Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

Aug 06, 2023

Filled with Beauty

Filled with Beauty

Passage: Exodus 31:1-11

Speaker: Craig Lotz

Series: That’s the Spirit: Learning to keep in step with Him who indwells

In this passage we see the first mention in Scripture of someone being filled with the Spirit. Filled with “ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic design.” This same eternal creative Spirit is now poured into each of us through Christ and compels us to respond with beauty and love in worship and into the lives of others.

Readings & Scripture

PREPARATION: Psalm 19:1-6
LEADER: 1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

ALL: 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.

LEADER: 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

ALL: 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

NT READING: Revelation 4:1-8

LEADER: After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings[a] and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”

CENTRAL TEXT: Exodus 31:1-11
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. 6 And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: 7 the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent, 8 the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, 9 and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin and its stand, 10 and the finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests, 11 and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.”

BENEDICTION: 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, 21
LEADER: 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

ALL: 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

Exodus 36-39
Joshua 4:1-7
Psalm 19:1-7
Isaiah 6:1-3
Isaiah 55:10-13
John 1:1-3
Colossians 1:17-20
2 Corinthians 3:17-18
1 Corinthians 12:1-13
Romans 12:4-8
Ephesians 4:11-16
Romans 10:15

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1.  What does it say about God’s nature that the first person filled with the Spirit in scripture is an artist? 
  2. Do you consider yourself an artist or at least creative? Filled in the same way as Bezalel?
  3. Which has more lasting impact for you personally…word or image?
  4. Make a list of the various times in the Old and New Testaments, God and Jesus spoke primarily through image and story.
  5. What are some of the creative expressions and outlets that have been most impactful to you in your faith journey?
  6. Tolkein referred to Jesus as the story underneath all stories. List some of your favorite stories that point to the character of Christ and His finished work.

ILLUSTRATIONS:  

 

QUOTES: 

  • “All nature seems to speak” - Vincent Van Gogh.
  • “The imagination is the bridge between the heart and the mind, integrating both, allowing us to think/understand with our hearts and feel/emote with our minds.  It is a vehicle for truth.  Through the use of images, metaphors, stories, and paradoxes that demand our attention, it calls for our interaction.  The imagination is a powerful means for communicating truths about God, and so God shows an awesome regard for the imagination in his Word.  I believe the human imagination is the door at which Jesus stands and knocks in Revelation 3:20. - Michael Card (Scribbling in the Sand).
  • “Stories are found things, like fossils in the ground…. They are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible.” - Stephen King (On Writing)
  • “A work of art introduces us to emotions which we have never cherished before. Great works produce rather than satisfy needs by giving the world fresh cravings.” - Abraham Heschel.
  • “The book or the art in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust them: it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was a longing…They are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited.” – C.S. Lewis (Weight of Glory) 
  • “The Gospels contain many marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable Eucatastrophe. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.” - J.R.R. Tolkein (On Fairy Stories)
  • “God is beautiful. His beauty demands a response that is shaped by beauty. And that is art.” - Michael Card (Scribbling in the Sand)

BOOKS / DOCS

SERMONS / VIDEOS