More With Less
Now What? - Part 3
Sunday, August 27, 2023
Exodus 5:6-20, Luke 9:1-6, Philippians 4:19
Pharaoh replied, “You are lazy bums, nothing but lazy bums. That’s why you say, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifices to the Lord.’ Go and get back to work! No straw will be given to you, but you still need to make the same number of bricks.” -
Exodus 5:17-18
Jesus called the Twelve together and he gave them power and authority over all demons and to heal sicknesses. He sent them out to proclaim God’s kingdom and to heal the sick. He told them, “Take nothing for the journey—no walking stick, no bag, no bread, no money, not even an extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, remain there until you leave that place. Wherever they don’t welcome you, as you leave that city, shake the dust off your feet as a witness against them.”
Luke 9:1-5
Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:
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Most of us have heard Pharaoh’s words echoing through various seasons of our lives and certainly in our culture. Work harder! Produce more with less! And of course we know all that is produced goes back up to pad the pockets of those at the top. Meanwhile, the laborers pay double and triple the rent on salaries that are lower than they were 20 years ago. When they struggle to make ends meet, we all become Pharaoh’s declaring - “You are lazy… get back to work!”
Sadly this same mentality seeps into the church world. When our churches struggle to pay the bills or attract new members, we feel like we are not “producing” what we should. And there are countless “church growth gurus” selling overpriced quick fix programs that make us feel like we are lazy and good for nothing if we don’t have all the same programs as the mega church down the road. Pharaoh’s voice is prolific and his words haunt us everywhere we turn. We think of ourselves as hard workers, but in the end, we find ourselves like the slaves in Egypt, working ourselves into the grave in every area of life with very little to show for our efforts while Pharaoh continues to make us feel like we haven’t done enough.
Then we turn to the gospels and find Jesus, our kind our loving master. Finally, we’ve gotten Pharaoh off our backs and we can live under the gift of mercy and grace. But wait… Jesus tells us to go out with nothing as well. Like Pharaoh, it appears at first glance that he expects the disciples to make bricks with no straw, to heal the sick and cast out demons without even so much as a guaranteed place to sleep at night. Is Jesus just another hardened task master making impossible demands on our lives?
If we look a bit closer we find that Jesus does give them one thing Pharaoh did not, and it’s the thing that makes all the difference. Luke 9:1 tells us that Jesus gave them all the power and authority needed to do the work he called them to do. Matthew’s gospel ends with a reminder that Jesus will go with them, that he will be present with them even to the end of the age. In Philippians 4:19, Paul tells us based on his own experience that God will provide for our every need.
What if we took Jesus’ command to take nothing with us seriously?
What would happen if we trusted in his power, his authority, and his presence more than we trusted in our own limited resources?
What if the greatest power of all comes from the humility of dependence rather than independence?
What if we stopped working for Jesus and started letting Jesus work through us?