Celebrate God who gave you everything! (Exodus 23:10-19) - Wayne Denny

The following audio is from downtown church, a kingdom focused gospel centered, multi-ethnic, multi-class ministry in Memphis, Tennessee. For more information, please visit downtownchurch.com. Let's go to prison. Join me now in the reading of our great gods' work. Reading today comes from Exodus, chapter 23, verses 10 through 19. For six years, you shall sow your land and gather in its yield. But the seventh year, you shall let it rest in life, that the core of your people may eat and what they leave of the beast and what they leave the beast of the field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard and with your olive orchard. Six days you shall do the work. But on the seventh day, you shall rest. That your ox and your donkey may have rest. That the sun of your servant woman and the alien may be refreshed. Pay attention to all that I have said to you and make no mention of the names of other gods nor let it be heard on your lips. Three times in the year, you shall keep a feast to me. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of a beam. For in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty handed. You shall keep the feast of harvest of the first fruits of your labor of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the feast of in gathering at the end of the year when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. Three times in the year, shall all your males appear before the Lord God. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened or let the fat of my feast remain until morning. But the best of the first fruits of your ground, you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. This is the word of the Lord. And morning downtown church, I am excited about the three-on-three basketball tournament. I will be there. And when I asked Hillary, "Is it possible for us to host at our house?" She said, "As long as the old people sign a waiver that they're not going to sue us when they get hurt, then that's okay." So I will be one of the people that start stretching as soon as we leave here this afternoon if you would like to just let me know we can do that. But let me start with a word of prayer before we jump into the passage this morning. Father, we thank you for your goodness, for your kindness. We'll be with us in this moment as we seek to be challenged from your word as we seek to be reminded of your goodness and as we come to you to remember all that we have to celebrate, we ask these things in your Son's name and by the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen. If you follow news in recent years, you know that there have been millions of people fleeing Ukraine. There are people who are fleeing for their safety. They want to know where can we go so that we and our families can be safe. And I want you to imagine with me for a moment that there is a news crew who is interviewing several families currently in Poland who have fled Ukraine and said, "We've got great news for you. We know where you can be resettled." And everything is arranged, everything is prepared. And imagine the family looking to the news crew and saying, "Okay, but hold on one week, we need to have a conference first. We need to talk about what we are going to do once we get in the land where we are resettled. We need to have a conference to talk about how we're going to use the profits from the businesses we start there. We need to talk about how every seventh month and the companies that we have started, we are going to give our employees a month off so that they can then serve other refugees. And we also need to plan our parties. Give us one week before we are resettled so that we can do that. Who among you, who among us, would be shocked? I would. I would say, "We can go there. Let's go now." In our passage this morning, we have the people of Israel who have been brought out. Of a place where they were oppressed, it was not safe, it was not a good situation for them at all. And they're on the way to the promised land. And everything that they need to get there is in God's power to get them there. But he says, "Before you get there, we're going to talk about some things first. And I'm going to give you my law. And I'm going to tell you how you're going to interact with the land." So this morning, I want us to look at four different things that come out of this passage that show us the heart of God and the heart that He wants us to have. And I want us to think about the fact that if this was so important that God was saying, "We're going to delay going into the promised land because I want to tell you how to throw a party. I want to tell you what to do with the profits of the businesses that you have first." We should sit up in our chairs and say, "I want to hear this. This is worth listening to." And so the first point that I want to emphasize that comes from this passage is everything comes from God. Everything comes from God. Can you imagine with me for a second that there's a news that Memphis is going to have an NFL football team? I think there would be people who would be excited. Imagine Memphis gets a team, they get a draft. And they tell Memphis, "You can pick any player you want to start your team with." And somebody says, "I'm taking Wayne Diny." For those of you who love football, you would think, "What? Seriously? Why would you pick him? There's all these other things." When God began His plan in Genesis 12 to bless all the families of the earth, He didn't hold an interview and say, "Which nation is the strongest? Which nation has the best government? Which nation is the most compassionate? Which nation is the best situated to bless all the families of the earth?" No. God said, "I'm going to pick Abraham." A man who about half a chapter into his story is going to Egypt, can't afford to eat, and he's lying to protect himself as he's just telling his wife, "Hey, you go take, you go step forward and take some of this danger because I don't want to do it." This is who God chose to begin His people with. And what I want to look at first of all is that this was not accidental. God began with the people who did not have land on purpose. That was not an accident. And we see that when we look at the three festivals that God is commanding His people to celebrate. So if you want to later on this week, you can read Deuteronomy 16, you can read Leviticus 23. These are passages that give more detail into what is happening in those festivals. And some of the things that we see there, I'm going to read a couple verses and just bear with me for a minute why look at some of these passages. The first one, the feast of unleavened bread. Now first of all, why is it unleavened? Why is it that the leaven does with the bread? It needs time to cause the bread to rise. And God is saying, this is what you made when you left Egypt. Look at Deuteronomy 16, three. Do not eat it with bread made with yeast. But for seven days, eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste. So that all the days of your life, you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. I want you to take a week and eat something that reminds you of this period of your life. If we look at the next festival that they're supposed to have, the Feast of Weeks, Deuteronomy 16, 11 to 12, this is whenever they're beginning to get the harvest from the grain harvest. And we see here, what does God say? Rejoice before the Lord your God at the place He will choose as a dwelling place for His name. You, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless, and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and followed carefully these decrees. The third one that we find, in Leviticus 23, God is telling His people to celebrate the festival of booths. Now can you imagine this for one of our next events we announce to everybody, we're going to go camping for a week. Sergio, are you excited about that? He's shaking his head now. That's what they were to do. Let's read these verses in verses 42 to 43. God says, "You're to live in temporary shelters." Yeah, I know you've got where you normally live, but for this festival, I want you to construct a temporary shelter and live in it. Why would God say that you live in it? All native born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. When we look at the three festivals that are mentioned in this passage, do you see that God has something he wants them to remember? I want you to remember that you did not have land. There was a time when you didn't have land, so whenever you do have it, I want you to live a certain way. I want you to remember that there was a time where you had not no authority over the laws of the land, but there's going to come a time when you will have land and you will have influence. I want you to live a certain way. Deuteronomy 26.5. Whenever Israel first went into the land, they were supposed to hold a celebration and in 26.5, one of the things they were supposed to say is my father was a wandering airman. It's not just the book of Exodus. If you go back to the book of Genesis, everybody in it's an immigrant. If you think about Abraham, if you think about Jacob, if you think about Isaac, everybody is not having their own land. This is something that God is doing and he is saying, I want this to be a vital truth that you never forget. Everything you have came from me. So many times we go into a building and we might see the fellowship hall named after someone, we might see the kitchen named after a wealthy donor, we might see the sanctuary named after a founding pastor, God is saying, I don't want one building in a, or one room in a building to be named after me. The whole land, all of it is named after me, all of it came from me and I need you to recognize this. In this passage, there's one verse you may have noticed at the end, don't cook a goat in his mother's milk. If you're looking for a great answer to that question, my answer is I don't have one, I actually don't know what that means. But it is interesting, whenever you go through all of the laws and the Old Testament, you can eat this, you can eat this, you can do this with the land, you can't do this with the land. What is God doing over and over and over again? He is saying, this doesn't belong to you. I'm the one that provided it. Everything came from me. One of the TV shows I enjoy the good place, there's one character on their Brent in one of the final seasons who's just obnoxious and one of the lines he's bragging about, hey, I got everything I did from hard work. I inherited a business from my dad worth 90 million and now it's worth 94 million and there's just something annoying about him and there's characters like this in reality TV shows and so many TV shows and you probably know someone where you see them taking credit for things that they really have no business taking credit for and God is saying you're not going to be like that. Everything comes from me. So the second point that we see from this is since everything comes from God, you share what you have. It's not yours to decide what to do with it. Everything you have comes from me. So therefore you share what you have. I think of if someone loans me a car, I don't then get to loan that car to somebody else. That's their car. If I go into your house, I'm not going to do the same thing. I'm not worried about the rings on my coffee table, but if I'm in your house, I will use a coaster. I'm going to think about it. It's not mine. When we look at this passage, God is saying you share what you have and this comes out in, it's interesting in the 10 commandments, there's this statement, remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. We get to this past passage and we ask the question, okay, how do we keep it? Keep it holy. And Paul says, you're going to farm in such a way that there's food that you don't harvest, that there's food left over, that the widow, the poor, the orphan, the foreigner, that they can access it. And you're going to do this because it's not your land. It belongs to me. You're going to share what you have. And one of the things that has stood out to me so much from the Old Testament is how dominant this theme of migration is, of God saying you were immigrants, the land doesn't belong to you and I don't ever want you to forget that. And I think maybe for those of you who know me, you know that I have worked with immigrant communities for a few years now, you might be thinking, well, Wayne, are you reading this into the passage? Are you finding something there that isn't there after all? This is just something that has been very big in your experience. I would encourage you to go back and read through the whole first five books of the Bible and to recognize that I don't think this is something I'm finding that isn't there. I think this is something that my experience has helped me to see something that was all right always there. I've just only recently begun to notice and I will say this, if you let me just read one verse right before the passage we read in verse 9 of Exodus 23, it says, "Do not oppress a foreigner. You yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners because you were foreigners in Egypt." This passage is emphasizing the land doesn't belong to you. You can't just do with it what you want to do and so therefore you're going to share. I think there's something important about loving and caring and showing compassion to people without land. If you were to ask somebody in the Old Testament, how do we remember God's goodness? He would say, "Well, you remember that God is providing a way for you to have access to him in spite of your sin." But also, part of your discipleship is to love immigrants because if you don't do that, you'll forget where you came from. You'll forget your roots. This is part of who you are. So number one, we see everything comes from God. Since everything comes from God, number two, share what you have. It's not yours. A third point that I think we see in this passage is that everybody has something to give. This is one of the things that's interesting. So often we can talk in churches about, "Oh, God wants us to love the poor. God wants us to love the immigrant. God wants His church to love this group. You pick whichever group it is. And sometimes we can kind of think that, "Oh, well, in God's people, there's two categories of people. There's people who have resources. And then there's people who don't have resources. And it's important in God's people that the people who have the resources are helping the people who don't have them." And there's one verse in this passage that I, again, God is giving these rituals, not just pulling details at random. In verse 15, after talking about this festival of unleavened bread, God says, "No one is to appear before me empty handed. Everybody brings something. Everybody is to bring something." And when we get to the New Testament and we look at this idea, one of the things that we see that comes out so often in the New Testament is having resources, having money doesn't mean that you're closer to God. It doesn't mean that you've got more ability to change the world, to make Kingdom impact. In fact, the New Testament, more often than not, is saying, "If you have money, you should be cautious because you're very likely to forget the first point we talked about. You're very likely to forget that everything comes from God. When we look in God's Kingdom, there's not two groups of people, the needy, and then those with resources. There's the needy, and then there's King Jesus." And all of us are in that needy category. We may forget it at times, but it is always the truth. And when we, I think of this morning, we're praying for the persecuted church. When I think of where is the church making an incredible impact in the world, demonstrating God's love, caring for others, you do not find a correlation of wealthy churches making the biggest impact. That correlation is just not there. When we look in God's church, I think this principle of, "When you come to worship God, everybody brings something." Nobody shows up empty handed because there's two truths from this. Number one, nobody can boast and say, "This whole thing is happening because of me." And also, nobody can say, "Well, I don't really have anything to offer." That hasn't given me anything. I don't know where you might be. If you're like me, sometimes I'm one way on Monday and sometimes I'm another way on Tuesday, if I'm on it. Sometimes I'm full of myself, and then there's other times, I've got imposter syndrome wondering, do I have anything to offer? And I don't know what you need to hear right now, but I want you to hear this, don't be boastful. Everything you have comes from God. And at the same time, do not act like you have nothing to provide, you have something to give. There was a, I was talking to a community group in a different church recently, and this stood out to me. That we were talking about some of their interactions with immigrant communities, and one of the pastors on church looked at the group and said, you may not realize this, but your group is one of the most missional in the whole church. There's something about you that's unique. And he asked the question to the group, what is it? What is unique about your group that has led to this change? And he was genuinely wondering. And so they sat there, it took about 10 or 15 seconds and tell one person said, our group began serving refugees. And then there were two refugees who joined our community group. And even though we never went to them and said, well, you lead us. We never went to them and said, you have this incredible valuable experience. Can we learn from you? Over time, it just happened. Whenever they would talk about current events, these two individuals would share thoughts and everyone would sit back and say, huh, I hadn't thought of that. Whenever they would talk about how they would care for others, these two individuals had a unique experience. And they would always add something. And the line that multiple people in the group said, whenever we shifted from just serving immigrants and serving refugees to working alongside and working with refugees, they turbocharged us. It changed who we were. And that's what I think God wants to see in our church. What's every one of us to recognize, none of us should boast, and we all have something to give. And this leads to the last point that I want to emphasize. And I love the children's sermon that was just amazing. Our director of elementary ministries is just incredible. Yeah. But this idea of we celebrate. Now, I'm going to be honest for me, when I think through the first three points I made, my first inclination is to say, OK, we're to care for these needs that exist, we're to do it in this way. So let's have a conference and plan it out. And that's not where God goes. God says, here's the parties I want you to show. Or I want you to throw. Days, sermon title, how to throw a party 101. God has said, before you go into the land, I want you to know how to throw a party. And that's why he goes through the three different things. He does not start with all the details. He emphasizes, you come together and you worship God. And you shout out in praise what God has done for you. If for us, if we want to be a community where nobody is boasting as if everything depends on them, and nobody is acting as if they have nothing to offer, what is one of the best ways that we can do that? On a regular basis, we celebrate God who has given us everything. On a regular basis, we come together and we recognize and we acknowledge that everything depends on God. This is why God commands rest. I want you to take time off. I want you to make sure that the way you're going about your activities is not based on this idea that everything depends on you. If you think that you can't take a day off, otherwise God's plan is going to fall apart. You have sorely misread the scriptures. It does not depend on you. And every one of us, if we want to be loving and compassionate to our neighbor, to those around us, if we want to be humble and working in God's kingdom with other people, one of the things that we have to do on a regular basis is come back to God and to celebrate the fact that I brought nothing to this. I need to be re-energized. I need to be refreshed. If you've ever been on an airplane and they tell you if cabin pressure drops and the mask falls down, your temptation as a parent might be to put the mask on your kid first, but they say, no, put your mask on first. Because if you faint, you are of no use to your kid. You need to be refreshed. You need to be energized first. And this is where God's word is taking us to celebrate God who gave us everything. And I want to come back to this idea of God began with a group of people who did not have land. And when we look in the church, first Peter, in first Peter 2.11, he makes this statement to the church. He says, you are to live as foreigners and exiles. And the Old Testament, God began with Abraham. God began with a man who did not have land, a man who was not the most powerful man of any country. And God said, I'm going to begin there. When we get to the New Testament, King Jesus is also not saying, I'm going to start this movement with the emperor of Rome. King Jesus is saying, I'm going to start with people who acknowledge that they have nothing to offer, who acknowledge that they are completely dependent on me. And some will be rich, and some will be poor, some will come from this country, some will come from that country. But they're going to come recognizing their dependence on God. As we close this time down, I want us to think through those four points. One, everything we have came from God. Do you take time to reflect on that? Every penny that is in your wallet, that is in your bank account belongs to God. When you think about your time and what you fill up your schedule with, every minute belongs to God, there's not some part that belongs to God, some part that you worked for, you provided. It all comes from God. And because of that, you share what you have. It's not yours to begin with. And number three, we recognize that in God's kingdom, everybody has something to offer. There's not one group with gifts and another group with needs. We all have something to offer. And then finally, we celebrate. And I want to-- I love that this morning, we are doing the Lord's Supper. This is something-- every time we take this, think through the impact that this has for our church. That we have the ability to-- every one of us come and acknowledge that when we are tempted to boast, this can humble us and remind us that we are nothing without what Jesus has done for us. When we are tempted to despair and say that there's nothing we can do, this reminds us that it doesn't depend on us. I think of particularly for our church, there are things that we are asking God for. There are things that we are praying for. Are we not? And I want to say, God began with his people not having very many possessions. Because God said, before you get over here, you got to learn something over here. And I'm not going to take you over there until you learn something over here. And for all of us, this is where we need to be. We need to celebrate the Lord's Supper and remember what God has done for us. So let me pray. And we will transition right now to this. Father, we are so grateful for your goodness that you have provided for us, that you care for us. You have given us everything. Lord, there is nothing that you are in need of from us. And so we celebrate now who you are. And we ask that you will guide us this week. We ask in your Son's name, amen. Please stretch out your hands to receive the benediction. May God be gracious to us and bless us. Make His face to shine on us, that His way may be known on earth, His salvation among all nations. Go in peace.