Exploring My Strange Bible - A Generous Gospel: New Testament Themes Part 4

Episode Date: September 6, 2017

In this teaching we'll explore Paul's vision of Jesus-style generosity in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. In Paul's mind, the good news about Jesus becomes most persuasive when his followers are living with incredible generosity. Giving away resources when it makes no sense is a powerful way of showing people that Jesus is truly the risen Lord of the world.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. So in this episode, this is episode four of a six-part series. It represents a number of teachings that I did.

Back in 2012, in the fall, we challenged the whole church community where I was serving as a teaching pastor at Door of Hope, the whole church to read through the whole New Testament in 90 days. And hundreds of people did it with us. And we would gather at 6 a.m. five mornings a week to read it aloud together, that day's readings. And then on the Sunday gatherings, we would get together and either Josh White, the other teaching pastor, or myself would offer teachings connected to that week's readings. So this represents a message where we were right smack in the middle of reading Paul's letters to the different churches that he planted. And this is a message about how Paul's vision of how the good news about Jesus most becomes powerfully persuasive when followers of Jesus are living with incredible generosity.

And specifically in the passage in his second letter to the Corinthians, generosity. And specifically, in the passage in his second letter to the Corinthians, financial generosity is a powerful way of substantiating the claim that Jesus really is the risen Lord of this world. So, this is a teaching from 2 Corinthians chapter 8. It's all about financial generosity, but then I explore how this idea of generosity actually permeates the whole of the New Testament as a pointer to the generosity that God showed us in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. So there you go. I hope this is helpful for you. Let's dive in. Today we're going to be exploring what it means for the gospel, for the good news about the grace through Jesus, power to transform completely how we think and what we do with a few things that I happen to have in my pocket right now.

And my guess is actually that the few things that I have in my pocket are similar to a few of the things that you have in your pocket or your man purse or your purse, right? Or your clutch. My wife calls it her clutch. I don't, so that's a new term to me, but there you go. Whatever it is that you have in, so what am I talking about here? What I have in my pocket, it's my debit card to my checking account for Advantis Credit Union. It's not a credit card because I think those will gut you and kill you, personally. It's the debit card. Very important difference between debit card and a credit card. And then I have some cash, too. I have some cash in my pocket and typically have the combination of these two things in my pocket at all times. I stopped using a wallet a long time ago because I didn't like the

mark that it leaves on my back pocket. You know that mark? It ruins your back pocket. And I'm like, forget that and just put the debit card and some cash and then your keys and it's great. Who needs the wallet? So there you go. That's what I have in my pocket. And I'm guessing that most of you have some version of the two of these things in your pocket or your clutch or your man purse, whatever. And if you don't have any combination of these two things, then I'm guessing that maybe at least some of you know that you don't have that or you know that you might have this debit card in your pocket, but that it represents nothing right now. And it might bother you a lot.

But whether you have these things in your pocket or not, you think about what these represent. And the reality is, Josh and I, we drew straws about who gives the money talk, basically. And so you can tell who drew the short one. But this is a delicate topic, but we have to move towards it. And actually, I think it's providential that in the 90-day reading plan, one of the most powerful chapters in the entire New Testament about how we relate to our financial resources

just happened to fall on the readings for this weekend for us to pick from. And I do think in the bigger picture, we didn't know this when we set up the series, but it's in God's wisdom, I think, that he wants us as a body to hear from 2 Corinthians chapter 8 today. Because the basic claim that Paul is going to make in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 is the basic claim that Jesus made about this. It's because Jesus said, and you may know the saying, though it may be so familiar to you that you quit thinking about it anymore, Jesus essentially said that if you look at what people do with this, you can tell a great many things about them. You can tell what a person's greatest commitment,

what their values, what their priorities, what their desires are all about by what they do with this. If you were to follow me around with a little spike camera, you would learn a lot about me in a week by what I do with the stuff that's in my pocket. And I would learn a lot about you. And so Jesus' way of putting this is he says, where your treasure is,

there your heart is also. What we do with this, what we think about it, how we view it, is probably the most reliable indicator of what I think is important in life. Jesus knew this, and so he put together a clever little saying that we are still saying 2,000 years later, right? Where your treasure is, there your heart is also. But that's a deep and profound truth. And so as a community of Jesus, we gather around the conviction that the good news about the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus for us, we believe that story has power.

It has power to confront and to heal and to transform the human heart. And so if we're a community of Jesus that is being real to the gospel, we actually have to talk about this. Because this is a real, it's like a clear window right into our hearts. And we believe the gospel is about changing hearts, which means it will change what we do with this. You guys with me? So in my mind, 2 Corinthians chapter 8, what we're looking at tonight is a piece of gospel dynamite when it comes to how we relate to the stuff that's in our pockets. So let's dive in and let's see the power. This is going to be the hour of power, but less than an hour because I wouldn't want to preach for an hour. That's a long time. But

it's my birthday, so maybe I should preach for an hour. I don't know. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Now, there's a whole back story here. When you're reading in the New Testament letters, it's like you are listening. You're in the car, and you're with a friend, and then they get a phone call, and then they start having a really interesting conversation, but you can only hear one side of it. Have you ever been in this situation before, and you're like, who is it? And you try and guess who it is by the tone of voice that they use and this kind of thing, you know, and you can tell if it's their parents, because it'll be like kind of snarky or whatever. But you can tell if it's somebody that they're dating or something, you know, whatever, and they're being really nice. Reading these letters is like hearing

one end of a phone conversation. There's another conversation partner with a long history already in the past. And so whenever I'm picking up or reading any chapter, you have to assume that there's a long history that you don't know anything about. And you have to infer that background just by reading in between the lines or commentators and scholars do this with other things, reading other parts of the Bible, archaeology, history, culture, that kind of thing. There's a whole background story behind when we open up 2 Corinthians chapter 8. And so here's the story in a nutshell, and this will kind of illuminate things as we keep reading. The movement of Jesus, Christianity began in what city?

It began in the city of Jerusalem. Now, is Jesus from Jerusalem? No, he's not from Jerusalem now. He grew up in a town up north in Galilee, a little podunk hill country town called Nazareth. town up north in Galilee, a little podunk hill country town called Nazareth. So that's where he's from. But the key events that led to the explosion of Christianity across the ancient world, it all happened in Jerusalem. In his final week there during Passover, his crucifixion by the Romans, his resurrection from the dead, and then 50 days after that, his coming in the presence of the Spirit on Pentecost to be personally present with followers. And we can truly track this through the book of Acts, empowering them to be witnesses and so on. It began in Jerusalem. And so in the early decades,

essentially, Jerusalem became an early center from which Christianity spread. And actually, very quickly, the main center for Christianity spreading into the Greek and the Roman world was a city a couple hundred miles north of there called Antioch. And again, if you did the 90-day read-through, you followed this through the book of Acts. And so Antioch became the staging ground for Christianity to spread all across the Mediterranean and so on. And so here's the basic storyline behind this chapter, is that a couple decades after Pentecost and the church began spreading, a famine, a food shortage, hits the region of Judea and Jerusalem. All the early first Christ followers, they're Jewish. They're like responsible for the birthing of the Jesus, well, Jesus actually, Jesus was, but they were kind of actually reluctant about the whole

thing. But Jesus had a way of pushing them out of Jerusalem. And so essentially these Christians, these Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, they fell into poverty. They didn't have enough food, didn't know where their next meal was coming from, the whole city and the whole region. And so you have figures like the Apostle Paul, who wrote the letter that's sitting in your lap right now. And he's been part of a network of non-Jewish churches just spreading

like wildfire throughout the world because the good news about Jesus is just that good. It was just spread, spread. And so Paul the apostle, he has all these friends. He's Jewish himself. He has these friends. And he knows that the Jewish Christians back in Jerusalem are in hard times. They're in poverty. And he's like, I know all of these people. I know all of these, some Jewish, mostly non-Jewish Christians out here in the Greek and Roman world in cities like Corinth. And Corinth is a city dripping with money. It was a seaport. He knew Christians in Ephesus or in Galatia or Colossae, places where we have all these letters in the New Testament. And he's like, man, I know all of these Christians out here, they have resources.

And I know all of these Christians here in Jerusalem and they don't have any resources. Let's just connect the dots. Let's connect the dots. And so much of what you'll read about in Paul's letters, he says he's passionate about giving to the poor. And he talked about what he wanted to do was go on a little fundraising tour to all these churches

and essentially ask them to say, man, dude, the Jerusalem church is hurting. And this is where the thing started. Let's do this. Let's gather up over the next year. Everybody just contribute from different churches. Let's gather up a big financial gift. And then I'm going to come make a rounds and pick one leader from every church to come follow me.

We'll make the rounds through all the churches and then come back to Jerusalem from all these non-Jewish Christians that's just being like, here you go. The love of Jesus, we're all one body together. You know, this is church, right? This is church, right? That's just what Christians do. And so the Corinthians had said, we're all in.

Totally, sign us up. We're really excited to be a part of this and so on. And so at the end of 1 Corinthians, he tells them, all right, just save up every week, you know, that kind of thing. So something has happened in between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians that makes Paul have to write what he's going to write here in chapter 8. And that is he's heard that they've gotten lazy and that they've forgotten. And basically they don't. Paul's coming in a couple months and they have nothing saved up. And he's not just coming by himself. He's coming in a couple months and they have nothing saved up. And he's not just coming by himself. He's coming with representatives from all these other churches

that have sacrificially given. And so Paul's going to show up with a group of people who have already represented churches that have already given and they're going to show up in Corinth. And it's going to be awkward. It's like, yeah, the Corinthians said they would give and then they totally have not. And then we're all going to be on your doorstep, and it's going to be very awkward. So I want you to just think, that's what's happening. That's the dynamics here. This is a very tricky conversation Paul has to have.

Right? Can you imagine the dynamics? How would you write a letter in these circumstances? They've already said yes, but then they haven't followed through. And he's coming to town soon, and it's going to be embarrassing for them. And so these are very tricky waters Paul has to navigate. haven't followed through. And he's coming to town soon, and it's going to be embarrassing for them. And so these are very tricky waters Paul has to navigate. That's the basic point that I'm getting at. Paul could do a lot of things here. He could guilt them. He could shame them. He could pull rank and just be like, I'm Paul. You better give. Right? He could do a lot of things. He could do a lot of

things. Not only pay attention to what he does say, pay attention to what he does not say. You guys with me? Okay, let's dive in. Chapter 8, verse 1. He says, here's what we want you to know, brothers. We want you to know about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. Let's just stop right here. We're going to crawl through these verses here for a few minutes. So he could do a lot of things. I'm Paul, give. You know, you bunch of tight-fisted, what do you think? You went back on your word. You know, he could do so many things. But what does he do? He just tells a story, right? Here he comes now, I have to address the issue. You know, let me tell you a story about some Christians who live up north, the churches of Macedonia. We actually have a couple

letters to some of those churches in Macedonia. We call them First and Second Thessalonians, which lived a couple hundred miles north of Corinth. And he says, I want to tell you a story about something that's happened to these Christians up in Macedonia and what has happened to them. Look at verse one. What does he say? God's grace has happened to them, right? That's what? It's grace. It's grace. This whole chapter, Paul uses the word grace more in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 than any of his other writings combined, all of his letters. Grace is the theme here. And so grace is going to be our theme tonight. So really this is not the money talk at all. This is the grace, the grace talk. And so grace is kind of the theme word for these chapters. And I'll try and

write letters. And you know, I'm kind of a geek. And my idea of a good time on my birthday is to talk about Greek words and so on. So the Greek word that Paul uses is the word charis. Does anybody have a friend named charis? Do you have any charises? That would be cool. So charis, if you have a friend named charis, your friend's name means grace. Now grace is the main way that this word gets translated in the New Testament. The meanings of charis. Actually, charis is a very rich, it's a very rich word. And so you can use charis to talk about a gift. So let's say it's someone's birthday, and you might give them a gift on their birthday. I'm joking. So it's a gift. So if you give someone a gift, what's the whole point? It's that it's unearned, unasked for, and you just give

it freely, at least a good gift. So if you give a gift in terms of like, you know, I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine, I give you a gift card, you better give me one back too. So that's not charis. That's not charis. That's trying to put someone in your debt and getting them to give you back. That's not charis. Charis is a free, unearned gift. Now here's another way that this word gets used that's different than what we might expect in English. So in English, we have the word, let's say you get into an argument with someone, or you have someone in your life, a co-worker, family member, something, and you have a relational conflict with them. Perhaps you've had one of those before, a relational conflict,

one or two. So if you, say they wrong you, let's say you choose in your heart, because you know this is what Jesus has done for you, this is what I want to do for others. You choose not to hold it against them. You choose to be kind to them and not treat them as they may deserve and to give up your right. You have a right for recompense or whatever, but you give that up. You give that up. In English, we call that forgiveness, to forgive somebody. And you can see the word give right there. In the language Paul's writing in, that's this word right here. In other words, forgiveness is giving someone a gift that they did not earn and that they do not deserve. It's

the gift of kindness instead of vengeance. That's charis. That's charis. And Paul's going to use this word in another way in these chapters, and that's the word generosity. Generosity. In other words, when I am generous to someone, when I give of resources that I have and that they don't, and I give it for their well-being, even if it costs me something, that is called charis. Charis. Gift, forgiveness, and generosity.

That's all bound up with this word that Paul's going to repeat many times over in this chapter. You guys tracking? He says he could do a lot of things. Paul could do a lot of things. He tells a story about charis, God's charis that has happened to the Macedonians. What does he mean? Verse 2, he says, for in a severe test of affliction, or some of your translations might have, in a severe trial,

their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity. Some of your translations will have rich generosity on their part. I'm telling you, they gave according to their means. And then he goes back and he's like, well, actually, I can testify. They gave beyond their means. And this was of their own accord. They were begging us, these Macedonian Christians. and what's their financial situation right now? They're in poverty. He said they were begging us to participate. They were begging us earnestly for the, ESV has favor of taking part. If you're reading NIV, it might say privilege of taking part. The word Paul uses is this, charis. They were begging us for the gift of getting to be

a part of giving to the poor. Do you see what Paul's doing right here? Their minds are so different than the Corinthians. To give sacrificially to other people is itself a gift given to them, right? Do you see that? God's grace has so turned these people inside out that sacrificially giving, even when they actually don't have hardly anything to give at all, that is a privilege and a charis, pure gift and generous grace of God to them to be able to give generously to others. It's great. They begged us earnestly for the grace of taking part in this relief work for the saints, by which he means the Christians in Jerusalem. And we were not expecting this. Verse five. This is not what we expected. First, they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then by God's

will, they gave themselves to us. Okay, let's stop here. You guys, this is so awesome. This is so awesome and so convicting at the same time. So first, I want you to just look at verse 2. This is what I call gospel math. This is where 2 plus 2 doesn't equal 4. In God's economy, 2 plus 2 equals like 18. What are the circumstances of these Macedonian Christians? He has two things that describe their circumstances. What is it? Severe trial, and what else? Extreme poverty. Does that sound like a good day to you? You know what I'm saying? Does it sound like happy, happy circumstance? No, of course not. That's horrible. That actually sounds as bad as the Jerusalem Christians that they're giving to. So this is their circumstances, but in the midst of those circumstances, what's their attitude?

Look at verse two. What's their attitude? An abundance of joy. So severe hardship, hardship—this is, we'll do gospel math right here—severe hardship plus extreme poverty plus abounding joy equals what? Rich generosity. They're in extreme poverty, so it should equal zero. So they're in a severe hardship and extreme poverty, so they might be happy, but they don't have anything to give. No, apparently they found something to give. This is gospel math. This is what's impossible, seems impossible with people, ends up being possible when God's charis, when his gift of forgiveness through Jesus, when his act of generosity to us gets a hold of a human heart and mind. Hardship and poverty are not barriers to generosity. Do you see this here? So what Paul is, is brilliant. It's brilliant. So who's he writing to, right? He's not writing to the

Macedonians. Who's he writing to again? The Corinthians. And do they have money? They do. And are they generous? No. No. Who's generous? The poor people. The poor people. Now just stop right here. What Paul's doing is he's showing in God's economy, in a community of Jesus, you could say it like this. You could say, you can have money in a community of Jesus. You can have lots of money, but risk being poor. And you can have hardly any money and have the opportunity to become rich. See, the words rich and poor, Paul's not allowing their culture to define what rich and poor mean. He's redefining them in light of the gospel, right? And so how many of you, you've met people like this before. How many of you have met people who, they don't have anything.

Or they have hardly anything at all. Just enough to get by. And you would think that that would be a very difficult set of circumstances and that would affect their mindset or whatever, but just the opposite. How many of you have met people like this, right? They have hardly anything, but their spirits, right, their personality, they're just a bright spot in the universe, you know what I'm saying? And they just radiate. They radiate welcome and hospitality and joy and generosity. And so whatever they do have, open-handed, they're ready to share, they're invited.

How many of you have met people like this before? It's incredible. And Paul would say, that's a rich person. That person's rich. It's rich. And turn the coin over. How many of you have met people who they have lots of money? Or maybe they have enough money, but they have so much anxiety about their stuff,

or they have so much anxiety about their future, or their security, or their safety, that it's like they're imprisoned by their stuff. And they're imprisoned by keeping their stuff safe, because that's where their heart is, right? And so, ironically, they may have lots of money, but Paul would say that kind of person becomes stingy. He says that rich kind of person is actually poor. It's poor and rich. The Macedonians are rich, and the rich Corinthians risk becoming poor in the community of Jesus. Paul's saying is having money and being rich are two very different things.

Having money and having the ability to be generous are two totally different things. And even more so, verse 2, having money and having joy are two totally different things, right? So if I foster the mindset that like God's holding out on me, like I get the short end of the straw all the time in life, it's that inward, and that such a person may be in very difficult circumstances, and that may be a justified mindset. What Paul says is by fostering that mindset of scarcity, I keep getting low end of the deal, that self inward focus. He said, you will be poor, whether you have money or lots of money, you'll be a poor in spirit. And so what the Macedonians have done is somehow God's grace has so gotten a hold of them that all of a sudden their financial circumstances, they refuse to let their finances determine their joy.

How many of us need to hear that tonight? Because here's the thing. Is that, okay, so I'm broke right now. So I'm broke. Does that define you? If you're rich and have lots of money, does that define who you are and what you are about as a human being? Does that define the core of your identity and self-worth and value? If it is, you're just in for a horrible roller coaster ride the rest of your

life. And so what happens in a community of the gospel is that God's chorus to us, and he's going to unpack what that means in just a couple verses here, is that God's grace towards me and Jesus, that becomes the bedrock of my self-worth, of my value. I am loved. The Son of God loved me. He gave himself for me. I am loved by the person who matters most in the universe, right? If that's the bedrock for my value, for my self-worth, then your joy can experience depths and depths and layers on layers that completely transcend your circumstances or how much or how little you have in your pocket or your bank account. Macedonians have been so transformed by God's chorus towards them that they're just like, other poor Christians,

let me at it. Let me at it. I don't have anything to give. I don't know. I'll find a way. I'll find a way. Eager because of what God has done for me. Verse six. So he writes to the Corinthians. He's told them this story now. And he says, and so accordingly, we urged Titus that just as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of, this act of grace, of charis. In other words, he sent Titus to Corinth. Titus began helping them start to save up money for the gift. And for one reason or another, they neglected Titus. They stopped listening to him, whatever. They stopped saving up.

And so he said, listen, Titus is there. And so we urged him, help the Corinthians also participate in this act of charis. Now here he means generosity. This free gift that we're going to give to the poor Christians in Jerusalem. The Macedonians considered it a gift to be involved, and so we want to help. We want Titus to help you renew your passion for this. And look at what he says in verse seven. This is really powerful. He says, just as you are excelling in everything, I mean you're What does he mean? What does he mean?

So essentially, he's saying, listen, you guys are growing like weeds. I mean, just sprouting, right? You're learning. You're getting your theology right. You mean, just sprouting, right? You're learning. You're getting your theology right. You're learning and growing in your knowledge. You're learning the scriptures. You're learning the gospel. You're growing in your speech.

You're growing in your ability to be able to pray to the true God revealed to us in Jesus and how to talk about your faith in a way that doesn't make you look crazy or whatever. You're growing in your faith. But he says, you're lacking. you're not growing in this area. And it's a glaring omission in your life. Because if God's grace truly gets a hold of a person, then what I do with this cannot remain the same. It can't.

If it doesn't change in any way, there's a fundamental disconnect in my mind and in my heart between what God has done for me and apparently what I think my life is about represented by this. And so he says, you're growing in your learning and your knowledge and your faith and your speech. See to it that you grow also in this act of learning that my degree of generosity in my life is a direct reflection of how well I have been under both understand God's grace but whether or not I've been grasped by God's grace you know I had done I had a roommate of

mine in college and uh it was kind of it was that season uh where you have like lots of buddies and and uh a number of the relationships start to break down because some of the guys find girlfriends and then start spending all their time with them, right? And so that was kind of that season. And so, you know, one of my friends found an awesome, godly, awesome, rad woman. He should have hung out with her than any of us. Like, absolutely. We approve of that.

And so he was young. He wanted to go on into graduate school. He's one of my friends of mine who went on in biblical studies as well in graduate school. And when he knew that he wanted to get engaged to her and save up for a ring, like, you know, he's been studying, like, he and I learned Greek and Hebrew together. So we've been studying, like, ancient dead languages, you know, for a couple years now. How much money is in that? You know what I'm saying? We're not, just have we not been making money, we've actually been paying schools so that we can learn these, learn these things. And so it's broke, totally broke. So let me ask you, he was passionately dedicated to this woman. He knew this was the

best thing he could possibly do with his life. Do you think that a financial hurdle stood in his way in him finding the resources to grace gift his fiancee-to-be with a good engagement ring. Do you think that the financial hurdle was going to get in his way? Of course not. Why? Because he saw this woman as an act of God's charis in his life. Oh my gosh. I've been gifted with this incredible, incredible companion. And whatever. So whatever. He went and got like two part-time jobs.

He started working nights, you know. He just, he made it happen. And it was not duty. It was an act of joy for him to be able to save up to give her that engagement ring. And I think this is precisely what Paul's talking about here. It's precisely what he's saying. What's happening with the Corinthians is essentially God has plopped this amazing opportunity in their laps to do something from their hearts as an act of joy to express what God has done for them, and they've totally forgotten about it, which tells of their true heart commitments. It's just what Jesus said.

Tell me what you do with this. I'll tell you where your desires and your true passions are. And so he says, listen, guys, see that you grow in this area of grace that well. Look at verse 8. And here he gets pretty honest. He says, listen, I say this not as a command. Paul could command them. You know what I mean? Like the church exists because he went there for a year and a half and like made,

worked with leather and made tents and shared the good news about Jesus with people. Like these people owe their existence as a church to Paul. And he says, I'm not going to command you. I'm not. I'm not going to do that. I don't say this as a command. Rather, I'm trying to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. He says, I'm telling you the story about the Macedonians because I know, I know that you have this in you. I know that your hearts aren't so shut off to the grace of God that this is, you're just going to blow me off here. He said, I could command you, but instead I'm going to tell you the story about the Macedonians and I'm going to tell you one more story and then I'm just going to hands off and let God do his work.

So he told the story about God's grace to the Macedonians, and look at the story he's going to tell them in verse 9. And verse 9, in my mind, if there's a verse you want to memorize or get in your mind and your heart to remind you about why generosity is a core trait of a growing follower of Jesus, this is the verse to memorize, chapter 8, verse 9. He says, listen, he says, you know about the what of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does he say? You know about the chorus of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know that even though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. What story has he just told them? He's just told them the story of the gospel in money metaphors, right? In money imagery. This is the story that you could tell it, you can tell it so many different ways, you guys, but at the center of this story is the cross.

And so it's this idea of Jesus being in a place of high status, but sacrificially giving up his rights and status and becoming poor so that others who are in a place of poverty can be elevated. So he tells it in the story of money, but you could tell it lots of different ways, and it's told lots of different ways in the New Testament. It's the idea that Jesus represents to us, he is, become human, the creator and redeemer God,

revealed to us in the scriptures. And he's given us life, he's given us breath, he's given us bodies and relational capacities. Minds to be able to learn and be productive and so on. And so, and what has humanity done with our opportunity to just be here and build families and societies and friendships and so on? How do you rate us? Scale of 1 to 10? I think we're batting about like a 3 or something.

I don't know. Maybe a 2. I'm not sure, right? So obviously we can do lots of stuff, but we have this such severe brokenness inside of the human heart and mind that we take the gifts of existence and breath and ability and resourcefulness or money, and we just blow it on ourselves. And we seek the well-being of me and my tribe at the expense of you and yours, or at least towards apathy and neglect of anybody else's tribe, right? And so you end up with a world that looks like ours. And so the story of the gospel is the story of God humbling himself instead of like roasting us and writing us off or whatever.

He actually, he writes himself into the story and he enters into our poverty, physically and spiritually. And he becomes a human being and on the cross he absorbs both the sin and the guilt, but also the pain and the suffering of our world into himself on the cross. But because his chorus, his love and his grace for screwed up, broken people like him is so powerful and it's so strong, death can't hold him. He loves screwed up people that much, but even death won't be the hurdle that gets in God's way of rescuing and saving his world. And so in raising Jesus from the dead and elevating Jesus out of the sin and the death of our world, he makes possible a new way for broken, screwed up people like us. And when we latch on

to Jesus in faith, we have the possibility for caris, for forgiveness, clean slate, second try. We have the possibility to receive a gift, another chance to become a new and different kind of human being, not by my own power, but by the power and the presence of the one who loved me and gave himself for me. That's the story Paul's telling right here. You know the chorus of our Lord Jesus Christ, who even though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor so that you, through Paul says, I'm not going to command you to give. I could do that, but I'm not going to. What he'd rather do is tell them the story about what this act of God's chorus is doing in the lives of some Christians a couple hundred miles up north.

He just wants to direct their attention to this story. And then he just says, there you go. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to remind them of the story of God's generosity and then let God do his work in you. To me, this is so important, you guys. This is so important. And the reason why, when I said we're doing the money talk a little bit earlier, this is why some of you who brought friends tonight, you're like cringed, whatever. Or if you're kind of, you know, and it's that cynical Portlander that's in All of Us or whatever. And it's just like, yeah, okay, all right. He's not wearing a suit and doesn't have slick big hair, whatever. But I've heard this talk before, you know.

And it's like, okay, you know, I can't prevent you from thinking like that. But what I can say is that any time a religious community uses its influence, uses the power of a public gathering to guilt or manipulate people into giving, we're violating the very reason that we gather in the first place, which is the story of God's generous grace to us. And so I'm not going to do that. And that's not what Paul does. He just says, I don't know what to do other than to just remind you of why you're a Christian in the first place. Why you're a Christian is because of God's incredible generosity to us and Jesus. why you're a Christian is because of God's incredible generosity to us and Jesus. If you can go on as a Christian and say, yeah, that's totally cool that God was generous and showed cars and grace toward me. And yeah, that has absolutely nothing to do with what I do with

this. Paul's just like, I don't know what to do. I can just challenge you, put it in your face, and trust that God is going to work on your heart to connect the dots. And so that's precisely what I'm going to do. It's precisely what I'm going to do. And so here's the reality. Paul could do a lot of things. This, this is what he does. So two times the amount of people here, actually proportionately giving has gone down from where it was a year ago. And so those are our circumstances as a church community. And so as leaders, like we've been on our knees with elders and Josh and I and the finance team, and we've just been like, how do we go at this? Because our core is planting a Jesus community

in the center of Portland. Is this a good strategy to make a lot of money? So can you feel the discomfort of your chairs right now? You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, if we were in this to have a fancy place and have fancy chairs or whatever, like look at the quality of the carpet as you don't have to joke about it or whatever. So that's not what this is about. So Door of Hope was born out of a dream, beginning with Josh, but it is not just Josh's dream anymore, is it? It's the dream of many, many of us. There are communities, and we're just one church. There's many where there are things like this going on here in the center of Portland, where this story, creating environments, communities of Jesus, where this story can

just be unleashed in people's lives, and where a lot of the unnecessary barriers of people being a part of a church or whatever, or things that make people never want to go to a church, we try to remove and strip all that down and make it simple. Make it just, here we are. We're just Portlanders doing this kind of thing. Gathering around this. It's just what we do. This is what we're going to look like.

This is the music we're going to sing. We want to create an environment like this so that more people than in the past can encounter this right here and have their lives completely messed up by the grace of Jesus. That's our goal. That's our hope. And that's our prayer. And in God's grace for this season that we're in as a church community, that's happening. And that's a really good thing. That's a really, really good thing. It's worth celebrating. And that's a really good thing. That's a really, really good thing.

It's worth celebrating. However, if Door of Hope's going to exist beyond just a few more years, there has to be a change in generosity. Here is a church. Because it does take financial resources to make this happen. And so you may not be aware of that. I don't know. I didn't think about it for a long time until I actually began to volunteer,

get involved at various churches that I was a part of. And you'd be like, oh yeah, this doesn't happen for free. Like, oh, the coffee out there, it's not actually free. It does get paid for. You do realize this, you know? And so there's lots of things like that. And so again, I'm not guilting. I'm just trying to give information. Just say, man, we're in this together, you guys. And my dream, and I know the dream of many of you, is to see more and more and more people hear this story and encounter God's presence in the spirit of Jesus that's in our midst when we gather, and that's with us, portable Jesus, when you go. Portable Jesus in your workplace and in your apartment complex and your neighborhoods and friends, inviting friends and talking with

people and so on. And so here's my hope and here's my conviction. And the whole elder team I represent when I say this, you guys, we truly believe that we have what it takes within our existing body of people right now to be a financially stable church. We really believe that. And whatever the next couple years looks like, whether we're still here in this building or not, the bills are not going to get cheaper if more people continue to come. You do realize this.

But I believe firmly. You guys. So this part of Portland and the predominant demographic of Dwarf Hope Church, it doesn't precisely necessarily match the Macedonians. I think you might have to go to a different country for that. But it's fairly close. It's fairly close. And so our dream would be that in 100 years from now,

a similar letter could be written about the story of these underemployed barista musicians, doctors, all these kind of people here in urban Portland who had a dream to reach their city with the good news about the grace of Jesus and how something amazing happened. How in underemployment or unemployment, not being able to find work or people who maybe don't like to find work or whatever, but people who had a genuine encounter with God's chorus and something happened. Something happened where churches aren't usually able to survive because it's really

expensive to lease places and do that. And so what if that story could be told about Door of Hope and other churches here that want to reach the inner part of the city of Portland? What if that story could be told about Door of Hope and other churches here that want to reach the inner part of the city of Portland? What if that story could be told? And what if it didn't happen by any leader strong-arming or being like, you better give because we're the leaders or whatever? No, it's just like, what if that just happened because we seriously had our passions ignited when we heard about God's gift to us in Jesus. And that happens when people's lives are actually changing. People are being healed of their addictions. Broken marriages are being reconciled and healed. People are finding freedom from their anger and reconciling.

These are all outworkings of the gospel. Outworkings of the gospel. What if? What if? And that's my prayer. My challenge to you would be to make that your prayer. But it's one of those situations where it's just like, Lord, I just pray that someone would come and like go feed the homeless person down the street. And I wonder who that person is. And I'll just pray for them to come do that. And it's like, dude, that's how prayer works. Go answer your

prayer. You know what I'm saying? Like, go do it. Go do it. And I think it's one of those situations. Lots of people, we don't really, and Joshua, I don't know like names or amounts of people or anything. All of that is kept by very small and we don't know anything about that. And that's very important that we don't know anything about that. But we do know basic percentages that like there's just like over half of the people who come regularly to Door of Hope give zero. And we don't think that's healthy for

you. We don't think it's healthy for you to go on in your life and think that you're following Jesus without understanding that this is about your whole life being transformed by the gospel. Do you guys hear what I'm saying? This is about being a community of grace. And so I know one barrier, and I'll just kind of address this barrier as I kind of wrap up here. One barrier, because I've had this conversation with lots of people, is like I would totally, totally love to be more generous. I just don't have. I don't have it. I don't have the extra finances. I don't have the resources to do that. And so again, I think it's providential that in the 90-day read-through, 2 Corinthians 8 was this weekend's reading,

because the moment you and I say that, I'll just remind you of the story of these poor, impoverished Christians 2,000 years ago and just say, I bet that's what they thought too. But look what happened. When they gave themselves to God first, as he says in verse 7, and then allowed the gospel, and it's just like my roommate in college. You could find a way. There's probably about four or five fewer lattes you could have this week. You know, it's probably like Buffalo Exchange. Jeans are much cheaper, you know, I mean, than the

Levi's store or whatever. You can find ways if your heart is on fire. If your heart's on fire, if your heart is on fire. If your heart's on fire, you can find ways. And so look at 2 Corinthians chapter 9 with me. 2 Corinthians chapter 9. And I think there are just a few very powerful truths about how Paul is going to encourage the Corinthians to give. And I don't usually use alliteration, but I'm going to because it's been helpful for me.

Chapter 9, verse 6. He said, here's the point. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So he says, if God's charis doesn't produce in me a mindset of generosity, but actually I just continue in this mindset of like using the image of a farmer with a bag of seed. And it's like, yeah, I probably should get it a little more out there, but I don't know. I'm just a little here. So he's talking about a technique of sowing seed. Farmers, it was called telecast. Telecast. Telecast. What? Josh White. Telecast, right? It was a technique called telecasting. The whole field would be plowed, not in rows or anything, and it's just a broad spreading of the seed. The more, the better. Usually with less expensive types of crops. And so at least where the seed was less expensive. And so he's saying, listen,

like this is how life's going to work. If all you trust God for is to just to do a little of this with your life, then this, a little of this is all you're going to get back. It If all you trust God for is to just to do a little of this with your life, then this, a little of this is all you're going to get back. It's all you're going to see. And I don't think he means like that God will write you a check for that, like the TV guy will say, put your hand on the screen and the credit card number and all that kind of thing. That's not what he's saying. He's just saying if all you trust God for is very little, and that's all you're going to do and be generous with, then dude, of course, you're going to see very little, very little action for the gospel in your life. But if you learn and cultivate this habit here,

you develop a habit and eagerness to give generously to things that are significant or strategic or where you see God working in your life or someone else, there's an opportunity to show them the same kind of chorus that God has shown towards you. He just says, just wait, wait, watch, watch. This is what's going to happen in your life. And so to me, I think verses 7 and 8 have some very powerful principles for how, just straight up, just how, how can you start this journey of gospel generosity? Look at verse 7. He says, This is the first principle. Is the gospel inspired generosity? It's priority. It's not

an afterthought. It's not something I do knee-jerk response. It's why we don't pass the little velvet pouches. I don't know what's called passing the plate. Some churches do that, but more often I grew up with the velvet pouch, passing the velvet pouch or whatever. So that's why we don't do that, why we don't pass a pouch or a plate, right? Because we actually don't think that's in people's best interest. What's in people's best interest is to have their hearts and minds so messed up that like the Macedonians, it's like, where do I give? I'm eager to give because I want to participate in what God is up to. And so it's about priority. And so he just says straight up, he just says, give what they've decided in their heart, which

means before they come to the gathering or whatever, they've actually already thought this all through. They've thought it through. Here's where I'm at. And so it's priority. It's at the top of the list. And you sit down. And as we're going to kind of see in a second here, I think a helpful technique is sit down and think through your year. And just think through what you're capable of and what actually might be a little bit beyond what I'm capable of

if I want to do a little more of this than just this. And pray and commit that to the Lord and see what happens. But it's priority. And so we leave this up to people's tips. Why we don't pass a pouch or a plate. That's why the giving boxes, at least in our gatherings, are by the bread and the cup. Because we believe giving, our charis, our generosity, is a response to God's generosity to us. And so we have it right behind the bread and the cup, which is very intentional, you guys. The bread and the cup reminds us of God's death and charis for me. In worship, I respond to the bread and the cup by giving what I've decided to give beforehand.

And this is not about knee-jerk giving. It's about thinking it through. Being responsible with the resources that God has given. Priority. Well, actually, Jessica and I have found helpful over the years is using the online giving tool. If you've ever been to the website, there's a big word, give, on the front page. And you can choose the date of the month. There's automatic withdrawal. What I love

about that is you can just pick the date that's like right closest to whenever you happen to get paid. If you do, you're getting paid that way. And so you just make sure, even if you think you might forget, you'll never forget this way. Because it's just the first thing, the first withdrawal will be, this is what we do as a church. Comes in and so on. 10% in the bank account automatically goes to our outreach, which goes to benevolence, helping the poor among us in the community, supporting ministries and so on. 10% of everything given here goes right automatically to that.

And so online giving is a helpful way to do that. Second technique here, percentage giving. Now, this is actually not based off something in the text right here. It's actually based off of a glaring omission in the text. Paul is a Jewish rabbi, and he's going to be quoting the Old Testament, talking about giving. And what word does he never use once in this passage? Tithe. Tithe or tithing. You haven't heard me say it yet, you'll never hear me say it again. This is not the word that we use around here, because it's not the word Jesus and Paul use. Tithe is a word that means 10%, one-tenth. And it's derived from the Old Testament laws for the

Israelites about the tithe that they were to give of their flocks and their herds and their money and so on to the temple. Now, this is actually, it's kind of funny because some people think that's a biblical number. If you actually read the Old Testament passages about the tithes, what you'll discover is there were actually two tithes the Israelites were supposed to give. Deuteronomy 14. We'll have to teach on this passage sometime. You're supposed to save up a tenth of your income, have a huge party, and invite as many poor people as you know. Deuteronomy 14. And then, on top of that, there was also a flat tax called the temple tax that averaged about three percent%. Actually, the biblical old testament number is 23.3% of your annual income, right? And I never hear any sermons on

that. Do you know what I'm saying? So it's interesting. So here's the thing, though. However, I think the wisdom of a percentage is very, very important. And it connects with priority. If I sit down beforehand and I just say, man, what would stretch me to telecast this year, to be bountiful? And you pick it, and then you allow that percentage to run your decisions throughout the year. And so there's nothing biblical about 10, but 10 is not bad to shoot for. So there's some of you, you just need to give up the guilt about 10. For some of you, all you can do this year is two. Praise God. That is so awesome that you would even sit down and think through your money

and think about 2%. Praise God for that. Some of us, 10%, we don't even feel 10%. There's not that many of us, but there are a number of us here at Door Hope community where we wouldn't even notice it. And so you decide beforehand, before God, before Jesus, not reluctantly. This isn't about tithing. Look at verse 8. And God is able to make all charis abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work. So in other words, Paul sees this as something that is progressive in our lives. It's progressive. In other words, I think what Paul is essentially saying is this is something that we are to grow in. He says grow in the grace of giving.

So this year, two percent. What if all year you prayed that God could give you some kind of raise or a new job or something so that next year you could do 4%? What if you made it your prayer request in that year that you could give more? And then what would happen? Just what could happen just right here? What could happen? I think Door of Hope could not only become financially stable and wondering if we can survive three more years, to lots of incredible things happening here in our midst. Demonstration of the gospel, being able to give more to key areas of need in the city, and being able to share and proclaim the gospel more. So priority, presented, and progressive. And I think Paul's wisdom here in 2 Corinthians 9 is very helpful. And so I just, I hope that we'll take this to heart and think this through.

So there you go. The money talks over. Oh my gosh. This is about, we're a community of grace. This is about responding to God's grace. And so as we transition into our time of worship, I just put, I just put the ball in your court and just say, is your heart on fire? Like the way my roommate's was

for his girlfriend to become fiance? For more people experiencing the grace of Jesus that can heal and transform the human heart and mind. This is coming from a place of passion, right? And so this is the believers in our midst who are committed to the door of hope. My prayer for you is that we as a church may grow and grow. We are growing in many areas right now as a church. My prayer is that we will grow also in this act of grace, the grace of generosity. Because of that, more and more and more people for longer and longer will be able to be a part and hear about the grace of our Lord Jesus and have their lives confronted and healed and transformed. So there was that.

I remember being really challenged by this teaching. I always am by this theme in the New Testament. And I hope it was helpful and challenging for you too. You guys, thank you for listening to the Strange Bible podcast. If you find this podcast helpful, spread the word. Tell a friend about it. Go on iTunes, leave a review, and tell everybody what you think. And cheers.

We'll see you next time.