All right, we'll go to the book of Exodus tonight. Exodus chapter 31, Exodus chapter 31. I did get a prayer request late. If we could pray for Sheila's brother-in-law, this would be Raleigh's brother. He is in ICU, not sure which hospital, but he is in ICU having some pretty significant health issues. So if we could pray for Raleigh's brother, Sheila's brother-in-law. And then another thank you card, this one from the Vectors. I'll also put this on the table there in the back as they appreciate our prayers and thoughts with Diane's recent health issue. All right, Exodus chapter 31, a character in the Old Testament that sometimes is overlooked as we look at many of the, they're all important characters, they're all important people, but as we look at some of the more predominant characters in the Old Testament, such as David and the major prophets, sometimes it's easy to overlook a very gifted man who was used in a great way in the construction of the tabernacle. And his name is Bezalel, also translated Bezalel, so you might often see his name spelled with just the one e at the end instead of the two e's at the end. But in Exodus 31, We read beginning at verse one, the Lord spake unto Moses saying, see, I have called by name, Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur. of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God and wisdom, and an understanding, and a knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahizamak, of the tribe of Dan. And in the hearts of all that are wise-hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee." And then we see what they are commanded to make. The tabernacle, the congregation, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the tabernacle. and the table, and his furniture, and the pure candlestick, with all his furniture, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering, with all his furniture, and the laver, and his foot, and the cloths of service, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons to minister in the priest's office, and the anointing oil, and sweet incense for the holy place, according to all that I have commanded thee shall they do. So in the outline, if you have the prayer sheet and you want to follow the outline and fill in the blanks, you can do so. There's a outline there if you'd like to follow along with that. But we'll see, first of all, the preparation for the tabernacle. And we have to go back a little ways. Obviously, God delivered Israel from Egypt. And they had spent 400 plus years there. Joseph, of course, had gone there, having been taken as a slave, and served in Potiphar's house, and then in the prison, and then eventually was elevated to second in command of all of Egypt. And then, of course, there was a pharaoh who did not respect Israel, who did not know Joseph and he put the Israelites into slavery and treated them very cruelly and then of course God delivered them and Moses of course being the leader and God delivered them from the Egyptians and through the Red Sea and into the wilderness and now they're at Mount Sinai And in Exodus 19 through 24, there is the giving of the law to Moses. And we are familiar, of course, with especially the Ten Commandments, but all of the law is given in the tablets of stone. And then in Exodus 25 through 31, God gave Moses specific instructions concerning the construction of the tabernacle. And we know that in the history of Israel, that there were altars that were built. Abraham would pitch his tent, build altars. And we know that there had been worship throughout Israel's history in the early days. And of course, now the giving of the law, and there was going to be a specific place set aside for worship. And there are specific commands, specific rules, and specific ways in which God declares that the tabernacle should be built and how he should be worshiped. And just as we were talking about on Sunday night with the temple in the Millennial Kingdom, we see once again from the earliest days the centrality of worship. And we'll talk a little bit more about that and some principles that we can glean from this great man that God used in the construction of the tabernacle. But we see also in Exodus 25, Exodus 30, and then over in Exodus 36, that the people donated the materials for the tabernacle. So it was an offering, and they were asked to give for the tabernacle, and they gave. Exodus 25 and then chapter 30 and then chapter 36. And they gave in abundance. They gave so much that in Exodus 36, there in verses 3-7, And they received of Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work and the service of the sanctuary, to make it withal. And they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning. And all the wise men that wrought all the work of the sanctuary, came every man from his work which they made. 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. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. They brought an abundance, overflowing, exceeding abundantly. And what a sacrificial especially for people just coming out of Egypt. I know they plundered the Egyptians. There was a way in which God providentially had the Egyptians give to the Israelites some of the possessions and of their precious metals as they were leaving. So they did have some wealth that they brought with them, but still they were roughly, some estimates, a million people coming out of Egypt in the wilderness. having pretty much what they could carry with them, maybe on the backs of animals or on their own backs. And we're not talking about big moving trucks. We're not talking about these 18 wheelers packed with goods. We're talking about what they could carry in their own hands or on their backs or with animals. And they're in the wilderness and they got excited for the tabernacle. God gave them the plans, God told them what this was gonna be about, and they got excited for God's service, and for God's work, and for worship, and they gave, and they gave so abundantly that the workers had to come and say, okay, we have enough, we have plenty, thank you, but you can keep what you have, because we have more than enough to be able to build. And what, exciting times it is when God's people get excited for the things of the Lord and for His work and they give and they give abundantly. And then we see the preparers needed for the tabernacle. So in verse 2, we just read there in Exodus 31 that God called Bezalel. He was called by name. His name means in the shadow of God. Now, We know in Psalm 91, many years later, we would read, as the psalmist wrote, that he who dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty. And of course, that was written many years later with David and the psalmist there. But that's Bezalel's, that's the meaning of his name, in the shadow of God. So Bezalel was chosen to lead this great project of constructing the tabernacle and all the furniture, as well as the garments of the priests and the high priest, as well as, apparently, the anointing oil in verse 11 and the sweet incense. So they had, it seems, even something to do with preparing the oil and the incense. Aholiab was chosen to help. He came along as Bezalel or Bezalel's assistant. And then they had a, work crew that came and joined them. Obviously, they would need many hands. We're not told the exact number, but there were many who came and helped. We read there in verse number five, to work in all manner of workmanship, verse, let's see here, going down to verse six, and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted, I have put wisdom that they may make all that I have commanded thee. So they were assisted by many different craftsmen. Again, we're talking about working with wood as well as stone, some metals because of the way the tabernacle was constructed and the overlaying with gold and precious metals. So they had to be skilled in wood, in stone, working with metals, they had to have significant abilities. They were gifted by God in these areas. I can't help but think, in the providence of God, that though they labored as slaves in Egypt, God was preparing them for building the tabernacle as well as other things eventually that they would need to do in the wilderness and and eventually they'd have to pass on to their children because many of them would would not go into the Promised Land due to disobedience years later but they would have to then pass some of those skills on to their children who would go in to Canaan and then help rebuild cities or build houses and other things but nevertheless they had abilities to And we read there that God gave them the strength, God gave them the wisdom that they could make the tabernacle, all the furniture, according to God's plan, according to God's orders. Bezalel himself was the one who constructed the Ark of the Covenant, Exodus chapter 37. Eric was telling me today that there is some guy out there, and I'm not talking about Harrison Ford or Indiana Jones, but there is some guy, I guess, who's claiming to have found the Ark of the Covenant. something like that. Eric was sharing something that he saw. And this guy's making claims to having found various biblical artifacts. I think he's just being sensational and trying to get attention and make money. But I don't believe that we're to be going out there like Indiana Jones trying to find the Holy Grail or The Ark of the Covenant, I don't think that there's any special magical effects if we were to come across the Ark of the Covenant somehow in an archaeological dig. Probably the Catholic Church would build a big cathedral over it. And there would be a whole bunch of people that would go there and put their prayer cloths and all that and burn their incense and everything. But I can't help but think that one of the reasons God has not allowed us to find things like the Ark, though they supposedly have seen something that looks like it, I think one of the reasons that God has not allowed us to find some of those artifacts is because we worship them. We make our Christianity about things and about stuff we can touch and things that we can hold and things that we can bow down to and we don't see Christ. We don't have a relationship with Christ like we should because we want these artifacts and then we have an experience with this. I mean, it's just like these people who go and they burn incense at the overpass because the water came down and it formed something that looks like Jesus. on the side of the wall there underneath the overpass. It's like the people who find the face of Jesus in a waffle or a pancake, and they post it on the Internet, and people begin to get all sensational about it, and they have a Jesus experience. They don't know the Word of God, they don't have a relationship with Christ, they're not obedient to the Word of God, but they have a pancake that looks like Jesus. So that makes them spiritual. That's what we do. That's the silly things that we do. Bezalel constructed the Ark according to God's commands, Exodus 37. He did it exactly the way God said, and it wasn't an article to be worshipped. It was a symbol. It rested in the Holy of Holies, and it represented the holy presence of God, but it as an artifact was not to be worshipped. It was simply a representation, a place where God said he would meet with them in the Holy of Holies one time out of the year. The high priest would go in and he would sprinkle the blood there. It wasn't an idol. It was a representation of the presence of God and it was a symbol for the presence of God and to be used in the worship of God and God alone. It was not an idol. So we see the preparation for the tabernacle, we see the preparers needed for the tabernacle. And then we see the principles for our learning. the principles for our learning. First of all, God takes his worship very seriously. I think that just looking at the number of chapters and all the work that is put into in all of the special particulars for how the tabernacle was to be constructed, the gold overlaying, the furniture, all the symbolic, representations, the meaning, what it was to be used for. I think God takes his worship very, very, very seriously. And God is a spirit, John 4 and verse 24, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. We worship God with our whole hearts and according to God's holy ways, according to God's holy word. And I just think that much of what is called worship today is very irreverent. It's often very carnal, it's often very sensual and self-centered. I think many times what is considered worship today is just a bunch of emotion and getting people to get into some sort of emotional fix. And it has, in many cases, in many churches, And we can all be guilty of it when we don't come with the right heart before the Lord, when we come with sin, when we come with broken relationships, when we come with all kinds of different things that can get in the way of our worship, where we're not repentant, we're not living for God. We talk about certain things at communion and certain judgments that God even says when we don't practice the Lord's table in the right way with a pure heart and with right relationships. There's things that God deals with man, consequences that he puts in place because God takes worship very, very seriously. He even tells the Corinthian church to cast out the man who's living in adultery and immorality with his stepmother. There's steps of church discipline that God wants his church to be holy and God wants his worship to be holy. The tabernacle, the temple, And we even see into the millennial kingdom with the temple, we even see how we will be worshiping God into eternity, as we've been looking at with prophecy on Sunday nights. Once again, God takes his worship very, very, very seriously. It's not something that we should treat lightly, that we should take the world's methods and forms and sounds that they use to promote their carnality and their lust and themselves and then borrow from the world's forms and methods and sounds and say, hmm, that makes for an attractive thing for the unsaved. So we can get a lot of evangelism done using the world's methods, the world's ways, the world's sounds and the world's appeals, and we can get a bunch of unsaved people, but hmm, in the meantime, we have to take some of those hard things out of the gospel. We have to not talk about sin so much, because that might offend the unsaved, but at least we can give them the entertainment that they want, so that they can get their Jesus on, on Sunday, and feel good about themselves. And I call them, and I'm not here to be a big critic about all the other churches, as if we're the only ones doing it right, that's not my point here, okay? But I call them feel-good churches, because you feel good when you come in, you're made to feel good while you're there, and then you leave still feeling good. Well, sometimes you have to feel bad in order to feel good. Sometimes we have to have our toes stepped on, we have to have our sin preached on, and we have to recognize when we come before a holy God that we are not worthy, and that we need to come with a deep sense of humility and reverence and understand who God is and our worship then comes from our doctrine, from our beliefs, from the principles and the promises of God's word. Many times it's about the outside in. If I can get all these lights and I can get all this sound and I can get this concert looking, then I can make my worship appeal to the unsaved or I can take what is prominent among the unsaved and I can bring it into the church we somehow think that that is worshiping God. And when I hear unsaved people say, well, the church I went to on Sunday sounds just like the concert I went to on Friday night. Something's not right here. I've heard an unsaved person, and there was, at one of our Bible studies, one of the college students said that he's been trying to witness to an unsaved family member, and the unsaved family member said the same thing that I've heard on the radio through a podcast, and even read in articles and books. And Carl Truman, who's written a great book on our culture, very intelligent man, he wrote a whole article on rock music, and he said that rock music was about fun, it was about entertainment, it was about lust, it was about sensuality, and then the church borrowed from the rock music culture, and no wonder the church can't go deep in its theology and the people can't handle hard doctrine and strong doctrine because they're being entertained. So God takes his worship very, very seriously. And I didn't mean to get too carried away there, but anyway, that is an important and very, very important. And can I say something else here real quick about the tabernacle? Everybody came and worshiped at the tabernacle in unison, young and old. There wasn't a contemporary service for the young people and a traditional service for the old people. They came and they all came. The tabernacle was the center of the camp and they didn't go more than I forget how many I should have looked it up, but I think they couldn't be more than a day's journey or a Sabbath day's journey. I forget the length, the distance that the furthest tent could be from the tabernacle. There was a certain distance, and I should have looked it back up. But the centrality of the tabernacle to the camp, and everybody worshiped according to God's law, young, middle-aged, and old. and there was a unison, and there was a unity, and it made a big impression upon all ages that God was holy and he was to be worshiped the right way. And then we see God uses his people to support his work. We talked about this with Gaius last week. Israelites go out to the Ammonites and to the Canaanites? Now, I know that they got some things from the Egyptians, they plundered the Egyptians in the providence of God, but did they go out to the unsaved, to the Canaanites, to the Did they go to the Egyptians and say, hey, we're going to build this tabernacle and it's going to cost us a lot. It's going to take a lot of money. It's going to take a lot of stone and wood and precious metals, gold. Did they go out and get donations from the unsaved to build the tabernacle? No, they depended upon God's people. Now, do we again, at times, get donations, does an unsaved person get blessed by the ministry in some way and make a donation? Sure, okay. Yeah, that does happen. Now, if you go out and win the $1.1 billion lottery, make sure you give your tithe, but don't tell us that you won the lottery, okay? Anyway, anyway, the point is, we don't go out and partner with the unsaved, even religious unsaved, and get the resources we need in partnership with the unsaved to resource the church and God's kingdom in the advancement of the gospel. We don't do that. We see that principle again here, just like we did with Gaius. And then I love the fact that God empowers many for service in various areas. We talk about spiritual gifts, four passages, and Lord willing, I don't know when, I have so many sermon series that I want to get to, but one series that I eventually want to get to is gifts of the Holy Spirit, giftedness in the church. In 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, 1 Peter 4 and Ephesians 4 are the four primary passages that deal with the gifts that God has given to us as believers to edify others in the church. not to show off and to get everybody to think that we're special, but to edify others. Those are the four main passages, but we also see deacons in Acts 6. We see that pastors have a giftedness from the Lord, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1. There are other passages, of course, but we see in these passages as well as others and from Bezalel and Aholiab and the workmen that God gifted them. God gave them wisdom. God filled Bezalel with the Holy Spirit. We read there again in verse number six, wisehearted wisdom. I have given with him Aholiab. These are people who are given a giftedness in these specific areas in the Old Testament and that dispensation for the work of the tabernacle to build the tabernacle according to God's specifications. And God gave them the grace and the power and the strength to do it. And again, it's a reminder to us of how God gives us spiritual gifts and God gives us talents and God gives us abilities. In the Old Testament, there was not the full ministry of the Holy Spirit like we have now. Now, every person, upon receiving Christ as their Savior, is filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes and indwells them, sorry, indwells them, and then we are to live in the filling of the Spirit. We're to be filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit should control us. in every area, but we get all of the Holy Spirit that we will ever have at the moment of salvation. Okay, it's then a yielding a filling. Okay, and I use the word fill and I should have The word Phil is used here in verse 3. I have filled him with the Spirit of God. So I'm borrowing specifically from verse 3 But we're understanding that in the Old Testament. There were only certain individuals that were given a special empowerment David talks about take not thy Holy Spirit from me and We can think of other examples, like Samson, Saul, Elijah, Elisha, obviously there were others as well, prophets of God, who were given a special empowerment by the Holy Spirit, but there was not the consistent, constant indwelling of every believer until Acts chapter two, the day of Pentecost, and then the subsequent examples in the book of Acts of the Gentiles and the John the Baptist followers, as well as Old Testament believers, each group in the Book of Acts is mentioned as having received the Holy Spirit. Now all believers, at the moment of salvation, are given the Holy Spirit. He indwells them. And so we see the ministry of the Holy Spirit with Bezalel. And then we see also that God is a God of beauty and design. We can't help but think of the beauty of the tabernacle. I wish we had time to go into all the different chapters, maybe as you read through the Bible, if you're going through the Bible in a year, or maybe in your, I guess Jordan Peterson has done a whole series on the book of Exodus. I haven't listened to it, I haven't followed it. I don't follow Jordan Peterson all the time, but I guess he's very popular right now. and he's got a series on the book of Exodus, and I have not listened to it. I've only heard tidbits of it. Jordan Peterson is not a saved man from what we understand. He makes some profession of some morality and some measure of Christianity, but from what I understand, he's not ever given a testimony of truly being born again. Can we glean maybe some things from his research? Sure, but our main source of our study ought to be the written word of God and we can get help from commentaries and devotionals and maybe a series like Jordan Peterson, but you got to spit out the bones. Because if I remember right, Jordan Peterson in that series will refer to God as the highest ethical spirit. I believe that's the quote that I heard when he was talking about the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. They obeyed the highest ethical spirit. Well, who is the highest ethical spirit? The Bible says God. The God of the Bible delivered Israel. So we could go through the book of Exodus, we could do an intense study, but the point is that the tabernacle was a beautiful, exquisite, detailed construction. It was, yes, a tent of meeting. It was a place where God dwell in His Shekinah glory. And the Shekinah glory would then, in the pillar of fire by night, and the pillar of cloud by day, lead Israel through the wilderness. Every time they moved they would build the Tabernacle, set the Tabernacle back up. There were certain ways in which they were to carry it, especially the Ark of the Covenant. And we could go on and on, but it was a beautiful, beautiful construction. Specific ways it was to be done. And it's a reminder of the beauty that God has put in his creation and the design that God has in his creation. And again, we look at creation and we see the beautiful design. How can there not be a designer? The unsaved recognize the design, but they deny, in many cases, sadly, the designer. And we know that God creates with great beauty and with great creativity. Talents and abilities are a gift from God. I am not gifted mechanically. I can do some basic things, but I am not gifted mechanically. My dad was, my father-in-law is, but it skipped me. I don't know what happened to me. But I love computers, I love IT, I love reading, I love researching, I love preaching, teaching. My gifts and abilities are just different. And I'm just not real good mechanically. And I can do some basic things, but it doesn't take long for me to mess something up if it requires mechanics. But these men were gifted. And there are so many different ways in which God has gifted his people. We're talking not just about spiritual gifts, like we mentioned earlier, but also there are talents that God has given people, from musical instruments to mechanical types of things to numbers to, we can just talk about so many different areas. Some of you can, build and all it takes is just a quick look at whatever it is. You can get it in your mind and boom, it starts coming together. Some of you are very artistic. You can draw, you can sketch, you can put things into a design that's very beautiful. Maybe you can even go to the county fair and you can put it up there on display and it gets awards. Some of you can cook. All it takes is just a few items and you can come up with an incredible dessert or a meal. And some of us, we're good at boiling eggs and putting the toaster button down and putting butter on, things like that. Some of us can boil water. Some of you are incredibly gifted with cooking. So many ways in which God has gifted his people. It's again, showing the design of God and the creativity of God and the beauty of God himself and that we reflect God in his image, being created in his image, in the likeness of God. We can go back to Genesis 1 and creation, Psalm 139, where we are knit in our mother's womb, we see all of these as testimonies to God's giftedness, God creating us with abilities. Job 38-42, where Job is taught by God, when Job basically, in the right, respectful way, asks why all this has happened, and none of his friends gave him any good answers, God reveals chapter after chapter after chapter, asks Job question after question. Who did this? Who made this? And it's a reminder of God being the creator, the maker. First Corinthians 15.10, Ephesians 3 and verse 7, Paul will speak of being what he is by the grace of God. He says, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And then in Ephesians 3, he talks about being a minister of God. No matter what it is, Whatever ability, whatever it is that God has given you, thank the Lord for it. He's the one who has gifted you with it. And then finally tonight, how are we to use these talents and these abilities? Bezalel gave of himself sacrificially, prepared, but he also was willing, and when he was called, He did it, and he did the job well. The tabernacle was used for years until the temple was built. He did an incredible job. He worked hard at it. He did it exactly the way God said to do. He knew how to do a job well and do it for the Lord. In Colossians 3, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it hardly as unto the Lord, and not unto men. And then 1 Corinthians 10, 31, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. I'm not here to be a big critic of all the social media and all the internet videos, but I'm not saying that we don't have talented people when it comes to making videos. I'm not saying that there can't be a place for video making and all the things that are on YouTube and the internets, but the internet videos from Reels to TikTok to whatever, but I want us to be cautious. What are gifts and our talents that we have that God has given us? Our main purpose, yes, we provide for our family, yes, we take care of our needs, but what are we ultimately to be using our talents and our gifts for? For the Lord. How can I take what God has given me, whether you have one talent, five talents, or 10, to use the parable as an example, and use that as an application? I know that's not the primary application, but to use that as an application, whatever it is, How am I taking what God has given me and using it for God's kingdom? How am I using it for eternity? How am I using it for building the church, for building relationships, for reaching people with the gospel, for showing Christ with the abilities that I have? Can we make TikTok videos? Sure. but we have millions of forms of entertainment. We have no shortage of entertainment options. Do we only have value as believers to add another entertainment option? It's just food for thought as we close tonight. I'm not saying that we can't have entertainment, but doesn't it seem like at times that entertainment is 99.9% of our culture? and it takes over everything. I remember in school, and having to deal with students, and they wanted everything to be entertainment. School's boring, school's this, I don't wanna learn, I don't wanna read, too much homework, and all that, right? And it's like, God gave you a brain, develop it. God gave you, an opportunity where in Afghanistan women can't even go to school when they want to. And we are below fourth grade levels in much of our reading, in our math, in our public schools today. That's a shame. And we're importing, we are importing brains from other countries because we as Americans are too spoiled and too lazy to exercise our brains and to take the abilities that God has given us and develop them. Instead, we want to go to a place and make an eight second dance for TikTok. And I'm not saying there isn't a place for videos that are informative and helpful and constructive, but it seems like all we want to do is just add another form of entertainment to the millions that are already out there. Is that all that God has called us to do? Seems like God has called us to much higher things than to just be another form of entertainment. How can we advance God's kingdom? How can we advance the gospel? How can we minister to others? You know, there was a day in America where much of the creativity and the inventions were to benefit others. to help others be better, to help us to produce more, to help others. Now it seems we've become so introspective and selfish that it's all about me and what I can get for me and dog eat dog. And so Bezalel has a lot for us and some great principles that we can apply for our learning that we might serve the Lord better. And lay of treasures in heaven. and set our affections on things above. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for Bezalel, for Aholiab, and for all these unnamed men and maybe even women, Lord, who were involved in the construction of the tabernacle. We see so many important principles that we need to apply to our lives, to live out. Help us, Lord, to take every ability that you've given us and talent and use it for you, for your honor and for your glory. And we pray that, Lord, we will think of others before ourselves, even in the abilities that you've given us. And if that ability enables us to make lots and lots and lots of money, Lord, may we see that as an opportunity to give to you and to further the gospel and to further your kingdom and to lay our treasures in heaven, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for being here and hope that you have a great rest of the week. And men, we'll see you early on Saturday morning for those going to the men's meeting. Otherwise, we'll see you on Sunday.