Spirit Filled Leadership in the Church

If you want to take the Bibles and open up to Exodus, the book of Exodus will be in chapter 31. Exodus chapter 31. Well, we've been in a series for quite some time now in the book of John. Brother Chris has been walking us through our series, Christ, the Son of God, believe, live. But for several weeks we've been in chapter 14. Brother Chris spent several weeks there discussing the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. He told us that the Holy Spirit is our advocate and our helper. The scripture uses the term paraclete, which is a legal term. The Holy Spirit is our counselor.

We've been learning here in all of Epheschirch the importance of triune worship. What triune worship means, we must know the role of a father as we need. We must know the role of the Son and we must know the role of the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity are actively engaged every time a sinner is saved, every time we gather they work perfectly together. And so the Lord impressed upon my heart to explore what it means to have Spirit-filled leaders in the church. Now I come from New Orleans, Louisiana.

You all might know that Louisiana is obviously just south of us, but what you may not know is that the, that state is quite a lot of charismatic influence. You might remember in the 80s Jimmy Baker and Jimmy Swagger. Well, in my hometown, a lot of the sin that took place as those events unfolded, took place right close to my house and it was something that sort of embroiled my entire city. Now, as I grew up and went through high school, I realized that my high school was filled with charismatic. A lot of my friends, I was a very vocal Christian, although the Lord had not saved me.

I was a false convert to Christ and my religion was my own doing. But I have many charismatic friends and they use this term Spirit-filled a lot. I think growing up Southern Baptists have been quite fearful of this term, but if you look at what scripture tells us about being filled with the Spirit is biblical. It is real. You may not think the Old Testament as being a place to understand, to learn more about what it means to be Spirit-filled. Now in the Old Testament, we see people filled with the Spirit a little differently than we see in the New Testament.

For instance, in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit falls at Pentecost, fills the church. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon individual people such as the patriarchs, such as prophets, such as the priests, and even King David and many other leaders. Usually the Spirit would fall upon people for a limited amount of time for a specific purpose. But in our day, every Christian we are blessed, every genuine born-again believer, has the Holy Spirit and we can't have any more of the Holy Spirit.

Now, to be Spirit-filled for us, I will use this term to imply a person in our day who is walking with the Lord in unbroken fellowship, who has an ever-growing love for the Lord and has a close and intimate walk with the Lord. And I thought it would be useful for us to look at an Old Testament text of a man who is filled with the Spirit. I think we can learn a lot about what it means in our day. So let's read in the Scripture. We're going to learn of a man perhaps you've never heard of before. His name is Bizallel. He's become a hero of mine even though he has only spoken of about two or three different paragraphs in the Bible.

I'd like to read this. Let's read it together. The Lord said to Moses, Exodus 31, verse 1, The Lord said to Moses, "See, I have called by name Bizallel, the son of Yuri, the son of her, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence and 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 him with him a holy ep, the son of his map of the tribe of Dan.

And I have given to all able men ability that they may make all that I have commanded you, the tent of meeting, the ark of testimony, the mercy seat that is on it, all furnishings of the tent, the table and its utensils, the pure lampstand with all its utensils and altered incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils in the basin and its stand and the finely worked garments.

The holy garments for Aaron, the priest, the garments for his sons, but the service of his priests, the naughty oil and the fragrant incense of the holy place, according to all that I have commanded you, they shall do." Well, in this passage, just a bit of background before we continue, Moses is on the mountain of God. God is giving him a tent commandments, and God is also instructing him how he desires his people to worship. So the Lord is giving Moses very detailed instructions. But in terms of the design for this, for this tabernacle, we're going to learn more about how it's actually designed.

God tells Moses, but he says that he has already appointed and called a man in Bezalel, who will be filled with the spirit and who will bring these things about. Now, four main truths this morning. The first main truth I want you to see is that there is a divine call. There is a divine filling, a divine purpose, fourth, a divine majesty. Well, let me pray before I go any further. Let's go ahead and get started. Lord, I do thank you for this word, this passage. I pray, God, you might enable us to be equipped with a giftedness and equipping that cannot come from the hand. Something that is supernatural, something that is above us and beyond us.

And that we would even depend on this and that we would refuse to settle for any man-powered ministry. Let us learn what it means to depend on you in all things. In verse 1, "See I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of her, the tribe of Judah." We see a divine call. Now, commentators refer to Bezalel as the chief artisan in Israel, but he was far more than the chief artisan. To imply that he was an ordinary artist, I think is to sell them quite short. Even if you were to say he was the nation's best artist or the region's best artist or even the best artist in the world at that time, undercuts the whole purpose of this text.

He completely undersells the significance of this man. As we will see, this man was far more than an artisan. He was a supernaturally gifted artist. He was a supernaturally gifted artist. Now, the first truth that I have that I'd like us to see under a divine call, Bezalel was not just called to art, he was called to godliness. Bezalel was called to godliness. And if we're going to learn anything about what it means to be a spirit-filled leader, we're going to have to learn about godliness. So Bezalel was of the tribe of Judah. You should know Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. King David was of the lion of Judah.

Matthew Henry says that the tribe of Judah is one in particular that God longs and loves to bless. So there have been many godly people who have come out of the line of Judah. Perhaps it goes without saying, but there cannot be any genuinely spirit-filled Christian who is not godly. Let me repeat that if I could say that there cannot be any genuinely spirit-filled Christian who is not godly. Now there can be counterfeits. There can be people who fool lots of individuals. And we've had many, many individuals who claim to be filled with God, filled with the spirit of God, and were actually not godly.

I made reference to the scandals that embroiled the charismatic community in the 80s. Jim Baker and Jimmy Swagger. And what came to mind specifically with Jimmy Swagger that I may mention of located just about an hour south of New Orleans and that age is that he was not godly. Broiled in a sexual scandal. Now for Southern Baptists, I think that our particular downfall may be different when it comes to what we depend on. Perhaps if Charismatics have placed their emphasis on Charismatic theology, maybe in a flamboyant expression of worship, I think we as Southern Baptists have placed our hope in organization and program.

I think that we say if a person can organize teams of volunteers, if they can plan well, if they can structure churches, if they can get a really good program going so that everybody wants to show up, I think it would be very easy for us at Southern Baptists to confuse that with a spirit-filled leader. Listen to what Ian Bounds says in Power Through Prayer. "The church is looking for better methods, but God is looking for better men." I'll read that again. "The church is looking for better methods, but God is looking for better men.

Whatever we might depend on, whether it's planning or whether it is our type, style of worship, nothing other than a dependence on God and what he calls, these allow was chosen and he was called and he was filled. But he was not just called to godliness, he was also called to prayer." Now if you read all that there is to be read in the Bible about Rhesolel, you will not see the word prayer. So why would I put that as this divine call is called godliness and a call to prayer? How could I justify that? Well, it's actually right there in the text if we read a little carefully. Let's look at verse one again, specifically past that verse two.

"See I have called by name Rhesolel, the son of Yuri, the son of her." And if we look at her we see one of my great heroes of faith. If you study her, this is most likely the same man who along with Aaron helped Moses slay their enemy. If you remember the story, Joshua was leading God's armies into battle and God told Moses to go on a hillside on the mountain top overlooking the battle. And whenever he raised his hand and his staff, Israel was victorious. But whenever he let his staff down they would begin to lose lives. And Moses grew tired so along with her and Aaron, Moses was able to hold up his hands and the battle was victorious.

Now that may not even seem significant. But at some point in that story if you remember, her and Aaron grabbed a large stone and placed that under Moses. And anytime in the Old Testament we see a stone, we see Christ. Christ is a living stone. Hebrews tells us that he was the stone from which water poured out to sustain the Hebrews. What this shows us is that Aaron and her, along with Christ, they had Christ-like intercession for their pastor. "O for men of God like her who will sacrificially pray for their pastors." And even that they would pass on a legacy of their children for praying for their pastors the way her.

Now long before I was called into the ministry in 2010, I spent five or six years trying to emulate her. I don't know that I ever got there. But even before God called me in the ministry, I saw it as my chief responsibility to pray for those who were leading me. I'm very thankful for our congregation that prays for me, who prays for Brother Chris. And even when I'm not preaching, even when I was on vacation, I was praying for Brother Chris. The spiritual battles that we face can only be waged through prayer, through godly, Christ-filled intercession.

And perhaps if we are like her, we may see God raise up our children and our grandchildren for great works. Now here's a challenge for you. If you can pray like her, perhaps God will give you a bezelel and a pharaoh. Wouldn't that be fantastic? Wouldn't that be fantastic? If you simply prayed for your pastor, prayed for the Moses in your life, like her did. And lo and behold, your children and grandchildren are not only godly, but they're filled with the Spirit and they are called to a specific task that they cannot do apart from Him. Listen to the words that he abounds again. God is looking for men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.

The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not annoy plans, but men, men of prayer. So we've seen a divine call. Let's look at the divine feeling. We see that bezelel, I believe him to be a man of godliness and a man of prayer, his lineage, the tribe of Judah, grandson of her, would indicate such. Let's look at verse 3, and I'll read this text.

"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." What I want you to see was that this was a divine feeling, but it was a supernatural feeling. God had just got done calling people that no one else could call. These were people who were enslaved for 430 years in Egypt. God delivered them through the Red Sea, and here God is teaching them how to worship him in a fitting manner. So God provides this man and fills him with the Spirit.

As Matthew Henry notes, "Moses was learned in science, literature, and mathematics, and all the ways of Egyptians," but he was not an artisan. Growing up in the house of Pharaoh, Moses would have been able to tell you all about the Egyptian deities that were worshipped. He was the grandson of Pharaoh, the adopted son of grand... adopted grandson of Pharaoh. He could have told you about all of the greatest engineering marvels of Egypt. He could have told me about the literature, the culture.

Even in the Egyptian empire, all the land holdings and all the other people that were oppressed, he could have told you all that, but he would not have been a skilled artisan. If you were the grandson of Pharaoh, you were not taking vocational and technical classes. You would not have learned woodworking. You would not have learned carving of gold or silver, and when you look at the tabernacle and what it was, it was ornate, it was beautiful, it was unlike anything else. Certainly not something you'd expect to see two million people toning around in the middle of the desert. So this was a supernatural filling.

Matthew Henry also says, "The Israelites, the Israelites had spent 430 years making bricks." They were not going to vocational and technical classes. They would have known how to make things out of brick and out of clay. But the intricate skill work of fashioning gold, cutting diamonds, this was far beyond their scope of experience. Moses wasn't trained, and if the lowly Hebrew slaves were not trained, the who was going to do this work. The bottom line is that Bezalel was only capable of it because God, God filled him with the spirit, God enabled him to do this. This was a supernatural filling, and it was a supernatural artistry.

Let's read verse three and four again. "I have built him with the spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, bronze, cutting stones, and carving wood, to work in every craft." But perhaps God would not give you the supernatural ability to carve gold. Maybe the Lord would not give you the ability to sing or to do any of the artistry that we might see in our churches today. But I earnestly believe that upon your conversion, your genuinely blood bought born again, the Holy Spirit has completely filled you.

The scripture says the Holy Spirit came to give gifts to men. What that means to me is that you may not be as Bezalel, but just as he did something that no one else could do in the area, perhaps there is a gift and there is something that God has given you that was not there prior to your conversion. Maybe it is the ability to care for people. Perhaps God would give you a special burden in prayer. Perhaps you would be given to learning, to learning and teaching. But we see this divine call, this divine feeling. I believe that every Christian has a feeling. Let's look at the third main truth, New World number three, a divine purpose.

Hebrew worship was at the center of God's activity in the Old Testament, just as the church is the center of God's activity today. This supernaturally gifted man was dead center, right in the middle of God's activity on earth. Now think about for a second. Can you imagine being called a God, Moses comes down the mountain and tells you, God's been telling me about you. You are going to build the very meeting place for God. So under Roman numeral three, a divine purpose, I want you to see that this was a great, great worship and great beauty. Great worship and great beauty. The tabernacle Bezalel would design and create.

Now he was also granted a team. He had a chief assistant and he had an entire team of men who he would employ. But this work of artistry and beauty would have been ornamented in gold. The wood for the posts of the tent would be Acacia wood. The Ark of the Covenant was made out of Acacia wood. And some suggest that Acacia wood would have been this very same substance that was used in the New Testament. But Acacia wood was covered with gold. Acacia wood would have been represented in the humanity of Christ. If you look at the Ark of the Covenant, covered with gold that would represent his deity.

We've been discussing the tabernacle on our Wednesday night Bible study classes. And I made the comment to my class that this was a kind of portable church. And the more I got to think about that, I realized it was far more than this. This was not a portable church. This was a portable palace for a king who does not dwell in tents of men. But this was not just a great beauty and great worship. This was great majesty. Let's look at verse seven.

The tent of needing, the Ark of the testimony and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent and the table and the utensils and the pure lamp stand with all the utensils and the altar of incense and the altar burnt offering and the utensils and the basin and its stand and the finely worked garments. The holy garments for Aaron and the priests and the garments for his sons for the service as priests. Verse 11 and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded you to do and these allow was completely obedient.

God filled him with the understanding of how he needed to make these things. And if you study Old Testament life, each of these elements of worship were absolutely critical. What would have happened if the priests would have tried to go to the holy of holies or even to the holy place without these priestly garments and these linens? What would have happened if they had not gone to the basin for ceremonial washing? What would have happened if they had not made everything exactly the way God had designed? The reason why these allow could do this was because he was spirit filled.

God still fills and calls men and women for the specific purpose of his church. Now I'm thankful we're not under the sacrificial system but if you look at this passage what it tells you is that just as important as the tabernacle was then your local church is as important today. And I'm thankful that I do not have to wear a priestly garment to orchestrate music. The Levites under King David started singing and I'm thankful for the role of music in church. But what I am more thankful for is that the Lord himself gave me gifts and he gave you gifts.

And I can go back before I was saved and I can remember that there are things in my life now that work in my life then. And as a born again believer this is part of your evidence for salvation that there is something in your life the Lord has done. It's not just the ability to sing but it is an ability to build the church and to accomplish the purpose that God has for you. So the last main truth that we have Roman numeral four a divine ministry. A divine ministry. I want you to see that God does not need our worship. So say that God needed worship would imply that he needed anything and God does not need anything.

Acts 17 24 Acts 17 verse 24 scripture tells us the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. Now if God does not live in temples or tabernacles why did he construct the tabernacle through easel up. God does not live or dwell in the tent or the tent of meeting of the tabernacle. Why did he go through such detailed instructions. And the answer to this is that God calls and desires men and ministers unto him. That's a tremendous responsibility. I don't know if you thought about that. The reason why you're here today is because it pleases God.

When you sing to the Lord, when you study the word, when you pray and give thanks and intercede and when you have a burden for lost sinners that pleases him. In the writings of C.S. Lewis he talks about six pence as a young child who wanted to give their father a present. So they simply borrowed a coin from their father and bought something for their father. Now the father was no wealthier by having that gift. It was his money given to the child that came back to him. But you know that blessed the father. That filled the father with joy. And that's the way our worship is.

Our worship and whether we sing and this is why we ask you to sing out even if you can't sing. Because it's not about your voice. We get caught up and hung up on what other people think about us. And this can actually be a hindrance because God simply wants you to minister unto him. Bezalel was at the center of worship. Warren Wiersby notes that the Lord says on five occasions from Exodus 28 to Exodus 44 that God desired his people to minister "minister unto me." The Lord did not need to dwell in the tabernacle but he longed simply that his people would see his beauty, see his majesty and would tell of this.

I'm thankful that the Lord has called us to worship him, to know him and that we might do this in such a manner that's pleasing to him. Now in conclusion, I am still in awe that the Lord called me to serve him. And I'm blessed to be a part of God calling you into this service. Now before you come up with a list of things you can't do, I want to ask you a simple question about something that you could do for the Lord. Where did the Hebrews, where did Bezalel get all of the army ornaments that he used to construct the tabernacle? Where did he get the gold? The Hebrews had been enslaved. Where did he get the silver?

Where did he get the fine linen? Where did he get the acacia wood? Where did he get the bronze? If you go back and read the story of the Passover, scripture tells us that during the Passover as the death angel passed through, he struck down the firstborn of everyone in Egypt except for those Hebrews who had the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. And afterward, everyone in Egypt was mourning. They were distraught, they were rejected, they were despondent. And God told Moses and Moses told the people to go throughout Egypt and ask their neighbors for things to help them sacrifice for their Lord.

They actually went to the door, those shortly after they lost their oldest son and the Egyptians gave him the goods. Scripture says that the Hebrews plundered the Egyptians. Now this word plunder means to pillage, to sack, as in war. But it was a very gentle plundering as they simply asked their neighbors for anything that would help them on their journey. See, this was a supernatural giftedness. God gave the Hebrews the very things they would need to give Bezalel for the tabernacle. So back to this question, where did Bezalel get the gold, silver, and fabric? The answer is a free will offering. They were not commanded to give these things.

Moses simply called the people to give what the Lord would put on their heart to give. Perhaps you could give, and I'm blessed that many of you have in terms of our mission offerings, I thought of our Christmas offerings, I thought of offerings that we give to those all over the world. And we never give a number and say we want to raise this much. We simply say the Lord puts on your heart to give, and you give. And in so doing, you're listening, we say things like you pray, what would the Lord tell you to give? There are some people who have a supernatural ability to give beyond what is comfortable.

There's some people who have a spiritual gift of evangelism. Our brother Ed Lacy is an evangelist. He fills the biblical office of evangelism. He does that very well. There are some people I believe have a spiritual gift of intercession and prayer. And even if this and these gifts do not come natural to you, perhaps there was one area you would say this is my spiritual gift. These other areas are things that we can grow in. So I would like to ask you in response this morning, simply bow your heads, close your eyes.

I would ask you to seek the Lord, and simply tell him in your heart to help you to be useful, to give that which he has given you. Just in a moment of quiet, and I will pray in your own peace.