Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Giving Like a Gileadite" by Neal Pollard

Transcript

"Giving Like a Gileadite" by Neal Pollard · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

• 0:00
  exercise dominion over them, but it shall not be so among you.
• 0:03
  But whosoever is great among you, let him be your servant.
• 0:06
  Whoever is first among you, let him be your slave, even
• 0:09
  as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom
• 0:14
  for many." Matthew 20,
• 0:15
  verse 25 through 28. Great teaching,
• 0:18
  but also great exemplifying of it.
• 0:23
  Because here's Jesus near the end of his life. He is facing the cross.
• 0:26
  With his mind's eye, he can see it just a few days away. And as he has just his
• 0:30
  apostles
• 0:31
  together, he blows their mind. He confounds them
• 0:35
  by washing their feet. And when he had taken his garments and had sat down together
• 0:39
  again,
• 0:40
  he says to them, do you know what I have done unto you?
• 0:43
  You call me master and Lord, and you say it right, for so I am. If I then your Lord
• 0:49
  and Master have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another's feet.
• 0:52
  I have given you an example that you should ever do as I have done unto you.
• 0:56
  Behold, the servant is not greater than his master,
• 0:58
  neither is he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these
• 1:02
  things,
• 1:03
  blessed are you if you do them. John 13, 12 through 17.
• 1:08
  No wonder Luke would look at the life of Jesus
• 1:11
  and he would say, of all that Jesus began both to do
• 1:17
  and to teach, Acts chapter 1 and verse 1.
• 1:20
  You know, I was raised in mostly small
• 1:24
  congregations, small church buildings, and I can see a lot of them
• 1:27
  in my mind today all over, mostly Georgia, as my dad did domestic mission work.
• 1:32
  In several of those church buildings, maybe it was the fashion of the day,
• 1:35
  there were signs posted in the back of the auditorium. I don't know if you ever
• 1:39
  saw this before,
• 1:40
  only in one place that I preached. The sign on the,
• 1:44
  maybe we didn't have a clock back then, but they had the sign, and it said,
• 1:47
  enter to worship, leave to serve.
• 1:51
  Now the thing is that when we read about Barzillai, he's not coming from a
• 1:55
  worship service.
• 1:56
  He is coming from service, and yet he gives us an example that we need to
• 2:01
  follow in our lives today.
• 2:02
  You'll notice that we're talking about giving like a Gileadite. I'm talking
• 2:06
  about Barzillai.
• 2:07
  What can we learn from him and to be better servants? We come
• 2:11
  into the services of the church every Sunday and we get our cups filled.
• 2:16
  We receive so much. God wants us to go from here with what we have been given
• 2:22
  and to give to others. That's the giving we're talking about.
• 2:26
  If you're worried about a sermon on money, you can set your minds at ease. We're not
• 2:30
  talking about that kind of giving today. We're talking about the giving
• 2:33
  that Jesus calls for us the inside out of ourselves.
• 2:37
  And Barzillai is a great example. Very briefly, I want us to notice
• 2:42
  five things we learn about giving from a Gileadite. First of all, we learn
• 2:46
  from him that you give what you have for
• 2:50
  the poor, the thirsty, the hungry,
• 2:53
  and the weary. That's the way it's put for us in 2 Samuel chapter 17
• 2:58
  verse 27 through 29.
• 3:01
  You have a couple of men. You have Barzillai named along with two others and
• 3:06
  they're out there in the wilderness and they provide for
• 3:09
  David and his army. Things like kitchenware
• 3:12
  and utensils and furniture and lots of food for them to eat.
• 3:16
  I can't imagine how much it would have taken to have fed the crowd that
• 3:21
  had gathered around David. We see hundreds of individuals
• 3:24
  who had gathered from different places and they come
• 3:27
  and they are there with him and they have needs.
• 3:31
  And here's Barzillai and two others who see that and it comes from a heart of
• 3:36
  compassion.
• 3:37
  They do what they do. They give of all that they have because they said they
• 3:41
  are hungry
• 3:42
  and they are weary and they are thirsty in the wilderness, 2 Samuel chapter 17
• 3:47
  and verse 27. It's a heart of compassion that drives them
• 3:52
  to see the needs as they exist and then to address
• 3:56
  those needs. It's interesting that these are literal and physical needs.
• 4:01
  And when God talks about what it means to be a disciple of his,
• 4:04
  he wants our hearts to be open and our eyes to be open so that we can see the
• 4:09
  physical needs of those around us.
• 4:11
  It's amazing that at the end of his public ministry in Matthew's gospel
• 4:15
  he ends with a series of parables.
• 4:19
  A parable is about being prepared for the second coming of Christ at the very
• 4:23
  end and in the very last one of those parables he talks about how one gets
• 4:27
  ready for the judgment and here's what he says.
• 4:30
  Then shall they be gathered before him, the king,
• 4:34
  in all of his glory as he sits on his father's glorious throne. And before him shall be
• 4:38
  gathered all the nations
• 4:39
  and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divides the sheep
• 4:43
  from the goats and the sheep
• 4:44
  will be on his right hands but the goats on his left. And then shall he say to those
• 4:48
  on his right hand,
• 4:49
  Come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
• 4:52
  foundation of the world.
• 4:54
  Why? For I was hungry
• 4:58
  and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink.
• 5:02
  I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick
• 5:07
  and you ministered unto me. I was in prison and you came unto me.
• 5:11
  Then they on his right hand will say, Lord, when do we see you
• 5:15
  in all of these various needs and minister unto you? And he shall say,
• 5:18
  Inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of these
• 5:22
  you did it to me. Jesus has us
• 5:26
  responsible for meeting the physical needs of others.
• 5:30
  And yet isn't it interesting that that same language that's used in 2 Samuel 17
• 5:35
  is applied in the New Testament to the spiritual needs
• 5:39
  of those all around us. Jesus says that he came to be the bread of life for the
• 5:45
  hungry soul.
• 5:46
  We see that in John 6 and verse 35. He came to give satisfaction to the
• 5:50
  spiritually thirsty
• 5:52
  by being the living water. John chapter 4 and verse 14
• 5:55
  and Jesus himself speaks of himself by saying
• 5:58
  that he came to bring comfort to those who were weary.
• 6:02
  I'll give you rest, Matthew chapter 11 and verse 29,
• 6:05
  and the Lord has made you and I bread and water
• 6:09
  and comfort dispensers. We're here to see
• 6:13
  the needs that exist, whatever they are,
• 6:16
  and we are to respond to those. We are to be aware
• 6:21
  and to do all that we can. And why do we do this?
• 6:25
  Because of what we have received. You know, the story broke a few years ago about a
• 6:30
  young woman who
• 6:31
  called 911 and she got into a lot of trouble. She called to report that her
• 6:35
  parents
• 6:36
  had forced her against her will to go with them
• 6:39
  on a vacation and to spend a week in a cottage
• 6:42
  east of Toronto. That didn't go so well.
• 6:46
  You know, her problem was that she
• 6:49
  had first world problems. Her problem was not
• 6:53
  that she had been taken against her will, but she hadn't been taught to be grateful.
• 6:56
  And the point for us is we should never treat our Heavenly Father in this way.
• 7:01
  Here is Barzillai who had been given so much resource-wise
• 7:06
  and he was looking for whoever he could. We'd have to have our eyes closed
• 7:10
  to miss all the needs that exist out there.
• 7:13
  As those who have been the recipients,
• 7:16
  we need to go out and find others. Barzillai teaches us
• 7:21
  that we should give as we have to those
• 7:24
  who are in need. But then second, we also learn from Barzillai that we are to give
• 7:29
  what we have
• 7:30
  until we can't give anymore. I want you to think about the passage that was read
• 7:35
  in 2 Samuel chapter 19. Gary did a great job, but there's some difficult words in
• 7:39
  there.
• 7:40
  Verse 32 and verse 35 talks about the change in the situation.
• 7:45
  Back when we read in 2 Samuel chapter 17,
• 7:50
  it's a difficult circumstance for Barzillai because David
• 7:54
  and his men are running away from Absalom. There's been a rebellion
• 7:58
  and 2 Samuel 15 and verse 13 says that all the hearts of Israel
• 8:02
  had gone after Absalom. They were following him and so David is running for his life
• 8:06
  and that's when Barzillai and the others find them and take care of them.
• 8:10
  But now Joab and David's army, they have won the battle.
• 8:14
  The tide has turned and now David and all of his
• 8:18
  companions can go back to Jerusalem.
• 8:21
  David can now sit back on his throne again
• 8:25
  and David is trying to help
• 8:29
  and to repay as David always does
• 8:32
  the good that others did to him and he's also going to try to repay the evil that's
• 8:35
  done to him. But here's Barzillai
• 8:37
  and he wants to do for him and so as they cross the Jordan River, he says, I
• 8:41
  want you to come with me
• 8:42
  and go all the way to Jerusalem so I can take care of you like you took care of
• 8:46
  me.
• 8:47
  And this is when we find out something about David's
• 8:50
  companion Barzillai and his age and his physical condition.
• 8:55
  I was hearing someone in my vicinity who was laughing when they saw that that
• 9:00
  80-year-old person was
• 9:02
  talking about how they couldn't see and how they couldn't hear and how they couldn't enjoy
• 9:05
  good food and drink and so
• 9:07
  80's different for different people and your degree of health or not but
• 9:11
  generally speaking, four score years is on the tail end
• 9:15
  of life, at least relatively speaking. And here he is saying,
• 9:20
  I don't want to leave my hometown. I feel like I'm pretty near my end. I want to be
• 9:25
  buried near my parents. We see that in verse 37
• 9:28
  and so he's saying basically thanks but no thanks.
• 9:32
  I was happy to do for you and we don't know
• 9:36
  how old Barzillai was when he entered the ministry, when he started serving but
• 9:40
  the whole time
• 9:41
  that he was at Manahem, he provided for his needs.
• 9:46
  Barzillai did as much as he could for as long as he could.
• 9:50
  He couldn't do it anymore. You know it's been
• 9:54
  neat to watch this. One of my favorite things when I look at the Lord's Church
• 9:57
  is to see how some in the golden years of their lives
• 10:01
  dedicate themselves to teaching and preaching and leading
• 10:04
  and serving. When Carl was a little boy, we went out to
• 10:09
  Valley Springs, California for a speaking engagement and the man
• 10:12
  on your left is a man by the name of Perry Cotham. He's been dead for several
• 10:15
  years. You may or may not have
• 10:16
  heard of him. An incredible man. He preached after his 100th birthday
• 10:21
  at the Memphis School of Preaching. But I remember
• 10:24
  96-year-old and it was so long ago that Carl was way shorter than me.
• 10:28
  And I had Carl there and he got to spend a lot of time with Perry Cotham. He saw him
• 10:33
  preach with passion
• 10:34
  and with zeal. He saw more than that. He saw him sit down with two middle-aged
• 10:39
  women
• 10:39
  and teach them the gospel and baptize them into Christ
• 10:43
  at 96. The other man is William Woodson. William Woodson
• 10:47
  and Carl and I stayed in a house together with a family.
• 10:52
  William Woodson was near the end of his life. We lost him a little early, but he was
• 10:55
  still elderly at that time.
• 10:57
  And he sat and he not only taught Carl how to tie
• 11:00
  a fly-fishing knot, but he also told him a lot about the Bible and about preaching.
• 11:04
  And
• 11:05
  he's preaching today, influenced in part
• 11:09
  by an elderly man. He would call himself William Woodson.
• 11:13
  I think about it in other places where I've seen that. One of my best friends in
• 11:18
  Colorado was a man by the name of Johnson Kell.
• 11:20
  And well into his 90s, he was teaching a new Christians class.
• 11:24
  He was organizing a prayer service. I want you to think back a few months ago
• 11:29
  that a man who was far older than Barzillai
• 11:33
  got up behind this pulpit and preached a sermon. Well into his 90s, our brother
• 11:38
  Garnett Baker.
• 11:39
  And we could call other names. I don't want to embarrass you because you don't want to be
• 11:43
  thought in terms of your age.
• 11:45
  But in your golden years, you're serving God.
• 11:48
  You are serving Him until you can't serve
• 11:51
  anymore. Now I want you to think, there are some of you who are a fraction
• 11:56
  of that age, or maybe you're half that age, or you're at least
• 11:59
  younger than that. That should be an inspiration to keep serving God.
• 12:04
  We're nowhere near. There is no spiritual retirement. We are to do what we can
• 12:09
  because night is coming when man can work no more. John chapter 9 and verse 4.
• 12:13
  I believe we learn from Barzillai that we should
• 12:16
  give what we can until we can't give
• 12:19
  anymore. But then third, we need to give without expectation
• 12:24
  of return. We see that in 2 Samuel 19 and verse 36.
• 12:28
  Here is a man who
• 12:31
  has now the opportunity to receive
• 12:34
  a gift from David. He has carried him across the Jordan River.
• 12:39
  He's only been thinking of David's needs, and now David wants to give
• 12:44
  a reward. And Barzillai is almost surprised,
• 12:48
  I don't think offended, but amazed that David would try to do something for him.
• 12:53
  Because he wasn't doing it for that reason. Everything we know about him was
• 12:57
  that he was just trying to meet the needs
• 13:00
  that came along. I think about how the Lord speaks to us and He would say the
• 13:04
  same thing. Remember
• 13:05
  Jesus is teaching the Apostles in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 8.
• 13:09
  And what He says there is, you have received
• 13:12
  freely. Freely give. Out of all that we have already been given,
• 13:18
  the most important thing we can do is to give what's most important to others
• 13:23
  without any expectation of earthly recognition.
• 13:26
  Jesus very early on is talking about discipleship and what it means
• 13:31
  to be a true follower of His, to have real righteousness and not the shallow
• 13:35
  righteousness
• 13:35
  of the Pharisees and the scribes and the chief priests.
• 13:39
  And in Matthew chapter 6 He says, don't do your
• 13:42
  giving, don't do your praying, don't do your fasting to receive a reward of men
• 13:47
  because when they see you and they praise you and that's what moves you,
• 13:49
  you've received your reward in full. We come in here and we worship and we get
• 13:55
  our
• 13:56
  cups filled and most of us when we leave here we go out and we labor in fields of
• 14:01
  obscurity.
• 14:02
  If you're a preacher, an elder,
• 14:06
  a deacon, a member, in any way you would describe yourself,
• 14:10
  most of us are not going to go to the hot spotlight
• 14:13
  of the media and reporters and
• 14:16
  cameras and capturing all of our movements. I know that social media wants
• 14:21
  us all to think we're a star but most of us
• 14:23
  are pretty invisible when we leave here. And as we go out,
• 14:27
  what drives us? Paul says in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 verse 25
• 14:33
  that those who are participating in the games
• 14:37
  exercise self-control in all things. This they do for a perishable wreath
• 14:42
  but we an imperishable one, 1st Corinthians 9
• 14:45
  and verse 25. Do you remember when the Olympics were
• 14:48
  in British Columbia, Vancouver and then one of the
• 14:52
  Winter Olympics events was the 10,000 meter speed skate?
• 14:57
  There was a Dutch skater by the name of Swin Kramer
• 15:00
  who his coach lined him up in his lane and you have to be in each of your individual
• 15:04
  lanes to compete
• 15:05
  and his coach inadvertently put him in the wrong lane.
• 15:09
  He wins but he's disqualified
• 15:13
  and when he is disqualified he is visibly upset. Of course
• 15:18
  you know you would expect that with the competition and the spirit of that but
• 15:21
  this
• 15:21
  seemed to be more and they investigated and here's why he was so upset.
• 15:26
  He had signed a provisional deal in which he would get five hundred thousand
• 15:31
  dollars
• 15:32
  in endorsements had he received the gold but when he didn't he received
• 15:36
  absolutely nothing. The Olympics are about
• 15:40
  representing one's country and fighting for their honor. It's not about base
• 15:44
  motivation
• 15:46
  but you know things like money can cloud our motivation. Recognition,
• 15:50
  fame, the attention of others but here's Barzillai
• 15:54
  a man who has quietly come and supplied all of the needs and
• 15:58
  now David says what can I do for you? He says
• 16:02
  nothing and you and I what we are
• 16:06
  aiming at is that imperishable wreath
• 16:09
  but then fourth when we look at Barzillai's life we see that this Gileadite
• 16:15
  gives others an opportunity. When we read about
• 16:19
  him saying no it's interesting that Barzillai turns around and he says but hey what
• 16:24
  about Chimham? Can you give Chimham
• 16:26
  what you're gonna give to me? Who is Chimham?
• 16:30
  Well we might conclude from first Kings chapter 2 and verse 7 and the ancient
• 16:35
  historian Josephus
• 16:36
  tell us that he is a son of Barzillai.
• 16:39
  Barzillai has many sons. We also see that there is a place Jeremiah 41 verse 17
• 16:45
  that is called Chimham Geruth and that name means
• 16:51
  an accolade, a reward that is according
• 16:54
  or accorded or given to Chimham. Barzillai doesn't want to go
• 17:00
  but he wants to make sure that Chimham
• 17:03
  gets what he was going to receive. There's a spirit there that I think should live
• 17:09
  in all of us. Our attitude should be that we want to give
• 17:14
  others an opportunity. You know as God gives us
• 17:17
  opportunities in various stages of our life there are others, there are people
• 17:22
  within the body of Christ that
• 17:23
  we can mentor, that we can encourage, that we can share
• 17:27
  and allow them to grow in their service to God. There are people outside the
• 17:31
  body of Christ
• 17:32
  that need us to go out and to give them what we
• 17:36
  have received. Galatians 6 and verse 10 says, as you have therefore opportunity let us do
• 17:41
  good
• 17:41
  unto all men especially unto those who are the household of the faith.
• 17:46
  We see in him a man who is ready to raise up someone in his place.
• 17:51
  Moses did not serve perfectly.
• 17:54
  One of the things that Moses did that's admirable
• 17:57
  is that he invested a lot into Joshua because he knew that he wouldn't always
• 18:01
  be there
• 18:02
  and when he left the scene Joshua is ready to stand in
• 18:06
  and lead Israel in its greatest generation of the Old Testament.
• 18:10
  God wants you and me to look for others
• 18:13
  that we can bring alongside. Hey, let's think about that in terms
• 18:16
  of what's coming in the near future. Think about vacation Bible school.
• 18:20
  Don't we have an opportunity to bring other people on board? One of the great
• 18:24
  things that our
• 18:24
  education vision group has done is broaden the field and the vision
• 18:29
  to bring in other people to teach and to learn. There are folks teaching our Bible
• 18:33
  school program now
• 18:34
  in scores that weren't before. That's giving
• 18:37
  others an opportunity. How about you and me in our own lives? Are you going to
• 18:41
  visit somebody
• 18:42
  soon? Are you going to go encourage somebody? Why not take someone else with
• 18:47
  you
• 18:48
  and give them the opportunity? Then as we look at Barzillai we also see
• 18:53
  that you give when others need your help.
• 18:57
  At the end of his life in 1 Kings chapter 2 and verse 7
• 19:00
  Barzillai is mentioned by David as David is
• 19:04
  about to breathe his last. He's on his deathbed and he's given
• 19:07
  a series of charges to Solomon of how he wants him to treat various people
• 19:11
  that David didn't deal with in his life and he says I want you to show kindness
• 19:16
  and fellowship
• 19:17
  to Barzillai's sons. He had recognized that in his
• 19:23
  hour of trial when he needed him the most
• 19:26
  that Barzillai had helped. Aren't you grateful
• 19:29
  for the Barzillai's that come into your life?
• 19:33
  Haven't there been moments when you needed help?
• 19:36
  You were at the end of your rope. You felt you were in trouble spiritually if
• 19:40
  not otherwise
• 19:41
  and at that moment somebody came along. I can tell you
• 19:45
  I can't count all the times that I've had Barzillai's come in my life.
• 19:50
  But why not be a Barzillai? Why not
• 19:54
  find those who are helping? Why not use your time to somebody who severely needs it?
• 20:00
  Why not use your heart to counsel somebody who's in need?
• 20:04
  Why not use your goods to help somebody
• 20:07
  who is in genuine need? Why not give
• 20:11
  of your talent to help the church to grow? The needs are existed everywhere.
• 20:17
  We need to have our eyes open when others are in need.
• 20:20
  His name means of iron and that
• 20:24
  speaks of strength. When you think about iron and how
• 20:27
  iron nourishes plants and how iron supplies oxygen to the blood and it's
• 20:31
  the basic building block of steel.
• 20:33
  Iron is the most common metal in the world. It's soft, it's malleable,
• 20:37
  it's corrosive, but it's also durable. You see in front of you a picture of
• 20:42
  an iron pillar that's standing in Delhi, India. It's been there since 400 AD.
• 20:47
  It's 24 feet high. It's 15 inches
• 20:50
  in diameter and it has stood the test of time.
• 20:54
  The strength that Barzillai had, the iron
• 20:59
  will that he had was to serve.
• 21:02
  That strength, that greatness is something that we so often miss. The disciples had
• 21:08
  been walking with Jesus and they missed it.
• 21:10
  They wanted to know who was the greatest. Matthew 18 and verse 1.
• 21:13
  And Jesus says we've got to have the humility of a child
• 21:16
  to be great. Matthew 18 and verse 4. That humility
• 21:20
  drives service. Our theme this year
• 21:24
  is Mark 10 and verse 45. To serve like Jesus did.
• 21:28
  It's incredible that we can go all over the New Testament and we can see
• 21:32
  examples of that.
• 21:33
  We can see principles taught, but then God inserts an obscure
• 21:37
  person into the Bible that we don't spend a lot of time
• 21:40
  reading about and then we see through somebody like a Barzillai
• 21:44
  how service can come. When we look at the life of Barzillai we see
• 21:50
  that you can give what you have to help others who are needy.
• 21:53
  There are thirsty, there are hungry, there are
• 21:57
  hurting and fleeing souls. We need to give what we can for as long as we can.
• 22:03
  To the golden years of our life. We need to give without expectation
• 22:08
  of return. We need to give others an opportunity
• 22:11
  and we need to give when others are in need.
• 22:14
  Jesus says that begins by giving yourself.
• 22:18
  If any man will come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
• 22:22
  Luke chapter 9 and verse 23. For all that God has done
• 22:26
  to show himself the great giver. Jesus gave his life for us. Galatians 2 and verse 20.
• 22:32
  That we might have eternal life. What he says in response is
• 22:35
  give yourself to him. Maybe you're ready to do that.
• 22:39
  We saw that on the last Lord's Day
• 22:42
  when one obeyed the gospel two weeks ago. How beautiful it was to see someone do
• 22:47
  that.
• 22:48
  Maybe there's someone here today who needs to act in faith in Jesus.
• 22:52
  Repent of sins and be baptized to wash away your sins.
• 22:56
  To give your life to him. Maybe as a child of God
• 23:00
  you need to be rededicated to him. Maybe you need to serve him.
• 23:03
  Maybe there needs to be a quiet resolve or maybe in your life there needs to be a
• 23:07
  return to him in a public way.
• 23:08
  Chase is going to lead us in a song of encouragement. If you need to respond
• 23:12
  why don't you do it right now as we stand and sing.