Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 570 | Throwback - The Reward for Giving All You Have

Transcript

570 | Throwback - The Reward for Giving All You Have · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  God is in control.
• 0:04
  She's a happy girl. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman
• 0:10
  at the Well Ministries, where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus
• 0:15
  like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
• 0:18
  Our highest priority is making God real in your life.
• 0:21
  Whether you are listening in our app, in your favorite podcasting app,
• 0:25
  or on our website at watwm.org, we invite you to sit down and listen to Jesus.
• 0:30
  With us as we look to the scriptures to learn more about God and to strengthen
• 0:35
  your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
• 1:03
  When we give all that we have, the Lord will provide for us over and abundantly
• 1:07
  and above anything that we ever gave.
• 1:10
  Join us in this program of Woman at the Well Ministries as we look at God's
• 1:14
  reward for giving all that you have.
• 1:17
  Hello and welcome to this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
• 1:20
  And what an absolute pleasure it is to spend the next few moments with you discussing
• 1:24
  the truth out of God's Word.
• 1:25
  And I'd like, if you would, to just consider this verse as we begin to talk
• 1:30
  about what it means to give all that we have to God and what he does with what we give him.
• 1:36
  The verse is out of Luke chapter 6 and verse 38.
• 1:40
  He says, Give, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure,
• 1:44
  pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom.
• 1:49
  For with the same measure that you meet, withel, it shall be measured to you again.
• 1:54
  The Lord God of the universe is telling us that we just can't out-give God.
• 1:59
  However, in our everyday lives, it seems so difficult for us to put that into practice.
• 2:05
  We seem so concerned about making sure that we have everything that we need
• 2:09
  through our own means and our own measures, that when it comes to him coming
• 2:14
  to our heart's door and saying,
• 2:15
  give that last dollar you have in your pocket to your neighbor,
• 2:19
  or when he says give this to someone else
• 2:22
  or give this and do this then we sometimes we hold so tightly to that and god
• 2:28
  can't bless us as he wants to bless us because we're not doing what he asked
• 2:33
  us to do but it's that mind of man that says if i have only a dollar and i give it away i have nothing.
• 2:42
  But it's the spiritual mind of God that dwells in us that says everything that
• 2:47
  we have belongs to God anyway.
• 2:50
  And he gave you that dollar that's in your pocket so that you would have it.
• 2:54
  He'll give you the next dollar so that you will have it and give it when he asks to give.
• 3:00
  The problem is that we live just within our own means and not within the means of God.
• 3:06
  And I'm not saying that we're to live above our means. God wants us to be prudent
• 3:10
  with our money. God wants us to be very frugal in the ways that he says to do
• 3:15
  it, because basically what he wants you to do is to be his bank.
• 3:18
  And when he gives you that, he wants you to turn around and give it back out as he says, give it.
• 3:23
  He wants to be the one who's writing the checks on the things that you have,
• 3:28
  whether it be your time, your money, your energy, whatever it is.
• 3:32
  And what we do as human beings is we see things getting a little bit low,
• 3:36
  and then we kind of pull back and we hold so tight to that that God can't get
• 3:42
  that out of our hands in order to give it to bless others and then in turn bless us.
• 3:48
  But Luke chapter 6 38 says, hey people, listen, God has given you something
• 3:53
  that he might use and it belongs to him anyway.
• 3:56
  And whatever he's going to take away from you, he's going to give you way more than that.
• 4:02
  And what happens is, is we live so far below our privileges of joy,
• 4:07
  our privileges of peace, our privileges of understanding.
• 4:10
  We just don't walk in the ways of God in such a way that he is able to bless us abundantly.
• 4:17
  The most interesting thing I find in my life is that the tighter I hold on to
• 4:22
  something, the more I lose it.
• 4:26
  And the more problems it causes me.
• 4:29
  But when I learned that God is the person who gives everything to me,
• 4:35
  he is the one who has the master plan.
• 4:38
  And without a doubt, he has proven to me that he loves me.
• 4:43
  And I realized that, okay, God, these things are yours.
• 4:47
  I'm yours. Use me as you will and allow him to really make the decisions in
• 4:52
  my life and allow him to really do with me what he has me to do,
• 4:57
  that took such a burden off of me.
• 4:59
  Now, I'm human just as you are, so I often step back up to the plate and take
• 5:05
  the reins of my life back from him.
• 5:07
  But I am quickly reminded by the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of me that I
• 5:11
  can't do it nearly as well as he can.
• 5:14
  So what we'd like to look at for the next few moments that we are together is
• 5:18
  that problem that we have of just not giving to the Lord all that is His.
• 5:24
  And I want you to let God and the Holy Spirit speak to your heart on what He's telling you.
• 5:28
  Whether it's your finances that you're not turning over to Him,
• 5:31
  whether it's your entire life you're not turning over to Him,
• 5:35
  whether it's your heart,
• 5:37
  whether it's your energy, whether it's your time, I don't know what it is that
• 5:42
  you're begrudgingly holding on to and not letting God have.
• 5:46
  But I do know that it is God's, and he has given it to you that he might use
• 5:53
  it in you and through you.
• 5:55
  And that's a concept, I think, that we often forget. And I don't think it is often taught.
• 6:01
  I think that people just go through life thinking that the things that they have are really theirs.
• 6:07
  But you know what? They're just borrowed.
• 6:10
  We're just custodians of the gifts he gives us. and his purpose is that others may come to him.
• 6:17
  So his purpose of the things that he gives us is not only to bless us,
• 6:21
  but most likely it's to bless someone else.
• 6:24
  It's so that he could be high and lifted up and glorified in our lives.
• 6:28
  It isn't just what we think it is every day.
• 6:31
  It isn't just to put gas in our car that we can go to work.
• 6:35
  It isn't just to buy some clothes that we could cover ourselves so that we wouldn't be ashamed in public.
• 6:41
  Like, no, it's his gifts to us because he wants us to be happy and he wants
• 6:47
  us to look good and he wants us to have all these things. But it's also our
• 6:52
  opportunity to be used of him.
• 6:55
  It's part of our service to him. It's part of our love and our devotion to him.
• 7:00
  So as we begin to look, our actual lesson is coming out of 1 Kings chapter 17
• 7:05
  and it's going to begin at verse 9.
• 7:08
  But I want you to keep in your mind this verse.
• 7:11
  Give, and it shall be given unto you.
• 7:14
  Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over,
• 7:18
  shall men give unto your bosom.
• 7:20
  For with the same measure that you meet, whither it shall be measured to you again.
• 7:25
  And I want you to understand that that heart you have, however it is that you're
• 7:30
  giving, is the same way that you'll be given to.
• 7:35
  And God says he loves a cheerful giver.
• 7:39
  And I want you to let it transcend more than just your bank account I want you
• 7:43
  to let it look at giving of yourself,
• 7:47
  of using the things that he has given you for God and for others.
• 7:52
  Because when he left, he said, continue ye in my love.
• 7:57
  And he's equipped each of us to do that very thing.
• 8:01
  But the question is, is our heart, as it should be, filled with his love,
• 8:07
  that our heart's desire is to give that love to someone else so that we would
• 8:12
  see others come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? Shall we pray?
• 8:16
  Our kind and most gracious your heavenly father lord we thank you for this another
• 8:19
  opportunity to come before you we thank you lord that you love us and that you
• 8:23
  care for us and lord i for one would like to take this opportunity to thank
• 8:27
  you that on calvary you held nothing back,
• 8:30
  I thank you, Lord, that you gave your first fruits of who you were to us on that cross of Calvary.
• 8:36
  I thank you, Lord, that you gave every single drop of blood that you had to
• 8:40
  pay the penalty for my sins.
• 8:42
  I thank you, dear Heavenly Father, that I was on your mind when you were on the cross.
• 8:46
  And, dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for the daily provisions that you give
• 8:49
  me, for the abundant blessings that you allow to come my way.
• 8:53
  Lord, I thank you for the privilege of being able to teach your word.
• 8:56
  I thank you that you walk with me and you talk with me.
• 8:59
  I thank you dear Heavenly Father that you said to whom much is given of much
• 9:02
  is required and that you require that I walk in your presence in order to hear
• 9:06
  your words and to be able to have a personal communication and relationship with you.
• 9:11
  Lord, I pray that you would speak to me as we teach this lesson,
• 9:15
  that I would hear you absolutely clearly and that the words that would come
• 9:18
  through my mouth, Lord, would be the thoughts that you have instilled in my heart.
• 9:22
  I pray that you would use this vessel of clay, Lord, to say what you would have
• 9:26
  it to say, that others might hear your words, that they may come to the saving.
• 9:30
  Knowledge of who you are, and that they may live a life that you are sovereign in.
• 9:35
  Lord, I pray that you would help us to just give everything we have to you,
• 9:39
  Lord, that you might use it exactly as you would have it be used.
• 9:42
  Lord, I pray that you would be glorified and magnified in our lives.
• 9:46
  I pray, dear Heavenly Father, that we would be all for you, that you would have us to be.
• 9:50
  And after spending this moment of time with you and the scriptures together,
• 9:54
  Lord, that we would draw closer to you and that we would be better workmen for
• 9:57
  you. Watch over us and protect us.
• 10:00
  Lead God and direct us in all these things we ask in thy most precious and holy
• 10:03
  name we pray and all of God's people said, Amen.
• 10:07
  The story that we're going to take our lesson out of is from Elijah and he is
• 10:14
  an obedient servant of God and he has a personal relationship with God.
• 10:19
  The first nine verses of chapter 17 of the book of 1 Kings clearly lays this out.
• 10:27
  He has been asked to go eastward to be by the brook near Jordan where he would get water.
• 10:35
  And he was fed daily by the ravens because the land that he was in was all dried up with a drought.
• 10:42
  After being in there for a while, then the Lord tells him to move again.
• 10:46
  And he tells him to get to a city called Zarephath.
• 10:50
  And there he says he's commanded a widow lady to take care of him.
• 10:54
  And the obedience of Elijah allows Elijah to be perfectly taken care of by God,
• 11:01
  but it also allows the widow lady to be glorified in God and through God be
• 11:08
  able to be used of him. That's what I want you to see.
• 11:12
  All of the pieces of our lives are intertwined.
• 11:16
  All of the decisions that we make, all of the footsteps that we lead,
• 11:20
  all help us to be the very person that God has us to be and enables us to be
• 11:26
  the tool in his hands that he would want us to be,
• 11:29
  that others are able to be blessed.
• 11:33
  He is able to be glorified, and many are brought to the kingdom of God.
• 11:38
  We don't live in an island to ourselves, and we don't live isolated.
• 11:45
  We live a life orchestrated by the mighty hand of God and absolutely taught
• 11:53
  and guided by the amazing Holy Spirit that He places inside of us to teach us
• 11:58
  as we go about the work of the Lord.
• 12:02
  In Elijah chapter 17, picking up at verse 9 and going through verse 16,
• 12:07
  it says, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there.
• 12:14
  Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
• 12:17
  So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city,
• 12:22
  behold, the widow woman was there, gathering of sticks.
• 12:25
  And he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink.
• 12:32
  And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said,
• 12:35
  Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
• 12:39
  And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake,
• 12:44
  but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruise.
• 12:48
  And behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me
• 12:53
  and my son, that we may eat it and die.
• 12:57
  And Elijah said unto her, Fear not, go and do as thou hast said.
• 13:02
  But make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me,
• 13:07
  and after make for thee and for thy son.
• 13:10
  For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste,
• 13:15
  neither shall the cruise of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.
• 13:20
  And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days.
• 13:28
  And the barrel of meal wasted not neither
• 13:31
  did the cruise of oil fail according to the word
• 13:34
  of the lord which he spake by elijah did
• 13:37
  you hear what we just saw take place in that passage of scripture we saw a woman
• 13:43
  who god had already spoken to and we know she has a personal relationship with
• 13:48
  him because she said to Elijah as the Lord God liveth.
• 13:55
  This is what she says to him. She realizes that she has nothing to do.
• 14:02
  That she's going to be able to do on her own but as
• 14:04
  the lord thy god liveth she says
• 14:08
  i have only a little bit of meal
• 14:11
  and just a tad of cruise oil and
• 14:15
  i'm going out here right now to make my very last meal
• 14:18
  for my son and myself and after
• 14:21
  this we're going to die and we're going to die of starvation
• 14:24
  and here comes in elijah who says to
• 14:27
  her listen go ahead go ahead and
• 14:30
  do what you said you're going to do but give me
• 14:33
  first now here's a woman who loved her
• 14:36
  son who had already established with elijah that she did not have enough to
• 14:42
  eat and that she was going to have to divide what she did have between herself
• 14:48
  and her son and now comes the third mouth to feed and not only is it a third mouth,
• 14:54
  he's demanding to be fed first.
• 14:58
  And this widow woman does exactly as he says.
• 15:03
  Now, I want you to look at the widow woman. She has nothing.
• 15:08
  But she's going to give everything she has. And she's giving it because she
• 15:12
  says, as the Lord thy God liveth.
• 15:15
  You see, she had established that they knew the same God.
• 15:19
  Because she says, as the Lord thy God liveth. You see, and he had commanded
• 15:24
  the widow woman to take care of her, as we're told in verse 9.
• 15:28
  So the widow woman had been talking to God. And then the Lord said to her,
• 15:33
  you're going to take care of Elijah when he comes.
• 15:35
  Now, we don't have a written piece of scripture there that tells us how the
• 15:40
  conversation went between the widow woman and God.
• 15:43
  But we have the results of that conversation.
• 15:46
  God instructed the widow woman to take care of Elijah.
• 15:51
  We know that because that's what he said to Elijah.
• 15:54
  I have commanded the widow woman. so the
• 15:56
  widow woman's been speaking to god and now
• 16:00
  in order for god probably to answer her
• 16:03
  prayers because no doubt she's been speaking to
• 16:06
  him about lord i don't have enough to
• 16:08
  eat lord my son that you've
• 16:11
  given me to watch over to care for as a
• 16:14
  gift from you to be able to raise up to
• 16:17
  fear you is not able to eat he's
• 16:20
  going to die of starvation lord there's
• 16:23
  nothing i can do there's nothing i've done to
• 16:25
  put myself in this position but my son is
• 16:28
  going to die and lord so am i and no
• 16:32
  doubt she's been calling out to god and then
• 16:35
  when god comes with his answer the man says give me what you got and give it
• 16:41
  to me first for most of us we would have a very difficult time giving god anything
• 16:48
  And we certainly would struggle giving him the things that we have first.
• 16:55
  But this woman has had a conversation with God, and she knows exactly what God is asking of her.
• 17:02
  And she trusts God's man because she trusted God.
• 17:08
  And the prophet Elijah was merely speaking the words of God.
• 17:12
  She did not have her faith in Elijah.
• 17:15
  She did not believe that Elijah was capable of doing any of these things.
• 17:19
  She had a relationship with god
• 17:23
  that allowed her to know that god was going to take care of
• 17:26
  her and her faith was so strong that she
• 17:28
  believed so when god come
• 17:32
  to the widow woman and required her to
• 17:35
  give all that she had when he required her
• 17:38
  to give the last dollar she didn't
• 17:41
  hesitate nowhere in the scripture do we
• 17:44
  see that she talked to elijah and
• 17:47
  said hey listen you know let me feed my son first
• 17:50
  you see this shows us who was the
• 17:53
  top priority in the widow woman's life it
• 17:57
  was not elijah he got the first of the cake but it wasn't him who she put place
• 18:05
  first it was the god she had had conversations with it was the god she had a
• 18:10
  personal relationship with And she was placing God first in her life,
• 18:15
  even above her children.
• 18:18
  My friends, where is God in your life? In your order of priorities, where is God?
• 18:26
  Now be very careful how you answer this. Because make sure that the words coming
• 18:31
  out of your lips are backed by the walk of your feet.
• 18:34
  Make sure, because that's what's going to really prove where God is in your
• 18:38
  life. Are you always putting God back on the burner for something else or someone else?
• 18:45
  Would you forsake God and in your own feebleness try to attempt to save your child?
• 18:51
  God says you'll have no other gods before me. God says he is a jealous God.
• 18:57
  Yet in our everyday practices, most of us have a hard time placing him first.
• 19:03
  We need to take a close look at the cross of Calvary. We need to take a cross
• 19:07
  look at the living word from Genesis to Revelation that has all of the promises he's made to us.
• 19:13
  We need to take a little time on our knees and have a conversation with him
• 19:17
  so that the Lord can speak to us,
• 19:20
  so that we have a personal relationship with him, so that when he knocks on
• 19:23
  our heart's door and gives us the opportunity to serve him with the gifts that
• 19:28
  he's given us that we do it without hesitation and that nothing is in front
• 19:32
  of us and that no one is more important the lord god of the universe is god and he loves you,
• 19:39
  the bottom line is do you believe it.
• 19:43
  Do you believe Romans 8, 28 that says that all things work together for the
• 19:47
  good to them, the love of the Lord, and are called according to his purpose?
• 19:51
  He has a reason for everything.
• 19:56
  And his ways are not our ways, and we don't often understand them.
• 19:59
  But he has a purpose for your life. Have you embraced the purpose of God in your life?
• 20:07
  Are you living in the purposeful center of his will? Is your life aligned with
• 20:14
  the commandments and the promises and the will of God?
• 20:18
  So that no matter what comes your way, you're going to follow and trust and obey?
• 20:25
  The songwriter wrote one of the most beautiful phrases, I believe, spoken by human lips.
• 20:31
  Trust and obey for there's
• 20:34
  no other way to be happy in jesus
• 20:38
  but to trust and obey
• 20:41
  my friends this widow woman had god as top priority and she did exactly what
• 20:48
  god said and though it had to seem illogical and though it must have been painful
• 20:53
  she was living in the strength of god as he promises us that we see in Philippians 4.13.
• 21:00
  She was living in the provisions of God that we can see in Philippians 4.19
• 21:04
  when he says he'll supply all of our needs according to his riches.
• 21:07
  And she was walking in obedience.
• 21:10
  And the widow woman gave all that she had. Now before God came on the scene,
• 21:16
  the only hope this woman had was to have a little bit of cake and meal.
• 21:20
  And to sit across the table from her son with tears rolling down her face. Feeling awful.
• 21:27
  Feeling as if she was not good mother. Feeling as if she had failed in life.
• 21:32
  Feeling as if her life was an absolute loss. But God comes on the scene in the
• 21:38
  form of Elijah. He speaks through Elijah and Elijah does the work of the Lord through him.
• 21:44
  And the Lord God is there.
• 21:46
  It isn't Elijah. It is God. And Elijah speaks to the lady and she obeys the
• 21:53
  voice of God coming through Elijah.
• 21:55
  And she goes out and she does exactly what she's supposed to do.
• 21:59
  She makes the little cake. She puts the little bit of oil in it and she feeds Elijah first.
• 22:07
  And look what happens. If this doesn't just absolutely thrill your soul,
• 22:12
  you need to go back and have a chat with God.
• 22:15
  Because this is God in all of his glory, providing for one of his people,
• 22:21
  one of his children, because she trusted and she obeyed, and she gets more than she could ever imagine.
• 22:27
  And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days.
• 22:34
  And catch this, my friend, on that one meal that she thought she was going to
• 22:38
  have, when she gave it all away and the barrel of meal wasted not,
• 22:44
  neither did the cruise of oil fill.
• 22:46
  According to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah,
• 22:49
  he provided for her abundantly. He blessed what she gave and she never went hungry.
• 22:55
  She didn't die of starvation. She provided for her child and God gave her all
• 23:01
  that she needed. He gave her all that she wanted, and he took what was little, and he made it much.
• 23:07
  And by giving all that she had away, she became more wealthy than she could ever imagine.
• 23:12
  Was she the richest person in the land? No, but she was eating when nobody else was.
• 23:17
  Was she a king or a queen or someone of great prominence?
• 23:21
  No, she was an ordinary person who had a relationship with God,
• 23:26
  who knew him well, who stood in his presence, who trusted in him and who obeyed.
• 23:32
  And her life was filled with the blessings of God. And she could never in her
• 23:36
  own right have gone and done what God did for her.
• 23:42
  My friends, this is the God we serve.
• 23:45
  But stop holding on to the meal if
• 23:48
  she'd have held on to the little that she had
• 23:52
  she would have died after that meal
• 23:55
  but instead she lived on and she
• 23:58
  had far more than just that one little cake
• 24:01
  that she was going to divide you see when god's hand
• 24:04
  is in it it's much we need
• 24:07
  to give away that we might receive oh
• 24:11
  my friend take a look at your life take a
• 24:14
  look at the things that are in it and hand them to god
• 24:17
  and let him have his perfect will in his way in your life and my dear friend
• 24:21
  little is much when god is in it and if you'll give it to him he'll give it
• 24:27
  back to you press down heaping up and he will give to you as you have given
• 24:33
  to others bless his holy name and thank you.
• 24:46
  Thank you for joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for
• 24:50
  quotes from today's podcast and scripture references.
• 24:53
  We pray today has been a blessing, and we encourage you to reach out to us through
• 24:57
  our app, our website, or our Facebook page.
• 25:00
  You can find our app by searching for Woman at the Well Ministries in your app
• 25:04
  store or through our website at watwm.org.
• 25:08
  We're on Facebook at facebook.com slash watwm. If you visit our website,
• 25:14
  you'll be able to subscribe to Bible Bits, a daily devotion written by Kim and
• 25:18
  delivered Monday through Friday by text message.
• 25:21
  Woman at the Well Ministries is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving our Heavenly Father.
• 25:27
  And it is through your loving and generous support that our ministry continues to bless others.
• 25:32
  To learn how to partner with Woman at the Well Ministries, please visit our website.
• 25:36
  Thank you to the Gospel Group Fudge Creek for letting us use their hit song, Happy Girl.
• 25:41
  We greatly appreciate your prayers. We are praying daily for our listeners.
• 25:46
  Remember that God loves you. You are loved.