All right, welcome to Mercy Hill this weekend. Hey, my name is Pastor Bobby. Hey, I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to preach this weekend. This is the first time I've been able to preach at our new campus here.
And so I am so excited about that. Hey, if you have a Bible, we're going to be in Exodus chapter 25. And as you're turning there, I want to put two more things on your radar about Easter. So Easter is coming up. Spring is here. You could feel it in the air.
Some of you have been coming around for the last couple of months. And God is really doing something in your life. And I think maybe that you need to take the step to get baptized at Easter. We're going to be doing baptisms all across Easter weekend. And look, baptism is not any sort of way to earn anything from God. It's because Jesus has done something in your life that you simply want to respond and you want to give God all the glory for what he's done in your life.
Like I get it. It could be nerve wracking to get in front of a bunch of people at Easter. But look, God deserves all of the glory for what he has done in your life. And so I want to encourage you to really think about that and to really pray about that. Also thinking about Easter. God is doing so many amazing things in our college ministry and our student ministry seriously. I mean, every single week people are coming and people are following Jesus for the very first time. And both of those ministries are going to be launching here at the ridge campus right around Easter time. And look, we've already put out the call that we need to see 1200 people serve over Easter.
But those two ministries in particular are still building a launch team of people that they're going to need to serve. And I really honestly couldn't think of a better way to use our times and to use our gifts than to invest in those age groups. And so I just want to encourage you to do that. Okay.
All right. We're going to be in Exodus chapter 25 today. This is the very last sermon in our sermon series that we've been going through that started in Exodus chapter three. And here's how I want to start that sermon today. So going from Exodus chapter three to Exodus 25.
It's been about a year of history. And I want to kind of tie together and put ourselves in the shoes of somebody that was in Exodus 25 of just a general idea. And I want to kind of tie together and put ourselves in the shoes of somebody that was a general person of what they would have experienced over the last year in their life. So I think about myself, if I put myself in that situation.
41 years old. You would have woken up every single day and probably one of the first things you would have done is you would have woke up, you would have stretched your back because every day your back is sore because all you know is hard labor and slavery. Your people have been enslaved for so long, 400 years, your dad, your granddad, they're probably not alive anymore because you don't live that long of a life when all you do is work under the sun, making bricks every day. And you think about your kids, the way that we have dreams and aspirations and thoughts for our kids, well, when your people have been in slavery for 400 years, I promise you, you don't have any dreams for your kids.
Because you know that all your kids are going to know is slavery just the way that you always have known slavery. And then all of a sudden, this guy named Moses kind of comes out of the desert, and he goes to Pharaoh, and he basically says, hey, God has told me that you need to let my people go. And Pharaoh, of course, says, well, one, I don't know you, and I don't know who your God is, and I'm certainly not letting them go.
And by the way, I don't really see them as people. And so that's the situation. Well, the plagues come, right? And they start small with the frogs and the darkness, and then the rivers and waters turning to blood. And then finally, you probably remember the tenth plague because your family the next morning, because of the blood that you put on the doorpost, was totally fine.
Your firstborn was totally fine. But every single other family in Egypt, their firstborn died. And that was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back with Pharaoh and the Egyptians, where they just said, hey, you guys got to go.
Take whatever you want as you go. And they started giving them all of their stuff, gold, silver, everything they have, and they left. And of course, at that point, you would have thought, man, I'm free. Well, you get all the way up to the sea, and then you realize that Pharaoh has changed his mind.
He doesn't want to let the people go. So you have the sea in front of you, and then you essentially have death behind you. And then God does what only God can do. God splits the sea.
The people, to the tune of thousands upon thousands, walk across on dry ground. Pharaoh and his army come behind, and they die right there in the sea. You're on the other side, and you're free. God then provides water from the rock. God provides manna from heaven.
God provides the Ten Commandments. You were a slave. You had nothing. Now you are God's people.
You have everything. Your pockets are full with all of the stuff from Egypt. I mean, one year. Imagine how you would feel everything that's happened in one year. One year prior, you didn't have dreams.
You didn't have thoughts of the future. Now you're saved and blessed, and you're a child of God, and you're safe. But here's the thing when we get to Exodus chapter 25.
You now face a totally different and new risk. It's somewhat of an invisible risk. You know, it's not about slavery.
It's not about Pharaoh. It's not about working hard. It's the risk that all of that treasure that you now hold in your hands, all of those blessings that you have, that those things right there would begin to control and corrupt your heart in a way maybe that nothing else can. You know, we can just call it the risk of prosperity. Because here's the reality with wealth, and trust me, the people had all the wealth you could imagine at this point.
Here's the reality with wealth. Man, you could bless God through it, and you could thank God through it, or it can absolutely kill your soul. You think about things in nature, right? There are so many things in the world that kind of simultaneously is all inspiring and wonderful but could absolutely kill you.
There's so many things in nature like that. I had the chance last week. I was in Arizona for a church thing, and we made sort of a vacation out of it. My dad was turning 70, so we invited them out there, and we stayed in Sedona for three or four days. And my family and I, we've been to the Grand Canyon multiple times, and so we're like, hey, we want to take my parents and take everybody and go to the Grand Canyon. And the Grand Canyon is one of those things that's like really awesome and beautiful, but it can just totally kill you. I remember when I was growing up, I had a girl I went to school with, and no lie, her grandma fell down the Grand Canyon and died. And it was always a very dark thing knowing her, because it was like this running joke that maybe her grandpa actually pushed her off one of the ledges.
And they never found out. Multiple people, that happens every single year in the Grand Canyon. So you better believe, when I was there with my boys, I was like, because we were going to do a little bit of running, we're going to kind of go down into the canyon.
You better believe I told them, hey, this is awesome, we're going to get pictures, this is beautiful. You absolutely could die, okay? Like if you trip and fall, there's a chance you will die today. Y'all think I'm making this up.
Here, a picture right here. I really was at the Grand Canyon last week. Pastors, we don't just make these stories up, okay? So it's amazing, it's beautiful, it's wonderful, but it absolutely can kill you. That's what we're going to see today when we're talking about wealth and blessings, because they're the exact same way. And the Bible is filled with all sorts of warnings that when God fills your hands, fills your pockets, blesses you more than you could imagine, that is the very thing that can cause you to forget God. Listen to what it says in Deuteronomy chapter eight. It says, take care, and it's referencing these people, take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his rules, his statutes, which I command of you today. Listen to this, lest when you have eaten and are full, you've built good houses and you live in them, when your herds and your flocks, they multiply, your silver and your gold, it's multiplied, and all that you have is multiply, what potentially is going to happen? Then your heart, it's going to be lifted up, you're going to forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You see, prosperity can be just as dangerous as hardship, but all of us, every single one of us, we'd rather take the risk with prosperity than hardship, wouldn't we? Yes, all of us would.
All of us would be like, hey, I'll take that gamble, right? You know, inflation, groceries, things are expensive, I will take the gamble of having a little bit too much, and that tempts my heart versus hardship. But the warnings throughout the Bible are real, and they are serious. That money and wealth, it has a way to kind of contend with our hearts in a way that nothing else under creation can. So here's the big idea for today, wealth can make you thankful to God, or wealth can make you forgetful of God.
You could be thankful and just overwhelmed about what God has done in your life, but also as your pockets are filled with gold and silver and all the blessings of this life, it absolutely can make you forget about God and not depend on God. Let's jump in. I'm going to read Exodus 25, verse one through nine. The Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel. I want you to tell them to take for me a contribution from every man whose heart moves him. I want you to kind of circle that right there.
Every man whose heart moves him. So this is a voluntary offering. You shall receive the contribution for me. Here's their contribution you're going to receive from them, and this is a long list of stuff that they brought out of Egypt. Gold, silver, bronze, blue and purple, scarlet yarns, goat skins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, stones for setting for the ephod and for the breast piece, and let them make me a sanctuary that I must dwell in their midst exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture.
So you shall make it. So if you go all the way back to Exodus chapter three, the very first sermon that we had, where God revealed himself to Moses, he told them at that time, you guys not only are going to be free, but you're going to take all of the wealth of Egypt with you. And that comes up multiple times throughout these stories, and now we actually see one of the reasons why it actually happened.
Like this story, God is bringing this story full circle. You see, everything they have in their hands, you just imagine going back to one year ago, you're a slave, you have nothing. Now this long list of stuff, right?
The acacia wood and the gold and the silver and stuff that I don't even know what you're doing with the goat skin, but you've got a goat skin now. All of this stuff that you've been blessed with, God has put every single bit of it in your hand. But God knows, right, that it's very easy when God begins to bless you, that your life becomes basically about those things that God has blessed you with. And so God wants them to be a generous people, and he calls them to open their hands because he knows, now that they have all this stuff, if they begin to close their hands around all this stuff, that's it.
Like that's it, they'll forget about God, and it'll be long in the past of what God did, and their current, this is what I trust, this is what I put my faith in will be all of this stuff that God's given them. So God wants to make sure that doesn't happen, so God wants them to be a generous people, God wants them to open their hearts. And so I want to really draw out two things that are happening in this text, and how it relates to us, and how it relates to wealth, and blessings, and the things that God has given us. The simple truth from this text, though, is God knows if he can get the people to be like this, and he could get the people to open their hands, always open their hands and not close them, if he could just get them to be like this, then he knows the wealth, and the blessings, and everything that he's given them, it's not going to take root, it's not going to take place, them, it's not going to take root in their heart, and they're going to continue to trust God. So I want to draw out two things about wealth today that we can draw from this passage, and the first one is this, your wealth has power to shape your heart.
This is not optional. Your wealth, your treasure, the things that God has given you, it absolutely is going to shape your heart, absolutely. The question is, is it going to shape your heart for good, or is it going to shape your heart so you forget God?
That's really the question. Go back to verse one and two. So he commands Moses to tell the people, look, speak to the people of Israel, I want them to take up an offering, I want them to take up a contribution. And then he's very insistent from every man whose heart moves him, you shall receive the contribution for me. So what God wants from them is God wants their hearts.
It's really as simple as that. They've gotten this amazing salvation, they've gotten all this stuff, God wants to make sure he just still has their hearts. God wants the people to be grateful and thankful and to remember that whole story that I just recounted to you.
Because you've got to imagine, right? Like, if you really remembered everything that God has done in your life, and God gave you all that stuff, and all the stuff that God is now asking for to build the tabernacle, if you remembered everything God would do, you would just be like, yeah, totally, right? Like, take whatever you want. Like, you're the one that gave it all to me. Like, of course you can have it.
Like, I didn't even have this gold a year ago. Like, you gave me the gold. But you can imagine, everybody's hearts probably wouldn't be like that. And so that's why God is so insistent here. Like, hey, I want people to give and open their hands if their hearts have been moved, because they understand what God has done. They understand the salvation.
Not only has God physically saved them, not only has God physically saved them, but they now have all of these crazy blessings in their life, and God wants to keep their heart. And I would just ask all of us, because it's the same with us, God never wants us to be generous and open our hands out of some obligation. What God wants is that we remember what God has done in our life. Think about 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That though he was rich, for your sake, for my sake, he became poor, so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. You see, if we never lose sight of what Jesus has done for us in the gospel, then any thought of, like, God wants us to open our hands or respond in some way, we would be like, of course I would do that. And I would do that with joy because of what God has done for me. And that's what God wants from them. God wants their hearts. And here's the thing, if you move to Exodus 35, I'm not going to get into it here, but if you wanted to go do a little bit of homework after this sermon, so Exodus 25 is where we're at. They talk about the offering.
Exodus 35 is where the offering actually happens, where they're taking up all their stuff and you see people are using their talents and all that. Six or seven times, you have this phrase that God wants it from the heart. And it's kind of strange because there's not many places in the Bible that are like this, and it actually notes that it's a free will offering. You see, there's other places in the Bible where God's like, hey, you're going to give this, and it's like, it's not optional, you know?
It's like, this is what you're going to do. This is actually a free will offering. If you go to Exodus 35, you'll see how many times it talks about it. Because God is so insistent that it's going to be from the heart, because the only way that it could be from the heart is if you just totally get the salvation that you just experienced. Like you just totally are dialed in of like, man, here's what God has done in my life.
But here's the thing. God wants it to be from the heart, obviously, but giving and treasure, and this is a lot of what's happening in this story, it's also very heart shaping. And I think a lot of times we end up kind of missing that. You know, we think like, well, if I'm not inspired to do it or whatever, but it's also very heart shaping.
It also keeps us from going after those treasures and money that we would put them at the center of our heart. So Exodus 25, that's where we're at. Exodus 35 is where it actually takes place.
You know what's right in between that? Exodus 32, Moses goes up on the mountain. The people start freaking out, man, where's God? Where's Moses?
What's going to happen to us? That same gold, the same gold, literally, that God put in their pockets and gave them when they left Egypt, supposed to build a tabernacle with it. What do they do with that gold? They begin to melt it down to literally form a God that they can worship. And if anybody tells me, hey, people can't worship money, people can't worship things, that can't become the center, I'm like, you're crazy.
I mean, just look, a couple chapters after this, the people are literally doing it. I mean, they're literally taking the stuff and literally forming a God out of it and worshiping God. That's why I'm here today. I'm worshiping God. That's why it's so important that what we do with our treasure and what we do with our money would actually form our heart.
That's how powerful it is. You all probably know Matthew 6, verse 19 through 21. We often get this a little bit backwards about what Jesus says, but let's look at what he says. He says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.
We get that. Where moth and rust are going to destroy, where thieves break in and steal. Don't want to do that. You want to lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
And here's the difference. You know, moth is not going to destroy it. Thieves will not break in and steal. But then he says this in verse 21, and we often get this totally backwards. He says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Well, you see, what we think is, man, as long as my heart's there, then my money and treasure is going to follow, right? And that's what Jesus says. No, that's not what he says.
What does he say? Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. So when we say that money and wealth and resources and treasure, it has a way of forming the heart. That's what Jesus is talking about. Because a lot of times we say, man, I'll be generous with all the stuff that God's given me.
I'll be generous when I really feel like it, right? When I'm really motivated, when I'm really inspired. And what does Jesus say? Jesus says like, man, if you want to go after the heart, like if you want your heart to be directed at God and wanting to serve God and love God, then you need to put your, send your treasure ahead. And your heart is actually going to follow that. And I would just encourage any of you, man, if you've not experienced that, then you are missing out on God growing you in a way that he could grow you. Because one of the primary ways that God forms our heart is through our treasure and through our wealth.
It makes sense, right? If it's going to be one of the primary idols of the world, if it's going to be one of the primary idols of our life, one of the things that can compete with God more easily than anything else, then certainly God is going to use that to also make a beeline to our actual heart. This is why Jesus talks about money so much. I think about in my own life when my wife and I were going to seminary.
This is like 16 years ago before we ever moved here to start Mercy Hill or anything like that. We were lucky enough, we had a lot of issues in our life, but for whatever reason, trying to be generous and giving was not an issue. Like we learned at some point this is what we should do, and so we did it. But we were struggling big time. Like we were struggling financially, didn't exactly know how we were going to pay our bills. And a lot of you have been there.
Newly married, just got out of college, working for the very first time. And we had some friends, we were living in North Carolina. We had some friends out of nowhere. They literally, I mean, we were like, we didn't know how we were going to pay for the next classes and all that. Out of nowhere, they just send us a check. They didn't know any of this was going on.
Didn't know any of what was happening in our life. And they just said, hey, they're business owners in Florida where we were from. They just said, hey, we were praying for y'all. We were thinking about you and we just felt compelled to send this to you.
And you know what? If we hadn't been giving, we probably wouldn't have been in that exact circle. Exact circumstance that we were in. And God could not have used that to direct our hearts the way that he did. And I am just so confident. And you can ask my wife, Allison, if we wouldn't have that experience, we absolutely would not have moved here to help plant Mercy Hill with the hoppers. I can just absolutely say that.
There's no way we would have. Because through us trying to be generous, God was working on our heart and he was showing what it's like to trust him and to test him and to trust his future, not not just what he's done in our past, but to trust him for our future. God absolutely used all of that to shape our hearts.
And so if you have an experience that I would really just encourage you to think about that, there's nothing more powerful to actually be able to shape your heart. Here's the second thing, and I think kind of the main thing that we pull from this. Your wealth has a bigger purpose. Your wealth has a bigger purpose.
I'm not going to go back through it all, but the main reality is this long list of stuff, you know, like the gold, the silver, the ram skins, the oil for the lamps, all the stuff they got from Egypt, it was for a bigger purpose, right? Like two things are happening. God's keeping their hearts from getting too attached to that stuff, right? If you've ever been in a situation where you had nothing, now you've got a lot of stuff, it's very easy to get like, oh, I like this.
I like this feeling of what this is giving me right now. So God's keeping them from getting too attached, but he's also showing them like, hey, guys, all the stuff you have, I know it's awesome, I know it feels awesome, but it's not just about you. Like, there was always a bigger purpose here, there was always something bigger that I was doing. And the reality is, like, when you hold those blessings too tightly, like, things just go wrong.
And we see this in their history. You read on, like, there are lots of examples of like, as soon as the people go from this to like beginning to like close their hands tightly around it, oh, man, things begin to go really bad. It reminds me, there's like a thousand movies like this. I don't know how many of you remember the Disney movie Aladdin from the 90s. So Aladdin had this monkey named Abu, and they go into this cave to get the lamp, and the place is just like filled with treasure, right?
And the rule is like, hey, you can get the lamp, but you can't touch anything else. Well, Abu sees this red ruby, and he's like, oh, man, like, I can't help myself, and they pull him away, and then what happens? He eventually grabs it. What happens when he grabs it?
The whole thing begins to just cave in on them. And that's such a picture of our own lives. God gives us stuff. He blesses us with all these amazing things. We're like, this is great.
But as soon as we begin to really wrap our hands around that stuff, it absolutely will destroy us. You can imagine at this point the Israelites being like, oh, man, this all makes sense now. I didn't know why you were telling us to take all of their stuff when we were leaving. Because if you go back and you read all the stories, they're like, hey, we know you want us to leave, but we also need you to give us all of your stuff. You know, like, I think we would have been like, man, that's, man, the audacity, right?
To just like, we were slaves, but now we actually, all the stuff that you have, give it to us. They're probably like, oh, man, like, I get it, right? Like, all this stuff, it's not just for our enjoyment. Because maybe they were thinking like, man, God, thank you, silver and the gold and all. No, it has so much of a bigger purpose of what God is doing with it. And I would just encourage us, like, are we even asking those questions? Like, man, God, at the end of this last year, I got a bonus, or I got a raise, or here's what you did in my life. Are we even asking the question, God, what is this for? Like, God, what do you have this earmarked for? Is there a kingdom purpose, the reason that you've given this to me, that you want me to bless somebody else with what you've blessed me with? And I would guess, because I've got the same simple heart that you guys all have, that many times in our life, we're just not even asking the question.
We're just like, thank you, God, love you, God, appreciate that. And that's the end of it. And the reality is, like, I know we can all get so, you know, there's all this stuff in the government going on right now, with the doze, and the government accountability, right, making sure the government's spending our money the right way. All of us get enraged when you hear, like, a story of a Ponzi scheme, right, where somebody takes people's money they've invested, and somebody spends it over here, and it just enrages all of us. You know, a Ponzi scheme is when somebody doesn't own somebody's money, but they treat it like theirs, right?
Like, you invest money somewhere, and that person takes it, and they go spend it on themselves. We're just like, that's horrible, that's awful. I would just ask the question, like, man, how many of us are running a Ponzi scheme on God?
You know? The Bible is so clear, front to back, that anything that we have, we do not own. We manage for God. We don't own anything as human beings. And so, if we're not asking, God, where is this going?
Where have you earmarked it? Then I would just say, like, man, we're kind of just like, man, we're kind of just running a Ponzi scheme on God. Like, God, I know you own it all, but you know what?
You gave it to me, so now I'm going to own it. But what's happening here is by opening their hands, God is trying to prevent that from happening. And no matter where you're at today, you know, I don't want you to be like, hey, well, I don't really have much, so it doesn't matter. I would imagine it was the same with them. Like, some of them got the gold, some of them got the goat's hair. I mean, I don't even know what that was for. Maybe Pastor Andrew can give us the redneck interpretation next week, what the goat's hair was for, whatever.
I'm sure they didn't all have the same stuff. And I think it's real easy for any of us to say, man, I don't have much, therefore, I'm off the hook. But, you know, one of the primary examples in the whole Bible of somebody that is put forth as a person of generosity was literally somebody who gave a penny. That Jesus, you go read the story, the widow's mite, Jesus puts her forward as somebody that has a generous heart. And some of us, maybe God has blessed like crazy.
And so, honestly, we're kind of not asking the question of, God, what is this earmarked for? Like, we've just started living like, man, I'm just a blessed person. I just have all this stuff, God just blessed me.
And we're not even asking the question. Here's the healthy view of wealth, okay, from this passage. You ask the question, all of the stuff that they got, did God give it to them to bless them? The answer is yes, yes. All the stuff you've got, you've got to bless them. All the stuff you have in your life, did God give it to you to bless you? Yes, 100%, absolutely. But then you've got to say, was their wealth only meant to bless them?
The answer is a clear no. No, it wasn't only meant to bless them. They were blessed so that they could be a blessing. Even building this tabernacle, which was a foreshadow of the temple, where people outside of Israel were going to see it and glorify God and see how magnificent He is, it wasn't just about them.
It never was just about them. And so here's kind of the simple application for today. Open your hands and see what God does in your heart. I'm not even telling you exactly how to open your hands.
That's between you and God. Like, yes, I think you should give your resources and your treasure and what God has blessed you with, but it honestly can look a thousand different ways. But there's a big difference between living like this with your hands closed and living like this with your hands open. And I would just encourage all of us today to open your hands.
And just see, see what God does in our heart. I would guess today that there's some different groups of people here. Some of you are here today, and you would say, man, if I'm honest, I'm just checking things out, and there's not a ton of stuff spiritually going on in my life, if I'm honest. There's not a ton going on.
There's not a ton going on. And, you know, it's not one of those things where it's like, okay, well, open your hands and be generous, and then you're going to be in a relationship with God. It doesn't work that way.
But I will say this, and we miss this many times. So many of Jesus's interactions with people, you think about the rich young ruler, a young man that wants to follow Jesus, and he's got it all together, and Jesus is like, man, yeah, come follow me. You just need to give away all this wealth and this stuff first, and the guy can't do it.
Why? Because wealth and money and all the things that God has given, they were sitting right dead center in his heart. And I would just say for some of you today, if you're like, man, there's not a lot spiritually going on in my life, I would just say, well, man, maybe the wealth and the blessings and the money and all the stuff that you have, it's just dead center in your heart. And the only way that you're going to be able to experience a relationship with Jesus is that he's replaced with that stuff in your heart. You know, some of you, maybe it's not that like nothing spiritually is going on, but maybe you could say like, hey, if I were honest today, that like my life has been like really spiritually stagnant over the last couple of years. Man, I believe the Bible, I believe in Jesus, but like it's just very stagnant.
It just doesn't feel like a lot of stuff is going on. And I would just get you to try to consider, like, I want you to think about this text today and think about generosity, because here's the thing. If I put something in your hand, right, let's just say it's God, man, I give you a quarter, put it in your hand. Well, if I keep my hand open, I can give it away, right? Let's say I close it. Man, God, I love this blessing you gave me. I'm going to go ahead and close my hand around this. Well, you obviously can't give it away, right, when your hand's closed.
Here's the other thing you can't do. You can't receive anything else from God. And I would imagine there's some people here that God has blessed you in an amazing way, and your salvation, and something else, and you're so thankful, and at some point in time, you said, you know what, I'm just going to, I'm just going to close my hands right around that blessing, because I just like it a little bit too much, and I'm not sure if God's going to bless me in the future.
I'm not sure what the future holds, and so I'm just going to close my hands right around it. And I would just imagine that God has blessed you in an amazing way, and I would just imagine that very much could be a reason why your spirituality has been stale over the last couple of years. Listen to what Proverbs 11 says.
It talks about this exact truth. One gives freely, so lives with open hands, yet grows all the richer. Another one withholds what he should give, so close your hands, and only suffers one, it's counterintuitive. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, one who waters will will himself be watered.
And I would just say, man, maybe you're not being watered anymore because you're not watering anymore. You know, you just closed your hands to the blessings of God. And so the only thing to do with that, we've all been there.
We've all been there. We've gotten something from God, it was so awesome, and we just closed our hands right around it. The only thing to do, the only right response is to say, God, I'm sorry, you blessed me in the past. I'll trust that you'll bless me in the future, and repent and go back to living with open hands again. And just trust that, man, if God is asking you to give something, God is probably going to also spiritually bless you. The last group of people today that I just want to speak to, and then I'll pray, and we'll close. Some of you are here today, and man, you want, you very much want to live with open hands. And there are so many of you that are just saints in the faith that I look up to here at Mercy Hill, and that's what you want to do.
That's the life that you want to live. And I would just encourage you with that, okay, you think about a business, you think about something else, people often say like, what's the balance sheet, right? What assets do they have? What liabilities do they have?
What are the resources that they have? Here's the thing. Every single one of us have a spiritual balance sheet of the way that God has blessed you.
I don't care if you're 16 years old or you're 60 years old. If you have a little bit or you have a lot, there are things in your life that God has absolutely blessed you with. And I would encourage you, man, go write that stuff down.
Go write it down. Man, my house, my car, my kids, my job, my spouse, here are the, in addition to our salvation, here are the things that God has blessed you with. And then would we have enough faith to say, God, why have you given it to me? Like, what is this for? God, you've blessed me to be a blessing.
Is this stuff earmarked for something else that you want me to do with it? Like, would we be brave enough to say, God, you've blessed me to be a blessing? Would we be brave enough to ask that question around all the stuff that God has given us? Because I would imagine coming off of teaching like this, man, we'd go ask that question. There may be some things that God's like, yeah, actually, yeah, now that you asked, there is a couple things that I want that to be directed for. So I would just encourage all of us with that.
Some of you are newer here at Mercy Hill and you're coming around at a really exciting time. I mean, Pastor Andrew has talked about Easter for multiple weeks using the acronym PIGS. I remember we were first in a meeting and he said PIGS and I thought he was joking.
I was like, it's very much on brand for you. I don't know how catchy it's going to be. Well, look, he's smarter than me because it's super catchy because I was driving to work the other day and I think I counted 11 of those Easter signs on the road for my house to hear. So people are getting the message. Two things I would encourage you with if you're newer, those last two things, giving and serving. Think about the story. Some of you maybe have come to Mercy Hill over the last two to three months and it's maybe like the Israelites where until Exodus 25, they didn't know what all the stuff was for. God had put the gold in their pockets and the silver in their pockets and the acacia wood in their pockets and they didn't know what the bigger plan was. And maybe some of you have begun to plug in here at Mercy Hill and you realize like, man, God's calling you to be a part of something bigger. You know, like maybe moved here from somewhere else, maybe been a believer for a long time, but now you find yourself here and you're starting to realize, man, some of these blessings that you have in your life, some of the things that God's done in your life, maybe it's for this moment, for what's happening in our student ministry or our college ministry.
And the same thing with serving. You know, you may have come here in the last three or four months and maybe you didn't realize some of the gifts that God has given you to be able to lead others, to be able to serve. But now that you're here and you're hearing about what is happening, in some ways, this could kind of be your tabernacle moment where you're like, man, God's given me this.
I now see this need. I'm going to just go ahead and connect the dots, maybe to give or maybe to serve this upcoming Easter. So I just want to encourage you guys in that at the end of the day, God just wants us to be grateful for what he has done in our lives.
Simple as that. And if we can look back and see all the wonderful things God has done in our life that we would have the faith to look forward and say, God, I'm going to continue to live in the same way and just trust you with it all. Let me go ahead and pray for us today. Lord, we just thank you so much, God. Like the Israelites, Lord, our salvation is greater than and more than we could have ever asked for.
God, if you did nothing else in our life except for our salvation, God, we are so undeserving and we are so unworthy of that. But God, for so many of us, you have chosen to bless us above and beyond that in so many ways, God. And so I just want us today collectively as a church to say, God, you have blessed us. Help us to be a blessing, Lord. Out of the right motives, out of a joyful heart because of what you've done in our life, Lord, and we just thank you, Jesus, so much for the blessings of this life. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
