A Penny in My Pocket

June 14, 2015 (9-11-11, Rev.)
A Penny In My Pocket                              NOTES NOT EDITED

Hebrews 3:1-19

SIS – Giving, like everything else in the Christian life, is all about trust.

No sermon topic evokes as strong a reaction at the gut level as when the preacher preaches on “money,” or “giving.”  People react in number of different ways:                 Oh boy, here we go again! Tithing is an Old Testament teaching and doesn’t apply to me as a N.T. Christian.  Or, I feel so guilty because I don’t give regularly to the church; or I know I give my tithe regularly, but I think I should do more.  And, then there are persons who react to a sermon on giving by thinking, “I wonder where we will go for lunch after church.” 

Yet, let’s be honest.  One of the easiest virtues of the Christian life to measure is “giving.”  I mean, you just count the nickels.  It’s not like measuring prayer.  When is enough prayer, enough?  Or, how do we really measure whether we are loving God enough?  Or, how much Bible reading a day is enough?  Some virtues are hard to measure—maybe impossible; but, not giving.  At least, measuring the amount of giving is pretty straightforward.  Either you are giving a tithe or more every week, or you are not.  So, part of the pain of a “giving” sermon is that it is so easy to measure whether you are at least, “hitting the minimum.”

But, let me be very, very clear, nobody is ever going to go to hell because they did not give enough money to the Church.  Nobody is going to go to heaven because they gave a lot of money to church.  You see, “giving” is not about how much you put in the offering plate, but how much “trust” you put in God.  Giving to God through His church is not about money – it’s about trust.

Not quite five years ago I preached a series on “giving.”  In one sermon I talked about the practical “uselessness” of the penny.  I actually preached on the idea of a “penny” about two years ago.  I’m back to that penny again this morning.  We need to be reminded of just how “valuable a penny really is.”  In those past sermons, I mentioned how most people won’t even stop to pick up a penny on the sidewalk.  I mentioned how Congress has even considered discontinuing the penny.  I also showed how the “penny” could be viewed as the most valuable possession a person could have—because of what is written on the penny (and all our currency).  On the penny we read, “In God We Trust.”  It is that “trust” in God that gives value to the American dream.  It’s not a matter of how many pennies one puts in the bank, but how much trust one puts in God.  So, from that day to this day (and for the future), I always have a penny in my right pocket.  Periodically throughout the day I have trained myself to put notice that penny.  It reminds me of where my trust lies. 

SIS—Giving like everything else in the Christian life is all about trust.

“Do you trust God enough to give sacrificially to support His Work?”

I hate to carry change around in my pocket.  However, now I always have a coin in my right pocket.  Not only will I never be broke, but I am constantly reminded of how blessed I am to have a Heavenly Father I can trust.

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

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 – Giving, like everything else we do in the Christian life, is all about trust.

Based upon God’s performance, we can trust God to take care of our every need.  In fact, 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.

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.

The word, “companion,” is a translation of the word meaning, “to share in or with” which is how the NIV translates it.  The word can also correctly be translated as “companion,” because a companion is someone we are sharing life’s experiences with.  In fact, the word “companion” comes into English from two words in Latin:  “cum, meaning with,” and “panis,” meaning “bread.”  A companion is someone we share bread with.  In nearly every culture, sharing a meal together is the highest expression of friendship.

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.

Today’s message is: “Trust is Everything.”  Giving to God through His church is not about money – it’s about trust.

Do you trust God to give you your daily bread?  Or, are you trusting in your own cleverness or self-reliance to provide for your needs and the needs of your family.

This message has done quite a bit of “poking” around.  I wonder if it has hit a sore spot with some of you.  If you are not giving to God because you don’t really trust Him to meet your needs, then you have a serious spiritual disease.  You need to come to the Great Physician and be healed, today.

You can’t “heal” yourself financially.  You can’t heal yourself physically, and you sure can’t heal yourself spiritually. But, what you cannot do, Jesus can and will do if you heed His Word:

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

Let’s Pray.