Sunday Setup – 2 Corinthians 8

[Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Hey, Cross Church. Welcome to the Sunday setup. This is our weekly time where we digitally gather together on Facebook and YouTube and Instagram and podcast form where we get to read through the scripture that we'll be preaching through and praying through and praising through and trying to put it into practice next week and we get to read this together and then prepare our hearts through a few prayer prompts as we digitally pray together. And you can listen to this as you're uh in the car, as you're at the gym, as you're coming home from work or with your family. But just take a minute out of your busy day and to prepare your hearts for this Sunday. This week, we are starting a new series. And this new series that we are calling Ready for the Harvest. It picks up in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. And as we get through chapters 8 through13 in this series to finish out this letter of 2 Corinthians, Paul is moving the church at Corenth into action. And we start here in chapter 8, starting in verse one. This is what the Apostle Paul writes. He says, "We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia during a severe trial brought about by affliction. Their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth in a wealth of generosity on their part." Verse three. I can testify that according to their ability and even beyond their ability of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry of the saints. And not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God's will. So we urged Titus that just as he had begun, so he should also complete among you this act of grace. Now as you excel in everything in faith and speech and knowledge and in all diligence and in your love for us excel also in this act of grace. I am not saying this as a command rather by means of diligence of others. I am testing this testing the genuiness of your love. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich for your sake he became poor so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter I am giving advice because it is profitable for you who began last year not to do something but also to want to do it. Now also finish the task so that just as there is an eager desire, there may also be completion according to what you have. For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. It is not that there should be relief for others and hardship for you, but is a question of equality. At the present time, your surplus is available for their need, so that their abundance may be in turn meet your need in order that there may be equality. As is written, the person who had much did not have too much, and the person who had little did not have too little. So for there therefore in verse 16, thanks be to God who put the same concern for you into the heart of Titus. For he welcomed our appeal and being very diligent, he went out to you by his own choice. We have sent him with a brother who is praised among all the churches for his gospel ministry. And not only that, but he also appointed by the churches to accompany us with his gracious gift that we're administering for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help. We are taking this precaution so that no one will criticize us about this large sum that we're administrating. Indeed, we are giving careful thought to do what is right, not only before the Lord, but also before people. We have sent them with our brother. We have often tested him in many circumstances and found him to be diligent and now even more diligent because of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and coworker for you. As for our brothers, they are the messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. Therefore, show them proof before the church of your love and are boasting about you. In this amazing chapter, Paul gets very practical with the church at Corenth and we'll dive into the depths this Sunday about, but he's asking them to give and not to give out of guilt or out of compulsion, but to give because of what has been given to them. And calling special attention to verse 9 where he talks about, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, for your sake, he became poor. that by his poverty we might become rich. And here's our first prayer prompt as we think about that as Jesus took on our poverty. And I want us to start with a prayer prompt of reflection, a little bit of repentance, a confession, but also of thanksgiving to God. And and here's our prayer prompt is Jesus, thank you for taking on my poverty of. Jesus, thank you for taking on my poverty of the poverty of your sin, the poverty of your greed, the poverty of your jealousy. Pray to God in thanksgiving for the sins that Jesus died for, that he took on on your behalf. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] Jesus, we not only thank you for just the poverty of our sin that you took on so that no longer did we have to stay poor in our sin, but Lord, we could experience a new life, a a life of forgiveness, a life of redemption, a life of something greater in you. And God, we thank you for taking on our poverty. But Lord, you don't stop there in verse 9 that you took on our poverty. you became poor even though you are rich but so that our poverty then we could become rich. And in this second prayer prompt is not only do we confess and thank God for what he has saved us from, what he has forgiven us from, but we also are now to use the great gifts and the great richness that we have in our material, in our spiritual life, in our time. We use that rich richness to do the work of the kingdom. And and this is our second prayer prompt is Jesus, let me use my riches for Jesus, let me use my riches for let me use my riches for loving my neighbors. Let me use my riches for creating generational faith in my family. God, let me use my riches for making Jesus known in my workplace. is pray that prayer to our father. Jesus, let me use my riches for [Music] Heat. Heat. [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] God, we thank you that you sent your son to become poor so we could become rich. That you took on our poverty, you forgave it. You gave us something new. But Lord, you also gave us a new life full of true richness. And God, as this passage deals with the practical things of our monetary riches, we have our our physical money that we have, we are to honor you with that. But God, that we also so honor you with our spiritual riches. That is the grace that you've given us, God. Our emotional riches that we have a purpose in you, God, our mental riches, that we know something greater. And that all this, Lord, is about you above all else. God, let us go through this week and and be alert on how we can use your riches in an amazing way and how we can make Jesus known to the people around us. Lift all this up in Jesus's rich and abundant name. Amen. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you Sunday. [Music]