[0:00] Please join me back in Exodus chapter 35. Before we get into the passage, I'm going to go ahead and read for you the five major premises that I would like to share with you today, defended from the passage here.
[0:15] And five truths about the work of the Lord. Every member of the church needs to know, love, and follow. First of all, I believe we will see that the work of the Lord begins as a work in the heart of a believer.
[0:26] Bezalel was very clear that this work that he had with his hands started in his heart. Brother Sam had the ears to hear, he has the hands to hear, but this started in his heart.
[0:38] The Spirit will enable us to do the work for which we have been called. Number three, we were designed with the work in mind, and it will require all of us to complete it. There is something that every one of you have to do in this work.
[0:50] God, when you were born again, He created you for good works, and it will require the entirety of all of us working together to complete what He has for us. Number four, when God places a work in our hands, He will place a desire to teach in our hearts.
[1:06] And then lastly, together in the work of the Lord, we demonstrate the wisdom of God, which is the opportunity they had in the Old Testament. They had an opportunity to do, to demonstrate something that was eternal, something that was in heaven, that as the church of God, we have the same opportunity to manifold His wisdom in this world.
[1:25] If we were in Exodus chapter number 26 through 30, as it was already said, that would be boring, all right? It could have a tendency to be boring because it's very detailed oriented.
[1:36] Every little thing that you could imagine, from the furnishing to the garments of the priest, all the instruments would be used in the worship, nothing is left to guess about. We know exactly what needs to happen.
[1:47] And God made it very clear to Moses they would understand the assignment that He is going to give to him. He gives this to Moses, and Moses already has a great deal on his plate. Think about Moses.
[1:58] He is the prophet, head of the state, foreign minister, chief justice, supreme military commander, lead biblical counselor, more for a led a nation of two million discontented nomads who all were dependent on his guidance and his safety and provision.
[2:15] He had a lot that was on him. Over 105 times during those chapters, God says, you shall make. 105 times, you shall make.
[2:26] You shall make staves of shit and wood, or you shall make something like this. 105 times God is just telling him, this is assignment, I want you to do this. So can you imagine the relief that is going to come to Moses when in Exodus 31 it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezalel.
[2:49] He says, Moses, you're not in this thing alone. All these things that I told you to do, they're not going to be on you to do, that I am going to raise up, and I'm going to give the people the ability.
[3:00] I'm going to empower them to do it. First in their heart, Spirit's going to enable them, and then in their heart I'm going to get them to teach other people so that it will continue such an encouragement. When we consider that God calls us to do something, He provides all the necessary direction, ability, and the resources to accomplish it.
[3:19] So first off, the work of the Lord begins as a work in the heart of a believer. The example of Bezalel. If I was to write an obituary for this man, it would have come out in the newspaper, it said something like this, A Judite of Ezran's family in Caleb's house, Uri's son, her grandson, gifted by God as a skilled craftsman in wood, metal, precious stones, and placed in charge of making of the tabernacle, he also taught other workers.
[3:45] That's what we know about Bezalel. We know who his father was, and we know who his grandfather was. We know his name means in the shadow of God. It might take you to Psalm 91, about being hidden in the shadow of the Almighty.
[3:59] It signifies a closeness that he would have had to the Lord. I think it's fitting that he's a person who lives in the shadow. If I was to ask you who built the tabernacle, who was involved in the tabernacle, many of you in here today would not even have thought to mention Bezalel.
[4:15] You would have spoken of Moses or maybe Aaron or somebody, but you wouldn't have spoken of Bezalel because he worked, he lived in the shadows. And so we don't know what his, we know his grandfather, you should recognize that name, right?
[4:28] The son of Herm. Who was Herm? Do you remember in the story there's Moses and he's standing there? There's a great battle going. Moses holds up his hands, and there's two men that come, and they hold up his hands.
[4:39] And so his grandfather, her, holds up the hands of Moses. And I think it's just fitting and absolutely beautiful that we don't know what his dad did, but I imagine his dad did something in the service of the Lord.
[4:54] He did something for God, probably in the shadows. He did something faithfully for the Lord. What a great family tradition, going to a man that would hold up the arms of Moses, and then the testimony getting to a grandson who would be given such an important job.
[5:11] And so we must be willing to do it. In Exodus chapter number 35, verse 20, it says, And the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. This isn't how I would want to do this offering.
[5:22] I would say, we need all these things. Make a decision right now. But that's not what Moses does. Verse 21, And they came, And everyone whose heart stirred him up, and everyone whose spirit made willing. And they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments.
[5:40] He didn't do an on-the-spot offering. He didn't say, Okay, now everybody, empty out your pockets. We need a lot of things for this tabernacle. He told them, and then they departed. Whatever number they're doing, they're going to get it before everybody leaves.
[5:52] Because people were saying, I'll give whatever you want, so this service will end. Okay? And so there's some coercion in doing that. And people would joke and say, You need to leave your wallet in your car before you go in, because you won't leave with anything.
[6:05] That's not what Moses did, because Moses knows that an offering must start with the heart. So he doesn't say, Empty out his hearts. They went back, and as God stirred in their hearts, then that's where the talents, and abilities, and the resources for the work were going to come.
[6:20] It's a calling answered by the heart. Verse 21, And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him up. I've said it often, and I love this quote, that God did not speak audibly, but he spoke louder than that.
[6:35] God was stirring in the hearts of his people by the Spirit, not just one man, and not just one vocation, but everyone, in verse number 24, brought the Lord's offering, and every man, verse 25, And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands.
[6:50] These skilled women, that were willing as well. Verse 27, And the rulers brought onyx and stones. Men and women, it didn't matter of what class they were in, they were the rulers, the servants, everybody who God had stirred in their heart, got involved in this.
[7:06] There's a real contrast to this, compared to another type of offering, by Aaron. Aaron says, We need to build an idol. And so he said, They came to Aaron, and they said, Make us a God.
[7:16] They demanded it. And then Aaron said, Okay, if I'm going to make you a God, give me your earrings. Give me all that you have. And it was a forced offering. There was no go to your tents. There's no stirring of their hearts. The world just demands things of us.
[7:28] But the God of heaven says, I don't want to take anything of you that I haven't moved in your heart, that I haven't first provided for you. So this is the true of God still today.
[7:40] Every man according as he purposed in his heart, so let him give not grudgingly of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. That's what God does. Before we begin to serve him, it has to be a matter of the heart.
[7:54] If you're in the nursery today, watching children, and you're listening to me, and you'd say, Well, my heart's not really in it. Please don't leave the children, okay? Finish your assignment this morning. But I would like for you to know that if you're doing that, and you're doing it in a way that you willingly have volunteered yourself, you're not only a great blessing to me and this congregation, but the work that you're doing right now is pleasing to the Lord.
[8:17] It's incredible that God would receive anything from us. So when we come to him with a cheerful heart, willingly to serve him as we play or whatever God would have us to do, he receives worship.
[8:28] So it starts with a willing heart. Being involved in the work of the Lord starts with a willing heart. Also, the Spirit will enable us to do the work in which he has called us. Verse 31, And he is filled with the Spirit of God and wisdom and an understanding.
[8:44] God supernaturally enabled Bezalel to do the work of building the tabernacle. God saw this work not as spiritual, just as dependent on the Holy Spirit's power as the same work as Moses and Aaron did.
[8:59] And so the Bible tells us, 1 Timothy 1.12, And I think Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me for that he has counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.
[9:11] God not only, he doesn't call the equipped, but he equips the called. You're probably familiar with that saying. That's what God was doing. That God gave him the ability. God gave him the ears to hear, as it was said, or the hands to work, or the mind to work.
[9:26] In this community, many people are very successful at what they do. Many of you in here are very successful at what you do. You put in the hours, and you put in the work, but you would have never been able to do that if God didn't give you the physical ability.
[9:39] He didn't give you the mental ability. He didn't align the things in your life, the connections that you have made. All that you're doing, all praise ought to go unto him. So being filled with the Spirit provides wisdom, understanding, discretion, knowledge, perception, the workmanship, the ability to do it, this internal enabling that is filled with the Spirit of God.
[9:59] We can fulfill our calling in life that was here. As it was said in the New Testament, that we should not be drunk with wine, wearing his excess, but be filled with the Spirit, just like alcohol would cause us, and move us, and cause us to think, and go a certain way, that the Spirit should be moving along in our lives.
[10:16] God is working through this man. The Spirit had filled him to do this work. And so God not only works in our lives, but he works in the lives of others for which we are interdependent to do the work.
[10:29] There's an interdependency inside of this room here as the church. We don't work independently. We're not dependent, but we are interdependent of each other. So today I have ordered myself here.
[10:42] If I could get some help here. If I could get you guys right here, three of you guys. You know you should never sit there, right? Never mind. Grant, here you go. I'll get these two. We'll get Mike in to help me here, and Tyler. Inside of these box today, I have ordered a puzzle.
[10:56] And I love puzzles. Not really. How many of you like puzzles? They stress me out, all right? And let me tell you why they stress me out. It's because if you lose one of these puzzle pieces, then you don't have a work of art anymore.
[11:08] You just have a problem, right? And so if you lose one, go ahead and pass those out, okay? They're not for you guys, right? Everybody take a puzzle piece this morning. Spread out a little bit and come over here, Mike in and hand it out.
[11:18] And so I ordered this puzzle, and there's 167 puzzle pieces. If there's more than 167 you in here today, it's going to be the opposite of the point that I want to make, all right? If you don't get a puzzle piece today, it doesn't mean you don't matter.
[11:30] It just means I couldn't find a puzzle piece, a puzzle the size that I needed this morning. But every one of us have a place in here, and I have this, and something unique about this puzzle that's being given out.
[11:42] This is what it looks like. It's an earth and a globe here, a picture of the earth, and I plan to glue this together and frame it and put it on the wall in my office sometime this week.
[11:56] I'm actually hoping a few of you who like puzzles would help me put it together because I really don't enjoy puzzles, all right? But this is what it would look like. And so as you'll have this, every one of these are unique.
[12:08] The one you have is not like somebody else's in here, and we're going to talk more about this. But all you need to know right now is don't lose your puzzle piece, okay? Before you leave today, I'm going to tell you where you can leave it out front or in the foyer.
[12:20] I'm going to need all your puzzle pieces today. Exodus, verse number six, And Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man or woman make any or any more work for the offering of the sanctuary, so that the people were restrained from bringing, for the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.
[12:44] As God moved on the hearts, He provided the abilities and the resources that were needed. You ever consider that in the desert, there was no Pier 1 imports, there was no Hobby Lobby, there was no Home Depot, and so that where there's no LinkedIn, where they can say, Hey, none of you seem to have the ability that we need.
[13:01] Let's look out. Let's get somebody else's resume. Who can we bring in to build this thing? All that they had with them was more than enough to do the job in which God had called them to do.
[13:13] And in addition to that, they took the spoils from Egypt. As they were leaving Egypt, and they were being given things willingly, they received a willing offering from the Egyptians, and they're leaving, and now they have this with them, and as they're traveling.
[13:28] And so now Moses has this long three-chapter punch list of things that he needs to get and building the tabernacle. And as he's reading off the things that was needed, there was never a time that said, Nope, none of us got that.
[13:42] We're going to have to go back to Egypt, or we're going to have to wait until the promised land to get it. They all had it. Any of the abilities that were needed, it was found among the people that was there. And as a church, it's important that we know the ministries in which God has called us to.
[13:57] Being salt and light in this world to promote the cause of Christ, it's why we pray the Psalm 90, verse 16 and 17, Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and the glory unto thy children, and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands upon us.
[14:15] Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. While on May the 11th, we would pray and fast and say, God, we know that you have a specific work for Tracy and the team in Chile, and we're praying that you would give guidance and that you would lead them.
[14:31] Moses and the planners of the work knew how much was needed. They were organized. They knew exactly how much was too much. What a testimony to being planned and planning of what should be done.
[14:44] That if the church was to come and say, we have given and we've given, I don't know many churches are going to say, hey, you brought too much for us to reach our agendas. Why don't you stop giving? But this is a testimony here that it was clear to them the work that they needed to do.
[14:57] So when all the resources were there, they knew that it was enough. And in here today, you can believe that nothing that any of us in here to do does is of any value at all.
[15:11] That's a decision that you can make, that all of this doesn't make any sense. The work of the Great Commission, the work of the church does together, none of that's of any value. None of us have a soul.
[15:21] There's no eternity. We're just going to live and die. And that could be your opinion. And then others in here, you can have the opinion that, as I would, that all that we do of this eternal value as we work together.
[15:34] But what you can't decide is that what some of us does matters and what the rest of us does doesn't matter. Either everything that we're doing for the work of the Lord together matters for eternity or it doesn't matter at all.
[15:46] But the Bible makes it clear that the foot can't say to the hand that what I'm doing matters and what you're doing doesn't matter. It either all matters or it doesn't matter at all.
[15:57] Romans 12, For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.
[16:16] every member in here connected together that God has given differing gifts to each one of us so that we can work together on the work that He has given us to do.
[16:30] Quote by A.W. Tozer, Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called, and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular.
[16:44] It is why he does it. Stephen and Ben work together. Ben, here, raise your hand, Ben. Good to see you today. Stephen in the back, you should know them. They lead in music. When I say that Stephen and Ben work together, I don't have to say, period, right?
[16:58] Stephen and Ben work together. They work Monday through Friday and Saturday together, and then on Sunday, they are up here beside each other working together all the time.
[17:10] And so if I was to ask and we were trying to decide the work they were doing, these two men, deacons in the church, been faithful for a long time, serving the Lord. If we were to try to divide out their schedule and say, what is it they do that is sacred and what is it that is sacred?
[17:26] When is it that they're living unto the Lord and when is it living unto themselves? So when they're at work and they're there and there's Dylan, one of our interns, and he's working and they're helping Dylan out and they're talking to him, is that sacred?
[17:38] And then when they're here and they're playing the guitar about the lead music and they begin to talk about their job at the Builder Depot, does the clock stop? Is God in heaven with a stopwatch saying, okay, you guys are talking enough about me at the warehouse, this is on the clock for me.
[17:54] All right, now that you're at church and you're serving, the clock is now stopped. Would that make any sense? How would you even begin to divide the line between the work that they're doing? Or that when they come and they give to the offering and the giving, they give in the offering, it feeds my children and I'm very grateful for that.
[18:10] But then when they're at work on Tuesday and they work for a few hours and that feeds their children, is that not also a sacred work? Is that not a God-given responsibility that they would have? And so I would say in here today that all of this should be done unto the glory of God.
[18:24] Whether you, therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Here at your place of employment, we should do that. God did not ask of me for 168 hours of my life and only ask for four or five hours of your life because God did not die for more of me than he died for of you.
[18:44] On the cross, he bought all of me. He paid the price for all of my sins completely. And so now I willingly want to give my life to him. A contrast to this is that an unbeliever can't get on the clock for an hour at all.
[18:59] A person who has not put their faith and trust in Jesus, at no point are they bringing honor and glory to the God. No matter how great their works are, no matter how many hours a day they would stay and they would practice piano, they would never sit down for any moment and hit any key and say this is for the honor and glory of God.
[19:17] They were incapable of doing that. But as believers, we have the opportunity to live on the clock. We have the opportunity that our entire life is not separated for ourselves and the hymn that everything that he has given us to do, we can do as unto the Lord.
[19:37] Our brother here, growing up in a Jewish home, and many of you have seen it maybe with your neighbors, and I ordered one on Amazon with my puzzle, but it didn't show up, okay? And it's a thing that is in the doorway of a Jewish home, a passage of Scripture in Deuteronomy and the reminder.
[19:51] And I would tell you in here, it's not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular. It's why he does it. Deuteronomy 6, 4, and 5, O hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.
[20:07] The tradition of keeping that understanding in front of them that whatever they do is unto the Lord. And so what makes your day sacred or what makes it secular, what makes it unto the Lord, unto yourself, isn't the work that you're doing, it's why you're doing what you're doing.
[20:24] And you should have the opportunity to say, God, I'm putting this day in. I'm doing this work. I'm making this drive. I'm making this sale. I'm making this phone call. And all that I do, I want you to be honored and glorified.
[20:37] When God places a work in our hands, he will place a desire to teach in our hearts. Of the five that I read, that's the one that I would think that most people would say, I'm going to need you to prove that one, all right?
[20:48] I'm going to need you to prove that God doesn't just call me to do something. I really like doing this thing, but I don't really know that I have a desire to teach. And every man, as we've read in 1 Peter 4, 10, as every man has received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
[21:08] As you receive the gift, even so minister the same one to another. That God has given you this gift for the good and the blessing of those around.
[21:20] My father-in-law who pastors in Dalton, Georgia, he says it like this, God did not fill you for a feeling, but for a purpose. God did not fill you for a feeling, but for a purpose.
[21:34] That the Holy Spirit working in and through our lives, it's not just to give us a feeling that you would have or some kind of expression like that, but the Holy Spirit enables and fills you for a purpose that is going to be a blessing to those that are around you.
[21:50] As our walking and breathing object lesson today with Brother Sam, if he practices this and nobody gets to hear this and we hear Miss Deborah doesn't need to hear 10 hours of it throughout the day.
[22:00] She needs a little bit of it every day. But if he was to do this, but he never shared this with other people, it would be a real loss of what God had given him.
[22:10] That is not the purpose in which God had given him. He gave it to him for this purpose, which will be a blessing to other people. And verse 31, he had filled with him the spirit of God and wisdom and understanding and knowledge and all manner of workmanship.
[22:25] And so God placed in his work and in his hands to devise curious works, to work in gold, in the cutting of soles to set them, in the carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work.
[22:37] God had placed the work in his hand. And in doing that, he also, it says, that he had placed in his heart a desire to teach. This work that he was given was based on a pattern or a design, Exodus 26, 30.
[22:54] And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shown thee in the mount. And so Moses was given what this was going to look like. Several chapters of imagining what it was going to look like.
[23:08] And so when the builder is going to begin to build, when Bezalel and the others begin to build, they know exactly the pattern in which God had given them. Are you living a life based upon a pattern?
[23:21] You should be in here. God has a pattern and a design for how I should be as a father, you as a mother, as an employee or as an employer. Those who are willing to be led by the Spirit will build a world for the next generation.
[23:33] God will allow us to create. But it's based upon a pattern. Verse 34, And he had put in his heart that he may teach both he and Holiab and the son of Hirasmach of the tribe of Dan.
[23:45] When you understand the work of the Lord and its eternal significance, you will have a desire to include other people. When you know the work that you're doing is because God has given you the ability, you're not claiming credit for yourself, you're praising God for enabling you to do it, you realize that it's something for him that's given you and that it has eternal value and significance, you will want to include other people.
[24:08] Why? Not just because the size of your task that you're doing is so big, I've got to get people involved, but because the joy in doing it is so large that you're going to want to include other people.
[24:20] When you understand your assignment in life, you want to invite other people into it because you realize how big of a work it is to do, but you also know there's just so much joy in knowing this is what God has created me to do with my life.
[24:35] And then lastly here, together in the work of the Lord, we demonstrate the wisdom of God. Exodus 36, 5 through 7. And they spake unto Moses saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded to make.
[24:53] Verse 7, For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it and too much. That when they came together, they realized that individually they didn't have near enough, but together, working together, they had more than enough in the assignment that God had given to them.
[25:13] So you may say in here that you don't believe that you have the ability to teach. And I would ask you, do you know what the pattern is? Are you living your life based upon a pattern of God's Word?
[25:24] Do you know, if you do, then you know enough to help teach somebody else. You could help them. You could say, Hey, I don't know a whole lot, but I know that the Word of God has given me this pattern and I'm living by it and I can help you.
[25:38] And if you don't know the pattern in your life or what God would have you to be and to live out, then you could find somebody that could teach you and you could say, Hey, can you show me the pattern in which I should be living my life?
[25:49] And we find our place in the church by drawing closer together and not by isolating ourselves. You know, you could take this puzzle piece and I could look at it all day and I could think about, I wonder where this goes into this picture here.
[26:02] You know, I just look at it, I'm isolated and when I can figure out where I fit into the puzzle, then I'm going to show up and I'm going to say, I know exactly where this goes in the puzzle.
[26:13] I could spend the rest of my days looking at this puzzle piece and never knowing where it belongs. And it's the same with you with your gifts and talents and abilities. In isolation by yourself, you'll never know where you belong and where you fit and what your assignment is in the work of the Lord by living in isolation but it's when we all come together and we lay our lives down and begin to serve, it begins to make sense.
[26:38] That God had made me this way because he made another member in the church that way and it all fits together. So finding your gifting and your calling and your assignment in life will happen by drawing closer to your brothers and sisters but it won't be found in isolation just studying it by yourself.
[26:57] And so, if you don't bring back this puzzle piece today in my office, I am going to have a piece of art that is going to remind me this thing needs everybody in it.
[27:08] I don't know who took the puzzle piece home. I'm looking at some of you and I think some of you ate it. Alex Cook may eat it just to ruin my example this morning. All right, over here. And so, I will have a perfect puzzle piece that reminds me of the beauty in which God will do when we all work together or I'm going to have a piece of art that reminds me of how much you're missing in the work.
[27:28] So, either way, it's going to work out for me, okay? It's going to be the reminder of what I want to be reminded about this. Together in the work of the Lord, we demonstrate the wisdom of God.
[27:39] God gave you talents to benefit others, not yourself, and God gave other people talents to benefit you. And so, we need each other to do the work in which God had called us to do.
[27:53] Sometimes when we're building a fire in my backyard, my HOA just really loves when I do this. And when I'm building a fire, I'm just like, gather up everything, you know? Let's burn it because it's so fun, right? You just got to keep feeding the fire.
[28:03] And I'm doing this and so I will build a fire. My daughter, Selah, she has no problem sitting with me, watching me build the fire. And dad, you build a great fire. You're really good at building fires, dad.
[28:14] That's me and Selah, but not Carson. Carson always has to build his own fire, all right? He is always over here trying to make a fire with something that he has because he has to have his own there.
[28:25] Could you imagine when this tabernacle was going to be built if the group of people had said, all right, you're building a tabernacle, but we're going to go build a tabernacle ourselves, okay? And we're going to use different things and we're going to have a different design and we're going to build our own and you're going to build a big one, but I'm going to build a small one.
[28:39] The tabernacle would have never been built. And if you were here this morning in the life group, you would realize that this was not a tent. This was not a mobile piece of art going through the desert, but this was something incredible that was a Polaroid picture of something that was in heaven, that these people were making something that was a reflection of something that was eternal.
[29:01] And everything in that tabernacle pointed to the finished work of Christ. The Eastern Gate, the Brazen Altar, the Bronze Basin, the Gold Lamp Stam, the Table of Showbread, Altar of Incense, the Vale we had before went through this as a church and realized that every detail was significant.
[29:20] It wasn't just a detail for the sake of having a detail, but every detail had a purpose that it was going to point to the finished work of Christ. And so in the building of that tabernacle and them all working together, it showed the wisdom of God as a picture of the finished work of Jesus Christ.
[29:38] But could I remind you, before you get jealous, Abyssalem, and you get jealous and say, man, I wish I was around in those days because I'm really good with a hammer and I really wish that the work of God was laid out for us just like this.
[29:50] And I wish I could have been part of something that demonstrated the manifold wisdom of God. Ephesians 3.10, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.
[30:10] Everything about the church should do the same thing. Every detail, every person, everything about our lives should be pointing to the finished work of Christ.
[30:21] By the church, the manifold wisdom of God. Not by me, not by you, but by us. Not by me does the world understand the manifold wisdom of God.
[30:32] Not by you does it understand the manifold wisdom of God. But by us, as the church, this world can understand the wisdom of God as it's seen.
[30:42] The wisdom of God is seen primarily that He took and devised the plan of redemption, a great plan, a plan where He would unite a Jew and a Gentile contrary to all human expectation and bring us together under Christ Jesus and all the world would say the wisdom of what He had done.
[31:02] and taking the darkest day in history and bringing the sacrifice for our sin. Taking the evil that was planned against Him and bringing it to be the most glorious thing in all of the world.
[31:13] Everything about the way that God created the church, you just look at it and you'd say the wisdom of God. I could have never imagined that. I could have never done this. As a church, we display the manifold wisdom of God.
[31:26] And so the best description of servants today, the best description we could say about us, yes, we want to be hardworking people. We want to be efficient people. But let it be said of us that we are wise-hearted.
[31:39] Exodus 36, 2. And Moses called Bezalel, Holiab, and every wise-hearted man in whose heart the Lord has put wisdom, even everyone whose heart stirred him up to work unto the work to do it.
[31:54] I pray that God has put wisdom in your heart today. As you hold that puzzle piece and you can bring it to me at the table in the foyer, you can put it here on this table.
[32:05] Just please don't take it home and don't make it disappear because it reminds, you need to be reminded that just like every one of these puzzle pieces are different, there's a wisdom in what God has done. And in God's wisdom and what he's designing for us to do as a church, he knows what he has put in your heart and we need that.
[32:22] We will not be complete without your contribution in working and serving together. We will never do all that he has given us to do as a church if we don't all go forward together. So as you hold that puzzle piece you may wonder, you know, I just don't feel like I have much to contribute.
[32:37] I don't feel like I've been given much skills. I don't feel like I can do much. Can I tell you that's not who our God the Creator is. He does all things well. And he knew you before you were born and when he made you, he had made you in Christ Jesus unto good works that is interconnected with a room full of people that he also made in good works.
[32:57] in making me at salvation he knew the life in which I would live, who I'd interact with and in this generation who I would serve with and he shaped me for this. You may think I'm an odd shaped person, okay?
[33:09] I may be an odd person but I am exactly the way in which he had made me to serve in this church at this time with you. And so some of you odd people as well, you may be odd individually but when we are together interconnected it can be such a wonderful and beautiful thing.
[33:27] So what is some of this wisdom that God had put in our heart? Just namely, that the work of the Lord begins as a work in the heart of every believer. I pray that he's stirring in your heart. That should be what's happening. I want to express my love to God.
[33:39] Some of you will go home and buy pianos and that's great, okay? I'm sure he is good for piano sales or whatever city he goes to. But some of you in here need to say, just like he has that expression of his love to Jesus and he has something to dedicate to, God, you have deposited something in my heart and I pray that he stirs that in here in the work that you're doing.
[33:58] The Spirit will enable you to do the work in which you have been called. Don't believe that you're not enough and that you cannot make a difference. The Holy Spirit will enable you to do the work in which he had called you to do.
[34:10] So if he's stirring something in your heart and you're like, I'd really like to be involved or I'd really like to do this but I just don't know I'll be able to, he will enable you to do what you need to do internally and he'll also enable you by surrounding you by other people in this room that he will stir in their hearts and you were designed with the work in mind.
[34:28] When God knew what he had for us to do as a church and our part in fulfilling the Great Commission, he had you in mind and he designed you to be part of it and when he does place this in your heart then he ought to place, he's also placed in your heart a desire to teach.
[34:43] You know how to do something you've been serving the Lord? Well very quickly, your generation, my generation will pass off the scene and will there be more people doing the work? Bezalel didn't do this.
[34:54] He becomes a foreman. He becomes a construction, he's overseeing the work. He has immediately, as soon as he stirred in his heart, he's got a co-worker here and then the next verse it says they are doing this. God provides many people because the work is too big to ever stay in just one of our lives but it should spread to others and then I remind you in being wise-hearted people that together in the work of the Lord we demonstrate the wisdom of God.
[35:20] That Ark of the Covenant, that picture that was taken in heaven that was now built here that is eternal and it's real and that someday that we could all see and would say they built that back in the book of Exodus, they built a replica of that, they saw that and how incredible that is and now it has eternal value.
[35:39] Church, do you know that someday very soon in the passage of Revelation where it says every tongue and every tribe and every nation comes to worship Jesus that as the church of God we get to say he used us to build that.
[35:54] He used us to be part of that. That we did that. Hey, there's my neighbor. They came that night to hear Sam Rotman. Hey, he's that person in another part of the world. God used us collectively to build something that will be eternal.
[36:06] It's the greatest work in the world and it's a great, it's a work that he has for every one of you to do and we should praise the God of heaven that he would see us and look down here and he would know us by name.
[36:18] He called, see, Bezalel, I know your name and he called him. The God of heaven knows every one of your names and he knows everything that he has placed in your heart and not only he didn't do it in a wasteful manner but he did it to allow you to be part of the greatest picture in all of the world of demonstrating the wisdom of God to this world.
[36:40] Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your word. Lord, I thank you. I'm so grateful to be reminded today that you have an opportunity for me to serve you.
[36:53] Somebody, Lord, that it's just the dust that you created me. Lord, you created man just out of the dust but in creating us, Lord, you have given us a purpose which is to worship you and to bring other people to a place to worship you and so, Lord, I thank you that through your church you would show the manifold wisdom of God to this lost and dying world.
[37:15] What you've done, Lord, is beautiful and we're so grateful to get to be involved in it. With every head bowed and every eye closed and Kristen begins the play, we always want to provide an opportunity.
[37:27] As a church, we gather to worship King Jesus but as we gather, we want you to know if you're watching online or in here today, we want to tell you about Jesus Christ. We want you to know Him in a real and a personal way and this Word of God that we have will make it so that you can know Him and we would love nothing more than to take this Word and to show you.
[37:49] I'm in the foyer of the day after the service. Just come and take my hand and let me know that you would love to talk about that, set up a time of Bible study throughout the week. And as you're praying there in your seats, I speak to you as believers.
[38:02] Don't believe the lies that God has not enabled you to do something, that He has not gifted you. Either what you have offered to the Lord matters or nothing that any of us has matters.
[38:14] It's that God has given each one of us the work and if we would work together, we'd have more than enough talents and abilities and resources to live out the calling that He has for this church.
[38:26] So it's my prayer that right now that the Holy Spirit is stirring in the hearts of people to make a willing offering. That God is stirring in the hearts of people to know that the Spirit is enabling them to do a work.
[38:39] That the Spirit is working in the hearts of people to say, that thing that I've given you, you need to be busy about teaching other people how to be involved in it. And that God would bring us all together in a great work that would show His wisdom to this world.
[38:55] Heavenly Father, as my brothers and sisters are continuing to pray there in their seats, may the Holy Spirit will move among their hearts, Lord, and stir within them a desire to be part of this most wonderful work in all of the world.
[39:10] In your Son's precious name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Good morning.
[39:29] Amen.