In God We Trust: Pt3, Throw It Down

January 27, 2019                       NOTES NOT EDITED

Giving Series:  Part 3, “Throw It Down!”

Exodus 3:1-6; 4:1-5; Luke 12:13-21

SIS – Only when we let go of our grip on this world will we experience the miracles of the next.

As we continue our series on “giving money to God through the church,” or “tithing,” or “stewardship, or whatever title you want to give this series, let me remind you I am not “preaching about money.”  I am preaching about “trusting God.”  Giving is not about, money, but it is about, “trust.”

Today, I’d like to use three Biblical symbols to teach you three important lessons about giving.  I’ll use a bush, a stick, and a barn to teach us the truth that SIS—When we let go of our grip on the things of this world, great things happen. 

The problem with most people—including church people—is that they never get hold of God’s richest blessings because they have too tight a grip on the things of this world.  The key to getting really blessed is to “Let go of this world.” 

READ:  Exodus 3:1-8

The first lesson we need to learn in order to loosen our grip on worldly things can be illustrated by the Biblical symbol of a

1.  BURNING BUSH (Ex. 3:1-6)

We just read one of the most phenomenal stories in the Old Testament—the Burning Bush.  I remember the Burning Bush scene in the classic film, “The Ten Commandments” starring Charleton Heston as Moses.  Let’s revisit that great scene.

CLIP:  The Burning Bush (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUm6rC0o7Po)

If God spoke to you from a Burning Bush, with a voice like that, would you listen?

There is a very important word in this text, verse 3, that demonstrates an essential principle in what it means to be a devoted servant of the Most Hight God.  That word is actually only one Hebrew letter, the letter “Wa” (w), which looks something like the number, “7.”  This letter is a “conjunctive,” or a “joining word.”  One Hebrew scholar gives this definition of the “wa conjunction.”  “Biblical Hebrew contains only one primary conjunction (the prefix וְ).  A conjunction is a word that shows a relationship between two different words, phrases, sentences, or even entire paragraphs.” (UnfoldingWord).

Think about that idea of “showing a relationship.” There are several relationships that bear upon our understanding of this passage.  The present relationship of Israel’s “bondage in Egypt.”  Ex. 2:23:

²³ After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out;  and their cry for help ascended to God because of the difficult labor.

Israel’s present, terrible situation is connected, contrasted, or conjoined with God’s plan for them.  Ex. 3:7:

⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of My people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out  because of their oppressors, and I know about their sufferings. ⁸ I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Here’s what I want you to see.  That little, one-letter conjunction (wa) shows us the contrast between what our life is, and what it can be.

When we move out in faith, trusting God with our present, He secures for us a glorious future—both now and in eternity—but, especially in eternity.

Here is something else I want you to see.  Not only does God have “master plan for all the redeemed,” He has a specific plan for your life.  Look at Ex. 3:1 at that little “one-letter conjunction”:

3 Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,  the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb,  the mountain of God.  ² Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush.

The “wa conjunction” is translated in the CSB as, “meanwhile.”  Other translations of the “wa conjunction” are:  “now (KJV, ESV, NASB)” and “One day” (NLT).  It can carry the meaning, “In the course of his everyday life.”

Mark this down:  the greatest experiences we have with God come as we are serving Him diligently in the “mundane matters of everyday life.”  People who go looking for miracles find disappointment.  People who go searching for God, find miracles.

Something as material, and worldly as how we spend our money can be the source of discovering God in a supernatural way.  When we learn to trust God with our material possession, we are then ready for God to use us in more and powerful ways.  Notice how the “wa conjunction” connects Moses’ time as a common shepherd with his calling by God to be the “Shepherd of His people.”  Ex. 3:10:

¹⁰ Therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

That little, one-letter conjunction that starts verse 1 of chapter 3, demonstrates that when we trust God with the everyday matters of like, like our jobs, our service in the church, and particularly giving generously of our material possessions, God can then trust us with even greater tasks, filled with greater experiences.  Mark this down:  “bushes burn for those who trust God.”

Trust brings about a great transformation of both our circumstances and our relationship with God.  Trust transforms.  Burning bushes are no big deal in the desert.  Some desert plants contain oil on their leaves that can spontaneously ignite in the desert heat.  Moses, “turned aside to look” because this burning bush was not being “consumed.”  MARK THIS DOWN:

God is a bush that can burn without being consumed.  God is a bank account upon which we can write checks and the balance never goes down!  This is what Paul had in mind, perhaps, when he said:  “My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory"  (Phil. 4:19)

God is an inexhaustible supply for our every need – no matter what that need is or how many times we need it.  But, here’s the problem:  most people have not had a burning bush experience.

Giving sacrificially and regularly to God through the church begins when we encounter God in a life-transforming encounter – call it a “close encounter of the BURNING BUSH  kind.”

A second lesson on learning to trust God with our life, and particularly our finances, comes from a

2.  Simple Stick (4:1-5)

Then Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The Lord did not appear  to you’?” ² The Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?”  “A staff,” he replied. ³ Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake. Moses ran from it, ⁴ but the Lord told him, “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.” So he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. ⁵ “This will take place,” He continued, “so they will believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

Note again the little “wa conjunction” translated, “then (CSB)” that begins this passage.  Again, we are going to see the relationship between our present, worldly circumstances, and our situation when we, as the cliché goes, “let go and let God.”  Moses stood up against the most powerful man alive—in fact considered to be a god—and said, “Yahweh says, ‘Let my people go!”  In our age of nuclear weapons that could destroy the world many times over, a “staff, or stick” doesn’t seem like much.

Mark this down (we’ve been doing a lot of that):  when we loosen the grip we have on the possession in our hand, God loosens the grip He has on His blessings from heaven.  Recall our verse from last week:

Mal. 3:10:  ¹⁰ Bring the full tenth into the storehouse  so that there may be food in My house.  Test Me in this way,”  says the Lord of Hosts. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven  and pour out a blessing for you without measure.

OK, I’ll say it again, mark this down:  when we let loose of the simple, mundane possession we hold in our hand, they become miracles in the Hand of God.  It is not what we hold onto that blesses us, but what we let go of.

When we hold too tightly to the material possessions in our lives (money, stuff), they become a trap. 

Years ago, Robert Pirsig wrote a book that has become sort of a “cult manual” for our of the box thinkers.  It was titled,   Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance,  In it he describes “the old South Indian Monkey Trap”.  One commentator on the book explained,  “I’m pretty sure it was never used to trap monkeys, but that’s par for the course with Pirsig; he doesn’t teach you much about motorbikes, either.  The “Monkey Trap” consists of a hollowed-out coconut, chained to a stake. The coconut has some rice inside which can be grabbed through a small hole”. The monkey’s hand fits through the hole, but his clenched fist can’t fit back out.  The monkey is suddenly trapped.  But not by anything physical. He’s trapped by an idea, unable to see that a principle that served him well – “when you see rice, hold on tight!” – has become lethal.  Holding to tight to the things of the world is a “trap”—a trap of the Devil.

I could say it again, but I won’t.  By now, I hope you are marking a lot of stuff down.  Here’s something:  “Real success in life does not come from how much we can collect from this world, but without much we disconnect from the things of this world.”  Paul said,

Col. 3:3:  Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. 

Many of us need to seriously “declutter our lives.”  We need to participate in a good, ole-fashioned, Spirit-led, Devil-defeating “throw down!”.  Notice that as long as Moses held his staff in his hand, it was nothing special, but when He released it at the command of God, “it became a powerful testimony of the power of the One TRUE God, Yahweh!” 

I don’t know where I first heard it.  It was many years ago, but it stuck to me like chiggers in pasture field.  Someone said, “God gets some pretty good licks with some pretty crooked sticks.”  I’m one of those “crooked sticks” that God has chosen to turn into a fearsome snake for His glory.  What is more radical than that?

Just like God used the common experiences of a burning bush in the desert and a stick in Moses’ hand to show that God works through the common, everyday experiences of our lives—even something as common as throwing down our tithe into the offering plate.

Real miracles happen not when we are seeking great experiences, but great experiences happen when we are seeking God.

I want us to turn to the New Testament to see another symbol God uses to teach the eternal importance of trusting Him.  We’ve seen the Burning Bush and the Simple Stick; now let’s examine:

3.  A Bulging Barn (Lk. 12:13-21

¹³ Someone from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher,  tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ “Friend,”  He said to him, “who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵ He then told them, “Watch out and be on guard  against all greed  because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.” ¹⁶ Then He told them a parable:  “A rich  man’s land was very productive. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What should I do, since I don’t have anywhere to store my crops? ¹⁸ I will do this,’ he said. ‘I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there. ¹⁹ Then I’ll say to myself, “You  have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy;  eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” ’ ²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool!  This very night your life is demanded of you. And the things you have prepared—whose will they be?’ 

²¹ “That’s how it is with the one who stores up treasure  for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Wooooeeeee!  And I don’t mean, “Stop horsey!”  That’s is an eye-popping warning of what happens when we trust “our bulging barns instead of Our Blessed Redeemer!”

Nothing!  Nothing! is more dangerous than trusting in one’s material possessions.  There is not a barn big enough to contain even one drop of the blessing that the redeemed will receive in Glory. 

Notice this story begins with a “dispute of inheritance.”  Such disputes in Jewish life were normally handled by Rabbis, teachers like Jesus.  The person who confronted Jesus was probably a younger brother.  The older brother got a double-share, and the younger brother thought that was “unfair.”  Nothing brings a family together like the death of a rich relative—relatives come from far away lands to “pay their respects,” and to “inspect their pay.”

A dying man gathered his lawyer, doctor and clergyman at his bed side and handed each of them an envelope containing $25,000 in cash. He made them each promise that after his death and during his repose, they would place the three envelopes in his coffin. He told them that he wanted to have enough money to enjoy the next life. A week later the man died. At the Wake, the Lawyer and Doctor and Clergyman, each concealed an envelope in the coffin and bid their old client and friend farewell. By chance, these three met several months later. Soon the Clergyman, feeling guilty, blurted out a confession saying that there was only $10,000 in the envelope he placed in the coffin. He felt, rather than waste all the money, he would send it to a Mission in South America. He asked for their forgiveness.  The Doctor, moved by the gentle Clergyman's sincerity, confessed that he too had kept some of the money for a worthy medical charity. The envelope, he admitted, had only $8000 in it. He said, he too could not bring himself to waste the money so frivolously when it could be used to benefit others.  By this time the Lawyer was seething with self-righteous outrage. He expressed his deep disappointment in the felonious behavior of two of his oldest and most trusted friends. "I am the only one who kept his promise to our dying friend. I want you both to know that the envelope I placed in the coffin contained the full amount. Indeed, my envelope contained my personal check for the entire $25,000."

I’ll let you all deduce the moral to this story for yourselves, but I would like to remind you:  it doesn’t matter how much your barns in this life bulge with material possession, your are going to leave this world with the same material possessions you entered with:  NOTHING! 

“Tis one life, will soon be past // only what’s done for Christ will last!”

Everyone is going to be judged one day, not by how much the gained in life by way of material possessions, but by how much they gave away.  One day, we all will give an accounting of our life, and Yahweh will not judge us by the size of our barns, but by the size of our hearts.  Be generous.  Many billionaires will be in hell—but their money won’t be.

This man was called, “a fool.”  This is an extremely derogatory term.  The Greek word, and its Hebrew cousin, refers to a person that “acts without the awareness of the pending consequences of ungodly actions.”  The most foolish act is to live without a constant awareness that at anytime you could be called to stand before God in judgment.

The End IS Near.  Just this last week, a couple on vacation in San Diego were killed when a tree crushed the house they were staying in.  No one knows when his or her end may come.  At that time, all the stuff in the world could be in your barn and it won’t make one bit of difference.

Don’t be a “fool” in regard to trusting God.  This is not just “unwise.”  This is not just a “human error.”  Failing to trust God has eternal consequences.  These three symbol:  A Burning Bush, a Simple Stick, and a Bulging Barn all teach us that, “Only when we let go of our grip on this world will we experience the miracles of the next.

Are you ready to loosen your grip on this world, today, and let God embrace you with His love and blessings—Simply Trust Him.