Talent on Loan From God, Part 1

There was once a great man. He was the ruler of the world's greatest kingdom. Most powerful kingdom, most advanced kingdom.

And this individual was credited with some of the development of that kingdom. And he was part of the orchestration of making it so good. He was proud of his accomplishments. And he had a right to be. Because his accomplishments were admired and tried to be copied by people around the world. Do you ever do that? Do you ever admire your accomplishments? Do you ever admire your family, maybe, your children? Admire your ability to have children? And look at those children that came from me. And look at those children and how they're developing. They're not like the other children in the world. These are really special children. And truly they are. Or maybe it's your grandchildren. Do you ever admire yourself for your career, for your talents, for your hobbies, for that unique prowess that you have? Being able to get things done or accomplish things or perform in a way that really is exemplary. And you know, it really, really is. You are smart. You are knowledgeable. More so than others in the areas that you have developed in.

You might be wiser than individuals in applying some of the knowledge and skills that you have. You might reflect on these things and your increased ability. Not that you necessarily have to compare, but just to reflect on what a capable, talented person you are. And you are, you know. You certainly are. You have accolades from people to prove it. You probably have some certificates or some cards from people. You may have a presentation or some sort of a plaque, even, about how capable and smart and talented that you are. You certainly have a spouse, I'm sure, that has told you at one time, if you still have the spouse, that how important you are. You have children that cling to you and say, oh, dad or oh, mom, I just couldn't do it without you. And when it's time for them to go to the babysitters, they say, no, no, you're the only person in the world that I could possibly, you know, exist with. You can't leave me. And you feel very special. Even your dog or cat, you know, might have a problem when you go away. And you might want to rush home after church just because you are that special individual and they can't get along without you. You're the best! We don't know what we would do without you, your boss says. And if you're great enough, they might even construct a memorial to you.

And I'm serious because there's a lot of memorials out there if you start looking to a lot of people. And humans really are indispensable and they do a very, very good job. Let's go to Daniel chapter 4 and verse 4. Daniel chapter 4 and verse 4. Here is this world's greatest leader, an individual who developed systems that protected the capital city of Babylon. It was impenetrable. No armed forces could get in there. It had hanging gardens, the walls of the Ishtar gate weren't just brick, but they were ceramic, polished, almost made like china brick in colors with baked-in murals. This is quite a place. Daniel chapter 4 and verse 4. And I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house and flourishing in my palace. Dropping down to verse 29. At the end of 12 months, he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. Now it doesn't get any better than this. If you go back 700 years before Christ, about 2700 years ago, this was as good as it got anywhere. In this beautiful city on the plain, with the palm trees growing in the distance, and the boulevards, and the avenues, and the hanging gardens, and the just the wealth of that place, and the beauty of it. And here in your big palace, with its lofty walls, you're out taking a stroll. What do you think you're going to think about?

Wow! I do pretty well. You know? I'm good. And you know what? He was. He did very well.

And when you look at your life and some of the skills that you have, you are good. And you do very well. It's not the point here. It's not a trick. You do very, very well.

But here, in verse 29, he's walking about the royal palace of Babylon, or as it says in the margin, upon the royal palace of Babylon, having a nice visual panorama. And the king said, is this not great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty? Now, he did go a little bit in the wrong direction there with his thinking, didn't he? He began to say a lot of me and my, didn't he, and I. And he began to take credit for that which he was very talented at.

While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you. And they will drive you from men, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You're going to be taking a few steps down here, and you're going to become like a common animal. They'll make you eat grass like oxen, and seven years will pass over you until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men, and he gives it to whomever he chooses. But two things are happening. One is, he says, I built the kingdom, and so yes, the kingdom is being removed from you, but there's a second thing happening. I want to talk to you today about that second thing.

In verse 33, that very hour, the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men, and he ate grass like oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair had grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like birdcloths. Today, I'd like to examine one of the living miracles that is taking place right now in you. And it had been taking place right then in him, but he didn't appreciate it. He didn't give any credit to it. And when you and I see all the wonderful capabilities that you can do, you and I need to give credit where credit is due. I'd like to examine one of two living miracles taking place inside all of humans. This miracle is unseen. It's expected. It's common to all, and therefore it's unappreciated. So let's take a look today in a sermon entitled, Talent on Loan from God, Part 1, The Spirit in Man.

Mr. Herbert Armstrong was the leader of this church back from the 1930s until he died in the mid-1980s. I've told you before, he was my pastor when I was in my developing years. And he was a great teacher. He wrote a lot of things. If you don't have what he wrote, if you haven't seen what he wrote, let me know and I'll give you a copy of about everything he wrote, and some audio, and some other things. He was able to get things across very well. But he wrote a book called Mystery of the Ages. And in that book, he says, the physical brain of higher vertebras in the animal kingdom is essentially the same in physical form, design, and constituency as the human brain. So in other words, not much different between an animal brain and a human brain. If you get them out on the table and slice and dice them, they're remarkably similar. He says the brains of whales, elephants, dolphins, are larger than the human brain. Now, does bigger mean better? Well, whales, elephants, dolphins, can they do what you and I can do? So bigger isn't necessarily equated with ability to do what humans can do. Going on, yet the output of the human brain is indescribably greater. Few know why. Now, I'd like to take you back to Genesis 1, the first chapter, and take a look at the fifth day of creation. We'll just slice this day out and look at it through just a little different lens than what we typically do when we go to Genesis 1. In Genesis 1, chapter 1, verse 24 through 30, then God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind. We've had the fish, we've had the animals, now here comes the living creature on land, the cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind, and it was so. So now we're created, all of these animals that so intrigue us. We love to watch animals. We like to go out and see them. We like to go to a zoo or set up a theater and watch them. Take a camera and go try to photograph them. God makes these animals. In verse 25, God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. Each of those animals fills a certain place within the ecosystem. It has a certain number of traits whereby it contributes to the environment in a certain way that makes this environment totally harmonious and it works. But each animal only has a very limited role, a specific role, that it functions in, it does very well. It only has a certain amount of things that it eats, for instance. You can look at a giraffe. A giraffe eats one thing, the leaves of acacia trees. It eats the leaves of acacia trees and it eats the leaves of acacia trees. That's what it eats. It eats all day. It goes looking for more acacia trees. There are other animals that might eat a certain insect or a certain bug, like the unique flycatcher bird. It sits on a limb and waits for a fly and flies up and eats the fly. Then there's the bee-eater. It eats bees similarly.

But bee-eaters don't eat flies and flycatchers don't eat bees, evidently. Everything has its own limitation, its own function, and God saw that it was good. Then, verse 26, God said, now we're going to do something different. Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. This animal, some people want to call us, we're not, but this living organism is different. It doesn't have a niche. It doesn't have a specific little role where it does something and contributes to the environment. This is over all of them. It overshadows and interacts with any and all aspects of the living creation. So God created man in his own image, and the image of God he created them. Male and female he created them in his image. Then God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, verse 29, see I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed. To you it shall be for food. He begins to tell us, you can eat anything that bears a seed out there that won't kill you. I think that's inferred. Be careful about the red berries. Some of them. Verse 30, also, not just the seeds, but also to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life. I have given every green herb for food. So God has given us the preeminence over the animal world. He's given us, initially at least, herbs and various vegetables to eat. And then certainly, we have the clean and unclean animals designated at the time of Noah. We don't know exactly when that came in. We have the clean and unclean animals with the house of Israel explained.

But what we see here is there are some unique things about humans. I'll pick out three of them. One is they're in the image of God. Two is, as some have said, they're to grow into the likeness of God. Now, it may be that God created us both in his image and his likeness, and that's kind of a similar term. But I think you can also extrapolate from that. Yes, all humans are created in his image, because we sort of have the shape and the arms and the eyes and the head, but he wants us to develop his character, his personality. He wants us to become like him. So there's a secondary goal for humanity, whether it's implied in that verse or not. But here we also have been given reasoning to determine our food. You notice we're not programmed when a baby's born. He doesn't say, you know, I think I'll go out and get this or that. No, we don't know what to eat.

You know, when we're young, we have, well, what are we going to do? Is that good for food? If you're out in wilderness survival, which I teach sometimes, I'm hungry. What do we eat? Well, there's a world of stuff out there, but everybody gets stumped. You know, all the teens say, I don't know. I don't see anything to eat. What would I eat? Well, if a deer comes walking by, it doesn't have that question. What will I eat? No, the deer eats. But the humans were kind of stumped. We have to figure it out. God says, I've given you all these things. Some of them will kill you. Some of them taste good. Some of them could taste good if you knew what to do with them.

Some of them taste really good, just right off the bat. But you'll have to go out and figure out your own food. You had to reason to determine your food. But then, one more thing, the fourth thing, in Genesis 2, verse 15 through 17. Then the Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. Part of our role in life, and you can be frustrated by this, is the fact that you have to tend and keep things. You can have a beautiful yard and put in your landscaping, but now you're going to be a slave to that landscaping, because it has to be trimmed and mowed and pruned and hauled and weeded. It has to be watered and fertilized. Sometimes you think, why am I on this earth? I'm not accomplishing anything. I'm tending to my yard, or I'm tending to my body, or I'm tending to my house, or I'm tending to the maintenance on things. It's just part of what we have to do. We have to use our minds and we are encumbered with acquiring food, acquiring clothing, with producing and maintaining. That's part of what we do, different than the animals. You know, an animal that goes out and sort of trims up, or maintains. Oh, they tend to be hunters and gatherers, whatever they are. They move around. They get what they need. Generally, keep going.

Tend and keep it. Verse 16, And the Lord commanded the man. Now God is saying, see, He didn't command the animals. Not in the same way. He commanded the man. He said to him, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Man has to interpret this.

Man has to begin to think, then, I'm getting direction from my God, and there are certain responsibilities I now have, and certain consequences if I do or do not follow them. The book of the Age of the Man was made to have a special relationship with his Maker. He's receiving instructions here, and he's receiving rewards or penalties. And this relationship with our Maker is done by us having something the animals do not. And that is a living miracle inside of us. A spirit, the Bible calls it. A spirit of man. Mr. Armstrong coined the phrase, Spirit in man. The spirit in man. Because that's what it is. We're men. We've got this separate spirit that interacts with our brain and gives us a real mind.

Scripture shows that there is a spirit in man. In Job 32 and verse 8, for instance, there are several scriptures in the Bible that tell us about this spirit. Job 32 and verse 8, it states, But there is a spirit in man.

There is a spirit in man.

And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. This is different than just being what the Bible calls a soul, a sukei in the Greek.

The nefesh of the Hebrew. Those are living, breathing, and a certain amount of brain power, yes. But this is different. This spirit that humans are given, as it says here in Job 32, there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.

So this spirit in man, spirit from God, spirit of man, some translations say, it imparts the power of intellect to the human physical brain. Now, let's go back to the initial question. Do you feel talented, skilled, capable? You should, but why are you talented, skilled, and capable? Why do you have the abilities that you do? You have them because you have talent that is on loan from God. You have a living miracle that can be taken away, just like it was, taken from Nebuchadnezzar. Now, can you and I get all swelled up and vain and proud about that? Or should we give God the credit and the glory and the appreciation and ask Him to help us develop those talents in ways that are beneficial and serving? Again, where does the spirit in man come from? Is it organic? Were you born with it? You say, well, I got it from my daddy. He was smart. Or my mommy. She was a brainiac. And I got it from her. I owe everything I had. As I hold this award, I owe everything I had to my parents. Well, let's go over to Zechariah 12 and verse 1, second chapter before the end of the Old Testament. Zechariah 12 and verse 1. We're going to break into the verse here. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him.

Ah, there's that spirit of man. God forms that spirit. He owns it. He loans it. And it is a very, very talent-making, capable-making spirit when combined with the human brain. And it certainly is not human. It certainly is not organic. And it's not something that you own.

The spirit itself cannot see, can't taste, can't hear, can't feel, can't smell. You know, those are aspects related to the brain. And the brain of an animal or a human can have these perceptory functions. You know, as you look around right now, you're probably thinking, well, I'm seeing things. No, you're not. You're interpreting electrical impulses. You're hearing my voice. You're saying, oh, I hear that. No, you don't hear that. You don't feel anything, too. If you bump the person next to you or feel the pin in your hand or something, you say, well, I'm feeling that. Well, who am I? You know, are you your finger? Well, no, I'm not my finger, but I have a finger. Are you your eye? No, I'm not my eye, but I have an eye. Well, who are you? Well, you begin to think of who you are. You're actually in here somewhere. You're back inside the skull, and your brain does not have eyes. Your brain actually is in there, this gooey matter, and it's got some wiring hook to it. And your eyeball is seeing things, but it's not seeing what you're seeing. Actually, what you're actually seeing is upside down.

Your brain is getting an upside down image, but it's smart enough, intelligent enough, powerful enough to flip the image right side up. But there's no connection. The eyeball isn't sort of stuck inside the brain, and it's its window to the world. No, the eyeball actually can come out. Got a little wire on the end of it. You can look around with it, put it back in. And that wire doesn't have any, you know, optics that go down there. Nope, no optics at all. Just some little electrical impulses that flash on down the line. Same with your ear. You know, you're, you think, well, I'm hearing something. No, you're not actually hearing those sound waves. Your brain isn't because they go in your ear, and then they go to some kind of a little drum that pounds on a little flat thing. And the other side of that little flat thing, there's no tube that takes, nope, just some nerves from there on. It's electrical impulses. And your, your brain gets it, and it, for a long time, didn't know what to do with that stuff. Heard that stuff. I don't know what that is. And gradually began to figure out, you know, I think somebody's trying to talk to me. That, that woman with the long hair, you know, she's trying to talk to me. And you finally figure out, oh yeah, I get it. I begin to understand, and it begins to click. But it takes us a while. We're looking at things. We don't know what that is. We don't know what we're looking at. We don't know what we're hearing. Your arm flips around and hits something. You don't know what that was. You can't walk. And after a while, the mind begins to use some of these external things, like the nerves that come from millions, maybe billions of little receptors on skin. You begin to know what that is. You interpret the electric signals that come into the brain. It's a very extremely profound device that God made. But that's not the spirit in man. It's associated with the brain. The physical brain is kind of like a pet. Some basic thoughts, but not really high-level thoughts. We have three dogs in our house right now because our kids have moved in with us. And the dogs are really interesting to watch. You know, we love the dogs, but they don't say a lot. They don't really interact a lot. They like to use me. You think they love you? No. They just need all those millions of hair follicles stroked. They want to feel good. They want you to praise them. They want to eat. That's pretty much it in life. And beyond that, they're capable as an animal, as a dog. They can do what dogs do, but they can't do anything above and beyond that.

Human talents are added to that type of level of thinking. Human talents, and they come by the spirit in man. It says in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 11 in the New Testament, For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him?

Dogs don't know. I read somewhere that a dog has a seven-minute working memory. Not that it can't remember other things or reconnect with things, but a seven-minute working memory. And I assume that's why dogs can get lost. I'm going to leave home, and I'm just going to go over here. And then seven minutes later, it's like, why was it over here? I don't know, but I think I'll go over there. They have a kind of a limit there, but humans have the spirit of man, and we know the things of a man because of that spirit that's in us. And as we grow and mature, we begin to know more as we age, as we get up through our teenage years. We absolutely know it all. It's 16, we even get more knowledge after that and begin to realize we're losing it somehow, we're knowing less as time goes on, because it seems like we don't know everything at age 18. And so it goes, the mind continues to expand and grasp things like where you are, a child. Where are you? Well, you're in Arizona. What's that? Where is somebody else? Well, they're in Kansas. Oh, what's that? You just don't have much of a spatial realization. But as you age, you begin to realize, you know, I'm kind of in this town, in this part of the country, this part of the state, I'm in this country, I'm kind of on this continent. We grow, we understand the things of a man, but it takes time. We're not programmed that way. And that spirit in man is what allows that to happen.

What's the function of this spirit? Well, it, again, doesn't make us a soul. It's not a soul. It has nothing to do with a soul. The soul is a living person without the spirit of God. But it does two things. It imparts the ability to have intellect. Intellect. Intellect is the thinking, the reasoning, the mind power.

Now consider the role of the spirit in man in this thinking process. If we go to Matthew 2 and verse 14. I'll just pull this out as an example. Matthew 2 and verse 14. Very different than animals. I'm sorry, Malachi, not Matthew. Malachi 2, 14.

It's talking about being married, breaking into verse 14. Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Boom. You're in a level far above anything that the animals would know about. And you're being reasoned with here by God to say, you have a covenant, you have a wife, you have to be loyal, faithful, and loving and serving to this wife of your youth. Verse 15. Did he not make them one having a remnant of the spirit? They have the spirit together, notice going on, and why one he seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your spirit. Take heed to your ability to think and reason and plan your life and these covenants that you make. You take heed to this because you are not to deal treacherously with the wife of your youth. See how this intellect works with the spirit.

The second thing is it makes possible a personal relationship with our Creator.

God and man are able to communicate. Notice in 1 Chronicles chapter 4 and verse 10. A man named Jabez. I'll pull this out as an example of the ability for humans to have a relationship with their Creator. Now I talk to Mandy, my dog, about God and the creation.

He doesn't go in. She doesn't get it. She never thinks about God. She never thinks about what he's done. She doesn't appreciate him at all. She doesn't even know him or not even comprehend him. The birds that come to the feeder, they're not thinking about God. They just don't. They never enter their little brains. And yet here in 1 Chronicles 4 and verse 10. And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, Oh, that you would bless me indeed. Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory. That your hand would be with me and that you would keep me from evil. Wow, you have to think about what evil is. What good is.

Keep me from evil. That I may not cause pain to other people. I am now thinking of other people. That I won't cause pain. And so God granted him what he requested. See that interaction in the cerebral thinking and the complexity, really, of what's being asked and how God works with the individual. Human brain functions are impossible in animal brains. And yet there's no significance physically. No significant difference physically between animal brains and human brains.

Let's consider that human brains are different in that animals cannot think. They cannot reason. They cannot study. And beyond their instinct, they cannot make decisions. They have no knowledge, no judgment, no wisdom, no love, no kindness, no cooperation. They have no attitudes of conspiracy, of envy, of jealousy or resentment. They have no appreciation of environment, the ability to make music, art or literature. No realization of God or communication with God. No developing any of God's characteristics. An animal cannot develop any of God's characteristics. And yet with humans that have the spirit in man, we appreciate our environment. We really think about what's around us and we'll go off to enjoy just the environment. Humans contemplate their meaning, their purpose, and their lives. Human beings can design and develop. They can make music and art. They can make literature. Environmentalists despise the fact that humans can contemplate their Creator. And that they can have a relationship and communication with their Creator. And evolutionists will try to erase that link, try to get rid of the creation and the Creator and to downplay that. And yet this is the reason why you and I have that spirit in us, so that we can have the link with God. Mr. Armstrong said, the real value of a human life lies solely within the human spirit combined with the human brain. Those are interesting words. I've read that phrase over and over and it's kind of a hard one to wrap around the way it's constructed, but he says the real value of a human life lies solely within the human spirit combined with the human brain. That's the value of your and my life. This thing that that spirit enables us to do, to have a relationship with God and to build the thought processes that can lead to character that God can harvest for His kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar was a typical human. It's a typical self-reliant human. Most humans have been since Adam and Eve. Most people today are very self-reliant and we kind of pride ourselves on being self-reliant. Adam and Eve rejected their reliance upon God and sought to do it their way. When humans continue to choose to rely on our own knowledge and our own abilities and we give ourselves credit for that. And what are we building? We're building countries and empires and we're building interesting labor saving devices and interesting war making devices. Down through today, the world has relied wholly on self-reliance, the innate powers within, the professionalism and the pride of professionalism and the pride of race and station, as one of the song says. It gives people sort of this inward, inflated, impressed view of themselves. Each feels that he is above others and distains others. And so we find Nebuchadnezzar is a fairly typical human walking around up there thumbing his nose at the Assyrians, thumbing his nose at other cultures around, including the nation of Israel. And he's giving himself great credit for all that he's able to do. But God showed him the source of his talent, his abilities and his reason. If we go back to Daniel chapter 4 verses 34 through 37, we find here that Nebuchadnezzar got to learn something. And we can learn something too. God doesn't need to pull that miracle from you or me. Daniel chapter 4 verse 37. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise... Whoops, hang on. We're going to go through verse 36.

At that time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom my honor and splendor returned to me. His reason. He could be like a human. He could understand what a human understand.

It's because that spirit which gives us understanding was restored to him. Now verse 37. I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways justice, and those who walk in pride he is able to put down. Why did this take place in verse 34? I lifted my eyes and my understanding returned to me. And when I got understanding back, I blessed the Most High and I praised and honored him who lives forever. He learned something that you and I can learn through his experience and not have to be humiliated or totally miss out on what God has for us. Are you talented? Ask yourself, really. Are you talented? I hope the answer is yes. I hope you will say, yes, I really am talented. Where did that talent come from? Well, are you gifted? Do you feel gifted and talented? A gift is something you are given from someone else. And we need to realize that this talent really is on loan, it is temporary, and it is from God. And we should praise him and be thankful for that because these talents and gifts are not inherent in your brain or my brain. Let's go to Exodus 31 and verse 1 and see an example of gifts that individuals have been given. Exodus 31 and verse 1. It's a little hard to determine from this passage how much of this was extra miraculous and how much of it was just standard spirit in man. Because what we're going to read here is about some artisans. They were already artisans. Let's see from God's mouth what some of these gifts and talents, where they come from. Exodus 31 verse 1. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, See, I have called by my name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Her of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God. That's not the Holy Spirit of God, evidently, but in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. Now what were all of these traits focused on? Go to verse 4. To design artistic works. Something very physical, but he could design artistic works. You think one day he was just a goat farmer? Well, we'll read here in a minute that some of these individuals were already in that field, and yet God gave them extra talents. These gifts were actually gifted by God to these individuals to increase what they would be able to normally do. To design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, and cutting jewels for setting, and carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. See, they could look and say, wow, look at what I can make! But why were they able to make that? The Spirit of God.

In cutting jewels for setting, carving wood, verse 6, and I, indeed, I have appointed with him a holy ab, the son of a sin match of the tribe of Dan, and I have put wisdom in the hearts, notice, of all the gifted artisans. They were, I think, already gifted artisans. Gifted artisans? They already had the gift that He has put wisdom in them, that they may make all that I have commanded you.

God had sort of kicked it up a notch as far as what the requirements were for the tabernacle, and then He supported those individuals who were commissioned with the ability to do that. It reminds me of when God points somebody in His church to do something, that individual before didn't have those traits and abilities. And I can look at my own self. When God gives me an assignment, I just have to say, well, I'll take it on faith that God is going to help, and God is going to provide that which is needed to fulfill that assignment.

Because I don't have it. I just don't. I'll be the first one to admit it. Others may, but I don't. And so, with these individuals, God put this in their hearts that they could make all that He had assigned them to do. The tabernacle of meeting, the ark of testimony, the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle, and the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burn offering with all its utensils, the labor in its base, the garments of ministry, the holy garments for heir and the priest, and the garments of His Son to minister as priests, and the anointing oil and the sweet incense for the holy place.

According to all I have commanded you, they shall do. In Exodus 35, verse 25, we notice the same about the ladies. Exodus 35, verse 25, all the women who were gifted artisans, and brought what they had spun of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and all the women whose hearts stirred with wisdom spun yarn of goat's hair. So they were gifted artisans because they had been given something that was not inherent in them, and they also, it says, had hearted, and they had been given something that was not inherent in them.

And they also, it says, had heart stirred with this wisdom, and sort of an extra gift on top of the talents that they already had, is how I would tend to interpret that. The point here is human talents are incredible, and sometimes God gives extra talents, or He'll help inspire a person to even do better things with those talents. But the talents are incredible. On the way over here, my wife and I were listening to some music that we really enjoy on the Sabbath, some of the light classics. Classical music can be a combination of various pieces that are inspired from various sources, but it can also be an individual who really sits down with a pen and a paper, and really tries to make a beautiful score with rows and rows and rows and rows, all playing at the same time.

A whole orchestra of 70-some instruments, all playing at the same time. To be able to do that as a human is just an incredible feat. Well, there's a composer named Vorjak. Vorjak, I believe, came from over in the area of Poland, somewhere in that area, and he was pretty good at doing some folk dances from the Slavic area, and he had some of those pieces he did pretty well.

The thing that's so exciting about Vorjak is he made a trip to America, to North America, back in the day when it was hard to sail. It might have been a big thing for him just to go to Europe, but he sailed all the way to America, and then back before there was electricity and before there was rail and all this stuff.

He traveled in North America, and he didn't have a camera, and he didn't have a recording device, but he scored the New World Symphony out of what he saw and what he heard. As he traveled around the various cultures that he would bump into in the East, and the various mountain ranges and the beautiful things that he saw, maybe the Blue Ridge Mountains or the Great Smoky Mountains, or some of the cultures of the South, the songs and the themes, and some of the grandeur of the coastline, he put all of that into musical scores, many lines playing at the same time.

And the beauty of that New World Symphony is, especially the Largo piece, is that you can hear North America in that score. You kind of have to make up your own imagination about what's what, but you can see the Grand Cannon, and you can see the people, and you can see the towns and the cities, and in your own mind's eye, through music. And this man used the spirit in man, coupled with the talent that he had for music, and he very deliberately went around and listened and looked and said, now how would I orchestrate that on a score?

In a score. And the result is a fascinating look at the ability of the human mind with the spirit in man. It's a fascinating look at what that can accomplish. Now, that's just one example. There's a lady here in Arizona who was born without arms, has no arms whatsoever, and she's a pilot. That's also very inspiring.

When you think about how you do that, I've seen a video of her flying. That's an incredible human achievement. There are other human achievements, such as walking on the moon, and all that went into that. The very complex relationships that took place across many continents in order for that to happen. A simple thing that you and I might take for granted. Millions of transistors in the space that's the size of an eraser on a pen. They're incredible things that the human mind can do, or the maglev train.

The mind thinks, you know what? These wheels going on a rail create a certain amount of friction. What if we had a train that never touched the ground? An entire train that never touched the rail. Through magnetic levitation in opposing magnets, electromagnets, this train could actually ride in the air and blast along. The Chinese have one running over 300 miles an hour now. Magnetic levitation.

Who knows what the spirit in man combined with the human brain? Who knows what it really can do? It is really incredible. And yet it's very temporary. Let's look at Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and verse 8. If we don't see that the spirit in man is talent, then we're missing something. If we're not seeing that it's gifted, we are missing something. And if we don't see that it's on loan from God as a living miracle, then we are really, really missing the boat. Because God loves us so dearly that He is willing to put this kind of complexity within our thought processes via this special spirit. Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and verse 8 says, no one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit. It's not yours. You can't retain it. You can't keep it. No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit. And no one has power in the day of death. You know, that is something that is a limited blessing, a limited gift. And you and I are at God's mercy as far as how long we will live and how long we will be able to be imbued with that particular spirit. Let's look at Psalm chapter 146 verses 2 through 4.

Psalm 146 in verse 2. David says, he's talking about praising God here, this is something really interesting. While I live, I will praise the Lord.

That's finite, isn't it? It's temporary. It's while I live, I will praise God. You can't praise God when he's dead after he quits living. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His spirit departs. He returns to his earth, and in that very day his plans perish.

That shows us that the spirit that God has given us is something that will leave our brain, it will leave our body. At the time of death, God takes it back. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 19 through 22, it talks about this.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 19 says, for what happens to the sons of men also happens to the animals. We have something in common with these other beings that we were created alongside. One thing befalls them as one dies, so dies the other.

Surely they all have one breath. We are all souls. The Bible calls in the creation account the animals' souls, living nafesh. They're called living beings sometimes, but the word nafesh is there. Then he breathed the breath of life into Adam, and he became a living nafesh also. Same thing.

Sure, they all have one breath. Man has no advantage over animals. It's not inherent in you and me, this thing that makes us unique. All go to one place. All are from the dust. All return to dust. There is one difference, though, and that regards the spirit in man. Verse 21. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men which goes upward? It returns to God. And the spirit of the animal which goes down to the earth. The animal only has a limited instinct, and that dies with the animal. Verse 22. So I perceive that nothing is better than a man should rejoice in his own works. These things that you and I have been given the ability to do, we should rejoice in them, for that is our heritage. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him? It's temporary. The miracle will cease. We need to control our thoughts and our feelings, our emotions and desires that the spirit in us makes possible. We can have all those things, but we need to control them. In Proverbs, the 25th chapter, just back a little bit here, Proverbs 25, verse 28, it says, whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. Anything can invade it. Anything can come and control it, mess it up, ruin it. So a human's life can be invaded or influenced. It can be destroyed by all manner of outside impulses or encouragements, temptations, unless you have control over your spirit. That spirit is something that needs to be controlled. In chapter 17, in verse 27 and 28, this is for the thinking individual, he who has knowledge spares his words, and a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. You need to control that spirit and make it calm. Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace. When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive. There are controls that we can use on our spirit and also on those things that we can do by having the spirit. Just because we can talk, unlike animals, doesn't mean we always should talk. And when we should talk, doesn't mean we should say anything that comes to our mind. What we should talk about is important.

The spirit in man has limitations. I want to finish up here by mentioning that the spirit in man certainly gives us abilities, it gives us talents, the opportunity to develop those things. It's really incredible. But there are limitations. There's only so much that you can know with a human spirit. There's only so much understanding that you can grasp with this spirit in man. Notice in Acts 18, verse 24, we'll look at an example of a person who grew in the knowledge of God's way. With the spirit of man, he could go so far. His name was Apollos. In Acts 18, verse 24, through 26, it says, now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria. So here's an individual who was taught in the Jewish law. He was a knowledgeable individual. He also was an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures, really was trained well, knew a lot. And he came to Ephesus. Ephesus was an area that was gentile. And he now probably felt of himself, I know so much more than these gentile people who didn't grow up like I did. I just am really knowledgeable. And he was probably proud of that. Going on. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord. Somebody taught him this. And being fervent in spirit wound up. He spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord. Up to a point. Because it says, though he knew only the baptism of John, he did not have the laying on of hands. He did not have anything beyond the spirit in a man and the training and the understanding that you can have up to that point, so far as this passage would indicate. Those who had had the baptism of John later were baptized, following repentance, and received another spirit. Notice verse 26. So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue with everything that he knew. When Aquila and Priscilla, his wife, heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

You can see there's a point, there's a limitation with the spirit of man. It's in spiritual understanding. In conclusion, most of humanity right now is limited to having the spirit in man. What is the result of that? Well, all you have to do is look at the news, look at politics, look at the global economy, look at the global environment condition, look at the global military potential, and you'll see where this is taking man. I'd like to conclude by taking a look at Isaiah chapter 32 verses 13 and 15. Isaiah 32 verses 13 and 15. Because this is where we as humans, as a human race, are headed with this wonderful ability to think and reason, to imagine, to produce, to create. And certainly humans are very, very talented because of this miracle that takes place in our mind. Isaiah 32 verse 13. On the land of my people will come up thorns and briars. Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city. This is where we're headed.

As not only the descendants of Israel are headed there, but the world as a whole are headed there.

Verse 15. Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high. A different spirit with a capital S. And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest. There is another spirit, and next time we'll look at part two of this topic, talent on loan from God, the Holy Spirit, God's Holy Spirit. And we'll see what the Holy Spirit, when combined with the human spirit, is able to produce in the spiritual realm.