This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

We're walking through 2 Corinthians chapter 8 this week, which is all about how
you and I become more generous people. This is day 3, verses 6 to 9 today. We've
talked about how you and I, if we're going to be generous, have to learn to
give, number one, regardless of the circumstances.

Number two, give beyond your abilities. Number three, you see giving as a
privilege. Number four, first, you give yourself to the Lord, although it's the
fourth thing he says is the first thing we should always do is you give yourself
to the Lord.

And there's a fifth principle as we walk through this chapter. If you want to be
generous, then you've got to make a commitment, number five, to excel in giving.
Commit to excel, to become excellent in giving.

Listen to verses 6 and 7. So we urge Titus, since he had earlier made a
beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But just
as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete
earnestness, in your love for us, see that you also excel in this grace of
giving.

This word "excel," "parasebo" in the Greek language, means to have an abundance,
a super abundance of something, to overflow with something. That's the idea in
this word, to excel. And the reminder here is that the attitude of generosity is
not something that's to inhabit one small corner of our lives.

It should be overflowing in our lives. The only way to be generous is to be
overflowing with generous. You can't be generous some of the time.

You can't be generous with a little tiny part of yourself. That's not
generosity. As long as you're holding all of that back, you're not being
generous.

Paul makes the point that to be generous, this attitude that God has given to me
so I can give back to others, it has to so fill and consume me that I begin to
overflow with it. And part of the excellence that he talks about here, did you
pick up that phrase as he says, "You need to complete this act of grace on your
part. " I love that phrase.

Completing an act of grace. Generous people are follow-through people. Because
they follow through, they complete the act of grace.

In just about any sport, follow-through is all important. It determines how far
the ball will go, how straight it will roll, how close to the hole it will come.
The Corinthians' generous promises had not yet resulted in generous actions.

They needed to complete the act of grace. They needed to finish the swing. They
needed to finish the follow-through.

They had a problem with follow-through. Now why the delay? You can read all
about it in 1 Corinthians.

You can read about it in the first part of 2 Corinthians. They had spiritual
problems in the church. They were struggling in their relationship with God and
with each other.

And any time you struggle in your relationships with God or with others, you're
going to struggle to be generous. You got to get that right. First you give
yourself to the Lord.

Then you give yourself to others. And then you're able to be generous.
Excellence is completing this act of grace.

Excel in giving. Overflow with it in your life. You give with excellence.

There's a sixth principle. This sixth principle really tells us how to give with
excellence. It says in the scriptures verses 8 and 9, "I am not commanding you,
but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the
earnestness of others.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet
for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become
rich. " The sixth thing you do is you give gratefully. You give based on the
example of Jesus and what He's done for you.

It's the gift of Christ that motivates us to complete our intentions in the face
of our own selfishness. It says here, "He became poor. " That's Christmas.

That's Easter. He became poor. He gave up the glories of heaven to be born in a
barn.

To be laid in a cow's feeding trough. Philippians chapter 4 says Jesus emptied
Himself to become a man. He gave up so much.

He became poor. That's Easter. That's the cross of Christ.

That's what He did at Easter for us. He gave His life for us on the cross. He
humbled Himself to that extent.

He sacrificed to give. He sacrificed at all. More than we realize by coming to
this earth.

All giving involves sacrifice. That's the essence of giving. And Jesus is our
example in what He gave up for us to come to this earth, in what He gave up for
us on the cross.

You ever have a wonderful idea, a wonderful thought, but you never did anything
about it? I sure have. Maybe sometimes even have started, but not finished in a
great intention.

I've done the same thing. And there can be a lot of reasons for that, but one of
the things I have to admit in my own life is that my own selfishness often comes
between me and my best intentions. And sometimes that selfishness, it's obvious.

I get angry. You get angry because you wanted something, you're not getting it,
and so you stop giving to somebody else and you start getting for yourself.
Sometimes it's very obvious, that selfishness, but most of the time it isn't.

More often it's hidden. We just get too busy. We don't get angry.

We just get too busy with our own things. We get too overextended in our own
finances. We didn't really mean to.

Just little by little we did. And all of a sudden, I don't have enough time to
give to you. I'm sorry.

I don't have enough money to give to the Lord. I'm sorry. I really want to.

The reason we got in that place that we don't have enough time, we don't have
enough money, if you look back, is a thousand little selfish decisions. I wanted
what I wanted. And so I didn't make a sacrifice that would have allowed me to
give.

Paul talks in these verses about how you begin to think in a different way in
this world. Because the whole world around us is selfish. They want what they
want when they want it.

How do you begin to think in a different way? You compare yourself to the
earnestness of Jesus Christ and what He did. It's the grace of Jesus that
empowers your grace in giving.

If you want to be a gracious giver, it has to start with the grace of Jesus. It
can't start anywhere else. What He has done for you, what He is doing in your
life, it's the sacrifice of Jesus that empowers your sacrifice in giving.

Sometimes we can look at another person and their example, their sacrifice, and
it can be encouraging to us. But it doesn't really empower us, not for a
lifetime. Because for every person that you can find that made a sacrifice and
it encourages you, you can find someone else that maybe you're making a better
sacrifice than they are and you think, "Oh, I'm giving more than enough already.

" It's only in the sacrifice of Jesus that we get everything right. You see,
when the Bible here says we're to compare our giving to understand how to give
in an earnest way, I believe it means we all begin by comparing our giving to
what Jesus gave for us. I'm not supposed to compare with you and you with me and
we all get our checkbooks out and see how we're doing.

We all get our QuickBooks out and see how we're doing. No, I'm supposed to
compare to Jesus and what He gave for me. You're supposed to compare to Jesus
what He gave for you.

And in that, we're going to be motivated to sacrifice. The grace of Jesus
empowers your grace in giving. The sacrifice of Jesus empowers your sacrifice in
giving.

Your gratefulness to Jesus breaks through your natural selfishness and it
empowers your giving to others. Let's just be honest. Our willingness to give is
often the place where the sincerity of our love is tested.

Paul talks about the sincerity of your love in these verses. As long as it's
just in my mind that I love you, I can tell myself I love you all day But when
I'm challenged to give, to give my money, to give my time, to give a sacrifice,
that's when it's tested. No longer is it now a matter of emotion or speeches or
nice sentimental thoughts.

It becomes a matter of choice. It becomes a matter of action. Will I make a
sacrifice in order to love you?

Will I make a sacrifice in order to meet somebody else's need? Will I make a
sacrifice in order to give to the body of Christ so the body of Christ can be
lifted up in this world? What choice am I going to make?

If I'm going to make the choice to sacrifice, I've found in my life, and I
encourage you in your life, it only comes by looking at the sacrifice of Jesus
and what he's done for us. So let's look at it, let's be grateful together for
it right now. Jesus we turn to you right now.

And just personally we want to tell you how grateful we are. Grateful for what
you gave up for us to come to this earth. Grateful for what you gave for us on
the cross.

You gave your life, you gave your blood. Thank you Jesus for what you gave for
us and thank you for what you're giving to us now. The fact that you gave
yourself on the cross, Romans 8 reminds us, means that you're willing to give to
us every day through our lives to meet the daily needs of our lives.

Thank you for what you're giving to us. And let that be the motivation I pray
for my giving. Not some comparison with somebody else, not some guilt about
giving or not giving, not anything but my love for you and the fact that I know
that depth of love that you have for me.

Let that motivate the giving in my life I pray. Thank you for what you gave and
are giving for me. In your name Jesus I pray, amen.

Tomorrow we're going to look at how to give expectantly.