The
Measure You Give
I once had a vision of
Jesus, which was the driving light of my life. But somehow, that vision has
grown dull. I had a confidence in God,
which nothing was able to shake. But now there are these shadows of doubt and
confusion.
Is it because the honeymoon is over and
now I'm walking through the wilderness?
Or did I lose this vision because of
actions of my own?
And he said to
them, “Take heed what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you
get, and still more will be given you. For to him who has will more
be given; and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
Mark
4:24
Put in simplest
terms, the Kingdom of God consists of really two things;
receiving
and giving.
We enter the Kingdom by receiving
life from God.
We hold on to that life from God by
giving it away.
If we try to take the life which God gives us
and clutch it…we lose it.
He came to his own
home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him,
who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:11-13
For those who received
him, he came in and then he gave them him this power.
Now they have it.
But
they will keep this power…only by giving it away.
And
this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his
Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not
life.
1 John 5: 11-12
To have the Son and try
to hold on to him and keep him like money in the bank is to lose him.
The only way we keep the Son
is by giving him away.
Behold
I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the
door,
I will
come into him and eat with him, and he with me.
Rev. 3:20
Again, we receive him.
We open the door. Jesus comes in. Now he's with us.
But
he stays only as we give him out.
When we come to Jesus, he
fulfills his promise again for us that when we come to him, he's with us.
We bring our troubled
consciences, our broken hearts, our twisted minds, our sick bodies.
He touches us and gives us fresh life.
He gives us his body to eat and his blood
to drink, and he sends us on our way rejoicing.
But, all these blessings
he pours into us so generously again and again, remain ours, and increase in us,
only when we begin to practice the fundamental principle of the Kingdom of God
That
we get what we give.
Take
heed what you hear. The measure you give will be the measure you'll get and
still more will be given you. But to him who has will more be given, and
from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
Now we all have a very
difficult time, all of us, making that a reality in our living because from the
time we were infants, we have learned to live by a totally different rule, the
rule of Satan's kingdom.
In God's Kingdom, we get
what you give.
But, in Satan's kingdom we
keep what you have…and we have whatever we have by getting it and taking it. And once we have it, we build a wall around
it. We guard it with a knife. We don't let anybody get near it.
We’re
trying to expand our own kingdom.
Life in this world,
Satan’s kingdom, is like a giant game of Monopoly. We start out with so much
money. We start rolling the dice and with a combination of skill, luck and conniving,
we try to beat the other guy. We get
Baltimore, Park Place, New York Avene, then we get Boardwalk and Park Place. Then
we get some houses and Reading Railroad. Then we put on some hotels. And then, the
other guy lands on our property and we clean him out!
The strange thing about this game of Monopoly is that even when we
win, we lose.
Jesus says,
Lay not up for
yourselves treasures on earth
where moth and
rust corrupt and where thieves break in and steal.
Matthew 6:19
Things haven't changed.
That's how it was then and that's how it is now.
Someone gets a nice shiny new car which only cost $20,000.00. It’s
beautiful. But pretty soon… it will rust.
So they say, “ wait a
minute, I’m going to take it to Ziebart- no rust”! But later, they park at the Kroger
parking lot while getting some groceries.
They come out to find that somebody plowed into the rear quarter panel
and drove off. That’s okay, they have insurance, it can be fixed. In reality, no
matter what they do, within three, four, or five years, that shiny little car
doesn't look like it did, and it doesn't behave like it did. In another few more years, it's in one of the
junk yards.
Buying a house…it’s the same
thing. There is nothing wrong with
having a house, but now there’s the hassle of making the roof tight so it
doesn't leak, of fixing the furnace, of mowing the lawn and on and on.
Now someone is super
successful at business. It’s marvelous. They own so much property, stock,
bonds. They’ve got so much money all over they don’t know what to do with it.
And then they die.
And what do we take with us?
We don't even take our bodies.
The only thing we take with us across to
the other side is what we gave away.
Make friends for
yourselves, by means of the unrighteous mammon,
that when it
fails. they may receive you into the eternal
habitations.
Luke
16:9
And so the Kingdom of God
can surround and invade the atmosphere that the kingdom of Satan causes us to
breathe and think. Because the kingdom of God operates on a totally different principle.
The Kingdom of God operates on the principle of we get what we give.
We get what we give- both
negatively and positively.
If we give judgment, if we're judging
everybody, it comes back, we're getting judged.
If we give condemnation, we're sour and
cynical and critical of everything and everybody and we can't understand- why
everybody is so negative towards us… we’re getting back condemnation.
If we give forgiveness, we show
forbearance… it starts comes back to us.
If we give in mercy to people who are in
need… mercy comes back to us.
That's the way it works
in the Kingdom of God, like the law of gravity.
“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will
not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to
you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put
into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
Luke 6:37-38
Now, the reason we have
such a hard time sustaining this vision of Jesus, the reason it keeps getting
tarnished and weak, it shrivels, and it dies… is because, we try to take the
vision of the Lord that God gives to us and conserve it the way we conserve
things in this Satanic kingdom.
We
hold on to our vision.
We live as if we’re
playing Monopoly. We're still shrewd, conniving, negative, cynical and seeking
our own advancement in thousands of subtle ways, even in areas that we call
spiritual or Christian… and we end up with grief and blindness.
Because when we're given
the vision of the Lord and any blessing from God, that blessing remains ours only
as we learn to give it.
We need to give it
constantly. We can’t give it too much. The more we give, the more we get.
Take
heed what you hear the measure you give will be the measure you get and still
more will be given you for to him who has will more be given. And from him who
has not even what he has, will be taken away.
Now Jesus is practicing
what he preaches. He's not asking us to do something he didn't do himself and
we see in Philippians chapter 2, a perfect description of how Jesus lived that
way.
Who though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped
“I have equality with God. Nobody is
going to take this from me, it's mine! That's my right”!
That's not how he does
it.
He empties himself.
He pours himself out. He takes the form of
a servant.
Being
born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbles himself
and becomes obedient unto death, even death, on a cross.
He
gives, gives, gives.
Wherefore, God has also highly exalted
him, and given him a name which is above every name.
The
measure you give is the measure you get.
That
the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess and things in
heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus offers up his life
to the Father on the cross. And on the
third day, the Father gives him life and raises him from the dead. He offers up
to the father a corruptible body. And on the third day God gives him an
incorruptible body as he raises him from the dead. He offers himself up in weakness
and on the third day the Father raises him in power.
The
measure you give is the measure you get.
So Jesus teaches us to
live this way too. He’s very clear about it.
He said, “A nobleman was called away to a distant
empire to be crowned king and then return. Before he
left, he called together ten of his servants and divided among them ten pounds
of silver, saying, ‘Invest this for me while I am gone.’ But
his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want
him to be our king.’ “After he was crowned king, he returned and called in the
servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what their
profits were. The first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested
your money and made ten times the original amount!’ “‘Well done!’ the king
exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I
entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’ “The
next servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made five times the
original amount.’ “‘Well done!’ the king said. ‘You will be governor over five
cities.’ “But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money
and said, ‘Master, I hid your money and kept it safe (wrapped
in a napkin). I was afraid
because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn’t yours and harvesting
crops you didn’t plant.’ “‘You wicked servant!’ the king
roared. ‘Your own words condemn you. If you knew that I’m a hard man who takes
what isn’t mine and harvests crops I didn’t plant, why didn’t you deposit my
money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’ “Then, turning to the others standing nearby, the
king ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one who has
ten pounds.’ “‘But, master,’ they said, ‘he already has ten pounds!’ “‘Yes,’
the king replied, ‘and to those who use well what they are given, even more
will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will
be taken away.’”
Luke 19:12-26 (NLT)
The good servant is given
1 pound of silver to start with. He
gains with it, by giving it away. He gives it away, and it comes back as two.
He gives it away again, and it comes back as three. He gives it way again, and
it comes back as four.
The servant given 1 pound
of silver hangs onto it and wraps it up in a napkin. He's going to preserve it.
He's not going to lose it. But he does lose it.
And now, the parable
becomes reality.
Jesus comes into our
midst and gives each of silver.
Use
it.
So how do we use this
silver?
This pound of
silver that we're given to use… is mercy.
We come with our broken
hearts, and our troubled consciences, and our sickly bodies. We may come with
our twisted minds, and all of our needs.
And we lay these things out before him. All of us have some something that
isn't right. And we cry out to God for help, and we get help.
He's
merciful to us beyond our comprehension.
Take this mercy, which
we've been shown and now show it to each other. Show mercy to the person that
we have a hard time accepting, that person who is always bugging us. Show mercy
at home… to our mothers, and to our fathers, and to children, and to brothers,
and to sisters. Show mercy at our jobs,
or on our searches for jobs, or wherever we're dealing with people, every day. The
more mercy we show…the more mercy keeps pouring into us.
Now we have two pounds of
silver here, now we have three, now we have four. We come back to God and
because we have been giving it out, we're in a position to receive a double
portion of God's mercy.
But if on the other hand,
after having received God’s mercy, we wrap it up in a napkin, saying it’s mine,
then we are back to our old Monopoly ways.
You can’t have it, it’s mine!
We’re looking at this
person with disgust and that person with cynicism and this person with absolutely
a sour attitude, and this is how we go through our days… showing no kindness to
our spouses, our parents, our children, or that aunt that hasn't seen us for
three years, and she’s only a mile away!
Then this mercy, which we’ve
been shown… shrinks and shrivels inside the napkin. When we come back to God we're
in no position to receive because the measure we give is the measure we get
back. And even more is given us.
To him who has will more be given,
and from him who has not even what he has will be taken away.
This pound of
silver that we're given to use… is Jesus himself.
As we open our hearts,
it's the Lord who comes into our midst.
Jesus comes to us personally, through the Word, in hymns, in our prayers,
in the Holy Spirit, coming among us. He visits us in the bread and wine.
And he renews his grip on our hearts.
Christ
in you the hope of glory.
He who
has the son has life. He who has not the son has not life
The Son has come in. We've
opened the door; he's eating with us and us with him.
We arise, immediately we
begin to share Jesus with others. The name of the Lord crosses our lips. We
give each other encouragement to trust in him. And we continue to speak his
name boldly and gladly.
Not only do we speak the
name of Jesus, but we manifest the nature of Jesus in our actions. The way he is, begins to come through the way we behave.
And
the more we give him, the more we have him.
We approach him again and
because we gave him away, we're in a position to receive a double portion of
his presence.
But
if after having received the Lord, we wrapped him up in
a napkin. If the name of Jesus now doesn't cross our lips until we sing a hymn in
church. If we never talk about him because it’s not proper, because somebody
might be embarrassed, because somebody might get nervous if we talk about
Jesus. And if we do not manifest his love or his nature… then we're playing
Monopoly. When we open our hearts to
receive some more… we're in no position because, the measure we give is the
measure we get. And even more is given to us.
To him who has had more be given, and
from him who has not even what he has is going to be taken away.
This pound of
silver that we’re given to use… is hope.
Oh, how needy we are of hope,
to have some vision of the glory that lies at the end of the road. And, so the Lord opens our eyes and
we see the City of God waiting at the end of the journey. We eat the bread and
we drink the wine; the body and blood of Jesus. We’re
getting a foretaste of a banquet hall of God at the end, and our hope is
renewed.
We have reason to live, something
to go forward to now. We wake up with something to live for.
But if we don't show this
hope after receiving it… then the hope shrivels.
What we need to do is
take the hope and share it.
Give it to somebody else.
Be an encouragement.
Encourage others. Many people
just need some hope. Nobody ever gives them any hope. Nobody ever gives them
any encouragement. They just struggle along with long faces and dull hearts.
And here we come, like a
little ray of sunshine. We give them some hope, sometimes in the form of a few
dollars that they need. Sometimes, it’s in terms of a visit. Sometimes, it’s a
meal at our dinner table. Whatever it is, we give them hope… and as we do, the
hope we have increases. And when we come back to the Lord, we get a double
portion.
But if we wrap the hope up
in a napkin and we go back to our old ways.
Here come those Christians. Hide the beer!
Here come the hypocrites. Pull down the
shades!
You know so often we are
a threat to people.
Oh no, not again. Here they come.
They see us coming up to
ring the doorbell and they hide in the kitchen until we're gone.
If we go through our
lives as wet blankets, then the hope that we wrapped in a napkin shrivels. And
when we come to God for another shot of it, we're not in a position to receive
because…the measure you give is the measure
you get back.
And so…
The vision of the Lord for
many of us has become dull.
It's obviously become
dull- by the way we're living.
And, by the way we speak.
The vision will grow and
increase in brilliance and in power as we give it away.
But if we take that
vision and wrap it in a napkin, when we open up the napkin, it'll be so
shriveled up it won't be good for anything.
God help us to take the
vision and grant that it may increase as we live by the ways of the Kingdom,
the law of the Kingdom and quit playing Monopoly.
And he said to them, take heed what you
hear the measure you give will be the measure you get and still more will be
given you. For to him who has will more be given, and from him who has not even
what he has will be taken away.
Richard Bieber 1983
Edited 2022 By Maranatha Mirror
Transcribed by Annie Mc Coy