Sermon Tone Analysis

Passages: Exodus 25:1–9; 31:1–11; 36:2–7

Central Thesis: Worship – Experiencing the Beauty and Mercy of God leads to amazing Generosity

Communion:

Intro:

yada-yada-yada

There is so much in these chapters we could talk about!

YHWH’s instructions are presented as seven speeches:

25:1-30:10: Tabernacle and furnishings

30:11-16: Atonement money

30:17-21: Wash basin

30:22-31: Anointing oil

30:34-38: Incense recipe

31:1-11: Appointing Bezalel and Oholiab

31:12-17: Sabbath

Right now, today, right here in the Twin Ports, God is inviting us, you and I, to participate with him, making room for his presence, bearing his name…

Like Israel, we are invited to bear the name of Yahweh by becoming a kingdom of priests, a set-apart, holy people among all the other people in the Twin Ports, so that the everyone can see the character, the image of God…

and there are very specific and encouraging things we can learn from this moment with Israel beside Mt Sinai…

Read the passage

Yahweh invites everyone to participate, and we get to choose our level of involvement

25:2 “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering.

You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give.

God who created us, seems to honor our agency, he allows us to decide our level of engagement.

Remember, he is entering into a covenant relationship with us.

Healthy relationships have an element of give-n-take, shared expectations and commitments.

We are not enslaved, we get to choose whom we serve (Bob Dylan's reminder, You Gotta Serve Somebody, is so fitting).

This invitation is for our own benefit; we are better off when we follow the way God has designed our lives to function.

And yet, he allows us to decide.

We have a choice in this church community to engage, or watch from the sidelines.

It's your choice how much relationship you want.

We will always be offering opportunities to engage, and we have a commitment to never try to manipulate you into being involved.

Over the years some folks have asked us to stop offering opportunities, because they felt guilty for not being involved more.

"I'm really sorry you feel guilty.

And I'm never going to stop offering opportunities for your growth, your transformation, deeper relationships, and opportunities to love your neighbor as yourself.”

And let me say this clearly: some of you are involved in other organizations outside of the Vineyard…WAY TO GO!

I think we need to be involved in every organization we possibly can in the greater Twin Ports.

We get to bring the power and presence of the resurrected Christ everywhere we go, and we should go everywhere.

And think of this community, this church, as the family that supports and encourages and empowers and helps to sustain us along the way.

In fact, we're beginning to build a list of all the other places our community serves so that we can specifically pray for and encourage and train each other to do amazing work throughout the community.

If you want to fill out the connect form and tell us where you serve, we'd love it!!

So everyone got invited to participate…

Let's skip to the end at look at the result of this request for an offering…

This might be the only time in the history of God's people that the leaders had to ask the people to stop contributing!

You have no idea how many times I’ve prayed to have this be my problem!

What is it that most impacts our generosity?

I think its our personal experience with the love/grace/mercy/beauty of God.

The Israelites had been in Egypt for 400 years, and the brutality of the slavery, the mistreatment they experienced had gotten quite intense—remember after Moses was born, all the baby boys were being systematically killed?

They're generosity is a direct result of their experience of an amazing rescue!!!

This reminds me of a time Jesus was at a Pharisee's house?

That story kinda speaks for itself.

What about you?

I remember what my life was like before meeting the resurrected Christ.

I remember the experience of believing that this life was all there was.

I clearly remember what life was like with very little faith/hope/love in my tank.

I love reading about how, when the Holy Spirit gave birth to the church early in the book of Acts—generosity erupted!

Generosity, it turns out, is a telltale mark of the presence of God in the church…

and the generosity was still there a few weeks later…

…and we keep seeing generosity expressed by the church as it spread throughout the Roman empire…

How does this apply to us?

My job as a pastor is not to try to coerce you into giving…not at all.

My job is to help you experience the grace/love/mercy/beauty of God in such a way that your imagination and desires are captivated, that you experience transformation at the deepest levels, and then, through the leadership of the Holy Spirit, you become the kind of person, who, in covenant relationship with God, you are able to bear his name alongside us to the rest of the world!

"…from everyone whose heart prompts them to give."

What needs to be transformed in your heart…what healing needs to happen at the deepest part of your being…what perspectives or paradigms need adjusting…what transformation needs to take place for you to participate in a god-like extravagant generosity?

The kind of generosity that actually reflects the love/grace/mercy/beauty of God?

And you want to know what's really cool about this…

God has already provided everything we'll need

The raw materials

Do you ever wonder where they got all of these precious metals, the precious stones, the expensive colored fabric and all the other stuff necessary to build this crazy tabernacle?

The Egyptians gave it all to them for free when they escaped!

Look at the collection of what they’ve got: gold, silver, 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, onyx other gems.

There is a Hebrew word, tach-ash, that no one has ever really know how to translate—in this translation we have “another type of durable leather.”

Depending on your translation you might read: badger skin, goatskin, hides of sea cows, manatee skins, narwhal even porpoise or dolphin skins!

Nobody really knows what kind of leather that was, but I’m pretty sure the tabernacle was dolphin free, just like your tuna!

Remember Yahweh telling Moses that the Egyptians were going to provide all this stuff way back at the burning bush…

Right before the last plague, the death of the firstborn, Yahweh gives them this reminder:

and then immediately after the death of the firstborn…

I love the way God knows what we need long before we need it.

There were probably several moments along the way when Moses and the rest of Israel were so focused on surviving in the trenches that they forget about or just completely doubted God’s promised provision.

Or even they way they’ve carried it through the wilderness…do you think any of them ever wanted to Marie Kondo those “manatee/badger/porpoise” hides?

A detailed plan

So they’ve got all the raw materials, and God is showing Moses exactly what to do with it all, what the tabernacle supposed to look like, and how its meant to be used.

Remember that Moses is on Mt Sinai, peering through the sky-dome and seeing something of what God’s throne room looks like.

So much of this section is detailed verbal blueprints of things [I think] Moses is actually seeing—this is utterly crazy.

God’s provided the raw materials, and a detailed plan.

They are not on their own, wandering around in the wilderness just trying to make something up…

You may not realize it, but the Holy Spirit has been leading the church in much the same way for a couple of thousand years, in every country, in people group after people group—just like this.

One of the reason I love to read biographies of men and women who followed Jesus, is because I need reminded, over and over again, of God’s faithfulness to reveal himself and lead his people throughout history.

And he’s completely faithful today!

In the context of community

And it always involves the community of God’s people.

God doesn’t show Moses stuff just for Mo.

And there’s no way Moses can collect or make or do all the stuff he’s being shown.

We can’t follow God independently—

I don’t know if you know this about us, but we are part of a much larger, very healthy organizational structure.

When we encounter difficulties, as every church does, we have a healthy organizational structure to rely on both here locally, and throughout the country, and even around the world.

There are people I can call.

There are people our leaders can reach out to.

There is support and help and people who love us…and it works!

That’s why we have the small group, and leadership structure we do here…all of us need healthy community, and we need to be healthy community for others.

If you’re not currently a part of a small group or ministry area here in our church, can I plead with you to change that?

It’s still up to you!