Many ball players dream of capping off a career with a 400 foot home run at their last at bat – just like Ted Williams -- but not George Brett of the Kansas City Royals.  When a reporter asked Brett what he wanted to do in his last at-bat, Brett answered, “I want to hit a routine grounder to second, run all-out to first base, and then get thrown out by half a step.  I want to leave an example for the young guys that that’s how you play the game – all out.”

       Examples are important for our growth.

      Last Sunday we look at 2 Corinthians 8 and Paul’s guidelines for Christian giving.  Paul uses the church in Macedonia as an example of what healthy giving looks like.  This morning I want to look at the same chapter but target one particular verse – verse 5 – where Paul says to the Corinthians about their fellow believers in Macedonia; “They first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.”

      I want us to note the three characteristics of the believers in Macedonia that Paul holds up to the Corinthians and to us as models for our giving.

       First, Paul says, “They gave themselves to the Lord.”  That’s where authentic Christian living starts.  It starts with a person’s relationship with Jesus Christ.

       This is where it has to start.  T.A. Kantones in A Theology of Christian Stewardship asks the question: “Can anything be more discouraging than the effort to persuade people who are only nominally Christian to contribute to the work of the church according to the measure of their substance as well as their surplus?  Enthusiasm drawn from natural human resources are soon used up and the exhortation to give becomes wearisome both to the exhorter and the exhorted.”

      But those who are in love with God don’t have a problem with stewardship of money, time, or talent.  This is because they overflow with gratitude.  A genuine commitment to Jesus results in a devoted lifetime of partnership with Jesus.

       In 2 Corinthians 5:14 Paul writes of his own service: “The love of Christ urges us on.”  That, and only that, should be the motivation for our lives as the people of God.  We should not be motivated by fear of what God will take away or what God will withhold if we don’t give – as if God were running a heavenly protection racket.  Our motivation ought to be overflowing gratitude for the love we have already been shown in Jesus Christ.  This is the motivation of freedom, power and joy.  This is the motivation, Paul says, that is modeled for us by the people of Macedonia.  Paul writes that the extreme poverty of the Macedonians overflowed in a wealth of generosity because they didn’t only give what they could easily spare.

       It’s like the pig and the hen that are walking down a road.  They pass a church which is advertising a ham and egg breakfast to raise money for a new building.

       The chicken turns to the pig and says: “You know, God has been very good to us.  I think we should go in and help out!”

      The pig replies: “Hold it, chicken.  I’m not going in.  You’d only be making a donation.  But they’d ask me for a total commitment!

       I like that story.  It describes so well what Christian stewardship is all about – not just sharing our eggs but giving our ham.  That’s what the Macedonians did.

        The second characteristic of these Macedonian believers is that they give themselves to one another as the church of Jesus Christ.  These Macedonian Christians are in love with those who love Jesus – and they show the way they love by the way they live.  Paul writes, “They gave themselves to God and, as a result, also gave themselves to us.”

       When I was pastoring up in Oroville I preached there, as I did here, through Paul’s great letter to the Ephesians.  In Ephesians Paul talks at some length about the source, the goal, and the power of Christian unity.  It’s a major theme in Ephesians.

       Because Paul treats this vital subject of unity at such length I could hardly pass over it with a lick and a promise.  So I preached for several weeks on aspects of this great theme.

       There was one couple in the church, Al and Evelyn Mitchell, who had been out of town for about two months helping their son get in a wheat crop in eastern Oregon.  They returned to Oroville and heard me preach about the need for love between brothers and sisters in Christ.  They came the next week and heard about the role of the Holy Spirit as the author of unity.  They came the third week and heard about the way our love for each other models what God is seeking to do in all of human society.

       They had heard enough.  After worship they took me aside and said: “Dave, as you know, we’ve been away and we’re out of touch.  We don’t know what the problem is in the congregation that you’re been preaching about – who’s fighting with who and what they’re fighting about.  But whatever it is – whatever needs to be done to bring healing – we want you to know that you can count on us.”

      I gladly told them that I wasn’t preaching against any known problem.  The emphasis on unity was the emphasis of the scripture as God was using it to speak to us – abut that maybe the Holy Spirit was giving us a healthy dose of preventive medicine against future problems.

       But I also told them that their words; “Whatever it is, you can count on us” showed the spirit of Christian love and service that would keep the church whole.  For in the church we need to give ourselves to each other.

       In the Lord’s Supper we share with the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.  But we also share with our brothers and sisters in the church of Jesus Christ.

       In the Lord’s Supper we hear Jesus say to us: “This is my body.  This is my blood.  You can count on me!”  But the Bible says that the church is also Christ’s body.  This means that we also need to be able to count on each other.

       After we share in the Supper you will have the opportunity as we sing “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven,” to say both to your Lord and to your brothers and sisters in faith “you can count on me!”  We say this as we bring our cards and place them on the table.

       For the final great characteristic Paul notes about the believers in Macedonia is that they are in the will of God – and they show it.  They show us who they are by the way they act – because by their giving of themselves they are acting like Jesus Christ.   For as Paul says in verse 9 of this same chapter: “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”