IS THERE A CORRELATION BETWEEN LOVE AND GIVING??
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
I take my staff and I attach a piece of material to it.
IT REPRESENTS A BANNER.
FOR A BANNER IN BIBLICAL TIMES WAS A PIECE OF CLOTH ATTACHED BY ONE EDGE TO A STAFF. The leader of the group would lift the banner to identify the group and to call to attention those around him.
His Banner over us is LOVE!
Abraham Lincoln said: And in the end, it is not the years in your life that count, it is the life in your years.
Have you ever noticed under a Christmas tree?
There is not usually one present for Jesus?
Whose birthday is it?
We should give the Savior a gift.
I. IF YOU DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU ARE GETTING,
CHANGE WHAT YOU ARE GIVING.
A. The other night I sat up my music at the rest home.
I had an expensive guitar, and a state of the art amp.
I use a cordless system so I can move around the crowd,
I sat it up, and nothing would work?
I started checking my equipment, and I found I had not plugged my amp into the wall, the power source.
The best guitar and amp needs to be plugged in to work.
The reason it did not work was, there was no power source.
B. If there is a deficiency in love at home or at church, there must be a reason, identify the reason and correct it.
C. It is moronic to think you can keep giving the same and get things differently. If you want different results you must change the way you are doing things.
E. IF YOU DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU ARE GETTING,
CHANGE WHAT YOU ARE GIVING.
F. I once went to the doctor.
I said, Doc, if I press here like this it hurts real bad.
He immediately answered, QUIT PUSHING THERE!
I say to you, quit pushing the buttons that cause pain.
G. Seems in the USA we cannot learn there is a correlation between credit cards, and money. You can buy now, and not make a payment for six months? Ask them when the interest starts?
There seems to be no correlation between what we make and what we spend?
H. CORRELATE:
***To bear reciprocal or mutual relations: correspond
***To establish a mutual relationship
***To make a comparison ***something that matches up
I. LET US START OUT BY ASKING A FEW QUESTIONS:
1. What is love?
2. How do we measure love?
3. Do you ever evaluate your love to see where you are developing dangerous habits?
4. Do you ever make plans to improve your love systems? Do we hold our hearts accountable?
5. What is necessary to maintain love?
6. Is there a difference in maintaining love and love thriving?
7. What do you do to keep love growing?
8. How does one kill love?
II. LET US THINK ABOUT HOW WE SHALL DEFINE LOVE?
A. Of all the words defined in Webster’s Dictionary, the one word that is worse defined --- is love!
Webster defines love as:
***A strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties.
***An attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers.
***An affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interest.
***A warm attachment, enthusiasm or devotion
***Unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another
***Brotherly concern
***The score of zero in tennis
***To hold dear: cherish
***To feel a lover’s passion
***To take pleasure in
***To thrive, passion, desire
B. WILL GOD’S DEFINITION OF LOVE VARY FROM MAN’S DEFINITION?
III. GOD"S STAND ON LOVE IS CLEARLY DEFINED!
A. HIS BANNER OVER US IS LOVE.
Songs of Solomon 2:4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and HIS BANNER OVER ME WAS LOVE!
B. BANNER:
A type of a flag, pennant, a standard
A PIECE OF CLOTH ATTACHED BY ONE EDGE TO A STAFF
and used by a leader. A name, a slogan or a goal associated with a group
C. HIS LOVE IS A REQUIREMENT? LOVE IS NOT OPTIONAL!
Micah 6:8 He hath shown thee, O man, what is good; and what doth WHAT THE LORD REQUIRE OF THEE, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
D. THERE WAS A NEW COMMANDMENT THAT JESUS ESTABLISHED.
John 13: 34 A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
E. THERE IS A LITMUS TEST OF CHRISTIANY THE PROVES OR
DISPROVES YOUR REALITY. CHRISTIANITY IS MORE THAN
WORDS OR ACTION.
BY THIS SHALL ALL MEN KNOW!
John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye all my disciples: IF YE HAVE LOVE ONE TO ANOTHER.
F. YOU SHALL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FRUITS,
NOT JUST WORDS. TALK CAN BE CHEAP.
Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them BY THEIR FRUITS.
Matthew 7: 20 Wherefore BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW
THEM.
21 NOT EVERY ONE THAT SAITH UNTO ME, LORD, LORD,
shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.
I John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
IV. LOVE GROWING COLD IS A SATANIC GOAL.
Never forget that love growing cold is a satanic goal.
Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall WAX COLD.
A. Many times I have sat in my office and heard a man or a woman say: I don’t love you any more, my love is dead. 90% of the time what the individual is really saying, is I have fallen in love with someone else.
B. It is very strange to me that we forget we have a duty to keep our love alive? Once we get a ring and a piece of paper we feel like we have conquered the goal of love and we do not have to apply work ethics
to our church, our family, and our jobs.
I John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and you know that no murderer hath eternal life in him.
I John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; FOR GOD IS LOVE.
I John 4: 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another.
Hebrews 13:1 Let brotherly love continue.
V. YOU CAN GIVE WITH LOVE, BUT YOU CAN NEVER LOVE
WITHOUT GIVING.
A. If you have abundance, give accordingly; but if you have but a little, be not afraid to give according to the little.
B. Remember Aesop’s lesson:
Thinking to get all at once the gold that the goose could give, he killed the goose, and opened it only to FIND NOTHING!
Matthew 10:8 --- freely ye have received, freely give.
C. Spend money? Spend time?
There is more to giving than money!
Acts 3:6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none,
but such as I have I give thee, In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise and walk.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that HE GAVE HIS ONLY Begotten son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
VI. GOOD GIVING IS ALWAYS ON PURPOSE, PLANNED GIVING.
A. Love may hinge on the amount of effort and sacrifice you are willing to give.
B. Love is not about me? Love is about others.
II Corinthians 9:6 But this I say, he which sows sparingly shall reap sparingly, and he which sows bountifully shall reap bountifully,
7 Every man according as HE PURPOSES IN HIS HEART,
SO LET HIM GIVE; not grudgingly, or of necessity:
for God loves a cheerful giver.
C. People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan, then their love becomes doomed.
Acts 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so laboring 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.
WHAT ARE YOU GIVING?
COULD YOU GIVE MORE?
COULD YOU PLAN YOUR GIVING AND BUILD LOVE MORE EFFECTIVELY?
SOME PEOPLE GIVE MORE TO MISSIONS THAN TO INVESTING WISELY IN THEIR FAMILY?
Yes, there is a correlation between love and giving, and giving and love.
Little effort will kill any relationship or church.
Will you evaluate your giving and your love?
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Help me? Pass this on?
