Ephesians 4:28
The Greater Gain
Introduction:
Zig Ziglar tells of a thief, a man named Emmanuel Nenger. The year is 1887. The scene is a small neighborhood grocery store. Mr. Nenger is buying some turnip greens. He gives the clerk a $20 bill. As the clerk begins to put the money in the cash drawer to give Nr. Nenger his change, she notices some of the ink from the $20 bill is coming off on her fingers which are damp from the turnip greens. She looks at Mr. Nenger, a man she has known for years. She looks at the smudged bill. This man is a trusted friend; she has known him all her life; he can't be a counterfeiter. She gives Mr. Nenger his change, and he leaves the store. But $20 is a lot of money in 1887, and eventually the clerk calls the police. They verify the bill as counterfeit and get a search warrant to look through Mr. Nenger's home. In the attic they find where he is reproducing money. He is a master artist and is painting $20 bills with brushes and paint! But also in the attic they find three portraits Nenger had painted. They seized these and eventually sold them at auction for $16,000 (in 1887 currency, remember) or a little more than $5,000 per painting. The irony is that it took Nenger almost as long to paint a $20 bill as it did for him to paint a $5,000 portrait! It's true that Emanuel Nenger was a thief, but the person from whom he stole the most was himself.
Ephesians 4:28 says, “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with those in need.” The title of our sermon this morning is “The Greater Gain.” It is so easy for us to believe that for us to gain the most, we have to be getting the most. But over and over in Scripture we see this teaching that there is more in it for us when we give. Our greatest gain is in giving. It’s interesting because Paul continues a principle he taught them 10 years earlier. His last words to the Ephesians are recorded in Acts 20 and Paul quoted Jesus as saying, “It is more blessed to give than it is to receive.” In other words, there is more blessing for you in being the giver than the receiver. But wait, I thought that the more stuff I get and the more I accumulate the more blessed I am. That’s prosperity gospel thinking. God has a way of flipping conventional human thinking upside down. He inverts things so often in Scripture.
This kind of law of inversion is seen throughout Scripture.
Jesus said in Mark 9 that those who want to be first must become the last.
In Matthew 20 He said that those who will be the greatest must become the least.
In Luke 14 He said that those who exalt themselves will be humbled but those who humble themselves will be exalted.
In Luke 9 Jesus said that if someone wants to save their life they must lose it, but, if they try and save it they will lose it.
In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul says that when he is weak it is then that he is strong.
And to the Ephesians Paul said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”. There is greater gain for us in giving, than in getting.
There are 2.5 ways for us to get the Greater Gain.
#1: Stop Stealing
The first thing Paul says is to stop stealing. “He who has been stealing must steal no longer…” In our household it is a daily affair to break up a fight between two little people who are stealing things out of each other’s hands. The sin nature is alive and well in our home. When you steal you take or keep what doesn’t belong to you. To possess someone else’s property without their permission. You can do this either by taking it from their possession, or, by withholding it.
And while stealing may start with toys when we’re little, we grow up into adult forms of stealing. Embezzlement or larsony, shoplifting, abusing expense accounts and company credit cards with personal purchases. Failing to report income on tax returns to avoid paying taxes on it. Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”. Reporting more hours worked than actually worked, not paying fair wages, pocketing the change when a clerk overpays you. Lying is also a form of stealing because you are stealing someone’s trust. Adultery is a form of stealing because you are taking someone else’s wife who does not belong to you. Reneging on a debt. Not paying debts in this country is a huge moral problem. We want something and want it now and so we buy it on credit and don’t really care about paying it back.
Why does this matter to us? Because it matters to Christ. Stealing is a big deal in Scripture. Satan is a thief. He tried to rob God’s place and he continues to try and rob God’s glory. The first sin ever committed was theft, Adam took the fruit that did not belong to him. “No stealing” is the 7th commandment. Judas was a thief who according to John 12 regularly stole out of the funds for Jesus’ ministry. God said to the Jews in the book of Malachi that when they refused to give their tithes and offerings they were robbing God. In other words, they were stealing what belonged to God not by taking it from His possession, but, by withholding it from Him. If the definition of stealing is taking what doesn’t belong to us or not giving to someone what is due them, then Idolatry is stealing. We give glory that belongs to God to someone else – ourselves or another. We give someone or something else a position in our lives that only God should hold. We make something or someone else the center of our lives. That is stealing from God what belongs to Him.
Thieves have no place in God’s kingdom. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves…will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Realize that what Paul said to begin this letter is true: “we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” Stealing comes from an unthankful heart. It is motivated by Pride and Greed. Pride because a thief believes he is entitled to whatever he steals, and greed because all he thinks about is getting for himself. And invariably those who steal must lie to cover up their theft.
#2: Work Well
Then Paul says we are to work well. He says, “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands.” Paul was reminding them of the godly principle of hard work. Man works because God works. Jesus said in John 5, “My Father is working to this very day, and so am I”. Philippians 1:6 says, “I know that He who began a good work in you will carry it on until the day of our Lord.” Before God created Adam, He created the place of employment for Adam – the Garden of Eden. And before God gave Adam a wife, He gave him work to do. A believer should not be a thief, but, instead he should work hard to earn his own bread. Paul told the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
This responsibility to work and take care of your family is serious business, as Paul would say in 1 Timothy 5:8, “If anyone does not provide for his own relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Paul was not calling them to do anything he hadn’t modeled in front of them. Paul had modeled hard work to them. Turn with me to Acts 20:33-35. Paul says he didn’t covet anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. He didn’t try to swindle them so that he could increase his own wealth. Paul worked with his own hands to pay his own way so that he didn’t have to rely on the Ephesians for support.
All this talk about hard work implies something here: that we are not only to not be thieves, but, we are also not to be lazy. You can’t work well and work hard when you’re lazy. Paul had no problem letting a man starve if that man wouldn’t work. He said in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘If a man will not work, he will not eat.” Laziness is ungodliness. The lazy man has only excuses. Proverbs 22:13 says, “The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! Or ‘I will be murdered in the streets!” The proverb captures the lazy man’s unrealistic reasons for not going and getting work.
But in commanding us to work hard with our own hands, and by modeling hard work to the believer’s, Paul lays down an important point – that we are to work well.
#2.5: Get Ready to Give
Our last point is simply this: Get Ready to Give. Paul teaches what is a radical paradigm shift for our human natures. He says first of all that we’re not to steal, and instead we are to work. But he doesn’t actually say that we are to work to provide for our own needs. That is a given, and it is all throughout Scripture. The point Paul is actually getting to is that we should work with the intention of having enough to help others who are in need. He says, “We should work… SO THAT we may have something to share with those in need.”
The bar has been raised higher. But think about the shift here. Stealing is taking what belongs to someone else, but, sharing is giving to someone else what belongs to you. Stealing is unlawfully taking what someone else has worked for, but sharing is giving to someone else what you have worked for. Stealing is motivated by coveting, but sharing is motivated by compassion. Stealing is a refusal to be thankful and content, but sharing is born out of our thankfulness to God for all He has provided (Ephesians 1:3).
And there is only one way to go from being a “getter” to being a “giver”. It is by seeing Jesus Christ. There was a man in Luke 19 who went from being a getter to a giver. His name is Zaccheaus. He was a corrupt and very rich tax collector. He cheated people out of money all the time just so he could get rich. And he didn’t lose sleep over it. But when he met Jesus Christ in Luke 19, his whole worldview was flipped upside down, and he went from taking what others had worked for to giving to others what he had worked for. In Luke 19:8 he said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I GIVE half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Zaccheaus used to delight in taking people’s money, now he delighted in giving his.
Proverbs 22:9 says, “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares HIS food with the poor.” Notice it doesn’t say a “RICH” man, but, a “GENEROUS” man. Listen, I don’t have catchy little phrases very often but here is one: You don’t have to be rich to be generous. But, you do have to be generous to be rich. When we steal or we are greedy or selfish our eyes are on ourselves. But Paul says to put our eyes on the needs of others, keep watch for ways to help others. He says in Galatians 6:2, “Carry each other’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Philippians 2:4 says, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
What is one way to do that? I would say that if you have a budget – which you should – then make room in your budget for this special giving. Don’t think big, start by thinking small, $5 per paycheck. Pretty soon, you might have enough to buy someone some meals, or, groceries, or help pay a bill. Or you might have enough to pay for a struggling couple to go out for dinner just to get away. Who knows? I’ll let you be creative. This is one way you can start storing up treasures for yourselves in heaven. Paul said to the rich believers in 1 Timothy 6:18, “be rich in good deeds, and be generous and willing to share. In this way you will lay up treasures for yourselves as a firm foundation in the coming age..”
Conclusion:
So that we have something to share with those in need....Jesus said, that it is better to give than it is to receive. I take that to mean that we are blessed greater by our giving than when we are receiving. But you know what I see also? I see that by this command God’s desire for us is to experience the higher blessing that comes from being the giver. We think that by getting we are better off, but, God want us to see that by giving we are better off. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” The greater gain truly is in giving. So a command like this, to work to give, is because He wants us to position ourselves to be a blessing to others and be able to give mercy by working so that we not only can care for our own needs, but, help those in need.
This is all rooted in the fact that God is a giver. “For God so loved the world that He GAVE His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.”
The Greater Gain
Introduction:
Zig Ziglar tells of a thief, a man named Emmanuel Nenger. The year is 1887. The scene is a small neighborhood grocery store. Mr. Nenger is buying some turnip greens. He gives the clerk a $20 bill. As the clerk begins to put the money in the cash drawer to give Nr. Nenger his change, she notices some of the ink from the $20 bill is coming off on her fingers which are damp from the turnip greens. She looks at Mr. Nenger, a man she has known for years. She looks at the smudged bill. This man is a trusted friend; she has known him all her life; he can't be a counterfeiter. She gives Mr. Nenger his change, and he leaves the store. But $20 is a lot of money in 1887, and eventually the clerk calls the police. They verify the bill as counterfeit and get a search warrant to look through Mr. Nenger's home. In the attic they find where he is reproducing money. He is a master artist and is painting $20 bills with brushes and paint! But also in the attic they find three portraits Nenger had painted. They seized these and eventually sold them at auction for $16,000 (in 1887 currency, remember) or a little more than $5,000 per painting. The irony is that it took Nenger almost as long to paint a $20 bill as it did for him to paint a $5,000 portrait! It's true that Emanuel Nenger was a thief, but the person from whom he stole the most was himself.
Ephesians 4:28 says, “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with those in need.” The title of our sermon this morning is “The Greater Gain.” It is so easy for us to believe that for us to gain the most, we have to be getting the most. But over and over in Scripture we see this teaching that there is more in it for us when we give. Our greatest gain is in giving. It’s interesting because Paul continues a principle he taught them 10 years earlier. His last words to the Ephesians are recorded in Acts 20 and Paul quoted Jesus as saying, “It is more blessed to give than it is to receive.” In other words, there is more blessing for you in being the giver than the receiver. But wait, I thought that the more stuff I get and the more I accumulate the more blessed I am. That’s prosperity gospel thinking. God has a way of flipping conventional human thinking upside down. He inverts things so often in Scripture.
This kind of law of inversion is seen throughout Scripture.
Jesus said in Mark 9 that those who want to be first must become the last.
In Matthew 20 He said that those who will be the greatest must become the least.
In Luke 14 He said that those who exalt themselves will be humbled but those who humble themselves will be exalted.
In Luke 9 Jesus said that if someone wants to save their life they must lose it, but, if they try and save it they will lose it.
In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul says that when he is weak it is then that he is strong.
And to the Ephesians Paul said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”. There is greater gain for us in giving, than in getting.
There are 2.5 ways for us to get the Greater Gain.
#1: Stop Stealing
The first thing Paul says is to stop stealing. “He who has been stealing must steal no longer…” In our household it is a daily affair to break up a fight between two little people who are stealing things out of each other’s hands. The sin nature is alive and well in our home. When you steal you take or keep what doesn’t belong to you. To possess someone else’s property without their permission. You can do this either by taking it from their possession, or, by withholding it.
And while stealing may start with toys when we’re little, we grow up into adult forms of stealing. Embezzlement or larsony, shoplifting, abusing expense accounts and company credit cards with personal purchases. Failing to report income on tax returns to avoid paying taxes on it. Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”. Reporting more hours worked than actually worked, not paying fair wages, pocketing the change when a clerk overpays you. Lying is also a form of stealing because you are stealing someone’s trust. Adultery is a form of stealing because you are taking someone else’s wife who does not belong to you. Reneging on a debt. Not paying debts in this country is a huge moral problem. We want something and want it now and so we buy it on credit and don’t really care about paying it back.
Why does this matter to us? Because it matters to Christ. Stealing is a big deal in Scripture. Satan is a thief. He tried to rob God’s place and he continues to try and rob God’s glory. The first sin ever committed was theft, Adam took the fruit that did not belong to him. “No stealing” is the 7th commandment. Judas was a thief who according to John 12 regularly stole out of the funds for Jesus’ ministry. God said to the Jews in the book of Malachi that when they refused to give their tithes and offerings they were robbing God. In other words, they were stealing what belonged to God not by taking it from His possession, but, by withholding it from Him. If the definition of stealing is taking what doesn’t belong to us or not giving to someone what is due them, then Idolatry is stealing. We give glory that belongs to God to someone else – ourselves or another. We give someone or something else a position in our lives that only God should hold. We make something or someone else the center of our lives. That is stealing from God what belongs to Him.
Thieves have no place in God’s kingdom. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves…will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Realize that what Paul said to begin this letter is true: “we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” Stealing comes from an unthankful heart. It is motivated by Pride and Greed. Pride because a thief believes he is entitled to whatever he steals, and greed because all he thinks about is getting for himself. And invariably those who steal must lie to cover up their theft.
#2: Work Well
Then Paul says we are to work well. He says, “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands.” Paul was reminding them of the godly principle of hard work. Man works because God works. Jesus said in John 5, “My Father is working to this very day, and so am I”. Philippians 1:6 says, “I know that He who began a good work in you will carry it on until the day of our Lord.” Before God created Adam, He created the place of employment for Adam – the Garden of Eden. And before God gave Adam a wife, He gave him work to do. A believer should not be a thief, but, instead he should work hard to earn his own bread. Paul told the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
This responsibility to work and take care of your family is serious business, as Paul would say in 1 Timothy 5:8, “If anyone does not provide for his own relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Paul was not calling them to do anything he hadn’t modeled in front of them. Paul had modeled hard work to them. Turn with me to Acts 20:33-35. Paul says he didn’t covet anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. He didn’t try to swindle them so that he could increase his own wealth. Paul worked with his own hands to pay his own way so that he didn’t have to rely on the Ephesians for support.
All this talk about hard work implies something here: that we are not only to not be thieves, but, we are also not to be lazy. You can’t work well and work hard when you’re lazy. Paul had no problem letting a man starve if that man wouldn’t work. He said in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘If a man will not work, he will not eat.” Laziness is ungodliness. The lazy man has only excuses. Proverbs 22:13 says, “The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! Or ‘I will be murdered in the streets!” The proverb captures the lazy man’s unrealistic reasons for not going and getting work.
But in commanding us to work hard with our own hands, and by modeling hard work to the believer’s, Paul lays down an important point – that we are to work well.
#2.5: Get Ready to Give
Our last point is simply this: Get Ready to Give. Paul teaches what is a radical paradigm shift for our human natures. He says first of all that we’re not to steal, and instead we are to work. But he doesn’t actually say that we are to work to provide for our own needs. That is a given, and it is all throughout Scripture. The point Paul is actually getting to is that we should work with the intention of having enough to help others who are in need. He says, “We should work… SO THAT we may have something to share with those in need.”
The bar has been raised higher. But think about the shift here. Stealing is taking what belongs to someone else, but, sharing is giving to someone else what belongs to you. Stealing is unlawfully taking what someone else has worked for, but sharing is giving to someone else what you have worked for. Stealing is motivated by coveting, but sharing is motivated by compassion. Stealing is a refusal to be thankful and content, but sharing is born out of our thankfulness to God for all He has provided (Ephesians 1:3).
And there is only one way to go from being a “getter” to being a “giver”. It is by seeing Jesus Christ. There was a man in Luke 19 who went from being a getter to a giver. His name is Zaccheaus. He was a corrupt and very rich tax collector. He cheated people out of money all the time just so he could get rich. And he didn’t lose sleep over it. But when he met Jesus Christ in Luke 19, his whole worldview was flipped upside down, and he went from taking what others had worked for to giving to others what he had worked for. In Luke 19:8 he said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I GIVE half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Zaccheaus used to delight in taking people’s money, now he delighted in giving his.
Proverbs 22:9 says, “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares HIS food with the poor.” Notice it doesn’t say a “RICH” man, but, a “GENEROUS” man. Listen, I don’t have catchy little phrases very often but here is one: You don’t have to be rich to be generous. But, you do have to be generous to be rich. When we steal or we are greedy or selfish our eyes are on ourselves. But Paul says to put our eyes on the needs of others, keep watch for ways to help others. He says in Galatians 6:2, “Carry each other’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Philippians 2:4 says, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
What is one way to do that? I would say that if you have a budget – which you should – then make room in your budget for this special giving. Don’t think big, start by thinking small, $5 per paycheck. Pretty soon, you might have enough to buy someone some meals, or, groceries, or help pay a bill. Or you might have enough to pay for a struggling couple to go out for dinner just to get away. Who knows? I’ll let you be creative. This is one way you can start storing up treasures for yourselves in heaven. Paul said to the rich believers in 1 Timothy 6:18, “be rich in good deeds, and be generous and willing to share. In this way you will lay up treasures for yourselves as a firm foundation in the coming age..”
Conclusion:
So that we have something to share with those in need....Jesus said, that it is better to give than it is to receive. I take that to mean that we are blessed greater by our giving than when we are receiving. But you know what I see also? I see that by this command God’s desire for us is to experience the higher blessing that comes from being the giver. We think that by getting we are better off, but, God want us to see that by giving we are better off. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” The greater gain truly is in giving. So a command like this, to work to give, is because He wants us to position ourselves to be a blessing to others and be able to give mercy by working so that we not only can care for our own needs, but, help those in need.
This is all rooted in the fact that God is a giver. “For God so loved the world that He GAVE His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.”
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