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Overflowing with Thankfulness (Part 3 of 3)

Truth for Life / Alistair Begg
The Truth Network Radio
November 25, 2024 3:04 am

Overflowing with Thankfulness (Part 3 of 3)

Truth for Life / Alistair Begg

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November 25, 2024 3:04 am

In Exodus, God instructed Moses to take a freewill offering for everything necessary to complete the tabernacle. The response was so lavish, Moses ordered the people to stop giving! On Truth For Life, Alistair Begg explores the inspiration behind such generosity.



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This listener-funded program features the clear, relevant Bible teaching of Alistair Begg. Today’s program and nearly 3,000 messages can be streamed and shared for free at tfl.org thanks to the generous giving from monthly donors called Truthpartners. Learn more about this Gospel-sharing team or become one today. Thanks for listening to Truth For Life!









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In the book of Exodus, God tells Moses to take a free will offering so that he can secure the resources necessary to finish building the tabernacle. The Israelites were so lavishly generous in their response that Moses had to tell them to stop giving.

What inspires such a contribution? Find out today on Truth for Life as Alistair Begg teaches from Exodus chapter 35. Now, let's just notice them very straightforwardly. Verse 5, notice the phrase, From what you have, from what you have, take an offering. From what you have. What did they have? What do we have? Only what God the Creator has provided. Only what God the Redeemer has granted them in their exodus from the bondage of Egypt.

Only what God, who has sustained their lives, makes possible for them now in light of the project that is before them. If you like, we might say that everything we have is stamped with the seal of God's ownership. Everything in the universe—there's not a place, as Kuyper, the prime minister of the Netherlands, many years ago, he says, there's not one inch in the whole universe at which God does not look and say, This is mine.

This is all mine. Now, this is vastly different from our contemporary culture, isn't it? Where pantheism suggests that the earth is God, and everything is God, and since we are part of everything, there's somehow or another we are part of God. Not so, says the Bible. The earth is the Lord, Psalm 24 verse 1. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. In other words, the earth belongs to God, and everything that grows and is dug up out of the earth, everything that exists in the entirety, belongs to God. By the time David is involved in the prospect of building the temple, he makes the point very clearly, as he says in 1 Chronicles 29, everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. So we understand this fundamental notion.

The directive is, from what you have—what do you have? Only what God has given you. By the time you get to 1 Corinthians 4, he says, what do you have that you did not receive? And if you receive it, why do you glory as if you did not receive it? I mean, why would you walk around like you're a self-made man or a self-made woman or whatever else it is?

No. On every inch of the universe, God's ownership is established. Therefore, everything that these people to whom he gives this directive had was a result of God's grace. Second phrase to help us understand the directive is the phrase everyone who is willing. That's also in verse 5.

Everyone who is willing. In other words, this is not a matter of legislation. This is a matter of personal conscience.

This is not a matter of Moses as the leader laying an obligation or a guilt trip on the people under his care. No, he says, God asked me to say to you that from what you have—and you know that everything you have is God's—from what you have, bring an offering to the Lord everyone who's willing. Some people see giving as a grudge—well, I guess I have to, I suppose I should—or as a duty—I ought to do this—or perhaps in response to some measure of guilt, I've been a bad person, I think I should try and be a good person now. Or I think I'd better give something, or something bad might happen to me.

All of these things are absolutely against the principle which is here in Exodus 35 and runs throughout the Bible. The giving of the people of God in response to the grace of God is thanksgiving. It is overflowing gratitude, overflowing thankfulness revealed in overflowing generosity. How will God know that we are overflowing in thankfulness by our overflowing generosity?

The principle's obvious. Now, given the notion of willingness, we must always beware of anybody who is heavy-handed or who is overly directive in the matter of giving. And you know we say very little about giving here at Parkside Church. I've chosen to do so today for a number of reasons, but I think I didn't do this for at least two years. And before that, I think it was twelve years.

So just in case you're visiting today and would want to extrapolate from this, really, you'd have to wait some considerable time before there would be any mention again of these things. No, Aaron was the one who was heavy-handed. Aaron is the one who told them what to do with their earrings. Moses doesn't give any expression regarding earrings. He just says anybody who is willing and whose heart has been stirred up should bring an offering to the Lord.

He doesn't tell them what to do or how to do it. And you will notice that—and this is the third phrase—that this is to be brought to the Lord. From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Moses is telling the people that the Lord is willing to receive from all who are willing to give. But the Lord, who is in need of nothing, is willing to receive from those who are the beneficiaries of everything, when we, the beneficiaries of his grace, as an expression of our overflowing thankfulness, reveal our hearts in overflowing generosity. And when that happens, God is glorified. When that happens, glory and praise is given to God.

What is your response to me and my response to me? Look at the response of the people. When he had given these directives and he gave them with great clarity, with no manipulation, no funny business—verse 20—then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses' presence. They said, Okay, we'd better go away and think about this. And having withdrawn from the presence of Moses, notice what happened.

Everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him or whose heart was stirred up brought an offering—notice again the phraseology—to the Lord for the work. You see, if people have to be cajoled in relationship to the work, well, you've got to explain to me what this is. Well, you've got to explain why that's happening.

You've got to explain the next thing. Then they don't understand—I don't understand, then, what it means to give to the Lord. I'm giving this to the Lord. Yeah, but who's looking after this? Well, in this instance, the elders of the church. In that instance, the elders of Israel. You'll notice that they didn't only give from what they had, but they also gave on the basis of what they were, and the gifts that God had given them. And we don't have time to go through this, but I read it as purposefully and as clearly as I could, and it's not an easy passage to read. But weren't you struck by the way in which God fills people with his Spirit for artistic endeavors? That he fills these two characters particularly and expressly in this way, in order that by the arts—which is essentially what it is—by the arts, by the creativity, by the use of fabrics, by all of these things, by the fragrance of incense and the gems on the ephod and the breastplate of the ministering priests—by all of these things, the work of the Lord was set forward. Another time we'll come back, perhaps, and look at Exodus 35 in terms of a Christian view of the arts. But it's all here in the Bible, and it's really pretty clear. And so the people understood this. And I won't belabor the point, but if you go through later on and just underline to the Lord or the work of the Lord, you will find that this is the recurring emphasis. And in response to the directive, we discover that eventually they had to call a halt to it. I think there's a measure of humor in verse 4 of 36.

I hope you do too. So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary down tools and went to see Moses and said, Listen, enough already! The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done. You see, they were overflowing in generosity.

What happened? They were reminded of the immensity of God's goodness. From what you have, what do I have? Everything you gave me. Who am I giving this to? To the Lord. Why should I do it?

Because he stirred my heart. Are we being manipulated? No. Just those who are willing. Just those who are willing. And the crowd that was willing was obviously a significant crowd, and the way in which they brought their stuff was obviously more than overwhelming, and as a result, Moses has to issue a second directive. And he sent the word throughout the camp, verse 6.

Don't you love this? No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary, and so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work. In other words, what's today? The sixth, then you go to the thirteenth, you go to the twentieth. So on the twentieth, let's say, two weeks today, I stand up and I say, Hey, listen, no more of that budget stuff.

We're completely done with the budget. Please do not give any more at all. Overflowing thankfulness revealed in overflowing generosity. God does not administer his grace in percentages. He lavishes his grace upon his people. And out of the abundance of his heart, in Jesus, he has given to his people one blessing after another.

Let's then say a word concerning our reaction to this, or the application of their reaction. God has come to Moses, and he said, I have a plan for my tabernacle. I want you to convey this to the people so that those who are willing may respond accordingly.

We read our Bibles, and essentially, the story is the same. God has a plan for saving people through the work of his Son, and he says, I want those who have their hearts stirred up and who are willing to help by giving to gospel work. To help by giving to gospel work. When I have occasion to write a thank-you note for those who have given to the work of Truth for Life, I try always to write with the same phraseology.

I'm sure I mistake sometimes. But I'm careful to say, I want to thank you today for the gift that you've given to the work of the gospel via Truth for Life. You have given a gift to the work of the gospel via Truth for Life. But your gift is a gospel gift. And the people here realized that they were involved in something that was far bigger than anything they knew—about God meeting with his people, about God reaching out beyond his people to the alien peoples, and so on. And in the same way, you and I become part of a great missionary project when we do as we've pledged to do. We're involved in the work of the gospel. And what the Bible says is, given that this is our privilege and our opportunity, would we not give ourselves in response to overflowing grace with overflowing generosity. There's a wonderful epitaph on the wall of a military officer in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which reads as follows, sacred to the memory of Charles George Gordon, who at all times and everywhere gave his strength to the weak, his substance to the poor, his sympathy to the suffering, and his heart to God. Actually, it should start with he gave his heart to God, and then from there.

I need to draw this to a close, and some of you are staring at me. But this notion of overflowing generosity needs to be seen in light of a few things, and I can't work these out, but let me just give them to you. Number one, an unreserved commitment to Christ. An unreserved commitment to Christ. I am not committed to Christ if my wallet is not involved.

The rich young ruler went away sad, having asked all the right questions, was concerned about eternal life, but he was not prepared for unreserved commitment to Christ. Any giving that doesn't begin with our unreserved commitment to Christ is not biblical giving. Secondly, such overflowing generosity must be exercised in keeping with what we have. In keeping with what we have.

And when Paul writes to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 16, he says that your giving should be according to your means. According to your means. In other words, he says, I don't want you to get involved in an emotional surge. I don't want you to take your brain out in relationship to this.

I want you to think about what's going on. And our means at one time may be better than at another time. The earning capacity of an individual in his middle years will be different from that retired person in most circumstances, and so we would be able to discriminate. But once again, it is the stirring of the heart, the willingness of the Spirit, unreservedly committed to Jesus and in keeping with what we have. And also, such overflowing generosity has to be exercised in light of our obligation to our God-given economic duties—in relationship to our God-given economic duties, which are what? Well, what is it, eight and a half percent sales tax? Whatever the basic rate of income tax, and then there's some on top. Whether you like tax, don't like tax, like the idea of it, whatever else it is, doesn't matter. Romans 13 says we have an actual God-given obligation to play our part in these things.

Therefore, what we do in relationship to a willing, stirred heart, in terms of overflowing generosity, has to be seen in light of that—our obligation to the state and our obligation to our families. Someday at another time I will speak to this issue, but I think there are two things, by observation, that are totally crazy. You don't need to care about this, and you don't need to pay attention to what I'm telling you. But this is my observation. I personally think it's wrong to pass on to our children unbelievable debt as a result of their education.

I don't believe that is clever parenting. People disagree with me. That's just my view. They start off so far behind that it's almost impossible for them to catch up, and it encourages all kinds of bad activity vis-à-vis their responsibility and vis-à-vis credit and everything else. And at the other end of the scale, I don't think that we should be so quick to buy the contemporary Western notion that what you're supposed to do is labor all your life to make sure that you're not a burden to your children. That's contemporary view.

But I'm trying to make this simple point, that there are divine obligations to state and to family that play into this. And also, and finally, that such overflowing generosity needs to be exercised in light of what I might refer to as the law of equivalent returns. The law of equivalent returns. Where did you get that? From The Economist or something?

Somebody says, No! I got it from Proverbs 11. One man gives freely, yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly but comes to poverty.

That's what I'm referring to as the law of equivalent returns. Proverbs 11 24, one man gives freely, and he figures he's got even more to give. Another man says, Oh, no, I can't give to that.

If you saw where I am right now, there's no way that I—no, no. One man withholds unduly—the key is in that—is that an adverb? I don't know—but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper. He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.

In other words, well, no, that's gonna sound like Reaganomics. I'll just leave that one alone. But the fact of the matter is, I think it may well actually be right there. Let me finish with the lady as I did last Sunday morning. You know this lady well. She showed up at the house of Simon the leper. Jesus was there.

It was a routine kind of evening. That was right up until the point that she came in and started smashing a jar of perfume. She had an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume—the equivalent of a year's wages, apparently. Not just some little trinket that she picked up at Dillard's, but something that would have been used either for a dowry on the occasion of her wedding or would be used for the embalming of a loved one at the occasion of their death. And this lady came to Jesus, and she took this, and she created a stink with it—a beautiful fragrance that would have hung on people for a long time. And people would have said, Man, boy, do you smell good. What is that?

Where were you? They said, Well, we were at the house of Simon the leper, and the lady showed up, and she smashed this alabaster jar of perfume. Must have been some perfume that you are so… Yeah. It was costly in its bestowal. It was thoughtful in its uniqueness. It was timely in its provision. And it was challenging in its impact. That's why the people immediately began to say, That's ridiculous. I can't believe she did that.

This could have been sold for a year's wages, and all could have been given to the poor. Jesus said, Don't play the poor card right now. That's not the card to play right now.

That's… You know that's not the issue, he says. What this lady has done will be reported throughout the world forever. Why? Because it was an expression of overflowing generosity that stemmed from overflowing thankfulness, which was the response to overflowing grace. Every tight-fisted believer will inevitably—we will inevitably have our fists opened when we stand before the cross of Christ and we say with Andre Krausch, How can I say thanks for the things you've done for me? And who are these people? Those who are willing, whose hearts have been stirred, who bring an offering to the Lord for the work. What work? The work of seeing unbelieving people become committed followers of Jesus Christ.

And then people withdrew to think this out. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. Alistair will be back in just a minute. This is the time of year when we start thinking about holiday gift-giving, and there's nothing more valuable you can give someone than a gift that would introduce them to Jesus. That's why we have carefully selected some gospel-themed Christmas gifts this year. They're available for purchase at our cost while supplies last. You'll find them in our online store at truthforlife.org slash gifts.

And if you live in the U.S., shipping is free. We have gifts for all ages, including books for children. For example, you'll find three lift-the-flap board books for preschoolers that teach them how they can show the grace and love of Jesus to others. These three books are sold as a set for $9, and there's a book for elementary-age children that introduces them to 22 of Jesus' parables.

They'll learn what each parable means, why Jesus taught in parables, and why some people just couldn't understand them. It's a beautifully illustrated hardcover book, and it's available for $5. And of course, Alistair's book, See is for Christian, is available for $6. It's a thoughtful gift that teaches children what it means to live as followers of Jesus. And keep in mind, we sell all of these books at cost. We want to encourage you to use them as far and wide as you can as gospel-sharing opportunities. Maybe you'll even think about gifting these books to your church's children's ministry or a homeless ministry.

You can browse the entire gift selection at truthforlife.org slash gifts. Now, here is Alistair. Let us pause in a moment of silent prayer and ask God just to bring what is of himself home to our hearts and minds, so that we might be free of any notion of human coercion or manipulation. Instead, that we might only be responding to what God by his Spirit would say to us. Father, we hear your voice as it says, I beseech you, brethren, by my very mercies to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto me, which is your spiritual service of worship. And so then, may your love draw us afresh to you. May your Spirit kindle within our hearts a willing spirit and an increased desire for your glory. May your peace champion all our uncertain thoughts and all our anxieties. And may we go out from this place confident that you, our Heavenly Father, know best about everything and that we may trust you. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with each one, now and forevermore. Amen. Thanks for joining us today. The challenge for Christians to become what we are sounds like a strange riddle, but tomorrow we'll find out exactly what it means and how it's accomplished. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-11-25 08:35:11 / 2024-11-25 08:44:02 / 9

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