Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): When it comes to giving and serving, the Lord wants us to do it with a willing heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion. We get a great picture of the right way to give in Exodus chapter 35, where the children of Israel brought a freewill offering to the Lord, and that's where we'll camp out today on Abounding Grace. Pastor Ed Taylor is at the tail end of our study in Exodus.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 35. I love this, notice in verse 20, it says, "And the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses." So the command from God was given, and then everyone left. They heard the invitation to give, and then they left. They departed. Why? I want you to see that there's not any pressure being put on them here.

Moses isn't guilting them, isn't saying you can't leave until, or as I've seen in a lot of churches where they'll have people at the doors, "You can't leave until we get this offering." They count the offering up on the stage. "It's not enough. You need to give more." That's not God. That's men ripping people off in the name of God, and God will deal with them.

Even today, if you have ever given under pressure, and you've ever given because you were genuinely worshipping God, sincere, and you believed the guy or the gal for a while and you're like, "Man," and you start beating yourself up, just trust the Lord with it and move forward. Don't regret, don't look back, just learn from it. Now you can come alongside someone else and say, "Hey look, this is what the Bible says. I know what they're saying, but this is what the Bible says." Every dollar you give, I have to say this too, for knowing this goes out on the radio, it's very important.

If you've ever fallen for sowing the seeds and you've ever given, and it was like, "Well, you're going to get a thousandfold or a hundredfold," you do have a responsibility for that. You know that, right? You need to repent of your greed. That's a greedy thing to do. "I think I want to give at church so I can get a hundredfold back." That's not a willing heart. That's a greedy heart.

There is an element where you need to take responsibility and say, "No, God, I don't want a greedy heart. I want a willing heart. I'm not looking for anything in return." Why would I look for anything in return, Lord, because you've given it all to me? I'm not looking for you to have this. Now God, you know my needs. You know my desire. You know I have this bill. You know I'm a single mom, a single dad. You know my needs, Lord. But I don't want to come to you greedy. I want to come to you humble.

I want to come to you asking and seeking and knocking, because that's what you told me to do. I don't want to fall prey to, in a weak, vulnerable moment, somebody's lie that if I sow some type of seed, then I'll get a hundredfold increase. Who knows what God wants to do in your life financially? I don't know. But I do know this: God sent his son Jesus Christ for you. He has given us his best.

And he, the Bible says, he's never seen the righteous beg bread. There's always going to be enough daily bread, daily help. And I love this, there's no pressure. Just go and pray about it. Just go and seek God. This is what he says. That's what Moses comes out and says, "This is what he says. Now you guys go." And they don't move ahead emotionally or by need, but prayerfully.

So pick up now in verse 21. Pick up where we left off in verse 23. "Every man with whom was found blue and purple and scarlet, fine linen, goats' hair, red skins of rams, and badger skins, they brought them. Everyone who offered an offering of silver or bronze brought the Lord's offering. And everyone with whom was found acacia wood or any work of service, they brought it. And the women who were gifted artisans spun yarn with their hands and brought what they had spun, blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen. And all the women whose hearts stirred with wisdom spun yarn of goats' hair."

"The rulers brought onyx stones and stones to be set in the ephod and then the breastplate, spices and oil for the light, and the anointing oil and sweet incense." Verse 29, "The children of Israel brought..." What? "A free will offering to the Lord." Why? "Because a free will offering is brought from a willing heart." They brought a free will offering to the Lord, all the men and women whose hearts were willing to bring material of all kinds of work which the Lord by the hand of Moses had commanded to be done.

Can you imagine the guy that didn't bring something? Just for a moment. The guy that goes, "You know, I'm going to keep my ram skin. It looks good in my garage, and I just want to keep it up there. I don't think God has enough rams." Can you imagine when the tabernacle was built and the offerings were made and the smoke was rising and the high priest went in once a year, there was something lost in him that he couldn't enjoy because he always went home to his garage, and it was right up there in his garage? Wherever he hid it, it was just always there. He didn't bring it in.

He might have even changed his mind along the way and Moses said, "We don't need it now. God's provided. We don't need it. You can keep it. You wanted to keep it, just keep it. We don't need it." And it always reminds me when we're announcing something here, when we do from time to time of what God has done. We have an event here, maybe we're hosting police officers or some testimony on the radio, or something, just some testimony out of the life of this little church family.

If you're not a willing giver, you're not a giver, I don't know how you can be joyful about it. It's joyful for the body of Christ for sure. It's joyful that God's doing something. But then you lose the joy of actually being a part of it. You lose the joy of being in it. Say, "Hey look, what we did. Thank you so much. You showed up, you gave above and beyond." And then you're sitting there going, "No, I didn't give anything. I kept it. I went to In-N-Out and you were just asking 15 bucks, well, that's what an In-N-Out is these days. I just went to In-N-Out." That was the choice that you made.

But the Lord wants you to participate. He wants you to give a little bit of your selfishness away. He wants you not only with your money, that's an easy... giving money is like a slam dunk. It's like a layup. It's so easy. It takes really no effort whatsoever. It has to come from the heart to put an offering to write a check to set up online giving, it's so easy. It's so easy to give. But what about those of you that are super talented? Like you can just do stuff. You can spin yarn, like these ladies.

It was super important. They were very talented. Or you can build things, or you can fix things, or you can figure things out, or you can troubleshoot, or you're really good with computers. Think of all the gifts and talents that are just in this room right now, just on a midweek Bible study, just a midweek service. And the question has to be, are you generous with that? Or does it always have to be for a buck? That's the only time you do this, only if you can do it for a buck.

When God says, "No, I want you to be generous here and I want you to be because you're the body of Christ. You represent me on the earth. I want you to use some of that." And we were going to learn this in Ephesians, aren't we? He talks about those who stole not to steal any longer, and what? To work with their hands, not only for themselves but also for others. And some of you are just gifted in so many ways, but you don't have a willing heart to share that gift.

You don't have a willing heart to give just when the Lord prompts you, just when you sense that this is something I just gotta... I'm going to give this one. I'm going to do above and beyond, whatever it may be. To be able to say, like for example, I'll give you an example of how we live this out. And by the way, we will not get through two chapters just so you know, because this is super important. As a church here, if you need help from a pastor, you call the church here. Even if you don't come to church here, you need help from a pastor.

One of the discussions we will not have with you is what it costs. There's no need to have that discussion. You want to know why? It costs nothing. All that's really required is that you get here and we have an open appointment. That's it, just at some time where a pastor's here. There's pastors here seven days a week at this church. Seven days a week there'll be a pastor here. If everything's going well and vacations hit and all that, there are men and women here seven days a week to minister to the needs of the community.

And there's no charge. You'll hear sometimes some of you go, "Well, how much is it?" and it breaks my heart that they would call a church and have to ask that question. What do you mean, "How much is it?" The price has already been paid. The Lord's already taken care of it. We're not professionals here. We'll never be professionals. We're just men and women who love the Lord. Hopefully, we'll be able to point you to the Lord. We'll be able to get your eyes back on the Lord.

Ultimately what can we do anyway but just encourage you and open the word of God to you and remind you how good he is and how faithful he is and how there's hope and if you'll get your eyes right back on the Lord he'll start to strengthen you and help you and you'll get through this hard moment, this hard season? And even if you don't get through this hard season, God'll be there on the other side of the hard season. That's what we have to offer you and there is never, ever a charge for that because the Lord's already paid the price.

You don't even need to worry about that. God has provided. And as you look at the willingness of your heart, you'll see that God will use you. Now you guys own businesses and stuff. God's not advocating, neither am I, that you just now turn everything to free and you don't have a business anymore. That's not God. He doesn't say that in the scripture. That's not what we're talking about here because you can talk yourself out of willingness by exaggerating what the Bible says and you go, "I could never do that."

Well, even if something God calls you to do that you could never do, what does the Bible say? That what's impossible with man is what? Possible with God. And he can do if it's the impossible, he can do it and he'll provide and you'll have a testimony. But generally what God is saying is would you just... God would gather us together today through the life of Moses, the children of Israel that's on this multi-million dollar project. Just coming out of Egypt. They have nothing. They've been slaves for hundreds of years.

And God says, "I want to show you what I can do with someone that has nothing." And it started when they left, right? They took all the stuff from Egypt, but then they were tested on it, weren't they? Because as soon as they get out of Egypt, they got all this stuff, the gold and everything, and who knows how they got it out or how they took it. It was a lot for God to ask for this. And it was already tested when they got to the Red Sea. It was like, oh, one of the options could they have thrown it away to lighten the load, like what do we have this stuff for?

But God told them to do it. And they stood there and waited for God to come through. And he did. And they went right on over the Red Sea on dry ground. And now he brought it about as of this day that God can say, "Okay, I want you guys to give out of a willing heart." And God has gathered us tonight just so we could lay our hearts before him and we can see and be honest if our hearts are being stirred toward giving, that our hearts would be stirred toward serving.

Hearts would be stirred toward continually keeping his church fresh on the earth today. And that's our instruction to the leadership here. Pray that God would stir hearts. Don't manipulate. Don't get caught up in the emotions. Don't use people, serve people. That's the true church of Jesus Christ. Mark chapter 10, verse 45 says God did... Jesus came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. He didn't come so that he would be served. He came to serve us and we're to follow in his footsteps.

And in our fellowship, there are always needs. And God meets them through prayer, through the faithful giving of willing hearts, and it's amazing to be a part of all that God is doing. Amazing stuff. To think back as we have been for the last year as we celebrate 25 years, I get very nostalgic as I start thinking back and even hearing Nathaniel and thinking of those trips to South Africa and that season. And even thinking back to Dave, as you think of Dave Gordon and Dave raising up JJ and all the men, we've only had two missions pastors in the life of our church and they're both super dynamic committed men, always stirring up.

And I just think, man, that's what God has done in my life. But I want you to think that God could take and speak to this guy in Southern California and says, "I want your life, and I want your wife's life, and I want your kids' life. And I want you to trust me so much that wherever I tell you to go, that's what I want you to do. No questions." Now of course I had a few questions along the way and I even went to a few wrong places along the way.

And yet God would lift a family, just five people. Lift a family in one place, plop them in another place and then collectively I'll use that little family and multiply my church, Jesus says, in an area that multiplies and multiplies. And you know you have the same testimony. It's not mine, it's yours. You think what God's doing with you and you think how God has captured your heart and you think about what's happening and what he wants and you go, "Well, I don't really see it."

Yeah, it takes some time to see what God's doing. You gotta be patient. You gotta wait on the Lord. God doesn't just want you to wait. He wants you to wait on the Lord. He doesn't just want you just kind of sitting around going, "Maybe something's going to happen." No, he wants to press in. Reading and praying every day, waiting for God to act, having your strength built up.

And then over and over again, do you see the repeating of the verb? They brought, they brought, they brought, they brought, they brought. That must have been amazing. Just over and over they brought, they brought, men brought, women brought. In verse 27, the rulers brought. In verse 29, check this out, it says in verse 29, "The children of Israel brought a free will offering to the Lord, all the men and women whose hearts were willing to bring material of all kinds of work which the Lord by the hand of Moses had commanded to be done."

They all brought, the men and women whose hearts were stirred. We see that happening within ministries here. We see that happening in this little corner in Southeast Aurora. God's continuing this work of moving his gospel forward. Building what God wants to do in a community. It blows me away to be a part of. And the longer you're a part of this church, this particular church or any fruitful church in town, the longer you're a part of a fruitful church, the more temptation you have to take it for granted.

So you're here a few weeks and you're seeing responses to the gospel. You're seeing actually more responses to the gospel, especially second service, than we've seen in years because God's never used me that way. It's always one here, zero here, minus five. That was a hard service over here. I'm just not that evangelist. I never have been, and I may not be. I don't know. I'm going to do the work of evangelist though. But you know what's going to happen because it's your church, right?

Bible study, invitation, response, prayer, yay, and then you know what's for dinner, what's for lunch, what's for breakfast, and you know, that just happens. It doesn't happen in every church, you know. It doesn't happen everywhere. It happens in places where God trusts the church with them. It happens in places where God is moving, is taking and leading people here. You know we give out cards and we think, "Oh yeah, it's the card." It's not the card. It's the Lord.

And we might do a little invite and post something on social media and it's great and we will, but it's not social media. It's the Lord. He's the one that moves on hearts. He's the one that leads. He's the one that saves. He's the one that convicts. He's the one that says, "I've been passing by that big building forever. I didn't even know it was a church until they put church up on the sign." Remember we changed the name not too long ago and, "Oh what happened, you changed the name?"

Just trust us. People don't know we're a church. That's it. And, "Oh, you, Ed, you changed the name and you put your name in it. Oh no, what kind of church?" Yeah, because people hear the radio and you know how they search. The second number one search or the second search on Google for this church, you know what it is? Ed Taylor. That's all. They're just looking for the church. That's all. They're looking for the church.

And now they can find because there's a sign and there's a nice bright sign on the corner and there's just saying, "Come on in." We got the guy over at 7-Eleven looking across the street and he says, "Hey you know what? That sign says they can help people that are addicted." You know what he does? He says, "You know, I'm addicted. I think I'll walk across the street and I'll walk into that church." All of this is the collective work of the Holy Spirit through you and through me. And it blows me away so that when you read this you go, "Oh yeah, oh yeah, brought, brought all these things just constantly over and over."

And then verse 30, as we close, "Moses said to the children of Israel, 'See the Lord has called by name Bezalel...'" These are the ones with all the talents. "The son of Uri, the son of Hur, the tribe of Judah, filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and understanding and in knowledge of all manner...'" Stop there for a second. Look at me. Stop there and come up back up here. It sounds like this guy's going to be a pastor, doesn't it? He's filled with all this wisdom and knowledge. It sounds like this guy just got out of seminary and he's well-trained and he's ready to go for it. He's the next priest. But it doesn't say that, does it? Because you read ahead before I stopped you. "In all manner of workmanship." His skills were all spiritual skills that were lived out physically.

Because the name of our beloved brother Avat has come up again, I just think of the career of our beloved Avat was in a big brown box truck driving around Denver, carefully delivering boxes up and down the buildings there in DTC. Always careful to meet the person, talk to the person, because like this brother, our brother was filled with the Spirit of God and wisdom and understanding and knowledge in all manner of drivership, I guess is what you would say. That's what the Lord called him to do and he was faithful.

So whatever God has you in life, wherever he's put you, that came from the Lord. That's where he wants you. That's the best place for you. You're right where you need to be. "Yeah, but Ed, you don't understand this dead-end job." I had a dead-end job for many years. I thought it was a consequence of all my sins. I really did, especially after I got saved. Before I got saved, I thought it was just because I was a horrible person doing so many bad things. This is the rest of my life.

When I got saved and I'm thinking, ah, it's the consequences of sin. And all the while God was using that little dead-end job to train me for ministry because I was in ministry. I remember the first time I worked in this little closet answering phones and dispatching ambulances and there was only two of us that fit in that room. I remember the first time I led that sister, that young lady that worked with me in that office, when I led her to the Lord.

And I still see her on Instagram, she's still walking with the Lord. She's got a family and grandkids and the Lord was that what I might see as a dead-end job, God says that's exactly where I want you. I want you to learn how to work there, I want you to learn how I just want you to look to me, Ed. And I wonder how many are hearing that tonight with your name that whatever it may be, perhaps whatever's stirring up discomfort, the Lord has you there and he's training you and he's using you.

It says this man was "designing artistic works," verse 32, "working in gold, silver and bronze, cutting jewels in setting and carving wood to work all manner of artistic workmanship. And he has put in his heart the ability to teach in him and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do all manner of work of the engraver and the designer and the tapestry maker in blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, and the weaver and those who do every work who design artistic works." So church, ask the Lord for a willing heart tonight. Ask him. Be open and available and we'll get to the next chapter next time.

Guest (Male): Today on Abounding Grace, we've been in Exodus as Pastor Ed Taylor is leading us verse by verse through this marvelous Old Testament book. If you joined us late or would just like to hear this message again, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com. Another way to take in a steady dose of God's Word is through the app. It's free. We're also on oneplace.com. Abounding Grace is made possible through the support of our listeners.

And when you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, we'll send you a copy of "When the Storm Hits" by Chuck Smith. Maybe you're in a storm even as we speak. Know this: the Lord stands by you. His purpose sustains you, and God's Word will encourage and guide you. So if you're feeling a little overwhelmed by the waves, see how to get anchored on Jesus the Rock as you read "When the Storm Hits." Call 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also get the book online at calvaryco.store.

And for those of you that are in the area or will be visiting soon, we hope you'll stop by for a worship service. Here at Calvary Church in Aurora, there are three services on the weekend. The first is Saturday, 6:00 p.m. There are three options on Sunday mornings at 8:00, 9:45, and 11:45. You can also join us Wednesday evenings at 7:00 as well. Gather more information and live stream at calvaryco.church. And then be sure to join Pastor Ed next time for more teaching from the book of Exodus. That's all right here on Abounding Grace.