Spiritual Health: Grace of Giving

What is the true spirit of Christmas? That's what I want to talk about today. Hopefully you have a handout and we're going to talk about that. Lessons for Christmas. The true spirit of Christmas.

If you have your Bibles, let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 8.

2 Corinthians chapter 8.

let me read let's read verses seven to nine together

but just as you excel in everything in faith and speech and knowledge in complete earnestness in your love for us, see that you also excel in this grace of giving. I am not commanding you, Paul writes, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor through his poverty might become rich. What is the true spirit of Christmas? Oh Lord, this day, I pray that as we stand in your presence, we will be reminded again of why we celebrate this season of the year.

And I pray that as we hear the truth of your word, as we evaluate the experiences of the past week, that we will not leave this place the same. That for those of us who are in Christ, there will be a renewed passion in serving you. That there will be a renewed passion in reaching out to others. For those who may not know Christ, may they embrace you this day and know the richness of your love. For it is in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

The Apostle Paul had a great concern as he went on his missionary journeys. One concern was to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, but he had another concern. He was concerned about the saints in Jerusalem. Because the saints in Jerusalem were going through very difficult financial times. They were living, many of them, in poverty.

There had been economic hardship among the saints. And as the Apostle Paul traveled throughout Macedonia, that's a province in the Roman Empire, and through Achaia, another province, sort of like North Carolina, South Carolina, the state or province of Macedonia, the state or province of Achaia, he went through those provinces believers to help the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Now get the big picture here. Paul is going to Gentile Christians, churches he has planted among the Gentiles, and he says, brothers and sisters in Christ, you Gentile Christians, our Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ are hurting in Jerusalem. Will you step up and will you help? And Paul saw this as a great two separate parts of humanity the Jewish world the Gentile world that were united now in Christ he saw this giving by the Gentile Christians as a way to build unity within the church as well as to help the hardship of the saints in Jerusalem so he goes asking the churches in Macedonia included the church at Philippi everybody remember remember Lydia Paul's first European convert. He established a church at Philippi, one of the Macedonian churches. He established a church at Thessalonica and he would end up writing a couple of letters to the Thessalonians, a letter to the Philippians. But it was these Macedonian churches that had been very generous in giving that Paul is going to use as a model for the church at Corinth. And Corinth is right here.

So he's talking, in the text of Scripture, he's talking about the Macedonian churches, their generosity, and he's now appealing to the Corinthian church and saying, you need to be generous too. So, how does Paul go at this? When Paul is writing in 2 Corinthians to the church at Corinth, and he's going to appeal to the church at Corinth to help these saints in Jerusalem who are needy, he says, look at the example churches corinthians look at what the philippians have done look at what the thessalonians have done they were in extreme poverty you have to read the first part of chapter 8 to get this but in verse 2 paul talks about out of the most severe trial their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty it welled up in rich generosity and you see in verse 8 chapter 8 verse 1 now brothers we want about the grace that God has given to the Macedonian churches. Okay? You with me?

The Macedonian churches, the churches at Philippi and Thessalonica. They were in extreme poverty themselves. The word in the Greek text for poverty here doesn't mean these were working poor people, people who were sort of on the lower end but able to make ends meet. He's saying that these Macedonian churches, the Philippians and the Thessalonians, were basically in such poverty that they were on the plane of beggars.

Absolute, abject poverty, he says. The second thing he says about them, though, is that despite their poverty, they have overflowing joy. And that overflowing joy arises out of their relationship with Jesus Christ. And these Macedonians show a commitment to the Lord. They are going to do what their Lord has commanded them to do.

And the Lord had commanded them to give, so they are going to be givers. And it would be these Macedonian churches that would show rich generosity in giving, even beyond their ability, Paul says. What great examples these Macedonian Christians were, the Christians at Philippi and Thessalonica, giving even beyond their ability. In other words, folks, they weren't going to the big savings account and pulling out a few dollars and handing that to give. These folks were going to the food money. They were going to the money that was going to help get clothes for the family. And they were saying the need is so great, we're going to even go into that stuff that helps us with our essentials in life and we're still going to give they gave even beyond their ability so paul now writes to the wealthy church at corinth about these macedonian christians and he's trying to encourage the corinthian church and i need to now say a word about the corinthian church unlike the macedonian churches that were in Now come into the big city, the city of Corinth, the place of wealth.

Corinth was located on an isthmus. An isthmus is a body of land that has water on two sides. You have an island, water all around, peninsula, water on three sides. This is an isthmus. It connected the province of Macedonia and the province of Achaia.

There was water on both sides. And water was how you got goods transported to places. So Corinth was a key location for business, for marketing, for ports. It's a wealthy place. It was a place of business.

It was one of the foremost commercial centers in the area. The capital of the province of Achaia was in Corinth. It was where the government was located for that province. It was a sports center. Every two years they had what were called the Isthmian Games, sort of like the Olympic Games at Corinth.

A huge marketing event. A huge event for merchants as all the people came to these great athletic events. And maybe most importantly of all for Corinth, the Temple of Aphrodite was located there. The goddess of love. A huge temple to her.

And because the Temple of Aphrodite was there, it was basically a tourist attraction. people from all over would come to see this great temple and bringing business to this area and paul says all right you wealthy guys you know about these macedonian christians who don't have much who were given beyond their ability now what are you guys going to do who have so much he might be talking to a church like the first baptist church of greer a rich church by any standards with much wealth what are you going to do what are you going to do well how do we know if we here at first baptist church in greer have the true spirit of christmas that's my question and here are the answers to that if we have the true spirit of giving the true spirit of Christmas, we will excel in the grace of giving. Look at chapter 8, verse 7. Chapter 8, verse 7. But just as you excel in everything, now he's talking to the Corinthians, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in your love for us, see that you also excel in this grace of giving

paul is complimenting the corinthian church there were many strong features about the church now they had been through a rough spell if you read first corinthians you see this church had gone through it a lot of sin in the church but paul had written to that church and this church has repented and they are excelling in many ways but Paul says you still need to excel in the grace of giving that word excel means that they were to overflow they were to abound their giving was to be an abundance of giving and they were this grace of giving that word grace here has this meaning It is the kindness that results from divine enablement. This is not the grace that is saving grace. This is the grace that a Christian has who has the Spirit indwelling them. Paul is saying you need this kindness that results from divine enablement, this grace of giving. And the giving here is giving out of your pocketbook, folks.

This is taking your money and giving it to people in need. so overflow in this kindness that comes through the indwelling spirit of reaching in your pocket and giving to those who are in need the second thing he says about the spirit of christmas is we know we have the spirit of christmas if we give voluntarily out of genuine love you know some people give but out of compulsion you can shame some people into giving you corner them you back them up you can shame them into giving that's not the true spirit of christmas where somebody twisted your arm until it broke and you finally gave a few cents or a few dollars paul says the spirit of christmas is the spirit that gives voluntarily and paul explicitly says i'm not commanding that you give this gift for the Christians in Jerusalem. But he knows that if there is genuine love, they will give voluntarily. Some give, but not out of genuine love. You know, there can be a lot of motivations for giving. Some give so they look good. If you'll put my name on the building, I'll be glad to give you some money. If I'll get the recognition, I'll be glad to give you some money. It's a giving that is a self-centered sort of giving. Paul says the giving that is the true Christian giving gives not only voluntarily, but gives not out of concern for self, but out of concern for others. That's what biblical love is, agape love, and that's the word used here in the text. Agape love says, I'm always more concerned about what is best for the other person. It is always other directed. The opposite of biblical love is self-centeredness. You hear me? The opposite of biblical love is self-centeredness. But biblical love that is genuine is always giving to help the other person.

Well, how do we test the sincerity of our love? If we want to give out of genuine love, how do we test the sincerity of our love? Well, one way Paul says we can test the sincerity of our love is to look at the example of other people. In fact, in verse 8 he says, But I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. Do you want to know if you're a truly giving person who down deep inside gives out of love?

Well, go look at somebody who is a truly giving person and compare yourself. Paul says, you know about the diligence, the zeal in giving that the Macedonian churches have shown? Well, Corinthian church, how do you compare to the giving in the Macedonian churches?

are you giving even out of your need? Are you always just giving a little bit out of the surplus? Are you like them even when you don't have much, you are giving? Are you being liberal in your giving? So if you want to know, well, maybe look around.

See those who are giving. Ask the question, am I like them? How do I compare? And the goal is not to make ourselves feel bad or worse against people. Paul's goal is to make us givers out of sincere love.

And sometimes by comparison it helps us. You know, we have some old beat-up cars at the Rogers house. We were noticing the other day our lowest mileage car has over 90,000 miles. We believe in driving cars until they drop. but sometimes when we pull one of our cars up against one of those sleek new BMW you know Z3s or 4s all of a sudden you really see how some of our cars look and where they stand. It's that comparison sometimes that helps us know what we're truly like. If we only look at ourselves in isolation we might think hey I'm doing pretty good you know last year I gave $20 this year I gave 30.

doing pretty good. But then when we stand by someone who is a true giver and we see how they reach deep time and time and time again, we begin to see maybe we don't model that spirit of Christmas that we should. And if that's your case, my pitch to you is don't beat up on yourself. Become more like the person who models what you should be doing. Follow their example.

and lastly the true spirit of christmas means we follow the example of jesus christ jesus christ even though he was rich the text says became poor that we through his poverty might become rich jesus christ lived in the presence of the lord god almighty yet he voluntarily gave up his position, humbled himself, and assumed human form and became voluntarily impoverished for our sakes.

In theological terms, Jesus went through what was called his humiliation. His humiliation began by becoming one of us. Now we have such a high view of ourselves, to think that, oh, that's not that big a step down, is it? To become like us? Well, if you're God Himself, if you have the angels waiting on you, if you live in the presence of heaven, and then you become one of us, C.S. Lewis said, here's the example we need to think of.

It would be sort of like one of us, C.S. Lewis says, becoming a worm.

that's how low jesus stepped to become one of us and not only did he become one of us but he lived a life where he was basically an itinerant preacher he never had great wealth and his ultimate poverty though came at the cross when he gave his life for us and was forsaken by his father for a season as he assumed our sin but why did he do it so that we might become rich and how do we become rich through jesus christ we become rich because he saved us we become rich because we one day will inherit eternal life we become rich because we are co-heirs with Christ of the heavenly realms. We will one day get to stand in the presence of God himself, walk the streets of gold, smell the fresh air, and enjoy the lushness and beauty of heaven. And because we have that, we can go to an emergency room, and when we experience difficulty, we can still know the richness of Christ.

[Personal prayer concern omitted.]

We are to follow Christ's example, folks. The Lord has blessed most of us in so many ways.

But we are to give up our riches and be willing to become poor in order to help others and to reach out to others. And I appreciate that so many of you are doing that. Here are three questions for Christmas. Are we keeping our eyes open to see the needs of others? You know, one of the great problems is we don't even see the needs of other people.

We're so focused inward.

We need to look around. When we run into people in the supermarket, the grocery store, we need to take a moment and say, how are you doing? And we need to look when they respond to see if they really are doing okay. be willing to ask. We've got to get close enough to people to see what they're going through

in order to be able to help them. And then do we quickly and cheerfully give when we see a need? It's not enough to see a need. We must cheerfully and quickly address the need. That's why we're here.

That's one of our main missions as the body of Christ is to meet the needs that we see. Our Lord is a giving Lord. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. We are to model that by giving. And lastly, have we thanked Christ who gave Himself for our sakes? Have you taken time this Christmas season to thank Him for His becoming poor that we through his poverty might become rich.

[Personal prayer concern omitted.]