A Penny in My Pocket

11/24/13  (Adapted from 9-11-11)
Giving Series:  Part 1, “Trust is Everything”

Hebrews 3:1-19                                                        Notes Not Edited

SIS – Thanks-giving, like all giving, is at its foundation a matter of trust.

People don’t often make a connection between “giving thanks” and “giving money.”  There is, in fact, a deep spiritual connection.  Generosity is a response to God’s provisions.  All giving, whether to a homeless man on the street or through the church, or through whatever avenues of charity one uses, all giving is related to trusting God.

When we are generous it says that we trust the Performance of God.  As he has provided in the PAST, He’ll continue to provide in the present and future.  Generosity is a response to the PERSON of God.  When we reflect upon Who God is, especially God in Christ, we see that God infinitely exemplifies generosity.  We can trust God because providing for the needs of His creatures is the very heart, the nature of God, as demonstrated in Christ.  Finally, all giving, including thanksgiving, is a response to the PROMISES of God.  We know God will provide for us in the future because He has provided for us in the past and at the present and has promised to do so in the future.  God never breaks a promise.  When we give sacrificially what we are really saying is, God will take care of my needs if I take care of the needs of others.

So, the season of thanksgiving we celebrate really demonstrates what we believe about God—and, about us.  Do we really trust God?

Suppose you go to a Doctor for your annual check-up.  The Dr. is likely to start poking at you in various places and asking, “Does that hurt?”  Now, the poking and prodding may cause pain because the Dr. has been insensitive and poked too hard.

Or, the more likely, the Dr.’s poking has found a sensitive spot indicating that something may be wrong.  The Dr. may say, “We have to order some more tests because it should not hurt when I poke you there.

Friends, it is always my intent to preach the truth of God with great love and care for those who will hear His message.  I do not wish to be insensitive or poke too hard.  If you feel any discomfort from these Bible-based messages on giving money to the Church, then I would pray that you ask the Great Physician, Jesus Christ, why you feel pain in that area of your Christian life.  I pray you will ask Jesus to diagnose your problem and prescribe a remedy so that you may receive the “full reward of your faith” (2Jn. 8).

SIS – All giving, including thanksgiving, requires we trust in God.

Very few people (I being one for sure) like to go to the Dr.  According to a news article I read, a few years ago there was a man in London whose mistrust for Drs. was a bit extreme.  In London there was an accountant who was sixty-three years old. It had become apparent that this accountant had a bladder problem and needed a simple surgery to correct it.  His extreme mistrust (even fear) of Drs. drove him to do something that is unthinkable – he decided to operate on himself!  He read up on the surgery and set forth to take matters into his own hands – literally.  Surprisingly, he survived the surgery.  But, and infection set in and he died a few weeks later.  In a news interview the local coroner who examined the accountant’s body said, “Unfortunately, his drastic remedy went wrong.  A simple operation in a proper environment with a certified Doctor would have solved the problem.”  The man died not from bladder problems, but from “trust issues.”  The man did not trust doctors and hospitals.

Friend, if your spiritual life shrivels up and dies on the vine it will not be because you did not “give enough money” to God through the Church – it will be because you never learned to “trust God.” 

SIS—Giving to God through His church is not about money – it is about trust. 

“Do you trust God enough to give thankfully and expectantly to His work?”

I hate to carry change around in my pocket – especially pennies.  A penny is not much money.  You can’t buy much with a penny.  In fact, the United States Treasury has considered not even minting anymore pennies. President Obama has noted that he would favor doing away with the penny—he’d rather have our nickels and dimes anyway.  A penny, for the most part, is a public nuisance.

But a few years ago something struck me as I looked at a penny.  I realized that it was the most valuable piece of the world that I could ever possess.  So, I almost always have a penny in my pocket.  With that penny in my pocket I realize I am the richest man in the world!

How is a penny so valuable?  It is not the little bit of precious copper that makes a penny.  It is the four words that are printed on the penny that make it immensely valuable:  “In God We Trust.”

Friends, that little penny you received when you came to church this morning holds the key to everything good that could come into your life – if you learn how to “trust God.”

I have a simple statement to make about “trusting God.”  Trust is EVERYTHING!

The writer of Hebrews guided by the Holy Spirit describes the horrible result of “failing to trust God.”  Read that with me (7-11):

⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear His voice, ⁸ do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, ⁹ where your fathers tested Me, tried _⌊Me_⌋, and saw My works ¹⁰ for 40 years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known My ways.” ¹¹ So I swore in My anger, “They will not enter My rest.”

The Scriptures clearly teach that one can absolutely miss the blessings of God if one fails to learn how to “trust God.”  There are three aspects of trusting God our text teaches:

1.  Trust has a PAST (vv 7-11; 16-18)

Another way of saying it is this:  Trust relies on the performance of God.

When you came into church this morning did any of you inspect the pew before you set down to see if it would support your weight?  Not likely.  You “trust” the pew will hold you because it has held you before – many times before.  You “trust” the pew based upon it’s PAST PERFORMANCE.

This is also true of God.  We trust him because of His performance in the past.  In the case of the Israelites did in what Hebrews calls, the day of rebellion.  KJV calls it the “provocation” because it provoked God to wrath.

This portion of Hebrews is a quote from Psalm 95.  Psalm 95 was a prophetic reflection on the worst day in the life of Israel, which we read about in Numbers 13 and 14.

You may be familiar with the story.  Israel had been a nation of slaves in Egypt forced into hard labor for over 450 years.  They lived a sub-human existence under the heavy hand of the Pharaoh.  They prayed for hundreds of years for God to send a deliverer to lead them out of bondage in Egypt.  God did just that with Moses, as you recall.  But Pharoah was not giving up on 2 million cheap laborers without a fight.  God had to send 10 plagues:  a river of blood, lice, flies, frogs, dead livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and finally the death of every first-born male child in Egypt.  God miraculously delivered the most insignificant nation from the most powerful nation ever know.  Then, when Pharoah had second thoughts and chased the Israelites to the Red Sea, God miraculously parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross and drowned the army of Pharoah.

Then, they rebelled and voted not to go into the Promised Land because they would have to fight for it – eventhough God had promised to give them victory.  Then, for forty years God cared for every need of His people while they wandered around in the Wilderness.  Did they stop provoking God and rebelling against God’s leadership?  The answer is: “No!”

Time and time and time again the Israelites grumbled.  Everytime they faced a challenged they whined and complained and resisted Gods direction.  EVEN AFTER GOD PROVED HIMSELF TIME AND TIME AGAIN – ISRAEL REFUSED TO TRUST HIM.

Sound like someone you know?  Maybe, . . . “you.”  Maybe, . . . me?

God has never let anyone down and we have well over 7000 years of recorded history chronicling God’s faithful “PERFORMANCE” on behalf of His people – but, so many still do not “TRUST” God enough to give at least 10 percent of the money God provides back to Him as a “TOKEN OF TRUST.”

That’s what the “tithe” really is:  a token of trust.  Giving at least 10 percent to God through the Church is an “acknowledgment” that I trust Him to meet all my needs.

SIS – All giving, including thanksgiving, is about trust. 

Based upon God’s performance, we can trust God to take care of our every need.  Think about the “tithe” for a moment.  Giving God His “holy tithe” is the surest way to make sure that the 90 percent He lets you manage will provide all the needs of your family.  Regular giving reminds us not to trust in our stuff—but trust in our Savior.

When we give at least 10 percent (a “tithe”) to God we are saying:  based upon His PAST PERFORMANCE, I trust Him to meet any need I or my family might have. 

Trust not only has a past, but

2.  Trust has a PRESENT (1-6; 12-13; 4:2a)

Another way to say this is:  “Trust relies on the PERSON of God.”

The theme of Hebrews is “The Superiority of Jesus Christ.”  The Book of Hebrews begins by showing that Jesus is superior to angelic beings.  In this chapter (chapter 3) Hebrews is teaching us that Jesus is far superior to greatest figure in Hebrew life:  Moses.

Look at verses 3 and 4:

³ For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. ⁴ Now every house is built by someone, but the One who built everything is God.

Not only does the Book of Hebrews say Jesus is more superior as a Deliverer than Moses, but it says that Jesus is a more superior builder because Jesus did not just build a great “house” (nation of Israel) but Jesus was God and built everything!

It is not enough just to know the History of God’s Performance in the PAST, but to be a dynamic, fully-devoted, Spirit-filled, sin-defeating, Devil-defying disciple, you must have a “daily relationship with the PERSON of God, that is Jesus Christ.”  This is where most people miss the boat in church – they know all the stories about God, but they do not have a daily relationship with God.  Notice vv. 12-13:

¹² Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil,unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. ¹³ But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.

Friends, a person can never be healthy physically if all they ever eat is “snack food.”  Unfortunately, that’s about all the Christianity most people get in their lives, “a snack of Jesus Sunday morning.”  You tear open a “bag of Jesus chips” and then toss a buck in the plate for good measure.

“Snacking on Jesus” and giving God your spare change will never give you victory in your life.  Look at verse 4:2:

² For we also have received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard did not benefit them.

Most church-goers (so-called Christians) never get any real benefit from going to church because they don’t have a daily relationship with the PERSON of God, Jesus Christ. 

When a plane crashes into the building you are working in, you can’t put your trust ideas, or wishes, but you must put your trust in people.  Over 411 rescuers died running into those burning buildings on Sept. 11^th 2001.  People put their trust in these PERSONS, and many lives were saved.  Yes, many lives were lost, but many lives were saved because people in trouble TRUSTED in people to save them.

Friends, that’s what TRUST is all about:  relationship.  I TRUSTED my father with my life because I KNEW him and had a DAILY relationship with him.

The same is true with Jesus.  You will never trust Jesus enough to give at least 10 percent of your income to the Church, if you are not having a daily, growing relationship with Him.

Trust has a PAST.  We trust the past performance of God.  Trust has a PRESENT.  We rely on the PERSON of God who we have a daily relationship with.

3.  Trust also has a FUTURE (v. 14)

Look at verse 14:

For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.

Notice the word, “companion.”  This is a word that describes a deep sharing between two persons which supports what I said about trust relying on a relationship with the PERSON of God.

But, there is another translation of this word that perhaps brings out the meaning even more sharply.  The NIV for example translates this verse as: 

We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end.

This verse clearly sets forth a wonderful truth which gives us another basis for “trusting God” in regard to the future.  We could say it like this:

“Trust relies on the PROMISE of God.”

One day, called in this verse “the end” God has promised to give us everything His Son, Jesus, now has.  What exactly is that?

You can sum up what we will share with Jesus in one word:  “heaven.”  That’s what is promised to every person who fully and without any reservation puts his or her trust in God as the Lord of Life and Savior of the Soul.

Heaven.  One day we will receive it either in death or the rapture, whichever comes first for us.  Heaven.  Can I give you a glimpse of glory?  Revelation 21:

¹⁰ He then carried me away in the Spirit  ^a to a great and high mountain  and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹ arrayed with God’s glory.  Her radiance was like a very precious stone, like a jasper stone, bright as crystal. ¹² _⌊The city_⌋ had a massive high wall, with 12 gates.
……………………………….

¹⁸ The building material of its wall was jasper, and the city was pure gold like clear glass.  ¹⁹ The foundations of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone:

the first foundation jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. ²¹ The 12 gates are 12 pearls; each individual gate was made of a single pearl. The broad street  of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

Every person that places his or her trust in God, has been given the promise by God, that he or she will one day share everything that Jesus Christ has – not the least of all – a home in heaven.

Wow, with a PROMISE like that, why wouldn’t someone want to TRUST God?

Yet, as wonderful as that promise is, many do not trust God.  If someone cannot trust God enough to give back to Him at least the “tithe” He has demanded, how can that person say they have trusted God enough to save their soul?  I don’t see how it is possible for a person to say, “I trust God for my salvation,” when they cannot trust God for their finances.

This time of year many churches emphasize “stewardship,” which basically means we teach what God says about “giving to His work through His church.”  The Thanksgiving Season is a good time to approach “stewardship, or giving,” because All giving, including thanksgiving, is a matter of how much one trusts God to provide the needs of life.  Today’s message is simply this: “Trust is Everything.”  When we give anything, including giving thanks, we are expressing our trust in God Who HAS provided, IS providing, and WILL provide.

Over the last three years I’ve always had a constant companion with me throughout my day – “a penny in my pocket.”  The penny itself is pretty much useless, but the reminder that graces its surface means everything:  In God We (I) Trust!  I cannot remember all the times I needed this reminder and when I put my hand in my pocket, it was like I was putting my hand in God’s Hand.  He always brings me through.

Israel failed because they failed to trust God completely.  Let’s not fall into that same trap:

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts (3:7-8)

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