Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Does Your Work Glorify God? | Torah | Exodus 35:30-40:33

Episode Date: July 27, 2022

Does your everyday work make a difference? Should you leave ministry to the pastors? Does God care about your work? In today's episode, Jensen shares about the construction of the tabernacle in Exodus 35:30-40:33 and the importance of your job. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Exodus 35:30-40:33 Resources: Garden City by John Mark Comer

Welcome to 10-minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair, and right now we're going through Exodus. In a recent tweet, Pastor and author Scott Saul's wrote, What if we began to rethink missions altogether? In addition to commissioning pastors and missionaries for God's work, we can also commission artists, physicians, homemakers, educators, baristas, athletes, parents, intercessors, attorneys, landscapers, and salespeople.

And Twitter did not like it. If you're on Twitter, you know it can be a controversial place, with lots of emotions and lots of name-calling. And so it may or may not come as a surprise that people had a problem with this tweet. That's kind of normal. But what do you think about what he has to say?

Does the idea of commissioning artists, physicians, homemakers, landscapers, and baristas make, you feel uncomfortable? It definitely did not sit well with many. Now, why? Why is that? Well, people were mostly uncomfortable with the idea of equating a pastor's work to the work of a landscaper. They didn't like the idea of people being called to be a pastor, being on the same plane of people being called to be a landscaper. And their reaction doesn't surprise me. In our current Christian bubble, we idolize the idea of ministry. We hold up examples of people giving up everything,

maybe to move to a foreign country, or maybe it's a pastor moving to broken cities, and we hold this up as the pinnacle of holiness. We hold tightly to this idea that being called to give your life to vocational ministry is the most important, most holy, most worthy thing we could do with our lives. When we believe that, we start to operate out of the assumption that God's mission is confined to the work of the church. Maybe we don't even realize it, but we start to split the world into two. The church, where God is at work, is where I learn and it's where I serve, and then the secular world. That's where I work so I can make money and eat food. John Mark Comer says in his book, The Garden City,

that all too often there is a massive disconnect between spiritual life and life. But doing this, separating spiritual life and life, it lets ourselves off the hook. We participate in the holy on Sundays. And the rest of the week, we work and give some money to the church so that our pastors can do the important work that they're called to do. I believe this sometimes. Having worked in vocational ministry, it was easy to do. feel like I was called to do God's work, like I was spreading his mission. It was my job. It felt important. It felt holy. And now I stay at home with my 10-month-old son. I sing a lot of fiddler on

the roof and I clean up a lot of vomit. It's hard to feel the mission. It's hard to feel called commissioned to be in my home with my son day after day. Because the work I'm doing, it just doesn't feel holy. Singing fiddler on the roof for the hundredth time doesn't feel like it has anything to do with God. Making a hundredth latte for the day, laying another landscaping bricks, seeing another patient, painting another painting, filling another form, teaching another lesson, those things might not feel like they have anything to do with God. But God doesn't agree. Exodus 35 verse 30. Then Moses said to the Israelites. See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, son of her, of the tribe of Judah. And he has filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge,

and with all kinds of skills, to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and a holiab, son of a hyzimax, of the tribe of Dan the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen, and weavers, all of them skilled workers and designers. Does this passage sound familiar? Well, it should. If you've been listening along, this is the second time that we see the story of these two men in the book of Exodus. A few weeks ago, Patrick first shared this account with us,

and he reminded us that God was at work throughout these men's life, preparing them in their ordinary daily work so that they would be prepared to help establish and build God's tabernacle with excellence. Their daily, mundane, ordinary, non-pastoral work mattered to God. But here, in this second account, there's a very same thing. a difference. Here the author adds something else among the things the Spirit of God has enabled these men to do. Now remember, first, we learned that the Lord had called these men. He had filled them with his spirit, the Spirit of God, and given them skill, intelligence, knowledge, and craftsmanship. The skills he gives these men do not seem ultra-spiritual. They were things like having an eye

for design and working with silver and gold, cutting wood, carving stone. not things you'd see a priest or pastor doing. And yet, what an incredible gift this was. These men filled with the spirit of God to do the work with their hands so that they could build the house where God would dwell with his people. But in this section of Scripture, God also adds that he has inspired them to teach. Filled with the Spirit of God, these men have been given skills and craftsmanship, and they have been enabled to teach others to do the same.

God had a missional mindset when he filled these men with his spirit. God's mission is always to bless his people so that they can go out and bless others. And here he does the same thing. He blesses these men so that they can partner with him in building his tabernacle, but also so that they can teach and call others to join them and do the same. God named the designer, the engraver, the weaver, he looked at their work, and he saw a mission field. He saw a skill, a way of making a living in ordinary workplace, and he said, that is where I will partner with my people. Yes, God calls pastors to sacrifice in many ways. He calls people in

vocational ministry to work for the church, and he spends time in scripture specifically talking about how to do those things for his glory. But here, twice in Scripture, we also see God's spirit, not just enabling people to teach scripture for his glory, but teach woodworking for his glory. Now, this shouldn't surprise us. Remember Jesus? Yeah, Jesus was a carpenter. Almost his entire life, he studied, he trained, he learned a craft.

And it wasn't until his final years of life that he started. to do full-time ministry. So was the life of Jesus not on mission, not partnering with God before that point? Was the perfect son of God not doing holy work for the vast majority of his life? Of course not. Of course not. We have to trust. We have to know that Jesus, he was partnering with God in his mission as he lived

and worked as a carpenter in a small town. throughout his entire life, Jesus would have been working for the glory of God. Tim Keller defines work as rearranging the raw material of God's creation in such a way that it helps the world in general and people in particular to thrive and flourish. When we look at our work this way, it makes sense why when filled with the Spirit of God, these men in Exodus were given the skills and gifting needed to build the tabernacle and the ability to teach others to do the same. The physical work of building the tabernacle mattered. And the physical and mental work that you and I do in our daily life matters too.

See, God cares about your work. He cares about how you spend your life. He cares about what you do day in and day out, not just on Sunday. and he has equipped you and is calling you to partner with him in that work every single day, pastor or not. In his same book on work and rest, John Mark Comer asks the question, Do you see your work as an essential part of your discipleship to Jesus? And as the primary way that you join him and his work of renewal?

If not, you should. Think about that question. do you live like that? Do you see your work as the primary way that you join Jesus in his work of renewal? Or do you have a spiritual life and life split? See, God has placed you and gifted you in exactly the way he planned. As Christians, the work you're doing every day is no more or less important than the work of someone in full-time ministry. And just like a pastor, we have to see our work as the primary way that we partner with. God and his mission to renew all of creation. God's plan for the tabernacle was to build a tent where he could dwell with his people. And God's plan for his people is that we would work to

renew all of creation and bring God's eternal kingdom here on earth today. As we care deeply for those we work with, as we treat patience with dignity and respect, as we find and create cleaner ways to care for the planet. As we heal animals, as we tend to gardens and show our children how to speak kindly and create beautiful things that reflect a beautiful God and bring order to offices and classrooms. As we do these things, we partner with God and creating spaces where there is flourishing. And as we do these things, we invite those around us to live in the same way. what if we saw our work like this? Not just about making money or doing something that makes me happy,

but as a way to partner with God, helping more and more people join him in building his eternal kingdom in this world. I think it will change our communities. I think it would change our churches. Your work matters to God. And he wants to use you every day in every day, in every area of your life to bring renewal to this broken world. Will you let him?

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