you You can be seated, and if you would take your Bible, and we're going to turn together to Exodus, Chapter 35, as we continue through the Book of Exodus. And believe it or not, you may look there, and you may see in the Book of Exodus, Chapter 35, and you may see that this means that there are six chapters left in Exodus. We get all the way to Chapter 40, is the last chapter. And yet, we will be finishing Exodus two weeks from today. We only have three sermons left in Exodus. And why is that? Well, it's because chapters 35 through 40 are almost entirely repetition of things that have already come in the book of Exodus. Almost verbatim at times. And we're going to talk about why that is as part of what we see today. But just to let you know where we are and what we're doing. Oh, I need to switch microphones, don't I? All right. Okay, so I've done that and that's going to present Ed with difficulties when he goes back and edits the audio for the recording. Sorry about that, Ed. But if you're listening to the recording, then you should just be amazed right now that Ed just did that and it sounds so great. There you go. Okay. So we only have a couple of weeks left in Exodus, and just to let you know where we're going from there, the next book that we're going to go through is Romans. We won't get there immediately, though, so as soon as we finish Exodus, I want to take a few weeks just to talk about the basics of the gospel, God, man, Christ response. You guys know those four words? I hope you do. We're going to talk about those for a few weeks. And then we're gonna have the Christmas season. Don't know for sure yet whether we'll get straight into Romans at that point or wait a little bit until after Christmas to do it. So we'll see, but that's just kind of where we're going. So it looks like there's a whole lot of Exodus left and like we're gonna take another 12, 14 weeks to get through it, but it's just three more weeks in Exodus. So today, we are going to see some positive results from God's negative discipline. Now, what do I mean by negative discipline? I mean His giving of consequences to His people. because of their sin and reaction to their sin. There's positive discipline, which is something that has to happen on a daily basis where we are seeking to, for example, with our children, to train them up in the way of righteousness, to tell them positively what it is to do. In fact, some people say that we are doing positive church discipline every time that we meet and have a sermon together. We are disciplining ourselves to listen to the Word of God and to know what is right, what we ought to believe, and what we ought to be doing And then occasionally there's negative church discipline as well, where we have to confront sin in specific ways. But what God had done is He had brought this negative discipline to the people. Now I remember a line from a mother that I knew years ago who had four children. who were just fantastic children. Everybody would look at these kids and say, those kids are great. And then sometimes you would observe interactions between her and these children. And the children are doing something that you don't think anything of, and the mother calls them over and has a private moment with them, and you see them hanging their heads. And I remember a lady one time talked to this mother and said, why are you so hard on those kids? Those kids are great. And she said, why do you think those kids are great? If I just let them run wild, if I just let them do whatever they wanted to, if I just let them sort of get away with bending the rules a little bit and didn't address it, then it's going to spin out of control. That's human nature. That is our sinful human nature, is that we test and we try and we go after our flesh and we see what we can get away with. But one of God's blessings, and we talked about this several weeks ago, one of God's blessings is to discipline us for our good as a loving Father. That's what He does for His children. He guides us in the way that's right. That's what he had done with Israel when they had gone after the golden calf. Just to think through Exodus and what it is as a whole, God has gotten the people out of Egypt, and that was the first half of the book. And then the second half of the book is getting Egypt out of the people. And as they parked at Mount Sinai and heard the Ten Commandments and agreed that they would do exactly what God said, they probably meant it to a degree, but they immediately showed that it wasn't really in their hearts, because what did they do when Moses went back up on the mountain to get the ceremonial and the civil parts of the law? Well, they turned and they started worshiping a golden calf. They said, these are the gods who led you out of Egypt. Let's have a festival around this statue and say, wow, look at what those gods have done for us. Now, immediately God disciplined them. He disciplined them through the physical act of Moses smashing the Ten Commandments right in front of their faces. Look how serious it is that you've broken the law. He disciplined them through some of them dying from the sword. actually being executed. He disciplined them from some of them dying from pestilence, from disease. He disciplined them in a number of ways, and He even said that it would have been okay had He chosen no longer to go with them, or just to destroy all of them, and to make a people out of Moses to continue the line of Abraham out of Moses' seed. but God was gracious, God was merciful, God used the means of Moses' prayer, but He continued to discipline them and to show them, I don't have to go with you. I am doing this by my grace and not because of some merit or some works that you've expressed to show that you're the greatest nation. He is using them as a vessel of His mercy and He's shown them that through His loving consequences, through His discipline. And so now, when we get to chapter 35, there's sort of a restart in a way. Where God has already delivered, through Moses, all of the things that have to do with how they are to go about their worship. And what did they do before? When Moses was receiving the instructions about how to worship, they made up their own worship. And they sinned grievously against God. But now that God has disciplined them for that, what we're going to see is that they're going to listen. And that they're not going to just say, yes, we will obey, but we're going to actually see obedience in the way that they go about their worship. In obedience, it says, now that is from the heart and not just from the lips. So this is a big deal. So when we get to chapter 35 through chapter 40, there is a ton of verbatim repetition from the exact instructions that God had already told to Moses about how exactly to go about the construction of the tabernacle, the ordination of the priests, all of those little details that we saw. It's going to be repeated in large part, but repeated in such a way that the verb forms are different, the tenses are different. Where it said, you shall do, it's going to say, and they did. Before, he was saying, you shall do, and the people are down there doing their own thing. against what they had promised. Now that they've been through the discipline of God, God says, you shall do, and they do. And they do it from the heart. And we praise God for that. We praise God for that. So that's what we're going to see, in particular today in chapter 35 and the first part of chapter 36. What we're going to see is the preparation for doing what God had said to do in terms of the construction of the tabernacle, in terms of establishing the system of worship that God would put in place from Moses until the resurrection of Christ. this old ceremonial system that stood as a kind of, like we said last week, as a kind of scaffolding behind the building that is Christ as God was going to bring about the fullness of the covenant of grace in the person of Jesus. What we had in place in anticipation of Him was that ceremonial system. And we're going to see today that God asked them in preparation for that to give time and money and talent. And they're going to do it. He asked them to give time, money, and talent. And we today, despite being in the new covenant and no longer setting up the old sacrificial system of the tabernacle, we still need to give our time and our money and our talent in prioritizing the worship and the glory of God. So let's look at that today. We'll start in chapter 35 verses 1 through 3. It starts out showing how to prioritize time for God's glory. Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel, probably as it's going to express later by assembling the leaders of each tribe and clan within them. He assembled them together and said, these are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day. We have there a prioritizing of time for God's glory. He starts out in verse 1 and he says that he gathered them and he said this is what the Lord has commanded. These were not new commands. These were commands that they had already heard, that had already been expressed to them. This is a command in particular that came right out of the moral law that we call the Ten Commandments. Combined together a little bit with what we call the civil law, which was one of the civil penalties in the theocracy of Israel, which was the death penalty for Sabbath breaking. Today we still have the moral law, the Ten Commandments. We no longer have that civil law where we would look and see who is breaking the Sabbath, let's kill them. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that Jesus is the one who has come and taken my death penalty for me. It doesn't mean that this is any less serious than it was then, it just means Jesus took my death penalty. Praise God for that. Praise God for that. And of course there's a different system now. We no longer have the combination of church and state that existed in Israel. We now have the people of God who are identified among every tribe and tongue and nation by an adherence to the faith that was once delivered to all the saints. We come to faith in Jesus. That's how we are the nation of God now. It's not defined by a human nation as it was then. A human nation that could execute penalties like this. But let's think in particular. Setting aside time for the worship and the glory of God. Setting aside time. Now, as they're about to get into the whole construction project, one of the things that's being brought out here is that even as they are preparing for the worship of God in terms of building the tabernacle, in terms of building the furniture, in terms of doing all of the rituals that will be involved for ordaining the priests and all that stuff, they are still to take the Sabbath day and make it holy. They're not to say, well I am busy with godly kind of work and therefore I can just work right through the Sabbath. No, God says even in the middle of this period of time, these few weeks or however long it took, where you as a whole nation are just going to be pouring your efforts into building up the worship system of the tabernacle, even in that time, take that one day out of seven and make it holy to Me. I have already made it holy to Myself. Now guys, I'm not going to get as much into this as I have at other times, because I've already preached, I think, three sermons in Exodus that are specifically on the Sabbath, because it keeps coming up over and over here in Exodus. But at the same time, this is my last chance in the book of Exodus to talk about it. So I'm going to talk about it, okay? God has put this command in the Ten Commandments. You shall remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work. And the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. God says this is rooted in creation. You go back and you look at the first verses of Genesis chapter 2. After God had created in six days, it says, and then He rested on the seventh day, and it says this is the pattern that God built into creation itself. This wasn't a new command with the Ten Commandments. And it's not something that's disappeared now that Jesus has come either. We now see why God built that pattern into creation. Because Jesus has brought about our final eternal rest. Jesus said, come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. So if you're thinking to yourself, well, God will be pleased with me if I take a day off every week. Well, no. Not unless you're doing it by faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is what brings about a right standing with God. Justification. It's not law-keeping. It's not Sabbath-keeping. And yet, God has even in the New Testament said that there is such a thing as a day of the week called the Lord's Day. That is a possessive word, the Lord's day. It belongs to Him. It's today, by the way. It's Sunday, the first day of the week. Jesus rising from the dead was so significant that it moved the Sabbath day, it moved the one day out of seven from Saturday to Sunday. So we can say, wow, Jesus' work is finished. And so I can take a day out of every week that is for the Lord. Part of that command that God has given is not just to have a day where we worship, not just to have a day that we take time off, but the other six days we're to be obeying the Sabbath command too, because he says, six days shall you labor and do all your work. The command is remember the Sabbath. So if we just get to Sunday and we say to ourselves, oh man, I know I'm supposed to worship today, but I didn't plan ahead, and it's all going to fall apart, well, what have we been doing? We've been disobeying the Sabbath command throughout the week, where God said, do all your work. Get it done. Get ready. The Sabbath day is coming. Six days show you labor and do all your work. The Sabbath day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God. If you're going to make a vacation, if you're going to have vacation time, well, what do you do? You plan for it. If you don't plan and work ahead, and suddenly your vacation day comes, you're just going to sit around and watch TV because you didn't plan for anything. If you're going to make family time be actual family time, you've got to plan for it. If you're going to make the Lord's day A day that you dedicate to the Lord, you have to plan ahead. You have to work ahead to make that happen. Now every day, obviously every day belongs to God. Every day we're supposed to rest in Christ, of course, absolutely. But He specifically has designated one day out of every seven that we are to give completely to Him. Now why does he designate a whole day? He does it right here. He does it in calling the first day of the week in the New Testament, the Lord's Day. Why a whole day? Does this just mean, well, okay, Sunday you can do whatever you feel like, or whatever you have to do, just as long as you get to church. Is that the idea? No, he gave a whole day. Now if you have ever been like me, and had a time in your life where you treated Sundays that way, where you said, well, it's not the whole day. The important thing is just that I get to church. If you have that mindset, I know from experience, what happens? Well, the other things that you've said, I'm going to just wait till after church to do that. They start creeping back, and they start creeping back, and they start taking over. It's like weeds, where you say, well, I've got my garden, and I have the place for my flowers here, and the weeds can be over here. Well, what's going to happen if you don't start pulling those weeds out of the garden? They're going to come, they're going to take over the flowers. I'm not a gardener, so I apologize for whatever gardening errors I've just made. Guys, if you say to yourself, Sunday is just a day where at some point I need to have some kind of worship. Or as many churches are doing now, to say, well, you know, it's not even necessarily just that day. Just have some sort of a weekend service. Just work it in however you can. Maybe get there on Saturday night so that you can spend all Sunday hunting. Guys, it's just gonna, the weeds are gonna take over. God knew what He was doing when He set aside a whole day out of every week for us. Sometimes we would look at that and we would say, no, not a whole day. What am I going to do for a whole day? How am I going to set aside a whole day to God? Well, God knew what He was doing. He knew that if we didn't take a whole day, that in our human nature, that suddenly it would become no day at all. Suddenly it would become, yeah, sometimes I'm going to get to church, and sometimes I'm going to get to soccer, and sometimes I'm going to get to dance recital, and maybe every six weeks I'll make it there. Guys, God knew what He was doing when He called us to set aside one day out of seven for His worship. Now, you say to yourself, but the church only has programs on Sunday morning. Yeah, that's true. That's unfortunate, really. And this church and many other churches used to have programming essentially all day on Sunday in order to help people commit the entire day to the Lord. I would love it if we were able to restart what this church had in ages past, which is a Sunday evening service, where we are reminded the entire day that this is a day that is set aside to the Lord. I would love that. We're going to see in a minute, I can't do that by myself. Things like this would take a lot of work from other people. I'll talk about that in a minute. I can't do this alone. I can't be the church for you. But God has called us to set aside one whole day out of seven because He knows what we need. It's the pattern that He built into creation on purpose, and it's for us, and it's good. It's good. Now again, I'll say what I have said a number of times as we've come across the Sabbath. There are also such things as works of mercy. This doesn't mean, well, if I see somebody stopped along the side of the road on a Sunday that I'm not going to stop and help them because that might be work. No, absolutely not. Pharisee, don't do that. Help them. They're works of necessity. If you're a police officer, you're going to have to work some Sundays because criminals are going to do crime on Sundays. Okay? But at the same time, even if your job has to do with those works of necessity, and sometimes you have to work on a Sunday because it is absolutely necessary, if you have a job where every Sunday is taking time away, or even most Sundays, if you have a job where you can't get on a rotation where you're able to have the majority of Sundays set aside as the Lord's day, you need to talk to your boss. And if that frightens you, then you need to be willing to say, I love the Lord more than I love my job. Maybe I'll go get a lower-paying job so that I can obey what God has said about honoring the Sabbath. Maybe you're the boss of your job, and you need to start shutting down your business on Sundays. Guys, praise God for that. You can do that. You can lose one-seventh of your revenue for the glory of God. Praise God. And this especially applies to those of you who are leaders of your home, leaders in how other people use their time. That's the way that God put it in that command. Neither you nor your manservant, your maidservant, your son, your daughter. He puts this as a command for those leading their homes. I heard one of my sons tell my other son yesterday, you're not going to put off your trumpet practice until the Lord's day, are you? And I thought, oh, proud Reformed Baptist Sabbatarian Dad moment right there. I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you. But this is not just about having weird theology. This is not about being a Pharisee. This is not about coming up with a list of what you can and cannot do on Sundays. This is about saying, hey, God gave us one whole day out of seven for His worship. Let's keep it. It belongs to Him. It's the Lord's day. It's not Jim's day, it's not Daniel's day, it's not whoever's day, it's the Lord's day, all right? Jim, I wasn't picking on you, it's just a name I picked out of a hat, okay? Sorry about that. Okay. So that's what they were to do, is set aside time for the worship of God. And then they were to set aside money, prioritize money for the worship and the glory of God. On your outline on the back of your bulletin, I wrote that this is verses 4 through 29 of chapter 35. And really, it's kind of scattered through here. So it's really verses 4 through 9, and 20 through 24, and 27 through 29. And then it speaks of talent in other places there, but let's just read those passages. It says in verse 4, 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, goat's hair, tanned ram skins and goat skins, acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and the fragrant incense, and onyx stones, and the stones for setting, for the ephod, and for the breastplate. I'm going to skip down to verse 20. Then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses, and they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments. So they came, both men and women, all who were of a willing heart, brought brooches, and earrings, and signet rings, and armlets, and all sorts of gold objects, every man dedicating an offering of gold to the Lord, And everyone who possessed blue or purple or scarlet yarns or fine linen or goat's hair or tanned ram skins or goat skins brought them. Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's contribution. and everyone who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it. Then I'm going to skip down to verse 27. And the leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastpiece, and spices and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense. All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord. Now, do you remember as Moses was up on the mountain, and they decided that they wanted a golden calf to worship, they wanted some sort of a thing that they could see and say, this is the God who brought us out of Egypt. What did Aaron do? He said, everyone, take your gold earrings out and bring them. Maybe he thought at that point that they wouldn't do it. It would be too expensive. But they did it. And what they showed was that their priorities led them to give in ways that were costly. And their priority at that time was, we need something that we can see to worship. Just like the worship system was back in Egypt. And now, after they've been disciplined by God, Moses said to them, through the instruction of the Lord, he says to them, everyone take from among you a contribution, not to a golden calf, not to a system and a festival that you would make up around an idol, but to the Lord." Take a contribution to the Lord. Now who does he say is to bring this? He says, whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution. And then he lists out all of these things that have been brought, gold and silver and blue, purple, scarlet, yarns, onyx, stones, all of these things that were involved in the instructions for how they were to build the tabernacle. He says, you need to bring them. God instructed how this is going to happen, but it's not going to happen unless you actually give these things. Moses didn't just have all that stuff lying around in his tent. Moses was not a rich man. Moses didn't have all of the gold and silver and purple and scarlet yarns and all the onyx stones and all of the materials. This was something that would have to happen from the generous hearts of the people. And that's the way it's described. It's not that he went around to each house and said, show me what you have and I'm going to tell you what you have to give. Not giving under compulsion, but willingly, as it's put in Paul's letter to the Corinthians. Right? And he says, men and women, this is verse 29, the people of Israel whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord. One of the most common complaints that you hear in the world about churches is churches are all about money. They just talk about money. They just talk about giving. That's all they want out of you. That's the whole reason they want you to be there is because you've got money in your pocket and they're trying to find ways to get that money out of your pocket. Well, contrast that to what it says here, where it says, whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution. And whoever's heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded, they brought it as a free will offering to the Lord. You know, the way that it's put in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians is God loves a cheerful giver. A cheerful giver. Not under compulsion, but cheerfully, willingly. Now, there were other offerings that were commanded that had specific amounts, where it was said, this is how much you were to give to this offering. This is the percentage that you were to give. The word tithe means tenth. That's why we talk about tithing. It's kind of a baseline from the Old Testament of the amount of our own income that the Lord has asked us to give. And yet, the way the New Testament speaks of it is not, do the minimum. Here's the minimum of how much you must be taxed for the church. It's give cheerfully. Be generous. Now how does this happen? Does this happen because pastors and Moses are supposed to go around and just extract it? No, it happens because of cheerful hearts. When they gave those gold earrings for the golden calf, why did they do that? Did they do that because Aaron said this is what you must give? No, they did it willingly. Where their heart was, that's where their treasure went. Their heart was on an idol, and so their treasure went to the idol. And now that God has done some work on their hearts by way of His discipline, He has turned their hearts. And now where is their heart? Their heart has seen serious repentance. And we can't speak to every individual within the nation about that, but seriously, there seems to be a big movement of revival among these people right here. Where many of these hearts have turned from worshiping idols in their hearts to worshiping God in their hearts. And now that their heart has gone to a different place, their treasure follows it. This is exactly what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount where He says, where your heart is, there will your treasure be also." And I think typically when we hear that, we want to flip it around. We want to say, no, where my treasure is, there will my heart be. You know, where I have the most valuable stuff, that's where I'm going to set my heart. But that's not the way Jesus put it. The way Jesus put it is, where your heart is, there will your treasure be. When your heart is on the Lord, it's not a big deal to give financially to the kingdom. It's not a big deal. And if you're sitting around thinking to yourself, I can't believe this church is talking about money. Where is your heart? I know that your treasure is going somewhere. Your treasure is going somewhere. And it's going on what your heart values. If what your heart values is building up the number in your bank account, then your treasure may be going nowhere, except just to build up that bank account so that you are so proud of yourself. If your heart is on things of this world, then that's where your treasure is going to go. Things of this world. Maybe things that are flashy, things that are fancy. Things that get you some sort of gratification of the flesh in various ways. Things that get you the recognition of man. If that's where your heart is, that's where your treasure is going to go. But guys, by God's grace, He turns the hearts of people toward Himself in salvation. If He has turned your heart to Jesus Christ, it's not going to be a big deal to give your treasure to the work of the Kingdom of Christ. It wasn't a big deal here. It won't be a big deal now. Everything that you have, it already belongs to God. But He asks us to set aside the first fruits of those things specifically. This is the way that the Bible speaks over and over about giving. It's bringing the first fruits to God. Now, it's possible that your heart is on the Lord and you say to yourself, I just don't know how to arrange my finances so that I can give to the kingdom like I wish I could. Well, take the advice of the Scripture and just make that your first financial priority. Give the first fruits. Plan the rest of your budget around that. That's the way that the Bible talks about it. But again, it is a cheerful giving. It's a cheerful giving from the heart that God would call us to do. And you may say to yourself, well, but if I actually gave the amount to the church that the Bible talks about, that would be so much money that the church couldn't handle it. I have heard Christians say this before. I've never heard anybody say this in this congregation to me, because if you're in that position, you don't want me to know that, I guess. So I don't know if that's the case for anybody here, but I know faithful Christians who are extremely wealthy who have said this to me, said, if I actually gave what the Bible says to give, it would double the church's budget and they couldn't handle it. You think the church couldn't do something with that? No, I mean, of course, churches need financial advice. If half your money's coming from one donor, you don't plan your whole budget around that. I mean, obviously there's some financial wisdom that you have to follow here, but man, if God gave us additional resources, we could do additional Kingdom work! I mean, search your heart, all right? If your treasure is not going toward the work of Christ, then see where your heart is. Turn your heart to God first. Don't turn your bank account first. Turn your heart to God, all right? Now, let's see the next thing it says. Prioritizing talent for God's glory. Prioritizing talent. So we've got time, we've got money, we've got talent. Let's look at verse 10. Let every skillful craftsman among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded. The tabernacle, its tent, its covering, its hooks, and its frames, and its bars, its pillars, its bases, the ark with its poles, the mercy seat and the veil of the screen, the table with its poles and all its utensils, and the bread of the presence, the lampstand also for the light with its utensils and its lamps, and the light for the oil of the light, or excuse me, the oil for the light, and the altar of incense with its poles, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense and the screen for the door at the door of the tabernacle, the altar of burnt offering with its grating of bronze, its poles and all its utensils, the basin and its stand, the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court, the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court and their cords, the finely worked garments for ministering in the holy place, The holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests. Now we're going to skip down to verse 25. There we go. And every skillful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twine linen. All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skills spun the goat's hair. Now you hear that again? The hearts. The hearts stirring them. That's the motivation here. and the leaders brought onyx stones. Skip down to verse 30. Then Moses said to the people of Israel, See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting and in carving wood, the work for every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach both him and Aholiab, the son of Ahissamak of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with the skill to do every sort of work by the engraver or 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 Aholiab, 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. And Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab, and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work." We have to prioritize God with our time. We have to prioritize God with our money. We have to prioritize God with our talents. The instructions that God had given as far as the construction of the tabernacle and the system of worship, they had to have people who could follow them. They had to get set up, and they had to get set up skillfully. Not everybody in Israel had the particular sets of skills that were necessary for making all of those things that we've gone through already in the book of Exodus that God had prescribed that this needs to be built. as part of the tabernacle and part of its system of worship. But God had given those skills to some. He had given skills to some women who were skillful at that sewing and that embroidering and putting together those beautiful curtains for the tabernacle. He'd given to others skills as far as being able to construct the physical structure. He'd given others skills that had to do with metal working. You've got to make all of these gold rings. He'd given others skills that had to do with artistry. You know, we need to make this golden lampstand, and there's going to be some artistry involved in it beyond just the broad instructions that God said of how to do this, and God had put those skills by the power of His Spirit, by the filling of His Spirit, it says. into the hearts of certain craftsmen, chief among them being Aholiab and Bezalel. We've already seen them back in chapter 31, we've already talked about those two guys in particular. And they seem to be the leaders of the construction project, both as far as the actual construction of the structure, as well as the artistry behind it. But it doesn't just limit it to those two guys, it says everybody who had the skills came and they contributed those things. Imagine what could be done if everybody in the church used their gifts and abilities and their talents specifically for the glory of God. Now what I don't mean here is I don't mean everybody who feels that they can be an entertainer needs to be placed into the worship service for the purpose of entertainment. We've got to clarify that because typically when we talk about these things that's the number one place where people's minds go. They think, oh, talents for God's glory, that means the kind of stuff that people go to nightclubs to see that would really get this place rocking. If I could just bring that up into the service, you know, sure, I don't actually pray or read my Bible or anything, but I can really slam it on the guitar. And so that must mean that that's what I need to do. I need to get this place going. That's what the church is lacking, is the entertainment that I could bring. That's not what it's talking about here, okay? When we're talking about talents, now there may be musical talents that would benefit the church in various ways, and there are musical talents that benefit the church in various ways. There's also people who think that they're extremely talented musically and need to be told. That's not the case. But the point here is not, they weren't setting up a system of entertainment, they were setting up a system of worship. They were seeking to do not all that passed their mind. Okay, so we need to be very clear here. When we talk about giving our talents to God, what we don't mean is being creative in the sense of making up various ways that we can think of to worship God. That's what happened with the golden calf. That's where they thought up, we can do artistry and come up with some very great things that we would all enjoy, and we can say that it's for the Lord. And that was absolutely an abomination before God. The command here is not let's come up with something that our skills can do. It is let's look and see what God has commanded. And then in order to do what God has commanded, let's see where the skill and the talent and the gifting that God has put into God's people is going to allow that to happen. I said earlier, I can't be the church for you. As a pastor, I have certain skills and giftings that the Lord has given me that I hope are beneficial to the church. But I don't have all skills. I don't have all giftings. That's part of why we need to follow the biblical example to bring on additional elders besides just me. But it's also part of the reason why we need people in general to use the spiritual giftings, and not even just the spiritual giftings, but sometimes just even the worldly talents that God has allowed you to have, in order to open up the commands of God so that we can worship and do church as God has commanded. God had commanded exactly how he wanted the tabernacle to be done. And God has showed us in the New Testament how He wants the church to be done. Through direct commands, through the examples of the way the churches in the New Testament were operating, through the logical implications of those things that we carry forward, we want to do what God has commanded. And in order to do that, it takes work. It takes work. Now this can be something that has to do with very highly skilled work, like Ed is doing right there in order to make sure that the live stream broadcast is running right now, that's something that we never would have seen coming, but suddenly here it's a necessary thing. Ed might need help. Maybe you have the skills that you can do to help bring together the worship of God in that way. As I know, Mike Ponzo needs help early on Sunday mornings. If you're able to get up a little earlier and come out here and help him drag these tents and these chairs out here. I mean, that's not a highly skilled job, but you know what? Maybe God has given you a back and you can drag, not drag, please don't drag the chairs, but you can get a stack of chairs from one place to another. And then there's other things as well. Maybe God has given you the gift of teaching. It doesn't necessarily mean that you can just walk up and say, I have the gift of teaching, you better put me in a teaching role. The church is supposed to evaluate people and put people that we trust into those kinds of roles, but that may be something God wants you to do. Let me just put it in general here right now. If you have in your mind something that the church ought to be doing, something that comes from the scripture, not something that you made up yourself, It's something that comes from the Scripture, and you say the church ought to be doing this, and the church is not doing this. That may just be the Holy Spirit of God stirring in your heart to see, what have I to contribute in order to make this happen? Moses could not make the worship of God happen the way that God commanded it. It took the people. It took the people. The pastor cannot make the church function the way that the Bible says the church must function. It takes the church, right? You say to yourself, well, oh, I've seen this happen. You've seen this happen if you've been around churches. You've seen people say, the church ought to be doing ministry X that that other church is doing. And because the church is not doing that, I will post on social media that the American church is failing, and I just won't say that it's my church that I'm talking about. And I will leave this church, and I will find a church that does that thing. And of course they go to that church, and they find another thing that that church doesn't do, so they leave for a church that does that thing, and so on and so on, right? Well, guys, look around. We're pretty small. We're no mega church. Especially if you're thinking to yourself, I want the pastor to do those things. But when God puts something on your heart, the Bible says we ought to do this, let's do this. Start thinking to yourself, how can I contribute toward our doing what the Bible says to do with the gifts and the talents and the skills that God has given me? Guys, I've got to tell you, as pastor and as the only elder at this church for now, Yeah, I am painfully aware of a number of things that it would be awesome if we were doing, but just by the mere fact of my being the only pastor, and I can only put in one full-time week per week, there's a bottleneck on my desk. And I think to myself, yeah, it would be awesome if we had a prison ministry like somebody suggested several years ago, but I just don't think I can personally do that. It would be awesome if we did this, if we did that. But what we see here, what we see here that's encouraging to us in what was going on with the people of Israel is that through a process of discipline, God turned their hearts such that they were going to actually obey the full commands of God for how He said that they should worship and function. And He was going to do that through their heart-willing service and their heart-willing giving. Now let's see in verses 3-7 the remarkable result of proper priorities. Look what happened. Verse 3 of chapter 36, And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for the doing of 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 the doing of the work that the Lord has commanded us to do. So Moses gave 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." Guys, I long for the day when I can stand up here and I can say, don't give anymore. We just don't need it. Guys, wouldn't that be amazing? That'd be amazing. That's what happened here. And not because Moses was harsh to them and said, you have to do this, but just because their hearts were overflowing for the work of the Lord. Oh, how awesome that would be. Imagine what could be done at First Baptist Church of Matawan with the proper resources. With the proper resources, we could hire additional pastoral staff. and expand the range of ministry of what we could do and not have my desk be the bottleneck for all church ministry. We could expand our missions projects. We could fund more missions projects, we could send people around the world. We could send people, not just around the world, but into our community in ways that we've never done before. I mean, just plainly, our building's pretty old, and there's some places that we're really used to, because we've been around here for a long time, but you walk in there and it could stand a little renovation. We could do that. We could host conferences, we could have special speakers. And you know what, if we started to think we've got plenty of money for our own ministry and what we're doing as a church here, there is no end to where we can give it, to see the gospel expanded, to giving beyond ourselves. We prayed this morning for the planting of faithful churches in the state of New Jersey. That takes a ton of money to start a church. So let me just assure you guys, I have never... let me not assure you, okay? Let me instead encourage you and say, there continues to be need. There continues to be need for your giving. There continues to be need for your working and for your talents. But I also want to tell you this very plainly, that God is going to be glorious without you. If you were never born, if you never gave a penny to the church, If you never gave any bit of your time or talent or effort, God would still be glorious. Alright? So I'm telling you up front, I hope that your heart will be moved to give in terms of your time and your money and your talent for the glorious worship of God. But if you don't, that is literally no skin off God's back. It is not in any way going to harm God. Here's what God says, Psalm 50, verses 10 through 12. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves in the fields is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Guys, God was glorious before there was a tabernacle. He was glorious before there were Adam and Eve. He was glorious before He said, let there be light. And when He made all those things, they were His. And when He made you, you're His. And He is going to carry out His plan to dispose all things for His glory. And at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God is going to be worshipped. God is going to get His glory. Even if no human being ever cared, Jesus said, even the rocks would cry out. God actually says in Acts 17, the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man or in the tabernacles that they were constructing here. What's it say? "...as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything." And I mean it just comes right out and says it right there. He doesn't need anything. God is God. So when we talk about setting aside your time for God, it's not like God is just this poor little God like, well, I just wish somebody would spend time with me. When we talk about giving your money, it's not like God is up there going, Boy, I'm running low this week. What am I going to do? When we talk about giving your talents, it's not like God is saying, boy, I really wish I could do these things in the world, but I just can't because that guy decided to play video games this week instead of serving the church. No, God can do whatever. The fact that we give time and money and talent, it's not adding to God. It is a gracious gift of God to us. It is God graciously allowing us to be part of what He's already doing. And it's a glorious thing, and it's a thing that can cause our heart to rejoice even more. And we need to come to terms, before we start thinking in terms of, boy, what am I going to give to God? You need to know that God has given to you And God has given to you not just in being born and existing and having all that you have. He's given you all that. But it says this in 2 Corinthians 8-9, Now we have to clarify here. He's not talking about monetary wealth. He's not talking about your bank account. He's not doing what the prosperity preachers would say and say, well, if you want to get rich, then know Jesus. But he is saying if you want to have treasure in heaven that does not fade, where moth and rust do not destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal, here's how it was provided to you. Jesus, who possessed all things the King of heaven, He humbled Himself and poured Himself out and became poor, it says in those terms. Literally and figuratively poor. So that for your sake, He became poor so that you might in His poverty become rich. What that means is that Jesus poured Himself out. Jesus gave all that He had in His very life to take the penalty to be the propitiation for our sins, to stand in our place, to substitute Himself for us on the cross, so that we could have provided for us eternal life. Not just forgiveness of sins, but eternal life, and adoption into God's family, and the fullness of the riches of the blessings of Christ for all eternity. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Guys, I want you to give your time, I want you to give your money, I want you to give your talent, and I want you to do it from the heart, but I also want you to know that you are not the giver to God. God is the giver to you. And He has given us of Himself in His Son, Christ Jesus. And you need to come to faith in Jesus, and He will give you eternal life. He will give you treasure in heaven that does not fade. Let's pray. God, we thank You for Jesus, who, though He was rich, yet for our sake became poor, so that by His poverty we would become rich. God, those of us who trust in Christ, we are the richest people in the world. Even those of us who have very little or nothing, we have all things in Christ. We have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. God, we are here in this world at this time and I pray that you would help us to take the worldly things that you've entrusted to us and to use them for your glory as you've commanded us to. Help us to use our time for your glory, especially that one day out of seven that you've set aside for yourself. Help us to use our money for your glory. Help us to use our work and our talent for your glory according to your commands for your worship. God, I thank You that You are glorious no matter what. Thank You for allowing us to be part of that. I pray that if there are any who are here who are not in Christ, who have not yet received eternal life, I pray that You would open their hearts to believe and be saved. Thank You that He's given of Himself so that we can. It's in Jesus' name. Amen.