Building A Strong Community Series

God in your Job

Exodus 31

Tonight we are going to talk about work. Its not a popular topic to talk about because the majority of Americans spend the greatest amount of their adult life dreading Monday mornings. They work 40 hours a week for 25-30 years looking forward to the day when they will retire. The strange thing is that after they retire they spend their retirement years talking about the good old days and they share all the fun stories about when they use to work.

It has been said that

There are three kinds of workers. For example, when a piano is to be moved, the first kind gets behind and pushes, the second pulls and guides, and the third grabs the piano stool.

One research study suggested that 50% of American workers are in jobs that don't fit their abilities

This could be why they dread Monday mornings

But God created us to work and find fulfillment and purpose in our work

let me read a couple of passages from the book of Genesis when God created Adam

Gen 1:28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Gen 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

These jobs were given to Adam before the fall which means that work is not a curse but a blessing from God

Even when God gave the commandments he included the command to work

Exd 31:15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.

God has made work a way in which we can find purpose in life and a sense of accomplishment as He provides for us through our work

Eph 4:28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

2Th 3:10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

Even when God provided the manna in the wilderness to the children of Israel they had to go out and collect it

and now we come to this passage in Exodus 31. God is finishing up his meeting with Moses up on the mountain. This meeting lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. God has given Moses the commandments and all the detailed instruction in building the tabernacle and instituting the priesthoods

Instruction on how the project was going to be financed

but heres the thing- its a huge Job. It was going to require the knowledge of working with gold and brass and making the curtains and sewing the images into the material. Making the garments for the priest, not only a huge job but a very skilled detailed job.

Out of all the people in the wilderness Moses was the only one that would have had formal training under the Egyptians the rest of them had been slaves in Egypt trained to make bricks

now lets look at this passage. The task in doing all of this was too great for one man to do alone so God tells Moses he has called Bezalel and filled him with knowledge and ability and the spirit of God to make the artistic designs to work in the gold and silver and bronze and to cut stones.

-He also appointed Oholiab to and gave other men ability to do the work

The Calling Of God to our Job

The one reason that I believe that many Americans dread Monday morning is because they are not doing what God called them to do. Here is the big mistake that many Christians make. They think of a calling as being something within the church. Be called to preach, teach, etc. but they separate their secular life from the spiritual life when in effect they are the same.

God called Bezalel and Oholiab to the worok of constructing the tabernacle and the furnishing that were going to be used for the worship of God just like he called Moses to lead the children of Israel from the wilderness and called Paul to be an apostle

God has a plan and a call for our life.

Eph 4:11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

Eph 4:12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,