2020, the year of the Great Lockdown, leading to what some are now calling the Great Coronavirus Recession. It was triggered by a strategic wager, sacrifice economic momentum in order to physically distance people, all with the goal of starving and killing off a spreading virus. It was a huge gamble, and it hurt.

The Dow Jones flirting with 30,000 in February plummeted to under 19,000 a month later. As I record this, 22 million Americans have filed unemployment claims. The financial fallout of the Great Coronavirus Recession has been compared to the Great Recession of 2007-2009, even evoking comparisons to the Great Depression of 1929-1933.

Looking ahead, some think the economy will bounce back to normal as soon as the virus is under control. Others are less optimistic. Recessions are killjoys. They destroy small businesses, they disrupt life, they take away our normalcy, and they cost us our happiness. In March, our president predicted America would lose more lives to the despair of recession than to the virus itself, saying, "People get tremendous anxiety and depression, and you have suicides over things like this when you have terrible economies in far greater numbers than the numbers that we're talking about with regard to the virus." Statistically, this statement is hotly contested, but just appreciate these words and what they say about the apparent threat of economic uncertainty on emotional well-being.

This isn't the first recession, it won't be the last recession. So what is God up to in our recession? About a decade ago, John Piper preached a sermon under that exact title, "What is the Recession For?" It was preached on February 1st, 2009, in the middle of the Great Recession, at the time the Dow had been dropping but had not yet bottomed out.

Recessions, he shows, are not meant to kill our joy, but to make our joy more stable. Here's Pastor John explaining from 2 Corinthians 8, verses 1-2. He intends to relocate the roots of our joy in his grace, not our goods, in his mercy, not our money, in his worth, not our wealth.

God sends recessions to yank up the roots of our joy from the pleasures of the world and plant them in the glory of his grace. Now there's one text in the New Testament that is the clearest recession text in the Bible, and I'm going to take you there now.

It's 2 Corinthians 8. We want you to know, there's about the grace of God that was given among the churches of Macedonia. So he's writing to Corinth about something that happened up in Macedonia, up around Philippi. "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." Now that's my dream for Bethlehem.

I don't think we'll ever reach the poverty part, but it wouldn't hurt, perhaps. Verse 2 says, "These folks have a wealth of generosity." That's what I want for us. I mean every kind of generosity. I mean, after this service, somebody wants to talk to you, you're generous with your time.

Somebody needs some money, you're generous with your money. Every kind. In other words, we're just the kind of people who are there. We're just ready to be spent for others. That's what I mean by generous. I want that for our people. So my question here is, where did that come from?

Where did that come from in this text? And it's so clear. Sometimes I'm embarrassed to preach on this text to insult your intelligence. Prepare to be insulted. Did it come, you can help me, you can just tell me what the answers are to these questions. Did it come from their prosperity?

What's the answer? No, because they don't have any. It says, verse 2, "Their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of liberality." So scratch that answer. It didn't come from prosperity. Do you know what state in the United States is per capita the poorest? Tell me, risk it. It'll be an insult, but say it anyway.

Mississippi. Do you know what state per capita has the highest level of charitable giving? Now you know the answer. It's Mississippi. There's a correlation, folks, between poverty and giving, not wealth and giving. Wealthy people don't give much money proportionately. They give a lot of money, it just looks like they're giving a lot of money.

But when somebody has almost nothing, and they get a plea, and they can't resist the giving, something's going on there really beautiful. And that's what's going on here. These people are poor, in verse 2, and they've got a wealth of generosity. Second question. Where did it come from? Did it come from being surrounded by approving people and culture?

The answer to that one is no, because they're being harassed. It says in verse 2, look at it, "In a severe test of affliction." So now you've got poverty, and you've got people beating up on them. The reason I'm assuming affliction means that is because of Acts 17, verse 5.

That's what happened in Thessalonica. That is up there around the Macedonians. Jason got arrested and beat up. The church, three weeks old, is being hurt. And they're given like crazy. I mean, this is recession over the top, and they're lavishly given. So, question third time, where'd this come from?

It says in verse 2 where it came from. Their abundance of joy in that extreme poverty overflowed with a wealth of generosity. So, they were happy. The recession was abounding, they were poor, people were beating up on them, and they were so happy, they gave. Last question, where'd that joy come from?

Verse 1, "We want you to know, brothers, about the..." Say those next three words. "That's the answer about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia." And what does grace of God look like? It looks like abundant joy in the midst of poverty, overflowing in a wealth of liberality.

That's what grace looks like when it comes down. The question for the church is, this church, your church, wherever you go to church, the question for the church is, "Have you experienced grace? Do you know your sediment of self-reliance so well, and you see it so clearly when it gets all murky after you get bumped by your wife or bumped by your kid or bumped by your broker, and you're looking at your glass, it's all murky, and you hate it, and you're stunned at the grace of God that He loves you, that He forgives you, that He stays by you, that He keeps holding on to you, that He brings you home to glory, and you can hardly imagine a God so kind that you're going to give and give and give to people who are in need.

I just want to be like that. I want you to be like that because it's such a beautiful, beautiful thing. So the way recessions work is that they bump us, and then they reveal the sin, and then they jerk up, and they jerk up the roots of our joy, which were down there in our money, and in our security, and how everything was going, and we suddenly are rootless for a minute, and then He mercifully sinks them into the glory of the grace of God.

And they're firm, and they're solid, and they're not shaken anymore. Be thankful in all circumstances. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Amen. Amen. This was taken from John Piper's sermon titled "What is the Recession for? Some of God's Purposes." He preached it on February 1st, 2009, and the full message is available online at DesiringGod.org.

Thanks for listening. If you want new episodes of this podcast delivered to you, subscribe to Ask Pastor John in your favorite podcast app, in Spotify, or by subscribing to DG's YouTube channel. To find other episodes in our archive or to submit a question to us, do that online at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

How do I know if I'm living by faith or living in unbelief? Is there a more important question to the daily Christian life than this one? I don't think so. It's the next question up on the docket next time on Friday. I'm your host Tony Reinhke, and we'll see you then.

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