Does your weekday go something like this?
Rush through breakfast to get to school, or the office, or the store. And there’s so much to do there.
And then after our full-time responsibilities evening time rolls around and we got all that social-stuff-and-the-family-and-recreation-and-we-gotta-make-dinner-and-lunches-and-watch-our-favorite-TV-show-and mow-the-lawn-and-wash-the-dishes-and-feed-the-animals-and-pay-the-bills-and-finally we plop into bed looking at our watches and saying, “Gosh, I wish I weren’t so busy that I could get a full night’s sleep.” And then we wake up in the morning OVERtired for UNDERsleeping so we hit the snooze button too many times and so we rush through breakfast and start the whole…thing…over…again.
Sound familiar?
Why? Why are we so busy?
I know the easy answer. Because we have so much to do.
But what’s our motivation for being so busy?
Why are all of these things so important?
How does this task or that responsibility even make the cut to be included in the sprint of our lives?
What is…our motivation?
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Bezalel and Oholiab
The two most famous names in the whole Bible. Right?
Of course not.
Were they priests? Or prophets? Or Apostles?
No, they were two guys who worked with their hands.
Bezalel is the first person in Scripture to be described as “filled with the Spirit of God.”
That honor is reserved for a “blue collar” worker.
The Bible says he had all kinds of skills. To make artistic designs in gold, silver, and bronze; to cut and set stones, to work in wood and engage in all kinds of crafts.
I have to tell you…I am amazed by people like Bezalel. People like my dad and Bill and Josh and Bart and Terry and Bassel and Darryl. If it involves metal or wood and you can buy what you need for the job at Lowe’s or Home Depot, these guys can do it.
I, on the other hand, am mechanically learning disabled. Two winters ago I had pipes burst in the laundry room. I called Terry. Last summer I wanted to put a screen door at the house. I called Bassel. But my incompetence is much worse than that. On Friday, I needed to drill a hole in the wall. I called Bill. A couple of days before that I had a flat tire. I called Josh. So at least I spread it around even if it seems to these friends of mind that I’m an incessant nag.
So you can see the source of my awe for Bezalel and Oholiab. Not only do they have cool-sounding names that only Hebrew scholars can pronounce… but they got mad skills. They got skills I never dreamed of having.
More than that, they teach us something very important…about motivation…and the proper source for everything that you and I do.
When I read about Bezalel and Oholiab I notice that their gifts were from God:
“The Lord has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills.”
This wasn’t just the right tech school.
This was God’s specific blessing.
We should all be so wise as to recognize that all our gifts come from God.
Eric, who preached here two weeks ago went to Baylor with a guy named Jeremy Wariner. Jeremy Wariner ran track for Baylor. One of their professors was a huge sports fan and particularly track. He said something like, “Wow, Jeremy, that was amazing this weekend!”
“I had a good race.”
Yeah, I’d say, he holds the NCAA Record 4X400 Meter
He won the 2004
NCAA Indoor and Outdoor 400M,
2004 US National Champion,
Olympic Gold Medal.
He saw it as God’s gift.
You and I should look at our gifts the same way.
Seeing all our gifts, abilities and skills, as being from God is
The solution for pride because we won’t give ourselves the credit…
The solution for idolizing other people because we won’t give them the credit…
The solution for despair because we can know that God has not withheld from us anything that we need.
So we should sit down and solemnly and honestly list all of our gifts, skills and abilities, no matter how small… and they say “thank you,” “thank you,” , “thank you.”
The other thing I notice about Bezalel and Oholiab is that they respond to direction from God. It’s God who did the choosing and the directing. 36:1
In chapter 31:2 “I have chosen.” Them to do this.
God does the choosing and they did the obeying.
It seems to me that God is always calling us to do something or grow in some area, or respond in some way that we need to discover. It’s our growing edge.
Some of us know exactly what God is asking us to do and we’re just not being obedient. Others of us aren’t sure what God’s asking us to do.
We’ll here’s some ideas to figure out what God is calling you to do: Circumstances:
You see a need and nobody else sees it. So you do it.
Maybe you don’t have a job and you need a job. And you get a job offer. I don’t think this one requires all that much prayer. God has spoken through circumstances.
Or there’s a need at church. The announcements say, “we need volunteers.”
This might be God speaking through circumstances.
Sometimes our growth opportunities are revealed to us by Godly counsel. If we are blessed, we have people in our lives who will love us enough to point out our growing edge.
“Sometimes our growth areas are revealed to us in Scripture:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in all things consider others better than yourselves.”
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up.”
“Don’t worry.”
Lucky for Bezalel and Oholiab, God spoke through Moses pretty clearly.
But they could have said no.
Ex 36:2 Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work.
Everyone who was willing.
What does willingness look like?
When I was a younger man, not like now, I heard a great sermon on Isaiah 6—the call of Isaiah. I was riveted by Isaiah’s response to God’s question, “Whom will I send?”
Isaiah said, “Here I am, Send me.”
The preacher asked for that same response. A simple response of obedience and surrender: “Here I am, Send me.”
I was hooked.
That same week I talked to leadership about where I could get plugged in to the ministry of the church. In a matter of weeks I was attending the youth group as an adult volunteer.
But you know what? It didn’t go the way I wanted it to. It didn’t go according to my script. So I faded away.
“That is not saying yes to God.”
Fast forward a couple of years and we’re in a new church in a new state.
This time I’m serious and Lisa is serious with me.
We can see that the ministry staff is overworked. We talked to the pastor and said very simply, “We want to help. We want to fill your deepest hole.”
He prayed about it and came back to us with two jobs:
Teach Sunday School for college students. And clean the church.
They didn’t like the custodial company and had been relying on volunteers.
And this church was about 20,000 square feet and it was all carpet. And all but the sanctuary had to be vacuumed every night.
That’s what “Yes” looked like right then.
Fast forward 2 more years & we’re back in Texas at a new church.
I say a similar thing to the pastor: “Let me do something that you have to do so that you can do the things that you need to do.”
Before long I was in charge of setup and takedown, teaching Sunday School and running the powerpoint during worship. Later I was on the church board and still later the youth minister.
One more “anything you want” God…and now I’m here.
But here’s the thing. Those three responses were all exactly the same. They differed from the time I blew it but they don’t differ from each other. They were all, “Yes, Lord, I will serve your church. Whatever you want.”
P A U S E
Bezalel and Oholiab built the Tabernacle: a monumental, beautiful, portable sanctuary for the living God.
Isaiah stood toe to toe with kings and nobles and told them they were wrong.
What is your “yes”? What is your, “Here I am Lord, Send me!”
Would you say that to God even if you didn’t know what he was sending you to?
I mean really, really.
What if right now I were to read that question from Isaiah 6:8, would you say, “Here I am, Send me.” ?
I’m afraid to ask you to say it aloud because I’m afraid you’ll say it so I don’t feel stupid but not really mean it.
So let’s not do it aloud because the heart matters more than words.
I’ll ask the question and you respond…or not. But in silence.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
Now that you’ve responded…or not. You can listen for you opportunity in the following circumstances.
An estimated 64% of Christians make their first response to the Gospel before age 18.
This summer we’ll put on a vacation Bible Scool. We need a VBS director. We need teachers and food preparers and we need adults to spend time with other adults drinking iced tea while they watch doors to make sure kids don’t disappear out of the building.
This summer Ashley is going to away to college. For the past school year she has volunteered some 3-5 hours a week doing some basic administrative things—mostly related to the worship guide you use every week. We need someone to replace her and commit to that important work.
In June Bill and Sherry will be going to New York for the whole month. We need volunteers to staff the thrift store. Could you spare one Saturday morning or even take a day off of work. Even when they get back, they can use some help. There’s a sign-up sheet in the back.
June 2 is the youth fundraiser. We need adults to help with cooking, cashiering, and overseeing the teenagers. Only the youth who attend and work will get credit toward summer camp but we need adults involved too.
Do you feel hoodwinked? I hope not because these needs are real if our church is to fulfill its mission.
Speaking of mission…why do we do all this?
Why do we have VBS for kids and a
thrift store for those whose needs outweigh their resources and fundraisers to send teenagers to camp?
Well, because we love kids and teenagers? Yeah, that’s true.
Because we know how we’re blessed and we want to be obedient to God’s call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked? Well, yes.
But what pulls all that together?
What is our motivation for being so busy?
Bezalel and Oholiab made an ark out of acacia wood and covered it with gold and fashioned cherubim out of hammered gold at then ends of the cover
They worked for weeks and weeks on the Sanctuary—And the Glory of God dwelt there. What greater affirmation that for God to come and dwell with His people.
We do what we do for the glory of God.
To lift up the name of God.
To help every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
We do all that we do
So that another mind might marvel at the wonder of a God who not only created the universe, but entered it in time and space as a baby.
We do all that we do
So that another heart might burst wide open at the thought that the God who gave life to them, is the God who would die for them.
We do all that we do
So that another eye and ear might someday see and hear that what God has prepared for those who love him.
For the glory of God.
For the glory of God.
Whatever we do, whether we eat or drink, may we be found so faithful as to do it all for the glory of God.
