Ep. 017 Working In Obscurity

Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located

in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship

Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,

discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church

and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bickford and I will be your

host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing

to you and bring you closer to God.

Welcome back to the podcast. So today's message that I put together is called Working in Obscurity.

The subheading is Spirit, Ability and Knowledge and the text we are going to be working from

today is Exodus 31 verses 1 through 6. So it's been a little bit since I've been back.

Exodus 31:1–6

Obviously I was a little sick last week so I am starting to come out of it now. So I

want to be able to go ahead and jump right in with this and thank you guys for coming

back to the podcast. So we are going to go ahead and read the text first thing. This

is a section of scripture about Oliahab and Bezelel and we will pick it up in verse 1.

It says, The Lord said to Moses, See I have called by name Bezelel the son of Uri, son

of her, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with the

ability and intelligence, with knowledge and 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, Oliahab, the son of Ahisamach,

of the tribe of Dan, and I have given to all able men, that they may make all that I have

commanded you. As you can see my voice is still a little shoddy so I apologize for that.

But what we want to get from this verse of scripture is there is a calling of what to

many would seem as ordinary men, but there is a specific purpose that we are going to

look at this. It is going to be the calling from obscurity. And as an illustration I wanted

to look at the life of Tenzig Norgay. Tenzig Norgay, he was born May 15th, 1914 and he

lived until May 9th, 1986 and he was a Tibetan climber. If you are into climbing at all then

you would have obviously already known about his name, but for those of us that aren't

into climbing that much, it is a pretty interesting tale. So he was like I said, he was a Tibetan

climber and along with the New Zealand's Edmund Hillary, Norgay was one of the first two people

to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, which is 8,848 meters

high on May 29th, 1953. So this already kind of gives you the idea of who this person is

now. I mean you might have even heard of Edmund Hillary even if you are not into climbing

because he was the first to summit officially Mount Everest. Norgay was involved in several

earlier attempts on this peak though beginning with his famed 1935 British reconnaissance

expedition led by Eric Shipton, which succeeded in climbing a whopping 26 peaks of over 20,000

feet. His eventual success on Everest garnered him worldwide fame as well as numerous awards

and honors and today he remains one of the most well-known Sherpas of all time. In his

early life, Norgay, you know like a lot of that is very unclear to us about what how

he grew up and stuff like that. From what we can you know garner, he was born sometime

in late May of 1914 and was the 11th of 13 children. Most accounts indicate that he was

born in Tibet and then moved to Nepal as a child to work for a family in the Kumbha Valley

in the village of Khumjung. As a teen, he immigrated to Jarlin or Darjeeling, India

settling in the Sherpa community in the city. At the time Darjeeling was the launch point

for most expeditions into the eastern Himalayas and Norgay became acquainted with a number

of porters, cooks and other Sherpas working for the mountaineering expeditions. So we

always hear about the headliners, those that are at the top of the charts, but the reality

is that there are always supporting characters that make these things happen, that make these

things possible and if it weren't for these critical characters then much of what we read

about in the world or in the Bible could not have happened. Norgay gives us this contemporary

picture of this reality. Many can name the man that first summited Mount Everest, Sir

Edmund Hillary. It used to be a household name but what of the Sherpa guy that had spent

the previous 20 years making that summit possible? In our text we see that God knows that every

part of the body of the church is critical to the success of the whole and that does

not mean that he can't and won't raise up others to fill the void but what it does mean

is that God has a place for all of us within his kingdom. Bezalel the son of Uri, the son

of Hur, the tribe of Judah was called out by God by name. We know the word of God that

he was spirit-filled and that he had the ability and intelligence and knowledge and skills

to fulfill the call that God had placed upon his life. This brings me to my first point

which is filled with the spirit. In 1 Corinthians 12, 4-6 it says there are different kinds

of gifts but the same spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service but the

same Lord. There are different kinds of working but in all of them and in everyone it is the

same God at work. Let's look a bit deeper then. Here we have Bezalel and Aholiab, his

assistant. These were skilled craftsmen. They had God-given and honed talent for carpentry,

metalwork, tapestry and construction. These are blue collar men who lived as slaves in

Egypt and despite their beginnings we can see them being called out in the Bible by

no other than God himself. The reality is that God sees the faithful work done behind

the scenes when you are living a faithful and upright life. Our fellowship is a lay

fellowship. It is a blue collar fellowship but it is a spirit-filled fellowship. In the

Corinthians Paul is primarily speaking about the spiritual gifts that we think of in regards

to the New Testament church, preaching, evangelism, praying for the seek and speaking in tongues

and prophecy and that fact still holds true that God equips his people through the spirit

of his purpose. As important as the spiritual gifts are we must never forget the example

of Bezalel and Aholiab. These two men were spiritually equipped for a sacred purpose.

We need spirit-filled builders and workers to support and uplift the ministry if we are

ever going to be able to successfully build anything. In Jewish history Bezalel is held

in high regard. He is after all the temple building son of Judah. In an article by David

Schrock we can see a correlation between Bezalel building the tabernacle, David planning for

and Solomon building the temple and Jesus the cornerstone of the new and better kingdom.

Each of these figures were enabled by the spirit for the purpose laid before them and

we should then lift up those around us whom are spirit-filled workers whether they be

accountants bookkeepers welders or artisans. Let's take another look at Norgay. At age

19 Norgay was chosen as a porter for Eric Shipton's 1935 British reconnaissance expedition

despite having no mountain experience due to the recommendation of his close friend

Ang Tharke, one of the preeminent sherpas and sitars of the era who had participated

in earlier expeditions with Shipton. The expedition was stymied at 23,030 feet on the North Coal

but also identified a viable alternative route up the western side of the South Coal which

today is used by climbers as attempting to peak from the south via Nepal. Perhaps more

importantly the expedition resulted in what Shipton called a veritable orgy of mountain

climbing. With team members collectively summiting 26 peaks over 20,000 feet 24 of which were

first ascents the expedition also proved the beginning of Norgay's prolific career as a

sherpa which lasted until his ultimate success in 1953 with Hillary. Norgay was a prominent

member of nearly every other Everest attempt in the intervening years including the illegal

1947 jaunt by the Canadian Earl, Canadian Earl Denman from the Tibetan side which was

so woefully unprepared and forced the team a trio of Denman, Norgay and Dawah sherpa

back to the after ferocious storms at 22,000 feet. Among other non-Everest exploits he

served as a sitar a team leader for a Swiss expedition that made the first ascent to the

Kadara-Kadarnath main which is a 22,770 foot summit in 1947. Notably Norgay embarked on

the 1952 Swiss Everest expedition which received rare permission to attempt the climb from

Nepal via the South Coal. Tibet closed to climbers in the 1950s after the Chinese invasion

and subsequent occupation. This was both the first expedition and to seriously attempt

the peak from the South and the first to reach the South Coal through though the effort was

unsuccessful Norgay and Swiss Raymond Lambert reached a high point of about 28,200 feet

on the southeast ridge setting a new altitude record in the process. A second Swiss expedition

later that year post monsoon season also included Norgay and saw the team reach 26,575 feet.

This brings me to my next point which is ability and intelligence. In 2nd Chronicles 1 5 it

says moreover the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri son of Hurr had made was there

before the tabernacle of the Lord and Solomon and the assembly sought it out. Every mountain

climber worth his salt wanted to work with Norgay they would seek him out. Why was this

man in such high demand within his community? Norgay had spent a lifetime to hone his craft

and he was accomplished mountaineer in his own right but probably more importantly he

was able to keep his charges safe. Similarly Bezalel's work and craftsmanship would last

through the ages. Kings knew of him and of his work and it was held in the highest esteem.

It was after all holy and sanctified unto the Lord and it's odd how a few of us can

remember his name if we were ever to be asked. Another similar character we can look at is

Baruch in Jeremiah 36 4 it says then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neirai and Baruch

wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words the Lord had spoken to him.

Baruch was Jeremiah the prophet's scribe and secretary little is known about Baruch son

of Neirai. A note in the amplified Bible citing second chronicles 34 8 suggests that he may

have been the grandson of Masi'iah who served as the governor of Jerusalem in the days of

King Josiah. Baruch may have been attached to a family of means perhaps a prominent one

he was certainly educated serving as he did as Jeremiah's secretary and trusted with

putting down Jeremiah's words for prosperity we can surmise that he was detail oriented

and performance motivated able to get a lot of work done and get it done correctly. So

clearly we could see that the that he was first faithful to God because it was not safe

being associated with Jeremiah the prophet. He was not well liked by the king of Judah

as well. Even so we also know that Baruch was skilled he was often the mouthpiece for

Jeremiah we can see that when he that he was held in high esteem from the ruling class

of Judah and Jeremiah 43 3 it says but Baruch son of Neirai is inciting you against us at

the head to hand us over to the Babylonians so they may kill us or carry us into exile.

The claim here is that they were actually trying to say that Baruch held influence over

Jeremiah and it wasn't God working through Jeremiah. So here we have a skilled man spirit

filled and following the prophet of the Lord and he is a man of ability and intelligence

but still a supporting character. In fact we see at the end of Jeremiah that he is called

to live a simple life and Jeremiah 45 1 through 5 it said this is a message to Baruch and

it says when Baruch son of Neirai wrote on the scroll the words of Jeremiah the prophet

dictated it in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Hosea king of Judah. Jeremiah said

this to Baruch. This is what the Lord the God of Israel says to you Baruch. You said

woe to me the Lord has added sorrow to my pain I am worn out and groaning and find no

rest but the Lord has told me to say to you this is what the Lord says I will overthrow

what I have built and uproot what I have planted throughout the earth. Should you then seek

great things for yourself do not seek them for I will bring disaster on all people declares

the Lord but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life. Baruch served humbly

and we can assume that he followed the word of God till the end content to live a life

following the one God even after the death of Jeremiah. Baruch is a powerful testimony

of humbly serving God and Christ because it is right even though he was possibly from

an affluent and politically important family he chose to follow God and uses ability and

intelligence for his purpose. Living a life of obscurity for the sake of God's message

brings me to my final point which is knowledge and craftsmanship. So how do we wrap this

all up whether it's Moses and Bezele or Jeremiah and Baruch we can see the importance of living

a spiritual life. We can also see that Moses needed the abilities and intelligence of Bezele.

He needed the knowledge that he and Ohalia had in order to complete the work that God

had ordained. We could also see the immense help that Baruch provided Jeremiah. The knowledge

that they brought to the table enabled the work of God to go forth. We need to esteem

faithful work that is why we do all things under the Lord in Colossians 3 23 through

24. Whatever you do work with all your heart as you work for the Lord not for human masters.

Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward it is the Lord Christ

you are serving. So as we go back and look at Norgay we can see the Norgay who had already

been to Everest six times at this point was leading was the leading member of the 1953

Everest expedition led by John Hunt. Norgay and Hillary were one of two pairs of climbers

selected to make the summit pushes the other two being Tom Bordillion and Charles Evans.

The later duo made it to just 300 feet shy of the summit on May 26 but turned around

after experiencing issues with their oxygen equipment. Their efforts to break the trail

and cash oxygen however provided vital when Hillary and Norgay made their summit bid two

days later from a bivvy starting at 27,900 feet on the southeast ridge. Hillary and Norgay

reached the summit at the world's highest mountain at 1130 a.m. local time. Following

the successful ascent Norgay and Hillary were catapulted into worldwide fame. Norgay was

awarded the George Medal a UK award for bravery the Queen Elizabeth the second coronation

medal the Order of the Star Nepal and the Indian Gold Medal in addition to numerous

other accolades and honors. In 1954 he became the director of field training for the Himalayan

Mountaineering Institute and later founded trekking the trekking company Tenzig Norgay

Adventures in 1978. Norgay was named one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th

century by Time magazine in 1999. So as you can see with Norgay his reward did not come

until much later in life despite the long hours the danger the cold nights in the mountains

it wasn't until he made it to the top of Evers that he that they received his reward.

We serve a much higher power than anything here on earth and as we labor we labor for

our God our Lord Jesus tells us to store of treasures in heaven in Matthew 620 the laborers

is here on earth but our reward is in heaven and through our legacy here on earth. Bezalel

and Oleh Oholiad were the builders of the tabernacle Bezalel from the tribe of Judah

is the first of the temple builders in the history of Israel even though some of his

work is lost to time his legacy lived on and King David King Solomon and King Jesus Baruch

faithfully served Jeremiah during one of the darkest periods of Israel's history he lived

and worked alongside one of the most pivotal prophets of the Old Testament and despite

his time on earth being rife with trouble his name was recorded in his history of service

is on display to all to you know to us through his work. So as I close it's important to

recognize that you don't have that you that you do have gifts that can be of use for the

kingdom you may have been saying to yourself that you don't have any skills but I bet

you're wrong maybe you haven't spent enough time looking for your gifts or honing your

talents the place to start is by being spirit filled to being filled with the spirit of

the Lord and you do that by giving your life to Jesus Christ and John 3 3 Jesus answered

him truly truly I say unto you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of

God this is the starting point of wisdom in Proverbs 9 10 the fear of the Lord is the

beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy Holy one is insight and we serve an everlasting

Lord in first Peter 1 23 since you have been born again not perishable seed but imperishable

through the living and abiding word of God as you seek out the Lord in your life you

will gain more wisdom or intelligence or your abilities will grow as you apply that to your

life you will realize that your knowledge will grow and increase and God will bless

the work of your hands so I leave you with this thought we know very few of the names

that enabled the people of Israel and the early church to grow we only get to see the

headliners occasionally we get to see a glimpse of those who helped the headliners but we're

never really able to see the second stringers of the third stringers that doesn't diminish

their importance though that elevates it we need the builders the bakers the candlestick

makers we need those who faithfully labor for the Lord those who use their talents for

the kingdom in first Kings 19 18 it says yet I will leave 7000 in Israel and all the knees

that have not bowed to bail and every mouth that has not kissed him we're given a clear

indication that God shelters and hides some of his people from the limelight but they're

still faithful to him and they're ready at a moment's notice to be called into action

because they're faithful to him and with that I want to just go ahead and close if if you

if you're if you could have if I could have every head bowed every eye closed if you're

listening along I just want to give an invitation that if your heart's not right with the Lord

maybe you don't feel you're successful or you don't feel like you're talented enough

or someone's made you feel less than you know important in your life I want you to know

that Jesus Christ knows that you're important you're important to him and that's why he

has the gospel sent out and that's why he commands us to preach the gospel to bring

this invitation to you that if you know your heart's not right with the Lord but you want

to be right with him you can do that by signifying that with an uplifted hand because he can

see that hand so raise your hand if that's you and if you rose your hand then repeat

after me dear Lord God I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you sent your son Jesus Christ

and that he died for my sins I repent of my sins and I accept the Lord Jesus as my Savior

and I give him all the praise and glory of Jesus name amen that simple prayer is what

we call a sinner's prayer and it's it it's the first step it takes you into salvation

you are saved at that point and now you get to grow in Christ and live in Christ to the

rest of your life so the next thing to do is is obviously you know read your word read

a Bible pray which is just talking to God pray to God and then find a good solid Bible

believing church to participate with and to lock in with and have fellowship with brethren

so if you have need help finding that church you reach out because we have 3500 plus churches

globally I'd be more than happy to help you find that church if you're in Samanar and

please come out and visit and I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to me today

even though my voice is horrible and I can't wait for you to come back next time God bless

Thank you for listening to the P.H.S.A. Potter's House Samanar podcast be sure to follow us

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