Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
In First Kings chapter 17, during a time of drought and famine, Elijah was fed by ravens. Then God instructed Elijah to go to Zarephath where a widow would sustain him. The widow initially had very little food, but Elijah told her to make him a cake first, promising that her supplies would not run out. The widow obeyed and her household was able to eat for many days. This story illustrates the principle that giving leads to increase. This principle is also seen in Malachi 3, where God commands the people to bring their tithes and offerings to the storehouse, promising to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings. The same principle applies to forgiveness, as mentioned in Luke 6, where forgiving others leads to receiving forgiveness. The verse in Luke 6 also emphasizes that giving should be done with a generous heart, as the measure we use to give will be used to measure what we receive. Overall, the Bible teaches that giving leads to First Kings chapter 17 and we'll be looking at verses 8 through 16. This was a time during a time of drought, time of famine was coming on and Elijah was camping out by the brook and we're told that ravens came and they fed him. Evidently he was on the two meal a day plan because they fed him morning and evening. But now things are changing again and in verse 8 and the word of the Lord came unto him saying arise get thee to Zarephath which belongs to Zidon and dwell there. Behold I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath and when he came to the gate of the city behold a widow woman was gathering was gathering of sticks and he called her and said fetch me I pray thee a little water in a vessel that I may drink and when she was going to fetch it he called to her and said bring me I pray thee a morsel of bread in thine hand and she said as the Lord thy God liveth I have not a cake but a handful of meal and a barrel and a little oil and a cruise and behold I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat and die and Elijah said unto her fear not go and do as thou hast said but make me thereof a little cake first and bring it unto me and after that for thee and thy son. That's rather interesting isn't it? You know not often in the Bible do we see the example of me first especially in such dire circumstances but Elijah says listen make me a cake first and then whatever make yourself and your son something. For thus saith the Lord of Israel the barrel of meal shall not waste neither shall the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord endeth sendeth rain upon the earth and she went and did according to the saying of Elijah and she and he and her house did eat for many days. So the principle that I find here in God's plan his planned method for us living is to give is to experience increase. To live is to experience to give sorry to give is to experience increase. Let's turn to Malachi 3. Malachi 3 is the last book in the New Testament I believe or near the end there. Malachi 3 and we're going to look at verses 8 through 11. Interesting. Says will a man rob God? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me but you say wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and in offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole nation. Bring ye in all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there be not room enough to receive it. Again it's the same principle to give is to experience increase. Now just just briefly I can share with you when I learned about this principle a number of decades ago now I thought about it and I just started laughing. You know what I was thinking as I as I read this was that Ellen and I were poor. We literally you know we live from week to week paycheck to paycheck. You know often we didn't have anything at the end of the week. There was nothing. Everything went to the bill collectors. You know and so I started laughing when I read this because you know I thought I said you know fellas you can't have it all now can you? You know everything we had went to bill collectors and I was so happy that not everything that came out of my pocket had to go to bill collectors. At least ten percent was going to go to something good and so I was snickering at the bill collectors because they couldn't have it all now because God claimed a portion and anyway I don't I don't I haven't been in that dire straits for a long time now. You know but I remember the joy I had knowing that and there's nothing wrong with bill collectors. They were entitled to what they were charging me. It just was a little depressing at times that they got it all. But anyway the Lord says see if I won't open the windows of heaven and pour you out such a blessing that you can't receive it all. And so I can testify today that the Lord has certainly opened the windows of heaven in my behalf and I am so thankful. And so that's just another example in the Bible where to give it means an increase. You know I was reading earlier just before church started and from Proverbs 11. Let's turn there to something that wasn't in my notes but came to mind. Proverbs 11 verses 24 and 25. This is again the same biblical principle. There is that scattereth and yet increases. And there is that which withholdeth more than is meet and it tendeth to poverty. So there is that which scattereth that you give away that tendeth to increase. And there is that which we withhold sometimes that tendeth to poverty. Let's turn again to Matthew 14. Matthew 14 and we'll look at verses 14 through 31. And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and he was moved with compassion towards them and he healed their sick. And when it was evening his disciples came to him saying this is a desert place and the time is now passed. Send the multitude away that they may go into the villages and buy themselves vittles. But Jesus said unto them they need not depart give ye them to eat. And they saw and they say unto him we have here but five loaves and two fishes. He said bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass and took the five loaves and the two fishes. And looking up into heaven he blessed and gave the loaves to his disciples. And the disciples to the multitude and they did eat and they did all eat and were filled. And they took up the fragments that remained that remained twelve baskets full. And they had eaten there, I'm sorry, and they that had eaten were about 5,000 men besides women and children. And they said, wow, five loaves, two fishes fed over 5,000 people. You know I can only imagine that the, I don't know who gave it, in some places it talks about a boy that gave the food, you know, to Jesus or had the food and Jesus blessed it and they fed 5,000, 6,000 people. You know you give the Lord something, they gave him five loaves and two fishes and the Lord blesses it and he feeds 5,000, 6,000 people. So when you give, in the Bible there's a principle when you give you experience an increase. And that's how it's been in my life. You give and you experience an increase. Moving on to Luke 6, 37, this principle carries on in other areas. Luke 6, verse 37. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not, thou shalt not be condemned. And then it says forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you. All right, it's interesting, you know, I guess the Lord's Prayer says, you know, forgive us our debtors as we forgive those, or forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. There's something interesting, it says forgive and you shall be forgiven. There's some transaction that happens when we forgive. A transaction happens that we're forgiven. And I know for me, you know, I've been forgiven much. You know, I don't know that I've had to forgive very much, but I know I've been forgiven much. And so my forgiveness has been little compared to the forgiveness I've received. I don't know about the rest of you, you know, but the forgiveness I've received is far exceeds the little bit that I've forgiven. And so once again, it's the principle. You give and you experience an increase. If we read on, it gets a little more interesting. The next verse really tells the story of what we've been talking about. Thus far it says, give and you shall be given unto. Right? Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you meet, with all it shall be measured to you again. Give, that's the command, and then it shall be given unto you. It's the same principle, you know, we talked about in Malachi, about tithes and offerings. You give and the windows of heaven will open and bless you. And I hesitate, really, to try to entice people to give to the good Lord because they're going to experience an increase, you know. We should give to the Lord. The Lord loves what a cheerful giver. You know, in 1 Chronicles, when David is dedicating the temple to God. Let me find it here. Perhaps I didn't write it down. Let's go to 1 Chronicles. The last chapter. 1 Chronicles chapter 29, verse 14. David is dedicating the temple to the Lord, all that they've gathered for the building of the temple that Solomon's going to do. And David says, but who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? They had gathered all the materials for the building of the temple. There was gold and precious stones and just an immense amount of building material. Beautiful draperies for the temple. Just a tremendous expense. And David says, but who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee. You know, that's another principle we can keep in mind. You know, often I don't sense that I give anything to the Lord. You know, at best, I return to the Lord. He's already given me everything I have. You know, I don't have the quote right on hand here, but in Desire of Ages, it talks about the very breath that we breathe moment by moment is from God watching over us. Our heart beats the next beat because God is watching over us. God is attentive. He watches over us so intimately. He's provided everything we need for life and godliness in Christ Jesus. You know, I think the debt of gratitude I have for the Lord, it's just immense. I can't compute it. And I stand ashamed that my gratitude is not greater than it is. God gives us the next breath we take. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Just recently, another application of this divine principle was shown to me. I found it, you can find it multiple times. You can find it at least twice in the Old Testament, seven times in the New Testament, four times Jesus says it, two times Paul says it, and one time James says it. Let's look at a few. In the Old Testament, turn to Leviticus 19 and we'll look at verse 18. Leviticus 19, verse 18. And thou shalt never avenge, and thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people. But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. This is the first time in the scriptures that I'm aware of that we're commanded to love our neighbor as ourself. Now, if we just go over a page and we look at verse 34 of Leviticus 19. This is interesting, especially for the time in which we're living in. I know this will be difficult for some of us. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him. As thou, for thou for ye were a stranger in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. That may have some relevance for us today. Let's go to the New Testament and let's look at Matthew. We've read Matthew 22, 34 through 40. Let's go to Mark 12 and look at 29 through 31. Mark 12, 29 through 31. And Jesus answered him, the first of all commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like unto it, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. Let's go to Luke 10. In Luke 10, we'll look at verses 25 through 27. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right. Do this, and thou shalt live. I really like the rest of that story, you know, that the guy seeking to justify himself. He says, But who is my neighbor? You know, and it concludes with, Do you know who your neighbor is? Your neighbor is anybody who needs your help. That's your neighbor. Anyone that you can be a blessing to is your neighbor. You know, it's not merely, you know, church members, you know, it's anyone who needs your help. You know, well, we can look at Galatians 5.14, something Paul wrote, Galatians 5.14. This is interesting, the emphasis that Paul puts on this concept. For all the law, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this. Thou shalt love your neighbor as yourself. And just one more, we'll look at James 2.8. James 2.8. If you fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures, thou shalt love the neighbor as thyself. Interesting, you know, I'm just impressed with the weight that scripture gives to this commandment. You fulfill the law. If you do this, you fulfill the whole law. If we love our neighbor as ourself. I have trouble. It's been a long time. I've had trouble with the self-love concept. You know, anybody else have trouble with the self-love concept? I just love myself. Oh, I'm just, I am just great, let me tell you. You know, I have trouble with this self-love concept. You know, Christ's love was selfless. It says in the Desire of Ages, as a child, the chapter, as a child is that from his earliest years, Christ was possessed with one purpose. He lived to bless others. That's what Jesus was all about. Every situation he came into, he surveyed it, studied it. How can I be a blessing? Who needs my help? From his earliest years, Christ was possessed with one purpose. He lived to bless others. That's what he wants for us, right? Love thy neighbor as thyself. So I got looking at that phrase, and I looked up the word as, because that was the definitive word, how to love your neighbor as, well how do you love yourself, right? Because you're supposed to love your neighbor like you love yourself. And so I looked up the word as, and the word, that little word as, has about 29 different meanings. I was blown away. The little word as, in the Bible, has about 29 different meanings. In every scripture that we read today, it's the same meaning for the word as. Every one of them. And the word as, anybody want to know what the word as means? Anybody want to know? Raise your hand if you want to know. Does anyone know what the word as means? No, it doesn't mean like. That's what I would have thought. The word as means, now listen up, in order to. The word as means, in order to. So love your neighbor in order to love yourself. That's how heavenly things are made up. That's how God is made up. That's how he's made us. Love your neighbor in order to love yourself. Gives a little different concept to it, doesn't it? Then maybe you had before. You know, love your neighbor in order to love yourself. See, something negative happens to me when I watch somebody go by in need that I could help. Does that happen to anyone here? You missed an opportunity, you dropped the ball, and you failed to help somebody in need that you could have. Can you recall how you felt? It's not nice, is it? It's not nice when we have the opportunity to help someone and we choose not to. Something happens to us and it's not very nice and we often will regret it. And so, you know, the story of the Good Samaritan, you know, illustrates this to a T. The Samaritan stopped and he helped and he was the neighbor unto the one that fell among thieves. So the way self is loved is by blessing others. If we don't do that, we don't feel very good. You know, and me feeling good isn't a byproduct of my self-esteem. It isn't a byproduct of my accomplishments. My feeling good happens when I bless others. When we're busy doing those things that bless others, we don't have those feelings of, I don't know, worthlessness or we're inconsequential or I'm a nobody. You see, as we love our neighbor to love ourselves, your self-image will get taken care of. You will feel good, but it won't be about you. You'll feel good because you're a blessing to others. The Lord said to Abraham, when Abraham was called by God, God said, Abraham, I'm going to bless you and you're going to be a blessing to many nations. And I learned some time ago, when the Lord blesses me, I am never the primary target. The Lord blesses us so we can bless others. If we don't do that, we've short-circuited God's intention and we really don't get the big blessing that he intends for us to have. There's a few quotes that I came by from one of my favorite authors. I'll see if I can bring them up. You know, just before that, I'd like to mention, you know, we love, we love because he first loved us, right? That's what John tells us, we love because he first loved us. So I conclude that we must receive before we can give. Yet if we don't, but yet if we do not give what we have received, we lose that which was given to us. All right? All right, if I hold on to what I've received, at some point it's taken away from me. Now to illustrate that biblically, Matthew 18 verses 23 through 35 tells a story of a fellow that owed his Lord a tremendous amount of money. And the guy said, look, you pay me what you owe me. And the guy fell at his knees and just pleaded. He says, please, please just be patient with me and I will give you all that I owe. And his Lord straightway forgave him his immense debt. Not many days following, he went out and he took a person that owed him a small debt and he took him by the throat. And he says, pay me all that thou owest or I'll cast you to the tormentors. And the guy pleaded with him, please be patient, I'll pay you all that I owe. And he won and he delivered him to the tormentors. Now when the first Lord heard about it, what did he do? He was angry. And that debt was revisited upon him. And he was delivered to the tormentors till all should be paid. So although he was forgiven, he didn't forgive. And because he didn't forgive, his debt was revisited upon him. And that's how it works. We need to pass on the blessings that we've received. Otherwise, it'll be revisited upon us. The talents, yeah. Yeah, I got to turn this thing on. That's the volume. This must be the on button. This is one of my favorite quotes from my favorite author. It says, love is the basis of godliness. Whatever the profession, I don't care what you say, right? Whatever the profession, no man has pure love to God unless he has unselfish love for his brother. But we cannot come into the possession of this spirit of love by trying to love one another. Isn't that interesting? We can't love one another, folks, by trying to love one another. What is needed is the love of Christ in the heart. When self is merged in Christ, love springs forth spontaneous. It's like a knee-jerk reaction. The completeness of Christian character is obtained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within. When the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance. We can't love one another by trying to love one another. As we draw close to Christ, love springs forth spontaneously. Now, I have to admit, there are times when this doesn't happen for me. Anybody relate to that? When this doesn't happen, you know, that's a call to prayer. That's a call to prayer. When I don't love people spontaneously, when I'm judgmental, when I'm critical, when my love for my brother isn't spontaneous, it's a call for prayer, and God can help us. So don't be dejected if this isn't your experience all the time. But the next statement will show us where our help resides. We have wonderful help. Same author, I believe the same book. This is from The Desire of Ages. The angels of God are ever-passing from earth to heaven and from heaven to earth. The miracles of Christ for the afflicted and suffering were wrought by the power of God through the ministration of angels, as it is through Christ by the ministration of these heavenly messengers at every blessing from God to us. You know, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against wickedness in high places. This is a spiritual realm, folks, that's very real, and I'm hoping that this reality will become more come to me with more clarity. The angels of God are ever-passing from earth to heaven and from heaven to earth. The miracles of Christ for the afflicted and suffering were wrought by the power of God through the ministration of angels, and it is through Christ by the ministration of heavenly messengers that every blessing from God comes to us. Now, when I read that, immediately the story in the Bible about the centurion, remember the centurion who came to Christ and said, my servant is sick, please heal him, and Christ said to the centurion, I'll come to your house, and the centurion says, whoa, whoa, no, no, don't come to my house. He says, but just speak the word, just speak the word, and my servant will be healed. So the centurion goes on to say, you know, I'm a man of authority, and I command men, and I tell this man to go, and he goes, I tell this man to come, and he comes. So he says to Christ, just speak the word, and my servant will be healed. The centurion, and Christ's reply to him was, such faith I've not seen, no, not in all Israel. The centurion understood how things get done, just speak the word, and so the angels are at our beckon call to help every one of us. Sometimes the unseen seems unreal, doesn't it? But it isn't. Angels are real. They're going back and forth to heaven all the time. They're sent to us to help us. All our blessings come through the power of God through angels. How many of here have heard of their guardian angel? You know, anyway, I want that clarity to be keener in my mind. So that concludes my thoughts for today.
