Work as Worship

Exodus 35:30–36:1 ESV

30 Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, 32 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, 33 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. 34 And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. 35 He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer. “Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.”

Bibles

Tool box illustration

Introduction:

Every Sermon in a book series should be seen as a sequel to the previous sermon, but this one is even more of a continuation of last week’s sermon.

You see, last week,

we discussed how God gave the people all they had,

and in response to seeing who He is,

they freely gave of their material belongings as an act of worship so that the tabernacle could be built.

This week, we will see how they not only gave of their belongings,

but they also gave their time and skills as an act of worship.

I was going to speak more on using our jobs as an act of worship,

which we absolutely should do and a sermon on this would be very good and useful,

but I don’t see the text speaking directly to this,

and therefore that will not be my primary focus.

We will instead focus on how we should use the skills and giftings that God has given us as an act of worship,

primarily in the Church,

but not exclusively there.

As a young Church,

I’m glad the text has led us to this topic,

because it is very important that we create a culture of serving here at Hutong.

The main idea statement that the entire Sermon will be focussed on is ….

God has given each of us different skills, gifts, and resources, Therefore we should use them to worship Him by doing our work for His glory, just as the people of Israel did when they built the tabernacle.

We will do this by going through the story, bringing out the following points.

1. We Worship Because of What God Has Done

Israel worshiped Him after seeing God’s great Justice and forgivness as well as His Glory.

We Worship Him because we have seen His great attributes and Glory in His work on the cross and indwelling within us.

2. We Worship with the Skills God Has Given

Skills Shaped by Life's Experiences

Skills Empowered by the Holy Spirit

Me with middle schoolers.

3. We Worship by Using Our Gifts Together

There were different skillsets needed for the tabernacle.

There are different skillsets needed in the church.

1. We Worship Because of What God Has Done

This was the bulk of last week’s sermon,

and I don’t want to repeat too much.

But because I see the placement of this portion of the story placed where it is to show why they worshiped Him, I do believe it is important to stress this point.

Israel saw in Exodus 32 that they were a sinful people.

They saw the Just wrath of God,

as 3,000 people were killed,

and more died from sickness as a result of their sin.

They also saw the great forgiveness, Grace, and Mercy of God,

because instead of killing them all for their sin and starting over with Moses,

which He would have been fully justified to do,

God instead chose to forgive them and allow them to take part in the building of the tabernacle and come before His presence in worship.

To Worship Him was the greatest act of Mercy He could give them,

since our greatest joy is found in our Worship to Him.

Not only that,

but God showed Moses a glimpse of His Glory, resulting in Moses falling on His face in worship.

When He went down the mountain,

His face glowed from being in the presence of His glory,

and the people were also able to see,

through Moses,

a small glimpse of the great Glory of God.

We talked last week about how we have a far greater example of His attributes of

forgivness,

justice,

Mercy,

and love

than they had,

since what was just an image for them,

we have fully in Christ Jesus.

You see, we too have sinned against God.

Romans says that all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.

Maybe do raise hand thing.

It also says that the Wages of sin is death.

That is physical death, but also spiritual death,

spiritual death being eternal seperation from God.

But the second half of that same verse is “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You see, the wrath of God against sin must be satisfied.

We may not like this,

but if we are honest,

we don’t desire evil to go unpunished.

We are glad that we serve a rightous and Holy God.

But we also serve a Merciful God who desires a relationship with us,

so He made a way to satisfy His justice and His Mercy.

He came down in the form of a man and took the cost of my sin and shame upon Himself.

Now when God looks at me,

He does not see my sin and shame,

He sees the perfect righteousness of Christ put on me.

This is the God that we worship.

I need you to see and understand the why of our worship here.

I hope that you have picked up over the past months going through Exodus how much Jesus is in this Old Testament book.

We are seeing over and over Images of Jesus that lead us to worship.

This is why we use our giving and skills to worship Him.

But what exactly are the skills?

That leads us to our second point.

2. We Worship with the Skills God Has Given

The people of Israel came out of Egypt with skills because they were taught these skills to be used in their forced labor to the Egyptians.

God gave them the natural experience they needed to have the skills and giftings required to build the tabernacle as a place of worship.

This is actually quite beautiful,

Because what Egypt used for evil,

God used for good.

But He did not just leave them with their natural giftings.

We see this in the text that Adjan read for us today, especially in

Exodus 35:31 ESV

and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship,

And

Exodus 35:35 ESV

He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.

As well as

Exodus 36:1 ESV

“Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.”

Yes, God used their natural gifts and talents for His work,

but He did not leave them there.

In the same way the spirit filled the people of Israel, giving them the skill and intelligence to do the work on the tabernacle so His people could worship Him,so too does the spirit of God give us everything we need in the Church, so His people today can Worship Him.

I want to stress to you that this includes every one of us who have been saved and redeemed by Christ.

If He has forgiven your sins,

made you a new creation,

He has empowered you with His spirit and given you the means to worship Him in the service of the church.

This can be seen in a few ways.

Through spiritual gifts.

Through the enhancing of the natural gifts He has given us.

That is what I think we see here in this text.

They already had these skills, but the Spirit gave them the ability to use these skills in the exact way they needed at the time that they needed them.

I will give you an example of how God has done this in my life.

When I was an associate pastor at a church in the US state of Arkansas, I started working with the youth group.

There was a need for someone to work with the youth,

and I was the young guy,

so it kind of naturally fell on me.

The problem was, I reallly only knew how to lead highschoolers, and we only had one highschooler in the church.

The rest were middle schoolers.

I did my best, but I honestly had no idea what I was doing.

I did not enjoy the role,

and I was not good at the role.

I prayed on it and we discovered that this was not the role that God had for me, so I handed it off to another pastor and started working in an area that God had given me a passion for.

In that, I excelled and people were blessed.

I want you to catch something here.

My issue at that time was I did not have what I needed to properly lead middle schoolers.

I hope this sounds weird to those who know me well.

Because Let’s fast forward a few years to 2019, and God puts me in a classroom teaching middle schoolers in Chna.

He also puts Whitney and I helping with Grove, the City Church MIddle School youth group.

Fast forward to 2020, and our love and passion for middle schoolers was so great, that whitney and I took over Grove and are still leading it to this day.

What is the lesson here?

God gives us what we need at the time that we need it,

to do what we need to do with it.

In 2016, He did not give me a divine gifting or passion for middle schoolers becasue He had a different work for me to be doing.

But in 2019, He did.

Honestly, Middle schoolers are now my favorite people.

So what has God gifted you in?

What desires or passions has God given you?

Are you using these in the church?

Stress and repeat

If not, why not?

We desire every regular attendar at Hutong to be serving in some way.

Hutong needs people to be serving in various ways, and we will show these in a few minutes.

So I encourage you to be seeking prayerfully for what God has given you that you can use in the Church.

We will come back to this soon, but first, we need to see how our giftings will rightfully differ from person to person.

That leads us to our final point, We worship by using our Gifts together.

3. We Worship by Using Our Gifts Together

Moses writes from Exodus 35 all the way to Exodus 39 explaining all that Israel made so they could worship God in the Tabernacle.

You can see on the screen the wide range of skills required to do this work.

Design and Craftsmanship (Exodus 35:30-35)

Weaving and Textile Work (Exodus 36:8-19)

Woodworking and Construction (Exodus 36:20-34

Metalworking (Exodus 37:1-29)

Bronze Casting (Exodus 38:8)

Embroidery and Tailoring for Priest Garments (Exodus 39:1-31)

Not only was there need for people to do this work, but there also needed to be people to lead in the work, and teach others how to do it properly.

We see God empowering people for this in Exodus 35:30-35

Exodus 35:30–35 ESV

30 Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, 32 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, 33 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. 34 And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan.

The point I am trying to have you see is not everybody was a carver.

Not everyone was a weaver.

Not everyone was a teacher.

Not everyone was a leader.

But God empowered everyone with what they needed so that when they all worked together,

the tabernacle was built and they had a means of worshiping the one who gave them these skills.

It is the same for us in the church today.

1 Corinthians 12:4–11 ESV

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

It then goes on to explain how just as our bodies have many members, an arm, leg, head, fingers, etc. All of these members are one body.

Each member of the body is important, and when one is missing, the body does not work well.

We are like this tool box here.

God has given each of us different skills,

gifts,

and resources,

Therefore we should use them to worship Him by doing our work for His glory,

just as the people of Israel did when they built the tabernacle.

In the same way, each member of the church is important, and we need each of you, and your giftings for Hutong to work well.

Stress and repeat

Application:

So, with that in mind, let us quickly review what we just learned, and then see how we can apply these truths to our lives, because this should be a very practical message.

So if you zoned out during the message, bring your focus back, because I’m going to summarize everything in 5 sentences.

Our worship is a response to seeing the greatness of God, especially in the works of Jesus on the cross for the forgivness of our sins.

A natural worship response to seeing the Glory and goodness of God is the giving of what God has given us, both our material goods, as well as our time and talents.

These are given to us by the Spirit to use in the Church in our worship to Him.

Our giftings will vary from person to Person, but we should work together with what God has given us as one Body.

So let us now take this truth, and ask, how can we best do this at Hutong church?

First, know that we desire every regular attender to be serving at Hutong.

We have a QR code that you can scan and fill out to help us get you plugged into various areas of service.

I encourage you to take a picture of it now to fill out later.

This QR code will also show up after the service, if you miss it now.

There are many areas we need help in here at Hutong.

It’s important to see that this isn’t the Rick and Charlie show, or even just the responsibility or the leadership team.

If God has indwelled you with His Holy Spirit, He has given you giftings to be used in the church, SO USE THEM.

I have a slide of some areas that we have for service here at Hutong.

It’s not meant to be an exhaustive list, but I hope I did not forget anything.

Take a look at these though, and see which of these areas you would like to help with here at Hutong, and then fill out the form later letting us know.

1. Projection

2. Sound mix

3. Usher

4. MC

5. Preacher

6. Prayer

7. Nursery/kids

But also, if there is an idea or need God has shown you, let us know. I am not promising we will be able to do every idea, but we absolutely want to hear your thoughts and wisdom.

If there’s a ministry that you think would benefit the church, let us know.

Jane suggested we read the gospels together to end the year, and Rick empowered her to take the lead in that, and she’s done an amazing job.

This past Tuesday, Mr. John brought up a group that needs people to help give their time to kids in need. We are now seeing how Hutong can partner with them.

My point is, this isn’t the Rick and Charlie show.

This isn’t the leadership team show.

Hutong church needs each and every one of you to use your ideas, your giftings, your giving, and your talents as a form of worship.

This is so important to us at Hutong, that as I hope you know, we are empowering you to hold Christmas parties in your homes on Christmas Eve, or other days leading up to Christmas.

We are doing this because we see that each Believer has a responsibility to share the Gospel with those around us, and this is a great opportunity to do this.

I know though, that there is likely at least someone, probably multiple someone’s thinking that you don’t have anything to offer.

I Kano that it is likely someone is thinking that because I know that Satan loves using that lie.

So if that’s you, know that it is a lie from the pits of hell.

If you are a Christian, saved and redeemed by God all mighty, then He has empowered you with what you need to serve and worship Him in the church.

So if you are not sure what that looks like, we are about to have a time of prayer. Pray to God on this.

Also, come talk to me after service.

Let’s find a time to get together and think through this together.

That is a priority to me, because I desire that you have the joy that comes in serving Him.

If you are here and you are not a Christian, again, our prayer time is a great time to cry out to Him.

There are many in this room who can take you aside and walk you through what it means to be saved.

So let us now get into groups and begin praying to God on these matters together. In a few minutes, Ennia will start our last set of worship.

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