Gboyega Adedeji: The word ‘GIVE’ is a word that has been used and abused so much by the people of the world today, especially by the people that are identified with God. Now, I'm sure many people understand that that word: give and it shall be given to you was found in the book of Luke 6:38. For many people that have been led and misled by the same word or phrase, we are going to study the Bible today to see if what we hear in the church is the truth or it has been adjusted to suit the interest of men. So, we want to study very briefly as the Lord gives us the opportunity. The book of Luke 6:37-38 exposes to us the word “Give” in the real context that God sent it to us.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: So, we're going to be reading Luke 6:37–38, Jesus said, Judge not and you shall not be judged, condemned not and you shall not be condemned, forgive and you will be forgiven, give and it will be given to you good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” Now Jesus was sharing with us an important principle of the kingdom in these two verses, but He did not start with give Yes, He said, judge not and you shall not be judged, condemn not, and you shall not be condemned, forgive and you will be forgiven before He went further to talk about give, and it shall be given to you. Now I want us to understand this that Jesus mentioned four important things in these two verses.
Number one was ‘judge’, the second one was ‘condemned’, the third one was ‘forgive’; and the last one was ‘give’. It said if you want to enjoy in the kingdom, then you must do unto others what you want others to do to you. So, He mentioned these four areas of expression that often time in the kingdom, what we always zeroed in on is about giving. Jesus mentioned four areas, the same importance we place on giving; for balance in this context, we must also place on forgive, we must place on condemn, and we must place on judge because He said after He mentioned give, it says good measure. So, good measure of judgment, good measure of condemnation, good measure of forgiveness, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom. So, it was not just giving.
Gboyega Adedeji: Yes! However, in the church today, all those things that you just read are attached or attributed to give, they believe they preach and they believe that when people give whatever they give; good measure of it pressed down, shaken together, running over, will men give to them. They believe it's all about the giving. They do not understand that it is all about the forgiving, it is all about the condemning, it is all about the judging. When you judge others; good measure of it, shaken together, running over of it, men will judge you. When you forgive people, that is why the Bible says, forgive, you shall be forgiven, you will get it back in a double measure. It's not just about giving.
So, if we also look at it the way it has been listed, for many of us in the church, we give priority to the first thing. How come our priority in the church is not on the first thing? Why do we prioritize the last thing? Now you remember that place in the Bible where Jesus was talking about the Pharisees? He says: these things you ought to have done without leaving others undone. Now what were the things that Jesus expected them to do and what were the things they were doing? They prefer to pay tithe. In fact, Jesus said they pay tithes of everything. However, the matter of justice, mercy, it has nothing to do with them. They do not see a need for them to be merciful, or to be just in their dealings and to be forgiven but they will pay tithe of everything.
So, it looks as if we always attach so much importance on money, so much importance on gifts, but we don't give importance to the things that has to do with godliness that's to do with righteousness, that has to do with behaviour or good interrelationship among ourselves. If you think God has so much interest on your giving, then you must also understand that God has much interest on how you judge, God has much more interest on how you condemn, God has much more interest on how you forgive. So, if God says, Gboyega Adedeji, don't judge so that you won't be judged. If God says, Gboyega Adedeji don't condemn so that you will not be condemned, if God says Gboyega Adedeji forgive so that you'll be forgiving, and God says Gboyega give and you'll be given, and I now abandon the earliert three, and now embrace on the last, am I showing God I have a good perspective on how He communicates to me?
Now, how do we want God to share with us the depth of His wisdom when we have settled for the last? So, God even knows that if He gives us 10 commandments, again, we're going to pick the last one. So, it looks as if we always settle for the easiest part, we always settle for the ones that really touches our needs, the one that can directly affect our lifestyle, we ask people to give, do we even tell them to give to the least in the kingdom or we say they should give the best in the kingdom? You know, I have heard a lot of messages that says that you have to give up to go up but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says you should love your neighbour as yourself. The Samaritan man that saw that man on the road, he did not give up, he actually gave down.
The man that was messed up on the road was not high there, he gave to the least. And Jesus even said in as much as you have done it to the least of these my little ones, you have done it to me. So, when we're asking people to give the last thing Jesus even mentioned, we always advise them to give up; we advise them to give to the best of us, we advise them to give to the most exposed of us. Now, if an organization has 500 people and is led by one man or one woman, we advise the people to give to that woman and to give to the man. That is not what God has ordained.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Yes. And it's amazing. Because even when Jesus was going to judge, He said to those on the right. He said: you visited me when I was in prison, you clothed me when I was naked. See the things that Jesus was talking about here, they were like the basic things. He was talking about the giving that we often don’t do. He was talking about visiting the prisoners, somebody that is sick, clothing the naked and being there for people that you don't have any hope that they would return, being there for people who have no one to be there for them.
Gboyega Adedeji: That's what God has ordained, not the act of giving up as we popularly say.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: In fact, if you even want to be religious, which is not advisable, but it says pure religion, which is Kingdom, should be these: visiting the orphans and the widows. So how much of these do we do?
Gboyega Adedeji: How much of these kinds of giving, do we commit ourselves to, daily?
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: And really that Scripture in the context of what Jesus was speaking, He didn't give first priority to giving. It says: Judge not so that you will not be judged. He said, condemn not so that you will not be condemned.
Gboyega Adedeji: If we look at these two, they deal with the issue of not throwing away people. Don't be quick to judge somebody that God has a great plan for, a second chance for, and throw them to hell. And that's what we do in the church. Somebody has done something bad; we quickly condemn. And Jesus says Before you even ask them for their money, don’t trash them. You are concerned about what they give to you, I'm concerned about their soul. Preserve them, give them the opportunity to repent because I need them the same way I need you. The same way you are useful to me, they are useful to me. So, Jesus began with two important things: don't judge and this is the context of it; don't condemn them. Because that is what Jesus told that woman. He said to her: neither do I condemn you.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: You see that woman was caught in the very act of adultery that religious people were ready to stone her and cast her out. They were judging her.
Gboyega Adedeji: And Jesus even asked them: which among you has not committed a sin before? Since none was guiltless, the all left, and Jesus said: where are those accusers of yours? Those who are religious who expect you to be religious too. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn you. So, if Jesus does not condemn, you, a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, you must not condemn. And so, if Jesus give, you must give. But beyond the emphasis we give to the giving, we must emphasize the forgiving. Because when a pastor decides to post a junior pastor to the bush, simply because the junior pastor says something that he shouldn't have said, and you say over my dead body will I allow him to stay here so you refuse to forgive but yet, you have judged him, you have condemned him, and yet, you are still expecting men to listen to you when you preach this Luke chapter six which says give and it shall be given to you. Why are we always so quick to tell people to give when we ourselves are not quick to stop condemning people, stop judging people?
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: And this speaks to our brokenness, how broken are we as a people? See, God will not accept any offering that is not from a broken and contrite heart. Because before you can start talking about giving to God or giving to people, you must have satisfied the condition of not judging, not condemning, and forgiving, then you can now give.
Gboyega Adedeji: Out of the abundance that God has given to you, you can give. You know, the Bible says don't give out of necessity, you must give from a heart that is cheerful. You should go to our churches people give because they just have to give. Some people even just give.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: They give out of bitterness. Out of all forgiveness.
Gboyega Adedeji: Some people give out of pride too!
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Yes, and that's not from a broken and a contrite heart. So, what Jesus is saying to us is that see, you must first be broken.
Gboyega Adedeji: Before we raise an army of men and women in our gatherings that are givers, let us raise the army of those who are forgivers, those who don't condemn, those who don't judge. If we can successfully raise army of men and women that actually don't judge, don't condemn and forgive, God will be pleased, even when we raise army of givers.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Then whatever we give to Him is acceptable before Him because our hearts have been affected, and we can now give for me pure heart, a pure conscience, before God, before men.
Gboyega Adedeji: It is okay that people give. God has not raised us up not to give I'm sure you remember, in the New Testament, people were given out of their free will, the Holy Spirit instructs, the Holy Spirit moves them, they give! And those who were not moved by the word, Ananias and Saphirra who decided to give because they wanted to show up and show off, they were condemned by God because they sinned against the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit doesn't move your people to give and they give, they could even be grounded financially for that giving. God must be in charge of the giving of the people. the same way you require the Spirit of God to forgive, not judge people, not to condemn people, you require the Spirit of God to give.
Allow your people to grow in the grace of the Lord, in the gift of the Spirit. Allow your people to grow and mature in the spirit, to the point that the Lord is the one that instruct them to give to you. Enough of commanding people to give, enough of marketing the church activities to the point that people are prompted to give; not by God, but by your promptings. If you will have peace in your latter days, don’t receive gifts from men and women who cannot forgive. This is a word from the Lord, do not collect gifts, don't collect offering, don't collect tithes from men and women who cannot forgive. It's an abomination to God. God is not broke. God is not looking for money. God is the one who owns everything. If men must give to God, they must give from a worthy heart. They must give out of their own brokenness. Don’t misrepresent God as His ambassador. God has called you into this ministry, He expects you to represent him accordingly. And as you do that, I believe you will be fulfilled.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: So, it's important that we first give mercy. We are a people that give mercy, we are merciful to people. When you give mercy, you will receive mercy in return. When you give forgiveness, you will receive it in return, just like the Lord's Prayer. When Jesus you know was teaching His disciples to pray. He said: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. So, He is telling us to how live our lives based on this principle. You must forgive others for you to have confidence to receive forgiveness from God. You must be merciful.
Gboyega Adedeji: You must give to others for you to have the confidence to receive from God. You must not judge people for you to tell people not to judge you. You mustn't condemn people if you want people to give you benefits of not condemning you.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Yes! And that is why the Bible says that good measure, pressed down and shaken together will men give to your bosom.
Gboyega Adedeji: Not just the giving that came last, but they will give to you even in forgiveness, in mercy, in everything that God said.
Lara Gboyega Adedeji: Yes! I believe that you have been blessed. Because this is so important, these are important principles in the kingdom that you must not joke with. For you to say you are a child of God, you're the child of the king, you must honor the words of the king. And as you do that, you live your life daily in the precepts and the principles of God, you will see great testimonies in your life. I believe this message has blessed you. And if it has done that to you, I believe it would do that to someone else. Please, like this video, share it with your friends, your colleagues and your loved ones. If you have not subscribed to the channel, please subscribe and click on the notification bell so that every time we have new content, you will be the first to know and as you do this and share God's word, please drop your comments on how this word has blessed you and how the testimony of this word is exceeding in your life, we will love to read from you.
God bless you.
