MAKING A BUCK? VS MAKING A DIFFERENCE!
WHAT HAVE I REAPED? WHAT HAVE I SOWN TODAY?
WHO HAVE I BLESSED TODAY?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
This is a two part lesson.
Never forget: Often hurting people will hurt others!
Jude 1:22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:
I. HAVE I LEARNED THE LESSON ABOUT WATERING?
A. Seems the pig was talking to the cow.
The pig said, "Every one seems to like you cow? And a pig has a bad name.
People say cows have pretty eyes and a kind nature, but all they want to talk
about us pigs is how dirty and how bad we stink?"
The cow said, " Humans love us cows, because we give. We give them milk
that is very good for them, and we also give them cream and butter!"
"So what!" said the pig. "We give ham, bacon, we even give our ears!
And besides all of that humans, like our feet to pickle! I don’t know why humans
love cows more than us pigs?"
The cow softly answered: "MR. PIG, WE GIVE WHILE WE ARE STILL LIVING!"
Proverbs 11:25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
B. YOU ARE CREATED TO ENCOURAGE AND BLESS AND COMPLIMENT.
Have I brought healing to the sick?
Have I given hope to a hopeless person?
C. Ever think about your METE SYSTEM? Maybe we should call it our VALUE SYSTEM?
How will I allocate, share, distribute, ration, or measure out to others?
D. WILL WE KNOW A GOOD MEASURE?
DO WE UNDERSTAND BEYOND MEASURE?
Matthew 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Mark 4:24 And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.
Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
II. THERE IS MORE THAN WHAT ARE WE REAPING?
THE REAL QUESTION MUST BE --- WHAT AM I SOWING?
WILL I GLADLY SOW MORE SO THERE WILL BE A GREATER REAPING?
A. ACTS CHAPTER 5 HAS A SAD STORY ABOUT GIVING?
There was a precious couple in the church, Ananias was the husband, and Sapphira was the wife.
B. THEIR GIVING WAS VOLUNTARY, there was no requirement extended to them ABOUT THEIR GIVING.
C. They got to thinking about their gift and decided maybe they were giving TOO MUCH.
Acts 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou
hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
D. THE LESSON OF ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA IS NOT JUST ABOUT GIVING BUT THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARD GIVING!
E. TWO BASIC MIND SETS OR ATTITUDES OF LIFE ARE EASY TO INDENTIFY:
1. WILL I BE A GIVER?
When I was a boy we raised a huge garden.
After the harvest some seeds were placed in a half gallon jar and the lid was secured. This jar was not for eating or canning, this jar was filled with seed
for next year. This was going to be next years garden.
There is a real lesson here: DON’T EAT THE SEED CORN!
A godly giver knows I need to plant more seeds today than I shall reap!
2. There is a shallow attitude: WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF THIS FOR ME? WILL I BE A TAKER?
Today many people have no fear or no respect for what is best for the whole?
What is the benefit in this for me?
III. GOD IS A GIVER! AND GOD’S SPIRIT WILL CREATE AND LOVER GIVERS! THERE IS A DEEPER AND NEW LEVEL OF GOD’S JOY --- THOSE THAT LOVE TO GIVE.
A. If we come seeking God’s blessings, favor, peace and joy --- we have to develop GOD’S ATTITUDE --- THERE IS MORE than forced giving!
B. More is attained by letting go of those things we love.
Acts 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye 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.
1 Cor. 16:2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
2 Cor. 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
C. OUR MEASURING STICK WILL DETERMINE HOW WE WILL BE MEASURED?
IV. HAVE WE EVER APPROACHED JESUS LOOKING FOR WHAT IS MISSING?
What is holding me back from becoming what GOD DESIRES FOR ME?
A. NARCISSISM:
To have a mind set or attitude focusing on self and the needs that you have without regard of the needs of others.
Excessive or erotic interest in one’s self.
Interest in one’s physical features.
Shallow.
Selfish attitudes.
B. WHAT IS IN THIS FOR GOOD OLD NUMBER ONE?
WHAT AM I LACKING? DO I REALLY WANT TO KNOW?
Matthew 19:22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
C. HOME --- WHERE EACH LIVES FOR THE OTHER ---
AND ALL LIVE FOR THE LORD?
Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow me.
D. THE APPETITE IS NEVER SATISFIED? JUST A LITTLE MORE.
E. A man asked a millionaire --- HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?
The millionaire replied: ONE MORE DOLLAR!
Proverbs 27:20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
Proverbs 23:2 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
Eccles. 6:7 All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
V. WHAT IS IN THIS FOR ME?
DID YOU KNOW THAT A CLOCK WITH HANDS ON IT --- IS RIGHT TWICE A DAY?
A. Often the hands on a clock will not tell the correct time.
The problem is seldom the hands on the clock ---
Most of the time the problem with a broken clock is --- an internal problem.
The problem most of the time WITH US lies beneath the surface.
B. Many problems within the family, the individual or the church lies much deeper than the visible areas.
C. We say: THE PROBLEM OF THE HEART MAY BE THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM?
D. LET US PONDER WHAT SOME GREAT MEN HAVE SAID:
1. SPURGEON:
"Poor men should give that they may not always be poor.
Rich men should give that they may not become poor."
2. JIM ELLIOTT (MARTYR):
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep,
to GAIN WHAT HE CANNOT LOSE!"
VI. WE OFTEN PONDER HOW WILL HISTORY REMEMBER ME?
WHAT HAVE I INVESTED MY BEING INTO --- ?
A. History tells the story of two brothers born to the Taylor home.
The older Taylor brother said he would make the Taylor name famous.
He studied law and gave his life as a politician in the Parliament of England.
B. The younger Taylor brother decided to give his life for Christ Jesus.
He left the comforts of England and faced his duty and service of being a missionary to China.
C. The young brother --- HUDSON TAYLOR is known around the world as a beloved servant of Jesus Christ and a missionary for the cross!
D. It was said, "BUT WHEN I LOOKED IN THE ENCYCLOPEDIA TO SEE WHAT THE OTHER SON HAD DONE, I FOUND THESE WORDS: THE BROTHER OF HUDSON TAYLOR.
VII. YOU HAVE A CHOICE IN WHAT TO TAKE? AND WHAT TO GIVE.
HAVE YOU HEARD THE STORY ABOUT THE UNSINKABLE TITANIC?
A. Yes, we have all heard about the Titanic...
She sank on her maiden voyage.
B. THERE WERE 11 MILLIONAIRES ON BOARD WHEN THE GREAT SHIP WENT DOWN.
C. I would like to mention one of the millionaires:
MAJOR A. H. PEUCHEN, he was one of the millionaires sailing that night.
Major Peuchen left over $300,000.00 in cash money, securities and jewelry in the lock safe in his cabin that night.
D. A.H. said: "THE MONEY SEEMED A MOCKERY AT THE TIME."
Later the Major was asked what he did carried away?
He replied: "I PICKED UP THREE ORANGES INSTEAD!"
E. If you knew you had 3 hours to live, and then sure death? WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
VIII. HOW DO WE MEASURE SUCCESS? IS SUCCESSE MEASURE BY WHAT WE HAVE? LIFE IS MORE THAN WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU, IT IS WHAT HAPPENS
IN YOU? THROUGH YOU?
A. WHAT IS SUCCESS? How do we measure success?
By what kind of car we drive?
Do we measure others by their educational degrees?
By how many square feet are in our homes?
Do we measure success by trophies and success sheets?
B. MONEY IS A WONDERFUL TOOL AND IT CAN BE A FUN TOY!
Money has it limits ---
1. You can buy all the products that you will ever need --- BUT YOU CANNOT BUY PEACE.
2. You can buy the best motel room and the best service the world has to
offer ---- BUT YOU CAN NOT BUY REST!
3. You can buy food from around the world ---
BUT YOU CAN NOT BUY A GOOD APPETITE.
4. Money can get your name on the membership list of many big and
fancy churches, BUT MONEY CAN NOT BUY SALVATION.
5. Money can place the best Doctors and health care in the world around
your bed --- BUT MONEY CAN NOT RESTORE HEALTH TO A SICK PERSON.
5. Money can get a crowd around you to party and have fun,
BUT MONEY CAN NOT BUY YOU A GOOD FRIEND!
6. Money can buy you good lawyers and develop under the table justice,
BUT MONEY CAN NOT BUY RESPECT AND A GOOD NAME!
7. It seems money can pay off most of your debts,
BUT MONEY CAN NOT PAY OFF THE DEBT YOU OWE TO THE MOST HIGH
GOD!
8. GREAT AND SMALL, RICH AND POOR, EDUCATED AND IGNORANT SHALL ALL STAND BEFORE THE DEATH ANGEL AT THEIR APPOINTED TIME ---
THEN THE MEASURE SHALL NOT BE WHAT YOU HAVE ---
BUT WHAT YOU HAVE GIVEN AWAY.
IX. GIVING IS NOT A SACRIFICE IF YOU LOVE AND LOVE TO GIVE?
IS THIS GIVING A SACRIFICE OR PRIVILEGE?
A. We often measure giving by how much we have sacrificed?
B. GIVING HAS SOME MEASURABLE REWARDS...
The knowledge of doing good and helping others.
Giving can bring peace of mind.
Giving can brighten our hope --- and invest love in other people.
C. REAL LOVE GIVING DOES NOT MEASURE HOW MUCH I HAVE SACRIFICED.
D. The gift of love can never compare with God’s glory when we shall see Him face to face.
WANT TO TALK ABOUT REAL SACRIFICE?
Remember the cross?
E. WE GIVE IN SEVERAL AREAS:
TIME
TALENT
ENERGY
F. I REMEMBER LOIS ANDERSON IN MAGOFFIN COUNTY, EASTERN KENTUCKY.
Lois gave her best years to reach poor children in eastern Kentucky.
She worked blisters and calluses on her hands, gave her money, and lived in the church building to touch kids the world would throw away.
X. IT IS VERY POSSIBLE TO GIVE AND NOT LOVE.
BUT YOU CAN NEVER LOVE WITHOUT GIVING!
A. We have never given a loved one !
My Mom died in 1998. I never gave my Mom, I was wishing for her to live until April so we could celebrate her and Dad a 50th wedding anniversary!
I wanted one more Christmas to be with her.
I never gave my Mom, she was taken ---
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
B. In 1976 I learned a GREAT LESSON about the God I serve.
I stood in Middlesboro, KY. and saw my first born son on the other side of the glass.
My wife and I stood and watched our precious newborn son as he cried and moved in his little crib.
They came and took my wife away and I stood looking through the window at my son...
I started crying, I love people, and I hope you can understand, I COULD NEVER GIVE MY SON ---
If that little baby were dying and needed blood, I would give every drop of my blood to sustain his life.
I COULD NEVER EVER GIVE MY SON.
C. GOD’S LOVE WAS SO MUCH DIFFERENT ---
GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD --- HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON...
D. Often in anger and bitterness and disappointment we can excuse withholding our giving and our love --- when that is the time we should give our all.
Could we give a little more and make a bigger diffence?
E. IF THE SEED IN YOUR HAND IS NOT ENOUGH --- IT MUST BE SEED!
XI. WHAT A TERRIBLE SACRIFICE --- WHY DID YOU ALLOW IT?
I DID NOT MAKE A SACRIFICE, I DID NOT GIVE ---
I LENT IT TO THE LORD --- HE ALWAYS REPAYS...
A. There was a rich lawyer and a very successful banker that decided to take a sabbatical and travel the world.
They really enjoyed their travels.
They were asked about what most impressed them in the trip around the world?
B. The lawyer and banker said the most impressive sight they saw was in KOREA!
One morning while driving through the Korean country side with their guide, they saw a young boy pulling a plow and the old man was guiding the plow.
C. The lawyer and banker were so amazed they had their guide stop and they took pictures of this unusual sight. They watched as the boy pulled and the old man
guided the plow between the rows and they sang a beautiful song together as they plowed.
D. The guide, the lawyer and the banker stopped in the next town to fill their car up with gas. There as the men were refreshing themselves with a cool drink, the lawyer and the banker met an American missionary.
E. They talked to the missionary about the beautiful singing and about the young boy pulling the plow and a broken old man steering it through the field.
F. The missionary told them he knew both the boy and his grandfather, and he agreed that was a strange and odd way of working the fields. But the missionary went on to tell them the rest of the story.
G. The young man had accepted Jesus as his Savour, and he brought the old man to church and the old man accepted the wonderful story of Jesus. They were very
faithful to attend church and worship.
The community decided Jesus deserved a good church in their town where others could come and worship and meet Jesus.
H. The little family was very poor, they had no money to give?
The winter was upon them and they just barely had enough grain for the winter.
So the family prayed and decided to sell the ox and give the money to help build the new church. Sacrifice or privilege?
I. Now the spring had arrived and the family did not have an OX with which to plow, so after their time of prayer, the young boy would crawl behind the yoke,
the old man behind the plow and they would sing and plow all day.
J. The lawyer looked at the missionary and said:
BUT WHAT A STUPENDOUS SACRIFICE! WHY DID YOU ALLOW IT?
K. The missionary said: THEY DID NOT FEEL THAT WAY ABOUT GIVING.
THEY REGARDED THEIR GIFT AS GREAT JOY. THEY WERE THANKFUL THEY HAD THE OX TO GIVE TO THE WORK OF THE LORD.
L. The lawyer and the banker had the means to help the poor little family, and they did not help. They refused to give as a sacrifice, but they were quick
to judge the STUPENDOUS SACRIFICE OF THOSE THAT LOVED THE CHURCH AND WERE WILLING TO INVEST IN THE ETERNITY OF OTHERS.
XII. I ONCE HEARD PAUL AND BETTY BRANNON --- LIFE LONG MISSIONARIES TO SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA SAY:
IF YOU REALLY LOVE, --- GIVING IS NOT A SACRIFICE --- GIVING IS AN OPPORTUNITY!
A. WHO WILL I BLESS TODAY?
HOW CAN I SHARE GOD’S LOVE?
Maybe someone will hear that song that you are humming?
Maybe someone is down and out and your smile might encourage them?
Maybe someone is about ready to quit, they are so tired and have given their best and they have not seen their efforts rewarded?
B. LOOK, THERE IS AN OLD WIDOW SO ALONE?
LOOK, THERE IS A LITTLE CHILD, HIS MOMMY AND DADDY ARE THREATENING DIVORCE?
C. LOOK, THERE IS A CHRISTIAN WORKER, HIS ARMS ARE HANGING DOWN --- WOULD YOU STEP UP AND BE A HUR AND LIFT HIS ARMS? WOULD YOU MOVE OVER A ROCK FOR HIM TO SIT AND REST?
D. HOW ABOUT GIVING LOVE TO SOMEONE THAT HAS NOT EARNED IT?
E. HOW ABOUT GIVING THE GIFT OF FORGIVENESS TO SOMEONE THAT HAS BEEN MEAN AND DOES NOT DOES DESERVE IT?
F. DON’T BE BRAGGING ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE REAPING
TODAY --- IF YOU HAVE PLANTED NOTHING! WHO HAVE YOU BLESSED TODAY?
XIII. WHO HAVE I BLESSED TODAY?
Proverbs 11:25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
A. YOU ARE CREATED TO ENCOURAGE AND BLESS AND COMPLIMENT THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU!
B. EXPRESS THANKSGIVING!
I heard a story where a soldier died in the heat of a battle.
Back at home, when the funeral was over for the brave soldier the parents decided to give an offering to their church as a memorial to their son.
After the Memorial service a Mother suggested to her husband, let’s give a Memorial Gift for our children.
The man said to his wife are you nuts? Our children are still alive, our son did not die?
The Mother answered: That is just my point, let us give in gratitude our son is still alive!
XIV. THE WORLD IS NOT WORTHY OF THOSE THAT LOVE TO GIVE TO THE POINT OF SELF-SACRIFICE!
A. GIVING IS A SPIRITUAL LAW AND A SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLE!
Hebrews 11:36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being
destitute, afflicted, tormented;
38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
B. GOD BLESSES YOU TO BLESS OTHERS!
Your love gift today may loose a miracle tomorrow?
C. Man is never taller than when he reaches down to lift another person up.
D. CAN WE HEAR THE HEART OF GOD? CAN WE THIS THIS IS AN OPPORTUNTY TO BE HIS HANDS EXTENDED ---
E. I AM BLESSED TO BLESS! I WILL SEEK OPPORTUNITES TO REFLECT GOD’S LOVE TO THE HURTING AND THE HOPELESS!
Jude 1:22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Help me? Pass this on to another?
