Imagine that
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A weird thing happened to me about a year ago back at work, as a special education teacher. The special education teachers at my school and I received an email asking us for help. There were several unfilled special education teaching positions and that had run out of people who normally complete the individualized education plans for the students. They needed some expert teachers to help them.
I looked at my fellow teachers who have 4 and 3 years experience at the time, and said oh no. We are the most experienced. The look of fear in all of our faces was intense.
A truly smart person knows that they don’t know a whole lot.
Imagine that you received a call today, this day when Tik Tok is no more, that you are to write the new app, the one that all the teenagers, will be using for the next 5 years. You. I don’t care if you can’t live without your phone or you can remember the password to your email, the CEO said that you are the expert and you need to make the new app.
Pretty crazy huh?
What if instead of an app, imagine that you are in charge of picking the US gift for the next prime minister of Canada. Your ideas, whatever they are, that is what the entire nation will be giving as a gift to the new leader of our closest ally and most important trading partner.
Don’t all these scenarios seem ridiculous? You or me, being the person chosen for a gift from our country to another, a new app that would be a gift to the world. Yet, each and every week, you of all people, are invited to bring a gift to the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the creator of heaven and earth. You are asked to bring a gift to God.
That’s insane. This was the attitude of the next person who talked about Hope in the Bible. It’s surprising but it’s all about giving and comes from a place of humility.
Here is our verse
15 For we are aliens and temporary residents in your presence as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
Another verse that you will not be able to purchase on a sign at Hobby Lobby. What’s even more impressive is what is happening in the context of this verse, or why this is even said. It is happening at the announcement of an offering
King David is praying,
10 Then David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly. David said, May you be blessed, Lord God of our father Israel, from eternity to eternity.
11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in the heavens and on earth belongs to you. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom, and you are exalted as head over all.
12 Riches and honor come from you, and you are the ruler of everything. Power and might are in your hand, and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all.
13 Now therefore, our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name.
14 But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your own hand.
15 For we are aliens and temporary residents in your presence as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
16 Lord our God, all this wealth that we’ve provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand; everything belongs to you.
17 I know, my God, that you test the heart and that you are pleased with what is right. I have willingly given all these things with an upright heart, and now I have seen your people who are present here giving joyfully and willingly to you.
18 Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our ancestors, keep this desire forever in the thoughts of the hearts of your people, and confirm their hearts toward you.
19 Give my son Solomon an undivided heart to keep and to carry out all your commands, your decrees, and your statutes, and to build the building for which I have made provision.
20 Then David said to the whole assembly, “Blessed be the Lord your God.” So the whole assembly praised the Lord God of their ancestors. They knelt low and paid homage to the Lord and the king.
Here is the situation:
David is nearing the end of life. David makes Solomon king.
David desires to build the temple. Before this the worship of God was done in a tent.
This is a massive building project, done by the gathering of the King’s materials stuff he owns
People also gave of their wealth to build the temple.
Imagine the most expensive or most important project, trip, purchase you have ever done in your life. That was this for David.
It is in this offering that David prays
14 But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your own hand.
15 For we are aliens and temporary residents in your presence as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
David points out what we all know in the presence of an almighty God we are nothing. God, the creator. God the sustainer. The God who answers the prayers of the woman in Mongolia, the child in Bulgaria, and the man in New Zealand. And some of us can’t even remember where we put our keys. Yet we get to bring something to God.
He is the God who comforts the pains of the child as well as the desperate cries of the grieving mother.
The one who created it all with just his voice and can end it all as well.
And we are the ones bringing him a gift to thank him. We are nothing compared to him. He is eternal and at most we can get 120 years and most of those will be years where we can do very little.
God is always at work, always loving, always caring, always redeeming and we get to give him something.
This is the proper attitude, but is it our attitude?
Think about all the ways that churches have to ask for people’s money. The place where God is to be worshipped:
Reminders about all the opportunities to give
Bake Sales, Raffles, (never should be done to raise money from church members)
What if we don’t thank people for their gifts?
Obviously, their are people involved. Accountability needs to happen when it comes to money. The first three people to betray the church did so through Money - Judas betrayed Jesus and Ananias and Saphira betrayed the church with lies about their gifts.
But seriously as I talk and you tune in to me, take a second and go above this, where is your mind going and why?
Examine your attitude to God in giving. Your attitude to where you are presenting your gifts to God. And what you are giving to God.
This attitude of giving should show who we think God to be. Is God our Hope?
2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Does it?
Or is our attitude that our help comes from Money and God needs to keep it rolling for us to love Him?
Jesus said
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
It’s true in all areas of life. Where the money goes thats what matters to people.
You want to know something really expensive right now:
Medical Insurance. You know why? Because people really value their life.
I see it from Being involved in the Teachers Union:
Problems that comes in the district.
Always negotiating about the issues in the district. There will be problems that can be solved. Often management will try to solve problems with just their voice. Putting people into positions where they have to work harder. No training, no new materials, no people help. Nothing that costs.
What they pay, that’s what matters.
Think about your own life, when you are willing to spend money on that’s what matters to you
Where does God rank in that? Where does God rank in your generosity?
If we truly have the heart that God is God. That He matters. That we worship Him through the local church. That what happens here matters to God. That God is where our hope comes from.
Those things matter don’t they?
We can talk a lot, just like the school district does to teachers, but our actions do reveal our actual faith.
Have you given more to good causes like the Red Cross helping in disasters, or to like animals through the Humane Society. These are good things. Or to a person begging or as they would say, “flying” in the middle of the road or sitting on the side of a building. If you added up all of these gifts would that be more than you have presented to God through your church?
For many of you the answer will be no. You regularly give to God through this church. You give every time you get paid. You give because God has given so much to you. He is worthy of our honor. I give because God is worthy.
This sermon is a moment to say, what is our attitude in this giving. God, the God of all, allows us to give to Him. He is worthy.
Jesus loves me, He loves you and he loves us even when we didn’t care about him.
8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This is the God who loves us so much that he comes to save us from being separated from God.
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
And even if he didn’t do all that for us He would still be worthy of our honor and praise. He is still the God Most High.
But he also is the God who comes to the low like us.
Realizing how low we are compared to God is good for us. It is called Humility. It is becoming aware of our actual place in all of this. This whole universe.
It is especially good for us when we serve or give to God. You know it’s good, because have you ever had this experience.
Ever had a child of yours do a chore around the house, a simple one like clean by taking the stuff that you bought for them: their toys and clothes back to their room. Then they tell you that you have to do something for them? Like my kid takes his toy back to his room and then comes downstairs and tells me I must give him time on the tv with his playstation.
Ever seen that? I’ve done it as a kid. The kid takes back the thing that I purchased and does the job they should’ve done without anyone having to tell them and then demands new payment.
Be very careful that you are not that way towards God.
When we reflect on where we truly line up, as David did before God.
14 But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your own hand.
15 For we are aliens and temporary residents in your presence as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
In this we can be at awe, that Jesus said, that we have hope today. Because of him we have hope. We no longer worship a God we don’t know, That because of Jesus everything changed.
21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.
23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.
24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
We worship in spirit and truth. Without need for a temple, because the Holy Spirit dwells in us.
But in this amazing blessing let us never, ever forget, God is where our help comes from. In truth, God is where our hope is.
But in humility we must ask, Am i hoping for what God is doing? Or Am I trying to make God do what I want?
But in humility we must ask, Am i hoping for what God is doing? Or Am I trying to make God do what I want?
As we come upon this use of hope it requires rejoicing or repentance. Rejoicing in that God would love someone as insignificant as us. That He would come for us. Die for us paying the punishment for our addictions, our failures, our shames, our foolishness. And He knows us by name!
It is a day where you thank God because
5 Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth.
And / OR it is a day of repentance. When we finally admit we think about ourselves as too important. It is a time to repent, to finally remember God is God and we are not. We confess to God that we have failed to remember His majesty and holiness. We will remember or maybe for the first time admit that we need to follow Jesus and not try to lead Jesus
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
If this is you today, pray this prayer, commit your life to Jesus, and follow Him and I’m going to ask you to do something a little different. Put your actions where your words are. I don’t care how but don’t just talk this commitment, but truly think through what kind of gift you can present to God and then do it. Not to earn God’s respect. Please, did we cover that we can’t do that. He doesn’t need anything from us. This is all for you. Give him something that actually means something to you. That costs you. That shows that you value Him. Give it beyond your control as David did, a gift to God to build a temple He would never see.
14 But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your own hand.
15 For we are aliens and temporary residents in your presence as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.