Keep Your Two Cents
Scripture: Exodus 19:16-25Devotional Series: The Good Shepherd
Teaching: The Good Shepherd pt. 3 (WED 2021-03-10) by Pastor Star R Scott
In Exodus 19, Moses brings the people out of the camp to meet with God. Smoke, fire, earthquake, the trumpet sounding louder and louder, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and said, “Go down and charge the people lest they break through to gaze.”
People are hard headed. It’s sad that after God judges Korah and Dathan, the people rise up and say, “You’ve killed the people of God.” For Moses to have killed them, he would have had to have done a ton of digging very rapidly to open those fissures up and people to fall into them; amen? “Moses, you’ve killed the people of God.” This ticked God off, and He brought a plague into the camp, and unless Aaron had not come and taken his censer and stood between the plague and the people, they would have all died.
What are we doing? We are vulnerable to self-righteousness, to independence, and it doesn’t go away even when you have great visitations. “And they’ll hear you forever and ever.” It’s a daily decision, isn’t it, to let the Word of God rule in our lives, to truly trust God? The whole issue is about trusting God. This isn’t a problem with Moses personally, and this isn’t a problem with even being able to understand God’s order. The real issue is; if we can’t submit to the authority God has set in the church, we’re not believing God. It’s a problem with our faith, and we often don’t want to realize and deal with it. The end of the story is this, tell us what God wants us to do, and we’ll do it. See, everything was fine there. That’s all orderly. Moses is going to go get the Word and bring it down, and all we have to do is do it, and everything’s going to be fine. But, it’s easy to break the order, to vaunt ourselves in different areas where we think we know better, or we have two-cents we want to add.
As it pertains to us as a fellowship, putting in two-cents is not ever orderly. It’s not God’s order for that to come from the general congregation. It comes from the gifts; from the plurality of elders. The two-cents was put into Moses by eldership, not by congregations. The reality of the distinction of what God reveals and illuminates to true eldership, to true set men, that the rest of us don’t get, but we all think we get it. Years ago, a learned man looked at all the books in my office and asked where we were getting all the practical teachings of the Word? I said, “By not reading all those books. By getting quiet with the Holy Ghost and reading the Word of God, and asking the question, “How do we get this into our practical lives?” What does this mean to us today to live lives, have families, that honor God?”
Father, we thank You for Your Word. Help us to not be so cavalier toward this secret power of lawlessness. How many times have we said ourselves, “Just tell us what the Word says, and we’ll do it”? But the home doesn’t change, the children are not dealt with, the humbling of ourselves doesn’t manifest. We’re still driven with ambition for our jobs. We’re still seditious in our hearts. Let us be sober in this hour. Let us watch and pray. Help us to make things peaceful and easy as elders approach us, as a course is brought forth. It will profit us. It will profit the kingdom.
People are hard headed. It’s sad that after God judges Korah and Dathan, the people rise up and say, “You’ve killed the people of God.” For Moses to have killed them, he would have had to have done a ton of digging very rapidly to open those fissures up and people to fall into them; amen? “Moses, you’ve killed the people of God.” This ticked God off, and He brought a plague into the camp, and unless Aaron had not come and taken his censer and stood between the plague and the people, they would have all died.
What are we doing? We are vulnerable to self-righteousness, to independence, and it doesn’t go away even when you have great visitations. “And they’ll hear you forever and ever.” It’s a daily decision, isn’t it, to let the Word of God rule in our lives, to truly trust God? The whole issue is about trusting God. This isn’t a problem with Moses personally, and this isn’t a problem with even being able to understand God’s order. The real issue is; if we can’t submit to the authority God has set in the church, we’re not believing God. It’s a problem with our faith, and we often don’t want to realize and deal with it. The end of the story is this, tell us what God wants us to do, and we’ll do it. See, everything was fine there. That’s all orderly. Moses is going to go get the Word and bring it down, and all we have to do is do it, and everything’s going to be fine. But, it’s easy to break the order, to vaunt ourselves in different areas where we think we know better, or we have two-cents we want to add.
As it pertains to us as a fellowship, putting in two-cents is not ever orderly. It’s not God’s order for that to come from the general congregation. It comes from the gifts; from the plurality of elders. The two-cents was put into Moses by eldership, not by congregations. The reality of the distinction of what God reveals and illuminates to true eldership, to true set men, that the rest of us don’t get, but we all think we get it. Years ago, a learned man looked at all the books in my office and asked where we were getting all the practical teachings of the Word? I said, “By not reading all those books. By getting quiet with the Holy Ghost and reading the Word of God, and asking the question, “How do we get this into our practical lives?” What does this mean to us today to live lives, have families, that honor God?”
Father, we thank You for Your Word. Help us to not be so cavalier toward this secret power of lawlessness. How many times have we said ourselves, “Just tell us what the Word says, and we’ll do it”? But the home doesn’t change, the children are not dealt with, the humbling of ourselves doesn’t manifest. We’re still driven with ambition for our jobs. We’re still seditious in our hearts. Let us be sober in this hour. Let us watch and pray. Help us to make things peaceful and easy as elders approach us, as a course is brought forth. It will profit us. It will profit the kingdom.