Treasured Truth Weekend—The Macedonian Mindset, Part 3

I'm guessing that they maybe got that because they truly understood what God did for them, and how Christ in his, in all his glory and all his richness, decided that he was going to Who give sacrificially for us. I mean, what a model to hold out there.

the way you ought to. You are not your own. You've been bought with a price. Here's what Peter said. He said, for as much as you know, then you've not been redeemed by corruptible things from your vain conversation, received by tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of a lamb without spot and without blemish. And listen, if you don't know him today and you're listening, I need you to make a

phone call. 1888. Need him, uh, because you will go from poverty, uh, in your sin to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who was poor because he divested himself of his riches to accept us. Mm.

I will give most of the money to you. He worked outside for seven years because his doctor told him. That's the way you can deal with that tuberculosis. And God healed him. He bought a little place in Ravenna, Ohio. That was a little rundown Quaker mill. He began to build it up and to work in it and have products in ten years. Millions and millions of people knew his name because he's the founder of Quaker Oats and Kroll Hall. He donated the money to build Kroll Hall.

He's dead and gone, but the part that his family gets in his trust still today, more than 60% goes to missionaries, mission organizations, Bible colleges. See, that's one of the things that I learned when I was working with the people of a lighter hue. I was on the board of World Missions. I was the only African American. And they start talking about bequests. I said, what's that? What's a bequest? And they said, that's when somebody knows

that eventually they're going to die. So what they do is they get a policy and they leave it for our denomination. I was on the board of Moody Bible Institute, and I found of the $63 million that came in that year while I was on, over half of it was from dead people. So, you know, me and my wife, did I have a policy just for this church? Amen. I'll take care of my family. And when I die, my family's well taken care of and abundantly. That's why when my wife works at night, I wake up to see,

you know, what's what's what's what's happening here. You know, it's like, well, why are you moving so suddenly, woman? You know what I'm saying? You know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And why? So that whenever I go goes to the kingdom, it goes straight to the kingdom. That's it, man. That's it. It's like. It's like, man, you know, they gave liberally. See, most of us get from our surplus. Not never from our poverty. Mother Teresa said, if what you give is

something you don't need, then you didn't really give. They did it generously. Liberally. Listen, listen. Let me just say this real quick because I gotta move on. I've told you the story over and over again about when my wife and I were getting ready to celebrate our anniversary. Versuri y'all tired of hearing it say we are tired of hearing it. And so you remember those of you who never heard it. Uh, one of our members said, what are you going to do for your anniversary? We said,

we're going downtown. He said, no. Would you like to go to Puerto Vallarta? He put $3,000 in our pocket. He put us in first class. He sent us to his condo in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Oh, praise the name of Jesus. But let me say something I didn't tell you. The next year, he said, about a month before our anniversary. What are you guys going to do for your anniversary? Said, well, we probably going to do what we were going to do last year, go downtown, get us a little place

and just enjoy each other's company. You want to go back to my condo in Mexico? Show you right, baby. Show you right. So he said he did the same thing. Put $3,000 in my pocket. Put us in first class. Flew us down. But before we left, he said, give me the keys to your house. now. I ain't always been saved. And I'm thinking to myself, you know, whenever I was unsaved, if I could get your keys. When you were gone. When you came back. Everything be gone.

So that's what I was thinking, brother Ronnie, I was thinking, but then, you know. No, no, this man not going to do that. So I gave him the key. So we come back from Mexico and he picks us up, and he comes and lets us in our house. He opens the door and my wife starts crying because this man, while we were gone, had brought us brand new furniture. And we looked. And the dining room now the dining room table we had. You remember it, Jay? We would

we would have our Thanksgiving dinner and all that. But we have trays all around because you couldn't put the food on the table, The chairs were rickety. This man brought us. And so I had to call him. I said, you know what? I want to describe it to the people today, and I need you to tell me what it was. Uh, well, it was cream colored. And he said, well, you need to understand that both the table and the what you call that thing, uh, with the glasses in

it and all that China cabinet. Yeah. China cabinet. He said it's not made of one wood. It's made of three. It's made of birch. It's made of walnut, and it's made of maple. Now I want to ask him what it cost, but, you know, you don't do stuff like that. And since there was no tag on any of it, I just googled I went on the I went on the internet and I put in, you know, picture of blah, blah, blah, and I saw my picture and guess what? There were about 3 or 4 and the cheapest one was nine grand,

the cheapest one, cheapest one. And I said, wow, man, this man is generous. But then guess what? The next year he came to me and he said, what are you going to do, you and your wife for your anniversary? I said, I hope what we did last year. He said, sure, you're right. You want to go back to Mexico. I said, you know what? I've never been to Las Vegas. I know what they say, but I. I heard the food is nice there all kind of old school shows, the impressions and all that kind of stuff. So I want

to go. I want to go to Las Vegas. So he sent me and my wife to Las Vegas, put us up in the biggest suite in the Bellagio, put three grand in my pocket, flew us first class, I'm telling you. And then the next year he sent us somewhere, and then the next year, and for 11 years straight, pastor Washington, this man sent us somewhere and put $3,000 cash in this preacher's pocket. God. Generosity. Generosity. You're going to hear it again. But, you know I wasn't going

to use it for this one. I was going to use it for another one whenever I come back to it. But I don't know when the next time I'm going to preach on money, you know what I'm saying? But do you know, when we were building this sanctuary, the largest single gift came from the person who built it. He built it free. It was $3.75 million. He was supposed to get $375,000. He put all of that back into this building. That's why we have Marlboro out there.

That's why we have brass here. That's why we have have a pit here. All that stuff. He just put it in. That's why our bathroom looks like it should be out at Willow Creek. That got 10,000 members because he did it. Amen. The second largest gift came from one of our keen agers on a fixed income. I almost fell, I was going to give a, you know, get a picture and put it up there for you, but the name was on it. I couldn't obscure it, and I didn't want to mess it up because it's

the only copy I have. But she said, here, pastor, this for the new sanctuary. I said, okay, mother. Praise the Lord for you, sweetheart. And she said, oh, pastor, it's the least I could do. And I'm thinking, okay, she's on a fixed income. Maybe she's giving 100, 200, 300. She gave me a check for $100,000. 100,000. I got the copy. I got the copy. The $100,000 on a fixed income. I ain't ask her even today. I wish I would have. She went home to Jesus, but I

didn't ask her because there wasn't none of my business. Generosity. Didn't notice willingly. It said, here it is. Here it is. Let me. Bottom line it. Say bottom line it. Paul wasn't going to ask them. Giving is catching. Amen. Mm. So so so they weren't coerced. Here's what. Let me read it. Praying us with much entreaty. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Let me, let me, let me let me get this real quick. He says uh, playing. What

does that mean? Listen to what it says here, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. They begged him. Now. No, no, no. You going to take this?

teaching in just a second. You ever miss a program? Listen online at Treasure Truth Radio. Back to the message. Here is Pastor Ford.

says okay, he she says she says boys. And she looks at Ray. Ray because he's the oldest. You know, Jesus would give the cookie to his brother. So which one of you are going to be Jesus? And looking at Ray? Ray? Ray Ray grabbed the cookie, bit it, and said, Joey, you be Jesus. And that's most of us. It's like willingly not coerce. Let me give you these real quick, then enthusiastically. Look at. Look what it says. It says they pray with much entreaty. You receive our group,

the fellowship of Ministering. On, on and on. On. Second Corinthians chapter nine says that they gave hilariously. It says, For God loves a cheerful giver. The word means hilariously. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! And so here you have. You have. Let me read Wesley's comments on this. He says it's possible to give generously, but not to give enthusiastically. The preacher says I should give until it hurts. And a miserly church member said, but for me, it hurts just to think about giving.

The Macedonian churches needed no prompting or reminding, as did the church at Corinth. They were more than willing to share in the collection. In fact, they begged to be included. How many times have you heard a Christian beg for somebody to take an offering? Their giving was voluntary and spontaneous. It was of grace, not pressure. They gave because they wanted to give and because they had experienced the grace of God. This is the part I want you to hear.

Grace not only frees us from our sins, grace frees us from ourselves. That's a great line. Yeah. And so the grace of God will first open your heart, and your heart will open your hand. Wow. Wow. Yeah. They're giving, they're giving. I was at a church and I was preaching, and this is the first time it ever happened. So I'm sitting up in the pulpit and the worship leader got up and said, it is now time to worship the Lord in our giving. And I, I was like,

because people were. Yeah. Amen. Clapping. Yeah. And and everybody start. Everybody grab your envelope and start waving there. Yeah. Praise the Lord. It's the firstfruits. It's a way. And it was like there was more noise during the offertory than there was during the music. And they they they they had a kick and choir, too. He said, well, you look surprised, pastor. I said, But I've never seen people

of God respond like this to giving. So I came back the next Sunday and I said, hey, what do you say we make some noise whenever it's time for offertory? That's right, that's right. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. You're looking like you look right now. Like. Like are you. Are you crazy? Who's going to be happy about giving money away? And then personally, first Corinthians 16, each one of you, every one of you, let me just say this,

and I'm going to shut it down. It's not equal money, but it is equal sacrifice. We may not all give the same amount, but we all are to give with the same attitude. You mean to tell me you trust God with your eternal soul, but you don't trust God with your temporal stuff? Come on, tell your neighbor there's a dead monkey on the line somewhere. Here's the last one, verses seven through nine. And I'm not going to go

through the whole thing verses seven through nine. You have the right motivation, the right method, the right model for giving. He gave two examples, didn't he? He gave an immediate example. That's the Macedonians. But we don't ever want to ultimately model ourselves after people, any person. But there is then the ultimate example, the Lord Jesus Christ. So let me cut down to verse nine. Now verse seven and eight kind of builds the verse nine. How do I know that?

Because it begins with four, which is the explanatory God. So he says this for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wait a minute. Now he's talking about grace, now he's talking about grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace of God. In other words, they've cornered the market on grace. Lord. His deity. Jesus. His humanity. Christ. His sovereignty. See how he brings it in. And so he brings it all in. Why? Because God gave the best of heaven. Jesus for the worst of earth us.

And so he begins to tell him. He says, listen, Jesus was rich and he became poor for you and for me. Yes. And so what happens here? Let me let me just say this. This morning I was talking about Undercover Boss. But let me, let me let me just tell you something you already know. Coming to America, Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall. He was a prince who wanted a bribe. So he left his kingdom and came to a place in New York looking for a queen.

He was arrayed in splendor and had servants that were bowing to him and meeting his every need, giving them baths. And he gave all those things away for the rags of a McDonald worker. And then he went and found his bride. She didn't want him, but he wooed her and courted her. Then he wed her. And then you know what he did. He took her back to his kingdom, and he made her richer than she ever could have been. That's what's in this text. Jesus Christ left the suburbs

of heaven. Came to the inner city called Earth. Yes, he. He veiled his deity and humanity and and robed himself like one of us, so he can relate to us. And then he wed us. He wooed us. He wed us. And the Bible says one day he's coming back. Hallelujah to take us to himself. Hallelujah. Now, let me tell you what I found out about that movie. Did you know that not only did Eddie Murphy star in it,

but Eddie Murphy wrote it. But not only did Eddie Murphy write it, Eddie Murphy directed it and produced it. He did it all. Yeah. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed me white as snow. He's a giver. He's the original giver. What did he give up, pastor for? Well, let me take my seat. If I was Hooper, I'd be hooping now. He gave up the splendors of heaven for the squalor of earth. He gave up limitless deity

for localized humanity. Entity. He gave his body to an old rugged cross. He gave his back to a whip. He gave his brow to a crown of thorns. He gave his cheek to a spider's fist. He gave his mother to John. And to John his mother. He gave his side to the spear. He gave his blood for our sins. He gave his spirit to the father, and he gave eternal life to everybody who believes that He is God in the flesh, who died and was buried and rose again the third day. You can't out give Jesus,

because can't nobody do me like Jesus. Can't nobody do me like the Lord. Pick me up, turn me around, place my feet on solid ground. And we need to have not just the mindset of the Macedonians. We need to have the mindset of the master. When he said it's more blessed to give than to receive.

very specific thing that's happening to us. Other times, it may be something that's happening to our family, our society in general. And really what we need is just the hope that we find in God's word.

It literally means outstretched neck. You ever wait for a bus in the dead of winter and you know it's coming, but you don't know when. So you step out in the street and you look up the street with an outstretched neck to see when it's coming. That's the word hope. He's coming. He's going to give us relief. And whatever we're going through, we cast all our care upon him because he cares for us. And yes, Moody Radio, we're in the hope business.