Little is Much When God is In It
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We are blessed! Now, what are we going to do with all of the blessings that God has given us?
Somebody has said that there are three kinds of folks in the world. There are risk-takers, caretakers, and undertakers. Now the risk-takers are those who just believe God and move out. The caretakers are those who’ve said, “Well, God’s blessed enough, and we are just going to become keepers of the status quo.” But those caretakers soon become undertakers.
And we dare not—and by God’s grace, we will not—get off of the cutting edge, reaching people for the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, we’ve got to have a vision. And then, we’ve got to have faith to believe that the vision is possible. And then, thirdly, we must obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
—John H. Sammis
Now, having said that, I want you to look in the Bible at a building program that was in God’s Word. And I think that we can learn something from a building program and a building offering in the Old Testament that can apply to us today. So look, if you will, in Exodus chapter 35, and I begin reading in verse 4:
4 Then Moses said to the entire Israelite community, “This is what the Lord has commanded:
5 Take up an offering among you for the Lord. Let everyone whose heart is willing bring this as the Lord’s offering: gold, silver, and bronze;
6 blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair;
7 ram skins dyed red and fine leather; acacia wood;
8 oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense;
9 and onyx with gemstones to mount on the ephod and breastpiece.
God’s Plan
God’s Plan
God’s plan came out of a need - the tabernacle in the wilderness, a place for the presence of God among His people
The story of how we got here
Now the reason that we need more space is, very frankly, we have run out of space. Why have we run out of space? Because God has blessed us. Now the problem is a problem that God caused. The problem is a problem that has come from the blessings of God. Now, would God have given us a problem, and have caused it—a wonderful, beautiful, godly problem—and then not give us the answer or the solution? Well, listen. If the problem has come from God’s blessing, then God’s further blessing is going to answer the problem, amen? You see, God said, “This is an offering I want you to take,” and that we just are limited by our unbelief.
I heard of a fisherman who was a strange fisherman. He kept the little fish and threw the big ones back. He kept throwing the big ones back. And somebody said, “Why do you keep the little ones and throw the big ones back?” He said, “Well, anything over eighteen inches I have to throw back. I only have an eighteen-inch frying pan.” Well, friend, what we need to do is get a bigger frying pan.
This plan is about having the space to reach people for Christ! And so the very first thing I want you to see is that the plan—the plan—I believe, was God-given. I really believe that. I believe from my heart that we are in the will of God, and we’re doing what God wants us to do.
God’s Provision
God’s Provision
21 Everyone whose heart was moved and whose spirit prompted him came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its services, and for the holy garments.
22 Both men and women came; all who had willing hearts brought brooches, earrings, rings, necklaces, and all kinds of gold jewelry—everyone who presented a presentation offering of gold to the Lord.
23 Everyone who possessed blue, purple, or scarlet yarn, fine linen or goat hair, ram skins dyed red or fine leather, brought them.
24 Everyone making an offering of silver or bronze brought it as a contribution to the Lord. Everyone who possessed acacia wood useful for any task in the work brought it.
25 Every skilled woman spun yarn with her hands and brought it: blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen.
26 And all the women whose hearts were moved spun the goat hair by virtue of their skill.
27 The leaders brought onyx and gemstones to mount on the ephod and breastpiece,
28 as well as the spice and oil for the light, for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense.
29 So the Israelites brought a freewill offering to the Lord, all the men and women whose hearts prompted them to bring something for all the work that the Lord, through Moses, had commanded to be done.
Sometimes we ask a person, “Well, if a man made 500 dollars, how much of it belongs to God?” And somebody says, “Well, fifty dollars.” No, it all belongs to God—it all belongs to God. It always has; it always will. It is all God’s. And God never asks anything of us that He’s not already given us. Everything that we have to give to God is what God has already given to us. “The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1).
Now, wait a minute. Who is He talking to? Why, He’s talking to a group of former slaves. They have just come out of Egypt. They’re out there in the desert. Did you see the shopping list? Did you see the things that He said to bring? Well, where were they going to get that? And how did these people have all of that stuff to make that tabernacle with there in the wilderness?
30 During the night Pharaoh got up, he along with all his officials and all the Egyptians, and there was a loud wailing throughout Egypt because there wasn’t a house without someone dead.
31 He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get out immediately from among my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, worship the Lord as you have said.
32 Take even your flocks and your herds as you asked and leave, and also bless me.”
33 Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!”
34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders.
35 The Israelites acted on Moses’s word and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold items and for clothing.
36 And the Lord gave the people such favor with the Egyptians that they gave them what they requested. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.
Well, God had helped them to spoil the Egyptians, and the Egyptians had loaded it onto them when they left Egypt. And they left Egypt by a miracle. And everything that they had in their possession was that which God had already given to them.
There was a man who was in a meeting, a ladies’ meeting. And one of the ladies said, “Let’s stand and pray. “Professor, will you lead us in a prayer that God will give us this mission money.” He said, “No, I won’t do it, because He’s already given it to us: the money’s in this room. Rather than have a prayer, we’re going to take an offering.” They didn’t have a prayer. They took an offering, and they got more than enough for the thing they were going to pray for.
You know what’s wrong with us so many times? We’re asking God to give us what He’s already given us—I mean, what God had asked those people for in that offering, He had already given to them.
I’m Going To Start to Meddle Here
What has God already given you that you that you need to give back?
What has God already given you that you that you need to give back?
A boat, guns, a tractor, livestock, clothes, furniture, a car, a product you made?
The plan—the plan—was God-given. The provision was God-foreseen. Do you think God would have put those people out there in the wilderness to build that tabernacle out there in the wilderness and tell them to take an offering when God knew that they did not have it to get? Where God guides, God provides.
God’s Blessing
God’s Blessing
4 Then all the artisans who were doing all the work for the sanctuary came one by one from the work they were doing
5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than is needed for the construction of the work the Lord commanded to be done.”
6 After Moses gave an order, they sent a proclamation throughout the camp: “Let no man or woman make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” So the people stopped.
7 The materials were sufficient for them to do all the work. There was more than enough.
Now, what happened? The performance was God-blessed. Well, first of all, the tabernacle was built, and God’s name was glorified.
A tree nursery had this sign on the wall: “When is the best time to plant a tree?” The answer: “Twenty-five years ago.” Next question: “When is the next best time to plant a tree?” Answer: “Today”—“Today.”
Thank God, in 1888 God started this church. Thank God that somebody planted a tree then, and we’re picking the fruit. There are people coming after us, and we’re going to be gone in a little while, but we want to harvest the fruit today and make it possible for people to harvest later on.
Now there’s a wonderful, wonderful verse in the New Testament, talking about an offering, and it says this:
5 and not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God’s will.
May 19th - Gathering Sunday
May 19th - Gathering Sunday
I want you to understand this: If you don’t know Jesus Christ, if you’ve never been saved, we’re not bringing you down here to say, “Give us some of your money.”
God forbid! God forbid! Listen. God wants you, not what you have. God wants to love you. God wants to save you. God wants to bless you. God doesn’t need anything; He owns it all. God wants to save you. If I had a thousand lives, I’d give Jesus every one of them. I’m so glad that He saved me. And the wisest thing you can do today is to give your heart to Jesus. And don’t wait until you’re better. Don’t try to say, “Well, when I get it all straightened out, when I get the sin out of my life, when I get my life all straightened out, then I’m going to come to Jesus.”
Oh, what if you were in a dark room, and you wanted light in that room, and you said, “Well, I’m going to wait until all the darkness is gone before I let the light in?” You’d never ever get the light in. “I’ll wait till all the darkness is gone before I open the doors and windows to let the light in.” No!
Listen. Open up your heart right now to Jesus, and He’ll pull back the curtains and pin them with a star of hope, and He’ll do for you what He did for me when I was a teenage boy. He will flood your life with light. Jesus saved me as a teenager, and I’m more excited this moment—and I mean this from my heart—far more excited now about Jesus than I was then. And it is true: every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. And if you’d just pray a prayer like this and say, “Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner; I’m lost; I need to be saved; I believe you’re the Son of God; I believe you paid my sin debt with your blood on the cross; I believe that God raised you from the dead; and now I receive you as my Lord and Master; save me, Lord Jesus, and I will follow you all the days of my life, until you receive me into heaven”—say it, and mean it—and I promise you, on the authority of the Word of God, He will save you.