I got home from church last week and had an email from Clay waiting for me. He and Heidi went to Barnes and Noble and on their way passed this group of Occupy Protesters marching through Spartanburg.
Did any of you see them? They even made the paper.
I love the quote from one of them, “This is the South—we get a lot of car honks and a lot of waves. Occasionally, someone will yell, ‘Get a job.’ I could be working right now, but I chose to march. People need to speak out.”
I don’t know about you, but I find that funny. It goes back to what I said a couple of weeks ago as what I see as a weakness or an inherent problem with the occupy movement. It’s all talk and no action. They aren’t doing anything.
But there’s too much at stake to just be a voice. There are too many problems, too many tragedies, too much injustice for us to just “speak out.” It’s time we start doing something. It’s time to occupy something that matters.
And so what we’ve said so far in this series is that it starts with us. We’re the problem. And then last week we said that even though we can’t do something for everyone we need to do what we can do. We need to do for one what we wish we could do for everyone.
But I think that if we really want to make a difference, if we really want to change the world, if we really want to occupy something that matters then we need to be a part of a movement whose sole purpose is to change the world.
The movement I’m talking about is the church. The church is the body of Christ on earth.
Now I know what some of you are thinking: “The church! No way.” and the reason we think that is because the church hasn’t always been that good at being the world-changing movement that God intended it to be. But Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:13-16 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
The church is a movement meant to change the world. But how can we join up with this movement in a way that we’ll see real change in our world?
Well, I want to take you to an unlikely passage of scripture out of the Old Testament that talks about the construction of the tabernacle because it holds the key for showing us how to join up with this movement that God intended to change the world.
Let me give you some context: After the Israelites left Egypt, God gave them all of these rules and these laws that would set them apart as his chosen people. One thing that God wanted them to do was to build a tabernacle. And God gives Moses extremely detailed instructions about how he wants his tabernacle built.
Most of us aren’t familiar with the tabernacle, but basically, it was a mobile temple. It was a place that was to represent God’s presence among his people and in the world. So it’s pretty important. It was a foreshadowing of what the church is supposed to be.
And in chapter 35 we see them starting to gather resources and put people in place to construct this tabernacle, this mobile temple. We are going to start reading in verse 4.
4 Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the LORD has commanded: 5 From what you have, take an offering for the LORD.
I want you to notice something right off the bat:They are told that they aren’t to give what they don’t have. They are to give an offering from what they had. What they had came from the Egyptians.
Everyone who is willing…
Notice he says “everyone who is willing.” In other words, this isn’t a forced offering. God isn’t forcing anyone to do something. It is completely voluntary.
Everyone who is willing is to bring to the LORD an offering of gold, silver and bronze; 6 blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; 7 ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows; acacia wood; 8 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; 9 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.
He’s inviting them to give of their resources to build the tabernacle. A project that would represent his presence in the world.
10 “All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the LORD has commanded:
Here we see that the people are invited to use their talents to make the tabernacle. How did they respond to this request? Skip down to Verse 20.
20 Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, 21 and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the Tent of Meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments. 22 All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the LORD.
If you were wondering where the phrase, wave your hand in the air like you just don’t care, came from, it was here.
23 Everyone who had blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen, or goat hair, ram skins dyed red or hides of sea cows brought them. 24 Those presenting an offering of silver or bronze brought it as an offering to the LORD, and everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the work brought it. 25 Every skilled woman spun with her hands and brought what she had spun—blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen. 26 And all the women who were willing and had the skill spun the goat hair. 27 The leaders brought onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece. 28 They also brought spices and olive oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense. 29 All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the LORD freewill offerings for all the work the LORD through Moses had commanded them to do.
I don’t know about you, but I just find this pretty incredible. This is an incredible display of voluntary generosity on behalf of the Israelites. And the reason for it was to build the place that was to represent God’s presence in the the world.
Basically, what we see in this chapter is these people are invited to use their time, talents and resources for the construction of the tabernacle, the place that was God’s representative among his people.
Let’s bring this back to the church.
The tabernacle was a place that represented God’s presence in the world. The church isn’t a place, it is a presence in the world. The church is a presence that brings the presence of God to the world. The church is God’s representative on earth. We are Christ’s ambassadors. We are called the body of Christ. When people are in our presence it should be as close as being in the presence of Jesus as we can be this side of eternity. And as Christ’s ambassadors and Christ’s body, we are invited to use our time, talents and resources to make his name known among the nations.
And like we saw in the passage with the tabernacle and what it took to get it up and running, the church, for it to reach its full potential is going to take all of us giving our time, talents and resources as a willing offering to God so that the church can be the presence of God in the world that God intended it to be.
But here’s the deal. It starts here. It starts with you giving your time, talents and resources here at Hub City Church. God invites us to give of our time, talents and resources to make Hub City Church all that it can be. The reason I’m being specific about Hub City Church is because that is our base of operation. It’s not that we are better than anybody, but God works through a local church family. Hub City Church is our family. What we do here opens the door for us to move on beyond our church to our community and to Haiti and around the world.
That’s why we serve. That’s why we give. That’s why we commit to spending time together in worship, hub groups and mission.
And remember it is a willing invitation to use your time, talents and resources for the good of our church body so that we can be the presence of God in the world. I am not trying to force you. It has to be willing.
And remember, we are to give from what we have. Don’t try and be someone you’re not.
Now, what might happen if we all willingly give of our time, talents and resources for the good of the church? Let’s go back to the story because something incredible happened in Exodus 36:
1 So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the LORD has commanded.”
2 Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. 3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. 4 So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work 5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.”
Did you catch that? They brought too much. They were overwhelmed with resources.
6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.
Notice what happens when everybody does their part. They have more than enough. They have to start asking people to stop giving.
I think we could see the same thing. And do you know what would happen if every Christian in every church in the world did this? We would change the world!
So how do we work to support Hub City Church with our time, talent and resources?
Now, I could just leave it there with some ambiguous challenge for you to use your time, talent and treasure for the good of God’s church. But that would be letting you off the hook, and I can’t do that. So I’m going to prod you a bit.
Time: how much time can you give? Some of you can volunteer an hour a week. Some of you can volunteer 20 hours a week. What time are you going to willingly give to the movement?
Talent: What are you good at doing? Many of you use your talent every day at your job, but God didn’t just give you your talents to make money. He gave you your talents to make his name known around the world. How can you use your talents for the good of the church?
Some of you love computers. How can you use that passion in the church? Some of you love kids. How can you use that at Hub City? We want to start a small group for kids. We just need one of you to step up and say, “Here am I. Use me.”
Resources: What resources will you give for the good of God’s church? Now this does include the 10% that we call the tithe, but it’s more than that. Actually, this offering is over and above the tithe. Some of you can give more than 10%.
I don’t want you to leave here today without making some kind of commitment to use your time, talents and resources for the good of the church. What are you going to do?