Saturday, April 7, 2012

Give, and It Shall Be...

By Pastor Randy Remington - Beaverton Foursquare Church

      When I was in Bible college, I spent nights and weekends working at UPS and also for a local moving company. During that time, I felt the Lord call me to an early prayer time each morning, even though I wasn’t getting to bed until the wee hours of the morning.
     One of the things that came out of my prayer times was that God began to speak to me about giving.
     Each month I worked enough hours to pay for my college expenses, plus I had about $40 left to buy gas for my car and to purchase those little necessities like toothpaste, etc.
     One day, I was walking across campus with the $40 in my pocket and I saw a young couple from Uganda, whose church had sent them over here to prepare for ministry. I felt like the Holy Spirit nudged me to give them my $40.
     As I walked towards them, I wondered if this was a test from God. Then I felt God say to me, “I want to demonstrate My love for them through you.”

     So I willingly handed them the $40 and said, “I just want you to know God loves you and cares for you.”
    As I walked away, I heard the young woman exclaim to her husband, “See! I told you God cares for us!”
     Now I felt a real surrender. I told God, “All I have is yours.”
     That weekend, my roommate and I went to the laundromat. We jammed all our white clothing in one washer and all our darks in another.
     Unfortunately, in the whites, I had left multiple ink pens in my pockets. The clothes all came out looking like they were tie-dyed. A couple of the grease pencils from UPS were in the load of dark clothes. What a disaster! In one afternoon, my roommate and I ruined all our clothing!
     At that time, we were invited by a family at church for Thanksgiving dinner. During dinner, the woman asked me, “What’s that spot on your sleeve?”
     Well, we told the story of our ruined washing, and everyone laughed. But when we left their home, the couple gave each of us $100 and told us to use it for what we needed.
     The day after Thanksgiving, I went shopping. After making some major purchases, I was standing in front of the Baskin Robbins counter and, out of the corner of my eye, I could see a speck of green lying on the floor—it was a $100 bill!
     I quickly picked it up. Then, I waited there for fifteen minutes, watching to see if anyone came searching for lost money.
     No one came, so I went to the information center and asked if anybody had reported that they lost some money. They told me no one had, so I could keep the money.
     Shortly after Thanksgiving break, I received a letter from a family in Wyoming. They enclosed a $300 check and told me to use it for whatever I may need.
     Now I felt the Lord prompt me, “Do you think you are going to do more for Me than I can and will do for you?”
     I am not advocating that you give money away so God will give you more. But I do know from experience, that God’s promises are completely trustworthy.

“Give and it shall be given unto you,
good measure, pressed down, shaken
together and running over.”
Luke 6:38














Pastor Randy Remington 
Sermon  7/18/2010
Beaverton Foursquare Church

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