Give, and It Shall Be Given to You

Did you hear about the visiting preacher who spoke one wintry Sunday morning at a small country church?

The story goes that the young preacher left his wife at home with a sick baby and took their 6-year-old son to his scheduled service. Arriving early, father and son entered the foyer of the white clapboard church and spied a rectangular-shaped, stained-wood box sitting on a pedestal near the door that opened into the church sanctuary. Hand-lettered on the side of that box was this word: “OFFERINGS.”

The young minister, wanting to be an example for his son and thinking he’d plant some “seed-faith,” took out his billfold, fished out a five dollar bill and five ones and slid them through the slot in the box. The church’s pastor arrived and “had a word of prayer” with the visiting speaker. The on-fire young preacher worked up a sweat delivering his best sermon to a handful of people.

After folk left and the church pastor, the young preacher and his son stood in the foyer, the pastor lifted the lid on the offering box, took out the five dollar bill and five ones and said, “Well, it’s not much, but here’s your offering for today.”

As the young preacher thanked the older man, his 6-year-old son said, “Dad, if you’d have put more in, you’d have got more out.”

That old saying “If you put more into something, you’ll get more out” sounds a bit like Jesus’ statement, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom (put in your lap)” (Luke 6:38).

Jesus also noted that whatever measure (yardstick) you use to determine the amount you give will be used to measure what you get back.

I often hear someone say “What goes around comes around.” Perhaps that is a paraphrase of Jesus’ statement “Give, and it shall be given unto you.” The Bible is clear – whatever you give (good or bad) will be given back to you, and you usually get back more than you sow.

“If you give out grief, strife, anger, insult, then that is what will be returned to you, only pressed down, shaken together, and your cup will run over,” says writer Tim Edwards. “God promised Noah that as long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest will remain…Be nice...it will come back to you, many times over.”

In “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” John Bunyan wrote, “A man there was, though some did count him mad, / The more he cast away the more he had.”

“Freely ye have received, freely give,” Jesus said.

I often think about people’s expectations of churches. I heard of a lady who phoned a pastor and asked, “What does your church have to offer?” Perhaps she was looking for a youth group for her child or for a singles ministry. Maybe many of us tend to “shop” churches like we do grocery stores.

President John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” Maybe we church members should “Ask not what our church can do for us – ask what we can do for our church.” When we truly give of ourselves, we will receive from the Lord.

When I was a young husband and father, Carol and I attended an Assembly of God church where I helped with youth and participated in music. I grew a bit weary with what appeared to me to have become “routine church.” I met with our gray-haired minister, the now-late Lyman Richardson, and said, “Pastor, I’m just not getting much out of church services.”

The Rev. Richardson, who played drums as a young man before he accepted Christ, looked at me through silver-rimmed spectacles and said, “‘The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.’”

His words, quoted from Matthew 20:28, penetrated my weariness, and I felt a release, the kind of release that comes after hearing and receiving truth that sets one free.

My old pastor explained that as a person “grows in Christ,” he will not be satisfied by simply hearing the Word – he will hunger for the spiritual satisfaction found in ministering to others. Christianity (Christ conforming believers to His Image) is a work in progress, a work that involves receiving God’s grace and giving of ourselves to others.