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W.D. Frazee Sermons Ministry

W.D. Frazee

Joyous Giving

I would like to read again the text which we read last Friday night, Matthew 20, 28, and with this, John the 20th chapter and the 21st verse, last part.

The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

And with that, John 20, 21, last part, Jesus says, as my father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Jesus came for a certain purpose, and he sent us out for the same purpose.

He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.

And so he wants us to go out in his name, for his sake, and minister to others and give our lives.

Of course, we can't give our lives a ransom in the sense that he did, But we can unite with him in serving others, and we can spend our lives in service and sacrifice, and thus share with him the joy of seeing men and women reconciled to God.

You know, there is something wonderful, dear friends, about the full surrender that these verses picture.

If the whole is on the altar, the giving of the part is already settled.

You have heard of the man, perhaps, who was being baptized in his clothes, as sometimes takes...

And someone noticed that he had his wallet in his back pocket, and they suggested as he was going down into the water that perhaps that ought to be taken out, if he was going down into the water, be baptized.

He said, no, I want to be baptized pocketbook and all.

If all is given, it includes all our money.

You know, this money question is an interesting question, dear friend.

We're told that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

I think of many who have gotten very close to the kingdom, but when the Spirit of God put his hand on that point, it turned back.

Balaam loved the wages of unrighteousness and lost his soul.

Ananias and Sapphira made a pledge, and then their selfish souls got to thinking of, oh, how much they had given.

And so they decided to not give so much, and yet pretend they had.

The Spirit of God took the lives of both of them as a warning to the early Church.

And as we enter into the repetition of Pentecostal experiences, we're going to see things that will thrill the heart on the 1 side and sadden our souls on the other.

As men and women repeat the experiences of the early disciples, as they sell their property and lay the money down for the finishing of the work, what a wave of gladness will sweep from heart to heart.

But doubtless there will be some like Ananias and Sapphira that will allow money, the love of money, to hinder the blessing that God wants to give.

I think of an experience that I witnessed 30 years ago.

We were holding a series of evangelistic meetings in Oakland, California, and among the many who were attending was a very fine-looking woman and her daughter.

They gave evidence of being persons of culture, refinement.

They came night after night, accepted the Sabbath, decided to be baptized, were in the baptismal class week after week.

They even anticipated some of the points of truth.

I remember how willing they were to lay off their jewelry before that was ever presented in public.

But 1 night they weren't at the meeting, and another night they weren't at the meeting.

And as the Bible worker visited them and we talked with them, we finally discovered what the matter was.

The tithe had been presented, and the axe had struck the root of the tree.

The selfish heart had not been, in that particular case, interfered with by embracing the savage.

It occasioned no cross or sacrifice for those particular individuals.

But when the truth of God on the money question was presented, It cut right across the natural inclination.

I remember another experience in the city of New Orleans, where we were holding evangelistic meetings.

There was a father and mother, 2 children, that attended the meetings there week after week.

They had gotten interested through the health message.

They had laid aside their harmful indulgences, given up beer, cigarettes, Coca-Cola, other stimulants, narcotics.

It had brought them a great increase in health.

They felt better and thanked the Lord for it.

But I remember 1 night as we sat down to talk together in their home, it was evident that something had happened that had brought a curtain between that family and us.

And so as we sought in a tactful way to probe, as we were having a visit in the study that evening, finally he looked across at me and he said, I want to ask you a question.

He says, is it true that everybody that joins the Seventh-day Adventist Church has to sell all their property and give it to the Church?

Well, you might think that the easy answer to that was just tell him, no, of course not, and go on, while he breathed a sigh of relief.

Probably he did breathe a sigh of relief.

Because, of course, no 1 who joins the Seventh-day Adventist Church is required to sell everything he has and turn it into the Church.

But after he'd gotten fully relieved from his problem, as we sat there, I said, now, brother, now that I've made that plane, I want to tell you something else.

But I said there's something else that's true, too.

If you become a Seventh-day Adventist, you're going into a program and entering a pathway that will eventually take everything you've got.

And I said, you may as well face that fact and settle it with God before you ever start up that road.

I'd hate to be in something that wasn't worth everything.

You know, now and then we have a wedding here in Askew Hall or on the campus.

And the minister says to the young man, will you leave everything you have and everybody and take this young woman and keep yourself only unto her?

And will You share with her everything in sickness and health, prosperity, adversity, as long as you both shall live.

And suppose he should say, well, really, that's asking quite a bit, isn't it?

I think we'd better make it about 50 percent or 75 percent.

There's some things that I'd like to keep over here.

That she's to have nothing to do with, nothing to say about, no part or interest in.

If you were the bride, how would you feel?

My dear friends, there's something about love that asks for everything, and there's something about love that responds with everything.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

And you and I know that that wasn't alone.

The greatest gift, the best gift in heaven, and with it went all heaven.

And when we stop to think that the ones to whom that gift was given were the most unworthy ones in all the universe.

Ah, friends, there's something about that that touches the heart, isn't there?

Something about that that touches the heart.

But while it cost the heart of the infinite Father an infinite struggle to give that infinite gift, It was in no sense given grudgingly or reluctantly.

The great fount of love burst forth, and that tide, That river, that great river of love, has been flowing from the foundation of the world in irrepressible streams.

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Joyous Giving

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