Vision and Giving
Nathan Adams · Tidal Church Shediac · September 13, 2026
Nathan Adams looks at Israel giving freely for the tabernacle in Exodus 35, along with the tithe and the early church. He invites us to trust God and give out of gratitude rather than fear, even when money feels uncertain.
Topics: Faith, Money & Generosity, Vision
Transcript
[0:00] You know, I held some babies last weekend. Oh my goodness. My wife and I have three kids growing up, and the oldest two and their spouses are starting to have me kids. So we got four grandkids, a five-year-old, two-year-old, and two one-year-olds. And we did like a three -day thing at a cottage for the first time, where I called the annual Beach Week thing. And halfway through, I thought it's the once-only Beach Week thing, because I was a human juggle gym. You know, there's children hanging off and screaming and grabbing things. And if you're just trying to prevent someone from hurting themselves and running around. But it was so much fun. Memories remain. And so everyone left. And on Monday, my wife and I gathered up this huge amount of laundry to take home and clean it up and stuff.
[0:47] And Jen goes, you're going to have a nap, aren't you? And I said, oh yeah. So the laundry was started. And I remember the last thing I looked at was tariffs coming into effect, things that will go up a lot. I'm like, oh, I don't need any of those things. Thank God. Mine to sleep. Anyway, wake up. Jen's hollering. There's smoke coming out of the washing machine. What white gray smoke coming out. And I'm like, oh my goodness. And this thing's too old to repair, really. And I realized, oh, I can't. I'm going to be one of like thousands of Canadians running to Costco first thing in the morning. And sure enough, I got to Costco and there was nothing but dryers left. All of the washers were sold out. They were still in inventory. I'm asking the guy, I don't know where they are. They must be fed into the catch.
[1:33] I'm like, oh, you're kidding me. And so we had our little panic because tariffs and things like that. But I don't know about you, but some of us are having actual panic right now. We don't know about your business. You're wondering if your customers are in an export business or something like that. It's a big deal. And it might not affect you. It was probably someone in your friends or family serval. And this is affecting and it's a lot of anxiety that comes over us. And we started going, man, I don't know. I don't know. Is this going to work? Are we okay? We started thinking about all the bills that we have to pay, the goals that we have.
[2:19] We become fearful. It's extremely easy for this to happen. Well, I want to talk with you this morning of all things about giving. You're thinking, how could the timing be any worse? Well, I don't worry about that too much. I think God's in charge of the time. One of the clearest examples of giving that we have in the old Testament occurred in a desert. The children of Israel who had been enslaved in Egypt had been liberated by God through the leadership of Moses. God had sent the 10 flags upon the Egyptian people who refused to let the Israelites go, who had subjected them to slavery of kumbul kaim, not just slave.
[3:05] And at the end of it, though, God has showed his power so much and revealed to the Israelite people, but also to the Egyptian people that he was the one true God. That as the Israelite people left Egypt, the Egyptians came out and said, let me give you a gift. Like, go. We don't want this to happen anymore. And so the Egyptians started to come out and say, here, here's a broach for you. Here's some earrings for you. Here's some, you know, purple robes for you and some some calf skins for you, like all the stuff that was wealthy. They gave to the to the Israelite people and they're walking out the Israelite people.
[3:50] And you know what? You, if you've got money, it's sitting in a wall or a purse or actually it's on your iPhone probably, right? You just pull out that card and that's it, right? There they they wore their wells. They've got a bracelet here, an earring here, a broach here, or expensive couple layers of clothing on and everything. They're walking around and if they need some money, then they need to buy something. They'd be like, how much for that, that sheep? Would this do it? They take off the earring and give it to them, you know, and the person goes, bites it, you know, to see this real hole. And so these people are literally, well, other wealth, they're wearing their wealth. So these are slaves.
[4:36] They've been, have had nothing and now they're all walking around with their wealth. They're walking out to the desert. You know, they hit the Red Sea. They know that it looks like they're all going to die, but God opens away. They walk through the Red Sea and they and the slocks make it into the desert and they're free from the Egyptians. But now they're in a desert and terror hits very quickly because I don't know about you, but I go about three hours out of water and I start panicking. I want more water. Go three days without water, you know, bad things out. And so they're like, God, will you provide in this desert for us? And God opens up water from a rock. And then he begins to say, I will feed you every day. I will give you manna from heaven. It's like a bread and like a bread that's healthy for you and tastes like Han.
[5:25] It's like Poisson, you know, coming from the sky, except it's good for you. This is breakfast. And that evening flocks of quail coming, KFC quail coming in and landing every night. And it's all, all the food they can, they can, they can eat. And they've got all their stuff. And then God says to the Israelites, I want you to build a tabernacle. Tabernacles is a nice word for a big tent because this was a tent of people. They're wandering through the wilderness. They don't have homes. They're nomads. And, and God says, I'll be a nomad with you. I want you to carry my presence with you everywhere. I want you to have a place of worship that you can use all the time.
[6:14] Does anyone identify? Have you seen our tent? It's called a trailer. It's an enclosed trailer sitting out there. Your poles in and all our stuff piles out on Sunday morning. We're like nomads. We've got to set the whole thing up. And God gives a plan for this tabernacle. And it is beautiful. It's a tent made of the finest woods for the poles. Every clasp is made of gold in the plants. It's, deep purple hanging down for fabric and beautiful calf skin and stuff like that all over the place. And it's, it's beautiful. It's an art of the covenant that the, that the, uh, tablets from the Tandy valence would go in and everything. And, and God says, this is the plan.
[7:00] And so Moses announces the plan and says, here's how we're going to fund this plan by generosity. You know, every nation I've ever heard of, when they want to do big building project, they levy a tax, though that does anyone of you feel generous when you pay revenue? A can of customs and revenue or whatever it's called these days. I don't feel generous. I feel compelled. In fact, when they owe me money, they take their good, sweet time. When I owe them money, I get this thing that says 30 days, or bad things start to happen. That's not how God financed it. It says in Exodus chapter 20, it says, then the whole Israelite community.
[7:51] Oh, sorry. Excuse me. Exodus chapter 35 verse four, Moses said to the whole Israelite community, this is what the Lord has commanded from what you have taken off from, from the Lord, for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord and offering of gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen, gold hair, ramskin, dive red, and, and another type of durable leather, acacia wood, olive oil for the lights that'll be in the tent, spices for the anointing oil for the fragment incense and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the priest's garments.
[8:38] And so it says, then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses presence. So he gathered them all up and said, Hey guys, here's the plan. Whoever wants to get, get. So they withdrew from Moses presence. You can imagine that going back to their tents, they're wearing some of their wells. They've got a few other things, some coins, maybe or something like that, or some things back in the tent and they come back to get it. Everyone who was willing and whose heart was moved, they came and they brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, the tavern. For it's service that would go on and for the sacred garments of the priests who wear all who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds, kinds, broaches, earrings, rings, and ornaments.
[9:26] They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord. Can you picture it? I'll give you that one. The big bracelet. I'll give you this. I'll give you that. And they start waving it before the Lord and saying, this is what I did for a place of worship in our midst, no matter where we're at. It was a beautiful moment because they're in a desert. Once you give away that plunder that they got from Egypt in the miracle, where does the decks come from? Once you give away the clothing, there's no, there's no shopping center.
[10:14] These are slaves, slaves who are dirt poor and they're momentarily wealthy. And then they start bringing their wealth to the Lord in worship. And the Bible goes on and says that the workmen who had been selected to take these materials and make this beautiful, amazing tabernacle, they come to Moses and they say, the people continue to bring free will offerings. Every day we come to work. People keep showing up with more stuff. The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work that the Lord commanded to be done. So then Moses gave an order and they said this word throughout the camp.
[11:03] No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary. Stop, give it. And so the people were restrained from bringing more because what they had already brought was more than enough to do all the work. Isn't that beautiful? In a desert, in a desert, slaves who had nothing, you had to stop them from giving. They were so moved to worship the Lord, moved to see something beautiful happen in their midst. And this was the entire program for that nation that God gave. Again, he did not, when he set up the nation of Israel, he gave them a set of laws and you know what, there are no tax laws. It is the only set of laws ever set up for a nation in the history of the world where there's no tax laws. There was a challenge to give.
[12:05] And, and so Moses was given these commandments when he got the 10 commands and said, look, when you guys get to the promised land, you're going to have your farms. You're all going to have farms. It's going to be a major source of income. Every year, I want you to take 10 % of what the, of what the farm yielded. And I want you to either bring the product or sell the product and bring the money. And I want you to come into the central place where we're going to worship where this tabernacle is going to be set up and we're going to have a celebration. And you know, like sometimes when we think about giving, we think about, well, I gave the money. It goes to something. I get nothing out of it. Oh, no, no, no, no. The nation got together and they ate 10% of everything they brought in all in one week. They had a huge party all together and, and they gave sacrifice after sacrifice to God and celebration seven days of feasting and from that, from that amount that was given the priests got to keep 10% of that, which would fund their income for the whole year. So they could spend full-time work, uh, spend themselves full-time for, for the Lord's service. And then every third year, God said, and don't bring it into the temple, stay home. And this time, give it to all the poor people and give it to your local Levites, your local teachers of the law or local pastors, for lack of a better word, and they'll be funded.
[13:30] So again, they can give themselves whole time to the work of the Lord. And then on the seventh year, God said, and on the seventh year, I don't even want you to farm. I want you to lead the land fallow. And I promise you, Oh, bless you so much in those six years that you won't be sure of food and everyone relaxes. Everyone is well. And by the way, every deck is forgiven. Everyone who had slumped financially gets a reset every seven years and there's no black mark against them. What a way that God set that up. He said an entire nation, an entire people on generosity, worship and celebration together.
[14:16] It is a vision that only got realized a few times in Israel's history, because you know what happened most of the time? People were stingy. People were afraid. People had priorities and they didn't follow the directions from God to give. They were afraid there wasn't enough. But there was one time, certain times when the nation would rally around, they go, you know what? God is good. And when, when a king time to build the temple, a permanent location for the house of the Lord, they brought so much material in gold and silver that they had like 13 tons of gold. Again, they had to stop the people from giving.
[15:03] And they made a wonder of the world in that temple that actually drew the nations around. They just come to see and they hear about this one God. Who people made such a beautiful place to honor their God. It's a wonder of the world. And when David was collecting this big offering for the temple, he said, Lord, everything we have is from you. And so we're only giving back to you. What was yours to begin with? At the end of the Old Testament, as the people have actually begun to start to stabilize because they had a rocky history. Anyone here had a rocky history spiritually? How about me? But they were starting to stabilize or start mature by the end of the Old Testament.
[15:51] And God, God said to them, I want you to get this giving thing right. I want you to get the tide and thing right. And he said in the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, he said, why don't you bring the whole tide into the storehouse? That there may be food in my house. Murder house was set up every year. Everybody brings 10% into the temple, the storehouse of God, used to celebrate together, used to take care of the crease, used every third year to take care of all the poor, to have an economy of abundance and giving. And so God says, why don't you bring the whole tide into my storehouse? Don't give me, don't tip me, God says.
[16:36] Although tipping nowadays is a big percentage. But you know how people used to, they give like a couple of bucks. Here's your team, here's a $5 bill and tip the weir. God says, don't tip me. Tithing. Bring the whole tide into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty. And see if I do not throw from the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. And people began to do that. And so when the God that gives more than we could ever give sent his one and only son, he gave his one and only son for us, Jesus appeared and he said to this nation that had been set up to be a generous nation. He came to the chief teachers, the Pharisees, and he said, guys, I want you to commend you and I want to reprimand you all the same time. He said to you, he said, woe to you, teachers of the law and you Pharisees.
[17:50] You give a kiss. He was kind of getting right to the truth of them. He said, do you give a tent of even your spices? I mean, like, if you got to feel the brain, you bring that in. But no, no, these guys, they've got their garlic and their dill and all that stuff, bro, and they're tied into garlic even, you know what I mean? They're right down to it. And Jesus says, you give a tent even of your spices, your mint, your dill and cumin, but you've neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You see, remember how it was mercy on the poor built right into the giving and generosity of God when he put it to that nation? Don't forget the big stuff. Don't get so tied up in making sure you did 10%. You could be stingy at 5 % almost, but you forget the bigger things.
[18:42] And so Jesus says this, you should have practiced the later, which was justice, mercy, and faithfulness without ever liking the former, which was high. Jesus said, tidings are great. You almost wish till he just kept you at that. Because the rich, young ruler came up with Jesus one time and said, hey, I follow the law. I do the big things. I do the small things. I give a 10th of all I get. What do you want me to do now, Jesus, that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, oh, just sell everything you have and give it to the poor. Okay. This is unreasonable. It's one thing for God to say, I'll give you a hundred percent out of thankfulness and trust to be, give me back 10%.
[19:34] And I'll take care of arrest fully. It's another thing when this rich, young man who had come to Jesus, a man who was following the old test of law is challenged to say, give it all. And Jesus didn't say that to everyone. That's why it was an exception store. That's why it was put in there. But he started to say, there's not necessarily any limits on our generosity. It's not a, I check it off and now it's done. And we then in the early church, when they began to grow, people took care of each other. Like it says there was no poor among them because every so often someone that was wealthy would just sell their property that they had a couple properties or an extra field or something like that. They sell it and they bring the whole thing in and put it in front of the apostles and say, distribute it to those hurt in me because I was such a spirit of generosity and the early church.
[20:36] Now it's not generosity. Like we think we can have a messed up view of generosity. We have a hand up view of generosity. We have a, it doesn't matter what I'm doing. I have certain rights. Somebody take care of you, your generosity. That's not how a human being works. Did you know that it says in the Bible that he who will not work shall not eat? It's in Timothy and it doesn't mean that if you can't work, you won't eat. It means if you won't work, when you can't, why should you eat? In fact, when the church took care of everybody, because they, one of the, one of the groups that really took care of and they're giving was widows. Because in that society, there's no welfare.
[21:24] There's no child tax credit coming in. And if you lost the male, that's a male dominated society who's got the biggest area of potential, that family's in trouble. And so churches took care of widows in need. But again, in the new Testament, Paul says, test those widows, make sure they're a good widow. Are they working hard at the church? Are they sharing and teaching other women? Are they, are they raising their kids right? Are they doing all they can do? If they're doing all they can do, support them. If they're not, don't. And so this generosity that God has in mind isn't the type that makes a person eternally dependent.
[22:10] It's one that allows every person to contribute and have dignity. And that was the model. And again, in the same way as in the Old Testament, the Israelites never fully realized the model of generosity. I would have to admit to you that the church, since the early church, has never fully realized the model of generosity that was put before them. Now, a lot of great things have happened in the world because of the generosity of the early church. They started to take care of sick people. That's how we got good hospitals. There weren't actual hospitals in the way that we think of hospitals before Christian unity. That's how we got universities and schools that teach people. And the whole idea of social welfare, anyone got any idea where that, where, where the, where the society got the idea from? Right here. They're actually like socialism, in a good sense, is copying what the early church did, but trying to make sure that everyone's taken care of. And so these principles have gone out into the world and churches still do what they can. They still take care and help and invest.
[23:21] But if the whole tide is not brought into the storehouse, we can't do our whole mission. Remember every third year when there's been a tithing for Israel, first year it's going to the temple, big celebration, take care of the crease. Second year, same thing, third year it's going to the poor in the local communities. My friends, we never get out of the first year. We never get consistent enough that we can get beyond our basic operational needs. So it goes to paying pastors because if you want a pastor, they either have, they usually have to do one or the other. You can do bi-vocational, but it suffers. Everything suffers when you do that. And so you got pastors, you got facilities, you got programs for the kids, we teach them. And by the time we get to doing the good deeds, we've just got a little bit left over.
[24:09] We take a little special off from it or something. But God says, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. What would happen if people began to be generous and you say, oh, in the New Testament doesn't teach tithing. Yes, you're, maybe you're right. It teaches giving everything. That's what the early church did. They gave everything. No, tithing is a great guideline. If you're going below that, you're probably not generous. What the early church did is they continue to follow the pattern that we see in the Old Testament. In, uh, second Corinthians chapter nine, verse six, Paul said this. Remember, remember this.
[24:54] Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. It's not a tax. It's a gift in generosity. Whatever you decide in your heart, not every compulsion, but under the generosity of your heart, you should give. And it says in God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
[25:51] So how's the economy, my friends? Uncert. About to get bad, I have to guess. I don't know. You don't know. You don't know what's next any more than the children of Israel knew what was next as they're dropping through that desert. But in the desert, there's either abundance and generosity, or there's fear and loss of focus. It's one or the other. Because God Himself says, all supplies seed for you. If you're the type of person that takes your resources and shares it, your hand's open to people around you. I'm going to keep filling your hand.
[26:41] Because I want you to be in an economy of generosity, a divine economy, orchestrated by God, where He takes care of your needs. Jesus said, don't worry about tomorrow. I know what you need. Seek first the King of God, His righteousness, and all those other things you need will be at. And so what do we do with it? Well, I don't think you should give. Now, I don't think you give because there's any perfect institutions. You know what I mean? Bad priests that were in the Old Testament that were supposed to receive these tithes and distribute them. There were some good ones. There were a lot of good ones, but there were a few bad ones.
[27:30] God just said, just bring it in. Let me sort out that. Let me sort that out. What you say, why church isn't perfect? Jesus says, yeah, I'm for well aware of the perfections of the church or everywhere. He says, I died for him. I died for the church. I love the church. You don't give to a person. The worst thing you could ever do is give to a church because you like the pastor or stop giving because you don't like the pastor. I'm not going to do it really. I mean, Paul, at one point, we're going to be doing Flickians here in a couple of weeks. We're going to start it. And Paul said, I mean, it's great if people do a great job sharing the gospel, but even if they have ulterior motives, I'll take it. I'm happy that the work's going forward. I'm happy that people are hearing about Jesus. And so we don't give perfection.
[28:17] The church is an imperfect thing. We're giving to God. We don't give because we're compelled or guilted. In fact, how many times we preached on giving in the two years that we've been here in zero, it's the first time. But is it God's timing interest? Because last week we couldn't have church. We have a rented facility at a school that's got a lot going on. I want to give them some grace about this. The fact of the matter is they knew that this place wasn't some of the people in the school, not all. But a few people knew on Friday that this wasn't going to be accessible for us in something. And communication systems and stuff didn't happen. We were here setting up class Sunday at 8.
[29:04] That people arrive at 7. We're setting up at 8.30 and then all of a sudden we're kicked out. Because the fire alarms weren't working. And it sounds safe according to fire marshal rules. I understand that. We had to go. But if they told us Friday, we probably could have found another place to worship. Or at the very least, we could have noticed bacon everyone. So he didn't show up, but I didn't stand up there in the rain and soak while she showed up. But what a timing that God has. And this one time when we've been planning for a few months that we talk about gigging this week. That he says, wouldn't it be good why don't I highlight the need that is there for us to move to the next stage. To have a place that's reliably available for us. We don't get preempted by sporting events where we can have adequate space for sure.
[29:53] And we don't know what that looks like yet. We don't know if we're going to end up leasing a facility. And it will be our facility that we've leased and we'll have to improve it. Put tens of thousands of dollars into it to make it good. If we'll find a building that we can renovate. If they'll become another facility that's already basically good that becomes available. Or if we can get some land and built we don't know yet on that. But all things are open and possible when the church says, we'll give. We'll give because God gave to us. We'll give because we trust that he'll continue to take care of us. And we'll give no matter what circumstance we're in. And if we're in a desert, we worship the God that provides manner from heaven, quail at night, that let us plunder our enemy somehow. And we'll take the very stuff right off us and give it away. But I'd say, this is your worst file. We give it to you.
[30:56] And so there's no hard conclusion to this. There's no big deal thing. Giving is not nothing to do with guilt. Giving has everything to do with gratitude, faith, caring about other people and saying, I want my life not to have all been just consumed. I want some of it to have been invested in people's eternity, in a little kid's eternity, in a people who just found Jesus last two weeks about church. That's where I want to be. And so it comes from a generous part. And you can start giving. You can tithe. Use it as your generosity baseline. And then say, God, you showed me how much more. Don't you dare just give the church here. Open your hand to people around you, individuals.
[31:42] Don't let them take advantage of you and enable you. That's false generosity if we're getting taught. But see if you can build them up. They could do all they can do and be all they could be as we support one another. Give to nine weavers. Give to teen challenge. All those things. Open your heart. And if one, some of you give a whole bunch because God led you. That's great. And if some of you are struggling to even give 10 percent, you're going to start and baby step this thing at 2 percent or something or a little things, start stepping and start saying, God, there's that scripture that said, test me, test me, said now in this, if you bring the whole store, how tied into the storehouse, see if I don't open up blessing on you. And so if your faith is weak in the given, I'm not here to guilt you, but I'd say, would you test it?
[32:29] Would you start giving and mark what you lost in the sense that you gave? And then say, God, you said test and see what happens. When I was a little kid, my parents taught me to tie. And, uh, yeah, I think I remember being, I remember being dying. I had my first job on paper route and I got my money and my parents said, are you going to tie that? I'm not going to make you, but be sure. All right. And so I tied on my course, you know, 10 bucks I ever made with the dollar. That's a good thing because it's awful hard to start tiding when we're talking a lot of zeroes and income to go from nothing to whatever.
[33:15] But I was taught that from a young age. And I want to tell you that guys and really capable and only one time in our whole marriage, did we ever come to a point where we thought we were going to rise. And we didn't never have any holes. Always didn't care. At certain times, richly blessed, like what's going on? We didn't ask for this. Sometimes if I would take as, if Jen would take a step of obedience to serve the Lord because she did, she served at mountain West as an assistant for a while and give up income. She could have made my income go up. I go into the ministry. My wife would get a big promotion. My income goes down.
[34:02] Hers goes up. And in so many other ways, like God's just taking care of us. People just coming up and not knowing us and taking care of us. Government saying only made an error three years ago, but only a bunch of money. And I'm like, and it's exactly like that. As thought takes care of us directly and also through the bond. As we look for ways to best in one another last one. And I simply want you to divide you to consider entering into an economy of abundance. One that works even in the desert. And we're fears that you have right now economically, you'll find a blow down.
[34:47] You get to see the miracles of God as he takes care of you. You'll get to invest in people's lives and you will see a richness that comes from your life. No matter what's going on. I want to challenge you to think about doing that in the coming weeks. Lord God, we have a strong desire to see people come to you. We have a strong desire to see people have their lives changed and transformed. To see families that are filled with blessing and goodness.
[35:35] To see babies and kids growing up and instruction on the board. We have a strong desire, Lord, to see people in our community coming to you and not only being healed spiritually, but being healed in all their lives as things begin to kind of get. And we have a strong desire, Lord, to experience all of you in our lives. And you've always asked for all of us. And it doesn't stop when it comes to giving. Because you said enter my generosity. Enter my disciples abundance and sharing and you'll be blessed.
[36:21] And so Lord, take our greed. We confess it to you. Take our fear that there won't be enough and turn it into faith. Take how we pull back because we're afraid and instead fill us with all the creativity and hard work that you created us to do. Bind your body together in a way in order that we've never truly lived up to what you have in store for us. But make us more like the early church that shared and loved and cared for one another. Make us that kind of place. And Lord, in our future places where we will meet, we thank you for this school.
[37:06] And we thank you for the many people, janitors, facilities manager, people that ran. We pray blessing on their lives and thank you, Lord, for their diligence. Lord, would you need us in the coming months, year to a new place where we can take the industry to the next level. Let me pray, Father, that it'll have nothing to do with the building program and everything to do with the spiritual transformation in our lives as we begin to learn to trust you in every part. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.