Asking God to search our heart should be a practice in consistency. Glorify God and enjoy Him forever. This is the point of our lives. Moses got specific details on the Tabernacle from the Lord. Two men, Bezalel and Aholiab, possessed understanding and the Spirit to do as God commanded. Much of what they made was displayed for only a very few.
(Exodus 35:30-36; Colossians 3:12-25; 4:1; Philippians 3:3; Psalm 139:23-24)

Speaker(s): Paul Andrulonis, Justin Schaller
Sermon 12998
Date: 2025-09-21
Time: Sun 6:30 pm

 

 

P. Paul Andrulonis –

Good evening. How are we doing tonight? Great. I appreciate the response. Sometimes in the Bible
college, I ask how we’re doing and one person gives me a thumbs up and that’s it. Let’s pray.
(Prayer). Sometimes I start praying before I’m supposed to teach or preach and I don’t want to
stop praying. And that’s I think a good place to be.

But let’s turn in our Bibles to the book of Exodus. And this thought is one that’s been on my
mind for a little while. It’s most of the messages or classes there’s a personal application for
myself before I share it with other people. But in Exodus chapter 35 and in the book of Exodus,
Moses goes up on the mountain to meet the Lord. And the Lord gives him specific instruction
on how he is to build or how the tabernacle, the place where the high priest would go and
worship the Lord.

He gave specific details on how long the wall, the length of it should be, the width of it, how the
room should be arranged, how many, how the curtains should be, how the materials that
should be used, what furniture should go into the tabernacle, what the priests should do when
they go and before they go.

And in Exodus 35 there, Moses has received that instruction. And there are two people that
God calls in order to do some work in the tabernacle and for the tabernacle. And starting in
verse 30-35, Exodus 36:1. Just in reading that list of things that these men know how to do, we can
feel like I can’t do anything. They can do metal work. They can do carving of wood. They can
weave things. They can do all kinds of artistic expression and artistic things.

And what can I do? We could say but we see here that they are given these gifts. They are
chosen by God in order to create things to go into the tabernacle, the place where the Lord
would meet his people. A place of high position. A place where it was an important part. It was
in the middle of the nation of Israel. And these men, I believe, were given the gift, but I believe
that they were working on this craft, these different things that God has called them to do
before God called them to do it.

There are things that maybe they were practicing, things that they were developing, skills and
gifts and talents that they didn’t know when God would call them to use them. They were
developing them in case or maybe they were developing them just because it was something
that a desire, that God put on their heart.

And it says as we read that God gave them understanding and wisdom and how to do these
different things. And I think that’s an encouragement for us that God can give us understanding
and wisdom and how to do different things in our lives as well.

Maybe there are things, maybe it’s not making jewelry or designing furniture but maybe there
are things that you have been gifted with, you have been called to do in your life that you have
been practicing. And maybe you’re not sure how it fits into what you’ve been called to do.

How does being an accountant help me? How does being a carpenter help me? How does being
a nurse help me honor and glorify God? And that’s what we’re going to talk about tonight.
These men and we see it in different ways in our world and in our experiences that there is a
display, there is an expression of the gifts and talents that I have. We see it up here when
different people play the piano or my brother when he plays a saxophone or people when they
sing that they have practiced, that they have rehearsed most of the time.

They have rehearsed and practiced in order to sing and to glorify and honor God. And
sometimes they make it look easy. They make it so, look so easy that we might think, Oh, I
could get up and do that. That’s not a big deal. The saxophone is not that hard. Singing a song is
not that hard. Preaching a message isn’t that hard. Or other examples we see.

And I think in our world that we live in, lots of things seem easier because we see more people
doing it. But the reality is it’s actually can be difficult and takes a lot of practice because when
we see someone get up here and sing a song, there have been maybe hours, maybe years,
maybe decades of development of that skill, development of that practice in order to be able to
express that thing. And I think that that is one way the goal of creativity is to be able to
demonstrate it and to be able to show it for people.

When I was younger, my parents had us do piano lessons. And when you do learn an
instrument or whatever, the piano specifically, you have this goal in mind. And the goal is the
recital. At the end of so many months, the Christmas recital, the spring recital, and we do it
with GGCA with the band. We’re going to have a concert.

So, we got to prepare for the concert. So, all of the lessons, all of the learning and growing is so I can learn the song. So, when I go to the convert, I don’t make a fool of myself or try not to make a fool of myself. Right? I’m trying
to practice. I’m trying to do these things so that when my parents come to listen to me, they
say, We’ve been paying for you to do piano lessons or to play this instrument, and we want to
see the fruit of your practicing or lack of practicing and see how well you do in front of
everybody because this is the kind of the point in one sense.

But is it actually the point? Is the recital the point or is there something more to it where we’re
learning and growing? And I think that with these two, Bezaleel and Aholiab, we see that it’s
not always about the recital or the gallery if we’re doing art or whatever opportunity we have
demonstrate how great we are at whatever it is we think we’re good at. But it’s actually about
something more in Colossians 3.

I’d like us to turn there because we could be thinking about this like maybe you say, Well, I
don’t do anything that I get the opportunity to display my gifts. I don’t get the opportunity to
show people how great I am at adding formulas to my Excel spreadsheet. Nobody knows how
good I am at that. Nobody knows how good I am at washing the dishes or how good I am at
folding the laundry. There aren’t always opportunities for me to show my gifts. And I think
that’s on purpose.

Colossians 3:12-17, So, how do I do everything that I do in the name of the Lord? I think it comes from
the verses that preceded that by letting the Word dwell richly in me and all wisdom that it
teaches me and admonishes me. I let the peace of God rule in my heart. I am fellowshipping
and bearing with other believers, forgiving other believers, expressing the humility and the
kindness and meekness and longsuffering that gives me the fuel in order to be able to do
whatever it is that I do unto the Lord.

And in the verses, the rest of the verses in this chapter, we see different areas, different roles
that we may have in our life where we can do what we do unto the Lord, whatever it is that we
do.
Vs. 18-25, and then chapter 4:1. And in thinking of these verses, it says children it says
husbands it says wives, fathers, bondservants, masters and I could, you could say accountants
and engineers and nurses and doctors and pastors and missionaries and whatever role that you
have that you are doing it as unto the Lord with all of your heart unto the Lord, because that is
what we’ve been called to, too.

And the thing that I noticed about Bezaleel and Aholiab going back to Exodus 35 is they made
all these things well to have them be beautiful, to have them be perfect in their eyes or perfect
in the way that they saw and the gifts and the talents that they had given them.

And then they created these things and they put them into the tabernacle. And the tabernacle
was not a place that everybody could go. The tabernacle was a place where only the priests
could go. And the most intricate part of the things that they created, the mercy seat, the ark of
the covenant was in a place where only one person could go. The high priest on the day of
atonement was the only one who could go into the holy of holies and he could perform the acts
of sprinkling the blood on the mercy seat before the Lord.

And I think this is a picture for us as well that some of the things that I work really hard at, some
of the things that I practice and try and fail and get better at and I get to a point where I feel
confident in; some of them only God is going to see. Some of them nobody is going to know.
And is that enough for me? Yes, Lord. Is it enough that I have worked and tried and developed
and grown and Lord I am ready? And he says, thank you.

That’s it. Thank you. And we’re like, Okay, but Lord, it’s kind of like that the message I gave a few weeks ago where I’m ready to go, Lord. And he says, All right, sit down. Take your shoes off. Sit at my feet. We work hard so we
can show how great God is, right? But I want to kind of show how great I am, too, God. Cuz I
work really hard and God gave me these gifts and talents. And maybe we can confuse those
things a little bit.

And I love this picture. Like I said, they created these things so that and only God would see it.
And this is something that I’ve recognized in my own life as far as affirmation and recognition is
concerned that we are encouraged by affirmation and recognition when we do things well and
we’re discouraged when we don’t get the affirmation or the recognition that we think we
deserve. And I noticed this.

I made a few. I was reading a book that had you go through the things in your life, like the best
points in your life, the happiest moments you could remember. And it wasn’t an exhaustive list.
And then also like kind of the times in your life where you were least like where you weren’t
happy, where you were discouraged or whatever.

And I realized that the times in my life where I worked hard, did my best, grew and succeeded,
and got recognized for, were the moments where I was the high points of my life. You know,
graduating from high school or being the class president or winning a basketball championship
or whatever. Whatever those things were, were the points of the high points in my life.
And then the points of low, the low points in my life were times when I worked hard and tried
the best that I could and felt like I did well and there was just crickets. Nobody noticed. And I
was like, why do I care so much about these things if I’m supposed to be doing everything that I
do as unto the Lord?

And that was like a point where I was like, Okay, Lord, there’s something, there’s something
there. There’s something wrong. I need to be confident in what you’ve called me to do. I need
to be able to do what you’ve called me to do and not only do it because I’m going to have a
recital where people can say how great I am or I’m going to have an opportunity for people to
look at what I’ve done and give me positive feedback because there’s only going to be positive
feedback, right, when we, when we work really hard. But we could get negative feedback, too.
But we’re always blind to that because we think we’re the best. But feedback nonetheless helps
me know if I did well or I did poorly.

When you take a test, you know if you did well or you did poorly, so you know what to do. But
in our lives, in these roles that I read earlier, as a husband, as a father, as a son, as a brother, as
a pastor, or in different areas of our life, there’s not always a grade sheet or a report card that
tells you you’re doing a great job, Paul. That doesn’t always happen.

But I can go before the Lord and say, Lord, search my heart and see if there’s any wicked way in
me and lead me in the way of everlasting. Help me to be confident of what you’ve called me to
do. Help me. Help me to know that what you’ve called me to do is what you want me to do and
not something that I have desired and something that naturally has taken over.

And I’d like to turn to Philippians 3 because we see Paul, the Apostle Paul, have this same mentally or
he’s preaching to the Philippian church and he talks about confidence in the flesh. In vs. 3, it
says, “Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.” And then he rattles off all the
things that he as the apostle Paul the Pharisee could have confidence in in his flesh. Vs. 3-6. So,
he had the report card. He had all A’s on the report card according to what the flesh, according
to what naturally speaking he should have been doing and what he should have known.

But then he says in vs.7-10. In our efforts, in our practice, in the things that we do in our life, we
are looking to maybe look for recognition or affirmation. But in doing that and looking for that
and cleaving to that and clinging to that, we may miss Christ. We may miss the opportunity to
know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. To know how it
feels to set aside the things that I am deserving of.

Maybe the notoriety or the recognition or the awards and the accolades that I could set them
aside and I could humble myself and come or come down low and be humbled like Christ was
and recognize that Lord, you are the only one who I stand or fall before. You are the only one
who I want to glorify and honor and want recognition from. And how that recognition, how
standing or falling before him can help us in everyday life and being confident in the things that
I’m called to.

And in Psalm 139, we have that searching my heart. And I’ll just read the last two verses. Vs. 23.
Why am I doing what I am doing? Why am I doing what I am doing? Why am I working at this
job? So, I can get paid so I can get recognized. Why am I posting on social media? So I can get
the likes and the subscribes and the reactions from people? Why am I preaching the Gospel or
on a podcast or teaching a class or going and planting a church? Why am I doing what I am
doing?

Is it so I can honor and glorify the Lord? Or is there some of it where I’m looking for affirmation
or recognition? Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties and see
if there is any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting.
We are asking God to search us and to know us so that we can know him and so that he can
lead us in the way of everlasting. And I think that this is something that we will never stop
doing. We’ll never stop asking God to search our heart because we’ll always have these
moments where maybe we have to ask that question.

Why am I doing what I’m doing? Why am I, what am I or maybe we ask the question, Lord, what
do you want me to do and that’s something that I have had in my life where you asked that
question. There’s lots of different opportunity to serve you, Lord. What do you want me to do?
And he’s say, Well, there’s an opportunity for you to do this.

So, I thought, There’s an opportunity for you to do this thing. And I would do that thing because
God wanted me to do it, but I didn’t really want to do it, but God wanted me to. So, I would do
it. And then I would not enjoy it and lay down my life and still hate it. And then it would run its
course. I’d be like, Okay, God, I don’t think this is what you want me to do. Then there would be
another opportunity. And I do the same thing. Another opportunity and do the same thing.

And then I realized that maybe God was answering my question with his own question. I was
asking him, What do, Lord, what do you want me to do? And God was asking me, Paul, what do
you want to do? And I was like, I never thought about that, Lord. But help me, Lord. Search my
heart, Lord, and make sure I don’t have any evil way because I’ve been pushing down the things
I want because I want to do what you want me to do. But maybe my desires could be aligned
with what your desires are.

And in Psalm 37, it says that let’s just read it. vs. 3. Oh, feed on his faithfulness. Vs. 4. Lord, I
have the things that I want and desire to do for you and I want to delight in you in those things.
Not suffer maybe in those things and push through and push through, but actually delight in
you in those things and the desires you’ve placed in my heart.

And maybe in closing, there’s the Westminster Confession has this statement or this question
that it asks where it says, What is the chief end of man? Or What is man’s purpose? And as I
was saying about that book, where I was looking, reading about purpose or the reason why we
do the things that we do, I said recognition was a factor in all those different things that I
thought I was supposed to do.

But it says in this Westminster catechism that the chief end of man, the purpose of man is to
glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And then that what it says when I do everything that I do
to the glory of God, I am doing that so that I can enjoy him in those things that I am doing. I
glorify God in my job, not because I get recognized but because I know that I’m glorifying him
and I am enjoying him in those things.

I am enjoying him in my artistic ability or my musical ability or my athletic ability or whatever
capacity it is that I have an ability or a gift or a talent. I’m doing it to glorify God and I get to
enjoy him and I get to enjoy that thing that I get to do.

And I think that that is something that God has really, really encouraged me in is that okay,
Lord. Search my heart and lead me in the way of everlasting. Help me not to miss those things that are stealing the joy that I’m meant to have in what you’ve called me to do. And how can I
lead, be led by you in this everlasting life and enjoy you in all the things that I have going on and
all the things that I do? Because the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are
not seen are eternal.

Because maybe nobody will see this thing that I’ve been working on and practicing but God
sees. And he knows my heart and he knows why I’m doing it. And he knows that I’m glorifying
him and whatever it is, even if naturally speaking my life is a waste and I’ve got nothing to show
for it or you’re lazy or you don’t do anything. I was like, Okay, Lord, search my heart. You know
my heart and you are glorified in what I do. Amen. Amen.

P. Justin Schaller –

How about we stand up for a minute. You can just talk to your neighbor
about what we just heard. Okay, couple minutes left and then we’ll just worship the Lord. P.
Paul preached that message down in Fed Hill this morning, and I don’t really want to say too
much, but just to go off or just a few points because the message second time around it was
even better.

Honestly, it was this morning when he preached it, it was kind of impromptu. I just before the
service was about to start and I said, Hey, you want to preach? Because I knew he was going to
say something tonight. And he was sure. And so he preached for about 20 minutes or so and
then he came back and I said, Just get back up there and just get going. Because our church was
just so attuned to what he was saying. It was so applicable to me. Because what he said this
morning, there’s so many different things that you could just launch into.

But the thing that struck with me was that what he was saying is something that all of us as
believers as we’re following Christ, we’re going to have those little lessons in life. Have you had
a lesson like that? Have you had that lesson before?

Have you been sitting in a seat and you’re just thinking people if they really knew what I could
bring to the table or the gift that I have or I’ve been working all week and I can’t really show my
gifts. And you realize that many of your gifts that you have, let’s just talk about being a father.
For instance, we heard this afternoon just in the memorial service, Charlie Kirk’s wife just talked
about him as a father and as a husband and to think about the greatest impact that you have as
a man. It’s going to be in the home, isn’t it? And there’s not too many days other than one day
you get a whole year called Father’s Day that everybody gets to go around the table and say
something nice about dad or even mom.

She had a birthday a couple weeks ago and all the kids and the grandkids, we all were able for
the first time, I think, be able to open up about the impact that my mother and as a grandmother, the impact that she’s had in her family. And I think maybe it was the first time that she’s ever heard it But I think she’s been a mom – I won’t give my sister’s age away – but I think she’s been my mom for 46 years. Sorry, Beth. Something along those lines. And she’s been a grandmother for 27 or 28, something like that. And that impact, she’s never probably heard from people the feedback of what that is, but she does it unto the Lord.

And when you’re a father, you don’t really on a day-to-day basis, you don’t wake up and your
kids are sitting there at the table and they say, Hey, Dad, you know what? Just kind of dawned
on me the sacrifice that you make to this family. P. Duke is waiting for it. Seth, Ryan, Abby, get
on it. But as a father, you’re not looking for it, are you? Because you know that you’ve been
called to such a high position as being a father or a dad.

And then also to come into a household and you are the head of the house and you are the
servant of your wife and your kids and it dawns on you the magnitude of what that actually
means to the point that you say people don’t – no one has to say anything because the position
that God’s placed me in this home is such a high value and I am so honored to be able to be in
the position that I can be a dad or a father that I don’t need really people to say anything.
But in the church, we need to know that we are called by Christ himself. But what he said this
morning, what he said tonight, it just hit me because that’s a level of maturity in our walk
where you understand.

And this is just maybe the one point that I can make just from Scripture in 1 Corinthians 4 where Paul
says, This is how Corinthians, this is how I want you guys to view me. And he uses two words in
the Greek. And the first one is a minister, which we use the word “deacon.” But it’s really just a
waiter really. It’s the bus boy.

The waiter takes the order. The bus boy brings the food and the bus boy is the one who cleans
the table at the end of the meal. He says, I want you to consider me as a minister first that I am
a bus boy.
And then secondly, he uses this word in the Greek that’s a very specific word, but it means an
under rower. He says, I want you to consider me as an under rower. And in the context of that
passage, he’s saying that the ship is the church. And he has a particular piece in the function of
the church moving forward.

And he says, I’m an under rower. Meaning that I am at the lowest level. And I’ve preached on
that before. But it always stuck with me that the great apostle Paul says, I want you to consider

me as the one who is at the bottom of the ship with the oar in the water, and I am doing my
part to move this ship forward.

And when you’re at the bottom of the ship, there’s no one just giving you the applause. There’s
no likes. There’s no fanfare. There’s no autographs. There’s none of that whatsoever. But he
says, This is where Christ has put me, and this is what Christ has commissioned me to do.
And like P. Paul said, Christ has given me the gift to be able to do it. And it’s not so that I can get
any accolades from man, but rather than I can stand before Christ and Christ is honored in what
I’m doing.

This is so against the flesh. And I said to the church after he preached that just briefly this
morning I said, Church, have you felt when you were sitting there or you’re in a classroom or
you’re in the workplace and you feel as though that you could do a better job? And rightfully
so. You probably could.

Have you ever felt that little nature inside of you pop its ugly head up and you realize, Oh,
gross. I’m jealous. Oh, gross. I want accolades or notoriety. Have you felt that? And all the
honest people raised their hand.
And I said, Good. I said, that is good because you are growing in your sanctification. When you
follow Christ, that little ugly head will pop up and maturity teaches you and Christ will teach
you and he will say this to you. He says, If you serve men, you have your reward in life. But I will
deliver you from that.

Because those claps or that notoriety is nothing in comparison to me and you in a room and me
looking at you and me saying to you, you are my child and I already love you and you’re in that
room. I just love to picture if I’m in a room and Christ is there and it’s just he and I. And he says,
Before you go out and you go do your work in the temple, just know this. I already love you.
Like Paul says to the Corinthians, you judge me. I don’t even judge myself. The judgment is
already in and Christ has already said he loves me. And then I’m in the room with Christ and he
is there and he is saying just be satisfied.

Are you satisfied with my love? Are you already, are you satisfied with my accolade to you that
my righteousness when I look at you it’s the same righteousness that I’ve gifted to you? You are
my child. You are perfect. You are beloved. Now, he says, Hey, I’m going to give you this gift and
I want you to go out there into the world, and I want you to use the gift and the empowering
that I’ve given you, but I want people to understand that they don’t see you. But they see me.

And I go, Really, Jesus? I can do that this afternoon? And he goes, Oh, go out there. I’m going to
empower you. Jesus, I need it. I’m giving you my Spirit. I’m giving you my wisdom. Now go out
and I want you to serve your kids. I want you to serve your wife. I want you to serve your co-
worker. I want you to serve wherever I place you. And I’m going to give you the gifts to be able
to do whatever you do really well. And you won’t take credit for it.

And people will see that and say, Aren’t you looking for accolades? No. I’ve already gotten my
accolades. I just spent my morning with Christ in an intimate way. He’s already put his verdict
on who I am. Now, I have the confidence to be able to go out and humble myself and to serve.
But it’s not me being noticed, but it’s rather that people can see Christ. That is maturity.

And what P. Paul said this morning and tonight, that’s maturity. And that’s what he’s leading us
in. Isn’t that a beautiful thing? Cuz you know what? When you go out in the day and you have
that empowerment, you have the gifts and you do it, you really enjoy it.
And then when you go out, you have so much freedom in life because I’m not doing this before
men, but I’m already doing it before the Lord and he’s already put his verdict in and I have just
pure freedom and liberty in life.

What a beautiful thing. Thank you for that message. It was like right on point, wasn’t it? Good. I
just want to be thinking about that. We can be thinking about this, this week. Hey, praise the
Lord! Did we have a good day today? Man, Praise the Lord! (Prayer).

 

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