DIY and Tying the Temptation to the Exodus

Aaron Walling preached a sermon in March 2012 at Cinco Ranch Church of Christ. The lesson talked about Americans' DIY nature, and our desire to fix things ourselves and to secure our futures in our accumulated wealth rather than relying the daily sustenance by faith through God's grace.

These are my thoughts on the lesson.

DIY

We Americans have a DIY nature that can be in conflict with our reliance on God's creative, life-giving word. We try to be strong and solve our own problems like stress and sin; relying on someone else is a sign of weakness, after all, right?

But, God chooses the weakest and meekest to exhibit His strength (Gideon's army, David v. Goliath, even fish & loaves). By doing so, He makes plain the fact that we aren't doing it ourselves, but that He is doing these things through us.

Tying the temptation to the exodus

We could really go from the stones-to-bread temptation to the manna from heaven and then to the Lord's Prayer. "Give us this day our daily bread" ties back to the manna, too, I think. God gave the Israelites one day's rations every day. He did not allow them to stockpile any of it. In this way, He forced them to rely solely on Him. They couldn't ever say, "I don't need God tomorrow. I saved up enough manna to carry me through a couple of days." In this and many other ways, God was training them--forcing them--to go to Him for everything every day.

Now, when we jump to the Lord's Prayer, Jesus says that our prayer should include, "Give us this day our daily bread." I think it means more than, "God, please give me what I need every day." I think it could mean more: "God, don't give me more than I need today because I don't want to be tempted to depend on my surplus tomorrow. I want to depend only on you every day, and having stores of provisions may 'lead me into temptation'."

If that's the case, it makes looking at accumulated wealth as something that could be a risk rather than necessarily a blessing. Do we count on our bank accounts? Do we rely on our retirement plans? Do we put our trust in our pensions? Is our faith in our 401K? Is our assurance found in our insurance?

I read that owning things is okay, as long as you're not owned by them. You can accumulate wealth as long is your focus isn't on the wealth, but on God. Abraham proved to God that what he loved the most, even more than his own dear son, was God. Therefore, he was blessed by God and ultimately owned many things, but was not owned by those things. They didn't have control of him.

So, this was a really good look at Faith and the Word of God.