Grace Place Givers - Hearts Stirred By God: The Punchline (Part 2) - 08/01/2021

July 23, 2021 Grace Place Givers - Hearts Stirred by God The Punchline Exodus 25: 1-9; 35: 4-9; 20-22; Exodus 36: 2-6; Nehemiah 4:6 Exodus 25: 1, 2 & 8 25 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering. 8 And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. Exodus 35: 4-9; 20-22 4 And Moses spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, "This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying: 5 'Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord: gold, silver, and bronze; 6 blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats' hair; 7 ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood; 8 oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; 9 onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate. 20 And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. 21 Then everyone came whose heart [b]was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the Lord's offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. 22 They came, both men and women, as many as had a willing heart, and brought earrings and nose rings, rings and necklaces, all jewelry of gold, that is, every man who made an offering of gold to the Lord. Nehemiah 4:6 So, we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. GM GP How many of you ever told a great joke and forgot the punch line or a great story and forgot the moral or the main point of the story. Go ahead and raise your hand and admit it. Well, this lesson is about recovering from a time you've missed a punchline or a senior moment when you couldn't recall the point you were making when you told a story. Before I get to the punchline of this message, I want to tell a joke and a story that on at least one occasion, I had a memory lapse and could not remember the punchline. I totally missed it. Here goes . . . #1 - The young minister asking the seasoned pastor for pointer on conducting his first wedding. When you can't remember something, just quote a verse of Scripture: Father forgive them for they know not what they do! #2 - You've heard me tell this one before: Good bedside manner is important for pastors to exercise when making home visits to the sick and shut-in. Well, one pastor was making an evening visit to one of the mother's homes whom he knew well. As he sat near the bed in his visit and they were enjoying one another's company, the pastor got hungry and noticed some peanuts on her nightstand. Being tempted, he reached over and grabbed a few; before you know it, he had eaten all of Mother Tate's peanuts. He apologized profusely. But Mother Tate calmed his anxiety quickly when she said: Son, no harm done. I can't eat those peanuts anyway - I've got no teeth. I just suck the chocolate of them and lay'em over there. The morale: Don't touch what doesn't belong to you without asking for permission. This morning, I must return to last week's message about our mortgage retirement because I for to share with you the very punchline that compelled me to minister on such a lesson from such a powerful passage of Scripture. So, I'm returning to last week's message to add the punchline. Allow me to highlight the main points we talked about last week. The message focused on acknowledging the GP Family and Friends of GP for your obedience and consistency in generously giving of your tithes, offerings and special contributions. You have given to the extent that as of Friday afternoon, July 23rd our final payment was submitted to the bank to the tune of retiring our church mortgage. This morning, our staff accountant confirmed that GP final mortgage payment has been signed, sealed and delivered and 4700 Mitchell Street is OURs - free and clear of all debt. To God be the Glory . . . for the things He had done. Given all of this, I cited two passages in Exodus Chapters 25 & 35 that I always dreamed of seeing God's people experience in modern times. Well, such a passage has become a REALITY for GP! Our message was and remains entitled: Grace Place Givers - Hearts Stirred by God Follow along with me in Exodus Chapter 25. Here, we see God sharing His plan with Moses for how He wanted the people to have an integral role in contributing to the building of His temple. God tells Moses to receive from the people an offering that would be an "offering of materials needed in creating the tabernacle or sanctuary". Listen to Exodus 25: 1, 2 & 8, it says: 25 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering. 8 And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. Moses' obedience to God in enlisting the help of the people is the start of something great and miraculous. He speaks to the people to bring an offering. The operative phrase in the request is "everyone who gives it willingly with his heart". The giving was all about God's sanctuary, nothing else. Not a church van, or a new gym, or a car for the pastor, or to jump start a new ministry. Only God's House, the construction of God's Sanctuary. The sanctuary or tabernacle was a tentlike structure which was to be God's dwelling place among His people. Just before the onslaught of covid, GP members were challenged to give toward accelerating the payoff of our mortgage. And the operative phrase was "give willingly and consistently". Despite the Pandemic, thank you GP for obediently responding to the voice of God. Now, turn to Exodus 35: 4-9; 20-22 Here, we see Moses giving instructions directly to the people for a free-will offering to the Lord that was to consist of materials for the building of the tabernacle (vv. 4-9). Listen to some of the specifics of Moses' instructions as Moses speaks directly to the people; keep in mind that God first spoke to Moses in Chapter 25, and now Moses in chapter 35 is instructed by God to speak to the people: Exodus 35: beginning at verse 4 . . . 4 And Moses spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, "This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying: 5 'Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord: gold, silver, and bronze; 6 blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats' hair; 7 ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood; 8 oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; 9 onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate. Moses was told to receive an offering from the people, but only those "members" who were of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord. 2 Corinthians 8:12 says: For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have. Grace Place members and friends, you first heard and accepted the appeal. Then, you acted. In fact, I believe at the very outset of the appeal being made, our finance team saw evidence of your willingness to obey and contribute to God's work. In verses 20 - 22 . . . We witness the response of willing givers. 20 And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. 21 Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the Lord's offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. 22 They came, both men and women, as many as had a willing heart, and brought earrings and nose rings, rings and necklaces, all jewelry of gold, that is, every man who made an offering of gold to the Lord. After hearing the appeal, everyone dispersed. Then, the test of the matter came to surface. A divine stirring erupted in the hearts of the people - those whose spirit were willing to give. Those who were willingly responded generously. Now, where did they get all material for the offering? It came from the treasures they had brought from Egypt (vv. 21-29). The precious metals, fine fabrics, skins, oil, spices, and precious stones were no doubt the payment the Israelites received from the Egyptians when they left Egypt. They had worked for these things as slaves, now as a free people they were giving it back to God sacrificially. Those who had given gold for the calf lost it all. Those who invested in the tabernacle had the joy of seeing their wealth used for the glory of God. GP members and friends gave consistently and generously. Where did ours come from: The Lord and the design of pandemic? Rather than decide, "Well, we're not in church, I'll just use my earnings for other things". Not so! You stepped up and made God's business a priority. Despite the pandemic, God continued to bless His people, and the people of GP returned a generous portion of God's blessings and resources back to the business of God's House. Next, we witness the Moment of TRUTH. The Punchline. In Chapter 36 we see the manifestation of what happens when the Lord stirs hearts and touches every willing spirit. What results is that the people respond BIG! They respond miraculously and generously. In response to Moses appeal the people brought the Lord's offering [and they brought it for three distinct purposes]: for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. In taking care of the Lord's house by generous giving, listen to Exodus 36: 2-6 . . . 2 Then Moses called Bez-a-lel and A-holi-ab [gifted craftsmen and anointed project leaders capable of teaching others their trade], and every gifted artisan in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, everyone whose heart was stirred, to come and do the work. God was very deliberate and selective in who would work on His house and work within His house. In particular, those who were gifted, wise, and whose hearts were stirred [moved, and super motivated] to show up for the work and do it. 3 And they received from Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of making the sanctuary. So, they continued bringing to him freewill offerings every morning. This is moving. This is GP! The people's response here is the manifestation of what God spoke to Moses in Exodus 25: 1 & 2. He said: 25 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering. God only wanted offerings received that were given willingly, not grudgingly. Offerings given from the heart, not out of obligation. Moses was instructed to take only offerings that flowed from a free will. Freewill offerings are unique to all other type offerings [ever the tithe] because they are directly from the heart. 4 Then all the craftsmen who were doing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work he was doing, 5 and they spoke to Moses, saying, "The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded us to do." The craftsmen stopped their work. They couldn't function, they couldn't concentrate. They were not greedy or dishonest. So, they acted out of wisdom and called a meeting with Moses and here's what they said: ""The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded us to do." Let that sink in. When has the church every had that kind of a "good problem". Now, that's what I call "Good Trouble". 6 So Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, "Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary." And the people were restrained from bringing, 7 for the material they had was sufficient for all the work to be done-indeed too much. The People Give More than Enough; in fact, too much. This is the PUNCHINE! They gave too much, more than enough. How did that happen? They trusted and obeyed God. They submitted to two things: His call and His cause. Grace Place Family, you have done likewise. You responded to God's call and committed to His cause. As a result of your willingness to give from the heart, you have given more than enough. That's the punchline for our church and more. You have given much more than we could have ever expected. And, the Lord has honored your giving. With that the real work begins. As pastor, I'm proud to say in the words of Nehemiah [ the famous cup bearer and lead project manager of the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem], from the book that bears his name, Nehemiah 4:6 So, we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. No doubt about it, GP Family you had a mind to work. First to contribute to the work, now as we anticipate the pandemic one day coming to an end, to put our minds, hands, and gifts to work. Today, GP, you are [again] appreciated and thanked to high heaven for your obedience and responsiveness. Your willingness to support God's Kingdom work through GP has blessed us to witness the faithfulness of God. Thank you for accepting the challenge. So, what's next: * Want to finish this month, and the balance of Summer months off strong financially. * Breathe and rejoice * Anticipate a Post Pandemic Celebration: Mortgage burning, food, festivities, and fellowship * Prepare to do ministry in areas that mortgage-free money will now allow: o Modernization Campaign - Improving GP Campus o Technology and Audio-Visual Enhancements o Paid Youth Director o Wooded Property Development o Friends of GP Non-Profit- Outreach - Afterschool Care, Summer Programming and other community programming o And more. So, how will we accomplish this and more? The answer is found in Nehemiah 4:6 . . . So, we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work. THANK You GP . . . . More to come!!! 1