Come, join the party
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Introduction
We are in the last week on our series in Moses. We’ve seen God at work in his life, and we’ve seen how God, who looked like he was absent at the start of the book, is becoming closer and closer to Moses and his people.
So up to now the Israelites had experienced a great deal of God’s work first-hand. And there is no denying that God had done some fantastic miracles for them and they had seen this first-hand.
And today, we’re at the part of the story when God comes closer than ever before. We’re looking at the building of the tabernacle – the place where God will dwell with his people.
Moses has been given the blueprints and now it’s time to get to work – but he needs materials.
Thing is, these people have been wandering in the wilderness for a long time and in the wilderness there’s a distinct lack of materials to build a tent and everything that God wants to go inside it.
So Moses gathers all the Israelites together and asks the congregation of Israel for help and so we pick it up in verse 4 of Exodus 35, which says this…
4 Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the Lord has commanded: 5 From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze;
10 “All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the Lord has commanded:
In other words, Moses is saying to the Israelites – All this work needs done and you know what we need to get it done, so if anyone wants to help out, please help us out.
And then a crazy thing happened. The appeal worked. People gave to the work of God. They gave their gold and precious stones and whatever they had as well as their talents – and we see this in verse 20:
20 Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, 21 and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments. 22 All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord.
And this continued until chapter 40 of Exodus where the tabernacle is finished and God then dwells in the tabernacle.
Pause
Now when Moses gathered the congregation of Israel there were two conditions to his request…
Firstly: The people had to give their own possessions (v5 says “From whatever you have…”).
Secondly: The people had to be willing. They had to want to give.
But Moses is addressing the whole nation and asking the whole congregation of Israel – and yet God isn’t commanding everyone to give.
God only wants the offerings of those who are willing to give their possessions and talents - which means that for those who were NOT willing, God doesn’t want their offerings.
This seems like a strange request. For most of the commandments in the old testament the Israelites didn’t have a choice, but here they do, which seems odd, but if we look at other parts of the Bible there seems to be a similar theme. For example,
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:7:
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Paul says to the Corinthian believers that it’s up to you what you give. Give whatever you have decided in your heart to give, BUT whatever you DO give, give it cheerfully, not because you feel you have to give - not out of compulsion, but because you want to.
But notice that Paul doesn’t say how MUCH we should give – it’s up to us to decide what we are willing to give – just like the Israelites.
And it’s the same with us today – our giving to God is not about HOW MUCH we give – it’s about how much we are WILLING to give – and in our story in Exodus these people gave and gave and gave. And they gave willingly – in other words, they weren’t doing it begrudgingly, and they were doing it cheerfully…in fact, they started giving too much!
And we know this because of the next crazy thing that happens in chapter 36 verses 3-7.
3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. 4 So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing 5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.”
6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.
So God wanted the offering ONLY from those who were willing to give, and those who were willing gave and gave and gave so much that they had too much.
So it’s pretty clear that this giving was not out of a sense of duty – it wasn’t because the people felt that they HAD to give. This giving was exuberant. In other words, there was joy in the giving. They really did give because they wanted to give.
They wanted to be part of this project.
Pause
So, what’s happening here? Why are these people giving and giving and giving their possessions and their talents for God’s use?
Well, there are many reasons that we can look at, but one of the main ones is because these guys had experienced the presence and work of God in their lives and so their giving was a way to say thank you for that.
These people had seen God perform the miracles. They had witnessed the signs and wonders. They had seen the sea split in two – they were the object of God’s redemption – the object of God’s salvation and they gave to the Lord as an act of gratitude for being saved.
Pause
Now, when it comes to us, it’s the same thing…
If we have faith in Jesus, then we give to God not out of compulsion, not out of duty, but out of love and gratitude for what God has done for us in Jesus.
Because by giving to God, we are helping the church spread the good news, that WE heard, to other people. By giving to God we are helping to equip the church to be discipled and to meet together in comfort, because we have heat (for example).
We’re giving to God to say thank you, and with the knowledge that we can help his mission on earth and be PART of the process.
[We can be part of the process]
Pause
Put it this way - say you’re at a restaurant with a friend. Say it’s an expensive restaurant like the Merchant Hotel and you order lobster, steak or whatever... and when the bill comes, they pay the bill for you. How do you feel? You feel thankful, especially if it was an expensive restaurant like the one in the Merchant Hotel.
Now when things like that happen, often you want to pay them back or at least buy a present as a token of your gratitude. You maybe buy them flowers whatever, but reason you do that is because you are thankful and would like to give something back to the person who paid the bill to say thanks. It’s a token of gratitude.
Now what Jesus did for us is so much bigger and better than someone paying the bill at a restaurant. Jesus paid not the price of a meal – he experienced Hell on our behalf.
So think about it – we spend money buying a present as a token of our gratitude. How much MORE should we give back to God out of a sense of gratitude for what he has done for us?
Pause
And giving not only blesses those who receive the money or the talents, the giver is also blessed.
Now I’m not preaching prosperity gospel here, but there is a lot of biblical evidence to support the fact that those who give will be blessed.
Back to Paul’s letter and the verse before we read out earlier (2 Corinthians 9:6)…
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
Paul says if you sow you will reap. And he’s talking about financial giving here – so if you give you will be blessed... and get this - the blessings you get are proportional to the amount you give....If you give more you’ll be blessed more.
Now Paul doesn’t say WHAT you will reap. But it is interesting that being a part of this experience of giving not only allows us to be a part of God’s work on Earth, but we will also be blessed because of it.
And then there’s Malachi 3:10 which says…
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
In the Old Testament, the tithe was 10%…and the tithe was given to the temple to support the priests and levites since they weren’t given land and so this was how they got their inheritance. It helped them live and helped with the running costs of the temple.
...and Israelites were not giving the whole tithe to God – they only gave part of it – they were holding back. So God is saying through Malachi to give God the entire tithe and just wait and see the blessings that will be given.
Pause
So, if you decide to commit to giving you will have decided to sacrifice part of your income, but by doing so you’ll be more dependant on God…and see if God doesn’t throw open the floodgates of heaven and bless you.
Now, let me clarify, it may not be financial blessing – the blessing might just be knowing that you are part of the process…but you WILL be blessed. That, you can count on.
But the invitation this evening is this – for those who are willing – for those whose hearts have been moved - let’s think about what Jesus has done for us and let’s give back to him accordingly.
Pause
Let me leave you with a good example I heard to illustrate our involvement is this:
Imagine a cold dark evening. You’re walking down a country road when you see a big barn and the light’s on inside.
You hear music and singing and people are having a big party. There’s a real glow to the place and it’s really inviting, but you’re not there – you’re not in the barn. You’re outside...
...but out of curiosity you go up to the barn and when you get close, the owner of the barn comes over to you and says, “hey – you want to come to the party?
Come on. There’s something going on in here, but you’re never going to enjoy the party from out there. But here’s the deal - if you want to join the party you need to bring the whole tithe.
You’ve got to bring something to this party.”
In other words, soften your heart and give and see if I don’t bless you beyond anything you give. In fact, it’s the most fun you’re ever going to have, it’s the most joy you’ll ever feel.
So the question is; do you want to join the party?
Let’s pray