Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, hi, Journey.
[00:00:03] Thank you for the greeting. Great to be with you. I'm going to be with you for four weeks. We're working through Second Corinthians, chapter eight and nine in a series called Unreasonable Grace, which is a title I really like, because grace often, usually, but in its essence, defies reason. So we're going to see that and understand it as we go through this together. So if you've got a text with you, 2 Corinthians, chapter 8, all the verses will be on the screens as well. So a few weeks ago, I played in the Montana State Seniors Golf Tournament because I am one.
[00:00:36] And so in the morning, you know, you warm up and you go out onto a driving range, and there's little piles of golf balls and then spots between them to warm up, right? But there's never enough spots in between the golf balls for all of the guys that are warming up. So you just go over to one of those piles and grab some balls and then go to an open spot and hit those and then go get. Get some more if you need them. And it's just kind of a normal thing to do. So I'm warming up and I run out of golf balls. And so I'm in that situation where I'm not in between where the piles of golf balls are. So I go over and I get some, and I hit him and go get a few more. And I'm going over and I pick up some, and this guy that's right next to that pile, there's about 30 balls left. He goes, you're gonna need to leave those alone. I was like, what? He goes, yeah, don't take any of those.
[00:01:26] Now, he's one of those guys that smiles when they talk.
[00:01:29] And so I thought maybe he was joking as he was telling me not to pick up these golf balls that are in front of him. It's not like he paid for them. They're just all there for everybody. So I was like, really? He goes, yeah. I said, oh, grumpy man.
[00:01:45] And he goes, nope. I go, oh, selfish man.
[00:01:50] And then I said, who taught you that? Which is a question that I like to ask people when I think they're doing bad behavior.
[00:01:58] I'm just curious, like, who taught you to be a jerk is kind of the idea of that, you know?
[00:02:03] So I just move on down to the next pile, and I grab my golf balls, but then I grab some more and I put them in my vest pockets, and I walk back over to his pile and I just do this and drop them. Out onto there. He's like, you don't need to do that. I'm like, I didn't say a word. I just went over, warmed up.
[00:02:18] Then now, you know, it's a shotgun start, so you don't know who you're playing with. And so I go over to the carts, And there's Grumpy man.
[00:02:30] He's my playing partner.
[00:02:32] I'm like, hey, now, we never spoke of it. And I think maybe he didn't even recognize me because, you know, I'm kind of an under the radar guy. You know, nothing that stands out about me. And besides, he's old, so I don't think he knew.
[00:02:51] Maybe he did, but we did not speak of it.
[00:02:54] Now, couple mistakes I made. One mistake I made is an assumption that we're all in this together. Like we're all kind of sharing these golf balls, right?
[00:03:03] That was a mistake. An assumption that I made.
[00:03:06] My second mistake was just not being gracious.
[00:03:11] Just gracious to a smile while you talk. Selfish guy.
[00:03:16] I could have just said sorry, moved to the next pile.
[00:03:19] But one of my weaknesses is I'm a teacher, and so I'm always trying to make a point, and so I just should have shut up.
[00:03:27] But wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where people are so grateful and so gracious and so generous that you actually get used to it?
[00:03:36] Wouldn't it be great to be a recipient of gratitude and graciousness and generosity? And even better, wouldn't it be, Wouldn't you like to be so grateful and so gracious and so generous that it just kind of doesn't make sense when it happens? Defies reason. It seems unreasonable and even irresponsible because anyway, I think unreasonable and irresponsible is where the fun is. Anyway, we should do more things, like Jesus that just don't make sense.
[00:04:05] And we should do more things like the Macedonians did, that are just unreasonable?
[00:04:10] So here's the essence of what we're talking about today. That God's unreasonable grace under unreasonable circumstances inspires unreasonable generosity. Unreasonable just means not guided by good sense. When we say the word unreasonable, it's always as a pejorative, it's a negative.
[00:04:30] But it's not in God's economy.
[00:04:33] And so let's start with God's unreasonable economics. So this is Second Corinthians, chapter eight, starting in one. And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.
[00:04:46] All right, brothers and sisters. So he's writing to Christians and the book is Corinthians. So he's writing to Christians in Corinth. A little word about Corinth. Corinth was a sexy city in the Roman Empire.
[00:04:59] It was bustling in high energy and entrepreneurial and modern, but it was rebuilt by Julius Caesar only 100 years before Paul rolled in there. So it was a boom town and a commercial hub and very strategic because it sat between two harbors. And so there was merchants and sailors and craftsmen and travelers and shop owners and brothels. And it was materialistic and self promoting and competitive and upwardly mobile. And the cool people lived there. It was New York City or Bozeman.
[00:05:32] Corinth was also famous for its skyline.
[00:05:35] The temple of Apollo was there, the temple of Octavia, the temple of Aphrodite, along with roads and columns and statues and altars and shrines and sports arenas and corporate towers and theaters and entertainment venues. And all of it's built with stone, but also adorned with gold and silver. So economically, the people in Corinth had money but. And they were familiar with wealth. All right, back to verse one. And now brothers and sisters. So Christians at the church in Corinth, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.
[00:06:10] Grace. Got to do a word on grace, because this is a running theme through these chapters and our four weeks together.
[00:06:18] So if you are new to the church thing, the word grace is extremely important to Christians. To your Christian friends, grace is a paramount word. It is a powerful word. It is dense and full of meaning for us.
[00:06:35] Now we use in English the word grace to talk about things like a gymnast, she is graceful, or a ballet dancer. That is grace.
[00:06:46] Or taco, that is grace.
[00:06:51] It's your national championship.
[00:06:54] Speaking of grace, the Griz have been very graceful to the Bobcats recently.
[00:07:01] Unearned favor and undeserved kindness.
[00:07:06] The Greek word is charis. That's how we would say it in English. It's charis, but I'm not going to use it that way. Charis. So language as you know, develops over time. It's sort of an evolution of words.
[00:07:20] So before the Bible, the word charis in the Greek language, the original language of the New Testament meant things like attractive, beautiful, joyful, delightful, charming. It describes a baby, the beauty of a woman, anything elegant.
[00:07:37] Then it started to become an action. So Hippocrates, he said when he was talking about grace, it's the graceful gesture of a healthcare worker toward a patient.
[00:07:50] Plato talked about grace as love that commands an action. But it's Free in classical Greek, it's kindness expressed in generosity. So now we're getting closer to what the Bible, the way the Bible uses the word. So grace is the benefit of the gift without deserving it. So it's not a paycheck because you earned that.
[00:08:14] It's not a, hey, good job because you did do a good job. It's not a good grade because you earned that grade. It's actually undeserved. So it's goodness given to someone not because we earned it or deserve it, but because of the very goodness of the giver.
[00:08:33] So it's the unreasonable generosity and kindness of God's love to us who don't deserve it, expressed in the gift of God's only Son who suffered and died because of our sinfulness.
[00:08:47] Grace, it's the undeserved benefit of forgiveness and acceptance.
[00:08:54] This is why I like the two word definition, undeserved kindness.
[00:09:00] I like that better than unmerited favor, because unmerited favor is less colloquial. Undeserved kindness given out of the character, the love and the care of the giver. That's grace. That's why it's so important to us. Back to verse one. And now, brothers and sisters, Christians at the church in Corinth, we want you to know about the grace, the undeserved kindness that God has given the Macedonian churches. All right, Macedonia. What is this Macedonia you speak of? And who are these Macedonians and what. Where are the churches in Macedonia? This is a map of Macedonia.
[00:09:39] This is the orange stuff, is Macedonia. So there's. It's kind of modern because you see countries around it that you recognize. And now that country is smaller. It's north Macedonia. And you'll notice the churches in there. So you see Philippi underneath Macedonia over there on the right, then Thessalonica in the middle, and then Berea. These are all churches that Paul planted. And then you go way down on the bottom there and you see Corinth. So he's writing to these guys in Corinth, they're in Greece, about the churches that are up in Macedonia.
[00:10:16] So the undeserved kindness that God has given the Macedonians is his primary argument. And so he's going to explain what that is. So what is this undeserved kindness that God gives to these Macedonians?
[00:10:32] That's in verse two. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in, or overflowed in rich generosity.
[00:10:45] What's jarring here is that the grace of God included. You see it in the verse, severe trial and extreme poverty. But this is God's economy.
[00:10:57] So Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea were once the center of Alexander the Great's world empire. So Alexander the Great was Macedonian. But world powers don't last. Now, Livy, not done.
[00:11:10] The famous historian around the time of Jesus wrote, quote, the Romans had lacerated Macedonia.
[00:11:19] Lacerated is a dramatic word. It's a ragged cut. It means to tear, rip apart or mutilate. The Romans had lacerated Macedonia. And what Livy is doing is referring to the systematic dismantling of Macedonia's power and wealth.
[00:11:34] Macedonia got gutted by the Romans. So here's what happened. Rome rolls in about 200 years before Jesus and so called liberated the Greek cities, which means that Macedonia lost everything. Lost its territories, lost its tax revenue, lost its strategic cities, lost its political influence.
[00:11:56] So just imagine for a minute, contemporary the United States getting attacked and losing every state except Montana and Wyoming.
[00:12:06] Now why would Montana and Wyoming survive it?
[00:12:11] Guns. We have a lot of them.
[00:12:14] But when that happened, the economy would collapse overnight.
[00:12:19] Then Rome empowered the smaller states around Macedonia and isolated Macedonia. And Livy compared Macedonia to a wild or a wounded lion surrounded by smaller animals that are now bold enough to attack because Rome wounded the lion.
[00:12:37] In 168 BC, Macedonia, which is Alexander the Great's former kingdom, was defeated and essentially destroyed by Rome.
[00:12:45] Rome ended the Macedonian monarchy, carved it up, confiscated wealth, crippled the economy, they lacerated it. They actually carved it into four states. And each state, by law, was forbidden to intermarry with the other states. Own land across the border, could not conduct business, couldn't work together.
[00:13:07] You can't marry somebody from North Dakota, can't buy a farm in North Dakota, can't do business in North Dakota, can't compete in travel ball with teams in North Dakota, can't pheasant hunt in North Dakota.
[00:13:19] And the region never recovered.
[00:13:22] So when Paul was visiting Macedonia, it had gone from the world's greatest empire to a pathetically puny Roman province.
[00:13:38] Well, the Christians there were even worse off.
[00:13:42] That's that little phrase. Severe trial and extreme poverty.
[00:13:48] They were heavily taxed in an already depressed economy and they were persecuted for being Jesus followers. That means they lost employment, they lost social standing, they lost friends, they lost lives. Lacerated.
[00:14:03] But curiously, you saw in verse two, Joy.
[00:14:07] Joy, which we understand is enduring happiness.
[00:14:11] Happiness regardless of circumstances. Why did they have joy? Well, the Macedonian churches followed Jesus, so they received his forgiveness and his hope and purpose. And ultimate triumph when they believed that Jesus died for them over there in Jerusalem and rose from the dead again over there in Jerusalem. And they gratefully surrendered their lives to him and received Jesus gift of contentment, joy, solidarity of future and hope.
[00:14:39] So yeah, they're filled with joy.
[00:14:42] So there's this equation that Paul writes in verse 2. It looks like this severe suffering plus overflowing joy plus extreme poverty equals rich generosity.
[00:14:57] Well, look at that.
[00:14:58] That's unreasonable.
[00:15:00] That's unreasonable economics. That doesn't seem possible. And Paul actually agrees. And that's why he says in verse three, for I testify, I declare that they gave as much as they were able. He's talking money and even beyond their ability.
[00:15:16] Well, that actually doesn't make much sense either.
[00:15:19] That's even more unreasonable economics.
[00:15:23] So they gave as much money as they could and then gave more.
[00:15:26] How do you give more than you can?
[00:15:30] They gave more than they could afford and then gave more. How do you give more than you can afford?
[00:15:36] That's unreasonable. It defies reason. It doesn't pencil out. QuickBooks. Blares an error. You can't do it.
[00:15:43] How do you give more than you can?
[00:15:46] Well, you put it on a credit card or call your dad.
[00:15:52] You give some extra money so what you can afford and then you give more.
[00:15:59] You sacrifice and you go without something that you want, something that you planned so that you can give more.
[00:16:09] How's that happen?
[00:16:11] Well, now it gets real simple. Your priorities changed. That's how that happened.
[00:16:16] I was going to spend that over there, but now I'm going to spend that over here.
[00:16:22] Over there has become more important than right there.
[00:16:27] You're probably familiar with Jeff Foxworthy.
[00:16:30] He's one of the world's most successful comedians of all time.
[00:16:34] And one of the things about Foxworthy that he doesn't really want you to know, but people do, is that he volunteers every week at the Atlanta Mission. So downtown Atlanta Mission for men that are homeless.
[00:16:50] So when he started volunteering there, he started by leading a small group. They just asked him to lead a small group and he wanted to, and so he did. And so he starts leading this small group of homeless guys.
[00:17:00] It was 12 guys and him. Well, it's Jeff Foxworthy. It grew.
[00:17:06] And so pretty soon that small group was 250 guys.
[00:17:10] So now there's 250 in this small group. But so that, you know, you just break it into small groups again. It's easy to do.
[00:17:19] And one Christmas time around December, he goes to the bank and gets 250, $50 bills. He takes them to his small group that's now a large group, and he tells the guys, all right, here's all this money. So every guy got a $50 bill. They're pretty lit because of this, right?
[00:17:42] And then he goes, now, guys, as you know, two blocks over here, that school caught on fire and a whole bunch of their stuff burned and their supplies. So we're gonna. I'm gonna give you an opportunity to give some money so that we can buy some supplies for them. And two blocks over there is a children's hospital, and it's Christmas time. And they tell us there'll be about 300 kids in there over Christmas and because of their illness. So we're going to support those kids and those families and resource them and give gifts. So I would just like to invite you to give whatever you would like to this and whatever you give. He says, a couple of friends and I, we're going to just match whatever you give, and then we're going to bless this school and this hospital.
[00:18:27] And so he gives them an opportunity. Well, all 250 guys take their $50 bill down this center row, you know, where there's like a five gallon bucket, and they drop it in there. But they didn't stop there. Then guys start reaching in their pockets and pulling out coins. A couple of guys go to their room in the mission and find some money in there and bring that.
[00:18:51] Now what's happening?
[00:18:55] They're giving as much as they're able and even beyond what you're able to.
[00:19:01] It's just a question of priorities.
[00:19:04] Now, the Macedonians had some serious priorities. Verse three, entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people.
[00:19:16] So on their initiative, voluntarily, so, not coerced, not manipulated, they just became very aware of a bleak situation in Jerusalem. So Paul was raising money for very poor and persecuted Christians in Jerusalem, and he's raising it from the churches in Macedonia, but reluctantly. And he's telling Corinth, you guys can definitely afford it. So this is what he's raising money for.
[00:19:42] And what Macedonia is doing is go, we want, we need the privilege of sharing.
[00:19:49] The privilege of sharing. How's that going with your small children, by the way? The privilege of sharing.
[00:19:55] Apparently, Paul was actually reluctant to ask the Macedonians for money for the poor in Jerusalem because of their own oppressive poverty, but they demanded to have the privilege of sharing.
[00:20:08] By the way, that word privilege in the original Greek language is also charis, grace, privilege.
[00:20:18] The undeserved kindness and blessing sharing.
[00:20:24] Turns out that sharing and generosity is grace. Undeserved kindness. How does that happen? Verse 5.
[00:20:31] And they exceeded our expectation. They gave themselves first of all to the Lord and then by the will of God to us also. That's how it happens. You give yourself first to God and then to others. That's how we do it.
[00:20:46] What's God's will?
[00:20:47] Give yourself to God and then to others.
[00:20:51] You do that. And the economics aren't so unreasonable because we're working in a different economy now. God's economy is always better than our economy. Unreasonable economics in our little world makes perfect sense in God's world. And in God's world, there's an overflow. So now we move to this unreasonable overflow. Verse 6. So we urge Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, so he kind of got some stuff rolling, to bring also to completion this act of grace, this generosity on your part. So new character, Titus. Titus was a Gentile Christian, probably led to Christ by the Apostle Paul.
[00:21:28] Titus was actually an arbiter between Paul and the congregation in Corinth. He was like a reconciler, because there was some tension between Paul and this church in Corinth. Titus helped that church with their repentance, their turning to God and their renewed zeal. And he was a comforter to them. And so Titus brought strength and endurance to the church in Corinth.
[00:21:53] So Titus was helping the Corinthian church with their generosity journey. And now he's going to help them finish it. So bring to completion this act of grace. Follow through on your commitment that you made to generosity. Follow through, do what you said you were going to do, especially when it gets super hard.
[00:22:12] So it looks like Corinth was having trouble following through on their commitment to generosity that they'd made earlier. So Paul inspires them with the examples of the Macedonians, and he sends Titus to challenge them and to encourage them to follow through.
[00:22:27] So generosity is an exceptional privilege. And Paul wants the Corinthians to experience that undeserved kindness of God by following through on what they said they were going to do, to be a person of their word and ultimately reap the overflow of God's goodness.
[00:22:44] He's just doing. He's just imploring them to receive God's best for them in their generosity and to finish it. So Titus is going to help. Verse 7. But since you excel in everything, and then he lists it in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and the love we've kindled in you see also that you excel in this grace of giving.
[00:23:06] Another way to translate the word excel would be overflow. Let this overflow out of your life. So he's complimenting them on some things, your faith, trusting God with everything, including your finances. In speech, he's saying, you're getting better at being godly in what you say and how you say it.
[00:23:26] So you're not gossiping, you're not slandering, you're not mean texting, you're not rage baiting. Instead, you're speaking words of edification and encouragement and hope.
[00:23:35] He speaks of their knowledge. So they're learning the Scriptures and they're learning about God and how to follow Jesus and. And then the earnestness in their love, loving one another, loving strangers, loving enemies, as Jesus told us to. So he's telling them, good job for all of that, but you're doing well there, but your generosity is lacking.
[00:23:57] So he's saying, let's get excellent at that as well.
[00:24:01] And so the charge is you're good at all that stuff, but now you got to get good at unreasonable generosity, because there's always more to get good at, isn't there?
[00:24:10] And that was their thing. We got to get better at generosity. So let's see a ridiculous and unreasonable overflow of generosity from you. So let's start doing what you said you're going to do. And Titus is here to help.
[00:24:23] Sometimes we need that guy that's going to help us.
[00:24:26] I've got a couple of friends that are super successful, so they're wealthy and they meet with people who need help with their finances.
[00:24:36] And so guys want to meet with them, especially young guys, they're starting out on their careers, and so they meet with these guys to just talk, you know, everything from budget to how to run a business.
[00:24:46] And one of the things they do before, like at the beginning of these little meetings they have, they sit down with a guy who's wanting some help budgeting, want to get some financial freedom and all that stuff. They start with generosity.
[00:24:59] They go like, look, I just need to know if you have a commitment to generosity, a commitment to biblical obedience, and even following the biblical example of the tithe. Are you interested in that? Do you want to do that? Because if you don't, then this ends.
[00:25:17] Because all the stuff that you want to learn from me has happened because of God's blessing in my life, that a lot of it comes from my own personal generosity and tithing and obeying God in this. And so I don't really want to help you if you're going to be miss out on all of that getting them started right to financial freedom and doing unreasonable and ridiculous things.
[00:25:39] By the way, your church will do the same kind of thing for you. It's available here.
[00:25:45] Unreasonable economics includes unreasonable overflow of generosity. And it all comes from unreasonable grace Couple verses left. You still with me?
[00:25:53] Nope. Okay, let's close in prayer.
[00:25:59] 2 verses I'm not commanding you verse 8 but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. It's interesting that he says I'm not commanding you, but it sounded like a command, didn't it?
[00:26:14] So he actually is commanding. What he's doing here is. And he's done it in other places. He's saying this is my command to you, not Jesus's. Specifically. He didn't tell me specifically. So he's commanding on his authority in his role as a leader of these churches. Technical term, an apostle.
[00:26:33] So he just wants them to be motivated by an internal gratitude for God being in their life. And so he's testing the sincerity of their love for God.
[00:26:44] It's put your money where your mouth is kind of thing and putting it up against the eagerness of other Christians, especially Macedonia.
[00:26:53] So what he's doing is stimulating and encourage them. He's not creating comparison between the churches because we don't need that.
[00:26:59] But this is motivation by inspiration.
[00:27:03] Now comparison.
[00:27:05] Comparison is a problem if it includes envy, right?
[00:27:09] Comparison is a problem if it drives and influences your self worth.
[00:27:15] But comparison can be a powerful motivator and inspiration. So I got a buddy who was a nationally ranked D1 athlete today. He runs a multi million dollar. He owns and operates a multi million dollar company.
[00:27:33] He's got a great wife and kids. His daughter just scored 34 on the MASH portion of the SAT. She's elite track athlete. She's being recruited by universities all across the country.
[00:27:46] He has a few homes.
[00:27:49] He's just one of those guys who's good at everything he does.
[00:27:53] He's a plus four handicap.
[00:27:56] Thursday he got a hole in one on 195 yard par three with a nine iron.
[00:28:04] He catches sharks from his kayak with basic fishing tackle just for fun.
[00:28:13] He coaches a high school tennis team as a volunteer.
[00:28:16] This spring he was playing the number one tennis, the male number one boys tennis player in the state.
[00:28:22] He hits a drop shot. The kid can't get to it. He's frustrated and angry. He takes his racket and throws it down on the Ground. And my buddy goes, mm, mm, nope.
[00:28:33] And he ran off the next 18 points in a row and just buried this kid.
[00:28:38] And then he sits down with him next to the court to kind of process it because he's a coach. And this kid starts crying, and he's like, I can't even beat an old guy.
[00:28:52] And he says back to him, you think I'm a normal old guy?
[00:28:56] Is that what you think?
[00:28:59] That was your expectation when we got on the court today, that I'm a normal old guy? I'm not a normal old guy. And he's not.
[00:29:06] He rides around on a one wheel.
[00:29:08] So for my mother, it's kind of like a skateboard with a big wheel in the middle, and it's got a battery in it. And you roll on that thing. His goes 30 miles an hour. He rides it to work, he rides it to run errands. He rides it to the golf course. He plays golf with his one wheel. He can knock out 18 holes in an hour and 15 minutes. Besides, he's hitting it way less than most of us.
[00:29:32] So recently, he was riding his one wheel through the high school parking lot on his way to tennis practice. And this kid comes through the cars, on his car, in his car, and hits him. So he gets hit by a car riding his one wheel. He's up in the air, you know, upended. And as he's on his way down, he sees his one wheel still rolling. He lands on his one wheel and then just kind of rides away. And the kid's horrified. He's like, it's all good. It's my fault.
[00:30:03] He's that guy.
[00:30:06] You know what my question is for him?
[00:30:09] What are you not good at? What are you not good at? Opera?
[00:30:14] What, you've never been to the moon, you loser.
[00:30:19] So in comparison, you know, you compare and feel bad about yourself because you're a normal old guy.
[00:30:30] Or are you inspired?
[00:30:32] Paul's trying to inspire.
[00:30:35] You can compare and go darker. You can compare and be inspired. And Paul is trying to inspire and motivate. And then he goes to the core of it all, our last verse. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich.
[00:30:56] Paul starts and ends this little section with grace. And here we have. This is really kind of a favorite verse for Christians because it's such a pithy summary of the gospel of Jesus that Jesus, who is rich, became poor. That is a reference to his pre existence with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And then he gets poor by humbly entering the world as an impoverished baby and then submits himself to betrayal and rejection and mockery and torture and death. And he did it for our sake. Why? So that through his poverty, his poverty of taking upon our sin so much that he became sin and got punished for it, that we then might become rich. And he ain't talking about money.
[00:31:38] This is the richest of life, a life that lasts for forever.
[00:31:43] And it's a true and lasting wealth.
[00:31:46] Jesus became what they were poor so that they could become what he is, rich.
[00:31:53] And so is generosity too much to ask?
[00:32:00] Logically and reasonably, no.
[00:32:07] In the 1970s, there was a sociological study done that was very fascinating. So for Gen Z, this is a picture of a phone booth.
[00:32:19] So a phone booth, it's like kind of this ancient thing, but it's a box, and then inside it is a machine.
[00:32:31] And that machine allows you to talk to people that aren't right there.
[00:32:36] And the way you would get the machine going is by a coin. So you'd put a coin in this little slot, and then you're able to pick up that handle that's got this cord, very inconvenient, this cord connected to it. And then you could make a phone call.
[00:32:55] And if you put too much money in it, you'd get changed. And there was this little change slot. And so people in the 70s were very accustomed to walking by a phone booth and sticking their finger in the chain slot because there might be a coin in there.
[00:33:12] So these sociologists did this study where they had, like, they would sit and watch and wait for somebody to go into the phone booth. They'd make their phone call, and as the person's coming out of the phone booth, they would have one of their subjects, a guy walk by with a file full of paper and then drop it right in front of the phone booth. As the person's coming out of the phone booth, okay, 4% of people stopped to help the guy pick up the papers that he dropped.4%. So 50 times, eight people helped.
[00:33:54] Then they threw a little wrinkle in it.
[00:33:56] Phone booth is vacant.
[00:33:59] They'd get a dime, go put it in the change slot, and somebody would come in to make their phone call. They'd make their phone call, and by repetition, they'd reach in their finger in there to pull out any change that happened to be in there, and they'd get that dime out of there. And as the guy would then walk by and drop his papers, 88% of people stopped and helped the guy pick up the papers.
[00:34:22] We went from 4% to 88%.
[00:34:26] And the finding in their study, their conclusion is an unexpected blessing produces kindness.
[00:34:37] It was a dime, 10 pennies, 1/10 of a dollar a dime.
[00:34:48] So come on, how much more should God's grace, undeserved kindness to us cause generosity, even to strangers? This is actually not unreasonable, is it?
[00:35:00] It's logical and doable.
[00:35:04] God's unreasonable grace under unreasonable circumstances inspires unreasonable generosity. But in a Christian economy, that actually makes perfect sense.
[00:35:19] We're on a little journey together in this series through 2 Corinthians 8, 9.
[00:35:25] And we would like you to participate in some stuff with us. We'd like to help you along the way. So QR codes coming up on the screen. Would you pull out your untethered phone? It does not have a cord on it.
[00:35:38] Would you snap that QR code? Or if you don't want to do that, you'd rather text. It'll take a little longer, but you see the number there?
[00:35:47] Put that number in there. And then in the body of the text, you're putting Pray 14. Here's what's going to happen when you do this.
[00:35:55] We're going to be in touch with you over the next 14 days.
[00:35:59] Just kind of random things coming to you that are going to be encouragement, some reflection, ideas, some prayer prompts. We'll be praying for you. This will give you an opportunity to think about this, just to receive some encouragement, some prompts, some ideas, some wisdom on this whole area of thinking about what grace does to you in regards to the economics of God's grace in our lives.
[00:36:31] Invite you to participate in that. You'll be glad you did. It'll be nice to connect with you over these 14 days.
[00:36:38] And we'll just stay in touch, you know, that way, do this together as a family, as you're working on that. And I also invite you to pray right now as we get ready to sing again. But would you just take a moment right now and just reflect on this really cool passage, Second Corinthians 8, 1 through 9.
[00:36:58] And would you just tell God what's interesting to you, maybe what you're thinking, what you're feeling, and have a nice conversation with him, might be asking for help, you might be telling him what you're going to do, but enjoy a little conversation with Jesus right now, and then we're going to worship together.
