This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is our last day in Exodus week 7, day 5, so we're in Exodus chapter 35. And
in this chapter we're going to be able to talk about what it means to make an
offering. Really at this chapter at the beginning we see some of the same
pattern we saw earlier.

God talks about the Sabbath and then he talks about work and the fact that we
need both. But after that beginning of the chapter he immediately goes into
talking about how you offer to the Lord, how you offer yourself to the Lord.
Listen to what happens in verses 4 to 9.

Moses said to the whole Israelite community, "This is what the Lord has
commanded. From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is
willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver, and bronze, blue,
purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen, goat hair, ram skins, dyed red, and
hides of sea cows, acacia wood, olive oil for the light, spices for the
anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, and onyx stones and other gems to be
mounted on the ephod and the breast piece.

" This is the offering there to give. And I want you to notice as you see this
offering some things about how we offer to the Lord. This offering began with
God's command.

It wasn't just out of the goodness of their heart, it was because God commanded
them to do it. This offering came out of what they had. From what you have, take
an offering.

You can't give God what you don't have. Many of us are disappointed because we
wish we had more to give God, but that's not what God is looking at. He's
looking at what you have and how you give out of what you have.

It's not a matter of comparing with someone else who might have more and what
they're giving. It's a matter of giving what you have. Never forget that one of
the most honored offerings of all time, if not the most honored, was the two
small coins that the widow gave.

And Jesus said as he saw her give, "She's given everything she has. " That's the
honored offering. The offering began with God's command.

It came out of what they had. And the offering was from whoever is willing. They
had to be willing to do it.

It wasn't forced. It was willing. It is commanded.

This offering is commanded and it's also chosen. That's how offerings are made.
If not, it's not an offering.

It's commanded by God, but it's also chosen by me. As you think about offerings
and what it means to take of whatever God put in your life and make an offering
of it, as you walk through this chapter, there are four descriptive words used
of an offering in this chapter, starting with somewhat of what we just saw, the
idea of it being willing. This chapter talks about a heart offering, a wave
offering, a skill offering, and a free will offering.

The first is a heart offering. The scriptures talk about that offering in verses
20 and 21. Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses' presence.

And everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him came and brought an
offering to the Lord for the work of the tent of the meeting, for all its
service and for the sacred garments. So this offering, it came out of their
heart. It was a calling of God in their lives.

It's a very fascinating thing in scripture, how offerings are commanded all
through scripture. God commands us to offer of the things He's put into our
lives. You see that in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

He commands us to give a tithe, commands us to give offerings beyond the tithe.
He commands us to offer of ourselves to Him. Romans chapter 12 says, "You've
given yourself a living sacrifice, a living offering.

" So we're commanded to offer, but it has to be out of the heart. It cannot be
forced. You can't force an offering.

There are some countries that have actually forced an offering for the churches.
They built it into the taxes, and it's ruined the church whenever that happens,
because an offering always has to be willing. It's when my heart is moved by
God's command to do something that God blesses it.

So it's a heart offering. That's where it begins. A second picture in this
chapter is a wave offering, verse 22, "All who were willing, men and women
alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds, brooches and earrings and
rings and ornaments.

They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord. " What is this
wave offering? Well a wave offering often referred to the first or the best.

So the first harvest of grain, you would take those sheafs of grain and you'd
wave them before the Lord, "I'm giving you the first, the first fruits of the
harvest. " Or in an animal sacrifice, sometimes you would take the best of that
animal sacrifice, and they would wave that before the Lord to say, "I'm giving
the best of what God has given. " They didn't give God their last and their
worst.

They gave him their first and their best. That's part of how you give an
offering. That's what makes it sacrificial.

So if you're tithing, if you wait until the end of the month to try to give 10
percent, it's never left over. You don't give God your leftovers. No, you give
it the beginning.

When God gives it to you, you give it to him, you give it first, and by that
you're giving your best. That's part of, even in this chapter, what we're taught
about how you give an offering. It's a heart offering.

It's because I'm moved by God to do this. It's a wave offering. It's out of my
first.

It's out of my best because of my love for God. A third picture of an offering
in this chapter is a skill offering, verses 25 and 26. "Every skilled woman spun
with her hands and brought what she had spun, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn or
fine linen, and all the women who were willing and had the skill spun the goat
hair.

" They had to be willing, but notice they also had to give at a place where they
had skill. They also had to have the skill. Willingness and skill went together.

They gave to God at the point of their skill. I've met people, this is talking
about they spun the goat hair, I've met people who want to spin the goat hair
for God until they get good at spinning goat hair and then they go and spin it
for themselves. But these were women who were already good at spinning goat hair
and they gave it to God.

I've met others who were never going to be good at spinning goat hair, but they
figure I can do that for God because anything is good enough for God instead of
offering to God what they're really good at. What great skills, what great
abilities has God put into your life? Instead of thinking, "Well, I'm going to
make money with those and I'll give the rest to No, God says you take whatever
he's put into your hands.

And you might be able to make money with it that helps your family, but helping
your family is a ministry for God. And that money that you make can be given to
God. There's maybe also ways that you can take that skill though in these verses
and use that skill directly to serve God.

It's another way to give an offering, a skill offering, a wave offering, a heart
offering. And then verses 27 to 29, a free will offering. The leaders brought
onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and the breast piece.

They also brought spices and olive oil for the light and anointing oil for the
fragrant incense. All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to
the Lord free will offerings for all the work the Lord through Moses had
commanded them to do. It's a free will offering.

You see this all throughout this passage. It's willing. It's free will.

It's those who had a heart. God really wants us to get the point here. You
cannot force an offering or it would not be an offering.

You have to let God speak to your heart. I would say to you, if you ever feel
like you're being forced by a human being to give an offering, you're being made
to feel guilty or you're being forced into a situation where I have to give to
God, don't give. Don't give.

Now, on the other hand, any time you're invited by God, your heart is moved by
God to give, then you do give. And if you feel like I'm never moved by God to
give, then something's wrong and you're not listening to him because God's a
giving God. If we're listening at all to God, we're going to be giving because
God so loved the world he gave.

God is a giving God. So I listen to God and out of what I hear from him, I give.
Now we learned about what this offering really meant and the depth of it in
verses 30 down to verse 35.

Then Moses said to the Israelites, "See the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri,
the son of her of the tribe of Judah, and he's filled him with the spirit of God
with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts, to make artistic
designs for work in gold and silver and bronze. " And then down in verse 35, he
talks about all the craftsmen. He's filled them with skill to do all kinds of
work as craftsmen, designers, embroiderers and blue, purple and scarlet yarn and
fine linen and weavers, all of the master craftsmen and designers.

Notice in verse 35, God filled them with skill. He filled them with skill so
that they could make an offering of that skill to God. God has filled you to
make an offering.

He's filled you with blessings. You're blessed to be a blessing. And those
blessings that he's filled your life with, they may be material blessings, they
may be relational blessings, they're not just for you.

He has filled you in order to make an offering. So you take what he's filled you
with in your life and you make an offering of that to others because God wants
to use you to bless others. He's filled you with blessing.

God's filled you with skills. So you take the skills that he has filled you with
and you offer them back to God. Now when it comes to making an offering, the
questions are, "Am I willing?

" The question is, "Has my heart been moved? " The question is, "How has God
filled my life for the sake of making an offering? " Let's pray together.

Lord, would you show me today how I can offer myself to you for the fulfillment
of your plan? Lord, would you show me what offering I need to give today? I'm
not the one that I feel guilty about giving or someone else wants to make me
feel guilty about giving.

I don't want to give out of guilt. I don't want to give out of just a sense of
duty. I want to give because my heart is moved by you.

My heart is listening to your command. So help me to hear from you, God, and
give out of that a freewill offering to you. Show me how to give today, I pray.

In Jesus' name, amen. Well, next week we will finish our study of the book of
Exodus. Next week we're going to see the result of this offering, and we're
going to remind ourselves through the week of how God sets us free.