What is the Recession For?...Continued from page 4

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

This is my dream for Bethlehem. Verse 2 ends with a “wealth of generosity.” We want to be a generous people. Generous in every way. Where does it come from? From prosperity? No. Extreme poverty. “Their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of liberality.” This is why I call this a recessionary text. Here are people overflowing in generosity when the economic times are very bad.

Where then did the generosity come from if not from prosperity? From a supportive and sympathetic culture surrounding them? No. Verse 2 says they were in a “severe test of affliction.” That means they were being harassed. You can see what that looks like in Acts 17:5-9.

Where then did this wealth of generosity come form? Paul says it came from joy, abundance of joy. Verse 2: “Their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity.”

Their joy was not rooted in prosperity or popularity. But it was very great. Paul calls it “abundance of joy” in the middle of verse 2. Where did that joy come from?

It came from the grace of God. Verse 1: “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.” What makes people grumble and be stingy is a sense of entitlement. But if we have tasted the measure of our sin and the magnitude of God’s grace, we will have abundance of joy in recessionary hardships. God’s grace overflowing in Jesus for sinners like us is the most glorious thing in the universe.

This is where our joy is rooted. This is why the Fighter Verse for this past week says that Christians can be thankful in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Our joy is not rooted in circumstances. God has relocated our joy in his grace, not our goods?in his mercy, not our money, in his worth, not our wealth.

If the recession can assist that relocation, it will have done the most important thing possible. Because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

4. To Guard His Glory by Advancing His Saving Mission in the World Precisely When Human Resources Are Low

We see this all over the Bible. God does his great advancing work again and again when it looks least possible for us.

• He promises the heir when Abraham and Sarah are too old to have children.
• He splits the Red Sea when Israel is hopelessly trapped by Pharaoh’s army.
• He gives manna when there is no food in the wilderness.
• He stops the Jordan River when it’s time to take the land.
• When a city stands in the way, he makes the walls fall down.
• When the Midianites were as many as the sand of the sea, God whittled Gideon’s army down to 300 so God would get the glory for the victory.
• When Goliath defies the armies of the Lord, God sends a boy with a sling and five stones.
• When the Son of God is to come into the world, God calls a virgin to conceive.
• And when the mighty devil himself is to be defeated, a Lamb goes to the slaughter.

And here in 2 Corinthians 8:1-2, when God wants to raise money for the poor in Jerusalem, he uses afflicted, poverty-stricken Macedonians and fills them with joy because of his grace.