“I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
It is duly noted that this statement of Jesus is not given in the four gospel accounts. Keep in mind that it would be impossible for the gospel accounts to tell us everything that Jesus said to all of the people who followed Him. It was allowed into inspired scripture – case closed. To quote Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” We often apply this to giving to Christian ministries through the church. This is certainly a good interpretation; for it is a blessing to give financially to the church’s mission. I know that it blesses me that the money that I give to my church is being to promote the gospel in ministries here and around the world. I trust you feel the same. The context of the quote is about “supporting the weak.” The Greek word “astheneo” can be translated as “feeble, ill, diseased,” etc. It leads me to believe that what Paul meant by “support the weak” was that when you find a need, as much as you are able to help, do it. I want to give a few possibilities: There are people who really need financial help. Many churches have ministries to help in this area. The Baptist association that I served had a ministry that included helping people, for example, to pay their monthly utility bills. To be a good steward of the money that the association’s churches contributed to meet those needs, we had checks and balances on giving financial help. (If you find fault with that, you have probably never served in such a ministry.) In that association we also had a clothing ministry, and a food ministry. I was blessed to see the “weak” helped. If some people got by all of our checks and balances, and were not really "weak," my thinking was that we had done what Jesus told us to do in Matthew 25:34-36.(Look it up and read it.) I let them answer to Jesus. If you are worried about people who do not need help, you will never help anyone. (Matthew 10:16: "Be ye therefore wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.") There are people whose needs are not financial but personal. This might seem to be an oversimplification, but you could be blessed by giving a word of encouragement to a discouraged person. It is quite possible that you are aware of people who could benefit from an encouraging word from you. Hey, just do it. You will be blessed. There are people who need to receive a witness about salvation. You will be blessed. If you put your mind to it, you can find several things that could be a blessing. Do it! Bro. Joe
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“Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; 17. For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.” (Beauchamp translation: “He can’t take it with him…”)
Echoing the above text, Job said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, praise the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21 (CSB) The Christian comedian, Dennis Swanberg said: “Here’s a simple test: if you can see it, it’s not going to last. The things that last are the things you cannot see.” The great figure of the Reformation, Martin Luther, wrote: “Many things I have tried to grasp and have lost. That which I have placed in God’s hands I still have.” The point here is that there is nothing in this world that you can take to the grave or to your eternal destiny with you. One of my favorite sayings is that: “You never see a U-Haul behind a hearse.” I want you stop and think about this with me: Ultimately, when we die it will not matter what kind of clothes they bury us in. It will not matter what kind of house we lived in, whether a mansion or a hovel. It will not matter whether we were considered winners or losers. It will not matter whether we were rich or poor. The only thing that will matter is whether or not Jesus Christ was our Savior. The stuff that we accumulate here will lose its significance to us if we will just stop and think of how temporary they are. As we grow in Christ, we come to realize that our real treasures are eternal. David wrote in Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” I think that what He meant was that the Lord simplified his needs, and that He wanted for himself what God wanted for him. At least, that is the ideal. We cannot build our lives on things that we can touch, or see. We have no possessions that are eternal That is gospel truth! What is the “stuff” that you hold so dear to your heart? They might be precious family heirlooms, or expensive baubles, but you cannot take them with you when you go. One fellow who had a very wealthy friend, who had died, was asked by another friend, “how much did Sam leave?” His answer was “all of it.” Exactly!!!! Think about it. Bro. Joe “Cause me to hear your loving-kindness in the morning; for in you do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up soul unto you.”
I think as I proceed with this article, you will see what I mean by the stilted title. In this verse we see all that we need to know about what it means to belong to Him in Christ. “Cause me to hear your loving-kindness in the morning.” When David began His day he wanted to hear and know that God is loving and kind. The Hebrew word translated loving-kindness can be translated as “kind” or “kindness.” We need to imagine ourselves as being clothed with God’s love and kindness as we start each day. We need to realize that in that day God wants the best for us. We need to live our lives in a way not to deserve God’s kindness, for we receive it by grace, but to claim it by the way we live. People should sense God’s love and kindness through the way we live, by the way we talk, and by the way we treat people. Make it a point to “hear (God’s) loving-kindness” each day. “For in you do I trust.” We need to start each day with a realization of God’s dependability. Our relationship with God is built on trust. Realizing that God loves us and offers us His kindness, we need to embrace His presence through faith and trust. Perhaps we need to start each day with a prayer of trust in God, understanding that we can depend in Him to be with us through that day no matter what we may face. He doesn’t always deliver us from hardships, but we can trust Him to be with us through the hardships. As I have grown older, believe me I have learned the meaning of this trust, and I hope that you will too. “Cause me to know wherein I should walk.” Realizing that God loved him, and that he had put his trust in Him, David sought God’s leadership for His life. He did not want to “check out on his own” and ignore the pull of God on his life. God’s loving-kindness and our trust in Him, should result in our following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. I cannot tell you how to do this, but just trust your life to Him and He will make it plain to you. Don’t take my word for that, take God’s word for it, for David wrote: “For I lift up my soul unto you.” Trust your life to the Lord, accept His loving-kindness for you, “lift up your soul unto Him,” and follow His leadership for your life . Bro. Joe “The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me.”
In Leviticus 25 the Lord established what was called a “year of Jubilee.” Every fifty years the land sold by the Israelites was to be return to their particular tribe. In other words, when land was sold, it was sold based on how many years it was sold before Jubilee. This is strange to us, because when we buy land we expect to keep it until we sell it or until we die. I discovered at least two reasons for the importance of the Jubilee, and what it was to teach the Israelites and us. The first discovery I made was that the Jubilee would teach the Israelites, and us, that all that we have really belongs to the Lord. This is actually the first order for what we call stewardship. Everything that we have belongs to God. We put a high priority on the ownership of things. We have a philosophy of “what is mine is mine.” To a certain extent this is true, because if someone takes what is ours without our permission, it is called stealing. But in our hearts and minds, we are to understand that what we have ultimately belongs to God. If we realize this we will not be selfish with what is ours. Furthermore, if we realize that what we have belongs to God, we will want what we have to be used for His glory and for His kingdom’s work That’s why God also established the law of gleaning in the Old Testament. Israelites were to leave part of the crop in the field in order for the poor to have some means of sustenance. There is a parable in Luke 12 about a farmer who had a bumper crop one year. Here is how he handled the situation: “And he said, This will I do; I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul thou has much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat drink and be merry.” (Luke 12:18-19) He was condemned because his good fortune was only to benefit himself. He completely disregarded the law of gleaning. In the ensuing verse he was told that he would die, and “then whose will these things be, which thou hast provided?” He forgot one of the greatest teachings of Jubilee, i.e., what we have ultimately belongs to God and is to be used not just for ourselves, but to be used as God sees fit. The second discovery that I made from Jubilee, and from the law of letting the land rest every seventh year, was that it would teach the Israelites and us to trust our welfare to God. The problem for the Isralites was: “If we let the land lie fallow, this will mean that we will not have crops for three years.” God’s answer to them was: “I will be a blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years….you will be eating this until the ninth year when the harvest comes in.” Jesus said something similar to us: “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31-33) We have the promise of provision straight from the lips of Jesus. I pray that you will benefit today from the two lessons that I learned in my reading in Leviticus. There are many more lessons in Leviticus 25, but these are the two that stood out today. Believe that they are true for you as well. Be blessed! Bro. Joe “And these are they which are sown among the thorns; such as hear the word, 19. And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.”
You will probably recognize these verses as being part of the parable of the sower, or of the soils. This illustrates how we can become unfruitful, or unproductive, in our Christian lives. We become unfruitful when we get bogged down in the “cares of this world.” I don’t think that I have to explain to you what I mean by this. All of us have disconcerting worries and cares that claim our attention. They become a problem if we let them consume our lives. (It is possible that this is happening to you as you read this.) If we want to get out of the “thorns” we need to remember that Jesus is ready to help us out of them. He has invited all who “labor and are heavy laden” to come to Him and He will “give them rest.” This means that Jesus will help you through, around, or over the cares and troubles of your life. Do not let the cares and worries of this life choke you out of the joy of living free in the arms of Jesus. Surrender your cares and worries to Jesus now. Stop reading and do that NOW! Name them and surrender them to Jesus. He is ready to receive them. We become unfruitful when we allow “the deceitfulness of riches” to consume our lives. Who has not had money worries at some point in life – or at every point? Hey, money is a good thing to have (duh), but if we let our worries about, or our love for money and things, claim all of our attention we can become unproductive. “Riches” are deceitful when we think that having a lot of them will give us peace of mind and heart. The more we have the more we want, and the more we want the greedier we become. It is possible to have lot of money in the bank and still be unhappy. I think that the unhappy lives of many famous people, proves this to be true. You can have money and things and be happy if you will not let them take over your life. The basis of the problem is revealed in these words: “And the lusts of other things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.” “Lusts” is also translated as “desires.” Instead of building your life as a desire for things and money, “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33) Pray now for the Lord to give you rest from your cares and worries, and from your desire for more money and more things, and that He will help you to put all of these things in proper perspective, and find rest in Him. Bro. Joe “Remember this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.”
Because of a famine in Jerusalem, churches from various areas pledged to send love offerings to the church there. In our text, Paul urged the Corinthians to make good on their promise to take part in sending this offering. At first, they had been all for it, but as time passed their zeal for giving had flagged somewhat. Paul is reminding them in 2 Corinthians 9:5 to give and to give generously because of the reciprocal nature of giving. He used an agricultural metaphor to illustrate his point. If one plants a lot of seed, he or she can expect an abundant crop. If one plants sparingly, his or her crop will not be abundant. This is a principle that applies not just to crops but to all areas of life. As to the matter of giving money, we have discovered that we do not miss what we give. In fact the more we give, the more we prosper. The Bible is full of admonitions to be generous with what God has given us. This principle applies, not just to giving to the church, but to being a giving person in all of life. The principle also applies to more than giving money. (But this is not an excuse not to give money, as some see it. Just saying...) It applies to our attitudes. If we give out grumpiness, we will receive grumpiness in return. I remember that when our daughters were much younger, we visited Disney World. Now there was a real jolly world, except for one character. As we walked along the street, we encountered “Grumpy.” He really lived up to his name. (That’s when I decided that Grumpy is a Baptist…. Come on, it’s a joke – sort of. lol) Give out grumpiness and you get grumpiness back in spades. This can also be true of love, or joy, etc. etc. etc. Remember 2 Corinthians 9:5 when the collection plate comes around in church. Better yet, remember it when you go out into daily life and mingle with people. Bro. Joe “For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. 6. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She has done a good work on me. 7. For you have the poor with you always, and whensoever you will you may do them good: but me you have not always. 8. She has done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to be buried. 9. Verily I say unto you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the whole world, this also shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.”
While Jesus was in the home of Simon the Leper in Bethany, a woman came and anointed Him with an expensive ointment. Jesus’ disciples thought that this was too extravagant, for she could have sold that ointment for a year’s wages and given it to the poor. Our text is Jesus’ answer to them. I want to share with you what I saw in this elaborate gift. It was an act of love for Jesus. In his account of this incident, John called the woman Mary, sister of Lazarus. She knew Jesus well, and knew His purpose on a level deeper than possibly even His disciples. The elaborate gift was an extravagant declaration of her love for Jesus. It was an act of sacrifice for Jesus. I mentioned above that the ointment would be worth a year’s wages. I don’t know the amount in dollars, but it was extravagant and was costly for Mary and her family. Do we sacrifice in our giving for Jesus? More importantly, do we give of ourselves extravagantly for Him? Do we love Jesus enough to sacrifice time, talent and money for Him and for His work around the world? These are good questions and demand an answer. It was an act of worship and devotion to Jesus. In Luke 10:38-42, Mary sat at Jesus feet when He visited their home while Martha hurried with preparations for Jesus’ meal. In verses 41-42, Jesus told Martha: “Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things: 42. But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” This anointing was a continuation of Mary’s devotion and worship for Jesus. We need to spend some time in worship and devotion for Jesus in private and public worship. What is written above is what I saw in Mary’s elaborate gift. I hope that it has been valuable for you in your commitment to Jesus. Bro. Joe “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.”
I want to share with you what I found in this profound verse. It begins with "the Lord…” The Hebrew word that is translated “Lord” is “Yahweh.” The was the name that would not be pronounced by the Hebrew people. It appeared in their scriptures as YHWH. You can pronounce this by making a squishing sound. It is called the “Tetragramaton,” which simply means “four words.” This is the Lord that is so holy that if you saw Him in your flesh, you would die. David is referring here to the Almighty God, the maker of heaven and earth. You need to understand who the Lord is in order to understand the dynamic of this verse. David said: “Yahweh” is “my Shepherd.” A flock of sheep always needed a shepherd. I guess they still do. Sheep are known to be dumb animals and they need constant help to stay out of danger. I’ve read that sheep would follow each other off of a cliff if left unattended. It is probably not a great compliment for us to be likened to dumb sheep who need constant guidance. But you know that it is true. Look at how much trouble there is in the world when people fail to follow the “Great Shepherd, Yahweh.” Jesus understood this, because when He knew that He would ascend to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, to lead and guide His people. This is a truth that we need to reclaim in this trying age in which we live. We still need for “Yahweh” to be our Shepherd. And He still offering guidance to those who will trust their lives to Jesus Christ by faith. You need for Yahweh to be your Shepherd. He will be if you ask Him by faith. Would you agree with me that our churches would fare better if we could simply say, “The Lord is my Shepherd” and really and truly mean it? David wrote that because the Lord/Yahweh was his Shepherd: “I shall not want.” This does not mean that the Lord will give us everything that we want. What it means is that when we are living by faith our wants are simplified. You have probably heard your pastor tell about the little boy that misquoted the text: “The Lord in my Shepherd, He’s all I want.” I am not intimating that God does not answer our prayers for what we want and need. I am saying that the Lord gives us the satisfaction that we need, because we know that He is with us and guiding us by His Spirit. We need to say with Paul, “I have learned in whatsoever state I’m in to be content. I know how to be abased (do with little), and I know how to abound (do with a lot)…I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11b-13)This is a good definition of “I shall not want.” If the Lord is not your Shepherd, ask Him into your life today by faith in Jesus Christ. He still wants to be your Shepherd. Don’t just quote this verse. Live it! Bro. Joe “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor in not in vain in the Lord.”
This verse is Paul’s conclusion of his great chapter on the resurrection of Jesus. That is why he used “therefore” to start the verse. Basically, the verse is the description of the kind of servants that we should be in the light of Christ’s resurrection. We need to look at this description and see where we are in our service. Paul tells us to be “steadfast.” The meaning of this word is to be firm, established and unwavering in our devotion to Jesus Christ. We are to be like the person described in Psalm 1:3a “He is like a tree planted by the streams of water…” The idea being that such a tree is always close to life-giving water. If we would be steadfast in our service, we would stay close to the Lord in prayer and Bible study, and be fed constantly by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This closeness would establish us in our relationship to the Lord, and in our service to Him. It also means that we are firm in our convictions on biblical truth. We should be careful to be unwavering in our devotion to our Lord and in our service for Him. The day in which we are living calls for such men and women. Are you one of those “steadfast” Christians? Paul tells us to be “always abounding in the work of the Lord.” “Abounding” carries the idea of having plenty. By “abounding in the work of the Lord” we should be plentiful in our service for the Lord, and fruitful, in our service for Him. Psalm 1:3b describes this person: “He is like a tree planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” This is described in what Paul wrote to Timothy, “be instant in season and out of season.” (2 Timothy 4:2) If we are steadfast in the work of the Lord, He will prosper us in that work. We can’t always see the “fruit” of our steadfast service. We sow the word and leave the reaping to the Lord. That doesn’t mean that we will not always see the fruits of our labors. What it means is that we keep on abounding in the work even if we don’t see great rewards. I have come to the conclusion in my preaching that when I preach the word, the Spirit is doing something in the lives of the people. This is also true in your Sunday School class, or whatever service you render for the Lord. In this sense, being an “abounding servant” of God is to keep on keeping on, without letting discouragement, and a sense of failure, cause us to give up. Enjoy and thank God for the fruit that you see, and thank Him for what He is doing through you that you can see and in what you cannot see. Finally, Paul left a word of encouragement to close the verse: “forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” This is what I meant in the paragraph above. When we steadfastly serve the Lord, the reward is in the service itself. There are men of God who see great movement in their service for God. Thank God for those great men of God. But to the majority of us, we do not see great movement that these men see. Nothing, however, that we steadfastly do for the Lord is ever in vain. Believe it! Do you see yourself somewhere in this verse? Bro. Joe “Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; 17. For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.” Beauchamp translation: “He can’t take it with him…”
Echoing the above text, Job said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, praise the name of the Lord.” The great figure of the Reformation, Martin Luther, wrote: “Many things I have tried to grasp and have lost. That which I have placed in God’s hands I still have.” The point here is that there is nothing that you can amass in this world that you can take to the grave or to your eternal destiny with you. One of my favorite sayings is that: “You never see a U-Haul behind a hearse.” I want you to stop and think about this with me: When we die, it will not matter to us what kind of clothes they bury us in. It will not matter to us what kind of house we lived in, whether a mansion or a hovel. It will not matter whether we were considered winners or losers. It will not matter to us whether we were rich or poor. The only thing that will matter to us then is whether or not Jesus Christ was our Savior. The stuff that we accumulate here will lose its significance to us if we will just stop and think of how temporary it is. I read about a preacher who had been in the ministry for over fifty years. He had all of the paraphernalia of those years in the ministry stored in his basement. This would include Bibles, sermon notes, records of marriages and funerals, awards that he had received, etc. One day a water pipe burst in his basement and everything stored there was totally destroyed. He wrote that he sat on the basement stairs and looked at the mess and cried. As he did this he began to think about what had really counted in all of these years of ministering to people. He decided that all that he had lost in the basement was just “stuff.”It was stuff that he had accumulated, but the fact that it was destroyed by water proved that it was not eternal. What really counted was all of the people who had become Christians during his ministry. What really counted was all the lives that God had used him to touch through personal ministry, e.g. preaching, teaching, weddings, funerals, etc. He was then able to drain the water from the basement and clean up the mess without a great deal of regret. He just realized that if he could hold it in his hands and call it “his,” it was not eternal and would not go with him to heaven. Thinking of this, I remembered that no one has ever come up to me years after I left their church and said, “Bro. Joe I will always remember the second point of that gem of a sermon that you preached thirty years ago.” What they do remember, and were blessed by, was that I was there when their father died, or when they were having problems in their family and I came and prayed with them, or when I witnessed to their children and they accepted Jesus as their Savior. These are the things that are “written up” in eternity. What is the “stuff” that you hold so dear to your heart? They might be precious family heirlooms, or expensive baubles, but you cannot take them with you when you go. One fellow who had a very wealthy friend who died, was asked by another friend, “how much did Sam leave?” His answer was “all of it.” Exactly!!!! Think about it. Bro. Joe |
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