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@ The Refinery
2024-03-24 07:00:53March 17 2024 Sunday Morning
Hey everyone I’m Gary Hoban and welcome to Refinery Life Australia.
The Inward Attitudes of a True Disciple is our theme for the next few Sunday mornings.
This series is based on the Beatitudes, found in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.
The Beatitudes vividly set forth the inward spiritual characteristics of those who are ideal citizens of the kingdom of God.
Only when we are right in our inward attitudes can we be right in our outward conduct.
Today we are discussing, The Forgotten Beatitude.
Text
Acts 20:35 NKJV
35 I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
Scripture Reading
Acts 20:17-35 NKJV
The Ephesian Elders Exhorted
17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.
18 And when they had come to him, he said to them: “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you,
19 serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews;
20 how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house,
21 testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
22 And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there,
23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.
24 But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
25 “And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more.
26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.
27 For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.
28 Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
29 For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
30 Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.
31 Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.
32 “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
33 I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel.
34 Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities, and for those who were with me.
35 I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
Prayer
Father, we thank You for adopting us as your children.
With eyes wide open to Your mercies, we come to dedicate ourselves to you afresh.
Help us to use our talents and testimony that others may know Christ.
As be bring our tithes and offerings, we pray Your blessings upon them.
Help us meet the expenses of the ministry of this church and engage in ministries to the outer most ends of the earth.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Introduction.
We have probably all heard a sermon on the Beatitudes, in fact I generally preach a series on the Beatitudes each year.
Did you know there is a Beatitude that Paul preserved for us for later?
Ask almost any Christian, even the most careful Bible student, to name the beatitudes of Jesus, and they will name those listed in Matthew 5. Not one in a hundred would name the one given in Acts 20.
Thus it is fair to call Acts 20:35 the forgotten Beatitude.
Acts 20:35 I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
There is no question as to the authenticity of this beatitude.
That this is a genuine saying of Jesus there is no doubt.
Beyond doubt, this was a current saying of Jesus with which the Ephesian elders were familiar.
Moreover, the writer, Luke, who heard Paul’s address to these pastors and preserved it. Also wrote the gospel that bears his name, and his gospel preserves, in slightly varied form, Jesus’ beatitudes.
There can be no doubt that Jesus demonstrated this beatitude in His life and ministry and death.
Just as surely as He demonstrated meekness, mercy, and purity of heart, so did Jesus demonstrate that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.”
There can be no fault found with the form in which this beatitude is given.
Paul faces his statement of the beatitude with a twofold caution, “Labouring,” he said, “you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
His caution “to remember” is certainly in place for us, for this is the forgotten beatitude.
Let’s look at three questions concerning this beatitude.
Why is this beatitude the forgotten beatitude?
We have never understood it.
Taken together, the full impact of these words has never hit us as Jesus intended they should.
We tread lightly on the first half of this saying and let our minds dwell on the later half.
But Jesus’ emphasis is the other way around, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
This turns the normal attitude of the carnal mind upside down.
There is a blessedness in receiving, and our Lord does not discount the fact.
None of us could live for ten minutes apart from what we receive.
It is blessed to receive, but it is more blessed to give.
We have never believed this beatitude.
If we doubt that this is the most disbelieved truth in the Word of God, we need but to look first at the average church treasury and after that into the faces of the congregation when the offering is being received or when the pastor mentions money.
Many look upon giving to the church as a necessary nuisance, a bother, a thing to be dreaded.
It isn’t so at all if our hearts are right.
The sense of our text then is this, “It is a far happier experience to give than to receive.”
And it surely is if our hearts are right with God.
Many of us have never actually tested this beatitude.
A few have!
And their testimony tells us that it is the very Word of God.
They say, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Those who love the most give the most.
But the majority of Christians cannot testify one way or another.
They have never tried it out!
- What results from this beatitude being the forgotten beatitude?
We have missed the main emphasis of Jesus’ teachings.
This beatitude stands supreme among all the beatitudes of the Bible.
It is the centre of the bible’s teaching, the supreme emphasis of Jesus.
To give was the purpose of God coming, Matthew 20:28 says, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Selfishness is self destructive, giving is redemptive, creative, permanent.
We lose what we keep and keep forever what we give to God.
We have missed the greatest joy, the supreme blessing of Christian living.
What is Christian living?
It is doing our best to give more than we receive for Christ’s sake because we love Him and because we love a lost world.
What is the Christian philosophy of life?
It is believing in and trying to live by this word of the One who redeemed us, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
No amount of earthly things can ever satisfy the spiritual part of us that God made to be blessed by giving.
The writer of Ecclesiastes said, “He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loves abundant with increase, this is also vanity.”
We have failed to take the gospel the the whole world.
Why has the gospel made such a slow conquest of the world?
Why have missions and evangelism lagged and dragged?
It is because preachers have been so timid about preaching the joyous truths of the Bible about giving and because people have been so rebellious and unbelieving when they have presented it.
There is no danger of exaggerating the measure in which this beatitude has been discredited in the world and even by Christ’s own people.
Selfishness is the dominant note of humanity, the cancer of society, the mud on the chariot wheels of God’s army, and selfishness finds its supreme expression in man’s attitude toward money.
The world believes it is more blessed to get than to give, and therefore for two millennia we have not carried the gospel to all the world.
- What blessings would follow a wholesale recovery of this beatitude?
Blessings on us as individuals.
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
That is true for each of us as individuals.
We love our Lord because there was no trace of selfishness in Him.
He gave and gave and gave, and it was His joy to give.
The writer of Hebrews said of Him, in Hebrews 12:2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus demonstrated the truth of this beatitude as He did all the others.
We are to be like Him.
When pastors persuade their congregations to give “not grudgingly, or of necessity”, but joyfully and liberally, they are doing a real service to their souls.
There are blessings on our churches.
Recovering this beatitude would mean that our churches would have the means, the resources, but above all, the spiritual power to attempt to carry out the great commission.
If we had a cow that we had to milk, did you know that if we only took the milk we required for the day the cow would dry up.
It wouldn’t be good for the cow, its bad for her.
It’s bad for a church too if it only has just enough to cover the basics.
Because of their failure to give liberally, most of our churches have gone dry spiritually.
There are blessings on an unsaved soul.
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
If they would only heed these words, churches would challenge an unsaved world by an exalted testimony and witness.
The churches would begin to do the thing they were brought into existence to do.
The would start knocking on the doors of the world with the gospel, the world would heed, and some would be saved.
Conclusion.
The Beatitudes describe the character traits of a happy Christian, and this one, so often forgotten, is the most joyous of them all.
Until next time
Stay in the Blessings
I really want to encourage you to be diligent with your Bible study time, because God has so much more for us than we can get from just going to church once or twice a week and hearing someone else talk about the Word.
When you spend time with God, your life will change in amazing ways, because God is a Redeemer. Theres nothing thats too hard for Him, and He can make you whole, spirit, soul and body!
You’re important to God, and you’re important to us at The Refinery.
When it comes to prayer, we believe that God wants to meet your needs and reveal His promises to you.
So whatever you’re concerned about and need prayer for we want to be here for you! Or even if you just want to say Hi, you can contact us at www.refinerylife.org
2024 IS A YEAR OF DECISIONS AND OPEN DOORS
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