Desert Survival Series Pt 27- Moses the Servant of God — Don Courville

The Law of the Desert Dweller

We are going to switch gears in our desert survival series now, and we're still going to stay in it until we finish up and get them to the promised land. But there's so much that can be covered that we could just spend the rest of our lives here going through here.

We've come up now to the law, the beginning of the law. And we get into a lot of the details about Christ and what's happening at home. So what we're going to do is we're going to pick out some main things and cover these.

And I really thought that today we might cover the law. The Lord just gave me a piece of that, and He gave me something that He wanted me to share on it. I just went before Him, Lord, there's so much stuff here.

You show me what You want. We'll go that way. The title of today's message is The Law of the Desert Dweller. We're not going to be in the Ten Commandments and that law. There's some really interesting things there.

But we're going to get into the law of the desert dweller. This is the law of survival for the Christian. I learned this law piece by piece, and I'm still learning it because as long as I get this little flesh inside of me, this little heart that tends to be selfish and self-willed, this law will be nullified, and it won't be evident in my life.

I'm not going to share the law with you right away. Here, I want to pray with you first. Okay? Lord, I thank You for giving us Christ. I love You. And again, Your Spirit is just impressing upon me to the point where it's almost a burden.

That there's so many people around that think they are Christians, but yet they're not. They don't love Jesus. They don't know Jesus in a personal way, like we know a person. You're a person who has feelings.

And I have just such a burden, and I know this is Your burden. But they would know You. This is what You cried out. Eternal life is to know You. And even the Pharisees, the scribes and the Pharisees, they came, and they said, They know You.

And You said to them that they didn't. But they knew the Father, and they would know You. Lord, You just opened up for our hearts. Show us this law of the desert dweller as we go through this survival series.

Father, this is such a special thing for me. I don't want to just do it quietly, but I want Your Spirit to be the one to do it. Holy Spirit, speak to our hearts. I will ask again, Lord. According to Your Word, You said that You're not willing that any should perish, but that all should have new beginnings.

But there's one here that is never repented of their sin. Of their selfish, sinful, self-loathing life. If You'd show them that they must be willing to turn to Yourself, turn to Jesus, if they ever hope to get into heaven.

Learning Generosity Through Fellowship

Lord, You do what You do. I first began to learn this law from a roommate. A buddy, an Air Force buddy of mine. I moved in with him. We began to live together. And he would just give everything away. He'd give his money away.

He'd give our food away. Or he'd eat it all himself. But he just had a heart of love. He was raised in a family of 13 children. And I guess that was just the way they were. Everything they had belonged to each other.

But he was a very loving person. A very loving person. And I began to learn to share through him. And then he's the one that introduced and probably was instrumental in getting Vicki and I together. And she was a very loving and giving person.

She would go do her... She did house cleaning jobs for these Jewish people. And I would take her money away from her so she wouldn't give it away. And I would keep it and spend it. And I was keeping record of it.

I was her savings account. But she'd just give stuff away and buy stuff. And I thought, this is my old selfish nature. Boy, I better help you out. We were just dating at the time. And so I would do that.

And then she... Later on I paid her all back. But I was using her money for spending money. And then I'd take my money and pay bills. Pay off the car and stuff. But she was very loving. Very giving. Now the law of the desert, brother, is this.

Giving as the Law of Christian Life

If you never learn to give, you never learn to live. The law of survival in this whole world. The key is giving. Giving. And not just money, but yourself. Your time. Your possessions, if that's what it takes.

But really, the law, the basis of it is living by faith. The reason many cannot give is because they don't believe that God can take care of them. So they've got to hoard and keep. And if you have a desire in your heart to give your money to God, you don't know God.

You don't know Jesus. I don't care what you say to Him, you don't know Him. And for us to love Jesus, we love to give. Our problem is you can't give enough. That's my problem. Many times, probably every year, I say, Lord, I could just have $5 ,000 a month to give away.

A thousand times. That's where the heart of the believer is. You want to give. So, if you never learn to give, you never learn to live. You don't know what life is. You don't have eternal life anymore.

That's the law of survival. I'm going to go through and just show you some things that the Lord showed me in this section today. Now, I want to just read you some verses. As a matter of fact, let me go on a little bit.

I'll give you a little background first. But if we can't give, if we can't share, then we don't care. That's what life is about. It's giving and sharing. We give to one another. Somebody gives to us. We give to somebody else.

The condensed version of this whole thing, if you want it, is this. The long version is if you never learn to give, you never learn to live. But the condensed version is givers are livers. They're the ones who really have life.

And as I began to learn this from my buddy, and as I began to learn it from Vicki and from others, I found out it was more true. It was true what Jesus said. It was more blessing to give than to receive.

And we've grown in our marriage in this area. Many have given to us. We, in turn, have given back. And you just can't have to give God. That's where it's at. Now, who are the givers? I'm going to ask that one question.

Who is a giver? Once you get your livers and your givers and all that mixed up, but who really is a giver? I want to go through this for a minute, and when we close up, we'll find out who the giver is.

Moses, Jethro, and Delegated Responsibility

I want to give you a little background. We came up to Chapter 18. In Chapter 18 of Exodus, Moses met his father-in-law, Jethro. Jethro came out there, saw what he's doing. Moses would go out in the morning and sit from morning to night judging the people.

And Jethro said, the thing that you're doing isn't good. You're going to wear yourself out, and you're going to wear all these people out. He gave him some advice. Get some people. Delegate your responsibilities.

So you'll just be the supreme judge, and you'll have all these other little judges all the way down. And Moses did that. And actually, what Jethro was saying, if you spread yourself too thin, you'll have no depth to your ministry.

And there's a lot of truth into that for us. If we spread ourselves too thin, there won't be any depth to our ministry. Actually, he was not using his time wisely. He was not using the people's time wisely.

I've learned and am learning that I can do twice as much as I'm doing. I've been trying to do that, but I am limited. You're limited. And Satan will fill your life with things to do. We have to learn our priorities and learn to say no.

But Moses thought he could handle it all, but he couldn't. So Jethro said, learn to delegate, or you're going to wear away. Probably not too far away either. Then we come to Exodus 19, and we have five days of cleansing.

Five days to prepare to meet a holy God. In Exodus 19, they're going to meet God on the mountain. God's going to come down. He's going to give Moses the Ten Commandments. We're going to go do some things that we're not going to cover.

We're just going to bypass them. But they went through the things of building the golden calf and other things. But Exodus chapter 19 is the cleansing to meet a holy God. Exodus 20 is the law. And Exodus 21 all the way up to 35, where we're going to start out today, is just various ordinances.

Things that God gave them on the sanctuary, the law. A lot of interesting things in that, but we can't do that in this type of service. Now in Exodus 35, we begin to pick up on a note. And this note has been around.

Willing Hearts and the Tabernacle Offering

In Exodus 25, in verse 2, there's this little note. Listen to it. It's a musical note. Speaking to the children of Israel that they bring me an offering. Of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart, he shall take my offering.

The law of the desert dweller is to give. And so he says, with a willing heart. In Exodus 35 and verse 5, he's talking about taking up an offering. God says to Moses, he says, Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord, whosoever is of a willing heart.

A willing heart. And this goes all the way through chapter 35. Verse 21, let me give you another verse. They came, everyone whose heart stirred him up, and everyone whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all the service, and for all the holy art.

There's that musical note. It's the willing heart. The willing heart. And verse 22, it says,. And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, and all kinds of different things, for the tabernacle, for the sanctuary.

And verse 29, the children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman whose heart made them willing. Chapter 36. I'll read you this. Starting in verse 3. And this will be our main passage that we will get our springboard from.

And they received of Moses all the offerings which the children of Israel had brought for the work and the service of the sanctuary, to make it withal. And they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning.

Every morning they come and pile their offerings up. And they're taking these offerings, all this gold and everything, and they're making the sanctuary out of it. They're making the place where they're going to worship God out of it.

They're making the altars and the different instruments of service. So they brought it every morning. And verse 4. All the wise men that brought all the work of the sanctuary came, every man from his work which they made.

And they spake unto Moses, saying, We've got a problem. Now today the problem will be there's not enough to build. There's not enough to pay the bill. There's not enough to get to building. There's not enough to pay our utilities.

Not enough. Not enough. The people are bringing too much, they said to Moses. The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying that neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary.

So the people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much. So the priests are saying, listen, hold it, we've got too much. Completely irrelevant to our day.

We hardly ever hear of a situation where there's too much. As a matter of fact, I haven't heard of it. And you, where there's too much. Now, this is paralleled with a passage in the New Testament that is similar to it, but not the same.

Giving from Poverty and the Grace of Christ

The passage is in 2 Corinthians 8. Let me read you this passage, and then draw out some principles for you here. And 2 Corinthians 8. Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God. We want you to know about the grace of God that is bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.

How then a great trial of affliction, of the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty, abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves, praying us with much intrigue that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministry to the saints.

This they did not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. Insomuch that we desired Titus, and he goes into some things there. The Macedonians were forcing Paul to take their love offerings.

They were saying, take it. We want to give. We want to give. And they would minister to one another by giving. I want to give you some things that are from this passage. Now, these characteristics are characteristics of the Exodus people, the Hebrews, as they come out.

First of all, giving is characteristic of the brethren. Verse 1. It says, giving was by the brethren, for the brethren. It's a grace. Did you know that giving is a grace of God? The reason that some people do not want to give their money to God is because they have not experienced the grace of God in their heart.

And if you're sitting here and you don't like to give, and you don't give, and you don't go to church, and you don't read the Bible, and you don't pray, and you don't do these things, it's because you're not saved.

Giving is a grace of God. I never did give out of a heart of love, really, until Jesus came into my heart. And verse 9. He said, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.

He said it was God's grace when He gave to us Jesus. It was God's grace. Here's something else. They gave out of their poverty. Did you know that most of the giving in the church, in this world, is by those that are poor?

Not by the rich. Very little giving is done by rich people. Most of it is just the little bit that we can give. I guess maybe this is why Jesus said it's harder for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven than, you know, than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.

The rich have a hard time with letting go. And you think, well that shouldn't be, they've got so much. But it just doesn't work that way. And if it's hard for those that are rich to get saved, it's hard for those that have money to give to God.

Israel’s Wealth and Freedom from Bondage

Now think about it. Israel had just come out of what? Poverty. They had been slaves. They didn't have anything. And they come out, and they come out what? With wealth. They went to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians just piled on to them gold, and silver, and jewels.

And said, here, take it, get out of here. And we started on this series. We saw how they were delivered from bodies. And so they went out wealthy. They were millionaires. Those two to three million people that went out, I wouldn't be surprised for what they had.

Fifty, sixty, a hundred million dollars worth of jewelry and gold. They were wealthy. They went out wealthy. And then all of a sudden they got their wealth, and God says, now I want you to bring your wealth to me.

And so, what do they do? Well, they come flocking out of their tents, and they come heading for the sanctuary, and they're bringing their gold and their silver to God. Why? Well, they were free. They were free.

They were out of the bondage. They were free. Whatever God wants now that I'm free, He can have. And so they were giving to Jesus. Giving shows gratefulness. Giving shows you're free. If you can't give, you're not free.

If you don't give, you're not saved. That's the way it is. And it's not what you have. It's your heart. I'm going to go through that in a minute. And you know the story? This is an interesting one. I heard of one preacher.

Elijah and the Widow’s Faith

He said, I held this against Elijah for a while until I really figured out what was going on. But can you imagine Elijah? He comes marching up, and he sees this little widow woman. He says, I want you to give me something to eat.

And she says, why, mister, we don't have much left. All I've got is a little oil, and I'm going to go take two sticks of gold fire and make a little cake for me and my son. We're going to eat it and die.

And he says, that's great. Go ahead and do that. But first, make me a little cake. She says, well. He says, just go ahead. Do it. He says, if you give, you'll live. That's the proposition. And so she did.

She did it. And what happened? She made the little cake for Elijah, and she went back to get the little bit that was left probably. And she looked in there, and there was a whole lot more. And she got that out and made some.

And she went back again, and there was more. And it says that until the famine was over, the food never ran out, and the oil didn't run out. Give, and you'll live. And what would have happened if she hadn't have gave it?

She would have died. That's the whole point. Is if we give, we live. And that's the product of life. We give, and we live. That's the law of the desert as well. This is one thing that helps us survive in the desert.

To give. Now, giving not only is of the brethren, and giving out of poverty mostly, but it's also a fellowship. Because in verse 3, what was that? Verse 4, he says, We fellowship together by giving. If you don't give, you're not really a part of the fellowship of the church of God.

Giving as Fellowship and Ministry

And those that gave were a part of the ministry. Just this week. Now, we don't do this hardly ever. The last time I took her out to eat, I think, was May 1985. Just her and I went out to eat. This week, God just prompted me, Thursday, to take her out to eat.

So I said, I'm going to take you out to eat. And she didn't argue with that. I said, where do you want to go? Well, I'll take you out for a hamburger. It'll be a big spreader this time. I won't even buy you a hot dog this time.

Get your hamburger. So we went out to the truck stop. We're going out there, and we're eating. We hadn't even ate yet. We just ordered our food, and somebody came up and started talking with us. And our purpose with going out there was just to have some time alone.

Her and I. And somebody walked up and started talking with us. And God just said, won't you invite them to eat with you? I said, okay. I said, why don't you come and join us? And he said, well, we wasn't going to do that.

We were going to go home. I go out and talk to my wife. My wife was in the pickup. He went out and talked to his wife, and they came back in. And in the meantime, I said, okay, well, I'm going to leave this up to you.

You know, Vic and I were just going to eat ourselves. We were going to have this banquet, eat our hamburgers. But they came back, and they joined us. We had a great time. First thing this guy did when he sat down, you know what he did?

He reached over, and he took my tape. He was a thief. Wow, wow, Warren. That guy stole my bill. I'm not going to take it back. He said, if someone takes it from you, let them have it. So, okay. And then, you know the next thing he gave me?

He said this. Remember these words. We want to be a part of your ministry here. And he handed us a check. We want to be a part of your ministry. And it's exactly ten times what I had gave away to an Indian last Monday night when he wanted my money.

I said, Lord. He said, if they ask a gift, it's all I got. So I gave it to him. It's exactly ten times what it was. And God just showed me that I'll take care of it. But the thing I like, he said, if you want to be a part of your ministry, that's what giving is.

It's being a part of a fellowship. And then there's something else. Paul said they gave themselves first to God. They gave themselves first to God. In verse 5, he gave himself first to God. That's what he cited.

Giving the Heart Before the Offering

Remember the lady that came to Jesus with the alabaster box worth 300 pence? Whatever that's worth. But it was worth a lot because all the disciples, they got excited when she broke the box. It was a very valuable box.

And the purchase was very valuable. But there Jesus was with the disciples. And she came in and she broke the box and poured the oil on his head. And the aroma filled the place. And the disciples, some of them, really Judas, got very excited about it.

He said, why wasn't this taken and sold and the money given to the poor? Because he had the money back and he didn't have any money. He was a thief. But she gave all she had to Jesus because she gave her heart first.

They first gave themselves to Jesus. And something else Paul said here in this passage is actually in chapter 9 about giving. And there's something that many do not understand. The offering plate comes by.

Planned and Cheerful Giving

I don't know when you're going to pick up the offering plate. It didn't matter to me. But you know what? Many times when the offering plate comes by, we grab our billfold. We'll ditch that in our pocket.

We'll get the first thing we can find or the smallest thing we can find. We plop it in the offering plate. That's not giving. That's not giving. You know that? That's just trying to not look too bad when the offering plate comes by.

I've done that too. Here I am preaching and I'm taking up an offering. So I'll reach in and get a dollar. That's not giving. That's not. That's just chucking something else. But you know what giving is?

Listen to this. In 2 Corinthians 9 and verses 6 and 7. Here's what giving is. But this I say. He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

Every man according as he purposes in his heart. So let him give. Not dreadingly or in necessity. For God let us be cheerful givers. A lot of the giving when the offering plate comes by is out of necessity.

You do it because it's necessary so you won't look like you're a pipe wire or something. But here's what giving is. He says I want you. Every man according as he purposes in his heart. You know what that is?

Giving is predetermined. True giving is predetermined. The Spirit of God prompts you and you say I'm going to give this much. This is what I'm going to give. Giving is predetermined. This is what Paul says.

Every man according as he purposes in his heart. It's predetermined. That's what that passage is talking about. So let him give. Give as you determine ahead of time. What you're going to give. You know our quiet time when we spend time with God.

You love Jesus. You want to spend time with him. Quiet time is planned living. We have planned giving and planned living. Our quiet time is planned living. We plan to let God direct our day. If we don't have that time then we'll run off to somebody else.

We'll run our day. But our quiet time is really planned living. Right now Lord you take this day right here. You direct me this day. Let the interruptions come if you want. Let the people come if you want.

Let the needs come if you want. The problems. Let the blessings. Whatever you want. Let it come. But you have my day. We do that with our living. Planned living. We plan to let God run our day. Planned giving is living by faith.

Most of our living and most of our giving are haphazard giving and haphazard living. That's not the way God intended it to be. Haphazard giving is living by flesh. This is haphazard living. Giving is an attitude because he says not grudgingly.

If the offering plate came by this morning. And when it came by he said, Then you might as well have kept it. You can come back up and get it. Because God is not going to bless that. He says not grudgingly.

Verse 7. Let every man give that is in purpose in his heart. So let him give not grudgingly or out of necessity. This is why some day I'd like to see us just put a little box up back there. If you want to put your offering in.

We won't have to keep applying for this kind of stuff. But it's not to. If you don't have a good attitude about it. Then don't give it. Giving is an attitude not grudgingly. And so when God says I want 10%.

Tithing, Offerings, and the Cheerful Giver

And by the way. Who owns the 10 God. Thank you God. That 10 of what I give is not mine. It's God. He says I want it back. So I carry on my work. If I do not give God the 10%. I'm a thief. If I'm a believer.

And I do not give. God the 10%. And I'm a thief. It's not even mine. And the Bible says. That the tithe is the Lord's. Leviticus. He started off. 2730. Malachi 3 .10. He goes through the tithe is the Lord's.

And whatever I give above the 10%. Is an offering. I don't even give to God until I get above that. Now this is what the Bible teaches. This isn't even my idea. Every now and then I come up with an idea.

This isn't mine. This is God. They said tithe is an offering. The tithe is God. The offering is what you really give to God. Out of your heart. Any blessings. Now. If I don't give it. Then I'm a thief.

Who does God love? A cheerful giver. Listen. It says every man. Let him give. As he purchases in his heart. So let him give. Not gradually. Or of necessity. For God loveth. A cheerful giver. Lord. I'm glad.

To give you. This. Every year. We come to the end of the year. We see how much that we've made. We look over how much we give. And it's somewhere between usually 15 or 20 percent. In that range. Lord.

I gave you 15 percent. I gave you 5 percent. I gave you the tithe. That's yours. There's 5 percent offering. There's 20 percent. There's 25. Whatever it comes out to be. It's usually not that high. So we always want to make sure we've got an offering.

Giving is an attitude. Then giving is good for you. Do you know that it's good for you? It's good for you. I really never expressed so much blessing until I learned to give. And I learned to give from those who gave to me.

But Paul said, where was that? Verse 10. And herein I give my advice. You want some good advice? I'm going to give you some good advice. You love Jesus? Here's some good advice. For this is expedient for you.

This is very good for you. Who have begun before, not only to do it, but also to be forward a year, go further. Verse 10. He said, this is good advice. That you give away. He goes into it. 11 and 12. He said that you give.

This is good. Verse 11. He said, now therefore perform the doing of it. You know what he says? You guys, it's a good idea. You say, we're going to do it. We're going to give to God. He says, that's great.

But make sure you do it. So much talk is about, I'm going to give so much to God. I haven't kept record that there's been in my years of ministry. Many, many times people said they were going to do something.

They were going to do it. I'm going to do that. If God does this, I'm going to do it. And I've just watched time after time as the years roll by. How many people do not keep their word? That's between them and God.

I don't remember anybody specifically. But I just remember that this happens a lot. Now, one other thing on this, and I'm going to close down. Giving begins in the heart. Verse 12. For if there be first a willing heart, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

In other words, man, I can't give $100 like old so-and-so. But what can you give if I can give $2? Do you remember the little lady? Come in and threw in her two mikes. Jesus leaned over against the wall watching.

Watching all these rich guys in spare sheets and sprays and lawyers and everybody coming by and chunking in their big bags of money. And they'd get it all chained into a lot of little small chains until when they chunked it in and made a terrible racket.

And people looked around. Man, that guy really put in a lot. And this little old widow, she comes and threw in two mikes. Nobody heard her. She comes. He. Hey, did you see that? Hey, guys, come here. Get all the disciples.

Ananias, Sapphira, and False Giving

This lady gave all she had. Excited when we give out of our poverty. Now, Exodus 36 and 2 Corinthians 8 are very similar. Did you know that the church today is mostly in Acts 5? You know what Acts 5 is?

Ananias and Sapphira, they sold some land and they went and gave it. Hey, we're giving to God. And they pretended like they gave God all of it, but they only gave God half of it. What happened? They dropped dead.

It's probably a good thing. God isn't still judging for this sin today the way he did then. A lot of us might drop dead. Because he judges. There was one little fellow, a little Jewish fellow, that came out of bondage.

The Gold in the Desert

He was one of those mud stompers, you know? We talked about that last week or the week before. He'd been plumping mud, making bricks. He was a mud stomper. And he was helping this Egyptian build his jewelry store.

And he's making these bricks and hauling these bricks over. This guy is building this nice jewelry store. And about that time, all the plagues were coming on and the Egyptians decided, we want you guys to go.

Get out of here. And they began to give him their silver. And the guy came up and he said, I'm leaving. I just want to say goodbye. He said, get out of here. And why are you going? Take this with you.

And he threw over this 25-pound gold wheel to this little Jew. And he caught that 25-pound gold wheel. And he took off. And they marched out of Egypt. And they went through the Red Sea. And they come out.

And he was free. Not only that, man, he had 25 pounds of gold.

You know how much 25 pounds of gold we worth today? $400 an ounce times 25 is what? People are like, Dad, what did you say? About $160 ,000.

Man, I'm rich. I got $160 ,000.

And I accepted probably a lot more than that. Boy, there he's marching down the road. Got my gold. Man, this is great. I'm rich. Where am I going to spend it? Out in this desert. We're getting to the promised land.

And when I get into that promised land, I'm going to have a maid. I can buy a big house. Man, I have a color TV.

I give them two or three Cadillacs. I got my money. And a lot of them come out like that.

And then one day, he sees all the people running. And he hides that gold. He hides that gold. He says, hey, where's everybody going? He hid it at night. You know, he hangs on to it all day. Where's everybody going?

Hey, they want some gold for the sanctuary. They want some gold and silver. God says, bring it. Anybody got a hacksaw? No hacksaw. And everybody's running and taking their. Man, what am I going to do?

And his neighbors are going. He sees them fly out of the tent. They've taken their rings and their gold. And he goes and he grabs out of his tent. I'll take it to God. Well, one second, Bob. I better not.

How am I going to live if I give it all to God? But, on the other hand, man, I'm not giving anything. All my neighbors, everybody's running. They want some gold. They need some stuff to build the sanctuary.