Fellowship: It's not just for Sunday Potlucks

 

 

Read 1 Corinthians 10

Today, we have a fellowship meal and a long sermon in the second service. I’m guessing people will be checking to see if the fellowship team needs any help.

So, for this service, it is a little shorter and lighthearted. Here are some suggestions for today’s fellowship meal that might be helpful to us.

Finally, we get to line up alphabetically by height and pair up in threes.

Seats will be assigned randomly. You will be seated with another member of the family of faith.

The prayer will likely include more 'thees' and 'thous' and some other elaborate expressions, undoubtedly intended to impress those gathered. The Lord won’t be impressed, but maybe you will.

We're going to figure out this fellowship meal arrangement this time.  We will institute some procedures. I might even write an ISO 9000 series standard.

And while we are instituting some practical procedures, I’m reinstituting Aim and Flush.

The fellowship meal is usually easy for us. We connect well. We seldom run out of food. Most get seconds or thirds. I usually don’t have to preach on gluttony the next Sunday. Sometimes, I need to preach on that following Monday morning when I look in the mirror.

I’m not shaving next week. I’m going to eat my fill and stay away from mirrors. We don’t go hungry around here.  We like this fellowship sort of stuff. We get it.

Maybe too well.

Some of you remember when we moved the passing of the peace from early in the service to the end. We lost control of the service early on. People liked talking to each other. That’s a good thing, right?

So, we moved it to the end of the service.

The first time I moderated the Presbytery, it was something of a surprise. I was Vice Moderator but the Moderator really wanted to go to a family event that was scheduled at the same time. So, there I was, fully gavled and ready to go.

I finished the business in record time and we broke for lunch with only an item or two remaining. I pounded my gavel half a dozen times to get people back from lunch at the appointed time.

The problem was that people were still talking, connecting, and enjoying each other. The eating part was done. This was just fellowship that felt like it should continue.

Sometimes, I visualize the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at their millennial staff meeting, scratching their heads and wondering who divided up life this way—worship, fellowship, offering, and so many more quantifying descriptions.

I thought that love me and love others would get it.

The church in Corinth wasn’t so messed up on how to hold a fellowship meal, at least compared to loving God and each other. That’s fellowship. Nobody goes hungry in a fellowship that draws you closer to God and compels you to look out for one another.

If you fall asleep during the next service, remember that when it’s mealtime and someone looks left out or lonely, that’s where God wants you to be.

If someone puts the green beans ahead of the roast beef on the serving line, I can say with confidence that we will survive it.

If someone is left out of the fellowship during the meal, that’s a serious matter. That’s not us. That’s the lesson from Corinth. Inclusion is koinonia. It’s fellowship. It’s abundance.

It’s our lesson for today.  The lab work begins after the second service.

By the way, this fellowship business isn’t just about meals.

Amen.

Take the Talent Away from Him...

 Read Matthew 25:14-30

 

You wicked, lazy servant!

 

I do not want to be at the end of a sentence that begins with “Woe unto” and I do not want to be the addressee of the statement, “You wicked, lazy servant!”

 

For the most part, I focus on what we are to do as trusted servants when examining this parable.  We know that we are saved from sin and death.  We know that the blood of Jesus has rescued us from condemnation.

 

There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.  Those are some powerful words. 

Those are incredibly powerful words, but we still need to consider the negative examples when they come our way in our Bible study.  The third servant gives us those negative examples.

 

He was governed by fear.  We have discussed fear many times and know that God wants us to be courageous and not afraid.  But for this brief examination, I want to look at the master’s disposition in dealing with the third servant.

 

His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So, you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest.

 

“‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags.  For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.  And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

 

The third servant knew right away that when the master began labeling him wicked and lazy, things were not going to work out as he thought.  The master doesn’t just reprimand the servant, he examines his thinking.

 

Some people love me because I tend to examine the thinking.  Just as many people hate me for the same reason.  Back to the parable…

 

You knew that I gleaned a return even where I had not invested.  You knew that about me but you chose a course of action that produced no return.

 

You knew what I expected and you did the opposite.  How could this turn out for the good?  Really?  Did you see any good outcome in your choice?

 

So, you were afraid.  Is that it?  Have I ever valued fear in our relationship?  Have I taught you fear?  If you had fear of me, don’t you think that would have motivated you to please me—to produce some return for me?

 

You get better results with courage but if you were afraid of me then you should have considered that I would not accept anything short of some return on investment. 

 

You should have used your fear of me as motivation to please me and not something to debilitate you.

How could you accomplish this with so little courage?  You could have marched yourself right down the bank and put my money in a Certificate of Deposit.  At least I could have received some interest. That’s a no-brainer.

 

How hard would that be?  You didn’t have the backbone to invest like the other two servants, but you had everything that you needed to go to the bank and deposit my money in an interest-bearing account with no risk.

 

C’mon snowflake, even you could have done that!

 

We are usually in tune with what’s happening up to this point, but now the master says, “Take the money away from this servant and give it to the one who has the ten talents.”

 

Ouch!  Isn’t that being a little harsh?

 

Let’s remember that the money was a trust.  It really never belonged to the servants.  Remember the joy of the first two servants.  ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’

 

See what I gained for you.  Here is what I did for you!  My joy is in pleasing you!

The third servant knew that the money belonged to his master, but he never moved beyond fear to realize that he was also a trusted servant.

 

One talent equaled the daily wage for a worker for 20 years.  That’s big-time money even when you are only trusted with one talent.  Today, what does the typical worker make?  If it’s on the low end, maybe $30,000 per year.  On the high end, perhaps $50,000 per year.  I’m not talking about supervisors and executives, but workers. 

 

So, one talent in today’s equivalent is between half a million and a million dollars.  That’s no chump change. 

 

There are other estimates but they also fall under the no chump change umbrella.

 

OK, so we get this is a big trust even for the third servant, but why take what little he has?

 

Think to Proverbs 13:22. 

 

A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children,

    but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.

 

You may have heard the second part of that as the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just or the righteous. 

 

What else could the master do if he subscribed to biblical wisdom?  The wicked and lazy don’t get to keep what they have if they have anything at all.

 

Remember, the three parables in this chapter are told in response to the disciple asking about the end of the age.

 

Throughout the Psalms, the psalmists cry out on behalf of the people, “How long are you going to let people get away with defying you and living it up, Lord?”

 

The answer is that in the end, they do not get away with it.  Wealth won’t get you anything on the day of wrath, but righteousness is what saves you.

 

Part of the problem is that we have our own connotations of wicked.  Hollywood paints villains as ugly, menacing, and heartless doers of evil.  But we should look at wickedness as everything that is not good—everything that is not done or given or lived in God’s way.

 

There is no sitting on the fence in this dichotomy.  It’s God’s way and everything else.  If you are on the wrong side of the fence, you have earned the titles wicked or lazy or slothful.  Don’t get caught up in the Hollywood picture of a villain and think that’s what wickedness looks like.

 

The wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous, so the decision to take the talent from the third servant was not nearly as harsh as that servant's decision to defy his master.

 

Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents.  That was the message at First Light. God wants to give the faithful even more.

 

For now, there is God’s way and there is everything else.  Those living in the everything else, don’t get to enjoy their Master’s happiness.

 

Even what they have will be taken.

 

We are God’s way people.  We enjoy his happiness.

 

 

Amen.

God wants to give you more!

 Read Matthew 25:14-30

 

Consider the words: You wicked, lazy servant!  Now those are some words I don’t want to hear.

 

We don’t always understand this part in our modern mindset.  Hey, the guy just didn’t do well.  Why accost him and call him names—mean names at that?

 

Was he really wicked?  Lazy, that’s easier to swallow, but wicked, really?

To understand the parable, we should understand the Proverbs.  In macro view, they say there is God’s way and there is everything else.  What are the terms for everything else?

 

Wicked.

Sinful.

Slothful.

Lazy.

Foolish.

 

It’s a dichotomy:  Righteous or wicked.  There is no middle ground.  There is no fence-sitting.  It’s God’s way or everything else and everything else is labeled wicked.

 

We in this over-sensitized time don’t do well with distinct dichotomies, but there is good and evil.  There is right and wrong.  There is righteous and wicked.

 

We are usually in tune with what’s happening in the parable up to this point, but now the master says, “Take the money away from this servant and give it to the one who has the ten talents.”

 

Ouch!  Isn’t that being a little harsh?

 

Let’s remember that the money was a trust.  It really never belonged to the servants.  Remember the joy of the first two servants.  ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’

 

See what I gained for you.  Here is what I did for you!  My joy is in pleasing you!  I love being your servant and bringing you this good report.

 

The third servant knew that the money belonged to his master, but he never moved beyond fear to realize that he was also a trusted servant.

 

He only had one talent.  How can he be considered a trusted servant?

 

One talent equaled the daily wage for a worker for 20 years.  That’s big-time money even when you are only trusted with one talent.  Today, what does the typical worker make?  If it’s on the low end, maybe $25,000 per year.  On the high end, perhaps $50,000 per year.  I’m not talking about supervisors and executives or oilfield wages, but workers. 

 

So, one talent in today’s equivalent is between half a million and a million dollars.  That’s no chump change. 

 

Other estimates put a talent at $100,000 to half a million, but still: That’s no chump change. 

 

OK, so we get this is a big trust even for the third servant, but why take what little he has?

 

Think to Proverbs 13:22. 

 

A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.

 

You may have heard the second part of that as the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just or the righteous. 

 

What else could the master do if he subscribed to biblical wisdom?  The wicked and lazy don’t get to keep what they have if they have anything at all.

 

This morning I want us to look at the wealth of the wicked being stored up for the righteous in the context of this parable.

 

The first servant had done very well.  We know this from the beginning of the parable.  He was trusted with more than the other two.  He produced more than the other two.  He put what the Master gave him and put it to work right away and produced a great return.

 

Today, it would take 10 years to double your money if you invested in something with a 7% interest or return.  The master was gone a long time, but I doubt it was 10 years, so this first servant surely made some aggressive investments that required much attention. 

 

He had to be diligent.  He had to be wise.  He had to be decisive but not impulsive.  His master trusted him in accordance with his ability.  He produced a fantastic return.

 

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

 

The second servant did likewise and received the same commendation from his master, but at the close of this parable, we see the first servant rewarded beyond all others.

 

So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10 talents.  For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have more than enough.

 

The wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. 

 

This first servant took the money with which his master had trusted him and produced a good return.  He knew what he started with and what he produced.  But when the full accounting of these servants was finished, this first servant was given more.

 

The talent first trusted to the third servant was put in the first servant’s trust.  He was given more.  He had more and was given more.  He had more than enough.

 

Now both the first and second servant were also invited to share their master’s happiness.  They got a promotion and they were invited to be a part of their master’s happiness.

 

But the first servant got something extra.  So, the moral of the story is it pays to be number one!  That’s the ticket!  It’s dog-eat-dog even in the parables of Jesus. 

 

Or not.

 

All of the money still belonged to the master.  Even the 11^th talent received by the first servant still belonged to the master.  It’s not about how much you have.  It’s about what you do with it.

 

The first servant was now trusted with even more. 

 

In this parable, it has to do with money.  Money is something that we get—we can wrap our minds around it easily.  It’s not conceptual or reflective.  We can count and measure money.

 

Well, I used to be able to count and measure.  Now I just count out.  I have grandkids.

 

But we are trusted with so much more than money.  We lead and we serve.  We parent and look after parents.  We proclaim the good news and we are a light unto the world.

 

We are generous.  We are people of truth.  We are people of love and mercy.

 

We are disciples.  God has trusted us with following Jesus, taking the gospel to the world, and doing our best to live the right standing with God that we have received as a gift.

 

We can look at this parable and if we are not careful, we might think it’s about what we do that puts us in right standing with God, but it has nothing to do with what we have done.

 

God alone made us right with him.  He did all that was required.  We are receivers of his blessings.

 

Look at the religions of the world. They require their followers to do good, or follow certain rules, or a combination of both to get to heaven, or get to a state of Nirvana or reach a plane of consciousness or become nonexistent.

 

Everyone else is working their way to heaven.  Heaven has been given to us freely in the blood of Jesus.  We are receivers of this gift.

 

The world that believes in something else but thinks it can earn its way to heaven spends time doing things that get them there or so they believe.

 

We spend our time receiving what has been so freely given.  We want to receive more and more of the Kingdom of Heaven into our lives now.  Yes, there is more in store, but we are to receive God’s kingdom now.

 

Every time that we receive God’s kingdom and live in his kingdom, he gives us more of his kingdom.  God wants to add to what we have already received and put to work and refined and produced.

 

God wants to add to what we have.

 

When we receive the gift of salvation and decide to follow Jesus and put his words into practice, we should expect not only to please God but to be further blessed by him.

 

Sometimes this is with money.

 

Sometimes it is with Spiritual Gifts.

 

Sometimes it is with opportunities.

 

Sometimes it is with peace that is more than we can understand.

 

Sometimes it is wisdom that God grants generously.

 

Sometimes it is eyes to see and ears to hear in the midst of a chaotic world.

 

God wants to give us more!

 

God wants us to live an abundant life.

 

Some might be thinking that he is going to preach name it, claim it.    No, I am preaching about the abundant generosity of God.  God is looking for a reason to bless us.  God wants to give us good gifts, fantastic blessings, and this thing called abundant life.

 

I am talking about the abundant nature of our Master as he blesses those who follow him!

 

If God is for us, who can be against us?  Make no mistake that God is for us.  He has opened his kingdom to us.  He has saved us from wrath and punishment in the blood of Jesus and he is looking to bless us beyond what we might expect.

 

God wants to add to what we have for we are his trusted servants, his children, and his friends.

 

When we live every day God’s way, we should expect God’s blessings to continue even in our trials and tribulations.  We will have trouble in this world but take heart—take courage—Christ Jesus has overcome the world for us.

 

For those who consistently reject God’s way, even what they have will be taken and given to those living in right standing with God.  Are we talking about salvation here?  I don’t think so.  All three were trusted servants.

 

This parable deals with three trusted servants some random guys just off the street.

 

What about the wicked and lazy part?  I think we are talking about someone getting through this life as one escaping a burning house with only the scorched clothes on his back and having missed a few payments on his fire insurance.

 

Are we talking about rewards for the righteous?  Yes, to an extent.  But we are also talking about awards.  Rewards come in return for what is done.  Something awarded is an honor bestowed upon someone beyond the customary reward.  Awards consider what has been accomplished but is more about bestowing a greater blessing upon someone who is already enjoying the rewards of doing things right.

 

What do we take home here?

 

God made you right with him by the blood of Jesus.  That’s the biggest gift and blessing ever.

 

God wants you to do things his way and rewards those who do.

 

God wants to give over and beyond what might be expected.

 

God wants to give you more. 

 

We often look at what we are to do when we examine this parable.  That’s good.  We should—we should be faithful in a few things.  We should take what our Master gave us and be faithful to put it to work to produce a good return for the body of Christ and bring glory to God’s name.

 

This morning, however, I want us to focus on the generosity of God.  God wants to give you more.

 

It’s not like I want to earn God’s favor.  God has poured out his favor upon you!!!

 

The sun shines and the rains fall on the wicked as well as the righteous, but there are some things that God gives only to those seeking him and his righteousness.  God wants to give you more.

 

The question is, “Will we receive it?”

 

The Kingdom of Heaven has been opened to us.  We may live in this kingdom now.  We are not on our way there.  God’s kingdom has come to us.

 

God wants to give us more.  The wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous.  The wicked don’t want to live in God’s kingdom.  They want the benefits but are afraid to give up what they have in the world thinking it to be better than what God has in store for us.

 

There is nothing better than what God has in store for us!

 

I believe that we want to receive this kingdom now, but we must first stop believing the lies of the enemy, of the world, and of our own selfish nature.  God’s way is better than the way of the world. 

 

The world has a great advertising campaign going but God gives us truth.  And the truth is that God loves you.  He has called us to love one another.  He wants to bless us more and more.  He wants us living in his kingdom now where he is our only Master.  You cannot serve two masters.

 

You may look around at those in the world getting away with all sorts of scandalous things and wonder, will God let them get away with it, or how much longer will the wicked live the rich life?

 

Don’t worry.  What the wicked have, they don’t get to keep.  In fact, they are only holding it until it is given to us.  The wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous.

 

Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten talents.

 

Take the trust given to the wicked and entrust it to the righteous.

 

God wants to give you more than he has already.  Be ready to receive it.

 

Amen.

Eyes to See the Abundance Given to Us

 Read Genesis 47

 

Sometimes, I have to work a little to connect the scripture to our present situation.  I am always on the lookout for where the good news is connected to both the scripture and our situation.  Sometimes—believe it or not—there is a little work involved.

Today is the exception.  This scripture has 21^st Century written all over it.

Joseph saw what was coming.  The Pharoah saw that Joseph was the only man for this monumental job of saving Egypt and bringing it through this time of imminent famine.

Joseph collected one-fifth of the crops for 7 years.  For the next 7, he sold these crops—mostly grain—to Egyptians and to others who came in search of food. The Pharoah was making a nice profit.  Joseph had a monopoly on food.

The problem for the people was that they were out of money. When there is no agriculture, there isn’t much of an economy.  The people were broke and needed food.

What to do?

How about we give you our livestock in exchange for food?  The animals were going to die anyway.  The people needed food for themselves and their livestock.  Grazing in times of famine was not good.

So the people sold all of their livestock to Joseph in exchange for food.  The government owned all of the livestock, except for a few owned by the pagan priests who were subsidized by Pharoah.

The next year the people were out of food again and out of livestock.  What did they have to barter with?

Their land and themselves.  They would become the servants or slaves of Pharoah.  Pharoah would own title to all of the land in Egypt, with a few exceptions.

Pharoah had become more powerful and the Egyptian people had been reduced to slaves who owned nothing. They relied completely upon the government.

They would receive seed to plant once again when the famine passed, but the land was not theirs.  They would pay one-fifth of what they grew to the Pharoah.  The rest they could keep.

This was the same amount that Joseph assessed during the 7 years of abundance, except there was no promise of abundance this time.

Joseph had planned well but the Egyptian people had not.  They were broke and now without property. They had sold themselves into servitude.

They were in a mess, but still alive.

I said earlier that this scripture had our current century written all over it.  How?

We live in a time of abundance.  While we think we don’t have much, we have plenty.  We see others with more and think we don’t have anything.  We covet and dismiss the blessing that we have.

We live in a time of abundance but we have no savings. We have no emergency fund. We have nothing set aside for a rainy day.

I do not think that the famine that was coming in Joseph’s time was a secret.  I’m sure that many dismissed it as a conspiracy theory.

I’m sure that people asked why they had to pay so much in the 7 years of abundance and likely dismissed the years of famine to come as an excuse for the Pharoah to gouge the people with higher taxes.

I do not think that the people were ignorant of the facts.  I think that they did not take prudent measures to provide for hard times.

Today, most families live paycheck to paycheck—direct deposit to direct deposit. Most have little or no savings.  Most are not provisioned for a big expense.

We are not ready for trouble, tribulation, and trials that involve our finances.  For while we live in abundant times, so many have been living as if we had 5 or 10 times the abundance that we really have.

Credit cards, payday loans, student loans, and other easy money traps have snared so many. The money came so easily but it was never really ours.  So many sold themselves into slavery—into indentured servitude to the lender.

Our government has surely set a terrible example.  I am not picking on any single administration.  Our government has overspent for decades. 

In Joseph’s time, the people could have looked to their government for an example. Something’s up.  I had better set aside twenty percent of my income for my rainy-day fund or my hadn’t seen rain for a few years fund.

But how can we do that?  The government already taxes me so I don’t have much left.

Joseph didn’t use a sliding scale. He didn’t say bring your W2 and we will make deductions from what you owe the Pharoah if you can’t afford it.  Twenty percent was twenty percent.

If anyone has eyes to see, you are likely seeing a time of abundance in our nation. There may be high prices and high taxes, but we still have much. We are blessed to have much.

What do we do?  First, we stop living in this fantasy abundance that says we can afford so much more than we can really afford. I can get a loan. I can get another credit card. Everybody’s doing it. 

We might want to set aside twenty percent of our income for those rainy days or those rainless days. That would be our tithe and an additional ten percent for we must not only consider ourselves but the least of these among us.

When you think of Malachi 3:10, consider the image of Joseph’s storehouses full of grain.  Do you remember that Joseph’s managers took in so much grain that they stopped keeping records?

Most of you did not know that for the past 2 years, we have maintained some emergency food beyond that which we keep in our pantry to give away.  This was in case the supply chains were disrupted beyond the inconvenience level.  We never hit that point and now that food is migrating to food baskets so it is put to use before it goes bad.

Most of you did not know this. The few that did, didn’t really pay much attention to it. As I migrate the food into current use, we will decide whether to replenish the storehouse.  It was never enough to feed everyone for every day, but it was enough to provide 2 or 3 meals each week to the community while people figured out how to survive in austere circumstances.

I bring this up now because I want you to ask yourself, did I have to pay extra for this? Were there special offerings for this? Did I have to give money on top of my tithe for this?

The answer is no.  Nothing extra was sought or required.  We made do out of what we had. We are blessed that we didn’t have to go through tough times as did the Egyptians of long ago, but if the church could do this out of a modest budget, couldn’t you do something that would prepare you for hard times?

What sort of preacher would say this?  I don’t need to do this.  Do you know why?

The Lord will provide!

I will tell you that you are absolutely correct. The Lord will provide. The problem is that we are too often blinded to the fact that he has already provided. Consider what he has already provided to us:

·       A sound mind.

·       The Mind of Christ

·       Knowledge, skills, and abilities.

·       For the believer, Spiritual Gifts.

·       Other gifts and talents.

We should be acquiring through our faith and practice:

·       Wisdom.

·       Maturity.

·       Patience.

·       Endurance.

We should be able to handle:

·       Trouble.

·       Adversity.

·       Trials.

·       Tribulation.

Our salvation comes completely as the gift of God but we are full participants in our discipleship. We are fully vested in our discipleship. Our discipleship demands that we put the words of our Master into practice.

We should have a heart to take care of not only our own families but the least of these among us as well.

We should have the wisdom to put our gifts and Spiritual Gifts, our knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as our experience to work to produce good returns for the body of Christ.  In so doing we bring glory to God.

We should not be deceived by the ways of the world that call us to sell ourselves into slavery by our debt.

We should see that we have abundance now but we must not live in opulence.

We are not too far away from our annual journey down the Parable of the Talents, so I won’t talk too much now about taking that which has been entrusted to us and putting it to work to produce a good return for our Master.

We have been following the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—Israel.  We know that a time of slavery and hardship is coming for them, but along the way, note that the Egyptian people brought hardship and slavery upon themselves by living above their means and having nothing to sustain them in times of hardship.

They did this willingly.  It all seemed so natural to them.

Do not leave this place thinking that I have said, we can face any trial on our own.  We have our part to play as part of our discipleship. We also trust in the Lord completely and that trust in him is what should give us eyes to see what we have already been given.

Sometimes that trust means setting aside something in times of abundance for times of hardship. We don’t set it aside because we don’t trust God but because we do.  We see what God is trusting us with now.

Sometimes, living life to the full doesn’t mean getting all of the worldly stuff that we can but applying all of the gody wisdom that we have acquired.

Sometimes living the abundant life involves putting into practice those things that God has been teaching us. Who’d a thunk it?

Yes, the Lord will provide for you but we should have eyes to see where he has already done that and put what he has given us to work.

So there is your pump me up to do great things based on a lesson we hope we learn from ancient Egypt instead of our own mistakes, but it seldom works that way.

We know what to do and yet we struggle. Academically, we learn the lesson but in practice, we have built our houses upon the sand.

We must pray that God grants us eyes to see the abundance that we have.  If we can see it, we will act upon it.

If we remain myopic in our human vision—our ever-so-natural state—we will only see what gratifies us in the moment.

Lord, grant us eyes to see the abundance you have provided.

For most of a year now we have been in the book of Genesis.  Much of that time has been following the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

Today, your main lesson comes from the Egyptians. They had no real god and they sold themselves into slavery.

Our country seems to be headed down the same road. We must let the Lord direct our steps. We must seek the Lord, draw near to him, and have eyes to see what he is giving us right now to provision us in the days ahead.

We must have eyes to see the abundance that he has given us and be wise in putting it to work.

Amen.