Well, the Apostle Paul ended chapter 7 of 2 Corinthians saying he rejoiced that he had confidence in the Corinthians in everything. And then in chapters 8 and 9, he's going to shift the conversation to the collection that was being taken among the Gentile churches for the poor suffering saints in Jerusalem. a collection which the Corinthians started to contribute to a year before, but they stopped, most likely because of their feud and fallout with Paul, also possibly because of their own procrastination. But now their relationship has been restored with him, as Titus has come back from Corinth, and he has an encouraging response that he brought the severe letter to them, and they had received it. And they had received it by repenting of their sin, and desiring once again to come under Paul's apostolic authority. Therefore, Paul reminds them of the commitment they made in the past, which was to financially help the suffering saints in Jerusalem. And he says he is confident that they will indeed do that. And he will try to motivate them to now fulfill that commitment. And the way he will do that is by using the Macedonian churches as an example for them to follow. He wants them to know how God's grace has moved the most least likely group of saints to give with a generous heart to this cause. He wants to stir them up by seeing what God's grace can do for them by showing them what he's done in the Macedonians. And the Macedonian churches, as we said last week, that's the northern part of Greece, was Thessalonica, Philippi, and Berea. And those churches would have had every reason to keep from giving to these suffering saints in Jerusalem. For Paul said they had a great trial of affliction, meaning they were hard pressed, they were being squeezed in from all angles for their faith in Christ. So they were suffering persecution. They were being alienated, even from their own countrymen and families. Also he says they were in deep poverty, meaning they were dirt poor. They didn't have two nickels to rub together. They were living way below the poverty line. Yet we read, in the midst of their afflictions, in the midst of their deep poverty, they had an abundance of joy. Joy that they were in Christ. Joy that Christ was in them. Joy that their sins were washed away and now they were accepted in the beloved. Joy that God's grace had transformed their hearts, and now they had the hope of eternal life with Christ, and with Him forevermore. And because of their abundant, overflowing joy, in the midst of their trials, in the midst of their troubles, their hearts abounded in the riches of their liberality, or of their generosity. which also means they were very single-minded on giving to the suffering saints in Jerusalem. There was no duplicity, as we said last week with them. They heard of a need and they wanted to help. Not that they gave a lot. In fact, they probably gave very little because they had very little. but it was from the heart. It was from the heart. Well, now in verses three to five, Paul's gonna expand on the Macedonian's giving. And he'll give details on the whole process. And I gotta say, as I said last week, this is really a fascinating, a fascinating scripture, a fascinating church, and a very challenging church. For what Paul says about them is only possible by the grace of God. And not only Do the Corinthians need to hear it? And this was to stir up the Corinthians? Brothers and sisters, we need to hear it. We need to be stirred up this way as well. And so what I'd like to do this morning is look at verses 3 to 5 in a sermon titled, Begging to Give, using three points. Would be first, the willingness to give. Secondly, the begging to give, and finally, the motivation to give. So let's look at the willingness to give in verse three. Paul says, for I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing. And he begins to give an enlarged description of the Macedonians' generosity, and he starts by saying, I bear witness So he's gonna tell us about their giving because he knows about their giving. He has witnessed their giving. He's witnessed it. He's been an eyewitness to their affliction. He's been an eyewitness to their poverty, and he's been an eyewitness to their joy and their generous heart. So when he says, I bear witness, it's like him taking the witness stand in a court of law. He goes, I'm gonna tell you the truth. And Paul knows the Macedonians because he knew the people he ministered to. He was their shepherd. And guess what? A shepherd, a good shepherd, knows the sheep. Knows the sheep. Now what Paul bears witness to is three things about the Macedonians. Three things in verse three. One, that they gave according to their ability. Secondly, they gave beyond their ability. And finally, they gave willingly. So first they gave according to their ability. And this means they gave according to their means. They gave according to their power. And the word ability in Greek is the word dunamis, which means strength or power. So they gave in proportion to what they made, in proportion to what they had. And this is what Paul told the Corinthians when instructing them on this giving all the way back in First Corinthians chapter 16. Verses one and two, where he said, now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you also must do. On the first day of the week, let each one of you lay something aside, storing up, as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. And putting something aside, as he may prosper, is giving according to your means. So give according to your present ability. And our present ability is what is available to us to meet our moral obligations, like food and rent and clothing and the necessities to sustain ourselves and our families. And this is not living extravagantly, but according to our means. And within that, give accordingly. Within that, give accordingly. Paul said in 1 Timothy 6.8, having food and clothing with these, we shall be content. So give according to your ability means giving what you are capable of giving. God does not expect you to give what you do not have. He expects you to give what you do have. He expects you to give in proportion to what you have according to your ability. So the Macedonians, the Macedonians, The Macedonians didn't give a small portion of their means, but they gave according to their ability. For they weren't double-minded, but single-minded in their giving. They could give X amount, and so they gave X amount. And if you do anything according to your means or according to your ability, you do it to the best of your ability, right? When the prophet Agabus said there was going to be a famine in Judea, we read in Acts 11.29 that the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. So your ability is what you can do, what you can do. So when Dylan and Dan or Mike, Anthony, Emily, or anyone else comes up here and plays instruments on a Sunday morning, they're playing to the best of their abilities. They're playing according to their ability. And it bothers me when someone doesn't do the best they can do. When they don't perform, if you will, according to their ability. Either at work, or in a sport, or in school. Listen, if a kid, if the best a kid can do in school is get 70s, then 70s are fine. If that's the best they could do, 70s are fine. But if he or she is capable of getting 90s but only gets 70s, we got a problem. It's not according to their ability. Now I would guess that many Christians do not give to the Lord according to their ability. They give, but they give below and maybe even way below their ability. And notice Paul is giving no percentage here. There's no percentage here, no required amount here. In fact, nowhere in chapters eight and nine Is he gonna use the word tithe? And I'm sure some of you are wondering about that, and I promise you I will cover that, Lord willing, when we get to chapter nine. But the call here is to give according to your ability. And it seems pretty reasonable to give according to your ability, when we consider what he's gonna say a few verses later in verse nine, where he says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. Why? That you, through his poverty, might become rich. We're not talking money here. We're talking spiritual riches, right? And then when you consider the very last verse in chapter nine, where he ends this whole thing by saying, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. I'm telling you about giving, he says to them, but let me tell you, you can't come close to what he's given you. So Paul says, give what you are capable of giving. Give in proportion to what the Lord has given you. And that's exactly what the Macedonians did. but even more so, but even more so. Please look again at our text. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, yes, and beyond their ability. And this might be confusing to us because how do you give beyond your ability? How does Dylan play beyond his ability? How does anybody do anything beyond their ability? How do you give beyond your ability? How do the impoverished Macedonians give according to their ability, and now even more so, more amazingly, they give beyond their ability. And the only way this is possible, and it is possible because he says they did it, is by shaving down some of the necessary things for a season so they could give more. It's by denying themselves in some area of personal legitimate expense so their ability to give may be increased. And this may fray some feathers and nerves here, but this means sacrifice. This means denying self. This means doing without. And as one man put it, this means fiscal fasting. Fiscal fasting. So because the Macedonians were so filled with the spirit and with grace, when they heard there was a collection to help these suffering saints in Jerusalem, they didn't just want to give, but they wanted to give as generously as they could. So that meant cutting down on some of their expenses for a season. So maybe in our case, well, pastor, how could we do that? Well, let's think about that. Maybe in our case, it means instead of getting a blonde vanilla latte grande for 4.75 a pop at Starbucks every day, you get a regular coffee at Burger King for a buck 59, and over the course of the month, you save $94.80. Which you give to the Lord, helping the church, helping a missionary, giving to a suffering saint. Or, instead of buying snacks and treats and sweets, which you love, you forsake them for a little while. Or, instead of buying a new jacket now, you sew up the old one and use it for another six or eight months, get another winter out of it. Or, instead of going out once a week or every other week for dinner, you go out maybe once every two months or three months, and you save that money you have spent. Instead, you give that to the Lord's work. Or instead of throwing away those little plastic baggies, you use them and you toss them, wash them out, reuse them a few times. You can't be a giver who goes beyond your ability unless you're willing to sacrifice some. Maybe you don't need cable. Maybe you can cut down the phone bill or take buses and trains instead of Ubers for a short time. Back about 20 years ago, good brother in the Lord is now in glory, Wally McKenzie, he was in a church service at North Shore Baptist Church, and as the plate was being passed around, he wanted to give. He had a great desire to give, but all he had in his wallet was a $20 bill, and that $20 bill was for his lunch for the coming up week, five days, $4 a day. But his heart was so moved to give that he threw the 20 in the plate, and he just said to himself, I'll just skip lunch this week. I'll just skip on. Did they need the 20 bucks? Miltro would've been okay without the 20, right? But it was so in his heart to give the 20, to give something, he just threw it in. He threw it in. You see, there are lots of ways you can give beyond your ability, but as I said, it's gonna take some denying yourself, some things you like and enjoy, and make life a little easier for you. But again, what seems like a really tall order is a small thing for the grace of God to overcome. I can't do that, Pastor. I need this, I need that, I get it. But when the grace of God is just showering over you and saturating your soul, Right, you just have such a delight and a joy in the kingdom, you wanna give back to him. That's the widow, the poor widow who threw in her two mites in the collection box. Let me read it again. And he, Jesus, looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasure. He knows what we give, you know that. Right, you can be stingy as the day is long, you can put nothing in the envelope and make like you put something in there, throw it in the thing, he knows. He knows what we give. He saw her, and he also saw a certain poor woman, poor widow, putting in two mites, and so he said, truly, I say, his disciples, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all, for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings to God, but she, out of her poverty, put in all the livelihood she had. And notice, Jesus doesn't say everybody stop, Doesn't run up to the woman. Don't do it. It's your last two mites. How you gonna buy food? How you gonna buy clothing? He doesn't grab her arm and keep it from going back into the box. Put that two mites back in your pocket. He doesn't do that. He doesn't do that. He said do it. He says, and he's commending her. He doesn't stop her. We probably would stop her, right? He doesn't do that. She's giving beyond her ability, and Jesus commends her for it. We have plans for our money. We're saving for things. We're aiming at things that we want to do with our money. In fact, our money makes us happy. We get things every day. We do things for ourselves. We just do. We're worried about tomorrow. We're worried about next year. We're worried about 20 years from now. And our money plays a big part in all of that. And understand, you can't give beyond your ability if you're concerned about yourself and your lifestyle. There must be a selflessness or there will never be a sacrificial giving. There must be a selflessness. But remember the equation that the grace of God produced in the Macedonians. They had a great trial, they had deep poverty, they had abundant joy, and what did all that equal? The riches of their liberality. Look at that equation. Affliction, poverty, joy, generosity. Which equaled not just giving according to their ability, but even beyond their ability. And truthfully, I don't think they had many places to cut from, for they were a very poor people. And all of this we're told they did willingly. They did this willingly. Willingly. Again, look at the verse. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing. So the giving was a personal choice. They gave it spontaneously, uncoerced, right? They weren't pressured into it. No one's badgering them. No one's guilting them into it. It was solely their desire to give. No preacher's pleading with them. Put your money in the plate, put your money in the plate. Nobody is claiming or accusing them of robbing God, as we were talking about last week. You're robbing God. They're not doing that. They weren't showing these heart-wrenching videos of people suffering in some third world country, skinny as anything, trying to squeeze more shekels out of them. No, this was a free will offering. And this is how God wants us to give. This is how God wants us to give. Listen, He doesn't need our money. He does not need our money. But He wants us to trust Him to provide for us. And He wants us to delight in Him. And being freely willing to give shows we do. It shows we do. We see it in the Old Testament. He wants His people to give from the heart. First Chronicles, chapter 29, David is collecting offerings for the temple that Solomon would build. And here's what we read in verse nine. The people rejoiced, for they had offered willingly, because with a loyal heart they had offered willingly to the Lord, and King David also rejoiced greatly. Twisting an arm, right? Wasn't badgering them. Exodus 35, Moses is told to take contributions from the people for the tabernacle. We read in verse five, the Lord says to him, take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing heart, whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord. You see the heart is the issue here all the way through. Then in verse 29, the children of Israel brought a free will offering to the Lord, all the men and women whose hearts were willing to bring material for all kinds of work of the Lord by the hand of Moses. They had a willing heart. Then in chapter 36 of Exodus, verses five to seven, it tells us the outcome of their giving where the craftsmen, the guys who were putting the things together, they said to Moses, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord has commanded us. We got too much stuff. So Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. And the people were restrained from bringing for the material that they had was sufficient for all the work that was done. Stop the giving. Slow it down. We have enough. We have enough, stop. It was actually too much. It's like the government giving you back money. Stop giving, stop paying taxes. We got enough already. So all the giving must be freely willing. All giving must be freely willing. Otherwise, it's unacceptable. You understand that if it's not from the heart, God's like, I don't want it. It's not a good heart. The Lord gives to us freely. He wants us to freely give to him. Ought not to be reluctance here. It ought not to be grudging in giving. We're gonna see that in chapter nine. It ought not to be a burden. Here comes the plate. Here we go. Now March is gonna press us. No, it ought to be a joy. Listen, if it pains us to give back to the Lord in a generous way, don't do it. Don't do it. I've said this illustration before, but in case you haven't heard it, I'll say it again. Story of a youth pastor, he's on a camping trip, and he's hanging around the campfire, singing with the youth, and after they're singing, they decide to pass around the hat. And the kids are all throwing a buck, a buck, a buck, it goes around, right, buck, buck, buck, buck, buck, right? And so now the youth pastor's like, huh, jeez, I only got a $20 bill, but I gotta give something because they're all throwing bucks in. He's like, oh, and he's pressed, and he throws the 20 in. He doesn't wanna throw the 20 in, but he's gotta do it to look good. Later on, he's convicted of his unwilling heart. And he said this, he said, I gave the Lord $1 willingly and 19 unwillingly. Brothers and sisters, let us give according to our ability. Let us give beyond our ability, but let us do so willingly. For then God is glorified. He is glorified by the work of his grace in our hearts, amen? As amazing as that is, now we come to the second point. The begging to give. The begging to give. Imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. Again, this is amazing to me. It's beyond our comprehension. It really doesn't seem real. I mean, it isn't normal that impoverished people would be begging for the opportunity and the privilege to give. that people who are dirt poor would have to plead with Paul to let them get in on the collection going to the saints in Jerusalem. That they would not be denied this blessing. And the fact that they are imploring or begging Paul to let them give implies Paul really doesn't want them to give. He really doesn't want them to give, because he knows how bad their situation is. He just told us they're greatly afflicted, and they're deeply impoverished. So he knows the struggle they're having, and he's given testimony on how they're struggling to make ends meet, and to put food on the table. So when he's asking the Gentile churches to help with this collection, he bypasses, if you will, the Macedonian churches, or only those Maybe he goes to her a little better off, but he knows that they need their few shekels. He knows they need what they have. He knows that they need it to survive. And he might have said, listen, I know your heart is good. Your heart's in the right place. It really is. I don't think you should give. I don't think you should give. I'm touched by your deep desire to put in what little you have but you really need to help yourselves. You guys have some real expenses. So he doesn't want to burden these poor saints. He doesn't want them to feel compelled to give. And notice he says, they were imploring us with much urgency. That sounds like intense, right? And urgency means with earnestness. And they keep doing it. This is the present tense. They keep doing it. And so they're pleading with him and pleading with him. Let us give. Let us give. This wasn't like, oh, we can give Paul. And as soon as Paul says, ah, I think it'd be too much for you guys. Like the normal thing, we're like, ah, you're right, all right, but you know we want it anyway. But since you said we shouldn't do it, we'll hold back because we could use what we have. It wasn't that way at all. They pleaded and pleaded with him, let us take part in the giving. This meant a lot to them. And their joy in the Lord was overwhelming. Listen, we're talking physical and spiritual here. Don't miss that. The spiritual is what's driving the physical. Too many of us, we let the physical drive the spiritual. They knew they were dirt poor. They had such gratitude for His grace, they were so moved by His grace in their life that they just wanted to give, they had to give. Again, they know they're dirt poor. They knew Paul didn't want to burden them. They were so filled with Christ, they couldn't imagine not giving. So they plead with him to take their money. It's as if they're saying, don't worry about our food, Paul. Don't worry about our clothing. Don't worry about our kids going to school and the books they're gonna get. We trust the Lord. He's gonna provide for us. He'll help us. We'll work it out. We believe that. We believe that. You have preached, Paul, to us the unsearchable riches of Christ, and we have received it. We've been given so much in Christ, it would really kill us not to be able to give to those poor saints in Jerusalem. So even though the Macedonians may have been really poor, or maybe poorer than the saints in Jerusalem, even though a collection could have easily been made for the Macedonian saints, hey, we're doing it for Jerusalem, how about the Macedonians while we're there? And by the way, the Macedonians could have easily said, what about us? Hey, you're looking out for them, we would be like, what about us? Us Macedonians, we're struggling, we're dirt poor, we're super afflicted, what about us? They don't do that. They don't do that. Wasn't an ounce of selfishness in them. There's a need, we don't care. We wanna be part. Let us in, let us in. Now what's interesting here is neither Paul nor anyone else is begging anyone to give here. No one is begging anyone to give in these two chapters. Chapters eight and nine, no begging going on. The only begging going on here is from the Macedonians. They're begging to give. But the sad reality is, and I bet right now while I'm up here, there are preachers all over the place that are begging people to give. Trying to squeeze out a few more rounds of coins and bills. But not the Macedonians. They want to give. They want to give. And it's not that the Macedonians could have given all that much. You understand they don't have much. If all you have is $10, the absolute most you could give is $10. The absolute most. But remember, as I said last week, it's never about the amount. God's not looking at numbers, he's looking at heart. He's looking at heart. It's the heart that matters. And the Macedonians know they can't give a lot monetarily. They know they're not gonna float the Jerusalem church. Their few shekels are not gonna make a big difference, quite honestly. But it matters to them, it matters to them, right? If that's what they can give, they wanna give it. For their little was a lot in the Lord's eyes, like those two mites. God says those two mites are more than the tons of money everybody else is putting in there. They wanted to participate in helping the saints. They didn't care that they were dead broke. They wanted in on the opportunity. They didn't want Paul to deny them of this great privilege, even if it meant, and I'm sure it did, more struggling for them. If they only have a few shekels and they're giving some of them away, I'm guessing that's gonna be more struggle for them, but they don't care. They don't care. They didn't want Paul to deny them that. Listen, I've been a pastor for 20 years, and I've never seen anyone begging to give. I'm sorry to say that. I don't think I've ever been begging to give. I don't think I've ever seen anyone begging to give. No one has ever shouted as the plate's being passed around, whoa, pastor, send it around again. I'm not done, I wanna put it one more time. Have you ever heard that? Maybe the pastor is saying send it around again, it looks a little light. But I don't think anybody out there is saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, bring it back, bring it back. I got more to give. No, but the Macedonians are saying, Paul, you gotta take our money. You have to take our money. We know we don't have a lot. We know we're living day to day. We know our savings book and our checkbook, we know they're at an all-time low, but we earnestly desire to be part of the giving to Jerusalem and how it will bless us to participate in that. And the spiritual blessings we get from giving outweighs our financial woes, outweighs our sacrifices. It just does. This, brothers and sisters, is when the heart is truly free and not bound to money. It's when you're free and you're not bound by money or possessions. When you could give liberally, when you could give to your ability and beyond, you are no longer a slave to fear and anxiety concerning money. I'm not up here, I have no desire to squeeze anybody for anything. I told you from the beginning, this is about the heart. I'm preaching this text because that's where we are in 2 Corinthians. And by the way, buckle up, we got another chapter and a half to go. but the reality is we need to know this because God is a giver, we ought to be givers we need to give by grace it honors God, it blesses God, it advances the kingdom when His people trust Him and it's a matter of trust So they know they don't have a lot. They know they're living day to day. They know all of that. But they want to participate. And again, those spiritual blessings and those financial woes far outweighs those things by being able to give. And this is the heart that's free. Free and not bound to money and possessions. This is when a shrinking economy and the prices of everything going up and rent going up has no hold on your heart. This is when you are truly seeking the Kingdom of God first and when you're trusting God to add to you what you need. This is when you're free. Unlike the Macedonians, you see giving as a fellowship and a ministry. You view it spiritually as part of being in the Kingdom of God and not something outside of it. Also know this, the Macedonian saints, they're 1,000 miles away from the Jerusalem saints. They've never met them. Most people aren't traveling in those days. You probably don't go past your village or town. And yet, their heart is so given to help these saints. They say, Paul, don't bypass us here. Let us give, let us give. Right? Because they're one in Christ with those brothers and sisters in the Lord. So the Macedonians truly understood what it meant when the Lord said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. More blessed to give than to receive. Do we believe that? I hope we believe that because that's what Jesus said. John Piper said this about the Macedonians giving. He said, when poverty-stricken Macedonia begs Paul for the privilege of giving money to other poor saints, we may assume this is what they want to do, not just ought to do or have to do, but really want to do. It's their joy, an extension of their joy in God. Be assured they're denying themselves what pleasures or comforts they could have from the money they gave away, but The joy of extending God's grace to others is a far better reward than anything money could buy. So we see, first of all, the willingness to give. Secondly, the begging to give. And finally, the motivation to give in verse five. And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us by the will of God. Well, now Paul gives us what motivated them, what enabled the Macedonians to give with such a generous heart. And pay attention, because this is the heart that we need. And it starts, he starts by saying, they gave not only as we hoped. Meaning, Paul could only have hoped the Macedonians could have given a small trickle of money, a couple of coins maybe, Right? They could give a minuscule amount for their needs were great. And I gotta believe he didn't expect them to give anything at all. or to give as much as they did, comparatively speaking. But what came before their generous giving was first a giving of themselves to the Lord. And herein lies the basis or the key of generosity. Here it is, right? First, they were committed to the Lord. They gave themselves to the Lord. That's the key right there. They gave themselves to the Lord. First, they were committed to Christ, heart and soul. First, they were under his authority as their Lord, the Lord of their lives, the Lord of their time, the Lord of their monies. First, they gave themselves into his sovereign care and provision. And by the way, first doesn't mean first in order, but first in priority. Now listen, you will never give according to your ability. You will never give beyond your ability if you're not solely committed to the Lord. You'll never abound in joy. You'll never abound in joy in trying circumstances, like great afflictions and deep poverty, if you're not given to the Lordship of Christ in your life. There's the key. There's the key that turns everything. So they surrendered wholeheartedly to the Lord, and for his will for them to be cheerful and sacrificial givers. Money and possessions did not grip their hearts, Christ did. Get it, money and possessions did not grip their hearts, Christ gripped their hearts. And we need to ask, what grips my heart? What grips your heart? Something is gripping it. If Christ is gripping your heart, then quite honestly, everything else is gonna fall into place quite nicely. But if it's not Christ, it's not Christ. So they gave with a generous heart because they themselves gave themselves to the Lord first. When Christ has your heart, it's hard to have a cautious heart. It's hard to have a worried heart. It is hard to have a stingy heart because your heart is given to him. So the one who is first and foremost given to the Lord has little trouble giving to the Lord. Little trouble. And truly, what God wants is not our money. You understand that. He doesn't want our money. Here's what he wants. He wants our hearts. He wants our lives. That's the key. If he has our heart, he has our lives. Service, giving, going, evangelizing, all of those things will fall into place. The heart, he wants the heart. Doesn't want our money. He wants the heart. And this is what Romans 12, one is saying. It's what it's all about. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, you present your bodies a living sacrifice. God wants you wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. If he gave you his son, it is reasonable for you to give him your life. He's given you eternal life and eradicated your eternal death. It is only reasonable that you give them your life. And when your life is a living sacrifice to God, it makes sense that you would sacrifice some of your temporal things to God as well. It just makes sense. So the Macedonians lived, they lived Romans 6.13, and didn't present their members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but rather presented themselves to God as being alive from the dead, and their members as instruments of righteousness to God. They understood, 1 Corinthians 6.19, that their body was the temple of the Holy Spirit who was in them. whom they had from God and that they were owned by God. So they could with gusto sing, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my movements and my days, let them flow with ceaseless praise, let them flow in ceaseless praise. I should have told you to sing that one. Take me because I'm yours. So they gave themselves to the Lord first, which means they worshiped Christ. He had the throne of their hearts. He had their obedience. He had their service. They were given to him, body and soul. You see, when Christ has your heart, everything else naturally flows along with it. The story of a missionary, talking to a chief in a tribe somewhere. And the chief tried to impress the missionary with gifts of a horse, and blankets, and jewelry. But the missionary said to the chief, my God doesn't want the chief's horse, or blankets, or jewelry. No, my God wants the chief himself. The chief smiled and said, you have a wise God. But when I give myself to him, he also gets my horses, my blankets, and my jewelry. So if the Lord owns you, if he's purchased you by his blood, then he owns all of your stuff as well. So giving yourself to the Lord first is the secret to generous giving. Giving yourself to him is the secret to everything really, but here we're dealing with giving, generous giving. And if you're not a generous giver, it may be you've never truly given yourself to the Lord. that maybe you haven't truly given yourself to the Lord. Spurgeon said this of the Macedonians. He said that their giving themselves to the Lord was their best donation. Their giving themselves to the Lord was their best donation. And listen, it won't do any good to give God anything unless we've first given him ourselves. And this is the principle we need to learn. There's the principle, that the way you give reflects if you've given yourself to the Lord. The way you give reflects if you have first given yourself to the Lord. If you're stingy to the Lord, and only you and the Lord know that, it's just an evidence that you haven't given yourself to the Lord. You've been very, you know, part and parcel and partial with that. And that's the principle. And that's the main issue here. Not the amount you give. It's never about the amount of what you give, but rather, if we're given to Christ, if we're given to Christ. And actually, if you give and aren't given to the Lord, it could actually be to your detriment. How's that, you ask? Well, because you could be tempted to think that your giving is enough to somehow make God pleased with you. You could think, well, I do give, I'm dumping a lot of money into that plate. You could think that God is pleased with you when you haven't given yourself to the Lord wholeheartedly. Well, not only the Macedonians give themselves first to the Lord, but they also gave themselves to Paul and their spiritual leaders. They acknowledged that they had the God-given authority to ask the saints to help the other saints who were suffering in Jerusalem. And they followed Paul's lead. They followed their pastor's lead. And they did so because they knew it was the will of God. Look again, end of verse five. And then to us by the will of God. So they knew it was God's will to submit to God's ministers. Well, let me close by leaving you with one question and then two thoughts. One question, two thoughts. And the question is this. Would you say, when searching your own heart, that you are now giving according to your ability? Would you say that you now are giving according to your own ability? Are you giving back to the Lord in proportion to what he's given to you? Or are you giving below? Or maybe even way below your ability? Are you just scratching the surface of what your ability is? And if you're not giving according to your ability, you gotta ask, why not? Why not? Because it may not be a money issue at all. It may be a heart issue. It may be a heart issue. Now, if you're giving according to your ability, amen. And again, the Lord knows. And by the way, just so we're clear, I have no idea what anybody in this room gives, except for one other person, and that's the lady sitting right there with the, I'll call it blonde hair. My wife, I just know what Peter and Claudia give. I don't know what anyone else gives. I have no idea. I think our trustees are gonna give you that like end of year, are we giving that out? You know, what you've given, Dan, we're doing that? It's in the mail? Not yet, that's coming. Whatever you've given this year, you're gonna get something that says you gave such and such. I have no idea what that is. I have no idea. I choose not to know. You know why I choose not to know? Because I know my frailties and I know my weak heart. If I know that someone here is like floating the church, I might be a little nicer to that person. I might not want to confront that person on sin. I might get a nice Christmas gift for that person. And if I know someone is stingy as the day is long, I might not want to serve them so much. I might look the other way. I mean, I know my bad heart at times. I don't want to know. I just want to love everybody, serve everybody. I don't know, because I know I'm weak. But here's what I do know. The Lord knows what you give. The Lord knows your heart. And that's all that really matters anyway. That's what matters anyway. Now, if you're giving again according to your ability, great. And would you say that your hope is to give beyond your ability? Maybe something's coming up. Maybe you have a desire to help a saint who's suffering in the church. Maybe there's a missionary you want to support. Maybe there's just ministry in the church you want to help. Amen to that. That's a wonderful idea if you want to do that. And I know it seems crazy in the world we live in, and sadly even in the church as we live today, but when Christ so has your heart, you can't help but to give to him and everything else that goes with that. You just can't help it. And where there is abundance of joy in him, there is a liberality to give back to him. Now, my first thought is this. When God owns your heart, he owns all of you, right? He owns all of you. He owns your life, he owns your time, he owns your talents. He owns everything you have. It's his anyway, right? For you are his special possession. You are his bondservant, purchased by Jesus' blood. and everything He has given you is to sustain you, and ultimately to glorify Him. If He's given you much, because He wants you to give much back to Him. If He's given you a little, He wants you to give a good heart back to Him. Yes, we need to survive. We are worse than an infidel not to provide for your own family. Paul says in 1 Timothy 5. but he gives so we could be givers. And we're gonna see as we go on that the more we wanna give, the more he's gonna give us to give. He's gonna bless us so we can keep giving. Not so we can just rake it in ourselves, but the one who wants to give, he enables you to keep doing that. We didn't get there yet. And so it glorifies him when you are freely willing to give back to him because it shows you trust in him. That's what it shows. And this is a grace that every believer needs, and we need to be growing in it. We need grace to be saved, we need grace to be sanctified, and part of that sanctifying grace is growing in the grace of giving. It's a grace, and we need to grow in it. All right, my second thought is this. If you don't give yourself first to the Lord, you won't give your offerings with a heart that honors him and pleases him, you just won't. Like the tribal chief, God doesn't want our stuff, he wants us. And if he has us, well then we'll give him our stuff, like our horses and our blankets and our jewelry, we'll give. So the question is, Have you lock, stock, and barrel given yourself to the Lord? Have you offered Him your life as a living sacrifice? Because that is what He is looking for. What we're learning here of what He wants is the heart. And generous giving is an evidence that He has your heart. Now, If you haven't given to the Lord, or you don't give, you're not giving yourself to the Lord, if you haven't repented of your sins and surrendered to Christ as your Lord, then as I said last week, you could drop a million bucks in that plate in five minutes. I'm sure the trustees would be thankful for that, but I'm telling you now, it does absolutely nothing for you spiritually. You cannot have one sin forgiven by no matter how much money you put in there. Bill Gates could walk in here, drop $100 billion on us, and he's still going to hell unless he repents and believes in the gospel. You understand that. Money means nothing. Your goods mean nothing. It's Christ and Christ alone, right? And that's why, what is the profit of man if he were to gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul? You could have everything. You could be the richest person this world has ever known and yet lose your soul. Lose your soul. So money means nothing. God will not forgive one sin because of what you give. You can't buy salvation. You can't earn an ounce of favor with God by giving because what he wants is not your stuff. He wants you. If you're unsaved today, He wants your heart. He wants your allegiance. He wants your heart. He wants you to turn from your sin and cling to Christ, to trust Him solely for the forgiveness of your sins. And if you do that, and if that's how your heart is turning toward Him, guess what? He'll give you eternal life. He'll give you a new heart. a new heart that will wanna give back to him, amen? But he'll give it to you. You need to repent, you need to believe. And if you haven't done that, don't walk out of here, ah, it's a sermon on money. It's not about money, it's about the heart and where the heart is, amen? Let's pray before Mike comes up. Father, thank you for giving us your son. Thank you that he became poor. left glory in heaven, the worship of angels, so he could take on flesh and dwell among us, put aside his divine prerogatives so that he could make us rich in him. Father, I pray that we, your people, would grow in the grace of being generous towards you. I pray that we would so overflow with joy that it would not be a hard thing for us to give back to you. I pray that we would be so given to you that again, it would not be a hard thing. It would be a delight for us to give to you. Father, if there are those with very stingy hearts in our body, Lord, please convict them of this sin. Let them know it's a heart issue and not a money issue. If they're worried about today and tomorrow and the next day, show them that you're God and you tell us to seek first the kingdom and don't worry about tomorrow. You're in control. Help us to trust you all the more, which brings you more glory. Help us to be a spiritually giving church with hearts that are generous, but first and foremost that overflow with the love of you. and a commitment to see you glorified in our lives. And Lord, for the unsaved, even maybe among us right now, Lord, would you show them that they have a massive need that money can't buy and good works can't fix, but that they need Christ crucified and resurrected, that they need the gift of Christ. Lord, you so loved sinners that you gave your only begotten Son. Would they believe in him today and find life? And Lord, would you do all these things to magnify your name in this place? In Jesus' name, amen.