2 Corinthians 8:1-15 (Christian Giving, Jeff Kliewer)

Your hand of protection wherever we go. And we pray for us this morning as all of us are gathered here in this place. It's not without purpose. There is something that you want to accomplish in our hearts and we pray now that you would settle our hearts and quiet our minds to focus in on the one thing that matters most, which is your word.

To hear your voice in your scripture. So speak Lord, your servants are listening in Jesus name. Amen. The year is 1874. It's February 4th. A woman named Frances Havergal has gone to a house where about 10 believers, some believers and some unbelievers, have gathered to talk about the Lord.

And as the evening progresses several of them put their faith entirely in Christ. The spirit is moving in this Bible study, in this conversation and many come to faith. Some are born again. As the evening progresses they all go to bed.

They're staying here overnight. And two of the young daughters who belong to this household are moved to tears but they don't know why. They're kind of in grief trying to understand what is this message and what is this power that they witness and why don't they have it.

So at midnight Frances hears the crying of these two girls and comes into the living room and sits with them and begins to share the good news of the gospel and help them understand. In those moments their grief and their tears are turned to joy.

They're gloriously reborn. They come to understand the gospel and they're saved. They go to bed happy and Frances goes and lays down on her pillow and begins to rejoice in what God has just done. These two dear girls have come to faith.

As she lays there and thinks about God she can't sleep. Instead she begins to pray and in her joy and in her exuberance she begins to sing words as has been her pattern in life. This young lady was raised in a minister's home.

Her dad was a pastor. This young lady Frances Havergal had memorized many books of the Bible including Isaiah and most of the New Testament by this point in her life. She would only live to 42 but it was 42 years of pure devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And as Frances laid there probably two o 'clock in the morning at this time she began to sing a little couplet that rang true in her heart. Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. And she added pieces of her life and of devotion.

Her life, her moments, her hands, her feet, her voice, her lips, her silver and her gold. Her intellect, her will, her heart. She consecrated it all to him that night in these words. Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee.

Take my moments and my days. Let them flow in endless praise. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice and let me sing always only for my king.

Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from thee. Take my silver and my gold. Not a might would I withhold. Take my intellect and use every power as thou shall choose. Take my will and make it thine.

It shall be no longer mine. Take my heart it is thine own. It shall be thy royal throne. Take my love my Lord I pour at thy feet its treasure store. Take myself and I will be ever only all for thee. One of the greatest hymns ever written.

February 4th, 1874. We still sing it to this day and we're going to close this service by singing that hymn. Not right now, so don't get your hopes up. We still have some more work to do in the text. But that song encapsulates what I want to say today.

Christian Giving as an Act of Grace

I want to talk to us about this line where it says take my silver and my gold. Not a might would I withhold, but not just in terms of money. I want to talk today about giving because that's where the text turns in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8.

But more than just our money, our giving is a matter of the heart, the life, the will, the intellect, the hands, the feet, the voice, the lips. Everything that we are belongs to Him. We are to give back to Him in joy because of what He has given to us.

So here as we turn to 2nd Corinthians is a distinctly Christian approach to giving. A distinctly Christian approach to giving. In the previous seven chapters of this book, Paul has focused on the ministry.

Ministry is loving well and he talks a lot about suffering and how maturity means suffering well. He gives us a picture of himself as a minister and commends to us his own ministry. He's fighting for their devotion and in chapter 7 verse 16 he rejoices because what?

I have complete confidence in you. That marks a turning point in our text today because he's sort of moving on from this apologetic appeal to their minds where he's begging for their devotion to him over against the false teachers who are turning them away from him.

Now he has secured their devotion. He's confident that they're with him and he changes the subject. Now because he has partners in the gospel he's going to call them to partner with him in a particular ministry of giving.

Collecting an offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem. In Jerusalem the Christians are suffering badly in a financial way and he's going to collect an offering to bring to the poor saints in Jerusalem.

So let's read it. 2nd Corinthians 8, 1 to 15 today. We want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

For they gave according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord. Begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

Accordingly we urge Titus that as he had 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 you by his poverty might become rich. And in this matter I give my judgment. This benefits you who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.

For if the readiness is there it is acceptable according to what a person has not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need so that their abundance may supply your need.

That there may be fairness as it is written whoever gathered much had nothing left over and whoever gathered little had no lack. It's overwhelming when you really break down the words and each individual thought that progresses through this text.

It's overwhelming how distinctly Christian this approach is. This approach to giving, let's take a look at it, it's not like the giving that we see in the world. First of all, and this is what makes Christianity different than any religion in the world, this is about grace.

Chapter 8 verse 1 Paul says that we want you to know brothers, not about money, not about economics, we want you to know brothers about the grace of God. Christian giving is distinct from anything you'll see in the world because it is motivated by grace.

In fact, it's more than motivated by grace, it's grace that's accomplishing it. Look at verse 2. In a severe affliction, a test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

They're giving out of their poverty to the point where it hurts, but it's not because they themselves are generous. The generosity in this verse, look at verse 2, the wealth of generosity according to verse 1 is being worked by grace.

We want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given. It's God who gave the gift of his one and only son. It's God who's motivating the hearts of the people to give, so grace accounts for what's happening in this text.

Therefore, all the credit goes to God. In this world, in the religious systems of the world, the efforts that mankind makes to reach God are grounds for boasting. If you follow the five pillars of Islam and you give your two and a half percent to the poor, you have met a work requirement established by your religion which makes you feel righteous in the eyes of God.

If you follow any religious system, which often includes giving money either to the system itself or to the poor, the result of that giving is that you feel righteous. You have a ground for boasting because you have done the work, but Christianity right here is entirely different.

It begins with grace and it ends with grace and grace is what pushes it along all along. It's all of grace. We want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given. Therefore, Christian giving is different because all the glory goes to God.

When we give, we recognize that we are doing nothing but what God has enabled us to do. I know that in my flesh, I would not give a tithe or an offering to a church. I would spend that money on myself and my family and my wants and desires, but it's God who's working in us to give.

It's His grace that's motivating the church to give. So that's the first thing and probably the most important. I begin that this is all about grace. Second, Christians give beyond the point of what hurts and like it.

Look at verse three, for they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own accord. Look at verse four, the word begging. This is an earnest desire to do which hurts them.

They're giving beyond their ability, begging earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. It says, and this not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

Accordingly, we urge Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. Christians give beyond the point of what hurts and like it. Do you remember the story in the Old Testament when King David had sinned greatly and God in His mercy allowed him to bring a sacrifice to avert the judgment that was coming on the people?

He was told to go to a certain field and buy that field and make an offering. Arunah the Jebusite owned the land and as David was approaching, Arunah saw David coming and he said, what would you like my king?

And he fell down and paid homage to the king. Then he rose and David told him, God has commanded me to make an offering at this particular place, your land. And so Arunah said, what? Here, take the land, in fact take these oxen too and make the sacrifice.

I give it to you. But here's the distinctly Christian point of the story because David is a forerunner of Christ and is operating in the spirit of Christ without yet knowing it. Here's the distinctly Christian part.

David doesn't take and offer that sacrifice by the gift of Arunah. He says, far be it for me to do that. I don't want to offer a sacrifice that costs me nothing. Instead he willingly paid the price of the field, bought the animals and took that sacrifice.

Here is what is distinctly Christian. There is something inside of us that wants to suffer with Christ. Not for the sake of suffering in and of itself, but a willingness to do whatever it takes for the sake of the one who died for us.

We, of all people, have a Savior who suffered on our behalf and we're told to make up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. Well, there's nothing lacking in the finished work of Christ to pay for our salvation.

But even as Christ suffered to bring us salvation, the gospel will advance in the world by suffering. And if we're to make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ to advance the gospel, then we say, if this is how the rewards of his suffering are to be won, then Lord, let me suffer with you.

Philippians 3 .10. To suffer with him becomes joy to us. And so here, the Corinthians were begging Paul for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints, but in verse 3, it's beyond their means.

They want to give substantially to the point where it actually hurts them. It's a sacrifice. It's something they give up. They want to suffer in that way for the sake of Christ, not for the sake of the suffering itself.

Completing What We Promise to Give

Verse 6 and 7. Christians follow through and excel with giving commitments. Notice in verse 6 and 7, there was already a commitment. Accordingly, we urged Titus 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. So meeting the follow-through of what you promised and excelling beyond what you even thought you could do, this is a joy for a Christian in the area of giving.

It's a joy. You guys ever been to a Christian concert and halfway through they pause and they bring up somebody from Compassion International or World Vision and they tell you about the suffering of children worldwide.

And they appeal to your emotions. And many people take that card for that child because they're moved in that emotional moment and they take it home committing to sponsor this child overseas. But emotions fade and bills pile up and many of those cards that get taken home, those children don't get sponsored.

Or someone who begins and then the bills begin to pile up and the sponsorship is one of those bills and eventually you've got to cut off the commitment that you made. Christians are distinctly Christian because our word to us is a bond.

Let your yes be yes, your no be no. If you make a commitment to a child in Indonesia, you see it through until they're 18 years old and out of the program. This is what he's saying. Verse 6, we urged Titus that as he had started so he should complete among you this act of grace.

What can motivate us to continue and to complete and follow through with the commitments that we make? It's because our eyes are on something beyond this world that are bigger than our bills. The eternal prize, the eternal weight of glory that far surpasses the light and momentary afflictions that we're going through.

2 Corinthians 4 17. So number four, Christians compete to be leased. Verse 8, I say this not as a command but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. I broke down and bought a video game that I had been avoiding for a long time.

This is the NBA 2K 19. When I used to have this game as a kid, it was little stick figures and it was circles and squares for the baskets and the balls and you controlled the little dots around the screen.

But yesterday we bought this game for $19 at Walmart. It's a great deal. We came home and played it and I was blown away by the progress of graphics in our day and age. You can see the tattoos of every player and they're accurate to what they really look like.

They look like the actual person that you're now controlling. But here's what I thought was funniest of all. Not only do they capture the graphics of a tattoo and the way they dunk and how they actually move on the court, they even capture the gloating and the bragging and the celebration and the taunting.

And you notice the competitiveness of these players as each one of them is striving to exalt themselves above the others. And all of their their taunts and fist pumping and and the different gyrations that they go through to prove how big they are.

Christians are called to the opposite. Yes, we compete in this sense. Look what it says. I want to stir you up by what you're seeing done in Macedonia. Compete with what they're doing. But not to increase, rather to decrease.

No one is to know how much you give. Jesus told us our giving should be in secret. We're not even to let our right hand know what our left hand is doing or vice versa. And yet we are trying to compete with Christians who have done likewise around the world.

It says in verse one, I'm telling you about the churches of Macedonia. Why is he telling? Why do we need to know? Because as a whole they've been so sacrificial for the relief of the saints in Jerusalem.

I want you to be stirred up by that. I want you to compete with that. But as John the Baptist said, he must increase and I must decrease. It's not that you would be known or recognized anywhere but in heaven, but that your gifts given in secret would exalt the Savior.

And as this gift is gathered from a church, the other churches would also be stirred up to help the saints. And so we encourage one another. We're spurred on to love and good deeds. We're encouraged. I don't know if this is true of you, but I am so encouraged by Francis Havergal and that young girl singing praises in the night until she writes, take my life and let it be.

That stirs me up to want to give all of myself to him. That's what I want to be doing at two o 'clock in the morning some nights, other nights sleeping, but it stirs me up when we see Christians giving.

We're to compete in the good sense of the word, not to exalt ourselves above one another, but to be spurred on to humble ourselves and make sacrifices behind the scenes for the sake of the kingdom. Next, number five.

I said verse one was most important, but I take it back. I'm going to go with point five here as my favorite in verse nine. It says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Christian giving is motivated by the gospel, and I love Paul's mind, how he works. Of course, he's inspired by the Spirit to write these words, so these words are theanusta. They're breathed out by God, and we have exactly what God the Holy Spirit wanted us to say, but I love how as Paul is reasoning through this and calling for sacrificial giving, he doesn't motivate with a whip.

He doesn't motivate with guilt. He doesn't motivate the world the way the world motivates. He motivates with the gospel. Christian giving is motivated by what Christ has already given for us. Christian giving is motivated by his blood given on the cross, his body broken for sinners like us.

I like when people show me different ways of expressing the gospel, because different people respond differently, and here Paul is speaking of money, but notice in the text real quick. He's not talking about money here.

He's not saying that Jesus became a poor man in order that we would become rich people, as in some redistribution of wealth. He's referring to the emptying of himself on the cross. The poverty in view here is the very stripping down and breaking of his body and the spilling of his blood.

He says, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, meaning he was in heaven, worshiped by angels, adored with all the prerogatives of the glory of who he is, holy, holy, holy, sung to him by the cherubim and the seraphim, worshiped and adored, yet he emptied himself of that.

The kenosis, Philippians 2. Becoming like us, becoming human flesh. Now some false teachers will take this kenosis, this emptying, and say that Jesus left his deity behind, so the miracles that he did were not according to his deity.

That kenotic theology is a lie. He didn't leave his deity behind. His deity was united with humanity, and he left behind the glory and prerogatives of his deity. And instead of being worshiped, he's spit on.

Instead of being adored by angels, he's mocked by rough soldiers who tell him to come down from that cross. His richness of who he is and all that he is, the value of who he is, is treated as being worth 30 pieces of silver, and then thrown away, and not even worth garbage.

Treated as worthless, refused, and hung on a cross, and tortured to die. This is the poverty in view, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

This transactional language, this exchange substitution language, we saw that earlier in chapter 5 verse 21. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Our sin is imputed to him, his righteousness is imputed to us. And here the language is richness and poverty. He takes our poverty, our sin, and pays the price of it, and then is exalted, and we become rich.

We receive the benefit of his suffering. Who am I? A sinner with nothing to bring to the table but my own sin, and yet he came and accomplished this work for me, and gives me all of his riches. The inheritance of sonship, that I would be adopted into his family, and there is a waiting for me, this eternal weight of glory in heaven.

To be treated as a son even now, to be a son of the living God with all the rights of adoption, which if we studied that at another time was even greater than natural born sonship in some cases in the Roman Empire.

But this is our inheritance, this is the riches he then gives to us that we would be called children of the living God. This is the gospel, and this is why Christians give. Next, number six. Christians benefit spiritually by hitting giving targets.

I found this interesting in the text, again to the promise they had made earlier, and now seeing it through. Verse 10, in this matter I give my judgment. This benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also to desire to do it.

So now, finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. I always have mixed emotions when I'm listening to K-Love or Air One or some radio station, and they'd spend a week appealing for money.

And I'm like, man just get back to the music, let's just worship, I don't want to hear these appeals for money. But as I consider the text, it's not necessarily wrong to appeal for money. When Christians went about appealing for money to build a mercy ship, a ship that would sail across the Middle East, and Muslims and others from the surrounding towns could come out and get on that ship, and receive medical care and the gospel.

This was a giving initiative that required fundraising, going to churches and appealing for money. When our own missionaries in China built a hospital, it required money. And other missionaries in all parts of the world, fundraising.

Is it wrong to appeal for money? What if we one day did a building campaign? Would it be wrong to ask people to pledge money? Answer, depends. Depends on the motivation of the heart. It depends on what you're using that money for.

It depends on whether God is the one who's leading you in that decision. To do the thing that you're saying that God is leading you to do. And so leaders of a church have a great responsibility to be led of the spirit and to be guided by the principles of God's word.

And to be wise in the things that we choose to do or not to do. But here Paul is very clearly appealing for money. Because the cause is worthy. And he's appealing not just that they give, but they see it through.

That they complete what they pledge to do. So they had taken some kind of pledge. And now he says complete what you said you would do. See it through to completion. That's very Christian. To keep your word and to see it through.

The Widow's Mite and Readiness of Heart

Next, number seven. One of the most endearing stories of the Bible comes from this principle. Christians value the widow's might. Is Paul really interested in money? Is God really interested in our money?

Does God, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, who spoke the universe into existence, need our money? My son, give me thy heart, he says. He wants our hearts and our money, which we attach our hearts to.

We create heart ties. Calvin said our hearts are idol factories. We make idols out of everything. And probably one of the biggest ones is our money. Because that's where we put our security. He's not interested in the money itself.

He wants your heart. So look at verse 12. For if the readiness is there, if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has. Not according to what he does not have. And Jesus was walking with his disciples one day, and they noticed, because of the loud clanging of the money, that the rich were bringing large amounts of money and throwing it into the treasury.

And it rang forth as the metal coins struck the metal receptacle. And so they watched. And then as all of that charade passed on, a poor widow came in with two mites, which is the equivalent of a penny, some scholars think.

Just a minimal amount of money. And this widow came and dropped those two mites into the box. And Jesus called the attention of his disciples and said, did you see that? She gave more than all of them.

Because they gave out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, gave everything she had. What moved the heart of Jesus should move our hearts. It's what's going on, the readiness, the desire to to give to the King of Kings, to help others through the ministry, and what's given in the temple.

It's the heart that Jesus saw. Remember the widow of Zarephath? When Elijah came, she had nothing but a handful of flour in her jar. And Elijah came and said, bake me a cake. But see, to do that would be to give her last morsel of food.

It would be to give it all. And Elijah called her to faith, and she gave it, and she was told by Elijah, the jar that you just used will never run out, and the oil will never run dry until the drought is over.

You see, I don't think when the widow who gave the two mites in the temple, I don't think the point of the story is she gave it all and then died outside the temple gates. Is that how you picture that story continuing?

No, I picture it just like the widow of Zarephath with Elijah, that she threw her dependence entirely on God and trusted Him, and God cared for her. God provided for her through the people, through the generosity of others.

It was God who protected and helped her. And so Christians value the widow's mite. We're not looking for riches. We want our hearts to be right with God. Number eight through ten really have a similar theme.

So we'll take them sort of together here. Verses 13 through 15. For I do not mean that others should be eased and burdened, but that as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.

As it is written, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Sadly, in the last couple hundred years, people reading these verses have taken this to be a socialistic teaching, that it's a redistribution of wealth so that all income and all wealth is distributed equally, as a matter of fairness, as our text says.

Fairness. And so in the name of fairness, there is a large movement, especially in our culture today, in America, and sadly even in churches today, towards socialism. But let's look more closely at what the text really says.

In verse eight, I'm sorry, in point eight, verse 13, Christians encourage fairness without coerced redistribution. What you do not see is the forceful taking of money from one group of people to distribute to another.

You see no government intervention whatsoever. In fact, you don't see church intervention, and the coerced taking of money. Indeed, the exact opposite is what's happening here. A voluntary gift that is encouraged in the name of fairness.

Yes, we would expect for richer people in the church to be giving more, whereas those who don't have much, some might not be able to give it all. They might not have a widow's might. And in the name of fairness, sure, we would encourage that, but there's no coercion.

There's no forceful taking. What does it say? For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.

We're encouraging toward sacrificial giving, and a desire to help wherever we can, but there is no coercion. Everything in the context of this passage, and in all of the scriptures, is based upon voluntary giving, not forced redistribution of wealth.

Next, notice in verse 14 that it's based not on wants, but on needs. The word need appears. Your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.

There's a real fundamental misunderstanding of what the scripture is commending at this particular point. It is not, as you see on TV, income equality. It's not the goal here. The issue here is need, and so the quote in verse 15, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack, refers back to Exodus chapter 16 verse 18, and the gathering of manna, not to accumulate, in this case, what's in view here?

Daily survival. If they took more manna than would allow them to eat for that day, it would turn rotten. They'd find worms in it. The idea is not that all people would have equal wealth of all kinds, but the picture here is meeting physical needs.

The saints in Jerusalem were in danger of starving to death. It's not that they didn't have big screen TVs, whereas up in Corinth they did. It has nothing to do with income redistribution, so that there's equality of income and wealth.

It has to do with need. Destitute needs being met, so that their abundance may supply your need, is the key word. Sadly, the teaching that we see so prominent in the culture today is not built upon the Word of God.

It is built upon the opposite of the Word of God. It is built upon covetousness. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's property. That's a commandment. Capitalism as a system is built on that principle of private property, and socialism is built on coveting what another has.

To divide the world into two subsets of arbitrarily, wherever you draw the line, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, is to make one group of people covetous of another, wherever you arbitrarily draw that line.

But it is fundamentally a violation of exodus. Chapter 20, thou shalt not covet. I did not plan this the way this is working out, but I think God did. Today, this evening, we are addressing economic Marxism.

And by God's grace, he sent a brother up from Huntsville, Alabama to teach us on this subject, from the scriptures, the scriptural roots of the western capitalistic society, and how Marxist socialist teachings are being brought into the church.

How we need to be aware of those things and guard against them. So I thank God for his providence and how he had this plan, because when I set out to teach Second Corinthians, I've been taking passage pericope by pericope.

Sorry for the big word. Teaching unit by teaching unit. And it just so happens that today is where this text falls. So I think God would have us be reinforced in our belief in what the scripture teaches at this particular point.

And so the last Christians trust our sovereign God to provide for his church. Verse 15 says, as it is written, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Again, a quote from Exodus 16, the gathering of manna.

In the church, we're not all going to have the same amount of wealth. There were wealthy Israelites that had more earrings and more gold jewelry and more things to take with them than others. But when it came to the basic needs, we made sure.

And we would do the same thing here. We are living in such a prosperous society that there's very few among us that are living hand to mouth in a literal sense. But if any one of us was starving, we would be sure to meet those needs.

And we meet other needs. We meet medical bills. We have a benevolence fund. But we understand and keep the scripture in perspective. Hannah Havergal, after she wrote those words, take my silver and my gold.

Not a mite would I withhold. She lived what she wrote. Years later, as she thought about her own words, she looked around her house and she saw beautiful furniture. She saw a jewelry cabinet that was worth thousands of pounds.

And one by one, she boxed them up. And she sent them to the Mission Society to advance the gospel in the world. And here's what she said, actually, as she boxed it up. She said, nearly 50 articles are being packed up.

I don't think I ever packed a box with such pleasure. It was her joy. So in closing, Christian giving is nothing like what the world has. It's a joy for us to give. It's a joy for us to advance the gospel.

I wish I could give you a class in economics. I was an economics major, by the way, in college. But nowadays, not many people take economics at college. They're so wound up in gender studies and critical race theory and whatever the revisionist historians are teaching.

There's not a lot offered in economics. The scriptures teach on the subject of economics. Exodus 16, Exodus 20. In 2 Thessalonians, we're told about the importance of work and that if a person is not willing to work, neither shall he eat.

Hard and smart work is taught in the scriptures. And the distribution of funds in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, what are they for? Well, we have the support of ministry. We're told that ministers are to earn their living from the preaching and teaching of the word.

1 Timothy 5 .17, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, to free up a minister to be able to do ministry full-time. That's biblical. That's the support that we give toward. We give towards things like capital that enables us to advance the gospel because the big picture here of why we're giving is Philippians 1 .12, the advancement of the gospel in the world.

So whether it be a hospital for a missionary in China or a mercy ship or a building, the sacrifice that Christians made that in 1993, these walls would be erected and this space carved out gives us a place to gather for the sake of the gospel.

That's the first reason why we give. The second is to meet the needs of poor saints. Paul says he was eager to do it. The apostles in Jerusalem suffering under this poverty told him, don't forget the poor.