Leaders Who Give Without Constraint Become all the Richer!

 

“God replied [to Solomon], ‘Because your greatest desire is to help your people, and you haven’t asked for personal wealth and honor, and you haven’t asked me to curse your enemies, and you haven’t asked for a long life, but for wisdom and knowledge to properly guide my people—yes, I am giving you the wisdom and knowledge you asked for!’”

What are we asking God for?  Why do we want it?   What matters to us?   What you seek with your heart is where you end up projecting your life and the fruit that you will reap out of.   If you seek wealth with your life, you may order your life around it and obtain it.  But then you will reap from this as well.  It will be what you end up being fulfilled or unfilled with. 

God is the source of all goodness and abundance.  John 1:16 says, “From His abundance, we have all received one gracious blessing after another.’   John 1:17 goes on to say, “For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.” 

Jesus came to the earth with one agenda, to seek that which was lost and to help people find the way.  It was the joy that was set before Him in helping people that directed His steps and brought Him to fulfill His full purpose.   Just like us, step by step, Father led Him into the fullness of His will.   

Seeking to help His people was the greatest desire of Jesus.  Jesus says in John 10:10 that His purpose in coming “is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”  He goes on to say in John 10:11, I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.”

What are you sacrificing your life for and why?  After being led to the wilderness for 40 days of fasting, Jesus comes into a temple and has greater revelation of His purpose.  He reads from Isaiah 61:1-3 in Luke 4:18-19, ““The Spirit of the Lord is on me,  because he has anointed me  to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners  and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  It says, “Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.  He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’”

Mary, the mother of Jesus, taught Him that anytime there was a need, it was a great opportunity to step up to help others.  The first recorded miracle of Jesus, there was a wedding and they ran out of wine.   Jesus saw that He was not ready yet; but, His mother, Mary, saw that there was a need and He could help.   Helping others mattered deeply to Jesus.

Jesus came to know His purpose as giving up His life for others.  In Luke 9:22 Jesus tells His disciples that He would suffer much and be killed, but then would be raised again for their benefit of eternal life.  He then goes on to tell them, that they must follow in the way they live life.  In Luke 9:23, He tells them, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.  If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”

Here, Jesus is saying that as He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that His way is one of self-sacrifice for the benefit of others.  This was the way that He lived and the requirement of following Him.  We cannot be a follower of Jesus and refuse to walk in His way.  Rather, we give up our own ways of self-protection and self-preservation for self-sacrifice.

It is through a life of sacrifice for others that we find the rich satisfaction and abundance that Jesus promises.   People sometimes speak of a “scarcity mentality.”  With this, there is an underlying belief system of lack.  One must hold onto and fight for resources because there is only so much to go around and if you don’t get it someone else will.   This is the mindset of the world.

Coming back to John 1:16, it says, “From His abundance, we have all received one gracious blessing after another.”   This speaks of an opposite mindset of receiving from God.  We receive from the abundance of God, coming from His sacrifice.  And in receiving of His generousity, we also become more and more like Him in giving away His goodness to others.  There is abundance found in sacrifice.

Proverbs 11:24-25 says, “It is possible to give away and become richer!  It is also possible to hold on too tightly and lose everything.  Yes, the liberal man shall be rich! By watering others, he waters himself.”

This is exactly why those who are first will be last and those who are last, will be first.   Jesus raises up those who are self-sacrificing into greater and greater authority and leadership.  You will only go as high in Kingdom leadership as you are willing to serve others.  

David gave this example as a King to his son Solomon.  He gave Solomon a vision of a greater purpose.  He helped him to see that his life was to be about building the kingdom of the Lord and serving others.  He tells him, “So be very careful, for the Lord has chosen you to build His holy temple.  Be strong and do as he commands.”   David gave Solomon the full blueprint of the temple he had received from the Holy Spirit.    Everything planned out in detail ahead of time, and the resources to build it. 

David had given everything to serve the will and purposes of the Lord in building the temple.  He then turns and asks the people in 1 Chronicles 29:5, “Now then, who will follow my example? Who will give himself and all that he has to the Lord?”

All that Solomon wanted was to serve the people and build the Kingdom of God.  Solomon tells the Lord in his dream, “O God, you have been so kind and good to my father David, and now you have given me the kingdom—this is all I want!”

What made Solomon incredibly effective in the Kingdom of God as a leader is keeping his heart towards God and completing His purposes in his life.  As the leader, he was able to get everyone in line under this purpose.  And as they stood in worship, singing, “He is so good! His lovingkindness lasts forever!” the glory of God cam as a bright cloud, filling the Temple.   They had an incredible outpouring of the glory of God.

This is opposite of what happened with Jehoram the son of King Jehospaphat.   He didn’t get this vision for the Kingdom of God from his father or just wasn’t willing to follow it.   As a result, his leadership was a disaster.   He followed the kings of Israel that were wicked.  Because of his rebellion, there was conflict and rebellion in the land rather than peace like under Solomon.   During his reign, the Edomites revolted and claimed their own king.   Jehoram took troops and went out against them to attack them for their rebellion, but the army deserted Jehoram and fled.

Sadly, Jehoram passed this way of leading to his son, Ahaziah who followed in his father’s path.   And because he was following evil  and the way of the world, they were slaughtered when they faced the ways of the world that were even more corrupt  under King Hazael.

In the world, one gets to the top by beating out others.  We see this with Hazael, who became king over Aram when he murders Ben-Hadad. Ironically, Ben-Hadad, who besieged Samaria out of greed, was scared off by four lepers. Proverbs 28:1 says, “The wicked are afraid of everything, but those who live right are as brave as lions.”  

Later, Ben-Hadad sends Hazael to Elisha to see if he will recover from his illness.  Here, Hazael and Elisha have this odd conversation where Elisha sees Hazael killing the king to take his place and then also doing terrible things.   Elisha tells Hazael in 2 Kings 8:12, “I know the terrible things you will do to the people of Israel.  You will burn their fortified cities, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women!” Hazael fulfills this prophetic word and goes back and kills the king, taking his place and then initiates a war against Israel.     

Lord, it is so true that from Your abundance, we have all received one gracious blessing after another.  So grateful for all that you have given.  And to who much is given, much is required.   Help us to live in a way that brings glory to Your name.  Give us a clear vision of what You are doing in this hour and how we are to enter into this.   We love You and want to follow You in giving our lives away.