Stop The Offerings?

We have been worshiping God by learning directly from Him, through Moses and the Israelites as they went on their Exodus from Egypt towards Canaan, the Promised Land filled with milk and honey. Next week, we will finish the Book of Exodus and I have been praying that the next book we learn from will be the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament as we can learn more directly how the Old Testament applies to Christians.

Please open your Bibles this morning to Exodus 36…..

We will read mostly from this Chapter 36 but also highlight what God tells us in Exodus 37-39. Next week we will worship with Exodus 40 along with Communion. Read along with me for now Exodus 36:1-9…..

We had noted from last week what is summarized in beginning of Exodus 36..

v1-2: there was work to do for worshiping God (i.e. ministry). What were the steps for ministering?

- God gave instructions

- God gave skills and ability

- God provided everything that was needed… however….

- only those who had the right heart attitude (love for God) were effective in ministry!

these are the truths to follow for any ministry and everything we do should be a ministry to the Lord!

Our main subject today is what is noted in v3-7: (did you note something interesting here??)

- the workers received all the offerings from Moses what was needed for ministry

- God’s people kept bringing offerings!

- there was an overabundance of giving

- the people were actually restrained from giving anymore!

As I noted earlier, we will study the last chapter of Exodus next week; I encourage you to read during the week Exodus 36:8 – Exodus 39: and note - The people did the work in detail as God instructed!

The end of Exodus 39 gives us the summary of what happened…..

Exodus 39:42-43…

- The Israelites had done all the work just as the Lord had commanded.

- Moses inspected and saw all the wor k done right and blessed the people and the work!

Everyone and everything was blessed by God! A Spiritual Revival happened at the end of the Book of Exodus!!

How can we apply these truths from God for today? I have my thoughts but I’d like to hear from you first? What do you think we can apply to our lives today from Exodus 36-39??

And yes, as we had discussed also last week…

1. God desires us to do work with Him but our hearts must be right!

And we noted that the people just kept giving offerings to the Lord that they were told to stop. Here’s the question, why did they keep giving??

Let us not forget that prior to all that giving, the Israelites were sinning and were called by God to be “stiff-necked” people! God disciplined them, then, a spiritual revival happened! During that time of Israel’s revival for God in the desert, God noted that the Israelites had willing hearts and great love for God!

Why did the Israelites in Exodus 36 kept giving? The Israelites in Exodus 36 had right hearts, willing to give and loved God and they were blessed; and so we can say that a Revival happened in Exodus 36! And so for us to apply,

2. Right hearts for God leads to abundant blessings bringing revival! Do we want to see a spiritual Revival in America? How right are our hearts to God on Sundays and everyday?

And how were the Israelites able to give abundantly? God gave to them abundantly! And so,

3. With right hearts, we are to give back to God what He has provided for us! We are to give what we have, not what we do not have!

Now to conclude, right now we don’t have this problem, yet, but, what do you think churches should do when there is an overabundance in giving??

What should ministers or the church as a whole not do when there is an overabundance in giving??

Sadly, many Ministers and churches hoard what people give for the Lord in their offerings.

4. Churches should know what’s needed based on God’s Word and if there is an overabundance, then other Biblical ministries should be considered!