|
Wheat or Hay - Which are you offering the King? by Jim Petrou Stewardship Sunday Sermon, January 21 2007 Many years ago, there was a King of a certain region who was wealthy, compassionate, and protected his people. His people loved him, and knew he was wise, and would always care for them. Each month the king would inspect his kingdom, going from village to village on his beautiful wagon, pulled by a team of groomed horses. One family every year caught the king's eye. It was the family of a farmer with 5 children and his wife, who all lived in a small, single room home. They were very poor. The farmer worked very hard, and had just enough food to survive the winter, with no extra. His most prized possession was 1 large sack of wheat. One month the king stopped in front of the poor man's home. He ordered his minister to get out, and ask the farmer to give to the king what he valued and needed most, his sack of wheat. The father of the family felt a terrible burden, and was very sad. He explained to the king's minister, "Please, this is all I have to feed my family." The minister replied, "The king will not force you, and will continue to love you and protect you." The man was relieved. But everyday he thought about his decision. "Did I do the right thing? Why would the wealthy king want my one sack of wheat?" On the one hand he felt guilty he did not obey the king. On the other hand he wanted to keep what he considered to be his own. The next month the king was on his monthly travel through the kingdom. Once again, he stopped at the farmer's house. The husband, wife, and children were all at the doorway watching. The minister got out, and asked for the wheat again. This time the farmer had a plan. Take a moment to think - what would you do in this situation?? The farmer explained to the minister that he needed the wheat to survive, and instead offered the minister hay for the king's horses. You see, the man had plenty of extra hay from his fields, and could easily spare some bails of hay. The minister replied, "The king asks you to give up your sack of wheat." Before the third month arrived, the farmer had a decision made if the king asked for his wheat again. On the third month, the king arrived on his wagon, while on his usual monthly tour of the kingdom. He stopped at the house, and as the minister walked up, the farmer stood in the doorway with his family, and the sack of wheat. The farmer had tears streaming down his face, and before the minister could say anything, the farmer said confidently, "This is for the king," pointing to the sack. Quickly the minister looked at the king, who nodded with a smile. The servants of the king immediately ran over and carried the large sack of wheat from the man's home to the back of the wagon. The children and wife watched sadly as their source of food was taken away. When the servants came out of the wagon, they had another sack, which seemed very heavy, and brought it to the farmer's doorway. The king came down from his wagon, and personally walked over to the man and his family. "My good man, I was waiting for you to trust me. You know I love all the people in my kingdom. I do not need your wheat, but I do need you to trust your king! Because you have honored your king with something that is so valuable to you, your wheat, I will keep it. In exchange, I give you this sack full of pure gold. I know it was a difficult thing for you to do, and now you and your family will rejoice forever." The farmer and his family learned a big lesson that day, and were never again hungry or cold. They loved their king evermore, and told the whole kingdom how everyone should love him with all their hearts. This story has 3 learning lessons for us: 1. KING: We must believe in our King, and know that He loves us, and wants us all to be close to Him. The king in this story is God. God loves His people, and each one of us is special to Him. God the Father allowed His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to die for us, even though we do not deserve it. Therefore, if we repent for our sins, we have the hope to enter heaven one day and spend eternity with our King. 2. WHEAT: The wheat was so valuable to the farmer, he had a hard time giving it up. The most important lesson in this story is the WHEAT. Why? The wheat was the farmer's most prized possession. What is your most prized possession? May this be keeping you away from a more intimate relationship with God? You may be thinking the wheat is money, or material possessions. No, that is just a tiny piece. What God wants from each of us is our heart. He asks us to dedicate our lives and hearts to Him for these 70 or 80 or 90 years we are here. He has given us His blueprints on how to live spiritual, successful lives. He expects that we follow the blueprints he has established, just like a builder needs to follow the blueprints to build a sturdy house. But, He also tells us that if we wish, we can live our own selfish way, with our own set of blueprints, and risk living eternity separate from God. Just like the king, God does not force His way into our homes, and into our hearts, to take what we should give to him. He lovingly asks, and waits. In return He promises us the most beautiful home you could ever imagine, in the life after. Sometimes we experience part of our reward here, during this lifetime. Most times we will be rewarded in heaven. As a matter of fact, we should not seek for our recognition and reward here, because later in heaven our reward will be less, since man has already given us our reward. Let's better understand what the wheat signifies: The wheat is our time, activities and our "things." Let's look at each area individually, and please listen closely, as this can change your life, if you have not thought about your life this way before. A. TIME: We are all here in Church today, and it is a good use of our time. Let's look back to our story. The farmer first tried giving the king hay. He had a lot of hay - and it was easy to give up. Isn't this what we do many times in our own lives? We give God that which is easiest to give up. Some of us enjoy working in certain areas of Church activities. For example, we enjoy singing in the choir, or we enjoy seeing our friends at Bible study, or we like working at the festival, the bazaar, or a Church luncheon. We may need to bring our children to Sunday school or altar, so we are here for them. We may have nostalgic memories of our parents when we come to Easter services. It is good to spend our time in these activities, but WHY we do, what we do is so important. If we are in Church or Bible Study, but during that time are thinking about our work and all the projects we have to do later, it would please God more if we focused our thoughts on Him while we are here. We decide if we want to participate in the worship, and sing the holy hymns and prayers from our heart, or if we wish to stay unfocused and not participate. Only you and God know what is running through your mind during these potentially precious moments. This is the difference of giving Him your wheat or the hay..... Several times in liturgy we hear, "Let us commit ourselves and each other and our whole life to Christ our God." I challenge each of us, from now on, when that phrase is spoken by Fr. Andrew or Fr. Manoli, to force our minds at that moment to commit ourselves to God. Every time! Think how that could change your life. Similarly, we hear at the end of the Cherubic hymn, "Let us lay aside all the cares of this life, that we may receive the King of all." We all have many cares in this life, very important cares, but at that moment we need to push all those thoughts out of our mind, and only keep one thought - the thought of our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. I challenge each of us at that part of the Liturgy to not let those words be common words that we overlook - My friends, that's giving God our wheat, and not the hay..... We are normally in Church only 1.5 hours/week. How do you make time for God the rest of the week? When we are driving, we can talk to God - on our way to work, or school, or the supermarket. It only needs to be a one minute prayer. That will refocus us on Christ. However, one caution: If you are praying while in the car, please do me one favor: do not close your eyes while driving.... B. ACTIVITIES: It seems that each year we all are busier and busier with work, projects, home, computers, traveling, sports, landscaping, family issues, parenting, shopping, car maintenance, cleaning, doctor appointments, gym, exercise, etc. These activities all compete for our attention. Where does God fit in? Our King asks us to put Him at the top of the list, above and before all these activities. If you were to rank your priorities and where you spend most of your time, where would God be on your list? Here is a simple litmus test of where God may be in your life. When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you think about? Work? Your Dr. appointment? Kids? Getting you and everyone ready for the day ahead? Or God? If it's not God, we need to train our minds and set up a system to have God first. We set an alarm to wake up on time, and we make notes in the calendar to remember birthdays or appointments. Why not leave a note on the floor of your bedroom to remember to pray? Before anything - before your shower, or coffee, or even making your bed, why not get on our knees before God, and pray - start with just 60 seconds. That's a good way to keep God first in your life, each day, when your mind is the most alert. Ask Him to guide you during the day and tell Him how great He is! That is giving God your wheat, and not the leftover hay..... Making such changes in your life may feel awkward at first, but will reap eternal rewards. One more comment on our activities. If our Church offers a time during the week to contemplate and better understand God's blueprint for our lives, the Bible, we need to make that activity a priority by being there. If we agree that our top priority is God, what activity could be more important than a Bible study on a Thursday night? Or a weekday service on a Feastday, or during lent. We are all busy, and we need to balance our priorities. Prioritize your activities as you think is best, but the one priority we must keep first and on top always is GOD. C. THINGS: The last area of our life that is like the farmer's wheat, in which we should follow God's direction is our "things." This includes our possessions, our money, our investments, and our giving. A very vivid description of how we should view our possessions and life is in 2 Corinthians 5:1. It says, "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Paul calls this life a tent. What would you think if someone you know went camping for a weekend, and this person brought not only a tent, but a toaster, microwave, TV, 4 pairs of shoes, and much more than was needed for the weekend, as if that weekend would last for a year. Silly, right? That's us - we accumulate so much stuff, and plan so much during this lifetime (which is temporary like the camping trip) as if we will be here forever. Consequently, we give very little attention to our true, permanent home in heaven. This life is like a camping trip, like a tent, which is temporary. Our permanent, eternal home is in heaven. St. John of Damascus, over 1,500 years ago, said it like this: "Why so many attractions to the world? Why the vain dreams of delight? What good is gold or silver? Why the multitude of servants and attendants? All is dust and ashes, or a shadow that passes away. Brethren, let us then pray to Christ our Immortal King and say: "O Lord, grant your blessings to your departed servant, and give rest to his soul in your everlasting happiness of heaven."" Just like we just discussed in our activities, there are many sources competing for our finances. You may be wondering what an appropriate amount is to commit to your Church annually. Whatever you decide, give it cheerfully, and pray that God will bless what you give. The Bible gives a standard, and the Archdiocese also guides us. The Bible says 10%. The Archdiocese suggests giving at least one hour/week of the household income back to our Church. The more God has blessed you with, the more you are able give back to Him. Remember though, God is focused on our hearts, not our money. The king did not need the farmer's wheat, and similarly, God does not need our money, for He owns the whole universe. The level of giving of our time, our activities, and our resources shows our faith, and will reap us unimaginable rewards in heaven. 3. REWARD: In closing, the third lesson of the story is the Reward. The king approached the farmer, and personally commended him for his faith. Each one of us will stand before the King. Our faith in Christ is what will open the doors of heaven for us. However, there is also a place and reward for each of us in heaven. God will personally commend and reward each of us. The size of our reward will be according to our love and commitment that we displayed while in this tent, our temporal life. I will leave you with this petition from our Liturgy that we hear each week, that sums it all up: "That the end of our lives may be Christian, peaceful, without suffering and shame; and for a good account of ourselves before the awesome judgment seat of Christ, let us ask the Lord." Sermon Archive Advent - Plan Ahead Rightly - Fr. Andrew A Culture Obsessed With Food - Douglas Cramer Advent - St. Joseph - Fr. Andrew Advent - A Mixed Bad - Fr. Andrew Building Bridges - Fr. Andrew The Importance of Restitution - Fr. Andrew Declare How Much - Fr. Andrew Being Truely Thankful - Fr. Andrew Wheat or Hay - Which are you offering the King? - Jim Petrou |
canada goose parka
canada goose jakker
canada goose jakke
canada goose trillium
canada goose
canada goose expedition
canada goose norge
canada goose expedition parka
175 Oaklawn Avenue Cranston, RI 02920 Phone (401) 942-4188 Fax (401) 942-3020 office@annunciationri.org
Church of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Parish of Greater Providence (c) 2004-2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, Contact Web Master