Exodus 31:1-6

Bezalalel and Oholiab were called by God.(vs.2)
* The spirit of God gave them their ability and knowledege to do what they did.
* God gives us our abilities to do what we do.

They were artists (vs.4)
* The ark and the tabernacle were extravagant. / these guys were spirit led to make everything the Lord had commanded down to the intricate details.

We are called to use our skills to the best of our abilities.
* I feel as though I am called to create to the best of my abilities. I feel the things that we do should be at a professional level if not better.
* If the Lord has given me these gifts to work for the kingdom like bezaele and oholiab, than excellence is not an option.

At the same time, we want to be relevant in our design, writing, production to know where culture is and I think take advantage of that culture for the gospel.

* we create media to...
o enhance the Gospel
o clerify the Gospel (the 4SL)
o show how the Gospel is relevant to culture.

Thoughts:
* when I do my job by my own abilities and do not make the Lord a part of what I am working on, even if I am searching for a solution to a problem online, I get frustrated and it never turns out as good as it could.
* In contrast - when I ask the Lord to work through me and use my abilities for his will, 90% of the time a project or solution turns out better than I had hoped.
* The other 10% I find I am usually not living in the spirit.

Recap:
God has given us our gifts to be used for his Kingdom.
* We need to use them with excellence.
* Bring the Lord into your work asking him to use the abilities that he has given us, not take that away from the Lord and do it ourselves.

Created almost 4 years ago