10/02/2024
Our lives are about others, Christians are in the people business: if we take care of
Gods' business, he will take care of ours.
1.This Requires personal preparation, 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;
How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves; Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
5, And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.
Preparation, Giving of yourself
A. “gave themselves to the Lord” like a non exchangeable non refundable gift. Rom. 12:1, “I beseech ye therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
Your success as a Christian depends on your personal investment to Jesus. What you put into it will determine the outcome.
Study, devotion, action, witness and resources.
b. They gave themselves to others, “ and to us ” you must see people as Jesus saw them, as needy. Not through prejudices. not their sin, nor their hindrances, but as sheep having no shepherd. Phil. 2:4 “ Look not every man on his on things, but every man also on the things of others ” no room for prejudice of any type, the person you don’t see as Jesus saw them, may die and go to hell. Jesus explains who you are suppose to help. And gives you the power to do so. Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
