The Prophet, Isaiah, long ago drew a picture of the people of his day by
using the illustration of a man who fell a tree and used its parts in
various ways. With part of it, he he warmed himself, with part of it, he
used it for fuel,with part of it, he used it t cook his foor and after had
satisfied his physical desires, he then took the remains and made a god
or idol.
What he was telling the people of his day was that they were only giving
God the remains of their abilities; leftovers or scraps. (And in our days,
we would says scraps for Jesus.)
Of course we are familiar with food scraps. Which would you rather have, a
whole-cooked steak or just the bone and a few scraps? A chicken dinner or
just the scraps? A fish dinner or just a few bones?
It would be like buying yourself a 400 dollar suit and then buying your
wife a 2 dollar dress at the Good Will or like buying yourself a 20 dollar
meal and then buying your wife a 25 Krystal burger.
We live in a day where God had truly blessed you and I as Christians.
Someone Said, God has just emptied the blessings of heaven upon our lives
and in return, many of us are just giving his the scraps of life and
abilities.
In Phillipians 2:7, it says He emptied himself so we could be saved yet we
don’t empty ourselves for him. But instead we hold back and give our
best to other things. Jesus himself in Matthew 6:33 warns us about putting
God first.
Today, lets look at some areas in our life where we just give the scraps
to the Lord.
I-MANY TIMES WE GIVE JESUS THE SCRAPS OF OUR TALENTS:
The Best of our talents, our God given abilities are not used are devoted
to our jobs, to our social life, to our pleasures and then toss the Jesus
the scraps.
ILLUSTRATION: Harold H. Lentz tells the following story: "There was a man
named Luigi Tarisio who, when he died, was found to possess 246 violins.
They represented a lifetime of collecting. They were found stored
everywhere throughout his house ~ in the attic, in closets, even in
dresser drawers. But none were ever played; they were simply collected.
His passionate devotion to the violin had robbed the world of all the
music those instruments could have produced.""God does not want his gift
of talents to be idle and useless, producing no return. Each of us has
some God-given purpose in life with its accompanying ability. Be sure your
talent is making music in the great orchestra of daily life."
He should deserve our best because he gave his best for us; like Abraham
who was willing to give his best, his son.
We sing the song’ “Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe”
but the devil had duped us into thinking that is not true, just give him a
tip your hat allegiance.
If we are not using our talents for Jesus’ glory it means we are
using them for the world’s glory.
ILLUSTRATION: #934-Man who said he had the talent of criticism? Man told
him, it needed to be buried.
The example of Amy Grant. In her earlier years, she was asked why her
record covers had sexy photos? She replied because they sell records.
It doesn’t matter if a big talent or a small talent, God needs it to
be used in his Kingdom work. Some would say I just don’t have the
abilities like some people do. This might be true, but use what you do
have.
JOKE-Story of two men talking, one was big, the other small. The small man
said, if I was big as you, I would go out in the wood and kill the biggest
bear in the woods. The big man responded by saying, there are some little
bears in the woods to.
II-MANY TIME WE JESUS THE SCRAPS OF OUR TIME:
Time is the new most valuable commodity. It has replaced money as the
number one need, because you can always make more money, but you can't
make more time. When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.
"If You Are 35, You Have 500 Days to Live." Its thesis was that when you
subtract the time spent sleeping, working, tending to personal matters,
hygiene, odd chores, medical matters, eating, traveling, and miscellaneous
time-stealers, in the next thirty-six years you will have roughly the
equivalent of only five hundred days left to spend as you wish. It is no
wonder that Psa.90:12 says, "So teach us to number our days,
ILLUSTRATON: How we spend a lifetime If God granted you 70 years of life,
you would spend that time as follows:
24 years sleeping.
14 years working.
8 years in amusement.
6 years at the dinner table.
5 years in transportation.
3 years in education.
3 years reading.
3 years at the television.
If you went to church every Sunday and prayed 5 minutes every morning and
night, you would be giving God 5 months of your life. Five months out of
70 years!
we learn that we are to be "redeeming the time because the days are evil."
Our enemy, Satan wants to steal our time. He wants us to be so caught up
in temporary things of little significance that we will fail to maximize
eternal things of
supreme importance.
Many Christians, (not the lost) have no time to worship the Lord. Someone
has said, many have taken the statement, “freedom of religion”
and replace it with “freedom from religion.”
Man asked me once, how many do you have on roll at the Church? I replied,
it is hard to say, for some are rolling in , and some are rolling out.
We are a funny people, we will give an excuse for not coming to Church,
yet drive all over the country to go to a ball game, or flea market.
One of the reason we don’t give God the time he deserves from us is
that we got too many irons in the fire.
Joke-Some are like the man in Texas who said he could whip anybody from
the state of Oklahoma. Nobody moved, he then said, he could whip anybody
from New Mexico, no body moved. Then he said, I can whip anybody from
Alabama. A man in the audience jumped and shocked him in the jaw. He said,
as he looked up from the floor, well I guess I tried to cover to much
territory.
When I read this verse I think of Noah. He worked on the ark for 100 years
because his days were "evil" too. He made the most of his time. He seized
the opportunity. He preached as he hammered. However, people didn’t
listen. When the ark was shut and the rain began to fall, how people used
their time determined who was "wise" who were "fools."
The question was: If you could live your life over again, what would you
do differently? If I could live my life over again:
1. I would reflect more (one of the most popular answers),
2. I would risk more.
3. I would do more things that would live on after I'm dead.
ILLUSTRATION: On Queen Elizabeth's "official birthday" some years back,
when she conferred honors on a number of her subjects, one was a 60 year
old postman in northern Wales, a fellow with the unroyal name of Jones.
Because Jones, who came from a family delivering Welsh mail for 150 years,
had "not missed a day's service in 43 years and got the mail through
despite snow, storms and floods," the Queen bestowed the British Empire
Medal upon him, expressing the gratitude of the nation. This earthly Queen
bestowed such a great honor on a man for faithfulness in so simple a task
as delivering the mail. Don't you think the King of Heaven will be even
more diligent to make certain each of His subjects receives a proper award
for faithful service? Of course He will!
III-MANY TIMES WE GIVE JESUS THE SCRAPS OF OUR TREASURES:
JOKE: A man was going for an evening stroll, when he heard terrified
screams coming from a house nearby. He ran up the steps, only to find a
frantic mother, whose small boy was choking on a one dollars coin. The man
seized the child by its heels, thumped its chest, and out popped the coin.
The grateful mother was lost in admiration. "You certainly knew what to
do," she said. "Are you a doctor?" "No, Madam," said the stranger, "I'm a
church treasurer."
JOKE: One sunny Sunday morning, a shrewd minister who desperately needed
funds for his struggling church stood up in his pulpit and announced:
"Brothers and sisters, I have before me this morning THREE sermons: a one
thousand dollars sermon that lasts five minutes, a five hundred dollars
sermon that lasts one hour, and a two hundred dollars sermon that lasts
two hours. We shall now take up the offering, and the amount received will
determine the sermon preached!" Needless to say, the church is no longer
struggling!
We found in the Bible, that God requires us to give unto him a tithe. By
the way Jesus talking to those of his day, said, they should tithe.
(Matthew 23:3)
In America, in 1986, America spend 12 billions dollars for Alcohol. (It
sounds like somebody is buying it and putting it on something beside fruit
cakes; sound like somebody is taking more than an occasional sip.)
All religious organization together didn’t give but four billions
dollars.
Many people treat a waitress better than they do God. They will give a 10
percent tip even 15 percent sometimes and yet won’t give to God.
Man asked me once, should a Christian tithe? I said yes and they all do.
He said, now you know that all Christians tithe. I said, yes they do, for
they either give it to God or He gets it another way.
JOKE-Man in hospital for operation, was asked what kind of operation was
it? He said, I am having my tithes took out?
ILLUSTRATON: An ambitious young man promised to tithe $4.00 per week when
he began to work. He advanced in income and soon he was tithing $500.00
per week and he told his pastor it was too expensive. His pastor replied
that he was pray and ask God to lower his salary back down to $40.00 per
week.
IV-MANY TIMES WE GIVE JESUS THE SCRAPS OF OUR THANKSGIVING:
JOKE- We're not very good at saying "Thank you," are we? We're like a
little boy I heard about. On his return from a birthday party, his mother
queried, "Bobby, did you thank the lady for the party?"
"Well, I was going to. But a girl ahead of me said, 'Thank you,' and
the lady told her not to mention it. So I didn't."
We ought to be the most thankful people in the world, if just for God
saving us from hell and giving us a home in heaven. We ought to cry out
like the Psalmist in Psalms 103:1-3.
ILLUSTRATION: But some many times we are like the couple on a lovers lane
who had gone to sleep and the exhaust fumes had almost killed them. A Cop
came by and took his pistol and broke the window and saved there lives.
They were so thankful they send his a bill for the broken window.
ILLUSTRATION: In some parts of Mexico hot springs and cold springs are
found side by side -- and because of the convenience of this natural
phenomenon the women often bring their laundry and boil their clothes in
the hot springs and then rinse them in the cold ones. A tourist, who was
watching this procedure commented to his Mexican friend and guide: "I
imagine that they think old Mother Nature is pretty generous to supply
clean hot and cold water here side by side for their free use?" The guide
replied, "No senor, there is much grumbling because she supplies no soap."
ILLUSTRATION: There was a father and mother of a young man killed in the
military in a little church. One day they came to the pastor and told him
the wanted to give a monetary gift as a memory to our son who died in
battle. The pastor said, "That's a wonderful gesture on your part. He
asked if it was ok to tell the congre- gation and they said that it was.
So the next Sunday he told the congregation of the gift given in memory of
the dead son.
On the way home from church, another couple were driving down the
highway when the father said to his wife, "Why don't we give a gift
because of our son?" And his wife said, "But our son didn't die in any
conflict! Our son is still alive!" Her husband replied, "That's exactly
my point! That's all the more reason we ought to give in thanks to God."
Isn't it interesting that we most often give gifts to God in memorial
rather than in appreciation! It ought to be the exact oppose! But it's
the same way in our pray lives. We pray the best and the most when
troubles come our way, not when we are being blessed.
V-MANY TIMES WE GIVE JESUS THE SCRAPS OF OUR TESTIMONY:
What I mean by this is that some give a good testimony on Sunday but
Monday through Saturday they have no testimony for the Lord.
JOKE-it was testimony night in the church. A lady got up and said, "We
are living in a wicked land where sin is on every hand. I have had a
terrible fight with the old devil all week." Where upon her husband, who
was sitting glumly by her side said, "It's not all my fault either; she's
tough to get along with."
Christianity is something which is meant to be seen. As someone has well
said, "There can be no such thing as secret discipleship, for either the
secrecy destroys the discipleship, or the discipleship destroys the
secrecy." A man's Christianity should be perfectly visible to all men.
The old Negro spiritual, "There Is a Balm in Gilead," puts it this way:
If you cannot preach like Peter
If you cannot pray like Paul
Just tell the love of Jesus
And say, "He died for all."
ILLUSTRATION: In November 1963 Central Committee's secretary for
ideological affairs called for intensification of anti-religious
propaganda. Four members from the Kalunda community in Western Siberia
were arrested for illegal activities in an unregistered congregation and
given prison sentences.
One of the men, Nikolai K. Khmara, had been converted only a few years
before after leading a life of drunkenness. His conversion had
transformed him into a model husband, father, and active church worker.
Two weeks after the trial, his family received word that he had died due
to illness. Contrary to instructions, the Kalunda believers insisted on
opening the coffin and found a brutally mutilated body. There were chain
marks on his arms, scorch marks on his hands and feet, his finger- and
toenails had been torn off, and there were gaping wounds in his abdomen
made by a hot object. The most revolting part occurred when someone
pulled the cotton stuffing out of his mouth and discovered that Khmara's
tongue was missing. Other prisoners later informed them that Khmara had
talked about Christ till the end and therefore his captors had torn out
his tongue. Khmara had also suffered psychological torture, receiving
injections to create a personality change. This brought to five the
numbers of persons who had died in prison and exile.
Conclusion-A kentucky millionaire dying word to his family-They thought
it would be about his plans, his will for them. But he kept saying over
and over again, “no time for God, no time for God. He had given the
scraps of his life to God and on his death bed, he felt the sting of his
careless life before God.
Some of you today, are giving Jesus the scraps of your life, your talents,
your time, your treasure, your thankgiving, and your testimony. Come today
and confess it to Jesus and tell his from this day forward, there will be
no more scraps but your very best toward Him.
