WHAT WILL YOU LEAVE ON THE TABLE?
by Pastor Jim May
Nearly a year ago I was forced to take an early retirement from the job that I had worked at for over 23 years. In the process I managed to lose approximately half of the retirement income that I would have received if I could have stayed only two more years. The reason for this change was that our jobs working for a parish entity (county if you live anywhere but Louisiana), were privatized. A contract company moved in, offered a deal that my former employers couldn’t refuse, and suddenly I found myself having to reapply for the same job that I was already doing but with a new employer. (I know that there are multitudes in this country who have faced a similar situation)
In the process of applying a negotiating for the new position, I was in a bit of a rush to make sure that I would still have a job after the transition was completed so I was quick to accept the offer that was made to me because it was equal to, or perhaps just a few pennies more, than what I was already earning. At that moment, when I signed the paper accepting the offer, I felt that I had done the right thing.
But it wasn’t long until I began to wonder if I had really done the right thing. As I spoke to a few others, I discovered that one or two of them had received a slightly higher offer than I had. No firm amounts were mentioned, only that they had been offered a little more to stay on the job.
I began to wonder just how much I had left on the table? Could I have held out a little longer and maybe negotiated a little higher wage? How many of you know that it’s really hard to tell just what you could have done.
There’s always that little nagging feeling that I should have at least waited to see if there would be a second, and higher offer.
But I had to come to the conclusion that, if I had turned down the first offer, there may not have been a second offer, or an offer at all. So I settled into what the Lord had provided and I’ve set those thoughts aside concerning what was left on the table.
You can really lose perspective if you try to dwell on things that might have been instead of living with and dealing with what is and what could still come in the future!
Have you ever felt that way with your spiritual life? Have you ever wondered what blessings, what great work for the Lord and what great accomplishments you have missed out on because you made the wrong choice at the wrong time?
I want to speak to you just a little while about “What you might just leave on the table” in your work for the Kingdom of God!
Let’s look at Moses’ life for a moment. I want to show you what just a few brief moments of disobedience, or just a few words spoken in frustration, anger and disbelief, cost Moses in his relationship and work for God.
The first thing we need to understand is just what kind of man Moses was. All of us who have been in church for any period of time, or who have read even a little bit of the Bible, have heard the story of Moses.
He was born of a Israeli family in Egypt – born to be a slave. Pharaoh had decreed that every Hebrew male child should be killed to keep a “deliverer” from rising up to free the Hebrew slaves that he counted on so much.
Moses was saved by putting him in a boat and letting him float down the Nile to where Pharaoh’s daughter found him and adopted him as her own son. He grew up in the household of Pharaoh, then had to run for his life after killing an Egyptian taskmaster who was mistreating a Hebrew slave.
On the backside of the desert Moses learned to trust in God. He was called and anointed to be the “deliver” of the Hebrews out of Egypt under God’s mighty hand.
Moses started out doubting his own ability to lead Israel, but God saw a leader in Moses and so began Moses’ life as the deliverer.
He saw God bring on the plagues against Egypt until Pharaoh could no longer deny Israel it’s freedom. Israel walked out of Egypt, then Moses saw the miracle of the parting of the waters of the Red Sea. God was using Moses to lead his people to their Promised Land.
Traveling across the desert and wilderness country required a lot of water for the nearly two million Hebrews that Moses led. But God was their Jehovah Jireh, “their Provider”, and He would not let them die in the desert.
Moses had come to the end of his rope with Israel. Their constant murmuring and complaining had taken its toll on Moses’ patience. At this moment, Moses made a terrible mistake.
Let’s read about it in Numbers 20:7-13, "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. This is the water of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them."
This little incident at the rock may seem so insignificant to you and I. So what if Moses hit the rock when God had instructed him to only speak to it for the water to come? This was just a rock in the desert. It didn’t look any different from any other rock in the area. Why would God turn around and get angry with Moses for such an insignificant mistake?
There are two reasons that God would be upset with Moses.
1)Moses allowed his personal feelings to surface at the Rock of Meribah. The constant bickering of the Hebrews had worn him down. He allowed his anger to arise and his frustration brought on a disregard for the instructions of God and he smote the rock instead of speaking to it as God had directed. In doing so, Moses had shown his lack of faith in God to perform a miracle when Israel needed it.
2)Moses failed to understand what the symbolic significance of the water from the Rock meant. Jesus was represented in that “Rock”, and the river of water was representative of the life giving flow of the Holy Ghost to God’s people. Moses was only to speak to the Rock, not smite it. Jesus paid the price for our provision and salvation upon the cross, one time, for all sin. From that day forth, all we need to do is ask and receive.
For that single instance of disobedience Moses would pay dearly. After leading Israel through the wilderness for over 40 years, with the hope inside that he would enter into the Promised Land at the end of the journey and see the promise of God come to pass, Moses was denied the one thing that he wanted most.
Deuteronomy 3:23-27, "And I besought the LORD at that time, saying, O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might? I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan."
Moses left a great blessing on the table of his life. One act of disobedience; one time of frustration, anger and doubt, cost him the dream that he had dreamed of for all those many days in the wilderness journey.
Moses was a great prophet, a real man of God – called, anointed, chosen and sent. He was walking and working in the place where God wanted him. He was leading God’s chosen people into a place of freedom, and still, he missed out on entering into the Promised Land to fulfill his dream.
One moment of anger – one moment of disobedience – one moment of mistrust – one moment of frustration and doubt – and the price to pay, and the blessing he missed was so great!
I hear people say all the time that God understands their weakness and that God will overlook their faults and failures, as long as they keep on trying. That may be all well and good but there will be a price to pay for those weaknesses, faults and failures – let’s call it sin because that’s what it really is you know.
There’s no doubt that Moses is in Heaven today. I believe that he has received his eternal reward for his belief in God. I’m certain that he was among those who Jesus led out of Paradise after His death on the cross when Jesus “led captivity captive” and brought all those who believed in the coming of the Messiah. What earthly blessing that Moses missed by not entering into the Promised Land of Canaan was more than made up for when he entered into that Heavenly Canaan.
But the fact remains that Moses missed out on his greatest dream on this earth. I wonder how many blessings we miss out on when we fail to obey God? What things could we have had in God, and what work could we have done for Him, that will be left on the table when this life is over.
We must never forget that Satan’s job is to steal whatever he can from our lives. If he can get us to not do what we know we should, what will go undone?
Perhaps God has someone waiting for you to pass by and tell about Jesus, but because we were just too tired, or too busy, that someone will never know the Lord as Savior. That’s a soul that is left on the table and their blood will be required at our hand.
Perhaps God has a work for you to do, some ministry that will bless the lives of other people. But because we don’t have the trust and faith in God that we should, that ministry will never happen. What work remains on the table? Will the thing that God calls you to do ever be accomplished?
It is said that the one place on earth that contains the most wealth is not Fort Knox where all the gold reserves are kept under guard, it is not the diamond mines of South Africa, nor is it the oil fields of the Middle East. The one place on earth that holds the most wealth is the cemetery! Why? The reason is that the cemetery holds all the wealth of unrealized dreams, un-reached goals, and unfulfilled lives. Businesses that were never started, ministries that just didn’t happen, churches that were never built, and all because those people who are buried there failed to do, so many times, what God had called them to do. They chose to live a life of mediocrity, a life of an average person, rather than to step up and be the man or woman of God that God wanted them to be. What a tragedy!
There is a story in the Bible that speaks of those who would live life but not fulfill their purpose in life.
Mark 11:11-14, "And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve. And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it."
Mark 11:19-20, "And when even was come, he went out of the city. And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots."
It wasn’t the season for figs, but Jesus expected that fig tree to have fruit anyway. Because it didn’t, the tree was cursed and never again bore fruit for anyone. The purpose and calling of that fig tree was forever lost.
Jesus expects fruit from our lives all the time too. Paul wrote these words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." Those words weren’t just for Timothy. They were for all of us.
God expects much out of us. Luke 12:48, "…unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."
That doesn’t sound like God will give us an excuse for failure to produce. I believe that God has a great work for all of us to do. The question is, “What will we leave on the table?” Will the work that God has called us to do die with us, or will we see come to fruition? Let’s not miss out on God’s best because we failed to obey God.
One act of disobedience cost Moses the entrance into the Promised Land. What will we miss if we don’t obey God?
