Take my intellect and use every power as thou shalt choose. To put our lives before the Lord, whatever we have. Only the Lord ever help us. Turn in the Word of God tonight to Proverbs 22. Proverbs 22. This will be the final Lord's Day sermon that I'll preach for a little time. This sermon tonight has been inspired or encouraged by a number of providences that have occurred. The first was one of my elders saying, making the remark about the young people in our church that they would not sell themselves short was the remark made. And I was thinking about that. The temptation, the ease with which we might sell ourselves short, settle for something that's easy instead of giving ourselves to something that the Lord would have for us. And so I was thinking about that, and then I was in conversation pastorally with someone talking about employment and work, and I was saying to them just that, you know, when it comes to work, there's really only three things that I think are important to consider, and this is the order of them. Number one, does it honor God? Does what you do honor God? It has to honor God. It can't be sinful. It can't be against His words. It has to honor God. The other one is, does it meet the needs of those that are dependent on me? Myself and wife and children or whoever may be dependent on me, it needs to make sense that I can meet the demands of those who are depending on me. And then the third thing, which is of lesser importance, but I think we should try to fulfill if we can, do I enjoy it? Like, do I enjoy doing this? Of course, that may be present or may not, and there may be aspects of the same employment, parts of it which you really enjoy and parts of it which you enjoy less, as I think is the case for most forms of employment. But those are the three things, basically. I'm simplifying, of course, but in that discussion, then, I was thinking a little more about this, then thinking about the fact that some of you will be going to what you call home for the summer, and just trying to encourage you from God's Word. And so, tonight I turn your attention to a more, some would say topical, some might say theological address on what I have simply titled skillfulness. And so, I draw your attention to Proverbs 22. Proverbs 22. Of course, there's much in the way of instruction throughout the book of Proverbs, very direct and concise. But I want to just look at the final verse of the chapter, so look there at Proverbs 22 verse 29. May the Lord help us to pay attention, though it be a brief reading, it is still the Word of God. "'Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men.'" "'Seest thou a man diligent in his business, He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean or obscure or lowly or inferior men." This is the word of the eternal God, which you are to receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, amen. Let's pray. Lord, help us tonight. We are thankful for the truths that we've been singing. We thank Thee for the deep, deep love of Jesus. without which we wouldn't be here. And we pray that that familiar theme would not be so familiar to us that it would not resonate and rejoice our hearts. Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, so thankful that we cannot exhaust Thy love. And in Jesus' name we come, and we pray that Thou wilt be with us tonight. As I think of young people in the midst of education, preparation, sometimes the temptation to get distracted or do something that would not be what the Lord would have for them, I pray that thou wilt be pleased to use this message to further strengthen their resolve and their sense of direction. The message I trust will apply to us all. Help us, Lord. And for our young ones, our children who are still very much in the midst of early education. We pray that they would learn tonight, and that thou would lead and guide them. Lord, we're thankful that every word of God is pure. We pray that whatever the need is tonight, just direct this message appropriately to every heart, even to my own. I'm thankful for the encouragement it already has been, and I pray that the Spirit of God will come and apply the word. Come now, do exceeding abundantly, do graciously, extend thy kingdom, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. There's nothing our Lord Jesus desired more than to stand and be accepted before His Father. There was nothing more essential to sinners and their salvation than that Christ, the mediator of His people, should be able to stand before His Father, to do so holy, harmless, undefiled, and faithful in all that the Father had appointed Him to do. Our Savior declared that His meat was to do the will of Him that sent Him and to finish His work. His whole being was given to what the Father had called and appointed Him to do. And our Lord Jesus Christ, we are not to imagine, was just naturally, inherently skillful as a man. Of course, there must be an aspect in which we might admit that there are things we don't fully understand in terms of how the deity affected or influenced the humanity of our Lord But we're given instruction. I think sometimes we are surprised when we read it for the first time that He increased in learning, and in wisdom, and favor with God and man. Those kind of things we might imagine to have been default, and yet the Scripture reveals that as a man, in his humanity, there was an increase, a growing, and a building of his skill and favor before God and man. From the carpenter's bench in Nazareth to the agonies of Gethsemane and the sufferings of the cross, our Lord Jesus utilized every moment that was given to Him to give Himself to each task that He was called to do. And he did not turn away from the instruction or commands of his earthly parents, nor to that which was appointed by our heavenly Father. His entire life was given over then to work and to be employed in what he was called to do, and this he did with skill. He studied the Scriptures so thoroughly that he could answer Satan in his hour of temptation in the wilderness. Again, this was learned. He learned the Word. He gave himself to the Scriptures so that he could respond in that way, as well as silencing his enemies to open the Scriptures again with skill as he walked with the two on the road to Emmaus and revealed those things concerning himself beginning at Moses. He trained his tongue, Isaiah prophesied of him knowing how to speak a word and season to him that is weary. He studied men so that he would understand men and understand how to minister on the one hand to the heart of a man like Nicodemus and the other to the wounds and sorrows of a woman like the Samaritan woman at the well. He could address children with tenderness and rulers with authority. He knew how to stand before all. And this he learned by study and learned skill. He knew when to withdraw, when to speak, when to remain silent, when to heal, when not to heal, when to rebuke or to comfort. And every action was born of wisdom and guided by perfect timing. He labored with his hands, he preached with his mouth, he wept with his eyes, and he loved with his whole soul the men who were before him in all of their need. And he felt it was his calling to give himself to whatever he was called to do with all of his being. And what he did then didn't just happen. Our Lord Jesus, again, in his human nature, was diligent and acquired skill in the things he was called to do. And that's the sense of the word that you find in Proverbs 22, verse 29, see is thy man diligent. The idea is skillful. We'll see that a little more in just a moment. And he was doing that. Forgiving himself, our Lord Jesus was a man diligent or skillful in his business in that which he was called to do in order that he might secure a kingdom for the glory of his Father and redemption on behalf of his people. And even now he still stands before his Father in heaven pleading the merit of his work, arguing their case, fulfilling the Father's will. In this, it was necessary that He might save us. But there's an aspect, of course, of His example. We are well aware in this church, I imagine most, that there can be, certainly in liberal quarters, an overemphasis on the example of Christ to the detriment of His redemption and what He accomplished, and the primary work that He needed to do. But we are not to ignore His example either. We are to walk even so as He walked, 1 John 2 verse 6. We are called then to follow Him in the way that we might please God as well. Not narrowly in the particulars, but in general principles to learn from our Lord Jesus Christ. He is a pattern for us. And I want the young people to know this. The Lord Jesus didn't sell Himself short, to use that language. He saw the calling. And he stepped into it. And when it was a time of waiting in obscurity, he accepted it. When it was a time of notoriety and recognition and public ministry, he accepted it. And whatever he did, he did with all of his might. This is something I think we can learn from, and we're never going to be the Lord Jesus. Let me not set the bar at such an example that we might say we are going to be exactly like Jesus Christ in this. We're not, right? None of us are. But that doesn't take away from each person having a careful assessment of what God has called them to, and not just drifting in it, but actually being skillful in it by God's grace. And not everyone. who picks up a golf club is going to be a kind of Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus. Not everyone who gives themselves to investment, we were just hearing the other day of Warren Buffett's going to retire at the end of the year. Not everyone who gives themselves to investing and that kind of business and work will have the mind or ability of a person like that. We recognize there's a variation of skill, but that doesn't take away the person's effort to be a skillful person. And I don't want you to think about this just simply in the high and the lofty, and we're going to see this as we progress. I want you to see this in every single thing, but you do. I see my wife teaching our children things like sewing and teaching them how to sew with precision and to sew straight and all the little things, like noticing all those little things and giving guidance and then seeing these hands work and looking at it and seeing the development of skill just in something simple like that. You know, there's something to that, giving yourself so that you're skillful in the things that God puts before you. Skillfulness then is something I want us to think about here tonight, especially for the young. And I'm tempted to say especially for young men because of the weight of having gainful employment upon men generally, but not exclusively, and you'll see that as we progress. So I want you to see first of all the portrait of skillfulness that's here, the portrait of skillfulness. "'Seest thou a man diligent in his business,' says Solomon." Solomon calls the reader to acknowledge what is a well-known observation. Do you see this kind of man who is diligent or skillful in his business? He invites the reader to recall that which he has observed himself, a general recognition that there are men who stand in the presence of authorities and they do so because they're skillful. They don't just fall into these positions. I know, I know there are forms of nepotism. I know that that can happen. But again, these are general observations in life. You see a man, you're asking, how did that man get there? Because he was skillful. in the business that he applied himself to. So there is here, we might say first, a depiction of skill. There's a depiction of skill. I said that the Hebrew word here is not the usual word for diligence, but it's a word that means to be quick, to be sharp, to be proficient, to be skillful. It's not just about working hard, and we talked about that, the importance of working hard, certainly that's involved, but about working well, developing the skill set. It is practicing the precision of the particular thing you're given to, the craftsmanship, the readiness of a person prepared in that which they are called to. And it goes across the board for every single thing. If you just pay attention, sometimes we men, we marvel at our wives as we see them just move around the kitchen and making things and, you know, they're doing one thing and they're talking about this and they're answering questions from the children while at the same time they're preparing dinner. And it all seems so easy. But if we recall, for many of them, maybe not all, for many of them, when first they were given that task and responsibility and in that role, they were maybe floundering a little bit, flapping around, saying, shh, I can't concentrate, you're in my way, get out of here, all that kind of thing that went on. But as they develop and refine that skill, it becomes second nature. We all remember when we learned to drive the first time. We were fumbling. And here it's a little different. The vast majority of people learn with automatics. In Northern Ireland, at least in my generation, when we were learning, there were very few automatic cars. They were all manual or stick shift. And so the first time you step in and you're grinding gears and you're conking out because you don't pull the clutch out and accelerate in at the right time and all of that, And you have to learn, and it's embarrassing. You're there in the middle of the road. You get to do these hill starts, and your instructor's trying to encourage you how to get the bike right on a hill start, and you mess up. But then it becomes second nature. You don't even have to think about it. You just understand how to do it. And you wonder, how does this happen? Again, it's just through being prepared and practicing and giving ourself to the same thing over and over so that we hone the craft. So this isn't about raw talent alone, certainly that can play a part. It's about the refinement of a craft, of a particular form of work, consistently showing up, consistently applying, consistently being self-critical about areas of weakness and working on those areas. And by that, you become better. There is implied in this proverb an appreciation for men and women with skill. And the opposite of this text is not merely a lazy man. It's not, I think, with the language, the translation diligent, the implication, I think we could draw a corresponding or a contrasting view of, well, the opposite is a lazy man. That's not really the idea. It's more about the wasteful man. The man who has not applied himself and given himself to the opportunities that are before him. He squanders them. He has a calling, but he neglects it. He has opportunities, but he sets them aside and doesn't take advantage. He doesn't recognize that youth is a time of learning and refining that skill. And when you see someone older to whom this particular thing appears easy, it is because of the labor of the work that went in in the years prior, the constant work see some of our musicians here, throw a piece of sheet music before them, they can play it. They might find criticism in their performance the first time round, but to the uneducated or those who aren't refined in their hearing, we look at it and say, that sounded perfect to me the first time through. How does that come about? Constant Just looking and studying and giving themselves to sight reading and going over piece after piece after piece and by and by, years later you can set almost anything before them and very quickly they're able to play it. So it's about giving ourselves to the opportunity, not squandering them. The book of Proverbs does warn about slothfulness. But it's also here about the opportunities before us and giving ourselves so we don't squander them. So there's a depiction of skills. See a man diligent or skillful in his business. There's also a depiction of calling in his business. He is skillful in a particular area. He can't be skillful at everything. He can't be a master of everything. Right? Some of us try, right? We do our best. And especially around the house these days, when you try to, you know, something breaks or falls apart or needs to be repaired, many of us are very thankful for YouTube. And we go on to YouTube to try and figure out, can I figure this out without having to pay for someone who's more skilled than me to come and do the job? And that can be a little precarious at times, as some of us have learned. But we try, but we can't be skilled in everything. We can't know everything. We can't be equipped in every single thing. In his business means in his God-given occupation. It's this calling that's upon his life. It's a labor that God has given him opportunity to exercise himself in. And there's a few errors I want to point out. Young people, you need to listen. There are common errors when it comes to calling and vocation. First of all, sometimes there's a lack of self-awareness. a lack of self-awareness. So you have a desire for a vocation for a particular thing. You imagine yourself in this role or this position. Many of us can look back to when we were very young and we aspired to be astronauts. or some other kind of vocation that really, hopefully early on in our teens, we realized that's never going to be me. I'm not going to be one who's going to be an astronaut piloting some kind of multi-billion dollar ship or whatever. But there sometimes can still remain in individuals a lack of self-awareness. The desire is not the qualification. And so it's important for us to assess carefully and be self-aware. Where's my skill and my talent? What am I good at doing? Or where's my skill set? And people can help you with this. You talk to them and they might be able to guide you. So there's sometimes a lack of self-awareness. Don't fall into that. You can waste years by not having self-awareness. Romanticizing certain callings. People often glamorize high-visibility vocations, things that are in the public eye, but calling a vocation is not about being noticed or applauded. That's not it at all. There's an overemphasis on that because that's what's put before us. And we see these positions, they're visible, they're known, people have influence, and then we aspire to that kind of a role. We tend to be drawn to it because we're not noticing the hidden work, the behind-the-scenes work. But don't have a romantic view of such positions. Discover God's assignment for you. Recognize what God has called you. Not every field is yours to conquer. See a man diligent in his business, his business, his calling, his vocation. He is skilled in one area. You need to look to see what that is and don't, again, romanticize certain things that you are not equipped for and would be even for your downfall. Avoiding lowly callings. Again, there tends to be certain trends with regard to this, avoiding things. We're in a moment where there has been something that has been, you know, 20 years ago, the trades were in some way overlooked, thought little of. 20 years on, everyone's talking about open more trade schools and get young men doing trades and so on. And so there's a trend moving in that direction and it's not all bad. But again, sometimes it's to the detriment of highly educated, skilled labor and positions. And I hear people talk about the trades in such a way that diminish. It's exactly the same as what happened with regard to the trades. It's like, why would you give yourself to all those years of education? What a waste of time and effort. Look at the debt that you accumulate. And I think, well, There are so many of those people that you depend on because of their skill, and they invested the years, the education, the money in order to have a skill set that functions in some aspect within society that you depend on, though you may not see it or think about it. So lowly callings. Whatever is perceived by the culture to be lowly. Again, this isn't necessarily, this is shaped at times by, let's count the Egyptians who despised shepherds. The culture can shape how we look at things, so be careful with that. So we look at things that maybe within our culture are despised and we don't give any time to it. Again, there's certain countries, I could name them, where certain vocations are so elevated and the children are pressed in, like you have two options here. You have two options, medicine or engineering. That's it. Because that's what's valued within that culture. And other things then are disregarded and despised. But don't fall into that trap. God honors faithfulness in your business, whatever that might be. So give yourself to it. whatever that might be, the man. And this proverb doesn't waste his time longing for someone else's platform. That's not how he gets before kings. He has understood his skillset, he has invested time in that, and that brings him before a place of honor. And so he labors faithfully in that, whether he's building or baking or banking or whatever it might be, he is giving his best. Martin Luther, the German reformer, noted that God's people please God even in the least and most trifling matters, for He will be working all things through you. He will milk the cow through you and perform the most servile duties through you, and all the greatest and least duties alike will be pleasing to Him. Don't avoid the lowly callings if that is what God has called you to. Neglecting providence, fighting against it. Providence is pushing you in that certain direction. I'll mention Joseph in just a minute, but he is a standout example in which his desire is to be there with his father in his house contributing to the family economy. Providence drives him far from that to another nation to be under another master. And he could lament and complain and spend his entire life mourning the fact that he is not where he wanted to be. And God placed him as a slave under Potiphar in a foreign land, just 17 years of age. At some point, he needed to accept providence in that and give himself with his skill to that position. Do the same. Don't neglect providence. See where you are and recognize the doors God opens and closes. Having desire without discipline. Feeling a calling but not willing to work at it and give the effort to it. And again, this really is with particular emphasis to the young because there is a sense in which that early effort is going to reap dividends later. That early application of yourself will reap the rewards later in life. You have to have the discipline. The most skilled, even sitting here in this congregation, within their various spheres, the most skilled are those who are perpetual students. They're always learning their craft. They're always develop themselves in their craft. They're not afraid to be told about weaknesses that they might work on them and improve. Jumping too soon into something, again, going too early, trying to lead before learning under others, to teach before being taught. This is the curse of premature platforming, which is common, and the church is really bad at this today. There used to be a time when the church was very slow, very slow, to be letting people have position, have authority, and speak to others. And there was all sorts of pushing and prodding and testing and training and education. When I read what they used to have to do in certain quarters, I ask myself, could I today do what they were required to do then? The answer is resounding, no, I don't think I could have done it. But at the same time, I appreciate the years of being kept and pushed and called to set certain markers in order that the entire time you're being tested and proven. Now, we have people who either by their own desire or by some kind of necessity, they say, well, you know, you seem to have the gift of the gab, let's make you the preacher. Then refusing counsel, that's the seventh thing, refusing counsel. If you want to understand your business and what you're called to in your vocation, seek godly counsel. Listen to those who will be honest with you and love you. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, Proverbs 21 says. So you don't want to be making assessment purely yourself. Talk to people. So these are some pitfalls. But vocation is an important thing. What's your vocation? See, it's a man skillful in his vocation, in his calling, in the thing that he has given himself to. This language is a portrait of skillfulness. But secondly, the potential of skillfulness. What's the potential? the potential is that he may end up standing before kings. Again, this is a general observation. It's not everyone that's skillful stands before kings. That's not the point. One of the greatest interpretive mistakes that people make in the book of Proverbs is seeing things as promises, and they're not. They're observations. They're general truths. And this is what he Solomon says here, in the ancient world to stand before kings meant to be employed in royal service, to be trusted in the inner circle, to be elevated even beyond their class. It's no small thing. But why? Why would this happen? Well, again, it's for the Lord's glory, and we'll think of that in just a moment. He shall not stand before mean or obscure and low and inferior men. His skill is going to put Him at the forefront. His skill is going to open doors for Him. His skill is going to put Him in places, again, where you look back and you assess the life, you say, how did He get there? Because of His skill. He doesn't remain in the shadows. God moves him into the spotlight. Again, our Lord Jesus is a perfect example of this. It's constant diligence in those early years for a short season of being at the forefront. John the Baptist was the same. Again, largely unknown, comes to the fore, preparing the way for the Lord, and again, very quickly disappears out of the limelight again. But how did he get there? They were diligent. They were skillful. what they were given to do. So we mentioned Joseph, some of the examples that we have in Scripture. Joseph, of course, stands out. Stands out when he goes before Potiphar. He gets over the whole challenge of being seventeen and a slave through no fault of his own. And he works diligently. He's noticed. He's placed in charge as a young man. And he's accused, put in prison. And there, once again, he gets over the circumstances, he stops doing what so many of us tend to do, we complain, all these things are against me. But Joseph was spared from that. By God's grace, he was able to look and say, this is where I am, this is God's calling for the present, and he gave himself to it. And again, he is noticed, even there, surrounded by criminals. And finally, of course, he's brought before Pharaoh. Standing before a king, what an example it is of this text. How so? Because he was skillful. He was a young man who was skillful, refining his skills over years, diligently honoring God, giving himself to whatever was before him. Did he want to be in a prison? Did he want to be in Potiphar's house? No, but his skill applied. in honoring God in whatever scenario put him before royalty itself. David, another one. You read the life of David, you find early on that there are people who are noticing his skill. The skill of music. How did he become skillful in music? He didn't just pick up an instrument and become an expert at it. He was skillful. He learned the skill. There's he's tending the sheep. There's he's doing whatever his father sent him to do. He didn't waste that time. He took his lyre or whatever it was and he went out there and he learned it and practiced and taught his fingers in that way. And God taught his fingers how to war. It becomes a man who's known for his giftedness, his skillfulness, and when it comes to battle, his confidence and his faith in his God and the smaller things that God had called him to, defending the sheep. God has so equipped him and skilled him in such a way that then when he stands before Goliath, he's like, the God who delivered the lion and the bear will deliver this man also into my hand. But there's a skillfulness in it. It's not just haphazard. There are years of application of himself as a person. Daniel, again, Daniel another one. Standing before royalty, seeing this favor, experiencing this. And I'm not saying, by the way, that this is going to happen to any of us. In terms of standing before royalty or the highest of the land, getting access into the White House, maybe! God knows that people of caliber and heart for God and His Word need to be in access in the inner circle of giving counsel to those in high office. But Daniel as well, an excellent spirit was in him. His talent, gift, refined over, again, years. God helping and then platforming him in due course. And Paul, we could mention others as well. I'm going to mention those like Bezalel. And it's not just men, by the way, there are women too. We sometimes refer to Bezalel as the first one that we're told was filled with the Holy Spirit. We're told also of his female counterparts in Exodus 35, who again were skilled in textile and craftsmanship. We're told all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands. These were people with skill who were given responsibility there. We know of Deborah, who was evidently skilled in forms of leadership. I know that we see her as one who notes in some way the demise of the land, the fact that she's prominent shows in some way the state of the nation. But nonetheless, she's able to judge Israel, led in military action, composing songs that are recorded by God as a person of skill, a mother in Israel. We're told of Huldah in 2 Kings 22. She's consulted by the king's emissaries, seeking advice from the book of the law. Who do we go to for counsel? There's a woman, she knows, she's wise. Lydia, the seller of purple, high-end trade, skilled, known, successful, able to take people in and be hospitable and house them and provide for them. This is not to mention Abigail, Esther, Phoebe, Priscilla, many others. And I say all of that because there can be, especially within certain quarters, a diminishing of a woman's skill set, a diminishing of even the reason why she would be motivated to have skills. So there's some homeschooling quarters in which you will find this kind of idea in which, why? Why would a woman go on to have a skill set? She's just, I say just, I'm saying what they would say, she's going to be a mother. Well, maybe she will and maybe she won't. Do I believe that if God calls a woman to marriage and motherhood, that she should sacrifice and set aside whatever other ambitions or desires she has to raise her children? Absolutely, unhesitatingly. But that may not happen. It may not happen. And instead, what you might find is that she gets married even, perhaps. But something happens to her husband. He becomes incapable through accidents or illness, something happens, and he's not able to provide for the home and the family. Then it falls on his wife. And with the mentality, I'm not saying, again, circumstances are different. But to have a mentality that tells women that that would be out of bounds for her, when she's the only one, and Providence is saying she's the only one that can do something here, to have handicapped her by telling her that that would never be her place, seems short-sighted and foolish and not scriptural. When we train our daughters, we trust they'll be skillful. They'll have skill. Want to be skillful. Skillful in grammar. Skillful in mathematics. Skillful in art and crafts. Skillful in other things, things that start to interest them. Having skill. Skillful in keeping home, yes. Skillful in preparing meals. Skillful in an industry within the home. We desire these things. But we don't want to handicap them either. Encourage them. Oh, how many women have been a blessing to the church? Those men didn't stand in their way with their own narrow views of what their position is. Like I say, if you're called to motherhood, give yourself to it. But if that's not your calling, then don't be afraid of applying your skill elsewhere, becoming the best that you can be. So what's the purpose in all this? What's the purpose then of skillfulness? Why? Why does it even matter? Well, this gets to the heart of the whole issue. Seest thou a man diligent or skillful in his business, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean or obscure men. Why? Why does this matter? Why does Solomon observe this and draw it to our attention? Why is there an elevation implied in this language of excellence? Again, I use that language carefully. There can be an idolization of excellence to the detriment of everything else. And there are many people who are highly skilled in various areas and they have failed at the most basic calling of life, to care for those before them, to love their wives, nurture their children. They failed in that because the idol of their life was a very narrow skill set in which they received attention from the world. I'm not suggesting that. Why does the Holy Spirit have this recorded for us? It's not for us to stand on a stage. It's not for us to gain the attention of the world. It is to glorify God and serve others. The chief end of man is to glorify God. Whatsoever you do, whether you eat or drink, Do all to the glory of God. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." We're encouraged that we might live for God and glorify Him. A few things to observe here. First, skillfulness is a form of worship. Skillfulness is a form of worship. tells us in verse 23 and 24, whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. It goes on to say, for you serve the Lord Christ. That is a really important principle, to understand that there is a serving of the Lord no matter what context you are in. And so, this summer, as you go to do your internships, as you get your summer jobs, To the young people, this maybe isn't where you plan to be the rest of your life. You're not aspiring to be working at Chick-fil-A, and I'm just throwing that out there. That may not be what you're desiring to be in that kind of occupation, but you find a summer job, and you give yourself to it. You try to be skillful. You ask questions. You inquire. You endeavor to do that. Why? Because you serve the Lord Christ. See in the authority figure that which is testing your love for God. Your parents' children show in a certain fashion they are a test too for how you love God. How we serve and listen and obey our parents in every lawful thing they call us to do is a reflection of our heart before God. When we're places of employment in which we are inferior and we have managers and bosses those who give us orders and duties, as we look at them and obey them, that is a reflection, is a real litmus test for where your heart is before God. It's very easy to imagine, I love God, and then a command or an order comes from your superior, from your manager and says, I want you to do this. And you say, that's not my job. Your superior called you to do it, do it. Unless doing so in some way is disobeying God. I mentioned before that I used to work in an engineering firm, and when I was in the early years there, it was very small, and in small firms, health and safety isn't at the pinnacle of what's the real motivation at the heart of everything that's being done. You're not really going in, starting as a one-man business and growing it slowly. When there are a few of you there, you're still not really thinking about health and safety. Maybe you should be, but that tends to not be the case. And so, I was asked at one time to go and drive the fork truck. And I just turned and I said, no, I'm not doing it. Because I didn't have a license for it. And in my mind I was like, I could drive this and I could damage something. I could reverse into someone. I could turn these 10 meter planks some way and take someone's head off in some way. And I'm not going to do it. You send me to the course and I will do it. That was the only time I said no. I was asked to talk about this before. We set up a whole thing for cleaning the bathrooms. That wasn't part of our job description, but some of us were willing to do it because we recognized the importance of it. Skillfulness is a form of worship. Do these things, do it heartily. Whatsoever you do, do it heartily. Do it with your being, as to the Lord. For you serve the Lord Christ. So when you get those instructions, those things to do this summer that you don't want to do, You go home, and as soon as you arrive home and you've had a long semester, you want to put your feet up, and the first thing you walk in the door, your mom says, mow the lawn. You say, I just want to rest. Go and mow the lawn. That's what you're to do. Do it heartily. Ye serve the Lord Christ. Hear the command as if your Redeemer, who died on the cross for you, gave you that instruction. is a form of worship. The Lord has called us then to a Spirit-filled life. I mentioned Bezalel. God filled him with the Spirit in all manner of workmanship. And we are to give ourselves to it. God will skill you in these things. I very well remember just coming to mind my first few days and weeks in that place of employment in a mechanical engineering firm and I was not trained for that environment. And being tasked with jobs where you're dealing with expensive material and you can wreck it, you ruin it very quickly and it has to be thrown out and then you're feeling the guilt of wasted material and unnecessary expenditure to the company and I remember watching someone else who knew the job showing me how to do it and I think, It's like, Lord, guide my hand, skill me for this task. You know, just constantly praying for God to skill me in what I was being asked to do. It was a year or two later where my manager one day, he was joking, but he was jesting because some who had been actually gone to engineering school, had been trained in that, were making mistakes, not getting the job done, and he turned to me. Because I had been at a supermarket before then, working there. And if you can imagine working at Walmart, and my manager turns around and says, is there anyone else who works at Walmart that we could hire instead of hiring these ones who had come from engineering school? Well, the Lord skills you for these things, and it's a form of worship, and do it to the Lord. Serving the Lord Christ. And some of you older ones need to see this too. be reminded of it, and the hardship of the politics of work. Don't get involved in the politics. Don't get involved in the back and the forth and the argument and who's right and who's wrong. Stay quiet. Do what you're there to do, and do it as unto the Lord, not unto men, for you serve the Lord Christ. I don't need to mention in some context even, Bob Jones University, you hear things swirling around. Most of it, and I say this as an outsider who doesn't know much, if anything, but I think a text like this could apply to many people. Do what you're called to do. Give yourself to that. Keep your nose out of the things that are not your business. And so the janitor scrubbing floors can do so with excellence, honoring Christ. The student studying, whatever it might be, can do so with effort to honor Christ. The father working two jobs to provide for his family can do so honoring Christ. There is no menial task when done in the sight of the King of Kings. And yet I say this with regard to menial tasks. Don't sell yourself short. The Lord will use your skill. Something you have generally, you need to apply yourself early in life. Let me say to some of you who are older, you're wishing something like, I wish I heard this 20 years ago. It's not too late to do night classes, to acquire skill. to work at something, it's not too late. Do it, and the Lord will bless your effort. Skillfulness is not just a form of worship, it is a witness. When we give ourselves to things, when we become skillful, it becomes a witness to others. When Daniel stood before Nebuchadnezzar, he declared, there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets. He didn't shy away from the way in which he was able to conduct what he was called upon to do. There's a God in heaven. He used his skill set to honor the Lord and speak of him. Again, Joseph, when he stood before Pharaoh, said, it is not me. God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. You have to think about the pagan context in which they were in. They're pointing very specifically to the God. who made all things, they're speaking specifically of the God of the Hebrews. He's the God, not your pagan gods, not your idols. This specific God is the one that you need. And so it was a form of witness. And so you give yourself diligently, it may provide a platform for you, again, not for you, but to speak of Him. But also skillfulness must be guarded. It's not just a form of worship, not just a witness, it must be guarded. You need to be careful. With success comes danger. With skill comes the temptation to pride. And we must avoid this. Avoid becoming the foolish old man, the foolish old woman. Imagine we know everything and we have nothing to learn. You never want to do that. You think of Uzziah who was marvelously helped until he was strong, then he fell. And he depended on God. God was there helping him, using him powerfully. Then he got overconfident. Nebuchadnezzar looked over Babylon and said, is not this great Babylon which I have built? God had to lay him low. So we have to guard. Oh, how we have to guard. I see it in myself. I have to remind myself with some regularity with regard to this. Because I look back, I look back at the times in which trying to prepare one message was a slog, I mean a real slog. And over time, you become a little more skilled, a little more capable. It becomes a little easier to you. And the temptation is that you take your foot off the gas. And I remind myself regularly not to do that. To have the perpetual mind of learning, growing. And those of you who have acquired a skill or in that position, continue to grow, continue to learn, embrace. The fact that there are things still to discover, even in your skill set. Things that may be of help as you move forward and God opens doors for you. But especially as I close to the young, work hard. Find something. Skill yourself in it. Become a master at it. Give yourself to it to the point that people watch on and say, that looks easy. And then you say, you ought to have a go. One of the places where I worked as a young teenager was in a snooker club, and snooker is not a game that really Americans know anything about, generally speaking. Billiards you know about, snooker you don't. If you want to know the difference, snooker is 12 feet by six feet, it's a much larger table, smaller balls, smaller pockets, and a whole different, just completely different. The idea is similar, there's balls on a table and you have to pop them, but the whole skill set is very different. And I remember as a boy watching it, I remember seeing the kind of Tiger Woods of snooker at the time in the 90s, Stephen Hendry. And he watched this, he was like a machine. And then I would go to the snooker club and I would try to do this. How do they do it? How do they do it? Of course, you find out he's in there five hours a day. Five hours as a teenager, constantly. before you become, you don't just become world champion, the youngest world champion ever. It doesn't just fall out. It's a skill, acquiring skill. And so, again, we're all going to be different in the doors that God opens and the abilities we have. We have to be realistic that we may not be as others in terms of natural ability, but you can learn to have a skill. And you can apply it in various areas, but especially in this particular way, having a skill set that puts you before kings. And you may not stand before kings in this world, but you are going to stand before a king one day. And you're going to give account of the deeds done in the body. You're going to give account of your life and how you lived it before God. It has to be one of the most sobering aspects of being a Christian, the recognition that one day we will stand and give account of ourselves before God. Paul was able to say, as he compared himself to the other apostles, that he labored more than they all, but it was the grace of God in him. And so as Christians we can know grace supporting, empowering, leading and helping us. Though not all preachers be Paul, and not all craftsmen be Bezalel, and not all musicians be David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, yet at the same time learning a skill. Don't listen to a world that just wants you to drift and waste your life. Keep learning, keep moving, keep doing it, eyes on to the Lord, for you serve the Lord Christ. And through that you will be a blessing. I trust the Lord will help us. I think the key to this whole text is keeping an eye to eternity in which we desire to receive not the well-done of the world, but the well-done of our Lord. because we've been faithful servants. May the Lord help us. Let's bow together in prayer. Maybe there are young people here and you've had a tough semester, a difficult year. And the temptation has arisen in your mind to quit. Just go and get some job and step aside from the season of learning. Be very, very careful. Don't let discouragement dictate. And as a man said in a very timely way to me at one point in my own life, never make a crucial decision in a fog. Stay the course that you're on by God's providence. Recognize that things are meant to be hard, that's how skills are acquired. And learn to be patient with yourself and with your season of life. Maybe there's some of you here not saved. You're going to stand before the Lord too. We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. What have you done with your life? What will you say before the King of Kings? You say, I've wasted most of my life. Is there any hope for me? And I say, yes, absolutely. God can restore years that the locust hath eaten. He can make your final years of your life more productive so that it might be said you did more in those few years left than in all the years you've already lived. God is able. Seek the Lord. Trust in Christ. Put first things first. The Lord will take care of the rest. Lord, we pray, bless us and do help us. This season of learning, the school year has drawn to a close and draws to a close. We pray that thou wilt help Help each parent responsible for training and preparing our children. We know that they're varied in their gifts. Help us to be patient with them and help us to be good counselors for them so that they may learn where their skill set is. And I pray, Lord, that thou wilt help each here to be diligent, to be skillful in his business. Please help those who have yet to discover their business. Guide them and give them conviction in the calling that they apply themselves to. Raise us up, Lord. Help us to be bright testimony, whether it be just before a few or before multitudes. Wherever we find ourselves, help us to keep an eye upon Thee and live in light of the cross and the coming eternity. and to serve the Lord Christ. Hear us then, and bless us, and give us what we need for the week that lies ahead. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of all the people of God, now and evermore. Amen.