The Monkey Trap
I graduated from High School in 1973. My parents had just separated. I was preparing to leave the island to attend Bethany Bible College. It was an incredible step for me. I was answering what I felt to be a call from to God to go and preach the gospel. The thought of preaching was at one time an absolute nightmare to me. I was not raised in a churched home and I had never seen a preacher who represented any kind of an appealing role model to me. I assumed that they were good men but not real men. Part of my difficulty with the call was that I felt that somehow I was surrendering something masculine within me. Even in becoming a Christian I felt that I was becoming less a man. I know today that these feelings were not accurate. Wayne Briggs had just been hired by the Wesleyan churches on the island to serve as a youth pastor. Thurland Brown and I received a government grant to work with Wayne that summer. I don’t ever remember a sermon that I heard on tithing but I knew that I had to begin this practice. So from the $1000 that I earned over the summer, I gave $100 dollars. In the last couple of days before leaving that summer I visited some of the church folk who had been an encouragement to me. When I got on the ferry to leave I had been given $110 dollars from these various people. As a young Christian I saw a message in the money that I gave and the money that I received.
Ø God cares for our needs when we give to Him.
Ø He always gives back more than we give to Him.
Ø It is the right thing for Christian people to honor God with their tithe.
When Elaine and I were expecting our first baby we were living in Allentown PA. I was working three jobs and going to school at United Wesleyan College. We were renting a two bedroom apartment . There was an empty room there for the baby. I mean empty. One week before the Kristie was to be born there was no furniture in this room. We had an appointment at Allentown General Hospital for December 18th, 1978 at 8:00pm. They were going to induce delivery. It was Tuesday the 12th and Elaine was frantically searching through the paper looking for used baby furniture and she found what looked like a great deal. Crib, changing table, high chair, the whole deal for around $50. We made an appointment and went to look at the goods. The people were very nice and we told them that we wanted the furniture and would arrange to pick it up on Friday.
It was about ½ hour drive from town and on the way back, Elaine and I had a discussion. I had fallen behind on my tithe and wanted to make it up in church on Sunday.
We didn’t even like the church we attended but we gave regularly. I didn’t enjoy the preaching most Sundays. That had something to do with the fact that I worked a night shift as a Pinkerton Security guard most Saturday nights and tried to stay awake on Sunday mornings. There is a direct correlation between what you glean from a Sunday morning service and a sermon and how late you stay up on Saturday night. I have found that the earlier I get to bed, the better the preacher preaches. You know what else, Elaine and I hated the music. It was high church and trained voices and it just didn’t do a thing for me. We went there for the two years that we spent in Allentown. What does “liking your church” or your pastor have to do with giving? What does “liking the music” have to do with giving. When you refuse to give to God you are not making any kind of statement to anyone else but the Almighty.
We were convinced that when we gave we were putting the money directly in God’s hands. The church people would have to answer to God as to how they used our money or how they ran the church. God had simply asked us to give. The church was “the storehouse” and we are told in the scriptures to bring the tithe into the storehouse.
6 “I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ 8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 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 you will not have room enough for it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty. Malachi 3:6-12 (NIV)[1]
Anyway – back to the baby story. We had a choice to make. We could buy the baby furniture. It was a legitimate need for us and we were not buying luxury equipment. It was adequate and it was clean but that was about the best you could say. Or we could catch up on the tithe. We talked about it all the way home. It was more difficult for Elaine. The fierce mothering instincts were kicking in. I didn’t understand that babies needed their own room and so much stuff.
Friday morning came and we had reached consensus. I would call the folks, apologize and tell them that we were going to have to pass on the furniture.
The phone rang and I told them who it was. The voice was warm and excited, the lady remembered me immediately. She told me that they had borrowed a van and the furniture was all packed up. They had decided that they would make the ½ drive and would be in to see us early in the evening.
I didn’t know what to say. After she had gone through all the preparation and was so excited to do something for us, I couldn’t complete the purpose of my call. I tried to sound excited, I thanked her and hung the phone up.
I told Elaine what had transpired. The mother inside her leapt for joy. I suspect that she was suspicious of something Divine at work. I was just feeling bad that one more week would pass without being able to honor God financially.
The cargo van pulled into the parking lot at 7:00pm on the nose. There were three or four people who began to unload “stuff”. Much more stuff than we had seen at the house. They just kept coming. I never lifted a finger. They even brought tools to assemble the crib. This was a personal blessing to me.
When they were all done they sat with us for a minute in the living room. They feeling that they had done something very special and I loved seeing that on their faces.
Real joy for the Christian – you know what – for anyone – comes in serving others. The scripture tells us in Romans 12:9-13
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. [2]
Joyless Christians are self-serving Christians. God help us to get lost in a world of people who need Christ. God help us to realize that when we sit idle, the world looks wrong, the church looks wrong. Inactivity turns saints into cynics. Everything looks better when we begin to serve.
I gave them a check for $50. We thanked them once again and they left.
About ½ hour later the phone rang.
It was the lady who had just been with us, doing something for us. She said, “My husband and I have just been talking, we ripped up your check. Merry Christmas.”
I put $50 in the offering plate at Bethany Wesleyan that Sunday morning and slept through the sermon.
Repeatedly I have learned in my life that God will take care of me. I am humbled by that realization. I have not always been faithful. The longer I serve Him, the more I realize how much unlike Him I really am and how much He loves me despite all that.
11 Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
12 if we endure,
we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
he will also disown us;
13 if we are faithless,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.
[3] 2 Timothy 2:11-13 (NIV)
God has shown himself most sufficient to me. It has not been the occasion but the pattern.
You know what a monkey trap is? In Africa the monkey hunters drill a hole in a coconut, or gourds, just big enough for a monkey to stick in his hand and arm, so long as the hand is open and extended. However, if the hand is in a fist, it cannot enter or come out.
These coconuts or gourds are filled with nuts and firmly fastened to a branch of a tree. When the hungry animal discovers this, he quickly grasps a handful of nuts, but the hole is too small for him to withdraw his clenched fist.
The monkey hunters come. The monkey is screaming in fear, but he is captured, because he is holding onto some worthless nuts which become more important to him than his freedom. And he doesn't have enough sense to open up his hand and let go in order to escape, so he is easily taken captive.
This is a picture of many Christians. The devil with his crafty devices tried to ensnare them. He appeals to the appetites of the flesh which can lead to their spiritual downfall. As long as they hold on to worldly bait, they cannot escape from Satan's trap. But he keeps on urging, "Don't let go! Enjoy the pleasure of your sin just a little bit longer!" So, listening to the tempter's alluring voice, they continue in their evil way.
Let me tell you today about 3 “monkey-like” characteristics of people who back away from God at the point of decision.
1. Clenched hands.
Like the monkey one of the greatest hindrances to God’s working in our lives is that we are closed. We have something in our hands that we refuse to let go of. We are afraid that God will take something away from us and so we hold tightly to our worthless treasure and impoverish ourselves spiritually.
And you today, brother or sister, what do you have your hands clenched around. What are you holding on to that may ultimately be your spiritual downfall? The trap is a harmless thing. The spiritual peril lies in whatever it is that makes us grasp things that are worthless rather reaching for things that are priceless. God holds those things for you today.
What are those things we refuse to release or let go of. It is what we have that keeps us from what we are looking for. We grasp things thinking that they will bring satisfaction and peace. When we don’t find it we begin to look further, to acquire further. It is what we have that keeps us from experiencing God’s greatest blessings. Not just “stuff” but
Ø attitudes that we believe we are justified in holding,
Ø traditions that serve no purpose but to handicap the church as it attempts to reach out effectively to the current generation,
Ø a mind that constantly is at work justifying my disobedience,
And just like the monkey, our hands are so full of nothing that there is no room for God’s blessing. God can’t pry our fingers from our bobbles and trinkets to replace them with His treasure.
One by one He took them from me
All the things I valued most; 'Til I was empty-handed,
Every glittering toy was lost. And I walked earth's highways, grieving,
In my rags and poverty. Until I heard His voice inviting,
"Lift those empty hands to Me!" Then I turned my hands toward heaven,
And He filled them with a store Of His own transcendent riches,
'Till they could contain no more. And at last I comprehended
With my stupid mind, and dull, That God cannot pour His riches
Into hands already full.
-- Unknown
The things that I am hanging on to. Spiritual “blankies”. We drag them through the dirt and at some point they become disgusting objects. Appropriate for us in our infantile years but repulsive when they should be long gone.
We have to constantly watch what Taylor is picking up. And often what she picks up we take away because we know that in the stage of infancy there are many more dangers for a person who lacks the ability to recognize what is ultimately harmful to them.
2. Closed hearts
In closing our hands around our treasure, we also close our hearts to God. In practical terms, when we hold on to our own treasure, we cannot possibly receive anything from God.
It is impossible to receive from God with a closed heart. You cannot receive from God without letting go. So many people refuse to believe that God has something better for them. He is better able to bring peace to my life than I am. He is a more proficient provider than I am. Often God brings the best to us when we have emptied ourselves.
3. Confined Horizons
And finally, we forfeit our freedom because we give it up for the things that are secondary. My world becomes small and confined – a prison of my own making. Many people exchange bondage for bondage. It is the bondage of an old life for the bondage of a new set of rules.
The spiritual shallow person is not normally the person who does not realize that a more substantial experience exists. He is the seasoned sun bather who refuses to venture out farther away from the shore. So he/she is confined to the shoals. Every perspective that they have is based on having two feet on the bottom or being able at any given time to touch the bottom.
Ø I can’t teach a Sunday School class. I’d be in over my head.
Ø I can’t facilitate a small group.
Ø I can’t do this or that. If we say it enough we come to believe it.
It is the most ridiculous statement that a child of God can make. I taught Tae Kwon Do class on Thursday evening and had one of my good students tell me that he couldn’t do something. I learned very quickly never to say that to my instructor. He was swift and merciless in his responses to me. He wanted me to try and never to utter those words. “I can’t.”
The following is an excerpt from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon relative to the battlefield conflict between David and Goliath:
I suppose you must have noticed how the disagreeable duties of life are somebody else's business. There was the married man -- well of course the didn't go because he had a wife and children who were dependent upon him. There was the old man in the camp who would have gone if he had been a younger man and there was the young man who would have gone if only he had had the experience of the older men. I don't suppose there were many people there who had not dreamed of doing it. I can quite believe that in imagination, again and again they had dodged that awful club of Goliath and driven their spear home to his heart. It is astonishing how brave men are in their dreams; how extraordinarily the world would get on if only it were governed by our imaginations rather than by our doings. There they were, some of them no doubt explaining to the others how easily the thing could be done, how they would do it themselves if only they had the time. An ancient picture? No--a picture of today! It doesn't matter what you call your giant. It may be the giant slavery, it may be the giant cruelty, or it may be the great twin giant of your day and mine--the giant drink and the giant lust. There they are and how many in the Christian churches imitating the Israelites in the camp? How many of the young men doing it, dreaming of giving their lives to great crusades? God's kingdom is not going to be helped by your dreams, or by talking of how you would do it if you were someone else, or had some lesser duties and responsibilities. Better to fight and fail; better to lose life and limb and all things than suffer this daily dishonor, this endless humiliation and advertisement to all the world that there is not a single soul of faith with enough pluck left to challenge this unequal encounter. What do you think the world thinks when it sees the church in the position of Israel? When David talks about the armies of the Living God it sounds like irony. Ah! Yes, and it sounds like irony today when you refer to the people in the churches as being the army of the living God and then think how thousands upon thousands of us are hiding our diminished heads simply because we are in the presence of these gigantic evils and wrongs of the modern world, waiting for God to send somebody else to do something. Somebody ought to do something!
I call that mind free which resists bondage of habit, which does not mechanically repeat itself and copy the past, which does not live on its old virtues, which does not enslave itself to precise rules, but which forgets what is behind, listens for new and higher monitions of conscience, and rejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions.
-- William Ellery Channing
Many people here today give more money to insurance companies than you do to God. You are preparing for your earthly future.
Bob Tucker gave this to me this week in an e-mail:
We seem to have insurance for just about anything.
1. You want to avoid catastrophic health costs.......Buy health insurance.
2. The dentist could cost a fortune.......Buy dental insurance.
3. You want to drive a car.......Accident insurance.
4. Bought a new home...... mortgage insurance?
5. VISA wants to sell me credit card insurance to cover fraudulent use.
6. Home insurance.
7. Disability insurance.
8. Travel insurance.
9. Extended warranties.
10. LIFE Insurance. Got to protect the family!
11. Afterlife insurance.... Available from any church at a mere 10% of your income.
But what steps are you taking to insure that you will one day be welcomed into heaven as a child of God?
As children bring their broken toys
With tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God,
Because He was my friend.
But then, instead of leaving Him
In peace, to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help
In ways that were my own.
Finally I took them back and said,
"Dear God, why are you so slow?"
"My child," He said, "what could I do?
You never did let go."
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[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[2] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[3] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Zondervan: Grand Rapids