I would like for us to turn this morning to 2 Corinthians 8. We will read the first five verses.
Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which hath been given in the churches of Macedonia;
that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.
For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord,
begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints,
and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.
Then also turn to Philippians 4. Paul had just received a gift from the church at Philippi, and he was thanking them for it.
Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.
But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Lord, we are thankful this morning that, as we gather, our brother brought us back to the very foundation of this life: how You so loved the world that You gave Your only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
We are thankful for the price You paid. We are thankful for the life that we have received, and we are thankful that that life is now within us. Lord, as that life is within us, it desires to hear the very word from the throne of God.
So, Lord, as we open our hearts to You today, it is with a desire that we would see You in a fuller and greater way. We are not here just to learn about You, but we are here to allow Your life to speak to us and to have an encounter with You. That is really the desire of our hearts every day.
As we have this time together, we are thankful that we can seek Your face together and that You speak to us in the oneness of Your heart. Lord, we commit this time into Your hands, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As you look at the verses we read in 2 Corinthians 8, the setting was that Paul was getting ready to go to Corinth to collect a gift from the saints there, to take it on to Jerusalem.
Now, the churches in Macedonia—okay, here is a question to wake everybody up. Name one of the churches in Macedonia. Philippi, Thessalonica, and those that sought the Lord, the true searchers of God’s Word: the Bereans. There you go.
Those were the churches in Macedonia, and they had already given a gift. Paul was using their testimony to encourage the ones in Corinth to step up. The Corinthians had already made a commitment that they were going to give, and Paul was bringing this to their remembrance.
It is precious when you look at the ones in Macedonia. They were in very poor cities, in a poor area, and they suffered much under the Romans. They were quite different from those in Corinth, which was a more affluent city. These other cities were poor and afflicted, and Paul was using them to encourage the Corinthians.
So, what am I sharing on today? Am I sharing on giving? No, because that is really not the issue. The issue here is a heart of service.
As you look at these verses, hopefully we can see beyond the picture of giving to the heart of service in these dear ones in Macedonia. Beyond even a heart of service, we see that service, as we read in Philippians, is a spiritual ministry.
When we serve one another, there is a spiritual ministry there. It goes beyond the immediate, and it allows the Bride to be made ready. Every time there is service in the Lord, there is more gold being added to the city.
When we consider service, may the Lord help us to see that it is beyond the immediate. There is eternal value to our service to the Lord and to one another. That is what He is after. It is far beyond just the physical gift.
Why are we considering this? One reason is that we have the conference in a couple of weeks. What is the theme of the conference? Serving the purpose of God in our generation. David, it testifies, served the purpose of God in his own generation.
We do have that on our minds, but this is not solely a conference message. The burden is that this impacts us every day of our lives, because we are called into the service of God and into serving one another every day.
It is for our individual encouragement, that we can be strengthened, that our lives together can be strengthened, and that through that the Lord’s testimony would be strengthened. Through that, it would hasten the Lord’s return.
Too often, when we look upon things in the natural realm, we have a way of ranking service. Is it any more important for somebody to teach the children at conference than for the ones who are teaching downstairs now? No. They are simply called to be faithful with what the Lord has put in their hands that day.
It is a daily service. Man likes to elevate. Sometimes, if you have a bigger audience or more people, we say, “Wow, that is a greater service.” No, it is not.
The Lord is calling us to serve Him faithfully every day with what He puts in our hands. That should be our perspective. We see in these dear ones how they were captured by the Lord, and they were serving out of a pure heart unto Him.
As these dear ones in Macedonia and Corinth were serving those in Jerusalem who were going through a difficult time, that service was a marvelous testimony of the oneness of the Body of Christ.
That is a physical, visible testimony upon this earth: there are ones in one place caring for ones in other places. To me, one of the beauties of the Wednesday-night prayer meeting is that often we pray for ones we have no idea who they are.
A brother may have gone somewhere. Kenny went down to San Antonio, and there were brothers there; we prayed for those brothers. Jeffrey today is up in Rockville, Maryland, and we pray for these ones.
There is a testimony of our oneness with them. Our oneness is not based upon a personal relationship or upon knowing them. Our oneness with them is based upon being in Christ and upon the oneness we have in the Body of Christ.
The more that life is expressed, the more that testimony is strengthened. These dear ones in Macedonia had received much spiritual help from those in Jerusalem, and they were thankful for an opportunity to respond and help in a physical way.
But the desire is to see far beyond the physical and to see that our service is a true spiritual ministry unto the Lord. That is what He is after.
How did Paul describe the gift he received? Look back at Philippians 4. Paul had received the gift, and he was very appreciative and thankful for it.
In Philippians 4:18, he testifies that he had received everything in full and was amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what they had sent. But what does he say that it was?
A fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
That was its spiritual reality. Even though it may have been money that was sent, Paul saw beyond it. It was a spiritual sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. It was a fragrant aroma. The fragrance of Christ came forth from it, far more than merely a physical provision.
This is what the Lord is calling us to in this hour. There is a great battle over the testimony. There is a battle over serving one another in this self-centered generation.
There is so much focus upon ourselves, but the Lord is trying over and over again to get our eyes off ourselves, that daily we would care for one another.
I appreciated Herbert’s testimony during the announcements: they had brought more food, and they did not say, “Okay, we will just keep this food and put it in the freezer. We will have it later.” The Spirit spoke to them, and they took it to a family in need.
Praise God for that. That was a fragrant aroma, a wonderful sacrifice to that family. That is the heart of service our Lord is jealous for in this day and time: getting our eyes off ourselves and onto Him.
As we look at these verses, each verse gives us a little lesson, an aspect within this. We could perhaps call them five treasures from these verses.
The first verse gives us the foundation of our service. If we look back at 2 Corinthians 8:1, what we see is that the foundation of our service is the grace of God.
Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which hath been given in the churches of Macedonia.
The foundation of all our service is the grace of God. Paul is not commending those in Macedonia for something they had in themselves, some superior quality or ability. He is commending them for the grace of God.
All our service comes about by simply responding to the grace of God. Earlier, Paul had encouraged those in Corinth not to take the grace of God in vain. We have all received the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
As it says in John, He was full of grace and truth. I appreciate how we remind ourselves that grace is not a thing. Grace is a Person. It is a life within us. That is what we have received.
These ones in Macedonia had received this grace, and there was an abundance there. How much grace have we received? We have received a fullness.
Look over at 2 Corinthians 9:8. I know you are not supposed to have favorites, but this is one of my favorite verses in all of Scripture because there is such a fullness, comprehensiveness, and all-inclusiveness to it.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
Sometimes we face a situation and say, “There is no way I can do it.” Actually, that is a good attitude if we use it in the right way, because we cannot do it. But sometimes we stop there and allow that to paralyze us because our eyes are upon ourselves.
If we look off and realize the grace we have received, there is an ability God has given within us. There is a life within us that can overcome any situation.
That is the beauty of this verse. I always say this verse was written by a lawyer, because the lawyer closed every possible loophole against any argument one might have.
God is able to make all grace—not just some grace—abound to you. Not just a little bit, but abounding grace. That always—not sometimes, but always—having all sufficiency in everything, not just in some things, you may have an abundance, not merely enough, for every good deed.
That is a comprehensive verse describing the grace of God we have received. It is a comprehensive verse describing the life of Christ within us. The Lord is calling us to respond to that grace.
It is sad in the days we are living in that there has been such a misrepresentation of grace. It is almost as though, because you have grace, you are relieved of all spiritual responsibility.
But the grace of God is just the opposite. Instead of relieving us of responsibility, it creates within us a greater sense of spiritual responsibility.
What is spiritual responsibility? As we have often heard our brother Stephen share, it is responding to His ability. It is not ourselves.
Sometimes, when we think about spiritual responsibility, we think, “Oh, now I have got to do something.” But spiritual responsibility is simply responding to His ability. The more we know of His ability, the greater our response to Him.
This Christian life is really a life of response. When we came to the table this morning, what is worship? What is remembering Him? It is responding to His great love.
Our brother shared about John 3:16, and there was a response. Worship is a response to seeing Him. When we come to pray on Wednesday night, our prayers are a response to the burdens and leading He places upon our hearts.
Our daily life of service is a response as the Spirit touches us, as the Spirit makes us aware of this or that. We are those who respond to His grace.
Praise God, brothers and sisters, the grace of God does not depend upon circumstances. It is not a relative grace. There is an absoluteness there, a fullness, whether circumstances are good or bad.
There is an all-sufficiency in that grace. Often we wait for a little better circumstance, thinking then we can do something. But the grace of God is available regardless of the circumstances.
I always think of the life of Joseph. Throughout the first part of his life, the circumstances were horrible. Yet the testimony of Joseph’s life was that God was with him.
His brothers betrayed him. He was sold into slavery. He was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife. He ended up in prison. Yet in all of that, God was with him.
Joseph knew the grace of God with him, and through that grace Joseph responded. At the appointed time, God was able to highly exalt him.
Then, once Joseph was on the throne, there was grace not to become self-centered. He continued responding to God’s grace. I often think the greatest temptation of Joseph’s life may have been when he was exalted and had everything in the world at his fingertips.
He was the second most powerful man in the world. That can be a greater temptation than suffering and affliction. Yet Joseph responded to the grace of God in so-called bad circumstances and in exalted circumstances.
It is not dependent upon circumstances. It is dependent upon Him. That is the life we have. These dear ones in Macedonia, in spite of their circumstances, had that foundation: the grace of God. That was the origin of their service.
Then, as they responded to the grace of God, we see a flourishing of their service. From the foundation of service, it began to flourish in a way we would not expect.
The key letter today is “F”: foundation, flourishing. Look at verse 2:
That in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.
What a marvelous testimony. There is a double paradox here: in a great ordeal of affliction, there was an abundance of joy; in deep poverty, there was overflowing liberality.
Wow. It is something you do not grasp in yourself. It shows how the life of Christ within them flourished in such a marvelous way.
Often in affliction, our self-centeredness comes forth naturally. We get focused on our problem and our need: “I am going through this now. I cannot care about anybody else. I have got to solve this problem. I have got to get through this. Get me out of this situation.”
But in Macedonia, through the afflictions of the believers, the life of Christ came forth. They responded to the grace of God, and the life of Christ came forth in a spirit of joy and liberality that was not of themselves.
In our daily service to one another—in our homes, our work, and everything—we go through times of affliction and various trials. May we learn from these dear ones and be encouraged that, as we go through these things, we can find that joy.
That was why I chose that hymn: Jesus calls us through the tumult. In the tumult of life, He calls us to follow Him, to come through, and to allow Him to work.
The life of Christ within the Macedonians, and the life of Christ within us, cares for others. If you look at the life of Christ, you do not see a self-centered life. You see One caring for others through all the afflictions of His life.
On the cross, in that great affliction, who was He concerned for? He was concerned for His mother. He was concerned for us. He said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
In His affliction, He said, “Not My will, but Thy will, be done.” That is the life of Christ. It is not caring for yourself in the midst of affliction, but caring for the others around you.
Joseph’s story always impresses me. Remember when Joseph was in prison? He was caring for two of Pharaoh’s servants, the cupbearer and the baker.
Joseph was innocent, falsely accused, and in prison. Yet he was not absorbed in self-pity or worried only about his own affliction. He was caring for them.
One morning, he noticed they had a different expression on their faces because they had had dreams. We will not go into the dreams, but the point is that, in the midst of Joseph being wrongly accused and afflicted, he noticed the suffering of others.
As we go through things, can we notice our brothers and sisters? Can we recognize situations in others’ lives, or are we so focused on our affliction that somebody can be in dire need right next to us and we utterly miss it?
Would the grace of God, and would that life of Christ within us, come forth in a fuller way as we respond to Him? May we get our eyes off ourselves and onto Him and one another.
This double paradox also says that in their deep poverty, it overflowed in liberality. These ones were genuinely poor. Often, when we are in a tight time or feel impoverished, our selfishness comes forth.
We begin to hoard things. We have no thought of giving. Christians can learn a certain lingo: “I am not supposed to ask for anything.” So we say, “I have this situation. I do not have any money. Would you pray for me?”
We might say, “My car broke down,” or, “My kids do not have clothes to start school. Pray that the Lord will provide.” Often, we are asking someone whom we know has some money.
We have ways of working through things and acting spiritual while actually being very self-centered. May the Lord convict us, because the life of Christ does not think of itself, even in poverty.
Christ made Himself poor for our sake. Praise God for that. Throughout Scripture, we see this heart. He noticed the widow’s mite.
She put a little into the offering box while others put in much, yet He said she had given more than all the rest because she gave all that she had to live on. She surrendered it all to the Lord.
There is that song, “All to Jesus I surrender.” That widow did that. She gave it all to Him.
Peter and John, after the day of Pentecost, were going to the temple, and there was a lame man begging. They said, “Silver and gold have I none; but what I have I give to thee.”
We may not have silver and gold, but we have the life of Christ. That is what comes forth. Paul’s testimony to the Corinthians was, “As poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”
That is the life of a Christian. We are possessing all things.
Who are the poor and afflicted? Often we think of others. But, brothers and sisters, when we really look at it, we are the poor and afflicted. Our problem is that we often do not realize it.
We think we have something. We think we are rich. We think we have abilities. Yet we are poor and afflicted. But there is a rich life within us that comes forth, because all our righteous works and everything we have in ourselves are just filthy rags.
That was the warning to Laodicea. They thought they were rich and had need of nothing, yet they were poor and afflicted and did not realize it.
Do we realize who we are in ourselves? Praise God, in Christ there is a wealth we have. There is a richness we have been brought into.
What a paradox: we are poor and afflicted, yet we are the richest of all people upon this earth because we have that overcoming, victorious life within us. He simply wants to come forth as we respond to His grace.
It is interesting that it says they responded with liberality. When I study, I love to go back and look at the original word. I was stunned when I looked at this word.
Another translation for this word is simplicity. It is the same word used in 2 Corinthians 11:3, concerning the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
It speaks of singleness, purity, and true open-heartedness. In their liberality, there was a genuineness about it. There was simplicity and sincerity.
It was generosity without other motives. They were simply giving to give. They were not thinking, “I am going to do this so people will see the great gift I have given.”
They did not give because people would be reading about them for eternity. When they gave this gift, they had no idea that, a couple thousand years later, we would be talking about them.
The Lord touched their hearts, and they gave with genuineness and sincerity, without other motives. That touches my heart. The Holy Spirit needs to search us.
What is the motive of our service? Is there sincerity? Is there simplicity in serving the Lord and serving one another? Or do we enjoy the praises of men?
There is such a temptation, particularly with a conference coming. People praise Richmond for the conference, and everybody knows to say, “Oh, no, no, it is not us. It is the Lord.” But inside we may say, “Yes.”
No. Praise God for His faithfulness. Do not rob Him of His glory. We are not in it for the praises of men. We are not doing it for any other motive, but simply with a sincere heart, in simplicity.
Out of that pure heart’s desire for their brethren, we see the freewill nature of their service. They had the foundation of service, and as it flourished, there was a freewill spirit within their hearts.
Look at verse 3:
For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord.
Praise God. There was that freewill response. They gave even beyond what they thought they could give, according to their ability and beyond their ability.
I thank the Lord for the testimony times we have each month, because you hear of ones who responded to the grace of God and went through something beyond their own ability.
Often we go through a crisis or affliction in life: a child is seriously sick, a loved one passes away after many years or suddenly, or all of a sudden we lose a job. The initial reaction is natural: “I cannot do this.”
That is very normal, and our Lord in His compassion understands that. But then we realize: take it one step at a time, one day at a time.
“I do not know how I am going to get through this, but today, Lord, I know Your sufficiency.” Then we take that step.
Many dear sisters in this room were married for many years, and their husbands are with the Lord now. That is like asking, “How am I going to make this?” You do not know the answer, but you know Who is there.
You take one step, then another step, and continue day by day. Some of the old timers may remember a sermon Mike Mann shared many years ago at Pope Avenue: “Plod on, plod on, plod on, plod on.”
As a good old country boy from Bowling Green would say, we just keep plodding on, step by step. Then, all of a sudden, we realize we are getting through this.
There is another aspect of life we are entering into. What we have learned through affliction, by responding to the grace of God, is that we see the Lord and know Him in a way we would never have known before.
There is more of His fullness that we see now. It is through crises and afflictions that we see more and more and learn more of the life of Christ.
These dear ones responded to that grace, and they gave of their own accord. They gave that freewill offering. It was not provoked; it was their own heart’s desire.
This is one of the principles for building the house of God. Throughout Scripture, when the house of God was built, whether in the tabernacle or the temple, the material came through the freewill offerings of the people.
Remember at the tabernacle, they gave so much that Moses had to say, “Stop giving.” As we have said before, nobody has ever heard a sermon on stopping giving.
Even the temple was built through freewill response, through heartfelt offering. That is how the house of God is built.
Brothers and sisters, today, as we are constrained by the love of Christ—as we were reminded of His love at the table this morning—we freely respond.
It is not a response of doing something for Him. It is a response of allowing Him to live in us and do what He desires to do in and through our lives, that His character would be formed and expressed through us.
He is jealous for that. I am reminded of Psalm 123, one of the Songs of Ascents: as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, and as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so the eyes of our hearts are upon Him.
As we are captured by Him and as He leads us, may we have that freewill response. When He says, “Do this,” may there be a response with fullness and gladness of heart.
What this brings us into, as we respond, is the fellowship of service. Brothers and sisters, there is a precious fellowship in serving the Lord and serving one another.
Look at verse 4:
Begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints.
In some translations, that word participation is the word fellowship. I love how the Macedonians did not want merely to be asked to serve; they begged for the privilege of serving.
The word translated “begging” is a strong word. They were emphatic. They were almost demanding, “We want to serve.”
Sometimes we have to be begged, persuaded, or coerced. But there was no coercion here. Paul was not shaming them into service or making them feel obligated. There was a freewill response.
They saw the value. They saw what God was after, and they wanted to be part of it. Praise God for that.
Much of that has been lost among God’s people today, but may the Lord recover within all our hearts that freewill response.
Why were they able to respond like that? Because they saw beyond. They saw the true nature of service. They saw that it was a spiritual ministry, not merely a physical gift.
Chapters 8 and 9 of 2 Corinthians go together. The gift is called a ministry. Look at 2 Corinthians 9:1:
For it is superfluous for me to write to you about this ministry to the saints.
Again, they were seeing beyond the physical. They were seeing the spiritual value, the ministry of this service. When we serve one another, there is ministry, there is caring, and there is building up going on.
That is the true nature of service. Would the Lord open our eyes to see that? The true nature of service goes beyond the immediate because it does the work of preparing the Bride.
The Bride is to be able to testify that she has made herself ready. There is gold going into that eternal city.
In Revelation 19, what is the Bride clothed in? She is clothed in fine linen, bright and clean, which is the righteous acts of the saints.
As believers respond by the grace of God, with this freewill heart, it is the righteous acts of the saints. It is not our own self-righteous acts. It is simply those who have responded to the grace of God.
There is a beautiful raiment being woven. That is the Bride making herself ready. Every time spiritual service is done, we could say there is another stitch going into that garment and more gold going into the city.
Would the Lord open our eyes to see beyond the immediate and recognize the eternal value of the service He has called us into?
Verse 4 is very rich in what it says concerning the spirituality of service. I read from the New American Standard Bible. It says they were begging for “the favor” of participation in the support of the saints.
That word “favor” is the Greek word charis, grace. Participation is fellowship. Support is diakonia, the word from which we get deacon, meaning spiritual ministry or service.
They were begging to enter, by the grace of God, into the fellowship of spiritual ministry.
We are gathering tonight to pray for the conference, and we have been praying on Wednesday nights. To me, the key thing is grasping the spiritual nature of what is before us and laying hold of that.
We can become so focused on the practical aspects of serving. But if the spiritual realm is not dealt with, it is vain to pray only about practical matters.
We obviously need to pray about practical things. I am not saying otherwise. But we must keep things in perspective. What is the vital thing? What is the essential thing? It is preparing the way of the Lord.
This is true for our service at the conference and for our daily service to one another, in our groups, and as we care for one another. It is seeing beyond the immediate to all that He is after.
As we consider the testimony of these dear ones in Macedonia—the foundation and flourishing of their service, their freewill response, and their fellowship of service—what was their first step?
What was the first thing they did? I sometimes wonder why Paul and the Holy Spirit put this in the fifth verse. It seems as though it should come first, but it is almost as though he builds to a crescendo: this is the key thing.
Look at verse 5:
And this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.
They first gave themselves to the Lord. Brothers and sisters, this is the whole principle and essence of our Christian life together and our Christian life individually.
It is the secret of our strength for every day: first giving ourselves to the Lord. We may not like the word because we hear it so much, but it is speaking of personal consecration.
It is giving ourselves to the Lord for Him to live His life in us and for His character to be formed within us. It is not only for special times; it is a daily matter. It is the foundation of our whole life.
In our individual lives, at home, at work, in our family life, and in the house of God, it is first giving ourselves to the Lord and allowing Him to have preeminence within our lives.
Lately, we have been praying for Christian families. There is a great battle over Christian families, and we see so many being destroyed in this day and time.
This gets to the heart of the issue in Christian families. Within any marriage, who is first in the family?
Often the wife puts the husband first, or the husband puts the wife first. But the spouse should put the other spouse second. Christ is first.
If Christ does not have preeminence, if Christ is not first, there is no foundation for that marriage. It sounds contrary to natural concepts of marriage to say that you put your wife or husband second, but that is the right order.
So often marriages fall apart because the husband or wife puts the other person first, or puts themselves first. Christ ends up being important within the family, but He does not have preeminence.
That is true within the house of God as well. The principle applies in every aspect of life. Christ has to have the preeminent place, the prominent place.
We are not talking about first place merely in terms of the amount of time we give. We are talking about preeminence and priority.
How can any of our service have real eternal value unless He is first in our lives? If He is not Lord of our life, if we are not doing it from Him, then all we are doing is from ourselves, and there is no eternal value.
The Lord is far more concerned about us than our service. He is far more concerned about who we are in Him. He is far more concerned about His character being formed within us than what we do for Him.
Yes, He wants us to serve Him, but that is second. These dear ones first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to others. What a lesson for us.
The service these dear ones in Macedonia performed was an outward manifestation. It was a testimony of lives surrendered to Him.
We see this in the lives of brothers and sisters. We talk about surrendering our life to the Lord, and someone may ask, “What does that mean?” But then you see the life of Christ in somebody, and you say, “That is a surrendered life.”
That is the testimony. It is the visible testimony of a life laid down, surrendered, and directed by Him.
To tie this back to serving the purpose of God in our generation: it is a life in which He has preeminence and first place, and in which, as we are directed by the will of God, we obey and respond.
That is our service: responding to the will of God. It is the testimony of David in the passage from which the conference theme comes.
The Lord found David, a man after God’s own heart. We often stop there, but the verse continues: “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.”
David had a heart to respond to the will of God. He obeyed and responded in that way.
As these dear ones responded to the grace of God, we see the testimony of this ministry in 2 Corinthians 9. Paul explains what this gift meant and how it impacted those who received it.
Look at 2 Corinthians 9:12:
For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God.
Praise God, it supplied the needs of the saints. The needs of the saints need to be met. But it does not stop there.
There is an overflowing. Out of their affliction, joy, and liberality—without other motives—they gave that gift. It met the needs of the saints, but then it overflowed in thanksgiving to God.
God received the glory. God received the praise.
Continue in verse 13:
Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all.
Again, there was a spirit of worship that came forth. Their response touched Christ in these dear ones, and the fragrant aroma of that gift reached them. There was a response of worship.
Is that not what we desire as we serve one another, whether in our groups or wherever? We desire that God would be glorified, that there would be a response of glorifying the Lord and thanksgiving unto Him.
Verse 14 says:
While they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Praise God. What is that indescribable gift? Do you think Paul is talking about the money? The indescribable gift is the Lord Jesus Christ.
They had touched the life of Christ in these dear ones. As these believers laid down their lives and poured themselves out, the life of Christ was released and made manifest. That life touched the ones in Jerusalem.
Whenever we are serving brothers and sisters, what are we desiring? We are desiring that they would touch Christ.
We are going to have a meal here in a little bit. What is the main goal of the meal? It is not merely to eat. It is for fellowship. It is the sharing of the life of Christ with one another.
When someone comes to meet with us, what do we desire? Do we desire that they say, “Oh, we like the attire here. We like that people did not have to wear a tie. We like the music”?
No. Our desire is that they say, “I do not understand all of that, but I touched Christ.” The life of Christ—that is what these dear ones in Jerusalem touched.
As we pray for the conference, what is the overall prayer? That ones at the conference would encounter Christ.
Would they say at the end of the conference, “Thank You, Lord, for this indescribable gift of the life of Your Son, which has been manifested to us and has touched us”?
Yes, we are thankful for all the other service. But through that service, Christ was seen, Christ was touched, and Christ captured hearts and lives.
Sometimes we can become so occupied with service that we lose perspective. There is an end in view. There is a purpose in view.
I appreciate this reminder from the dear ones in Macedonia: they had a true perspective of the eternal value of service.
Without seeing God’s heart and God’s vision for His purpose, we will remain in the immediate. But the more the Lord reveals Himself and His heart to us, the more we see beyond.
We see what He is calling us to: that He would have a dwelling place among us, that His life would be expressed among the people of God, and that the testimony of the Lord Jesus would be strengthened in these last days.
We would be a light on a hill, shining in the midst of a dark place. The Bride would be made ready.
How does all of that come about? It comes about as each one of us, as believers, serves the purpose of God in our own generation.
May the lessons we see from these dear ones in Macedonia encourage us. May they give us a fresh perspective and open the eyes of our hearts to see the eternal value of our service to the Lord and to one another.
Lord, when we think about the perplexities of life, it amazes us that You would call us to be Your servants.
But, Lord, in that, You are giving us an opportunity to enter into more and more of the fullness of Your life and to see the treasure we have in this earthen vessel.
May we be willing to allow that earthen vessel to be broken, that the treasure could come forth for Your glory and for Your honor, that You would be the One receiving the praise. In Your name, amen.