More Than Enough

Exodus chapter 35, we'll close chapter 35, we'll open chapter 36 today.

Exodus 35 · chapter mention

And we're working through a series I've titled Leaving the Darkness, where we watch Moses lead the people of Israel out of Egypt into the promised land, out of darkness into light, out from worshiping other gods into worshiping the true God Yahweh.

And as you know, the Exodus is action-packed, so many details, so much color, uh, so many, so many intricate, intertwined stories and names, and it's fun to zoom in on them.

Um it would, you know, it would it would be a TV series of no doubt, you know, maybe 150 shows.

I mean, there's just so many good shows, week after week, to look at and watch.

Today uh we are going to cover uh Exodus 35, verse 30 to Exodus 36, verse 7, in a sermon I've titled More Than Enough.

Exodus 35:30 Exodus 36:7

Sermon number 91 through the book of Exodus.

Heard of a story, maybe you heard of this one.

Group of scientists got together one day and decided that mankind had come a long way and they didn't need God anymore.

We don't need God.

Okay.

So they elected one of their own to go up and deliver the news to God.

So you walked right up to God and he said, God, we've decided we we know no longer need you.

We can clone people now, and uh we can do just uh we we can do just about anything you can do.

So why don't you go on and get lost?

We don't need you, God.

Well, God listened very patiently, very kindly, and when the man finished, God said, All right, tell you what, let's have a man-making contest.

Man versus God.

The scientist said, All right, great.

So God reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt and formed it and breathed life into it, and the man came to life.

The scientist looked up and said, No problem.

And he bent down and he grabbed himself a handful of dirt, and God said, No, no, no, you get your own dirt.

Thank you.

Especially this section over here, thank you.

I'm I'm one, I'm like, I'm one for ten, you know, right now.

The jokes have not been going very well.

So you ever thought about that?

What do you have that did not come from God?

Your mind, your hands, the skill you make a living with, the lungs you're using to breathe right now, all given to you by God.

And Paul asked the same questions in 1 Corinthians 4 7.

What do you have that you have not received?

And if you received it, why are you acting like you produced it?

Today in Exodus 36, we see the one place in all of Scripture where an offering has to be stopped.

They stopped the free will offering, they stopped the giving.

Uh, and it's it's pretty wild.

They shut it down.

No more giving, please.

It was given by a nation of former slaves who, remember, six months earlier didn't even own the shirt on their backs.

And all of a sudden, six months later, they're giving to such capacity to which Moses has to tell the people no more, no mas.

No more gifts.

We don't need any more.

We have all that we need.

Remember where all this came from.

If you're just joining us, just tuning in.

Um, as you remember, God gave it to them through the Egyptians.

God is only always asking us to give from what he has already given to us.

Uh, he doesn't ask, expect what he has already provided.

Uh he he he accept he expects that he will provide again and again and again, and we are to expect that and trust that and give from that place.

People the people finally got it.

They figured it out that the Lord is with them and going to take care of them, and they gave from abundance.

The text before us today, we're in Exodus chapter 35.

Exodus 35 · chapter mention

Let's stand for the reading of God's word.

We always stand for the reading of God's word here at Legacy to pay honor to our God and our king.

Remember whose word it is, where it came from, whose story it belongs.

I'm the delivery boy here to hand out the mail today.

And um this is the word of God.

Exodus chapter 35, verse 30, take a look at your text.

Exodus 35:30

It says, Then Moses said to the sons of Israel, see, Yahweh has called my name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and discernment, and knowledge, and in all craftsmanship, to devise designs for working in gold and silver and in bronze, and the cutting of stones for the setting, and the cutting of wood so as to do well in every work after of thoughtful design.

He also has put in the heart to teach he and Aholab, the son of that guy, Ahishemach, the tribe of Dan.

These names are wild.

He has filled them with wisdom in their heart to do every work of the engraver and of the designer and the embroider in blue and in purple, scarlet material and in fine linen of weaver, and those who do every work and make designs.

Now, Bezalel and Holiab, of every person wise at heart to whom Yahweh has given wisdom and discernment to know how to do all the work of the service of constructing the sanctuary, shall do in accordance with all that Yahweh has commanded.

Verse 2.

Then Moses called Bezalel and Holab, and every person wise at heart to whom Yahweh had given wisdom, everyone whose heart stirred in him to come to the work to do it.

And they received from Moses the entire contribution which the sons of Israel had brought to do the work in the service of the sanctuary, and they still continued bringing to him free will offerings every morning.

And all the wise men who were doing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work which he was doing, and they said to Moses, The people are bringing much more than enough for the service of the work which Yahweh had commanded us to do.

So Moses commanded and pro a proclamation was passed through the camp, saying, Let no man or woman any longer do the work for the contributions of the sanctuary.

Thus the people were restrained from bringing any more.

Indeed, the material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work to do it.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for this picture, we thank you for this story.

And you have for sure, God, given more than enough.

And I pray that we would see it today in the text, and that we would see it to such a degree that it would cause us to be a people who reflect you.

You've given us more than enough, and that we would say we have more than enough, and that we would be able to bless those around us with more than enough.

Bless our time as we study your word now.

We ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You can be seated.

Israel is encamped at Sinai, Mount Sinai.

You remember chapter 32 was the calf, the golden calf, where they start worshiping another God as Moses is getting the Ten Commandments.

Moses angry smashes the Ten Commandments and then has to go back up and get a second copy.

But God passes by Moses, and remember, he is announced as compassionate and gracious and merciful.

And now God says to them, he gives them another chance, they renew a covenant, and he asks them to build me a house or a tabernacle.

He wants to live and dwell among them.

And here we are reading this morning the construction report.

Look at how the Spirit of God organized it.

Verses uh 30 to 35, God supplies the wisdom needed for this construction project.

Uh chapter 36, uh verses 1 to 3, God supplies the workers.

And then verses 3 to 7, God supplies the materials needed.

And so we see all of this brought together by the hands of God, by the work of God.

And uh I love this.

I love seeing this from a construction standpoint.

Um, I got the opportunity and privilege by a private builder, this guy, uh I believe his name is his name was definitely Salvador.

I think his last name was Mendez, and he um I don't know where he's at now, Salvador, if you're listening.

Um, but he I started working construction around, I don't know, maybe 16, 17 years old.

I was sweeping uh jobs and uh moving wood around.

And then um right around maybe 18, 17 or 18 years old, I started working for a plumber, and he taught me, you know, from undergrounds to finish.

And then I started learning um electrical work, and the electrician started teaching me from um from rough to finish.

And then the the the electrician also was a finished carpenter, and so we would do uh base molding and crown molding, and uh we would do casing, and um, we would do these houses, walk in these super wealthy places, and we'd knock out the place you know in a couple days.

Super fun.

I loved it.

But all along that path, I had met this private builder, maybe 19, 20 years old, and he was buying land, and he had a blueprint, and he would flip the blueprint, and we would build this house in four months, and uh he would clear 150k on these houses, and I would stand there on the job site all day.

He's put me there at 6 a.m.

and I would stand there till 7 p.m.

And I'd walk with the inspector and all the trades, and so I was just getting all this stuff.

So I love seeing this from this angle, the the material needed, the wisdom needed, the craftsmanship and the oversight and direction of how it all comes together.

And uh and that's exactly what's taking place today.

The beauty of it all is where it all came from.

Point number one, if you're taking notes, God gave more wisdom than one man could hold.

Verse 31 says that God filled him with the Spirit of God and in wisdom and discernment and in knowledge and in all craftsmanship.

God filled this guy with wisdom and discernment in construction.

Verse 32 to 33, uh it says, gold, silver, bronze, cut stones, and carved wood.

That's a man uh loaded down with a lot of ability.

Uh, but don't stop there.

Verse 34 says, uh, this is where the passage turns a bit.

It's it says that he also has put in his heart to teach.

Think about what this means.

God didn't just hand Bezalel a gift of wisdom and discernment.

He handed him a gift too big for himself and too big for one lifetime, and then he gave him a heart to give it away.

Teach.

He gave him a heart to teach others.

The ability and the instinct to hand it down to somebody else to teach others how to do it, and hope that they do it better than you.

The tabernacle is not a one-man job, and God knew that before Bezalel did.

In verse 1 and 2 of Exodus 36 tell us that God gave the wisdom and discernment, and that four times in our passage, God gave wisdom and discernment.

God filled them with his spirit and wisdom and discernment.

It says God gave, God gave, God gave, God gave.

Four times, it says it over and over that he did this in them.

And what we have to understand is we can't fill ourselves like God can.

Did you know that?

You can't fill yourself.

Sure, we can input whatever we want into our brains, our bodies, our spirits, but God alone gives great wisdom.

You see a person with a lot of knowledge, no wisdom?

It's wild, man.

Smartest dude I ever met, just but doesn't know how to tie his shoes.

It's like, where is the wisdom?

Um how come you don't know how to do life?

Um wisdom.

And again, it is God alone who gives great wisdom, discernment, and excellence.

After all, who does it all come from?

And no one ever looked at a sunset, a beautiful sunset, said, not right.

You kind of missed something over here in the corner here, that the pinks are not exactly right in the cloud there.

That cream orange coming across the sky is not hitting the cloud, the shading like it should be as an artist.

We cannot fill ourselves, but praise God, He is generous.

God gave more wisdom than one man could hold.

James 1.15 says, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.

He will not rebuke you for asking.

James chapter 1, verse 5.

James 1:5

It says, if you need wisdom, which we all do, let him ask, and it will be given generously.

Ask our generous God, and he will give it to you, and he will not rebuke you for asking.

This is the one thing you can for sure ask for.

I don't know about that.

God, I'm an idiot.

Give me wisdom.

Okay, boom.

Double portion.

Here's a principle that runs from Sinai all the way into the New Testament.

God never gives a gift meant to die with the man who has it.

Uh, Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, 2, the things which you have heard from me, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Paul, did you see that?

Four generations.

Paul to Timothy, to faithful men, to others also.

And that's how God's kingdom is built.

It's through generations of faithful people.

Just saying, Here I am, Lord, teach me, fill me, help me to teach others.

That's discipleship, isn't it?

God always gives more than we need, and we should give it to others.

Give our wisdom, give our knowledge, give our discernment, give our resources, give our talents, give our ability.

God has given you more than enough.

Share it with someone who needs it.

This is discipleship.

And I would say this is the opposite of the world.

So I'm not gonna share.

Somebody ask you plainly, who is learning what you know?

Who is enjoying what has been given to you?

Now are you sir, now, not are you serving, but who is learning?

Who stands next to you while you do it?

Because if the answer is nobody, then whatever God gave you has a shelf life and it ends with you.

Isn't that the saddest thing ever?

When you see like the most amazing craftsmen to ever walk the earth, they literally never pass their trade on anybody.

I'm the best, and no one will ever touch my craft like me.

I'm not gonna share my secrets with anyone.

That's foolish.

The best thing you could ever do is take your craft and give it to the next generation and build that guy to the ceiling, build that girl to the roof, and watch them sail and watch them do 10x what you ever did.

That is awesome.

That is kingdom.

Ladies, the young mom, three rows back, feels underwater, and you have raised some great kids already.

Help that mom.

Give her wisdom.

Young ladies, listen.

Learn to listen.

Love them.

Ladies, love each other, love them, serve them, help them.

Then they will want to allow you to teach them.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

You serve them, you help them, you lift them up.

Then they want to hear.

How did you do it?

Man, that that 24-year-old doesn't need another sermon.

He needs a Saturday with you.

Working together, hanging together, learning how to be a man of God.

Take him with you.

God put teaching in Bezalel's heart.

You should say, Lord, help me.

Put teaching in my heart so I can teach those around me that craft.

And what a blessing that is.

It is, you know, new believers need old believers.

And old believers need new believers.

We need each other.

It's what keeps this thing going.

It was to keep everybody fired up.

I reflect back, I was reflecting on it when I was working on this sermon.

I was reflecting back on other great men who took time to teach me and give me their wisdom, give me their talents, give me their time.

I mean, I can think of five or six guys who spent substantial time with me.

I'm talking years letting me follow them around, ask them questions.

But young guys, you want to know the secret.

The old men hold the gold, but you gotta ask them.

You you you have even if you know, like I've been surfing since I was 17 or so, 44, yeah, I'm old man.

So let's say 25 years, but still, when I walk up, I'll walk up to guys and and I'll just start asking them like I don't know anything.

Because I'm waiting for them to share the little thing that I never heard.

But people always want to act like they know for some reason.

I don't get it.

Like everybody has to just, it's a pride thing.

It's like I have to, I have to know.

That's foolish.

You you go to the older people, and and even if you don't do know a little bit about it, let them ask you, what do you know about it?

And then you share.

And but then you keep digging, you say, Well, how'd you do that?

And what about this?

And whatever that and you start be a student all of your life.

Take the position of student, and you will gain more than you could ever imagine.

If you sit in the position of teacher at 19 years old, you are doomed.

You will not learn anything.

You're gonna go around telling everybody how the world works.

Not wise.

Always take the position of student and you always win.

I'm so grateful for all these guys.

Man, and I would I would, I just talked their ears off, just asking, asking, asking, asking, asking, asking, asking, asking, just asking as much as I could, seeing if anything would stick.

And by the grace of God, it will.

But you know what more than half the problem is?

People won't listen.

So you can't teach them, so they can't learn.

We are losing the ability to listen.

I think it's the screens, all the fast movement.

Um, even like contrast, like the old cartoons, like I like to show the kids the 1950s, 60s cartoons.

And you watch how slow, it's like coming across the screen, how slow the animation is, it's beautiful.

Um and how slow the music is and scene to scene, and everything's very even the 80s films are just so like they're they're it's like this the scene to scene, the thing just and I was just like, you know, just as fast.

It's like the the the frame cannot sit for more than 1.5 to three seconds.

Clink, clink, clink, clink, clink.

You know, it's just, and then we're doing this too, so it's like shorts and all the things.

So we're losing the ability to listen for, you know, 20 minutes at a time to somebody.

And if you can't listen for longer than one minute, you can't learn.

Thus you're you're you're stunted in your growth.

And the person who can listen will get way further than you very faster.

So your homework this week, start stretching your ability to listen deeply to other people.

Uh, work out your listening muscle.

When someone starts talking to you and you watch your mind drift, lock it back in.

Do the rep.

And then when it drifts again, lock it back in, do the rep.

And keep doing that.

You know, this is the discipline of listening to people for two decades.

You know, it's just like trying to lock in and listen intently to what's really going on.

That's what people really want.

It's what people are grateful for.

Wow, you you heard me.

You're actually listening to me.

And when you say back to them what they have said to you deeper than what they might be thinking, you're like, you're really listening.

Thank you.

That's very kind of you.

Our attention spans are getting less and less.

Thus, you have less ability to grow in wisdom.

So few have the patience to teach others, also.

We need the older people to have the patience to teach the younger.

They're broken, they don't know how to do it.

You were, we were all young ones, right?

And we needed somebody to be patient with us.

Proverbs 2, 6 says, For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 3.13, blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who acquires understanding.

Proverbs 4, 7, wisdom is supreme, so acquire wisdom, and whatever you may acquire, gain understanding.

Antonio Stradivari is still, 300 years later, the finest violin maker who ever lived.

His instruments sell for millions.

He trained apprentices, including his own two sons, but there was one thing he guarded.

And it was the varnish.

His varnish, the formula, the layering, the recipe.

He never wrote it down and he never handed it over.

When he made these violins, the varnish he put on top of them, the recipe, he never, he never revealed it.

And when Strativari died in 1737, that secret died in the room with him.

Researchers have been chasing it ever since with chemistry and x-rays, and they still cannot reproduce it.

Three centuries of loss because a master would not teach.

God doesn't build his house that way.

If you won't teach, he'll find somebody else to do it.

And he'll put it in their heart to do it.

He put it in Bezalel's heart to teach.

Howard Hendrix said, You cannot impart what you do not possess.

Henry Adams says, a teacher affects eternity.

He can never tell where his influence stops.

And that's true.

You never know who you're influencing.

You never know who you're pouring into.

You never know.

God gave more than enough.

What God gives you, He will then give through you.

A gift you refuse to hand down is a gift you've only half received.

And trust me, there is way more than enough.

We gotta stop living in this scarcity mindset here in Southern California, really in America, guarding what you have.

Give it away, and God will just keep giving you more.

I love that mindset.

And sadly, one of the first places I really recognized it was on the Rogan podcast.

And he just gives it, just gives away, just gives away, just give, give and give every how'd you do that, Joe?

This is how you do it.

How you do that?

This is how you do it, this is how you do it.

Don't do that.

You don't need to do that.

You don't need to pay all these people to do this.

You can run this thing with three people, this whole thing.

Yeah, really?

Yeah, I do this, this is that.

You don't need to.

He just reveals all the secrets.

This is how you get healthy, this is how you do business, you build podcasts, this is how you do comedy, this is how you do it, this is how you do movies, how you do TV.

This he just gives it all away.

And everybody's like, I'm not telling you the secret of what I've found.

Okay.

You know what he's he's figured out?

It's the more he gives away, the more we'll come back to him.

That sounds like a scripture, I know.

You know where it's found?

By the wisest man to ever walk the earth.

Ecclesiastes 11, verse 1.

Ecclesiastes 11:1

Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.

Give a portion to seven or to eight.

For you know not what disaster may happen on the earth.

Yes, scatter it out, man.

Throw it out on the water, and it's gonna come back to you.

Deposit it in seven or eight people, because you never know when the disaster is gonna come on your life.

And guess what?

Those seven or eight people will be there to bring it all back to you because you gave it to them.

Unbelievable wisdom sitting right there before us.

You guys okay?

Point number two.

God built his house with people you can't name.

God built his own house with people you cannot name me either.

Verse 1 of chapter 36.

Now Bezalel and Ahoilob, and every person wise at heart to whom Yahweh has given wisdom and discernment to know how to do all the work of the service of constructing the sanctuary shall do it in accordance with all that Yahweh has commanded.

So we have two names given, and then a crowd of people.

You count it up?

In the entire account of this enormous project, Scripture records exactly two names to which you don't remember.

And hundreds of nameless people did the labor.

Somebody spun the scarlet yarn, somebody poured the bronze sockets, somebody sanded acacia wood and boards for weeks in the sun.

Not one of them is named.

There is not a signature anywhere on the tabernacle on the bottom of the curtain, said Josh.

Look at that art piece.

Let me where's the name?

No plaque, no donor wall.

And look at the fence God put around all that talent at the end of verse 1, shall do in accordance with all that Yahweh has commanded.

So enormous skill, but no permission to improvise.

Nobody woke up thinking the mercy seat would look better with four cherubim.

It was two.

I think I ought to put third or fourth on there, kind of like the way that feels.

They worked to the pattern, gifted hands, submitted to God's blueprint.

And God has always built his church out of people the world never hears about.

Go read Romans chapter 16 this week.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

Paul named some 20 odd people.

No one names their babies.

Twenty names sitting there in Romans 16 that he's greeting.

All these people he's calling good friend, I miss you, I hope you're well.

Tell so-and-so I said hi, I love you guys.

All these people Paul's closely acquainted and connecting with.

We don't know one of their names because nobody names their baby after them.

Well, maybe Phoebe, Yurbanis, Trifina, Triphosa.

These are two girls who were working together, and he says, Thank you for your hard work.

But heaven knows every single name, huh?

And Hebrew says it like this in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 10 God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name, having served the saints and still serving them.

Hebrews 6:10

He's not unjust so as to forget you.

No, nothing done in his house ever gets lost.

God sees you.

Two applications here.

They cut the opposite direction.

If you serve where nobody sees, chairs set up, tear down, children's ministry, parking lot, a text on Tuesday to somebody who's falling apart, a hospital visit, blessing that person in the church secretly.

You are doing the small version of the great work of God, and you are doing the work, and there is no small version.

And if you want your name on it, you have misread the assignments.

The tabernacle carried no signature, no placards, and neither should we.

We offer ourselves to the Lord and He will take care of the recognition, huh?

Those who desire recognition will never have their cups filled.

Did you hear that?

Those who desire recognition will never have their cups filled.

Now everyone needs a pat on the back, everyone needs encouragement, but when we live in a place in our minds that always says, is always saying, Doesn't anyone see what I do?

Our cup will always be empty.

Because people will come along and try to fill up your cup, but they can never meet the expectation.

Instead, let the Lord fill your cup.

His refills like overflow.

You know what I mean?

You put on the soda machine, it's like whoops.

His refills always overflow.

Humans can't do it to the level that you want.

Because they'll get like 80% of it right, and then they're just like, they just throw you under the bus.

Instead, Colossians 3.23 is very helpful.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters.

Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward, and it is the Lord Christ you are serving.

That's the perspective, that's the mindset, that's how you always win.

And then when a human comes along and builds you up, thanks for the bonus.

My cup's already full in the Lord, but man, thank you.

Like you just pushed me over the top.

Antoni Gotti, he designed the Sagranada, the familia, Sagranada Familia.

This is the 1882 uh church in Barcelona, in Spain.

Have you seen it?

Thing is wild.

Katie and I rode bikes up to it one year.

It's crazy.

This thing under construction, the scaffolding is is as high as the eyes could see.

And um so he he died in 1926, came very close uh to quote unquote uh finishing it.

Not uh he never came close in the measurement of what was being done.

He's struck by a streetcar, uh he's carried to a pauper's hospital because nobody recognized him.

And with the work barely begun, uh he dies.

Uh it started in 1882, and again, he designed it and he did all the thing, nobody remembers his name.

And for a hundred years since, craftsmen have kept building it, stonecutters, glassmakers, engineers, generation after generation, who will never see it finished either.

Uh, working from drawings that are not their own on a building that will never carry their name.

It's a really beautiful picture, and that's a church.

And that's what God has been doing since Sinai, quiet people building to a pattern they didn't design.

On a house they won't see complete, not until heaven.

And uh that that's that's an important thing to position yourself if you ever step into ministry.

You have to try to position your mind and your heart, this is not mine.

This will be passed on to the next guy, and the next guy, and the next guy, the next person, next people, the next generation.

It's not a family business.

The name is not attached, the name will be forgotten.

We hope the church will continue on.

No one may remember legacy in, I don't know, hundreds of years.

Never remember the name.

Uh, no one will never remember the impact, but the church of Christ will continue on.

And that is the mindset we must have from day one.

Helen Keller said, I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks.

And if they were great, as if they were great and noble.

Francis Schaeffer said, There are no little people and no little places.

Martin Luther, God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.

God isn't looking for names on a building or names on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, trust me.

He already knows every hand that is helping build his kingdom, and he will reward them, and the awards ceremony will be in heaven.

Second Corinthians 5 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether it be good or evil.

Matthew 25, 21, his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over little.

I will set you over much.

Enjoy, enter into the joy of your master.

Point number three and finally, you guys okay?

All right.

Point number three and finally, God supplied more than the work required, more than enough.

End of verse three in chapter 36, they still continued bringing to him free will offerings every morning.

The sun comes up, and here comes the people.

And again the next day they bring more, and the next day they bring more, and they keep bringing more and more and more offering.

More and more and more.

Verse 4 and 5 says, And all the wise men who were doing all the work of the sanctuary came, each one from the work he was doing, and they said to Moses, The people are bringing much more than enough for the service of the work which Yahweh commanded us to do.

A surplus.

And the craftsmen reported it, dude, there's too much gold.

Too much gold.

Verse 6 A proclamation goes out through the camp, stop.

And the text says the people had to be restrained from giving.

Notice the construction workers didn't go over in the corner and say, look at all this extra gold.

They went to Moses and said, We got to tell the people to stop.

Verse 7 says, The material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work to do it.

They had to tell the people to stop giving.

Is that wild or what?

And remember who is the ones giving?

They're ex-slaves.

No land, no crops, no wages.

And they had they hand over more than a ton of gold.

A ton.

That is$140 million at today's price for gold.

They handed over a ton of gold, not the phrase a ton of gold.

No, the weight amount, one ton of gold.

And we will see they will also give 3.4 tons of silver and 2.4 tons of bronze.

Now, where does a slave get that kind of gold, silver and bronze?

Well, you know, Exodus 12, 35 and 36, God gave it to them on the way out of Egypt.

They made He made the Egyptians give them the precious metals.

So the people, their pockets were filled.

By who?

Almighty God.

Every ounce had been placed in their hands by God first, and they weren't donating, they were just handing it back.

I can't emphasize this enough.

God keeps showing it in the text.

Like, Josh, you keep talking about this.

I know.

Why is it in the text again?

In 2 Kings 4, we see a widow buried in debt, pours oil out of one little jar and it keeps flowing and flowing and flowing.

And the text says the oil stopped when all the jars that were set out were filled up.

The supply was never the problem, the containers were the capacity.

And there is so much principle in here, layered principle.

You got to understand that greed shrinks your mindset and capacity for thinking.

Generosity opens your eyes and groans your mindset and capacity.

Even the rich and wealthy know wicked, rich, wealthy people know this.

You'll watch them.

They will promote generosity at their conferences.

They'll promote generosity at the highest level because they know when you cast your bread on the waters, it will come back to you.

There's a principle in the universe that God has set.

Generosity produces more generosity, produces more generosity, produces a mindset that sees opportunity.

Greed traps the mind and locks you up and enslaves you.

You can't see.

The greedy person is enslaved by their own mind, trapped and chained to preserving what they have.

They may be able to grow what they have more, but they will always be in fear of losing it.

The generous person does not live in fear, they live in freedom and peace and joy.

And they give and they watch the principle happen over and over again.

How much more with God?

This isn't prosperity gospel.

It's a very simple principle.

You know how it works?

You give generously to someone, they will never forget that.

For the rest of their life.

Whatever trade you work in, when that friend asks, hey, do you know anybody who does this?

Who do they think of?

The greedy, mean guy, or the very generous, loving, joyful guy?

And it goes round and round and round and round and round.

It's sitting there in the text church.

Instead of free, instead, we should be free and joyful, throwing bread out on the water, knowing by the hand of God it will always come back.

The giving stopped because the need ran out, and it's amazing to watch that God's provision outlasted the project, and it always does.

That's exactly what Paul promises in 2 Corinthians 9 8.

God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, so you may have an abundance for every good deed.

So we have to quit asking whether God can afford what he has asked you to do.

The real question is whether you have quietly drawn a line and decided that everything past it is yours.

Can you imagine if every need was taken care of and we had to stop telling uh the church to stop giving, stop volunteering?

We have more than enough people, more than enough funds, more than enough people helping in every situation.

Stop.

Everyone, stop.

No more signups, no more tithe envelopes.

Don't you dare give another dime.

You go give it out to the rest of the world.

We cannot contain what has been done.

Now I should add, we have a very generous people here at Legacy, and by the grace of God, we have an amazing setup here in Studio City, but it is because of the generosity of people, of their resources, of their time, of their gifts, talents, and abilities.

And it is true, 10% of the people do 90% of the work.

It's the way it is in every church, but by the grace of God, not here at Legacy.

It's all been done by the hand of God, not my strategy, okay?

My strategy projects not anywhere near what God has projected.

God determines the future, not me.

I'm just blessed to see the miracle here.

You know, John Wesley as a young man at Oxford earned 30 pounds a year.

That's not weight.

That's money in England, okay?

Not 30 pounds a year, he gained 30 pounds a year.

No.

That's money.

In England, they're called pounds, okay?

He lived on 28 and he gave two away.

The next year his income doubled to 60, and he still lived on 28 and he gave away 32.

Then he then 90 pounds, and he lived on 28 and 120, then he lived on 28, and by the end of his life, his books were selling all over England, and he was making a small fortune, and he was still living on the same amount and giving away the rest.

He died with a few small coins, some worn clothes, and everything else already distributed.

There was no arguing over his trust.

His estate.

Wesley decided in advance what was enough.

Most of us never do, and so our standard of living rises to meet every raise we ever get, and there is never anything more than enough.

Could it be that we have more than enough, church?

We definitely do.

Spurgeon said, He who counts the stars and calls them by their names is in no danger of forgetting his own children.

You're gonna be taken care of.

No doubt.

It's crazy that I can even say that so with such authority off the way.

You're going to be taken care of.

You can't just say that.

That's a crazy thing to tell people.

God is going to take care of his kids.

And at the end of your life, you will conclude God took care of me.

And then you're gonna ask, what does What did I do with what he gave me?

A.W.

Tozer, the man who has God for his treasure, has all things in one.

John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress, he said, A man there was, though some did count him mad.

The more he cast away, the more he had.

The more he cast away, the more he had.

God's supply has never once been a bottlenecked or bottlenecked in his work.

It's only our grip, it's our hands.

God has given more than enough.

We will never be able to say to God, You didn't give me enough.

Never.

No one will say that, not me.

In conclusion, what do you have that you have not received?

God gave more wisdom than one man could hold.

He made Bezalel a teacher to give it away.

God built this house with people you can't even name.

And God supplied more than enough through the people.

More than the work required.

What do you have that you did not receive?

Nothing, not the skill, not the strength, not the gold.

Israel's great offering was Israel's opportunity that was given to them by God.

And here is where this opens up the beautiful message of the gospel.

If God will not command a work without first supplying it, then look at the work he required of you.

So then he supplied it himself.

God made himself a sacrifice, an offering.

Hebrews 9 11, through the greater and the more perfect tabernacle, he entered the holy place once and for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

Once and for all, not barely enough, but more than enough.

The payment that Christ made is more than enough.

And I don't think he's going to get the return on his investment in me.

He paid out at a high price for me, and how faithful am I actually going to be all the days of my life?

It doesn't match up.

He paid more than enough to save us and redeem us and provide for us and take care of us for all of eternity.

Romans 8 32 sums it up.

He who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

If he gave us his son Jesus, he will definitely give you everything else that you need.

If you're still trying to carry something up to God to make up the difference at the cross, more effort, more religion, a better year than last year, just put it down.

The announcement has already gone out from Calvary and the cross that it was sufficient, it was more than enough.

Jesus said in those three words, it is finished, more than enough.

It's all taken care of.

Enjoy it and get on living for my glory because you love me because you want to, because we're in relationship.

It's wild because he turns around and he puts a gift in your hands too big for one lifetime.

And we, I think we have more than enough.

He gives more grace, more wisdom, more than we need.

And he did it at his death, burial, and resurrection.

He's going to continue to do it in your life.

Final words to you, church, is trust him.

Trust the Lord.

Lean not on your own understanding.

In all of your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight.

Amen?

Let's pray.

Let's turn to the Lord.

Father, we worship you in this place.

Wow, you have given more than enough, that's for sure.

We have a lot in you.

And we just want to say thank you.

And Lord, we ask that you would now take all that we have and use it for your glory.

Show us, Lord.

Forgive us for living in a scarcity mindset.

Mine.

I got to hoard and protect mine.

Lord, that we would see the channel, the conduit flowing from you.

Unbelievable amounts trying to flow through us, and we have it bottlenecked in our own hands.

Open our hands, Lord.

Open our hearts to want to give like you give, take care of people like you take care of people.

You'd break, break the stone around our hands and our hearts and our minds.

Help us to see the cross more clearly than ever before that you gave generously in forgiveness.

Generous in mercy, generous in grace, generous in provision all of our lives, generous in heaven.

That's a way, that's way too big of a vacation you've paid for.

You've been generous.

We want to say thank you, and we want to give you our lives.

We make you Lord and Savior over our lives again today.

We ask you would lead us.

Lead us in the way that you would have us to go.

Help us to hear your voice and walk in it.

Thank you, Lord, for hearing us today.

Thank you for being gracious again today.

Speak to us, Lord.

Your servant is listening.

We pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.