ON EAGLES’ WINGS
XI. “Improving Our Serve”
1-15-06
Ken Peterson
Exodus 31:1-11
TEXT: Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 "See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts – .... 6 Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab... to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you....
(Ex 31:1-3; 6)
INTRODUCTION
Just what does it mean to serve the Lord? In our call to worship this morning, we used the 100th Psalm from the KJV with that statement in the second verse, Serve the Lord with gladness. Some other translations replace “serve” with “worship.” Both words are legitimate translations of the thought, but I like the broader implications of “serve.” With worship, I’m afraid we often think in terms of what happens in church, even though the Biblical idea is that it should encompass all of life. This morning, I want us to move out of our narrow, compartmentalized thinking about what it means to serve or worship the Lord and expand our vision in what it means to serve the Lord in our ordinary, everyday lives.
We are in the last half of the book of Exodus, concluding the series next Sunday. Israel has been brought out of Egypt’s bondage by God’s mighty, miraculous deliverance. They are camped at the base of Mt. Sinai. And the entire last half of the book is given to what happened there. We’ve covered the giving of the law. Then last week, we looked at all the detailed instructions about worship and building the tabernacle so that God could dwell with His people– an ongoing presence in the midst of their lives. The largest portion of all these last chapters is given over to worship– building the place, priestly garments, and the procedures for worship. This is obviously of huge importance to God.
Now, the plans have been given. Our Scripture is about how it is all going to get built.
EXODUS 31:1-11
GLORIFYING GOD IN OUR WORK
Belzalel and Oholiab stand out as craftsman, anointed and equipped by God for the skills needed to supervise and teach what is needed to put God’s plans into physical form.
I had a memorable experience with a Belazlel in a former church in Whitefish. No, his name wasn’t Belazlel, but that’s the role he filled. The church was growing and we needed a major building addition. I felt a sense of dread over the whole idea. I’d heard horror stories from other pastors of how difficult it can be, and how distracting it was from their pastoral ministry. I was advised to avoid building programs if at all possible. There is the fund-raising, the potential divisiveness of decisions, and all that sort of thing. The pressure was building to do something and the session was wanting to move forward and I was simply dreading it all. I was praying seriously about all this, feeling a need for there to be someone to direct all this. The church was not in a financial position to higher an architect and contractor to “just take care of the job.” We knew we’d have to make considerable use of donated labor– which of course added to the complications. I was praying for a Belazlel. Then, I began to notice Dee– a very mild-mannered, laid-back, quiet man on the session. It is like he suddenly had a fire lit under him whenever we talked about building. In fact, he became downright pushy about it– totally out of character. I believe it was after one of our meetings when I was feeling pushed by Dee, wishing he’d back off a little, I saw it– God had given us our Belazlel. He’d recently sold a business, so he was unemployed, having time to give. He had a solid background in wood products, which was helpful. When I felt Dee out about this, he (with his characteristic modesty) thought he might be willing. The session immediately saw this as our answer. And, for the next two or three years, Dee directed a huge project that doubled the size of the church building making use of huge amounts of donated labor. I saw him as filled with the Spirit of God for that role in much the way I was for my preaching and work as a pastor. Dee was serving the Lord with his phone calls, his research, his organizational skills, and his hammer. I scarcely had to give the project a thought. And, when the project was done, there was no indebtedness.
Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed the Christian idea of serving God well when he said,
If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
One of our great needs today is to reconnect our common, ordinary work lives with a sense of God’s calling. The kitchen counter, the computer work station, the classroom, serving people in business, or any other workspace can be a place of serving God, if we make it so. Quality work done with a good, Christ-like attitude brings glory to God. The protestant reformers had this clear. The Puritans actually made quite a big deal out of serving God in their workplace. But, today I think many of us miss the connection.
The Bible tells us that God works. Think of the six days of creation and then God rested on the seventh day. All that exists is a product of God’s works. And humans are designed to find fulfillment in work. Adam was placed in the garden to take care of it. He was a botanist and a zoologist, naming things. And, when we do quality work that we enjoy– that is in harmony with our gifts– isn’t it one of the most satisfying, joy-filled experiences we know? We can all think of times of exhilaration over something we’ve accomplished. All this can be a part of our worship, our service, our glorifying God in our daily lives. Col. 3:17 says it well,
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Again, Paul counsels in 1 Cor. 10:31,
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.
Author and teacher, Richard Foster, tells of an experience he had on a mission team that went to Alaska to help build the first high school above the Arctic Circle. He was digging a trench by hand for a sewer line– no small task in the frozen tundra. An Eskimo man came by and stood there awhile watching Richard struggling with his ditch digging. Then this Eskimo man said simply and profoundly, “You are digging a ditch to the glory of God.” Richard said those words gave him a new vision of what his work really was. He said it made him then dig with all his might then, every shovelful of dirt an offering to God.
Now, this was true, not just because Richard was on a mission trip doing this. It can be true of any work, if we make it so. We can enter into any work day with prayer offering all of it to God– every interaction with a customer, every task we perform, everything done with an eye to pleasing God in the quality, in the way, and in the spirit with which we carry out our work.
Perhaps you remember me telling you about Henry P. Crowell a couple of years ago. He contracted tuberculosis when he was a boy, which cut short his education. After hearing a sermon by the great evangelist, Dwight L. Moody, young Crowell prayed, “I can’t be a preacher, but I can be a good businessman. God, if you will let me make money, I will use it in your service.” Under Dr. orders, he worked outdoors for seven years to regain his health. Then he bought a little run-down Quaker Mill at Ravenna, Ohio. Within ten years, Quaker Oats was a household name to millions. While he tithed from the beginning, soon Crowell was able to give 60-70% of his income to God’s causes which he faithfully did the rest of his life. But I would suggest that Henry Crowell served God not just in giving, but in making a quality product and creating as good work environment. That too is God honoring.
Belzalel and Oholiab, Spirit-equipped craftsman directing the construction of tabernacle furniture, the making of priestly garments, the making of the tent for the tabernacle, stand as a model for us of the sanctity of skillful work.
THE OFFERINGS
After the plans are given in detail and the craftsmen equipped to do the work, they need some material to work on. Let’s look at Ex. 35:4-9 and 20-34, page 89 in your pew Bibles.
Do you catch the energy here? Gold offered as wave offerings. People bringing lumber, gems, yarn, hides from sea cows, goat’s hair, all as freewill offerings. Isn’t that a wonderful picture? The stuff of their lives was brought in offering. There is no coercion, just joyous celebration in offering the needed items to the Lord. These people certainly don’t seem to be traveling light! How did they have all this stuff? Well, the night before they left Egypt, God instructed them through Moses, to ask the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for (Ex. 12:35-36). Perhaps these Egyptians wanted to bless and help compensate these Israelites who had been enslaved by an unjust Pharaoh.
And, let’s look at the results: Ex. 36:3b-7,
And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. 4 So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work 5 and said to Moses, "The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done."
6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: "No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary." And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.
I’ve never heard of a church where they complained because the people were giving too much! But what an example of the move of the Spirit in giving so there is more than enough to do all the work.
It reminds me of the energy with which offerings are given in churches in Africa. People who visit churches in African often comment on the custom of people dancing down the aisle to give their offering on the altar. Yes, these include Presbyterian churches. The Bible tells us that “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). How cheerful is your giving?
Don’t miss the big picture here in Exodus of people bringing the materials of their lives and giving them to the Lord. Both men and women were involved. In Ex. 35:25, we read, Every skilled woman spun with her hands and brought what she had spun– blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen. God, then takes those materials and uses them to form a dwelling place for His presence in their midst. For us, the connection may not be as clear, since we mainly give money. But the truth is still there. While you may not see the gem stone you offered in a priestly garment, or the board of acacia wood you brought in an article of furniture, the dollars you give are part of making dwelling places for God’s presence in our world– in and through people, in and through works of compassion and mercy, in and through missionary activities, and affording an ongoing presence here through our church and ministries in this community.
FINDING OUR CALLING
We are all given gifts, talents, longings and desires. This is all part of our creation. We need to prayerfully reflect on these things and try to discern ways in which we can bring glory to God– worship God and serve God in our everyday lives. Some of these things may need to be unleashed alongside the other parts of your life in your spare time or as a hobby.
I realize that sometimes we are placed in roles and jobs that are not a good fit for us, but we have little choice because of economic necessity. But even there, if you pray carefully about it, it can be a place of worship in what you do.
Brother Lawrence is perhaps most famous for helping us see this truth. He was a cook in a 17th century monastery who wrote the little devotional classic, The Practice of the Presence of God. To Brother Lawrence, the phrase “practicing the presence of God” was akin to how we might refer to the practice of law or medicine. The Christian needs to keep at it, training his or her awareness of God at all times, in all places. It was his goal to be as much in the presence of God among the pots and pans of the kitchen as in the chapel in worship. He mentions practical ways to “offer God your heart from time to time in the course of the day,” even in the midst of chores, “to savor Him, though it be but in passing, and as it were by stealth.” Our spiritual life isn’t so much in changing what we do, but doing for God what you ordinarily do for yourself. And, he knew that the more a task was against his natural inclinations, the greater was his love in offering it to God.
When we take that seriously, we become little islands of the refreshing, peaceful presence of God no matter where we are. What a gift to offer the world around us. We can in this way serve God no matter what our task– even if the work itself is something you cannot feel good about, you can feel good about the spirit in which you carry it out.
CONCLUSION
In general, I think we tend to define our service and worship of God far too narrowly. Let’s be imaginative– thinking outside our normal framework of church activities. In our newsletter, there is a list of needs for our local ministry through Manfisher/ Clearinghouse. If you have time and the ability to drive a car, you could give a couple of hours every couple of weeks to help transport a dialysis patient. You could help teach someone life skills like shopping well or be an encourager or prayer partner for their SAFE program geared to helping those with addictions or emotional instability.
Polly and I were blessed by a Christmas letter we received from friends, Ron and Jan. They own a bicycle shop and Ron is a bicycle mechanic. Last February, hearing missionaries from Mozambique, Africa, the Lord gave Ron a vision of taking bikes and tools there and training individuals to repair bikes. So, next month they are going to Mozambique to work on importing 150 donated bicycles and set up a training program for bicycle mechanics. The organization they will be working with has several large orphanages and oversees 5,000 churches in the bush whose pastors have to walk everywhere– so a few sturdy mountain bikes will be of great value.
But, don’t think it is just mission trips or church work that serves the Lord. Ron and Jan every day in their shop seek to make it a place of prayer and presence of the Lord in our world. It is just that sometimes the bigger, more spectacular events demonstrate on a larger scale what God is wanting to do everywhere we dwell.
Worshiping and serving the Lord can take an infinite variety of forms. I want to close by showing you this afghan, crocheted by a 99 year-old woman I used to visit in the nursing home, affectionately referred to by all as Aunt Martha. She was continuously crocheting these and giving them away until her death at 102. She often said, “I can’t do much, but can still crochet and pray.” And I had the impression that she prayed as she crocheted, and there’s a sense in which, when Polly or I snuggle down for a nap under one of Aunt Martha’s afghans, we feel covered with her prayers.