THE VALUE OF THE GIVER?
EVALUATE YOUR ATTITUDE OF GIVING?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Have you ever heard the story of DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA? Don Quixote was called the KNIGHT OF THE SORROWFUL COUNTENANCE!
Don Quixote was a knight, he had a horse, he had full armor, and knew important people. Don seemed to have some mental problems.
Don decided to go to battle, he grabbed his sword, his spear, and geared up for battle.
He went to battle a wind mill. As the wind mill blew around and around, Don Quixote’s horse charged and he fought long and hard against the wind mill. Some how he supposed the wind mill to be an enemy.
All his fight efforts were wasted on stupid, useless battles. Are we fighting windmills?
Do you see leadership as your enemy? Is your family the enemy?
TEXT:
2 Cor. 9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
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.
I. THERE ARE MANY HIDDEN LESSONS IN THE BIBLE.
WHAT IS YOUR ATTITUDE IN GIVING?
LEFT OVER GIVING IS A NEAT LESSON?
Genesis 4:3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
A. HOW VERY SAD IS THE LESSON OF THE FIRST TWO BROTHERS.
The brothers were raised in the same home, but their attitude toward giving varied greatly.
B. One brother gave in love the best he had. One brother gave of the leftover.
Genesis 4:5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6 And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt
rule over him.
C. The underlying motive of the first murder was giving?
II. WHY IS GIVING SUCH A BIG DEAL?
There are special people, that have given so much. Their love has meant sacrifice.
Today they forget the kind deeds they have done for other people.Givers never sound the trumpet that they have given.
Often times givers have been hurt and pressed on all sides. Their work was not seen by many people, and their trophy cases are bare. They have never tasted the privilege of standing on a stage and knowing the applause of standing ovations.
Sometimes they have loved and been betrayed. Good givers have not just given to temporal means, but they have given of their heart and people laughed. They have spoken in great love and it has been misunderstood or misrepresented by someone that never
saw the heart’s effort.
Sometimes we get hurt and withdraw our giving.
III. THE GIFT OF WHAT I LOVE IS SO PRECIOUS!
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.
A. Many years ago near Christmas, a little girl brought her favorite doll to the altar at prayer
time. I saw her Dad standing and crying in the background. She loved that doll so much,
with tears in her eyes I knelt down beside the little girl. She laid the doll in my hands and
said, Preacher would you find a good owner for my doll?
She got up and left the altar crying. I sat there and cried, I knew what a sacrifice this gift was. I also knew the value of this collector’s piece, I wanted so bad to say NO!
You love it, keep it. But I knew God was growing a little girl’s faith in giving.
I still shed tears telling this story. For I know a gift’s value means so little, but the value of the giver is far above, it is a love sacrifice. God loves a cheerful giver.
B. Sure, I know many takers. They give no one a gift. They say: I deserve this gift.
You don’t? But I know some that have given their best, and the husband, the child, the parent just doesn’t get it. A gift means they thought about you!
C. I know you have heard the story of the little girl that wrapped herself in gift paper then went in her Dad’s office and sat on her Dad’s lap. The Dad fussed and fussed and fussed until the little girl cried. The Dad claimed the daughter had wasted the gift
wrapping paper.
But it was the little girls heart saying, Daddy, I give you me. The Dad fussed over the paper and missed the beauty of the moment.
IV. I WILL GIVE, BUT NOT MY BEST?
A. Several years ago my wife was shopping at Walmart. It was a beautiful day, and I just sat outside. There was a Marine --- TOYS FOR TOTS building. I watched a $50,000 Lincoln Continental pull up to the little hut. A little girl and a little boy jumped out and ran and put some toys in the little building. They left.
B. I went over to the building and looked in it. There was an old rusty truck with 3 wheels,
one was missing? And there was an old doll baby, bald in spots, and written on with a permanent marker. Junk? They had placed junk in that box to give to some poor child.
C. I went and sat down and I pondered. I wish I was Santa Claus? I knew what I would do if I were Santa Claus! I would wrap the truck and the doll and place it under the same people’s tree that placed it there for others. I would give them what they gave. They would die if they received a present like that.
V. GIVING MY BEST DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN VALUE OR SIZE!
A. I must give even if I know my gift will never be understood.
B. I finished a funeral in Floyd County, KY. (The poor mountain area.)
C. My 5 year old son was so excited to help the funeral director carry the flowers to the flower van. He just wanted to help. My son then rode in the hearse to the cemetery.
At the grave yard my little son ran to carry the flowers to the grave.
D. The funeral director gave my son $2.00. We stood on the steep hill side and did the committal. The people gathered around the widow and hugged her.
My son was standing in the line, he hugged the widow and gave her his $2.00.
She refused to take it. My son’s heart was broken.
E. I stepped forward and said to the lady, you probably don’t need his two dollars, but this little boy needs to give. He is not giving this out of need, it is his expression of love to you and this family. Please receive it in love.
F. She called my son over and hugged him real big, and she accepted his give. We got in my little pinto station wagon and drove home.
G. My son learned a valuable lesson that day. It is not the gift, it is the giver that counts.
H. I drove home and pondered how little my gifts must seem to the Father some times, but the Father sees beyond the gift to the hands and heart of the giver.
VI. YOU CAN GIVE AND NOT LOVE, BUT YOU CAN NEVER LOVE WITHOUT GIVING.
A. I knew a lady that gave multiple thousands of dollars to television ministries, She sat on
their boards and committees. She had been blessed to be a millionaire.
B. But she would never give a dollar to help a neighbor or local church pastor in need.
She had all kinds of plaques that sparkled from television preachers, she had a $150,000
car, but she thought the hungry little children in her area deserved to be hungry?
VII. GIVING A LOVE TOKEN IS A SOUND INVESTMENT.
A. On my desk right now is an offering of a rock from a little girl years ago.
It is just a little rock taken out of the mud. Her Dad spanked her very hard for coming into my office and giving it. It hurt to see her disciplined in front of every one.
B. In my office, I cried, I saw the value of a little girl.
VIII. WHAT IS MORE? WHAT IS LESS?
A LITTLE GIFT CAN BE A BIG TOKEN OF FAITH.
Mark 12:42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast
into the treasury:
A. In front of my eyes right now are several offering envelopes I have had several years.
One is from a little girl, she was around 5? It has her name and $0.48 on the envelope.
Her Mommy and Daddy went through an ugly divorce, she has had several Daddy’s and several Mommy’s, but one morning she came to the altar and hugged me real big,
tears were running down her face.
B. She asked me to pray for her and her family, and afterwards she gave me the envelope
with 48 cents in it. Her eyes were glowing in the mist of her pain, giving was her joy.
It broke my heart to receive the money, but I saw the beauty of God’s word, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
IX. ONE OF THESE DAYS YOU WILL GIVE YOUR LAST GIFT!
A. My Mom passed away over seven years ago. The last time I saw my Mom in the hospital,she was in Intensive Care, she reached into her bra and pulled out some money. I told my Mom, I didn’t need the money.
B. She reached her shaking, bony fingers over to me and said, Here son take this. It was her last gift to me. She said take it, I need to give it to you.
C.It was $21.00, two tens and a one. I have carried that $21 many miles. It is in my brief case. Sometimes I get the last gift my Mom gave me and hold it.
D. I have always planned to give it to a missionary some time, but I just can not let go
of her gift. It has been a memory, a testimony of giving.
E. Some day you will give your last gift. Some day your last investment in others will
come to a screeching halt. That will be it, you will never have another opportunity
to give.
F. For what and how will you be remembered as a giver.
X. THERE IS A SAD NOTE ABOUT GIVING, MANY THINK THAT GIVING IS JUST ABOUT MONEY AND MISS GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES.
James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted
from the world.
A. I can tell you, I can raise money easier than I can get the church to do service for the Master.
B. Sometimes an old person needs a way to the doctor and the grocery store?
Maybe you could help clean an old person’s house. Sometimes that child just needs a hug and an ear to listen? Sometimes that Mom needs a little break? Sometimes that weary pastor just needs a phone call of encouragement.
C.When I pastored a little mission work in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, one man and his wife would take us out to eat on our birthday or just to be with us.
I can never tell you what that did for us.
D. I know a precious lady that has encouraged hundreds of people, she writes little notes and mails them to friends and family. Her cards are a ministry.
E. I have 12 jars of canned green beans sitting real pretty on my counter. One little lady raises a garden, hoes, and works it. Picks the beans, breaks the beans,
washes the jars, and stands over a hot stove in the hot summer to can those green beans, they are a trophy to this preacher.
F. In the rest home there was a man named James, we called him, Jesus Keep Me Near The cross James, gave me a quarter, I prized that gift. JAMES HAD THOUGHT OF ME!
G. I have two drawers full of tokens of gifts of love. Pictures, cards, coloring book pictures, notes, cut outs, all tokens of love. Every now and then our enemy knocks me in the head and says I am worthless, and I open one of the drawers, and just read
the notes.
H. You have a unique gifting in some area, and you fail if you do not give to God
from that area.
I. Linda and I love to take home bound old people out for a ride, it is a gift we offer to God.
XI. I WILL WITHHOLD MY GIFT?
A. Years ago I heard a story of a lady that got mad at her pastor. She started withholding her tithes from the church. She decided to starve the preacher would
make him have to leave the community. The pastor was a great instrument of revival.
But this lady in her bitterness would withhold her giving.
Someone pointed out to her that if she withheld her tithes, 15% was due, not just the 10%. She agreed and placed 15% of her family’s money in a special bank
account.
After several years of battle the good pastor left the community. A new pastor came to the church. She withdrew all the money and gave it to the new pastor.
He gladly received the money, and the next week ran off with a pretty lady not his wife?
B. Sometimes we get hurt and withdraw our giving.
Luke 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
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.
C. Sometimes we get hurt and bitter. In our bitterness we withdraw giving, and this will always back fire.
XII. IF YOU DO NOT LIKE WHAT YOU ARE GETTING, YOU MUST CHANGE YOUR GIVING HABITS AND ATTITUDES.
A. It is pure insanity to think you can stay the same, and expect things differently.
WE MUST CHANGE OUR ATTITUDES TOWARD GIVING!
WE MUST CHANGE OUR HABIT OF GIVING AND HAVE PLANNED,
PURPOSE GIVING TO OTHERS.
B. Balanced giving must include home, church, and missions!
C. I know people that want to tithe themselves and their ministry and call this
giving, NOT SO! Giving to yourself is not meaningful sacrifice.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
COULD YOU BE A TEAM MEMBER AND PASS THIS ON TO ANOTHER?
