They First Gave Themselves

The preacher begins by reading 2 Corinthians 8:5‑6, highlighting how the Macedonian churches, despite severe poverty, gave generously because they first offered themselves to the Lord. He uses this biblical example to urge the congregation to follow the same pattern of self‑offering, emphasizing that true generosity flows from a heart surrendered to God rather than a mere financial command. He then lists recent pledges from various groups—teenagers, staff, young adults, seminary students, and even a custodial worker—illustrating how individuals at different life stages are beginning to give sacrificially. Building on the scriptural foundation, the speaker explains three reasons why such giving is possible: an unselfish motive grounded in Christ’s example, a vision of an unseen, far‑reaching impact, and the belief that God blesses those who first give themselves. He connects this to the broader mission of the church, describing how local generosity can spark a ripple effect through other churches, leading to mass evangelism and global influence. The sermon concludes with a vivid reminder of Christ’s ultimate self‑gift on the cross, urging listeners to make a larger pledge on their cards, not out of obligation but as a response to the wound of silence that hinders the gospel’s advance.

What is Houston's First Baptist Church?

Houston's First Baptist Church is a relevant biblical community where we gather our hearts, grow our souls and give our lives as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). This podcast provides weekly messages from Pastor Gregg Matte and others. Visit us at HoustonsFirst.org to learn more about HFBC, and visit us in person the next time you're in Houston!

I want to go back and read from the King James Version, the ninth verse once again. Then the people rejoiced for that they offered willingly because with a mature heart they offered willingly to the Lord. Now a corollary passage of Scripture in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. I'd like each of you to open your Bibles if you have them today. Today, 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse number 5, verse 1, and then we'll reread verse 5. 2 Corinthians 8. Moreover, brethren, we want to witness to you about the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how that in a great trial of affliction themselves, the abundance of their joy and deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. Even though they were in great poverty, they gave liberally. For to their power or credit, I bear record, yea, that beyond their own power, they were willing of themselves. They gave more than they could give. Urging us with much urging, with much entreaty, that we would accept the gift and take upon us the fellowship or the responsibility of ministering it to the other saints. And this they did. Not as we had expected. Far beyond that. Because they first gave their own selves unto the Lord and unto us by the will of God. In so much that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in this same grace also. Therefore, as ye abound in everything in faith, you Corinthians, you have great faith and utterance, many great preachers among you, great teachers, great knowledge. You persevere. You are enthusiastic. You do what you do with all diligence. And you have great love to all the church. I want you to learn to abound in this grace, the grace of liberal giving, also. I speak not by commandment, but by the occasion of the forwardness of others, by the example of what others have done, and to prove the sincerity of your love. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. The Bible is filled with stories of people who willingly gave themselves and out of their liberality were able to give more than they had ever hoped or dreamed to the work of the kingdom of God. Many people have already done that in this campaign. I think of those in our teenage department that pledged $21 ,000, of the staff giving $52 ,000, of our single young adults, 86 of them, just starting off in life in the BNP1, pledging $106 ,000. And 40 men and women in the church already giving a million and a half, challenging the rest of the church to meet that level so that the victory might go entirely over the top. I think of the gift that came in the mail this week of the pledge of a young man who in seminary said, be speaking, pastor on behalf of all the other 11 seminary students from First Baptist Church, out of our love for the Lord and His church in First Baptist Houston, we want to pledge a total of nearly $6 ,000. I'm telling you for seminary students on a literal bread and water diet, 11 of them giving an average of $600, that's a sacrifice. And of a Baylor student from our church who said, preacher, I'm pledging a million, I'm pledging a minimum of $1 ,000. And then the pledge that came in the mail this week when I heard of one of our custodians, a man whose life has greatly been touched by God at our church, who said, I want to raise my pledge from $1 ,000 to $1 ,500. And I begin to think that every family in the church, for a minimum of $81 a month, and we'd pay twice that on a car payment, that would be willing to take a hitch in their budget that surely every member of the church, each church family, each young couple starting out, should surely be challenged to pledge a minimum of $3 ,000 over that time. And certainly most of us, with good jobs that have had those jobs for several years, 5 ,000 and 10 and 20, because God says people can do in faith beyond and above what they think they are able to do when they first of all give themselves. Actually, I suppose it's easier to give your money than it is to give yourself. But the Bible says God demands that we give ourselves to Him first. The pledge cards are not a sacrifice if our sacrifice has not been lived out Monday through Saturday. God wants our lives. He wants us first. Jesus said, My meat, my flesh, my food, that that sustains me, is not nearly as important as my will committed to His will. He said, I have meat to eat that you know not of. I'm not concerned about physical things. He said, first of all, what satisfies me is that my will is brought into submission to His. And first of all, my will, my meat, my nourishment is to do the will of Him that sent me. And He added in the Sermon on the Mount that a man who says, Lord, Lord, with His lips, with His singing, with His service, but who does not do the will of God, is not even a child of God. It is our will that He wants. And far more important than any gift, God wants you. But as you give yourself to God, you will find that God so blesses you that you will be able to give far and away more than you had ever dreamed. The Bible tells us that the Lord's Supper is not to be taken until, first of all, we make peace with each other and are in one accord. God wants ourselves before He wants our service. Mark chapter 4 tells us the story of a man who came to the altar and he had an argument with his brother. Jesus said, leave that offering at the altar. Go make peace with your brother and then give your offering. It is the will of God that God wants. It is our willingness to Him. Then out of the overflow and the abundance, God will find that people who love Him, who give themselves to Him first, are then able to give as God wants them the money that is represented in an offering to the Lord's work. I would suggest three simple reasons to you why these people were able to give as they did. First of all, they gave from an unselfish motive. In the 11th chapter of Acts, Agabus warned that there was going to be a great famine come upon Jerusalem. Now, in the 2nd chapter of Galatians, the Apostle Paul goes to Jerusalem and promises the Jerusalem Christians that somehow he was going to raise enough money to bring gifts and good and food for those hungry people. Then the Bible tells us that when he goes back, he finds that because they had willingly give themselves, that even though they were caught up in the midst of a great famine themselves, they gave sacrificially, unselfishly to the need of other people. And they blessed the whole world. In the Old Testament, Jeremiah and Isaiah both gave of their ministry to the Lord, gave their lives when they saw the need of others. We are not building a monument to ourselves or our glory. It is for the sake of Christ, for the sake of missions, for the sake of lost men and women that we're giving. And all through the Bible, the principle of looking unselfishly on the needs of others as the motive for our bringing ourself to God is preached. Did not our God so love the world? Was not he so moved with compassion? Not for himself, but for us, that he gave the greatest sacrifice of all, his only begotten Son. Secondly, they were able to give such an unprecedented gift, the Bible tells us, because there was, I think at the bottom of their hearts, an unimaginable goal. They never dreamed how far their influence was going to go. And I am convinced that any time anyone does anything sacrificially for God, in the name of Christ, that he never dreams of the far -reaching ramifications of that gift beyond the limitations of his own influence to which it's going to go. They were an influence to each other. They were an influence to those in Jerusalem to whom they gave. But the Bible says that Paul is using it as an illustration to inspire the Corinthians 1 ,500 miles away. But what of us today? Today, 2 ,000 years later, we are still being influenced to give to win as yet unborn men to Christ because of the influence of others. Every day in the world, 185 ,000 people are born. That's a city the size of Mobile, a city the size of Lubbock, and 90 % of them will die without Jesus Christ. It is my hope and dream that God will so grasp in our hearts a vision of what is going to happen beyond the walls of this church as influence spreads around the world. We in this side, in this service, will go far beyond the $3 million goal in pledging. I could hardly tell you in an hour, let alone a few -minute sermon, of the influence of our church. Many years ago, God convicted me that somehow, in a day in which the greatest mass evangelism was being done, that it was going to be through the ministry of the local church, as churches influenced other churches, that a revival was going to come to America. There's no stronger proponent in the world than I for mass evangelism. But there are 300 ,000 churches on the North American continent. And ladies and gentlemen, if here and there, strong evangelistic churches are born, the influence of hundreds of other thousands of churches spawn up, then there are millions of times more influence than one -to -one, face -to -face evangelism could ever equate. A few months ago, I wrote, actually dictated in my backyard while I was working on some flowers and trees, a little book called, How to Build an Evangelistic Church. It was the story of First Baptist Church Houston. It just had a few chapters about how you give and love, about how you are enthusiastic, how you pray and witness, how you always come through, and the things that God has used here. Already, nearly 7 ,000 pastors of 7 ,000 churches have bought and read that book. And people are writing me letters saying, We've started doing it. We shake hands. We sing. We visit. We give. We dream the impossible. We expect God to bless. We do what we do in faith. And our offerings for missions are up, and evangelism is up, and the church is filled. There's no way I could overstate to you the influence of God through this church. It is my dream that one day when people move to Houston, they're not only going to see the eighth wonder of the world, but the world has not yet begun to see the beginning of the ninth wonder of the world, the largest, the giving us, the soul -winning us, the ministering us, the preaching us, the lovingest church this world has ever seen build on this property. I'm believing God and believing you to do it. And I promise you that millions of people through thousands of other churches are going to be touched and inspired because of the influence of which you have never yet dreamed that this church has in the kingdom of God and is capable of having. The last word is this. They gave as they gave because of an unexceedable example, that of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now the apostle Paul, in nailing down his argument, finishes with a perfect illustration of Christ himself. He said, look at Jesus. What did he do? Though he was rich, for your sake, he emptied himself. He became poor. He poured out all that he had so that through his poverty, you, others, might become rich. That is the precept upon which Christianity is built, that men give of themselves that others might live, and they in prosperity give of themselves that others might live. Now why does God give us things and then challenge us to give them away so that we can give things to others who will in turn give them away? Because the transitory state of life is not important. Physical possessions come and go. The death of many persons in our church in recent months has reminded all of us of the verse of Scripture which says, what is your life? It is just a vapor that appears for a moment and is gone. I am looking in the face and have just scanned this audience and seen the faces of three wonderful Christian women whose husbands we have buried in the last two weeks. The Bible tells us don't put too much faith in the world. God gives it to you to give away, to give to someone else to give away because money must rise and fall. Money goes. Money is not the important thing. But he says that over beyond, beyond all of that, there is the example of Christ who emphasized the importance of eternal life by dying on the cross himself that through our poverty, others might, his poverty, we might be rich. And through ours, others might become rich in Jesus Christ. Now the Bible tells us over in the book of Isaiah, the 53rd chapter, verse 4, that Jesus Christ was wounded for our transgressions. He wounded himself willingly on the cross for our sins, that his poverty might abound to our riches in Christ. Doctors tell us that there are five basic kinds of wounds. First of all, there's a contusion. When the body is injured with a severe blow of a blood object, such as a bruise, the Bible says of Christ he was beaten and smitten for our transgressions. They beat his back, they beat his face with their open fists. Christ was bruised. Then there are lacerations, something that is made in a scar, an ugly thing like a whip or a blow from a scourging. Then Jesus Christ was scourged for us. He escaped not one of the wounds in giving himself totally for life by which men could be saved and freed from sin. Then they tell us that there are punctures when the body is pushed through with a pointed object and his hands were nailed to the old rugged cross as he was bruised for my sins and wounded for my transgressions. Then they tell us that there are incised wounds when an incision is made by a sharp pointed object which thrusts its way into the body. The Bible says when that sharp spear went into the side of Christ that blood and water came forth to announce to the world that he had died of a broken heart. And then there's an abrasion with the tearing or shredding of skin. When Jesus Christ was put on the cross, the crowns tore at his brow and rubbed and were pushed back and forth as him that was made no sin became sin for us. But I say to you that the physical wounds of Christ on the cross was not the ultimate of what Christ did for us in pouring himself out. But that the psychological wounds, the wounds of his soul, the wounds of his heart were what broke him, were the wounds that he gave for our sins. I think of the wound of denial when Peter, his best friend who had gone with him into the Garden of Gethsemane who had been there on the Mount of Transfiguration looked at Christ through that crack in the door and Jesus looked at him and his eyes met his and he had denied him and Peter fell to his knees and was never again the same. All of his life Peter tried to make up for that chance that he had missed. All of his life Peter went everywhere saying, I know him, I know him, I know him. But I don't think that he ever read it himself of the guilt of that one night of denial when he said, I don't know him. There was the wound of materialism that Judas inflicted on him. I don't see Judas as a villain. I don't see Judas as a slant -eyed crook from the beginning. I see Judas as an honest Christian businessman representing a Christian businessman. Judas had two interests in life. For one thing, he was interested in religion. He had memorized the Decalogue. He had gone on missionary journeys. He was genuinely interested in the things of God. The kingdom of Christ was of great interest to him. But Judas had another interest. He was interested in making money and God had given him a talent to make money and that was good. It was a gift. But the time came that his two interests came in conflict and it was all on the line and Judas chose his money over his relationship to his Christ. And the name Judas has carried a connotation that through the centuries has blistered the tongue of decent men. And yet I say to you that in the lives of many of us, it would have to be said that were we there, we would have done the same thing because we do so every day. We sing. Our religion is first. We preach. We give. We talk on Sunday. But Monday through Saturday, the materialism, the possessions come first. And so often when the chips are down and we really have to decide, will I really affect my lifestyle? Will I sacrifice? Will I go without? That his work might go forward. The answer is no. In closing, Jesus Christ was wounded for our transgressions with the greatest hurt of all, that emotional, that mental, that spiritual and psychological wound of silence. Our Lord Jesus was tried in two courts. He was tried in the court of religion in Jerusalem and found guilty by the court of the Pharisees. But he was also tried in the court of the Roman Empire legally. On both counts, he was found guilty. But Pilate, with sore compunctions of conscience, was not willing to stop there. He was willing to make one court of appeals, for there was one to which he could go. And that was the most important court in the world, the court of public opinion, and to the people he appealed. So powerful was it that once the Jews did not stone Jesus, though they had chosen to, the Bible says in Luke, for fear of the crowd. The Bible says in the fourth chapter of Acts, the people did not stone Peter when they wanted to, for fear of the crowd. The crowd was there. Jesus had lived among them. He had blessed them. He had raised their dead. He had fed their poor. He had met their needs. Surely they would satisfy the conscience of Pilate. On the feast day, the Passover, Pilate brought Jesus before the people and said, I'm going to make a court of last appeals. And I'm going to offer this Christ to you. And I'm going to offer Barabbas to you. Now here's a legal loophole that he had found to let Christ go free. And so he thought he'd get it over with, expecting that the crowd would say, no, no, we want the Lord Jesus. He stood Barabbas before the crowd and said, what will you do with Barabbas? And the crowd cried, release him, release him, let him go. The Bible says that then he brought Jesus before them and said, what will you do with Jesus of Nazareth? Crucify him, crucify him. Not one person, the Bible says the whole crowd, the entire congregation, all said, away with us, Christ. Not one person spoke in his behalf when he needed them the most. Where was Mary Magdalene that he had forgiven of her sins? She was in the crowd. And what a blind Bartimaeus and Lazarus that he had raised from the dead. Where were the 5 ,000 that Jesus Christ had fed? Where were his own twiled disciples? Where was his mother? Where was his sister? Where was Simon Peter? They were all in the crowd. And yet when he needed his friends, not one of them came through. You talk about hurt. You talk about heartbreak. When it was all on the line, he stood alone. Julius Caesar was the greatest, the most flamboyant, the most effective, the most brilliant of all the Jewish statesmen, all the Roman statesmen and emperors. The Roman Senate had made a plot that they were going to assassinate him. The date was to be the 14th day of March, 44 B .C., a date which has lived in infamy and has come to be known as the Ides of March. The night before he was to ascend into the Senate for a special ceremony, his wife was awakened out of her sleep and going to the side of her husband, aroused him and said, Darling, I love you, but I fear for your life. I've had a dream. They're going to kill you tomorrow in the Senate. Don't go to the Senate. Julius Caesar said, Why, they wouldn't kill me. They're my friends. They're my people. They love me. They wouldn't kill me. Go back to sleep. It's just a nightmare, just a bad dream. Everything's going to be all right. The next morning he arose and dressed and with his court was assuming the throne. When a soothsayer hollered from the sides of the crowd, the Ides of March, the Ides of March, the day Caesar dies, he turned and said, Away with you, child of Satan. These people are my friends. They love me. They wouldn't hurt me. His people clapped his hand and patted him on the back and praised him and honored and extolled the gifted Caesar. He seated himself upon the throne, and history records that as Calpurnia, his wife, stood and begged of him, Be not seated, Caesar! Be not seated! That Cascas, one of his soldiers, one of his fellow senators, thrust a dagger into his back, but missing, inflicted the wound, only a surface wound, in the side of his shoulder. Quickly, Julius Caesar turned around, and immediately the other senators were upon him, a second and a third. Thrice was he inflicted, and four times, and five, and ten, again and again. And finally, the fatal blow was struck in the pit of his stomach, and looking down, he looked into the face of his best friend, Brutus, and said, You too, Brutus? Then die, Caesar. And he was dead. Twenty -four wounds in his body, but the fatal blow was inflicted at the hand of his best friend. Jesus said, Henceforth call you I no more, my disciples. I call you my friends. Our Lord Jesus and his church and his cause needs you now. His bride needs you now. Souls for whom he has died need you now. And many of us need to be thinking about writing down a much larger pledge than we had thought when we came, and some who have already pledged of raising them. For I say to you that you have the grandest chance through this church in this crisis hour for his sake and his love and his name and his work to speak more loudly with that pen on that card than ever you may again. Let not your silence be a wounding and fatal blow to his love and need for you. That grand messianic passage in Zechariah says, And they shall say to him, Whence came these wounds in my hands? And then shall he say, These were they which I received in the house of my friends. The wound of silence. You can speak loud and clear of your love and commitment to him now. And I'm going to ask you to do so on that pledge card. May we pray.