Exploring My Strange Bible - A Generous Gospel (Remastered)

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

New Testament Themes E4 — In the Apostle Paul's mind, the good news about Jesus becomes most persuasive when his followers live with incredible generosity. And that’s because radical generosity permeates the New Testament, most powerfully revealed in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. In this fourth message in a six-part series, Tim teaches from 2 Corinthians 8 on how financial generosity demonstrates the claim that Jesus really is the risen Lord of the world. Tim gave this message at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Ore., on November 11, 2012. REFERENCED RESOURCES Check out Tim’s extensive collection of recommended books here. SHOW MUSIC “Nob Hill (Instrumental)” by Drexler SHOW CREDITS Production of today's episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Aaron Olsen edited and remastered today's episode. JB Witty does our show notes. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody. I'm Tim Mackie, and this is my podcast, exploring my strange Bible. I am a card-carrying Bible history and language nerd who thinks that Jesus of Nazareth is utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 20 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 all be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts and classes about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology.

You can find all those resources at Bibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. So in this episode, 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 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, 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

becomes powerfully persuasive when followers of Jesus are living with incredible generosity. And specifically in the passage in his second letter to 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 pouring 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 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 or your clutch. My wife calls her clutch. So that's a new term to me, but there you go. Whatever it is that you happen. So what am I talking about here? What I have in my pocket is my debit card to my checking account for Adventist credit union.

It's not a credit card because I think those will gut you and kill you personally. It's my it's a 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? And 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 goes.

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 I 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, is Josh and I, you know, 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 happen to fall on the readings for this weekend. and 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 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 today, because the basic claim that Paul is going to make in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 is the basic claim that Jesus made about this. It's because Jesus said, and you may, know the saying that it may be so familiar to you that you quit thinking about it anymore. where 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 commitments, 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, Jesus, the way of putting this is it 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, 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, we, we

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 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 pocket.

So let's dive in and let's see the power. This is going to be the hour, 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. The 2nd Corinthians chapter 8. Now there's a whole backstory 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 2nd Corinthians Chapter A. And so here's the story in a nutshell. And this will kind of illuminate things we keep reading. The movement of Jesus. Christianity began in what city? 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. 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, is 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 in 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, like, responsible for the birthing of the Jesus movement. well, Jesus actually, Jesus was, but they were kind of actually reluctant about the whole thing, but Jesus had a way 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 the Greek and Roman world. in Ephesus or in Galatia or Colossi 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 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 on 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 I asked 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. It'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 First Corinthians, he tells them, all right, just to save up every week, you know, that kind of thing. So something has happened in between First Corinthians and Second 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, Paul'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 representing 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 just think that's what's happened. 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. 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 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 tells a story, right? Here 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 of letters to some of these 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. through 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. That's what? It's grace. It's grace. This whole chapter, Paul uses the word grace more in 2nd 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 caris. Does anybody have a friend named Caris? Do you have any caris? It would be cool. So, Caris, if you have a friend named Carus, your friend's name means grace. Now, grace is the main way

that this word gets translated in the New Testament. The meanings of Carus, actually, Carus is a very rich, it's a very rich word. And so you can use Karras to talk about a gift. So let's say someone's birthday and you might give them a gift on their birthday. I'm not 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 Carus. That's not Carus. That's trying to put someone in your debt and getting them to give you back. That's not Carus. Carus 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 or 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.

Give that up. In English, we call that forgiveness to forgive somebody. And you can see the word give right there. And the language Paul is writing in, 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 carous.

That's carous. 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 carous,

carous, 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 track him? He says, you could do a lot of things. Paul could do a lot of things. He tells a story about charus, God's charus that has happened to the Macedonians. What does he mean? Verse two. 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, where some of your translations will have

rich generosity on their part. I'm telling you, they gave according to their means, and then it 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. 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, Karras. 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. Do you see that? God's grace has so turned these people inside out that's sacrificially giving, even when they actually don't have hardly anything to give at all, that is a privilege and a carous,

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 part in this relief work for the saints, by which he means the Christians in Jerusalem. And we were not expecting this. 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 just look at verse two. This is what I call gospel mass. This is where two plus two doesn't equal for. In God's economy, two plus two 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? I'd say. 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 two. So this is their circumstances, but in the midst of those circumstances, what's their attitude?

What gives us to? What's their attitude? An abundance of joy. So severe hardship, this is we'll do gospel math right here. Severe hardship plus extreme poverty plus abounding joy equals what? but 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 mess. This is what's impossible, seems impossible with people, ends up being possible when God's chorus, 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 this brilliant? This is brilliant. So who's he of 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 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. I 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, right? And generosity. And so whatever they do have, open-handed.

They're ready to share, they're invite. How many have you 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 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, right? 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.

So 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 two, having money and having joy are two

totally different things, right? So if I foster the mindset that 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 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 the 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 a lot 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 of 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 Chorus.

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 not help the Corinthians also participate. in this act of caress. 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 Titus to help you renew your passion for this. And look at what he says in verse 7. This is really powerful. He says, just as you are excelling in everything, I mean, you're excelling in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all of your earnestness,

and in our love for you, see also that you excel in this act of grace also. What does he mean? What does he mean? Essentially, he's saying, listen, you guys are growing like weeds. I mean, they're just sprouted, 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, whatever, you're growing in your faith. But he says, 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 do.

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, both understand God's grace, but whether or not have been grasped by God's grace. I had a roommate of mine in college, and it was kind of, it was that season. where you have like lots of buddies and 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's, was that 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 was one of my friends of mine who went on in biblical studies as well in graduate school. And when he knew that 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 of years now. How much money is in that?

You know what I say? We're not, just have we not been making money? We've actually been paying schools so we can 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 fiancé 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 carus 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 this is precisely what Paul's talking about here. It's precisely what he's saying. It'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 at 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 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 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 hands off and let God do his work. So we 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.

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, 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 one to ten? I think we're batting about like a three or something. I don't know. Maybe a two. I'm not sure.

Right. So obviously we can do lots of stuff, but we have this, 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. 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 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 carous, his love and his grace for screwed up broken people, he 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 his poverty, might become rich. Paul says, I'm not going to command you to give. do that, but I'm not going to. What he'd rather do is tell them a 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 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 if you know i can't 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. If you can go on as a Christian and say, yeah, that's totally cool that God was generous and showed Kara's and grace toward me. And yeah, that has absolutely nothing to do with what I do with this. Paul says, 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. connect the dots. And so that's precisely what I'm going to do. It's precisely what I'm 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 out, 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 know, I often joke about or whatever. So it's not what this is about. So the 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 are things that make people never want to go to a church. We try it and remove and strip all that down and make it, make it simple, make it just, here we are, we're just Portlanders doing this kind of thing, gathering around this, is just what we do, this is what we're going to look like, this is the music, we're going to

saying, 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. It's a really, really good thing as we're 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 and 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. 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. in our existing body of people right now to be a financially stable church. We really believe that. And whatever the next couple of 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 Dwar of 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, you know, it's fairly close. It's fairly close. And so our dream would be that in a hundred years from now, a similar letter could be written about a story of these under-employed 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? 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, go do it. Go do it.

And I think it's one of those situations. Lots of people. We don't really, and Josh or 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 gives 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 world.

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, 2nd Corinthians-8 was this week. 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. It's probably like Buffalo Exchange. It's probably like Buffalo genes 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, you can find ways. And so look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 with me. Second 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 caris 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, probably should get it a little more out there, but I don't know, just a little here. So he's talking about a technique of sowing seed farmers. It was called telecast. Telecast, telecast, what? Josh White, telecasts, right? There's a technique called telecasting. The whole field would be plowed, not in rose 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 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 that God will write you a check for that, like the TV guy will say, put your hand on the screen and a credit card number and all that kind of thing. So 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 kairas 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

has the 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, each person must give as they have decided in their heart, not reluctantly, and not under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. This is the first principle. Is the gospel-inspired generosity? It's priority. It's not an after-reesome. thought. 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 this 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 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 mind so messed up that, like, the Macedonian, that 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 a gathering or whatever, they've actually already thought this all through. It's thought it through. Here's where I'm at. And so it's priority.

It's at the top of the list. And it's, you sit down. And as we're going to kind of see in a second here, I think a helpful technique, you sit down and think through your year. And just think through what 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 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. It's why we don't pass a pouch or plate. That's why the giving boxes, at least in our gatherings, are by the bread in the cup.

Because we believe giving our carous, our generosity, is a response to God's generosity to us. And so we have it right behind the bread in the cup, which is very intentional, you guys. The bread in the cup reminds us of Jesus' death and carus for me. Of worship, I respond to the bread in 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, that 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 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.

It's actually, it's kind of funny because some people think that's a biblical number. Do you actually read the Old Testament passages about the tithes? What you'll discover is there were actually two tiths the Israelites were supposed to give. Doiteranomy 14. I'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 3%. Actually, the biblical old decimal 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 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 do 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% would, we don't even feel 10%. There's not that many of us, but there are a number of us here at Dorhope 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, look at verse 8. and God is able to make all chorus 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, policy is this is 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, 2%. What if all year you pray? 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 your prayer request in that year that you could give more? And then what would happen? Just what can happen? Just right here. What can 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 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 roommates was for his girlfriend, become fiancé. 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 a 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. 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 cheers. We'll see you next time.