What Should I Give The King?

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

A broken and a contrite heart—

These, O God, You will not despise.

It is this attitude that Jesus describes as He begins the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

We must always be aware of our spiritual poverty without the grace of God. We should be thankful for each additional breath we are allowed to take because it gives us additional opportunities for penitence. Let’s take heed to 2 Peter 3:9 – The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. God desires us to be penitent. I hope you’ve noticed that none of these gifts costs us anything monetarily, just humility – and that is a third gift God desires from us. God wants us to be humble. While there are many OT passages that bring this out, I especially like the wording of Psalm 149:4 – For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;

He will beautify the humble with salvation.

Again, this was one of the characteristics of kingdom citizenship as Jesus described them in the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5:5 – “Blessed are the meek,

For they shall inherit the earth.”

God wants us to be humble or meek or gentle people. Humility quite naturally translates into the action of serving. Jesus taught that lesson well to His disciples in John 13 when He washed their feet. Humility is an attitude that puts the interests and needs of others above our own. I believe it is one of the most counter-culture attitudes Christians must have in today’s society. Notice how the apostle Paul describes it in Philippians 2:3 – Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. And, just in case anyone thought this was an optional frame of mind, Paul further explains by way of example in verse 5ff: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Now what possible excuse can we have for refusing to be humble as God desires? Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. (James 4:10) God wants His children to be humble. Fourthly, God wants us to be sacrificial. Not too long ago, I preached on giving and I know that God expects us to give back to Him from the material blessings we enjoy and that includes sacrificial giving. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of that type of giving is found in 2 Corinthians 8:1-4 where the churches of Macedonia gave liberally out of their deep poverty. Let’s read these verses: Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. But the key to their sacrificial giving is found in the next verse: And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God. We must first sacrifice ourselves to the Lord before we can sacrificially give of our means. Jesus certainly expounded on this in the Sermon on the Mount – especially in Matthew 6:24 when He stated that you cannot serve both God and earthly riches or mammon. God will provide us the necessities of life as long as we “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” (Matthew 6:33) The inspired apostle Paul summed up what God desires of us in Romans 12:1 – I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Fifthly, God wants us to be loving – not only to Him but to others. While there are many characteristics of love beautifully described in 1 Corinthians 13, I want us to narrow our focus to love as God loves us. God desires the highest good for us without considering His own Self. This is how He could love us enough to give us His only begotten Son that we might have everlasting life. Just consider all that is wrapped within His love – grace, mercy, kindness, compassion, humility and forgiveness just to mention a few. May I suggest this morning that when we begin to love others – even our enemies – as God loves us, we will seek their highest good without considering our own needs. This will revolutionize every one of our relationships because the highest good we can seek for another is the salvation of their soul. This is the great commission in a nutshell. Is that not how God loves us? To seek the highest good for our children would restore discipline in the home. Our primary goal would not be to make our children happy or nurture their self-esteem – it would be to make sure they get to heaven. Our relationships with spouses, friends, family, co-workers would all take on new meaning. It’s simply part of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I want to share two passages – one from the OT and one from the New – that put a little flesh on how we love God and Christ in return. First is from Deuteronomy 10:12-13 – “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?” And now from John 14:15 – “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” God wants us to be loving but, finally, He wants us to be faithful. You know the words from the last part of Revelation 2:10 – “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” I want to wrap this last point in the context of a very familiar parable found in Matthew 25:14-30. The Lord entrusted His servants with talents or gifts. You’ll remember that the first two servants – given five and two talents, respectively, doubled those talents and pleased their Lord. But the one talent servant buried his talent – he failed to do anything with what his Lord had given him. For his failure to do anything, the Lord cast him into eternal punishment. But I want us to notice the words of the Lord to the two faithful servants in verses 21 and 23: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” The Lord has so richly blessed each of us with the necessities of life and various talents. He wants us to be faithful stewards of what has been entrusted to us and that includes giving back to Him.