Grace, peace, and mercy be to you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I had a most wonderful thought for a newsletter article this month – dealing with Solomon and the building of the Temple. I was sure I remembered he had asked for donations and offerings of materials, monies, gold and silver for the building of the Temple. I could not find it. I found in 2^nd Chronicles where he built the temple, but not the gathering of offerings for it. Exodus 35 and 36 talk about Moses raising funds and materials for the Tabernacle. This was helpful, but my search was not ended. Pastor Koschmann came in and he thought he remembered that also, yet we could not find it. We could not find it, because it was not there. What we were looking for was in 1 Chronicles 29 and it was David who raised the funds for the Temple. Solomon didn’t have to, because it was already done.

In Exodus 35:4-9 - "Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, "This is the thing that the Lord has commanded. Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution: gold, silver, and bronze; blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; goats' hair, tanned rams' skins, and goatskins; acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, and onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece." Here, the request goes out for the building of the Tabernacle. In Exodus 36:3-7 "And they received from Moses, all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, "The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do." So Moses gave a command, and the Word was proclaimed throughout the camp, "Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary." So the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more." The people were restrained from giving because they had given too much. In Chronicles 29:16 we read, "O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building You a house for Your holy Name comes from Your hand and is all Your own." The people gave willingly, freely, and abundantly. Again, Solomon did not need to ask because it was already there.

How many times have we heard these stories and then heard something like "boy, wouldn’t that be a fine problem for the church to have – too much giving." Yet we need to point out that Moses and David were gathering things not from a congregation of a few hundred, but an entire nation. We do not have the resources of an entire nation, but we, like the people of Israel, have been gifted by God greatly. They knew that all they had was God’s and they returned it to Him willingly and freely. In both of these cases in Exodus and in 1 Chronicles there is something else that needs to be pointed out. All of the people were involved. They all did something according to their abilities as God had given them.

That is the goal we are after. Yes, we have debt to Lutheran High and to the CID Office. This is because we are not meeting our budget. We are not meeting our budget because we are not all giving as God has given to us. I found it interesting that within a matter of a week and a half we can raise nearly

$ 6, 400 and maintain what we need to meet our weekly budget. If we all worked together in small increments throughout the year we would not fall behind. At what point will we realize that yes, God has given us what we need and honestly return to Him what is His?

1 Chronicles 29:16 "O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building You a house for Your holy Name comes from Your hand and is all Your own."

In His Name,

Pastor Hennig