Glory Through Generosity

Sermon Summary:

This message explores the profound concept of generosity and how it reflects God’s glory. Through the story of the Israelites building the tabernacle in Exodus 35, we learn that everything we possess is ultimately a gift from God. As mere stewards, we are called to willingly and joyfully share our time, talents, and treasures to further God’s work. The Israelites’ overwhelming response, bringing more than enough offerings, symbolizes the abundance that flows when we embrace a spirit of generosity. This challenges us to examine our own hearts and ask whether we are holding back or fully investing in the eternal significance of God’s kingdom.

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Sermon Points:

• GUIDANCE: God provided guidance for His people as they journeyed from Egypt towards the Promised Land. He also provides guidance for us today!
• GLORY: God’s glory was often on display in the Exodus story. He desires for His glory to be on display today through us!
• GENEROSITY: In the construction of the Tabernacle, God offered His people an opportunity to demonstrate a spirit of generosity through giving time, talent, and treasure. He continues to call us to give generously as well.
• GENEROSITY PRINCIPLES:
  • God is the Owner, we are mere stewards.
  • God’s people provide for His work to be accomplished.
  • God’s work is worthy of our investment.
• Part of the privilege of serving God is to be found in the opportunity to donate to his purposes things that in his common grace he has already entrusted to the possession of his people. The highest honor a person can have in connection with anything he or she owns and might otherwise have used for self is seeing it given over to and incorporated into that which God thereafter owns and uses for his honor.

  -Douglas K. Stewart, The New American Commentary: Exodus

Download a copy of the “Together in God’s Glory” Devotional Book – HERE

Key Takeaways:

• God is the owner of everything, and we are stewards of what He has given us
• God’s people are called to provide for His work to be accomplished
• God’s work is worthy of our investment of time, talents, and treasure
• Generosity is a reflection of God’s glory and should be woven into the fabric of our lives
• The church is the most powerful and eternally significant movement on earth toda

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Scripture References:

• Exodus 35:4-29

Stories:

• The story of the Israelites building the tabernacle and giving so generously that Moses had to tell them to stop bringing offerings
• The hypothetical story of a boy whose family didn’t contribute to the tabernacle and missed out on being a part of God’s work
• The story of James Michener being asked to write something for a fundraiser, illustrating the importance of giving what we are uniquely gifted to provide.

Transcript

Well you know our theme for this year is together and we’ve been exploring various facets of that all year long. Let me point you toward next week as we will begin our summer together and for the summer our theme is going to be together in the gospel and we are going to study the gospel of Mark for this summer. So I’ll be preaching through Mark and in our together in word readings we will read through the entire gospel of Mark this summer and I’m really looking forward to that with you for June and July. But for the spring as we bring that to a close today our theme has been together for God’s glory and we have been exploring together the book of Exodus and the book of Exodus has much to say much to reveal to us about the glory of God. And so today I want us to look at this text if you have your copy of the Old Testament Exodus 35 glory through generosity and let’s look at this text. We’ll begin Exodus 35. We’ll skip around a little bit in that chapter but what’s happening now is God has given Israel specific instructions about how to build the tabernacle and it is time for Israel to participate in the construction of the tent that will be the dwelling place of God. So we’re going to pick up the story in verse 4 of Exodus 35. Let’s look at it. Moses said to the whole Israelite community this is what the Lord has commanded. From what you have take an offering for the Lord everyone who is in the house of the Lord and everyone who is in the house of the Lord. And who’s willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold silver and bronze blue purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen goat hair ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather acacia wood olive oil for the light spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and the breast piece. All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything that the Lord has commanded. If you’ll skip down to verse 20. Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’s presence 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. All who were willing men and women alike came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds of gold and silver and all kinds of gold and all kinds brooches earrings rings ornaments they all represent all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord. If you go to verse 29 the summary word all the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the Lord free will offerings for all the work the Lord through Moses had commanded them to do. Now let me just remind you of what we’ve been learning already. Let me back up just a little bit and remind you about guidance before we talk about generosity. You remember that God provided guidance for his people as they journeyed from Egypt towards the promised land. We learned that last Sunday and we also learned that he also provides guidance for us today. You remember last week the Urim and the Tumim. Y’all remember that? I’ve had numerous comments this week about a sermon on the Urim and the Tumim and so you can’t say that you’ve never heard a sermon on that now and but remember the point of it was they were located within the breastpiece of decision. Y’all remember that? In other words it was just one example of how God had demonstrated to Israel that he wanted to offer them guidance. He wanted to shepherd them on their journey. Now obviously he’s going to guide them in other ways. We will see the cloud by day the pillar of fire by night but the point is God was guiding his people just like he wants to guide you. You use God’s word along with God’s wisdom and our willingness and you put that formula together and that is how we can find our way on the Jesus way. We talked about that last Sunday morning. Also just a reminder about the glory of God. God’s glory was often on display in the Exodus story. He desires for his glory to be on display today through us. That’s how he works. As Israel began his journey according to the book of Exodus the glory of God was on display. It was on display in the the plagues in Egypt where God revealed himself as the only true God where he encountered all of the pantheon of gods and goddesses in that Egyptian worship system. The angel of the Passover. The parting of the Red Sea. The manna and the quail in the wilderness. The cloud and the fire. In Exodus 34 when God revealed himself to Moses his character his essence was on display. The glory of God is found throughout the book of Exodus. The Bible tells us as we keep reading and we keep learning about the glory of God in Isaiah 43 verse 7 the Bible says these are my people called by my name who I’ve intended for my glory. So God’s desire is for his glory to be on display. The glory of God is found throughout the book of Ezekiel 43 verse 2. We have a story here to tell us about she all that floated about with We have a story here to tell us about that in 1 Timothy 3 verse God is a generous God. And so, you and I can actually reflect the glory of God through generosity. So, let’s talk about generosity this morning. In the construction of the tabernacle, God offered his people an opportunity to demonstrate a spirit of generosity. Through giving their time, their talent, and their treasure. And I would say that he continues to call us to give generously as well. So, let’s just go back and look at this text in Exodus 35. Look at what God tells Moses. He said, this is what I want you to do. Tell the people of Israel, bring these things to the collection. And so, you read through this list. It’s gold, and silver, and bronze, and blue, and purple, and scarlet yarn, and linen, and goat hair, and ram skins, and leather.

And acacia wood, olive oil. Spices, all kinds of precious gems. In other words, what’s about to happen is, the children of Israel have built their own tents. They’re living in tents. God now says, it’s time for you to build my tent. And when we build my tent, this is what you’re going to use to build my tent. I will give you the instructions, but here are the materials that I need. He also says, bring your skills. Because I’m going to need you. I’m going to need you to use what you’re able to do. Skilled craftsmen and women are going to be employed together, and they are going to build God’s tent. And so, they’re bringing, and they’re going to have to make plans. They’re going to have to listen to the plan of God, because God’s going to give them a blueprint. And he is going to say, this is what I want you to do. Now, we’re all familiar with that, but we’re not accustomed to it being that direct. We usually put a committee together, right? Right. Everybody kind of gets to figure out what all needs to happen, and what color it needs to be, and what are the materials that you need. And we’ve done that here. Y’all know we’ve just been through a huge journey together called Blessing the Generations, where we renovated just about everything that we have, and built a new preschool children’s building, renovated this room, and I love this room. I love the beauty of it, and the symbolism that’s in this room. But it took skilled craftsmen. It took some time. It took some energy. It took money. It took all of us. To make this a reality. Well, that’s what’s happening to them. So, the Lord says, do this. But here’s what’s interesting. Did y’all notice how many times it said, those of you who are willing. So, this is something that’s happening on the inside of the people, where God is calling on them to demonstrate a spirit of generosity. It’s a tangible expression, investing their time, and their possessions, as well as their talents. Collect it all and organize it. Now, I want you to think about this for just a second. We do remember right now who these people are, right? You know what their immediate past is, right? Their immediate past history. They’re slaves, right? Guess what? They don’t have anything.

They’re slaves. They don’t have anything. But what happened on the way out of town? Y’all remember? What happened? What They plundered. They plundered the Egyptians. And they gathered this massive collection of gold, and silver, and precious gems, and precious wood, and all kinds of materials. Gold, I mean, purple, and blue, and scarlet yarn, and all kinds of possessions. All of that was given to them through the hand of God by the Egyptians. So, these are slaves who had nothing, and now everything they have has been given to them. Right? They haven’t really earned it, per se. It was given to them. And now they’re on a journey, and God says, now I want you to look at what you all have. And those of you that are willing, I want you to share some of that in the construction of the tabernacle. So, Israel responds. In fact, that’s what this text says. These people left Moses’ presence. Many of them went back to their tents. They gathered up some of these goods. They brought them to Moses. They also brought their talents. They brought their talents and their time, their skills, and their labor. They gave offerings, if you will. Now, here’s what God’s doing in the life of Israel right now. They are just beginning to emerge as a nation. And so, what God is going to just weave in to the very fabric of who these people are going to become is this idea that what they have belongs to Him, and they are to share a portion of it in His work, and it will benefit everybody.

Does that principle make sense? It’s something God is weaving into the fabric of who His people are going to become. It’s a spirit of generosity. It mimics who He is. He has proven to them already how generous He is. And we believe that to this day, right? We believe that our God’s a generous God. Amen? I mean, God has given us so much. And so, God weaves this into the fabric of who these people are. As a matter of fact, God is going to build into their entire system of worship a series of tithes and offerings. They’re going to have these tithes where they will give a tenth of what they have. There are three separate types of tithes that are going to be described in the law. And then there are all kinds of offerings. Ways that the children of Israel can just demonstrate how generous they are. As a matter of fact, if you were to read the book of Leviticus,

I mean, if you were to read the book of Leviticus, you get to Leviticus 7. Let me just give you this summary. There’s a whole listing of offerings on top of the tithe. Just a whole list of offerings. You get to Leviticus 7, verse 37, and Moses sums it up and says, So these are all the regulations for the burn offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, the ordination offering, and the fellowship offering. Didn’t include blessing the generations, but that’s because they’d already done that. For the tabernacle. Okay? So think about all these opportunities for Israel to be generous. So generosity is one of the ways that the glory of God can be on display through the life of His people. Now with that said, let me share with you just two or three principles of generosity this morning that are still in effect today, that were in effect then, that are in effect today. First one is this. God is the owner. We’re mere stewards of everything we have. Israel, they were slaves, and everything they had was given to them by God. Now you and I, I want you to think about me and you this morning, and I want you to spend just a minute to reflect on this because I believe this to be true. Everything you have, everything you have has been given to you by God. And you may say, now wait a minute, preacher. I get up early and go to work. I’m going to tell you right now, I’m working for a living. And I’m earning what I get. Well, who gave you the ability to get up and go to work for a living? Who gave you the brain that you use every day to get up and go to work for a living? Who gave you a body that will work every day so that you can get up and go to work for a living? Who provided you a system where you could actually live in it and work for something and receive remuneration? All of that is a gift from God. So everything we have is God’s. And if He wanted to, He could ask for all of it. He could ask for all of it back. True? He could. He could say, I’ll tell you what. All of this is mine. Give it all back. And what would you say? Now, wait a minute, Lord. You can’t have. It’s kind of like I remember one time when we went through a little situation. Man, this will embarrass one of my kids.

Okay, let me talk about it like it was somebody else. Somebody else had a kid one time who was getting grounded. And what that kid said to the parent was, you can’t take away my car. And that parent said, I didn’t even know you had a car. That’s really funny because that car out there in that driveway is my car. It’s not mine. It’s your car. Anyway, y’all know what I mean. Hypothetically, I’m telling a story that happened to one of y’all, I think. But the point is, it’s all God’s. All of it is. And yet, He allows us to steward it. And hopefully, you and I have learned the lesson of stewardship. So let me just ask you, how are you doing? How are you stewarding everything God has given you? Your time, your talents, your money, all your resources. And here’s what I’ve learned about people. People are funny. People sometimes are really good at giving away something they wish they had.

You know, maybe I’ve heard this old joke by these two farmers. And they’re really good friends, grown up with each other, lived close to each other their whole lives. And both of them played the lottery. And one of them said one day, he said, you know, John, you and I both play the lottery. And I’m going to tell you something. If I ever win that million dollars, I’d give you half of it. If you won the lottery, would you give me half of it? And John said, no. And John said, now, Clarence, you know as close as we are, if I was to win the lottery and win a million dollars, I’d give you half of it. He said, well, now, I was wondering, John, what if you came into a windfall? What if you got a hundred head of cattle all of a sudden? I mean, I think if that was to happen to me, good friends as we are, I’d give you half of them. He said, Clarence, you know good and well, if I was to come into a windfall and get a hundred head of cattle, I’d give you half of them. He said, well, John, let me ask you one other question. If you had two pigs, would you give me one of them? He said, Clarence, what you talking about? I said, you know I got two pigs.

It’s easy to give away what you wish you had, right? Sharing though what you have, now that’s a challenge, right? I read when I was studying for this sermon about a preacher who said he did this one Sunday morning, and this may date the story. But he said he told his church one Sunday morning, he said, all right, I want you to get your wallet or your purse out, men and women, and I want you to get the biggest bill out of your wallet or your purse and hand it to the person sitting next to you. Just hand it. Just hand it to them. And so he said they did that. He said, now, ushers, I want y’all to get up, get the offering plates, and those of you that got that bill in your hand, I want you to put it in the offering plate.

And he said it turned out it was really hard to do on both counts. It was hard for the person who had given the money to watch somebody else give their money away, and it was hard for somebody else who had just gotten that big bill to give that money away like it was theirs the whole time. Isn’t that fascinating about us? Now, I would say this to y’all. One of the things I love about y’all, and because I love this church, this is a very generous church. And I want to commend you on that because I believe that about you. And I think you and I have learned that lesson that we’re stewards. We’re not owners. We’re stewards. We’ve been given what we’ve been given, but we hold it loosely enough to care for it and do what the Lord would have us to do with it. But we’re not above sharing it. And so I just want to encourage all of us to continue in that journey of generosity because the principle is we’re not owners. We’re stewards. Second, God’s people provide for His work to be accomplished. I believe that with everything in me. When God has work to do, He calls on His people to do it. He calls on His people to give. Notice, God didn’t go to all the ites. He didn’t go to all the ites, the Amalekites and all that group to ask for the offering for the tabernacle. He went to Israel. These are the people of God. And the people of God are the ones who give to the Lord. To the work of God. And so that means we give our money. We give our skills. We give our talents. We give our time. Because you and I have been gifted by God. All of us have. The Holy Spirit has been given to us. Right? That’s what the Bible teaches us. And the Spirit of God has gifted us uniquely to serve the interests of the kingdom of God. Y’all remember when we began this year, we’ve been using Ephesians kind of as an underpinning. And remember in the book of Ephesians, we talked about apest. Y’all remember that? The apostles. The prophets. The evangelists. The shepherds. And the teachers. These are people that God’s given to lead the church. Well, the Lord, the reason the Lord has given these gifts is so that these people will take those gifts and use them for His glory in the leadership of the church. Just like He’s gifted every one of us. Some of you have the gift of hospitality. Some of you have the gift of administration. Some of you have the gift of leadership. Some of you have the gift of mercy or compassion. Every single one of us in this body. We’ve all been given gifts. Some of the gifts are, they lean more toward the leadership side. Some lean more toward the service side, if you will. Some may be very prominent. Some may be more in the background. But the bottom line is, it takes every one of us so that the work of God can be done. We cannot do it by ourselves. There would be no need to have a teacher if there’s nobody to be taught. There’s no need to have leaders if there’s no one to be led. And so every one of us, we are stewarding the gifts. The gifts that God has given to us, it’s not just our money. It’s our abilities. It’s our spiritual gifting. It’s our time. It’s our energy. It’s our skills. That’s what we’re supposed to give. You know, there’s an old story about this group that was trying to raise money in James Michener’s town. And they asked Michener, would you be willing to write something for us that we can use it to advertise? And he said, yes, I will. And so the deadline came and he didn’t turn it in. And so the lady that was in charge of it went by to see him. And she said, you know, we really were hoping you would write this for us. And he said, you know, I’m just really excited. I’m really busy. Let me just write you a check. And she said, with all due respect, Mr. Michener, we got people that will write checks. We just don’t have anybody that can write.

So would you write and we’ll get a bunch of checks. Well, that’s what happened. He finally realized what they needed from him was what he brought to the table. That’s how it works. That’s what God said to these people. They’re going to have to be some overseers. They’re going to have to be some craftsmen. They’re going to have to be some skilled people to build this tent because this is God’s tent. And yet it involves the people giving everything they had. So they should be able to do it. Well, that’s how it works, y’all. How does the work of the church get done? The work of the church gets done through the people of God. We do it together. And it’s a privilege to do it. It’s a privilege for me and you to put our hands on God’s plow and plow in God’s field and do God’s work and plant God’s seeds and enjoy God’s harvest. Amen? I mean, what better work is there? And so it requires something of every one of us. And here’s what I would tell you. Finally, God’s work. God’s work is worthy of our investment. It is. I mean, His work is worthy. Think about it. Right now, you’re in a church. You’re in this church. Many of you are. Awesome. This is a place where the gospel is proclaimed. Where we’re sharing the good news of Jesus. Eternal decisions are made regularly through the life and the ministry and the witness of a church like ours. People are formed. Spiritually, people find healing and hope for their lives. You get to participate in the very mission of God. You get to minister to hurting people. You get to celebrate with the people of God. You’re part of a church. You’re engaged in worthy ministry and you’re involved in it as you invest in it. And again, it’s more than money. It is money. Of course it is. But what better place to invest your money than in the work of the kingdom of God? And remember, God is woven into the fabric. Of who we are. A spirit of generosity. So that the common good can be experienced. And the people of God can do the work of God for the glory of God. That’s how this thing works. You know, when I was a small kid growing up, I’ll be honest with you. My daddy was a strict tither. And so, tithing was more of a duty to me as a little boy. You know, we went to work early when I was a kid. I had a little lawn business. And I had a little. I had a little envelope that we kept in one of the drawers in my room. And that’s where I put my money. Well, on Saturday night, Marvin would come inspect my envelope. And he would take out 10% of it and put it in another envelope that I took to church. That’s how my daddy taught me to tithe. Now, I’m not going to lie to y’all. There were a couple of occasions where I thought, I’m not sure I’m going to put this one in that envelope. Because my dad may find it. But you know, I learned he somehow found out about it. But every once in a while, he took a little extra just in case I was doing that.

So, what I would tell y’all is, in those early days, it was a duty. Does that make sense? It was just something I knew I had to do. And the last thing you were going to do in Marvin Wiles’ house is walk out of the house on Sunday morning and go to Wyland Baptist Church without your Bible and your envelope. I’m just telling you, that was not going to happen. And that envelope had little checks on it. You read your Bible and you made. Y’all remember those days? And when you got to the church, we had a little. We had a little scorecard that’s set up here just to the preacher’s left. And it gathered everybody’s stuff up and just printed out right there. It was kind of like a baseball player. Every time you come to bat, there it is. This is what you’re batting. This is how many hits you got the last time you struck out. I mean, you can’t hide as a baseball player. It just is what it is. That was the way our church was. You showed up and you’re looking around the room. And you think, man, only 50 people read their Bible this week. I wonder if that was you. I mean, we got 400 here. So, I wonder who’s not reading their Bible. So, it was a duty. But as I grew, as I grew, y’all, it changed. I no longer view it as a duty. I see it as a joy, as an ability for me, Dennis Wiles, to actually have my hand on the plow. Not just tithing, but the giving of who I am. Does that make sense? Are y’all still with me? Okay, because, you know, sometimes you’re talking about money. Everybody leaves. So, they don’t walk out. I just mean they just leave. Let me read to you this quote from Douglas Stewart. He’s written a beautiful commentary on Exodus. He says this. Part of the privilege of serving God. Is to be found in the opportunity to donate to His purpose things that in His common grace He’s already entrusted the possession of His people. The highest honor a person can have in connection with anything he or she owns and might otherwise have used for self is seeing it given over to and incorporated into that which God thereafter owns and uses for His honor. I love that. Because I have the option of taking everything I have and just using it. I’m using it for myself. I have that option. All my time. All my energy. All my gifts. All my money. Everything. Or I could share what the Lord has given to me. Here’s what’s fascinating. I don’t know if y’all have ever read this or not. But, you know, if you go to the, if you keep reading in this story, you get down to page 36, verse 5. And the skilled workers said to Moses, The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commands. It’s commanded to be done. Verse 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 because they already had what was more than enough to do all the work. Moses sent a message out and said, Quit giving. We have too much. Isn’t that awesome? Talk about generosity. You know something I never thought about before? I mean, that’s an incredible story. But in this, One of the commentaries I was reading this week, This thought just never occurred to me. One of the commentators said, What if there were people in Israel? Because the Bible says they gave those who were willing. What if there were some who didn’t give? And then kind of here at the last minute, They decided, I think I’m going to go ahead and give. And Moses said, Too late.

I’m sorry, it’s too late. We’re done. So I started thinking about that. Can you imagine some boys playing and, And, of a sudden, The tabernacle gets dedicated and, Y’all know you’ve read that story. And the glory of God descended. And it was powerful and awesome. And so I’m just imagining, What if a group of boys were playing and they came home, Each one of them. And one of them comes running home to his mom and dad and says, Mom and dad, You’re not going to believe it. We saw it. The glory of God just fell on the tabernacle today. And it was awesome. And all of us boys got to talking. And we helped make that happen. Because we gave. And what we gave helped build that tent. And God has filled that tent up with his presence. And that mom and dad looks at that boy and says, Well, son, you know, actually, our family didn’t help with that. We didn’t give. In fact, when we decided to give, it was too late. You see, we were too busy taking care of our own tent. And we missed out.

Wow. Let that thought sink in for a minute. I guess what I want to say to y’all is, Don’t miss out. So, if you’re joining us online and you’re not a part of a church, Get in one, is what I would say. Become a part of one. Become a part of this one. Become a part of what God’s doing. Don’t miss out. Because you don’t want to miss out. Do y’all know that the greatest, most powerful, most significant, Most impactful, most eternally significant movement on earth today, You know what that is? It’s the church. Now, you may not think that when you watch CNN and Fox News and MSNBC And whatever it is that you watch. But I’m here to tell you that the greatest, most powerful, Most significant, most powerful, most powerful, most significant, Most impactful, most eternally significant movement on earth today is the church. Don’t miss out on it. Invest in it. Your time. Your talent. Your money. The church. Because the church is the instrument that God himself is using to accomplish his mission and serve his purpose. Don’t miss out on being involved in the kingdom of God coming on earth. And his will. And his will being done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. And amen. Let’s pray together.

Father, today we want to thank you for all that you’ve given us. My goodness, Lord, you are generous.