← The Wake-Up Call
The Wake-Up Call
The Spiritual Gift of Carpentry?
00:12:43
This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus—to live your life as if Jesus were living it.
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Well, good morning Sower Nation. It's Tuesday, February 10th, in the year of our Lord 2026. I am Andrew Forrest, and this is your wake up call. Well, everybody, it's Tuesday morning and that's like kind of right in the middle of the week. For me. Tuesday mornings are often various forms of staff meetings in the morning. And then I try to keep my afternoons free. I'm one of those guys. Can I be honest with you? I like having nothing on my calendar. Like when I see my calendar filled with stuff, it stresses me out. So I try to structure my days where I have things when I have to have appointments in the morning and commitments and meetings and that kind of thing. And in the afternoon I like to be totally free. That's kind of how I need to work. Now. I serve at a large church and so our staff is structured in a certain way that basically I can kind of do that. I realize that folks, not everybody has that type of luxury. Not everybody has the kind of job I have. Some of you don't work at churches. A lot of you don't. And even if you work in a church, you may not be able to do that. But for me, thanks be to God and I'm very grateful for this. I'm kind of able to make my schedule how I want it to be. So I'm an early morning guy. I like to be up early, like seeing you guys like this. I like to kind of get a few appointments out of the way early. And then I like to have everything totally wide open and free. I preach every Thursday evening, so I'm always kind of thinking forward toward Thursdays. So Tuesday afternoons is usually kind of like thinking and writing and reading and that kind of thing. Anyway, that's me. I like Tuesdays. Tuesdays are a good day. And I have a little bit of a confession to make. Somebody slapped my hand last week because apparently I didn't mention on here the long standing tradition that Tuesdays are Taco Tuesdays. Not as. Am I supposed to eat a taco on air? I don't know. But somebody said, hey, the poor guy forgot to mention it's Taco Tuesday. So let the record show, I said it's Taco Tuesday. So go ahead and plan your meals accordingly. Well, it's gonna be a good day today and I'm so glad that you're with us. I. I'm grateful for these wake up calls as we work through the end of the book of Exodus together. As I've been mentioning this part of Exodus is not Anybody's favorite, probably. But I think there's some really beautiful, powerful things here, including one of the things we're going to look at today in my church, Asbury, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we're doing the one year Bible together. All year we're reading through the Bible. It's the year through the Bible, and we're at the part where people begin to drop off and kind of go, what am I reading? Why am I doing that type of thing? So my goal with this little series is to offer something valuable from this part of the Bible that people tend to overlook and find less interesting. So for me, all of God's Word has value to it. It's not all maybe immediately accessible. Psalm 23 just leaps off the page, you know, and some of these other parts, these regulations for the building of the tabernacle and how you worship, which we're reading in Exodus, may not seem as valuable, but they are, and I'm grateful for them. And we're going to look at one such passage today. All this to say, I'm so glad to have you joining me on here today. It is Tuesday morning. God's not finished with us yet. The very fact that we have breath in our lungs is evidence that God has more. So let's move forward today to see what he has for us. Amen. Wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. Praying in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our scripture reading for the day is Exodus 31:1:6. Hear now the word of the Lord. The Lord said to Moses, see, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab the son of Asamahach, the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you. The word of the Lord is there a spiritual gift of carpentry. 2026 is the year through the Bible at my church, Asbury Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And we are in the latter part of Exodus in Our reading exactly the part, as I've said, where people who are reading through the Bible start to give up. This part of Exodus is filled with descriptions and regulations, things that just do not seem particularly relevant to modern Christians, if we are honest. But this is precisely why I am focusing on these passages in this little series for Wake Up Call. I want us to see how every part of the Bible has something to do with teach God's people. Okay. Yesterday we looked at the ordination of priests and I made the connection to the pastoral office today from what the Old Testament said to the modern day church. Most people however, are not meant to be pastors. In fact, it would make absolutely no sense for all Christians to become pastors. This is because the pastor is like a coach. He's meant to prepare people for ministry. Well, you can't win the game if all you have is a bunch of coaches and no players. Doesn't make any sense for every Christian to be a pastor. But the problem is that sometimes ordinary Christians feel that they are lacking or less than if they are not called to pastoral ministry. What I love about this passage in Exodus is that someone who is not a priest is said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. See, I have called by name Bezalel and I have filled him with the Spirit of God. Exodus 31, 2, 3. We are specifically told that the Spirit of God has filled Bezalel so that he is gifted at craftsmanship and carpentry. More than that, Bezalel is the first person in the Bible said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Not Moses, not Joshua, not Abraham, but. But Bezalel, a craftsman is gifted by the Spirit for his work. I think it's good for us to remember that the so called ordinary trades and professions matter to the Lord and that the Lord gives skills to people so that they can do their everyday tasks in ways that honor Him. In fact, this is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. To live your life as if Jesus were living it. Every Christian has been gifted by the Holy Spirit to live their lives in the Jesus way and to be in ministry through the ordinary work of everyday life. There's not like special ministry for the pastors and regular ministry for everybody else. The point of the pastor is to prepare the people for ministry and the Holy Spirit is gifting men and women, boys and girls for that work. So have you ever considered that there is a spiritual gift of carpentry? What about a spiritual gift for driving carpool, doing yard work, stocking the shelves at the grocery store? Brothers and sisters, if you have been baptized into Christ, you have also received the Holy Spirit, who strengthens and gifts you for every good work. So be confident today as you go about the Lord's business. God has given you what you need, and he's given us today, which means he wants us to use it to his glory and for our good. And so we pray, Lord, thank you for giving us the gifts you want us to have so that we can participate in your kingdom work. Give us clarity of purpose today so we know to what work we should direct our efforts. Give us strength of resolve to push through any disappointments or setbacks. And give us, when evening falls and night comes, a sense of confidence in you so that we might rest and rejoice in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Here are some journal prompts to get you thinking. Number one, have you ever known anyone who has the spiritual gift of carpentry? That is, have you known someone who seemed gifted by God at the kind of work that wasn't religious in nature? What did it look like when that person was engaged in that work? Number two, more personal. What is your particular gifting and calling? Are you living into it? Do you know what it is? Number three, Is there someone you can encourage today to keep going and lean into the gifts God has given? There's something about this passage that I just find particularly lovely, the idea that this man was gifted by the Holy Spirit in the construction of the tabernacle and the craftsmanship of all that it required. And I'm just excited to see how God has gifted his church in the world today. By the way, this ought to be one of the reasons why we have a heart for evangelism, because there are people that have been gifted by God for certain works who don't know his saving grace, who are outside the grace of Jesus in the church. They need to come to faith, hear the good news, and be therefore used by God to continue to build up the church for the purposes of bringing the good news of the gospel to the world. Well, one of the ways that people are gifted is through the creation of music. So today for our closing hymn, we're going to sing hymn number three. Excuse me, hymn 570, which is blessed Assurance from the seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer's Praise. This is a great Fanny Crosby Hymn 5. 70 Blessed assurance, Jesus is Mine. Here we go. Let's sing it together.
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Blessed assurance Jesus is mine oh, what a foretaste of glory Divine heir of salvation Purchase of God Born of his spirit Washed in his blood this is my story this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long this is my story this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long Verse three Perfect submission all is at rest I and my Savior and happy and blessed Watching and waiting Looking above Filled with his spirit Goodness lost in his love this is my story this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long this is my story this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long Amen.
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I love that hymn. It reminds me of my childhood and of, like, old ladies playing the piano at the church when I was growing up. It's a great hymn. It's one of those hymns that if you sing it right where it's pitched in the hymnal, often it's a little bit high, particularly in that chorus. But it's a great hymn and a hymn about just the assurance we have in Christ. I hope you are encouraged and have a sense of confidence in God today and the gifts that he has given you. And so our nation for the awakening. I'm Andrew Forrest, and I'll see you on the field.