Ex 36:1+2, "Now Bezalel and Oholiab, and every skillful person in whom the Lord has put skill and understanding to know how to perform all the work in the construction of the sanctuary, shall perform in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded." Then Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every skillful person in whom the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him, to come to the work to perform it. 
	This morning, we will bring our extended consideration of the manner in which God gives us gifts of skill and understanding and wisdom for the sake of His glory and honor to an end. There is so very much more that could be studied as we have just touched briefly upon some of the manifested gifts with which God makes us able to glorify Him on this earth in the creative and adroit practices of our hands and minds and concentrated spiritual efforts. 
	Last time, we ended with the fact that the ministry supplied by God is a gift to His church. He gives His church those ministers, shepherds of the flock, who are endowed with the ability to study and to share the Word and to counsel and ton encourage and to guide those in need to the Lord. This is where we will pick up today, if you would please turn in your Bibles to 2 Tim 1:6-11. The Apostle Paul is encouraging his young protégé in the manner of honoring God as a minister of the Word. This was a young man who would oversee the church’s growth in Asia Minor with all the responsibilities of such a tremendous task. It would be easy to become overwhelmed and frustrated and discouraged, yet the Apostle recalled to Timothy’s mind the following truth.
	2 Tim 1:6-11, And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. 
	…I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you… The great task of ministering to the needs of God’s people is not one which is to be seen as just a job. That is what it is often considered by those who decide that this is to be the course of their livlihoods. There are so many men and women who just determine on their own to take up the title of minister, who are not really called to that service. Many of them may not even be true Christians. They do it for a source of revenue or some supposed recognition of their title, without any real understanding that true ministry is a gift from God, not for personal recognition, but for the sake of the members of the Church. 
	Ministry is not effective and neither can it be when it is seen as a job or a profession. It needs to be cherished as the gift of God’s provision and as a calling to which one responds with determination to be fully honoring to God in a unilateral commitment to those to whom one ministers. It is a gift that needs to be continually seen as precisely that, a gift from God in the every instance of its execution. 
And note what is integral in that recognition …For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity… There is a suffering for the sake of Christ’s people in the manner in which this gift is applied in the lives of those called to minister. There is a complete reliance on God to offer up such service according to that which He instills into the hearts and the minds and the beings of the dispensers of this gift of ministry to the Church for the expressed glory of God. 
Again, in 2 Tim 2:7-10, hear the encouragement to Timothy from the Apostle Paul in line with this gift of God’s grace in ministry for His Chosen people. 2 Tim 2:7-10, Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. 
        There are eternal consequences at the heart of this gift of ministry. That is why it is exceedingly perilous for those who are not called, those who are not given this gift of service by God unto the Church. We are dealing with the eternity of those to whom we are sent to share the Gospel. We are truly in a life or death situation that is far beyond the scope of this physical realm. It is a spiritual choice that is offered to those unto whom we are sent. While a pastor is chosen for the local flock, it is the responsibility of each member of that flock to live lives that are beacons to their families and their communities of what it means to have a living relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the lives of God’s redeemed that will shine the light on the truth of Jesus Christ crucified, resurrected, and glorified for all the ages of the ages to come. 
	It is the minister’s utmost responsibility to …endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. That is something that cannot be just a choice of profession or a means of making a living on this earth. It is too important and too vital to be anything other than a calling. And the accountability is so great that one would never wish to take it upon oneself unless it is done through the gift of God’s grace. 
This is dealt with by Brother James as we read in James 3:1. James 3:1, Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment. How we minister to the needs of others is a matter in which God takes very close account because we are dealing with His Word and His testimony by the witness that we are unto others. That must always be in complete accordance to His will and His power and His glory at the heart of it all. 
It is such a serious matter that it is paralleled with the preparation of the priests in our reading of Exodus. When the priests were not doing their ministry in direct accordance to the manner prescribed by God, they were struck down in His presence. That is the urgency with which any true ministry needs to be considered. Those who deal wrongly with the people of God will face His wrath and His judgment. To know that should cause anyone who is even thinking of becoming a pastor or a teacher of the Word of God to humbly beseech Him as to the gifting of His understanding and His wisdom and His endurance and His compassion and His ability in order to minister according to His heart for the sake of His people.
Again, we read of this encouragement from the Apostle Paul, this time to Titus, in Titus 3:3-11. Here the Apostle details what is necessary to understand according to the heart of the gift of God’s grace in sharing the Gospel message. Titus 3:3-11, For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men. But shun foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law; for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned. 
	Because we have received the Gospel in our lives, and as a means to be a living testimony to others of this tremendous and glorious gift, we need to be absolutely careful against taking it for granted in any measure. As our lives reflect the reality of Jesus Christ resurrected and glorified, so should our behavior and our attitude and our dealings with others be seasoned with God’s grace and love. As He has so loved us, so we are to love others, as it is stressed over and over again in so many of the New Testament writings. 
	As Titus was so instructed …This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men. We are given the gift of God’s salvation by His grace and His mercy, therefore that grace and mercy should be the defining characteristic of our lives unto others. We should not be allowing ourselves to be caught up in …foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law; for they are unprofitable and worthless. Therefore we are to see the gift of God in our lives being shared with each person with whom we are brought into contact by the working power of God. Our fellowship one with each other should be on the basis that we share together in such a glorious giving of life in Jesus Christ to you and to me. 
	Brother James, in James 1:5, once more, details how God gives everything that is needed to His Elect as He so directs and responds to our requests. James 1:5, But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. He instructs us that God’s character of Being is to give generously and without reproach. 
Each of us can testify to this in our own lives as everything that is ours in Christ is only because God was so generous, treating us without reproach. If He gave on the basis of what we deserved, none of us would be alive at all. We would be utterly consumed by the depth and depravity of who we used to be apart from the gift of God’s saving grace. Therefore, because God gives and gives and gives again, we can humbly, yet confidently approach His Throne of Grace, in Jesus Christ, and ask Him to supply all that He knows we need in the manner of living our lives before Him and before man, each and every day.
	Again, Brother James, in verse 17 of this first Chapter, details this magnificence of God’s giving nature of Being. James 1:17, Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow. Everything that we have that is of value and permanence and beauty in our lives comes from the endless treasury of God’s love. He cannot do anything other than give us those gifts of the depth of His heart because that is Who He is. 
	Once more, in verse 17 of Chapter 3, James describes the fact that those gifts from God to His chosen ones are of the same perfection and splendor as the One from Whom they are received. James 3:17, But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. How much of Himself is contained in each manifestation of His gifts of love and grace and mercy and wisdom and understanding and peace and comfort is beyond all comprehension. There is no end and there is no limit to the riches of the grace of the gift of God in Jesus Christ!
	We end this consideration with two passages from the Writer to the Hebrews, beginning with Heb 2:2-4. These are further details as to the boundlessness of God in all that He has done for the sake of mankind Whom He created. Heb 2:2-4, For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. 
God, Himself, bears witness through the miracles and the gifts that He gives that His salvation in Jesus, His Only Begotten Son, can never be diminished nor can He be dismissed. He gave freely, without reservation, and that is how we receive His so great gift of everlasting life.
	And the Writer to the Hebrews, in Heb 5:4, then highlights the fact that we must never try to claim any credit or honor unto ourselves. Our salvation and the gift of life is only by the calling of God in our hearts and minds and beings. We cannot save ourselves and we cannot save others. Only God can do so as He is the One Who calls and knows those who will respond. Heb 5:4, And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was. That is why we must never neglect nor take Jesus Christ for granted! We are to cherish and respond to the every call of God in our lives to use those gifts which He has so freely bestowed. We do so to His glory Alone. So be it. 
"Now Bezalel and Oholiab, and every skillful person in whom the Lord has put skill and understanding to know how to perform all the work in the construction of the sanctuary, shall perform in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded." Then Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every skillful person in whom the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him, to come to the work to perform it. Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is Isa 61:1-3. The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives, And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. Amen.