# Sunday Setup – 2 Corinthians 8

Sermon transcript from Cross Church Surprise.
Series: Sunday Setup
Date: September 4, 2025
Watch: https://crosschurchcares.com/surprise/episodes/sunday-setup-2-corinthians-8

## Summary

Are you ready to transform your understanding of generosity? What does it mean to give not out of guilt, but from the abundance of grace? Discover how the richness of Christ can inspire us to share our blessings with others. Let's dive in together!

## Transcript

[Music] 
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 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. 
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 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 
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 Heat. Heat. 
 [Laughter] 
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 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. 
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