Blessed to Bless

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"Channels of Grace"

"What Relevance Really Means"

"God's Money Manager"

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Dannah Gresh: Hey there! I’m glad you’re here. Okay, if you’re like me, you’re in full-on Christmas mode by now! Music, lights, Christmas trees, parties—bring it on! And oh yeah, I should probably start thinking about getting those presents.

It’s such a fun season, but are you starting to hyperventilate a bit? I mean, there’s so much going on already, and we still have a month to go!

That’s one reason I want to spend some time today going back to the theme of Thanksgiving.

Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend! I’m Dannah Gresh.

All month we’ve been talking about the blessings of God. I hope you remember that His blessings don’t always come in the form of “good things” like nice stuff, a great family, or a prestigious job. Everything He gives us is a blessing, including trials.

God’s gifts are meant to point you to Him as your creator, sustainer, and provider. But they’re also meant to overflow in your life in blessing to others.

Think of it this way: when God gives so richly of Himself—even sending Jesus to die for us—we should be so grateful that we want to pour out our lives in service of Him!

The apostle Paul talked about that in 1 Peter chapter 4. He said, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace . . . in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth looked at that concept when she discussed the grace of God. Let’s listen.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: In the New Testament, those words "serve" and "worship" are sometimes used synonymously or with the same Greek word—to serve Him, to worship Him. To worship Him is an act of service, and to serve Him is an act of worship. We need God's grace to do that properly.

You see, God doesn't just want us to be recipients of His grace. He wants us to be channels of His grace so that as He pours His grace into our lives—His saving grace, His sanctifying grace, and that suffering grace, we don't just keep it as a reservoir inside of us, but we become instruments through whom He can display His grace to others.

I've heard somebody say, “We need to breathe grace in and grace out.” That's a good way to think about all of life—always receiving God's grace. Breathe God's grace in—for your sin, for your suffering, for your sanctification, for your salvation. For whatever you need, breathe God's grace in and then breathe God's grace out—always breathing in, breathing out the grace of God.

John Bunyan said, “Nothing can be done aright without grace." We need God's grace—to take it in for our lives, and then as we minister to those around us, we do that by means of God's grace.

Paul says in Colossians chapter four, verse six, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one” (NKJV). So we say, “Lord, pour Your grace into our lives so that we can impart grace to others with our words.” Then we serve and worship God by His grace.

The writer to the Hebrews says in chapter 12, verse 28, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve [or worship] God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (NKJV).

You cannot go to church and serve the Lord, you cannot be involved in ministry of hospitality, you cannot be involved in teaching or leading a Bible study or a small group, you cannot be involved in your private worship of the Lord, serving Him, worshiping Him in any way, apart from God giving you grace to do that, the enabling to do that.

Anything else we offer up to the Lord, that's the work of our own hands, is not acceptable to the Lord. The only worship, the only service that is acceptable to Him, is that which comes through His grace. And nobody recognized that more keenly than the apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10, he says, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” That's saving grace, sanctifying grace.

“And his grace toward me was not in vain.” It wasn't futile. It wasn't for nothing. He says, “On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them,” speaking of the other apostles, “though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” Paul says, “God's grace was poured into my life, and then I became a channel of God's grace. All the hard work, the suffering that I endured, the efforts that I extended, the willingness to spend and be spent on behalf of others, all of that was by the grace of God” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

God's grace has been displayed in manifold ways in the lives of those who are part of the body of Christ. Why? For what purpose? So that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion for ever and ever, amen. As we use our gifts humbly, joyfully, abundantly, as God lavishes grace on us and we serve Him and others with that grace, God is glorified, and the body is built up.

Let me just make one other comment here about another aspect of serving grace, and that is the grace of giving.

God is a giving God. He's a generous God. He's a gracious God. Those words go together. We are intended to reflect that generous, giving, gracious heart of God, and there's a grace involved in that.

The apostle Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter eight, beginning in verse one, “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.”

Verse three, “For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means.”

That's lavish grace, generosity reflecting God's heart. Beyond their means, they gave of their own free will, not under compulsion, but gladly, joyfully, “Begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” (verse 4). “Paul, we want to give more. Can't we give more to help with these needs of these other believers?” What a spirit that is!

You don't have to have a lot to be a generous giver. You just have to have a lot of God's grace, and every one of us who is a child of God, has an abundance of God's grace. God calls us to be channels, channels of His grace—grace in, grace out.

Dannah: Thought-provoking, right? That was Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, reminding us that we’re meant to give grace to others—that is, bless them—because of the grace that God has given us. I’m afraid I’m not always very good at that.

That principle wasn’t original to the New Testament. It was actually prescribed in the Law. Let me read Leviticus 19, verses 9–10. “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. . . . You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.”

See that? Out of the abundance of God’s blessings—which in the case of this passage were material blessings—give to others.

Dr. Eric Mason is the founder and pastor of Epiphany Fellowship Church in Philadelphia. He’s here now to look at that Leviticus passage. I love his enthusiasm; I think you will too. Here’s Eric.

Pastor Eric Mason: When God blesses His people, He wants them to always know that everything you got ain't for you. " Who does the text say it's for? It's for the poor and the sojourner.

Now, let's break. If you don't understand poor in our day, because poor is anybody. But the poor in their day was widows, orphans and people with disabilities that cause them not to be able to work. Poor wasn't no big 350-pound strappin', vein-in-the-arm person that can work. Amen?

Poor meant you were literally stripped of the ability to work. A widow was stripped of her ability to work because she was taking care of some things and the husband, many times, was doing most of the work and taking care of everything. And when he dies, she loses everything. And things happen like that, like the widow with Elijah.

What was supposed to happen was, in God's community of faith, people who had needs (not "greeds") got help. (Needs, not "greeds.") In other words, the community of faith was built in such a way that they were supposed to take care of people who had needs.

But not only the poor in this sense, but guess who else was supposed to be taken care of? The sojourner. Now check out the sojourner. A sojourner is a person just passing through. So they came through Israel.

Then the person is working in their yard, the reapers are working, and he's on the upper edge, like in the back right there where Jose is working. And somebody says, "Hey, yo! Yo man, how you doing? Where you from?"

And he says, "Well, I'm from Philistia."

"Okay, well that's something we never heard of y'all. What's you doing through here, man?"

"You know, just tryin' to get to Hittite-i-a, man."

"Just walk down the Negev (that's the southern country), bust a left by Jojo's field, and you'll see it right there in the straits, right?"

The sojourner says, "Alright. Man, a brother's hungry, though."

He says, "You hungry? Man, from where I'm standing to where you're standing, get all you want!"

Sojourner says, "Get all I want?"

"Yes, buffet ministry, all up in here for you! All up in here for you!"

Sojourner be like, "Wow, really?"

Reaper says, "Yeah, when we get finished, anything that's on the ground and anything that's left on the vines, get at it!"

Sojourner says, "Yeah! That's what up, man! Bless you, man, bless you, man. May the gods bless you."

Reaper says, "Nah, nah, nah, I don't fool with the gods. Don't fool with them. I rebuke that in Jaweh's [Yahweh's] Name. I'm a servant of Jaweh [Yahweh], the Lord God, who created heaven and earth, and He's instructed me, when someone who isn't from here comes through, to release part of what He's given me so that you can enjoy what He's blessed me with, so that you can know that He's the Lord of heaven and earth!"

Sojourner: "What!? So you mean to tell me you left this because your God said so. It's not a sacrifice or a burnt offering then?"

Reaper, "No, we already did that. That's what we did through our tithes and our temple taxes. Right here is just for you."

Sojourner: "So you tithe . . . offer . . . and you give away stuff to people just walking past? Aw, man. When y'all havin' a meetin'?"

Reaper: "Well, Yom Kippur is a few days from now, and we going to be talking about pointing to this Messiah who's going to come. You're welcome to come around and hang with us. You can't be walking all up in the inner court stuff; you gotta be out here behind us, but you know, just come and hang out and hear about my God."

And that keeps happenin' and happenin' all over Israel, over and over and over again. And next thing you know, you've got people from other nations standing back looking at the burnt offerings going to heaven, looking at the high priest going in, and they're learning about the God of glory.

They're hearing Tanakh read; they're hearing Nevi'im read; they're reading Ketuvim (the Law, Prophets, and Writings). They're learning about the oneness of God; they're learning about the Messiah, and they're hanging around, all because they were attracted in by the generosity of God's people.

Let me just tell you, you've got to recognize your life. When God blesses you, it's not just for you.

They're learning about the oneness of God. They're learning about the Messiah. And they're hanging around all because they were attracted in by the generosity of God's people.

If I could just tell you, you've got to recognize your life. When God blesses you, it's not just for you. When God gives you resources . . . Some of you say, "Well, I'm on public assistance." Well, give them a recipe. Utilize whatever God has put in your sphere as common ground.

You have to maximize what He gives you—not just for you but for others—and the Church, the people of God. This is our legacy. Our legacy is to represent the reign of Christ so that as people go from the nations in here and then go into the nations, they say, "Man, if you ever want to go on a journey, you need to stop by Israel, man."

He says, "You talking about Israel?"

"Man, in the whole land of Judah, go around April."

He says, "Really?"

"Take your family on vacation down there, man. And don't take no food. Just bring bags, man. You just walk through, and they just bless you. And then they've got this thing they just do. You gotta just roll by their little church service, man, and you see up in there. And I met their God, man."

"Really?"

"Boom! You need to go through. Roll, man."

Then the word gets out that God has a generous people who love people that aren't like them, that don't look like them, and they ain't from where they're from. But because God is so big, they're going to expand their loving arms to the expanse of the bigness of His loving arms to love people outside their normal sphere of influence.

You see, you as a believer have to begin to learn how to love people that don't look like you. Love people that don't come from where you come from. Love people that don't have your same accent. Love people that didn't go to your same school. Love people that don't dress like you. Love people that don't do their hair like you. You gotta love somebody else!

Dannah: Eric Mason is a great storyteller, isn’t he? He put that simple passage from Leviticus into a new perspective for me. He makes me want to go do something for someone!

Well, we can’t talk about blessing others without hearing from author Randy Alcorn. You may be familiar with his book The Treasure Principle. In fact, he’s talked about that book on our regular program multiple times, and we’re going to listen to part of a conversation he had with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Now, in what we’re going to hear next, Randy and Nancy are talking primarily about giving money. But keep in mind that all the principles they discuss apply to anything you have—money, time, resources, and more. Randy starts off by pointing out that giving actually benefits you as well as the person you’re giving to.

Randy Alcorn: God has extended His grace to us, and God’s grace is God’s giving to us. When we respond to His grace with our giving . . . It’s like His grace is the lightning, and our giving back to Him is the thunder. Thunder follows lightning. When God’s grace is in our lives, it’s going to demonstrate itself in giving.

I think that’s an opportunity for us to say, “Look, if we’re not experiencing the joy of giving, then we’re really missing out on the grace of God.”

The only saying of Jesus that is not in the gospels, but it’s in the book of Acts, it is in Acts 20, verse 35, where He says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

The Word that’s translated “blessed” is the Greek word macarias, which means “happy making.” The actual literal translation of what Jesus said in that one powerful verse that isn’t in the gospels, but it’s in the book of Acts, is, “It is more happy making to give than to receive.”

So if we can enter into the grace of God, and we can experience the grace of God through giving to others, and we can become happy in the process, then we honor God. We’re loving God with all of our hearts. We’re loving people with all of our hearts. They’re benefitting, and we’re benefitting also through our own happiness, which I think is something that the world needs to see in Christians, that we are a happy people because we love and serve a happy God.

Nancy: Well, for sure, what you’re talking about is woven into the Scriptures, but it’s kind of counterintuitive as far as our natural instincts are concerned and as far as the world’s message, which is: “Get what you can and hold on to it tightly.” We tend to think just naturally that, “If I part with something that’s precious to me, then I’m going to be less happy.”

Randy: Exactly.

Nancy: “And if I get something that I’ve been longing for, then I’m going to be more happy.” But God’s way turns that upside down.

Randy: That is exactly right. The way we look at it, it doesn’t make any sense from just the human perspective. But God says we are to “renew our minds.” And we do that by going to His Word. And we realize that we live in a world that’s upside down.

So what we’re doing when we’re giving and we’re following the Lord and doing what He tells us to do, we’re turning things right-side up. It’s the way it’s supposed to be. It’s the way it was in Eden. It’s the way it’ll be on the new earth, where there’s conformity to the nature of Christ.

Christ was the ultimate giver. He made the ultimate sacrifice. We become like Him as we experience, really, the joy of giving.

So even though it’s counterintuitive, it is counterintuitive to the old nature. And it’s intuitive to the new nature that we have in Christ.

We need to tap into that and put off the old nature and put on the new nature. And when we enter into it, then we experience the grace of God in just absolutely transforming ways and attractive ways that people are drawn to. People are drawn to the gospel when they see the people of God joyfully giving.

Nancy: I think that makes generosity one of our great means of sharing the gospel, because again, it’s counterintuitive. The people who have it, it’s hard earned. They’ve worked for it. They want to keep it. They know how quickly it can be lost, as Proverbs says, “Wealth takes wings like a bird and flies away.” They don’t want to lose it. So they want to hold tightly, in many cases.

So when they see Christians, whether they have a lot or a little by the world’s standards, being open-handed and not tight-fisted, and see us being generous with our time, with our resources, with our stuff, it points to a generous God who loved the world so much that He—what?—He gave. He gave.

Randy: Yes!

Nancy: I think it’s a way of expressing to the world the incredible generosity of God who poured out, lavished His grace and His mercy upon people who don’t deserve it and could not do anything for Him. Because He’s a loving, generous God, it’s an open door to the gospel.

Randy: Yes. That is so true. Just to see God at work in the lives of His children who have discovered the joy of giving, who are living out the grace of Jesus.

All the people that I know, many people even with middle-class incomes, that give away 50 percent of all God has entrusted them with, and then people who are wealthier that give away 80 percent, 90 percent, some more than that, and the joy they find in that because God has called them to this way of life. They have the gift of giving, and they realize God has entrusted them with these resources in order to invest mightily in God’s kingdom.

Nancy: I love that!

Randy: You just can’t imagine the level of joy if you haven’t talked to these people and haven’t had those equivalent-giving experiences in your own life.

Nancy: We’re really never more like Jesus than when we’re generous.

Randy: Amen!

Nancy: Now, you could say that about humility and serving and other things, but we’re never more like Jesus than when we’re giving. We’re never less like Jesus than when we’re holding tightly to that which we think belongs to us when the fact is it doesn’t belong to us anyway. It’s on loan to us from God who has made us stewards. That’s really a part of the essence of The Treasure Principle. It doesn’t belong to us anyway. It all belongs to God.

Randy: Scripture says a great deal about God owning everything.

Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world and all its people belong to Him.”

And Haggai 2:8 says, “‘The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

In Deuteronomy 8:18 it says, “Remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.”

And 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 says, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”

You know, we don’t even belong to ourselves. Everything that we are and everything we have belongs to God. Well, the implications of that are just tremendous because if it all belongs to Him, don’t you think we should be asking Him what He wants us to do with it? 

Nancy: Yes.

Randy: Some of the things He entrusts to us, some of the money, to spend it to take care of our families and homes that we live in and all of that. But He gives us a lot of excess, and He intends that excess to go to places and people who really need them. We are His money managers, investment managers, so to speak. And beyond that which is to take care of us and our families and basic necessities and all of that, He also gives us much that He intends to go elsewhere.

If we lose sight of that, we just end up thinking, “This is mine. This belongs to me.”

No. It’s been entrusted to us. We are money managers, not owners. He’s the owner of everything.

Nancy: I love that.

Randy: That’s what it means to be a steward. It’s to be God’s money manager.

So if it’s really God’s money, don’t you think we should ask Him first and foremost, “God, what do You want me to do with what belongs to You?”

Dannah: I’m always so motivated to give when I listen to Randy Alcorn. He’s been talking with Nancy about how everything we give belongs to God. Like we’ve been saying, God blesses us so that we can bless others.

But if you’re like me, that passion sometimes dies away pretty quickly. You want to be generous with everything you have, but it takes work. It’s easier to stay inside with your coffee than to bundle up and rake your neighbor’s leaves. It’s easier to buy Christmas decorations than to decide which ministry you’re going to give to and then have to actually get out your credit card or checkbook. (And by the way, I’m not saying it’s wrong to buy Christmas decorations!)

Can we try, together, not to let the passion die? (With God’s help, of course!) In fact, here are a few ideas if you’re still wondering how you can bless others.

• Start near you. How can you serve your family or neighbors?
• Your local church should be high on your priority list. Invest in it financially and relationally.
• There are many God-glorifying ministries that do great work for God’s kingdom. Before you give to them, learn about their values and how they steward money. Randy Alcorn recommends Ministry Watch as a helpful resource. And keep in mind that ministries often love volunteers as well as financial gifts!
• What about worldwide? Are there missionaries you know who are spreading the gospel in other countries? They need your encouragement and support.

Or, maybe you’d like to help get the content of Revive Our Hearts into other countries. Guess what? I can help you do that! We’ve made it easy for you. This Monday and Tuesday, anything you give to Revive Our Hearts will be put towards creating new programming in Cambodian and Portuguese. If that excites you, get in touch with us. You can give at ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend, or call 1-800-569-5959. 

Oh, and here’s another fun challenge. If someone else has been generous to you recently, would you tell us about it? We love to celebrate what God has done through the lives of others! You can write us a note at ReviveOurHearts.com. Scroll to the very bottom of the page and click on “Contact Us.”

Do you ever wonder if your life can make an impact right now? Maybe it’s getting physically harder for you to do certain things, or maybe you have three toddlers who take up all your time. You’ll want to come back next week to hear what Nancy and others have to say about that.

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time, for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

Revive Our Hearts Weekend is calling you to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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