatically generated and may contain errors.]
Good morning, church.
And welcome to our neighbors.
The headset mic thing that I normally wear has disappeared.
So if you guys see it somewhere, or if you remember picking up a big bundle of white string and throwing it in the trash, like, just let me know.
Because, yeah, anyway.
So I'm going to use the handheld mic today.
You guys won't notice, but I will probably.
We are going to be starting a new sermon series this morning, and before we do that, though, I want to kind of pop the hood, give you a sneak peek behind the curtain about a question I know you all have been wondering, which is, how do we decide what to talk about on a Sunday morning?
Everybody's like, I wonder how do we plan a preaching schedule?
Like, how does that actually work?
Does Michael just wake up and whatever it is that Sunday morning, he just starts talking about whatever that is?
And so I know this has been a burning question from all of you.
And I'm aware, too, that this is something I think a lot about myself.
continually, and so we've got this weird mix of things that I am really interested about and could probably talk about for too long, things that you're mildly interested in and not really, like, you're just like, I trust you to take care of that, Michael.
Don't tell me about it, right?
And you're like, Michael, this is the introduction to your sermon?
Like, I am already lost.
I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry.
So...
We, I just want to give you, I think I mentioned before, a couple of weeks ago, that one of the first books of the Bible that I endeavored to teach through was 1 Corinthians.
So when I started preaching pretty regularly in 2017,
18 like that was that was one of the first books within the first year I started tackling and taking it verse by verse and trying to figure out how to communicate that and so as we were coming towards the end of the year I just felt a burden in my heart in November or so to pick up second Corinthians I had a felt pretty confident about first Corinthians and I wanted to go through second Corinthians but
But I also know that for most of you in here, if I say, hey, we're going to spend the next 34 weeks going through 2 Corinthians, some of you would be pretty enthusiastic.
Like, okay, cool.
I can look forward to that.
And there's some of you who are like not that enthusiastic.
But my assumption is that most of your neighbors, if I were to say to them, hey, we're going to spend the next 34 weeks going through 2 Corinthians, they'd be like, oh, so you mean you have nothing to say to me?
They would just assume that we are just like locked in ourselves.
And so I try to break up the series into manageable pieces and take a big idea out of the series and call that what we do.
So we're spending 34 weeks in 1 Corinthians this week.
Almost 50% of the weeks that we'll spend together will be in 2 Corinthians.
But I have never said that to you before because I would rather break it up into small chunks and ideas that you can engage with.
Does that make sense?
Okay, but that's not enough.
So we get together at the beginning of the year, usually towards the end of January, me and Pastor Ryan and the other pastors from the other neighborhood churches get together and we take what we call a preaching retreat, where we set aside two days, three days to pray through and seek God.
How is it that we want to, like, what is it that you would have us share?
And then as we all kind of bring ideas and we discuss them all together, then we open up the calendar and we start figuring out how many weeks do we need to do this?
How many weeks do we need to do that?
And so we lay all that stuff out.
So usually every January, I have an idea of what we're going to be teaching for the next 18 months.
so every 12 months we try to plan 18 months so we've got some margin if we need to shift stuff around and that's just like our planning it's in my mind is written in pencil and we could do whatever we want so if I woke up this morning and and and the Holy Spirit was like you really need to preach a different sermon like we just do that it's not like we're tied to this but we do believe that the Holy Spirit can lead us as much in planning as he can in a spontaneous moment like he does both of those things
And when we set aside time to honor him by seeking his will and seeking his desire, I think he shows up perhaps in a different kind of way.
And so we've done that for a long time.
And we've done that for a long time.
And I've always been, I'm not surprised anymore, but I've always just been pleased to notice how many times we have in January put a text on the calendar for September.
That we did not know what was going to happen in September, in January, but that week, the week before that sermon, like that text was exactly where we needed to be.
There was some kind of situation or something that popped up and we knew, and it was like, okay, the hand of the Lord is on this.
Like he is continuing to lead us.
And so all that is a ton of preamble to say, we're going to start a new sermon series this morning called Giving Grace.
And it's going to focus in on a lot of how we handle our finances and how we steward the gifts that God has given to us.
And so you may have the understanding or the suspicion that churches are always just after your money.
And if you don't have that suspicion, I will guarantee that your neighbors absolutely have that suspicion that churches are just out to get your money.
And so I want to let you know that that is not the case.
So I said, I've been preaching since 2018 pretty regularly, most weeks.
And so we're coming up on eight years of that, which is crazy to me.
But I don't know what it is for you.
In eight years, almost eight years, I have preached specifically on how to manage your money five times.
Five sermons, five weekends.
And one of those was in Lakeland.
So y'all didn't even get it.
Okay, that doesn't even count, all right?
So we still don't even need two hands to count the number of sermons that we've done on giving.
And I'm not saying that to apologize for talking about money.
I'm saying that to say, if you are suspicious, just know that this is something that feels out of the ordinary for us.
Our motivation is not to try to tell you to dig deep and give so that we can grow and grow and grow and grow.
That's not what we're doing.
But what we are doing is we're following the leading of the Holy Spirit as he guides us through his word and addressing the issues and the heart concerns that show up in the text that he's led us to give.
So we're calling this series Giving Grace, but really what it is is it's a 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 sermon series.
So these two chapters in the scripture are focused primarily on an offering that's taken up and the heart motivations and the things behind how that offering gets up, okay?
Is that okay?
Are we cool?
Is the air clear?
Okay, if you want to throw fruit at me later, let's step outside and I'll stand still.
You can throw whatever you want, whatever vegetables you want, if you'd like to.
Yeah.
So let's pray, and nothing ever happens in the order you want it to.
So I'm going to pray, and if it's okay with you, I would like to pray in honor of Memorial Day and toward those who've given their lives in defense of our country.
And so as I get to the end of that, then I'll invite you to pray together with me the disciples' prayer.
Is that okay?
All right, well, let's bow our heads together, and we'll go to the Lord in prayer.
Eternal God, from whom all life comes and to whom all life returns, this morning we remember all who served our country in the military, and we remember and we give thanks.
Thanks for the sacrifices that they have made.
We thank you for the losses they have endured.
We thank you for the acts of courage and grace and hope and endurance.
We give thanks for our brothers and sisters who gave the full measure of devotion.
And we give thanks for those who knew well.
We give thanks for those who we knew well.
And we thank you for those who we have never met.
We thank you for the life, the goodness, the faith, the courage, and the love that was in each one that we know is a gift from you.
We pray for families and for friends and for all who grieve, for loved ones who have died.
And God, we ask that you would meet them in the valley of death's shadow, that you would embrace them in the healing warmth of your comfort, grace, and love.
Grant them and all of us the assurance that nothing in life or death can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whose name we pray.
May the day soon come when swords are beaten into plowshares, when war is studied no more, and all peoples and your whole world know your true peace.
We ask together, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Amen.
Would you navigate with me to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 8?
Chapter eight so we it's gonna feel a little bit like we're starting in the middle of something and that is because We are starting in the middle of something Chapter eight is clearly the eighth chapter in the book, but we've kind of broken this up into series So we started with a series that we called comfort and affliction And then we now now they're all gonna be out of my head What are the other ones that we've done?
comfort and affliction
Tripping hazards we just finished.
Yep, and there was one more in the middle.
Picture this.
You got it.
Look at that.
You guys, you got notes.
I see that.
That's awesome.
And so this letter is written by Paul to the church that's in Corinth.
He started this church but had to leave.
And in his absence, they've kind of become puffed up.
They think they know better than him.
They're not really necessarily listening to his counsel.
And so he's writing this letter, which is probably the fourth letter that he's written.
and now he's coming in chapter 8 to give them some information that they may not know and to use that information to help them reflect on what God's doing in their own hearts.
So let's read together in 2 Corinthians 8, beginning in verse 1.
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 and 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.
So let's pause there.
The first thing that I want you to see is that in Paul's thinking, what he is communicating about is an act of God's grace.
So for him, he's not just talking about money.
He's not just talking about material things.
He is, on purpose, seeing this through the lens of faith.
through the lens that everything we do with our hands flows out of our heart and out of our soul.
As you see, we want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches.
And when he talks about Titus in verse 6, he says, "...accordingly we urge Titus that as he has started, so he should complete among you this act of grace."
as he's talking about this he's talking about something that is that is theological that's related to our relationship with god and he calls it an act of grace and what it seems like is the macedonian churches had begged him for the opportunity to participate in some kind of relief
and then had overflowed with a wealth of generosity.
That's what it seems like is going on here.
Well, what kind of relief are we talking about?
What kind of collection is there?
Wouldn't it be helpful if we had another letter that would give a different perspective on the same situation?
Okay, I see some silent nods, so that's good.
Okay, yeah, it would be helpful.
Good news, God's provided another letter that gives different perspective on the same situation.
If you would, just a couple of pages.
I'm going to ask you to flip with me because I'm going to read it and I don't usually do that, but we're going to flip back to 1 Corinthians.
in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses one through six.
This is the, 1 Corinthians is a letter that Paul had written previously where he talked about what he wanted for the Corinthian church to do before he came to visit them.
So he's giving instructions.
This is a flashback.
He's giving instructions about what he's gonna do back in chapter 16.
Are we there?
1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse one.
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.
I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia and
perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go.
Okay?
So that real deep spiritual truths you got there.
But he is taking up an offering for the relief, a collection for the saints who are in Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem.
Now, apparently, there's a number of different things that are going on.
When the gospel started, like when Jesus started the church in Acts, in Acts chapter 2, they were so on board with...
with the freedom that they had in Christ, that they sold all of their belongings and held everything in common.
So they were like, oh, like this Jesus thing is real.
I should not own personal property.
We should all just as a church own everything together all the way, which is a beautiful, a beautiful expression of the gospel.
However, it appears in the text that it was not sustainable.
that they got to a place where they could not actually care for one another in that model.
And when a severe famine impacted this community in Acts chapter 11, the saints in Jerusalem had really like kind of shot themselves in the foot and they needed help.
They needed help, and the other churches around said, well, they were the first ones to ever preach the gospel to us.
They have brought to us a gift of spiritual goodness, and so we should return to them a gift of material goodness in their hour of need.
And so that's what Paul is saying.
He's saying, we're gonna go around, and I'm just visiting all of the churches, and I'm taking up an offering, particularly in Galatia, and I'm gonna pass through Macedonia, but then I'm coming to Corinth, and so what I want you to do
is to save the first day of the week, put some money aside, whatever, according to whatever you want to set aside, collect it.
And then when I show up, I'm not like emptying out your bank accounts.
I'm just taking what you've already saved.
And if it is good, if it's wise or prudent for me to accompany the messengers that you are sending with this offering, then I'll go with them, is what he's saying.
Does that give some background to kind of what we're seeing?
Now, did...
You good?
Okay.
I thought it was a question, so I was like, what is it?
Any questions?
This side of the room, you guys good?
More info.
So he's taking a collection from the Galatian churches, and he's taking a collection from Corinth.
He's really clear about that in 1 Corinthians chapter 16.
But he says, I'm just passing through Macedonia.
So here's a map, and maps are fun.
And this is a map of the Mediterranean Sea.
Here's across the bottom.
This direction would be the, gosh, now none of the words are gonna be in my head.
This is an old map.
You've got Greece here on this side, and you've got Asia up over here, and Africa would be down below the Mediterranean Sea, right?
So can you picture where we're at on a globe?
Right.
So the regions were Galatia is all this green stuff here, this big spot.
And you can see there's churches in Galatia.
He's collected money from them.
And then as he goes across, he's going to pass through this section.
This yellow section is Macedonia, Philippi, Thessalonica.
And then he's going to come down to Corinth, which is in the region of Achaia.
That's what he's doing.
He says, I'm going to take a collection from Galatia, I'm going to pass through Macedonia, and then I'm going to take a collection from you in Achaia.
Why would he not mention taking a collection from the Macedonians?
Paul likely, the thought had probably never even occurred to him that he would ask them for an additional offering because they were really, really struggling from the get-go financially.
they were severely persecuted.
So when Paul goes into Macedonia, he's beaten and he's imprisoned in the city of Philippi.
He gets out of prison and he goes to Thessalonica.
He's there for three weeks before a mob rises up to chase him out.
When the mob could not find Paul to beat him, they instead chose to just beat the guy who he'd been staying with.
Like that's how angry they were at him.
And so he runs off, he goes to the next town over.
And when that mob in Thessalonica heard that he was in the next town over, they came to the next town over to beat him there.
He escaped and went down and moved on from that region, right?
Because everywhere he went, there was opposition and hostility.
So for the people who accepted Paul's gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, they immediately were rejected by their community, right?
Their community wanted nothing to do with their idea.
They wanted nothing to do with them.
And so they ended up severely persecuted.
It impacted their paycheck.
They lost jobs over it.
And so when you read the letters, first and second Thessalonians written to these churches and the letter of Philippians written to churches in this area, Paul is just really trying to encourage them.
Hey, I want you guys to know you're doing the right thing.
Things have gone bad for you, but you were doing the right thing.
All that story is in Acts 16 and 17 if you want to read it.
But do you see the math here in 2 Corinthians 8?
This is crazy to me.
For in a severe test of affliction, verse 2, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
Here's the God math, okay?
This is kind of like Michael math, but it actually works.
A severe test of affliction plus extreme poverty
All right, I'll digest that for a second.
Severe test of affliction, extreme poverty.
People are saying bad things about you all the time, about you behind your back and to your face and making fun of you openly.
And also, you have no money.
Okay?
Severe test of affliction, extreme poverty, plus abundant joy?
Okay?
Okay, that's confusing, but affliction, poverty, and joy equals a wealth of generosity, a wealth of giving of myself.
I am afflicted.
I'm beaten.
I am rejected by my community.
It has impacted my wallet.
I do not have enough money.
I'm really, really struggling financially, but I have abundant joy.
And the joy in that scenario produces a wealth of generosity.
They gave according to their means, which just so you know, like Christian giving does not equal the Old Testament tithe.
The Old Testament tithe was a required section, a required percentage of your income that you were mandated to give.
Christian giving is not like that.
They gave according to their means and on their own gave more than what Paul thought was wise, right?
They were eager to participate in God's grace to the church in Jerusalem.
How?
Right?
That's where I land.
Is that where you guys land too?
How does that work?
How can you be in a situation where everything is working against you and still have abundant joy and still be generous to other people?
Far away people that you're probably never going to meet in your whole life.
You're never going to be able to even see how they spend your money.
You're just going to send it to them and hope everything goes well.
How?
I think it's in verse 5.
And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, then by the will of God to us.
When we've received it, we share God's gracious generosity.
But the pattern is this.
There's a pattern here.
The pattern for giving is to God first and then to others, right?
I'm starting in verse five because I think verse five actually gives us the starting place.
The pattern for giving is to God first, then to others.
And this is not as we expected.
They gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
So they said, the one who's going to guide and direct the way that I live my life is going to be God first.
I am entrusting myself to him.
I'm entrusting myself to his wisdom.
I'm entrusting myself to his provision.
I'm entrusting myself to his righteousness first.
And then whatever he asks me to do, that's what I do.
Because God blesses us to bless others.
That's why we here say, like we put it on the wall, we hold God's gifts with open hands.
Financial decisions are discipleship decisions.
Because it really reveals who we believe the money belongs to.
Whose money is it anyway?
It's my name on the paycheck.
I'm the one that's going to pay the taxes on it.
You know that's true.
Uncle Sam's going to come get it.
Whose money is it anyway?
Oh, it's God's.
And so when God asks for some of his money back, what right do I have to say no?
No.
So the pattern of forgiving is to God first, then to others.
But the pattern of forgiving is not tied to our ease.
Americans, my beloved, I am one of us.
But the gospel does not make our life easy.
The blessing of God does not mean that we never are persecuted.
In fact, it may be that God should count us worthy to suffer on behalf of his name.
And not just suffer socially, not just be like people look down their nose at us because we wear silly t-shirts, but like actually not be able to get employment because of following Christ.
The pattern for giving is not tied to our ease.
I 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.
They did not give out of their surplus they gave when they were already hurting because they had tapped into an abundant life full of joy.
Well, what's a joy?
How do I get a joy?
How do I get lots of a joy?
Because that says an abundance of joy, right?
We tend to think of joy as an emotion, or we think of joy as just happiness, blanket happiness.
I just want to be happy.
I want to be joyful.
But joy is believing in the core of your being, right?
that God can see every part of your affliction, and he has the ability to deal with every part of your affliction, and he is already acting in your best interest.
It's more than your circumstances.
It's in the midst of your suffering.
For the Macedonians, life with Jesus had always meant rejection by their community.
And Christian giving is discretionary.
Like, hear me, it is discretionary.
You should give as the Spirit leads you.
You're not required to give if you don't have it.
However,
If you don't have it and you don't give it, that's a thing.
That's okay.
I don't want you to feel any kind of guilt if these are hard times.
But here's the deal.
We sometimes will make our own hard times in order to justify not giving, which indicates to me that we don't have our money.
Our money has us.
There was a time, it's actually really, really cool.
So my favorite band for forever was a band called Thrice.
And they released this album that was actually four separate albums.
And in each album was after like an element.
So there was first fire and then there was air and there was water and there was earth.
And then they like mixed each of these and the instrumentation was different on each one.
It was really, really cool project.
And then they pressed that project on vinyl, which this was before vinyl was cool.
I know it's popular now, but they were on the bleeding edge of making vinyl cool again.
And so for Christmas one year, I got the Alchemy Index, this four-disc thing on vinyl.
and I kept it in the plastic, right?
And I carried it with me.
I graduated from high school.
I'd carried it with me to college.
It was my treasured possession.
I carried it with me when we got married.
I'd move with me up to Indiana and then we were getting ready to move to a different house.
I picked this up and I noticed that the plastic had been nicked and I was so angry.
I have protected this thing for years.
And it was in that moment that I realized I did not own that record.
It owned me.
I had never enjoyed the thing and the way that it was designed to be enjoyed.
And so I took it out of the plastic, I threw the plastic away, and then I put it on the record player and I listened to it.
And if you want to come to my house and listen to it, we can do that today.
It would be awesome.
I would love that.
I could literally talk about those records all day.
Well, I mean, who knows?
It's on the shelf in my house.
But it owned me.
I no longer owned the records.
They owned me.
And so perhaps giving away what owns you might be a richer blessing for you than for the one who receives your gift.
If you say, oh, I don't have that much, I only have $20, and $20 is really not gonna make that much of a difference to them, it may not.
That $20 may mean nothing to them.
They may not even think to thank you for that $20.
However, if that $20 owns you, it is a richer blessing for you to give it away regardless of how somebody else receives it.
It's not worth it to be owned by your stuff.
But the pattern for giving requires willing hearts.
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.
They were eager to be a part of this thing that God was doing in the other churches.
Our spiritual renewal is gonna reshape our material habits.
What God does in our heart, he's gonna work out in our hands.
And these guys are an example.
So what do I have?
What do I have that could commend me to God?
It's all worthless, but if I can put it in God's hands and send it to those people in need with the way that they have blessed me spiritually, then perhaps God can use it for something greater.
I'm gonna ask you to write in your Bibles if you're comfortable doing that.
That term, for the favor of taking part, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part, if you just underline favor there, favor is actually the same word as used up in chapter eight, verse one, for grace.
They begged us earnestly for the grace
of taking part in the relief of the saints.
They saw this grace that God was doing and they said, we want to be a part of the grace that God is bestowing on the saints in Jerusalem.
Jesus teaches that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
And no one can serve two masters.
He'll either hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and money.
So if it owns you, the good news is there's a way out.
Give it away, and it don't own you no more.
Maybe, because the heart is deceitful.
And I have been blessed to spend time and to get to know people whose net worth is more than I can calculate.
And I've seen those people idolize, be terrified for the ways that money cannot protect their soul.
And I've been blessed.
I've been so richly blessed to spend time with people whose net worth I cannot calculate because they owe, they owe, they owe.
And I have seen that their hearts too wrestle with the fact that no amount of money can protect their soul.
I've seen poor people idolize finances, and I've seen rich people idolize finances.
I've seen poor people who are generous to a fault, and I've seen rich people who are generous to a fault.
It's not about how much you have.
It's about how much it has you.
And when we have received it, we share God's gracious generosity.
God is generous towards us.
God is constantly providing for more than we need.
He is richly blessing us.
And so when we have received that gracious generosity, we become stewards of that.
And we too become people who are gracious and generous towards others.
That seems kind of like a stretch, Michael.
Where'd you get that from?
Well, this is the next verses here.
Can I read them to you?
I'll start in verse six again.
Accordingly, we urge Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace.
But as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also.
I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
The pattern for giving is giving to God first and then to others.
It's not tied to our E's.
It requires willing hearts, and the pattern for giving follows Jesus' example of love.
All of this for all of the money ties in that are tied in in there and all the ideas and the practicality of what that looks like, the emphasis in these verses is the gift of grace, the grace of God being applied to people.
You underlined favor there in verse 6, I think.
Verse 4, you can underline grace, the grace of God in verse 1.
You can underline grace again in verse 6.
You can underline grace again in verse 7.
You can underline grace again in verse 9.
1, 4, 6, 7, 9.
We haven't read a whole lot of verses, but it seems like these verses are about grace.
And our pattern for giving is Jesus' example of love.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Love, likewise, similar to joy, is not a feeling, but it is an action.
And Christ has shown his love for us in this, that he has died for us to make us right with God.
And so here, Paul writes, I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.
He's not asking how they feel about the church in Jerusalem.
He's not asking them to dote and to write letters and tell them how much they love them.
He said, no, I want to see what you are doing, how you are demonstrating your love and your affection.
Because the human heart, man, we are so wicked.
We can be wound up and angry and screaming.
and realize what we're doing and go, I still love you, I'm just a little bit frustrated right now.
Okay, if you love me, then talk to me like you love me.
Let that love be an action.
If you love me, then lay your own life down and serve me in this way.
Show me how it is that you love me.
For we have this example in Philippians.
Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, held onto, clenched fist, clung to, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in 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.
I want to follow Jesus.
Okay, you do know that way leads to your death, right?
Well, when you put it that way, I don't know that I am that excited about it.
Well, yeah, yeah, but here's the deal.
When you die, he lives in you.
When you die to yourself, he lives through you.
And God demonstrates his own love towards us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
So when we've received it, we share God's gracious generosity.
A couple of questions as we're closing.
Whose priorities shape our spending habits?
I was talking with a guy, and he said, hey, Michael, I really am interested.
Would you give me some counsel about what I should do in this relationship?
I said, do you want my advice?
He says, yeah.
I said, I'm going to tell you what the Bible says.
He says, yeah, I want to hear.
I said, I don't think you do.
He said, why would you say that?
I said, because I've known you a long time.
I've known you for months, for months and months.
And I've heard you talk about everything.
I've heard you talk about Friday night.
I've heard you talk about Saturday night.
I've heard you talk about all the things.
And you know what?
I've never heard you say, you've never asked or even questioned, like, I wonder what God thinks about the things that I'm doing.
And so I'm going to tell you what he thinks, but I don't know that you necessarily want to know that.
I said, I've got questions about whether or not, like you identify as a Christian, but I've got questions about whether or not you actually are because you never ask what God wants with your life.
So whose priorities are shaping our spending habits?
And how are we giving ourselves to God first?
Because that's where it starts.
And how does God's richness towards us change how we see our thrift towards others?
Because I'm pretty ready to hold God's gifts with open hands when he's going to fill them up with blessings, right?
But when you ask me for some of those, I'm a little bit less generous than I would want for God to be to me.
But when we've received it, we share God's gracious generosity.
Let's pray.
Lord, I thank you for your word.
I thank you that you don't shy away from revealing our hearts.
And Lord, I pray that if there's anything I've said that's just been my own opinions or a distraction from your truth, Lord, I pray that those things would be quickly forgotten.
But where you have spoken clearly through your word, by your spirit, God, I ask that you would not let us shake ourselves off the hook.
Lord, would you help us to stand before you and to deal with you
not out of a posture of guilt, of worldly grief, which just makes us feel bad.
But Lord, would you help us to deal with you with a godly grief that rejects what's killing us and entrusts ourselves to you because you alone have paid the price to make us right with you.
And you alone love us enough to continue to reshape us in spite of ourselves.
And Jesus, I thank you that you know the hearts of everyone here.
I thank you that you have the ability to talk to each of us one-on-one at the same time.
And so Jesus, I just ask that you would shepherd your flock here this morning.
And towards that end, I'm just going to give a few moments for you to talk with Jesus and how he's speaking today.
