How to Serve God with you Gifts and Talents. (Exodus 31:1-11)

Let me ask you a question: What does it take to serve the Lord? I think when we think of people who are serving the Lord, we automatically think of people who have some kind of special spiritual gift like teaching, preaching, or evangelism. We are inclined to think those are the people that serve the Lord. However, remember, Moses wasn't good at speaking, but he clearly must have had some gifts if nothing else a gift of administration to pull off what he did. Barnabas in the New Testament wasn’t the main man but clearly had a gift of encouragement. So, what talents and gifts are necessary to serve the Lord?

Let me probe this just a bit further. Suppose you didn't have some kind of extraordinary special ability like teaching, evangelism, or worship. What then do you have to have to serve the Lord? I think there's an interesting twist on that subject tucked away in Exodus chapter 31. Now, those of you who have been following me through the book of Exodus know that just prior to this, we have been given the blueprint for the building of the Tabernacle. 

But thus far in the book of Exodus, that's all we've seen—the blueprint. Then yesterday we saw the job description of the priests the one who were going to serve in this house of God called the Tabernacle. This is like even before you build the house, hiring servants to serve in the house. What happens next is God calls some people and equips them to build this thing called Tabernacle. That's what chapter 31, at least the first 11 verses, are all about. So, beginning at verse 1. 

1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 3 And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, 4 to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, 5 in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. 6 “And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you: 7 the tabernacle of meeting, the ark of the Testimony and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle— 8 the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, 9 the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base— 10 the garments of ministry, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests, 11 and the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded you they shall do.”

(Exodus 31: 1-11)

These are the workmen that are going to work to build the Tabernacle, and there are three different people or groups mentioned. There is this man that you've never heard of yet called Bezalel, and there's another man named Aholiab. We have not heard of either of those people before. We know a lot about Aaron, Moses’ brother, but we’ve not met these guys before. So, what did was offer in service of the Lord? And that is what this passage is about.

The first thing it says is God called them, and he called him by name. The second thing that it says about him is that He filled him with the Holy Spirit. Now these guys he's going to operate in the background, not the limelight. The other interesting thing is it says, "I have filled him with the Spirit of God." And I listen to this, "in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship." This is a really interesting insight into the application of the word wisdom. It seems working for the Lord with any speciality or skill can be elevated to wisdom when done in service of the Lord. So in this passage, being filled with wisdom is about demonstrating skill in workmanship in service unto the Lord. 

Notice it says three things: in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge. A literal translation of those words would be skill, intelligence, and discernment, (knowledge applied). Those are words we usually attribute to a wise person or a spiritually minded person. But in this case, all of those words apply to someone who was an artisan, someone skilled in craftsmanship, someone who has natural ability. 

In verse 4 it even talks about those who can design artistic works in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. All of which is going to go into the building of the Tabernacle. 

So, here is people are going to be called who are filled with the Spirit of God and have the skills, and applied wisdom to work in all these areas doing practical things like working with metal, jewels, and wood and even the administration of the project, but why would you have to have the Holy Spirit to do these practical things? Interesting question. I think the answer and it is at the end of verse 6: "That they may make all that I have commanded you." If you're going to do what the Lord commands, then if you have an ability, you can express it to bring that will of God to pass, and that's when you need is the Spirit of God to accomplish it.

Perhaps the natural native ability to work with wood, for example, would get them to place where they could do exactly what God commanded them to do. To follow His instructions to the letter, which would take the whole wide range of skills, gifts and experience. There is a second fellow that's mentioned a man called Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. 

Now, you might notice the first fellow was from the tribe of Judah, and the second is from the tribe of Dan. So, these guys are not connected to with the tribe of Levi, who were all priests. So this is also not a case of one tribe producing all of the artisans. They came from Judah and from Dan. It says again, "I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans." So, besides the two fellows that I've mentioned, there were other people as well. Ahisamach has natural ability too, he is a skilled craftsman also. Now, because they are mentioned by name and then it says, "and all the artisans," many have concluded that the first two were supervisors, that they were the ones over the others, and then all of these people worked together to build the Tabernacle. 

It says they put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, they were already talented, they were gifted artisans. But God gave them wisdom by the power of his Holy Spirit to administer the whole project. Go back up to verse 3, remember "And I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom." So, I'm going to give them this extra ability to apply their speciality to this project. They're going to go from skilled to gifted by the filling of the Holy Spirit.

From verses 7 down through verse 11, Moses lists all the things that they are to do. And this is almost a review of everything we've looked at since chapter 25. He talks in verse 7 about, "the Tabernacle of meeting," that's the whole courtyard. "The ark of the testimony and the mercy seat," remember that's in the Holy of Holies. "And all the furniture of the Tabernacle," then he lists in verse 8, "the table of showbread and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense."  In, even describes the three pieces of furniture that were to be placed in the Holy Place and the furniture for the courtyard. Now, in this chapter, it tells us that he has selected people to do the work.

This is a review of everything we have seen in Exodus so far up to this point. Verse 11 talks about the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place, so these 11 verses are nothing more than a review of all that we have seen thus far in the book of Exodus. What's going on in this chapter is that we see people employed to do the work of bringing all of this to come to pass. The question is, what do you need to today serve the Lord? What do you need to serve Him in terms of talent? 

Well, it seems to me that this passage is simply saying the Lord gave people a wide range of naturals talents and with the power of the Holy Spirit all those natural talents could be employed in serving  Him. 

So let me break this down and suggest that Exodus 31 is saying you need two things to serve the Lord. Number one, you need a basic talent, some kind of natural ability.

In the New Testament, it talks about spiritual gifts. According to the New Testament, every believer in Jesus Christ has a spiritual gift. The gifts include things like teaching, evangelism, exhortation, giving, and more. By definition, a spiritual gift is a supernatural ability to perform a spiritual function. So, a gifted teacher is gifted at teaching, not just teaching facts but explaining and enabling people to apply spiritual truth in their lives. An evangelist is someone gifted by the Spirit of God to preach the gospel in such a way that people understand the gospel and respond. What I am saying there is a difference between a spiritual gift and a talent. It is possible for a person to have the gift of evangelism combined with a talent for writing. The talent is the natural ability for writing, and the gift is the spiritual function of that gift in the likes of preaching or evangelism.

Similarly, some people have the gift of evangelism or a talent for singing. However, it is also possible to have the gift of evangelism without a natural talent in any of those areas. The point is that youcan have a God given spiritual gift, or you don't need to possess some extraordinary talent to serve the Lord; you can use your ordinary talents and they can be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be gifts of service unto the Lord. Any talent you have, an artist of a writer or even a bricklayer, a plumber, a doctor, a carpenter, a mechanic, an assembly line worker, or an administrator, any job that contributes to the good of another person or an organisation or even society, can serve the Lord in their work. Whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord.

Here is the point I want to make today: we need people with natural talent, and people with natural talents need the Holy Spirit's filling if they are going to serve the Lord as He commands. 

I think it would be helpful if we were to discuss the work of the Holy Spirit. Even though these people have natural talent, they had to be filled with the Holy Spirit to do the work of the Tabernacle. Why? Because they needed to do all that God commanded. That's the purpose stated in verse 6. One commentator said, "The repetition of 'I' in this paragraph shows that with the demand/command, there is divine enablement." That's part of what is going on. This is God divine enablement, which is something we all need. In the Old Testament, the filling of the Spirit was a sovereign act of God for a specific service. Let me repeat that: it was a sovereign act of God usually given at a specific time to perform a specific service. The best illustration of that is right here in Exodus chapter 31. They did nothing to get filled with the Spirit. God just sovereignly filled them with the Spirit. As a matter of fact, apparently, in the Old Testament, the filling was usually temporary.  There are passages that at least imply that, some would say that. The most well-known being Psalm 51, where David says, "Do not take your Holy Spirit from me." Implies that by nature.

This is really different in the New Testament where you are sealed with the Holy Spirit until the Lord comes back again. Apparently in the Old Testament, in some cases, it was usually temporary,  evidently in some other cases, it was permanent. But this is the one thing you need to know is that in the Old Testament it was not the ordinary normal everyday experience in the daily lives of the people in the Old Testament. It was a sovereign work of God to perform a specific service. This unction or inspiration of the Holy Spirit was often connected with prophecy. So, the Spirit of God came upon a person, sometimes just temporarily, to enable them to perform their role as a prophet. And as soon as that was done, apparently the Holy Spirit left or at least no longer filled that person. 

Alright, that’s all of the Old Testament, but let’s now talk about the New Testament. Where does the New Testament talk about the filling of the Holy Spirit? I’m going to give it to you quick time.

In the Gospel of Luke, in the Book of Acts, and in one other verse. That’s it. Luke is the only person, with one exception, in the New Testament that talks about the filling of the Spirit. Again, let’s look at this because it’s something special. Who’s the first person in the Bible who is declared to be “filled” with the holy Spirit. Answer, John the Baptist. Where was he when he was filled with the Spirit? In his mother’s womb. It was the sovereign work of God, and he was filled with the Spirit from the being in his mother’s womb. There are only three other people who are said to be filled with the Spirit in the Gospel of Luke. One is Elizabeth in Luke 1:41, another is Zacharias in 1:67. And when they were filled with the Spirit, they immediately spoke the word of God. Again, the filling of the Spirit is connected with speaking of the word. And in fact, in Zacharias' case, he is said to have prophesied. Interesting. 

I said there were others besides John the Baptist. Elizabeth, Zacharias. There is Jesus, Jesus is said to be filled with the Spirit in the Gospel of Luke. Always and completely, not surprising really as he is the third person of the trinity. This is where it gets interesting is in the Book of Acts the crowd were filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and immediately, that’s connected with they were filled, and they spirited one spoke. They spoke in tongues, which Acts 2 were many different forms of known human languages. It actually lists 17 languages spoken that day. This is different to tongues discussed elsewhere in the New Testament. Here it was other languages they didn’t naturally speak. Read Acts 2. Then the other person is filled with the Spirit is Peter, and he immediately speaks the word of God in Acts 4:8. Again we’re told believers were filled with the Spirit of God in Acts 4:31, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Then others, Stephen are told was full of the Holy Spirit and faith and wisdom. Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 9:17 and immediately spoke the word of God. Barnabas was filled with the Holy Spirit and faith in Acts 11:24. The disciples are said to be filled with the Holy Spirit and joy and go out and preach the Gospel. 

There are no conditions talked about here; it sovereignly comes upon them. Apparently, it is repeatable because some who were filled with the Spirit are said to be filled with the Spirit later.  The purpose of this filling seems to be to speak the word of God, engage in special prophetic activity, or speak a word of truth into a current situation with boldness, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit in order to do that.  But being filled with the Holy Spirit is not just an event, it’s a condition. Filling is an event, being filled, being full of the Holy Spirit is a condition, an abiding condition. So, it not a request, we don’t seek it out, in a sense of hope it’s a command to follow.  So, that doesn't mean we are not involved or in control of that situation, we are not out of control, we still have free will, in fact one of the fruits of the Spirit we are told is self-control. 

Some people talk about being filled with the Spirit is about going into some kind of ecstasy where they are visibility out of control. That I believe is contrary to the Bible because the fruit of the Spirit is self-control, not being out of control.  I think being filled in the Spirit means that you are ultimately filled by means of the Spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit to do whatever God want you to do. Practical and sometimes even miraculous.

Exodus 31 here said they were filled with wisdom to apply a skill, and in the book of Acts, the crowd were filled with wisdom and the Holy Spirit. Is it possible that when you are filled with the Spirit, you are actually filled with wisdom? So, if you're filled with the Spirit (verse 18), you're going to be speaking to one another with wisdom. Now, turn to the next book, Colossians chapter 3, and look at verse 16.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." 

In verse 18-19 it goes on to says.

“If you're filled with the Spirit, you will be singing Psalms Hymns and spiritual songs.

Many Bible teachers have concluded that since both of these things result in the same thing, they are equal to each other. So, being filled with the Spirit is being filled with the wisdom of the word and a sense of praise and worship. Ephesians chapter 3 16 says.

"That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Wow, look at this. He says, "I want the Spirit of God to strengthen you" in the inner person. However, you slice and dice Ephesians 5:18, and Ephesians 3:16, the Holy Spirit is the one who gives us strength through faith to serve the Lord. So, as I trust the Lord, it is the Spirit of God who gives me an wisdom and understanding of the love of Christ so that I am filled with the fullness of God and am abole to apply it into my everyday life.

Putting all of this together, what do you need to serve the Lord? You simply need the Holy Spirit. He can then take any most basic natural and use it in amazing service unto the Lord. It doesn't take much to serve the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit. Can you wash dishes? You're qualified, and most churches can use that ability almost every Sunday all around the world, by the way.  But what else do you need Holy Spirit for? To lean on Him, depend on Him, rely on Him so that you can be filled with discernment, wisdom, and joy. That's what it takes to serve the Lord. What does it take to serve the Lord? The Holy Spirit, the answer is you need the Holy Spirit to do anything in exactly the same was as you need the Holy Spirit to be a preacher or a carpenter or a plumber or a dishwasher. 

You need to have the Holy Spirit to do anything you do in the way God wants you to do it. Remember that little phrase in Exodus 36, "I want you to do it as I commanded you. What does God want us to mainly do? What is His greatest command? What's the greatest commandment? Answer, to Love one another. 

Let's me close by giving you some characteristics of love. Well, that could take the rest of the night, but how about 1 Corinthians 13:4. It says, "Love suffers long" that means we are to be patient with people if we love them. Not to have a short fuse.  Do you need that patience in almost every job these days? If you work in any service industry you need patience these days, right. 

So, what does it take to serve the Lord? A little talent, a minimal amount of basic talent or ability  and a lot of the Holy Spirit so that you can be a loving, patient, wise, joyful person, even when you're washing dishes, flipping burgers, making coffee’s, cleaning toilets, caring for the elderly, dressing people, caring for people, or just being a friend to someone. You need the Holy Spirit to express the gifts of the Holy Spirit and see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in yours and other people lives. To see and experience Love, Joy, Peace,  Forbearance, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control not only in your lives but in the lives of those around you in the places God had put you.