Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] So our sermon passage tonight is from Ephesians chapter six. We'll be looking at verses five through nine for our guests. I'll explain. Our pattern here is just to pick a book of the Bible and to preach straight through it, letting God's word speak to us. Whatever he, you know, where he would have us to be is what we are listening to.
[00:00:20] But before we get into Ephesians 6, I want to, you know, take a moment to just sort of address where we are as a nation and how this passage fits into how it's so relevant. For that, I'll say that I can't say that I knew very much about Charlie Kirk before his assassination. I was actually pretty skeptical of him because of some past comments he'd made about, you know, not opposing gay marriage. You know, just. He spoke of that as a political liability, and obviously that's something he had repented of. But I'll tell you, I've watched more videos of him since his death than before his death, and. And last week was one of real grief for me. It's like the more I got to know that brother and hear his testimony, the more I came to appreciate him and mourn that we've lost such a dear brother and soldier for Christ.
[00:01:12] And many have commented that they believe that this is a watershed moment for our nation in a number of ways.
[00:01:20] I don't know. You know, time will tell. I can say it at least. It feels like it's been a watershed moment in my own heart.
[00:01:27] It is more deeply impressed upon me that we are in a spiritual war and that we need to be ever mindful of that.
[00:01:34] And so why do I say that it is more apparent that we are in a spiritual war? Well, I think because when the truth is presented clearly, there's two responses to the truth or to the light of the truth. Number one is you can welcome it and you can agree with it. You can agree with God that you are a sinner as he shines the light on your sin.
[00:01:54] And you can welcome that revelation. You can welcome him chasing away the darkness from your heart, or you can hate the light and try to extinguish it, try to murder it. And that's what happened with Charlie Kirk. You know, when God's people are speaking the truth, the devil will initially respond with lies and slander and diversions or trying to discourage truth tellers. When that does not work, the snake becomes a dragon. He's still a serpent, but he takes the form of the dragon of the beast and just straight up opposes it with violence and murder and persecution. And, you know, I see Charlie's Kirk. Charlie Kirk's death as an attempt to snuff out the light, but you can't do that.
[00:02:44] The light always overcomes the darkness.
[00:02:48] And so I'm seeing his death do two things. Number one is emboldening others to tell the truth with greater boldness to live for eternity, to get serious about what matters eternally, to take up arms, so to speak, to defend what is good and right and true in this world. But on the other hand, we see it exposing the darkness. I mean, how many of us have just been amazed, befuddled, angered, heartbroken to see how many people are glad that this man has been killed because they do not want to hear. They did not want to hear what he had to say.
[00:03:25] I would say his assassination, or dare I say, his martyrdom, has revealed the darkness.
[00:03:31] And seeing the darkness, God's people do not, cannot and should not cower at its presence. Rather, we must fuel our own flames. Remember B, being filled with the Holy Spirit and take a torch into the heart of darkness. Amen.
[00:03:48] So how do we respond?
[00:03:50] We must go to war for the Kingdom of Christ. We must renew those efforts. We must remember that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. You know, when Paul speaks of that in second Corinthians 10, he's speaking about his apostleship and addressing false doctrine, false practice. But more broadly speaking, let's just meditate for a moment on what are the weapons of our warfare, of this spiritual war.
[00:04:14] Prayer gathering for corporate worship. Preaching the gospel, proclaiming it to your neighbor, loving our enemies, loving and serving the body, and fellowshipping with one another. Remember Jesus said in John 13:34 that by your love for one another, people will know that you are my disciples.
[00:04:32] Yes. Refuting lies, demolishing strongholds, and just generally exposing the darkness as well.
[00:04:39] Very practical strategies, like husbands loving our wives, demonstrating Christ's love for the church, wives respectfully submitting to your husband, displaying the Church's glad submission to our loving Lord, raising up children to maturity, to be faithful, lifelong followers of Jesus, and just generally doing good work.
[00:05:03] Tuesday morning, I was listening to Al Mohler on the briefing talking about Charlie Kirk on the way to work. And when I got into work, I went into my buddy Max's office. He's a brother in Christ. And I said, you ready to go to war?
[00:05:17] And he was very wise. And he responded, what do you mean?
[00:05:21] Or maybe he said something like, tell me what that looks like. I said, are you ready to Raise our kids up to maturity. Are you ready to do some good work today that contributes to the flourishing of our community? He's like, yeah, let's do that.
[00:05:34] And so why do I tell you about Charlie Kirk? Spiritual Warfare, an introduction to a Sermon on Work.
[00:05:41] Because work is part of our warfare.
[00:05:44] Doing good work, that is creative, diligent God honoring neighbor, serving, competent, wholehearted, breaking a sweat. That kind of work advances Christ's kingdom. Doing good work matters. And that we get to work matters. It matters for our neighbor.
[00:06:03] It matters for God's name. It matters for our own sanctification, and it matters for the kingdom coming in our world and even in our own hearts. And also it fits the context Paul has. You know, he's been commenting, well, notice, and we're going to read verses five through nine, but put your eyes on verse ten. What does he start talking about?
[00:06:26] Standing strong in spiritual warfare. But he's been talking about spiritual warfare at least since chapter three, verse ten, talking about how, you know, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God is being put on display to the rulers and authorities.
[00:06:42] And even, you know, chapter one, he talks about how Christ has been seated, ascended above all powers and principalities, and we who once followed in league with Satan and were doing his will, now we have been raised as well and seated with Christ in the heavenlies.
[00:07:02] And as well, in chapter two, verse 10, he said, we're created for good works. Or as David Bonson explains, we're literally, you could translate that as we were created to do work that is good.
[00:07:15] Okay, so let's read and study some of what makes for good work.
[00:07:20] And let me tell you here, as we get into chapter six, five through nine, Paul's going to speak to bondservants and masters, which you're like, okay, well, how's this talking about my job? Well, I'm going to explain shortly that it provides principles for employees and their supervisors. So as I read those words, go ahead and start to associate that, you know, bond servants with employees, masters with supervisors, or business owners.
[00:07:46] For those of you guys who are retired or students, homemakers, disabled, otherwise unemployed, don't worry, you're not off the hook. I will address you at the end. But as we talk about work, let's just keep in mind we are all called to work for Jesus. We're all called to do good work for Jesus. And so go ahead and start paying attention now.
[00:08:10] So Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 5 through 9, the word of God.
[00:08:15] Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does this, he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.
[00:08:43] Masters do the same to them and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him. Let's pray.
[00:08:56] God, we are just humbly in need of you to open this up to us. God, that we would hear your word speaking to our hearts. That we would hear you speaking to our hearts. God. God, help us. Meet us where we're at. Call us higher. Call us to yourself and send us out in the power of your Holy Spirit. It's in Jesus name I pray. And the people of God said, okay, so bond servants. Let's quickly explain. What does that mean? What is a bondservant? Well, some translations may say slave, and you could translate the word as slave depending on the context.
[00:09:37] But you got to divorce in your mind the slavery or the bond service here from American slavery, the very brutal, dehumanizing slavery that was practiced in our nation's history.
[00:09:53] CR Wiley says this. He says, here's a truth I would like you to remember. Western civilization did not invent slavery. It can't even claim to have perfected it.
[00:10:03] The only claim that Western civilization can make when it comes to slavery.
[00:10:06] It is the first civilization that figured out a way to live without it, and we should keep it that way. Amen.
[00:10:14] But the slavery or bond service here is more like indentured servitude.
[00:10:19] Many entered slavery or bond service voluntarily to escape poverty or to pay off a debt.
[00:10:27] Some did enter it involuntarily, like by birth or being captured in battle or as a consequence for a crime.
[00:10:35] And there are provisions in the Mosaic law for becoming free, for buying your freedom. And even in the Roman Empire at this time, most slaves, most bond servants, would serve for a contract of seven years. If you were in Caesar's household, you actually served a contract of 14 years. But when that contract expired, you were free and you were given the wage that had been saved by your master, and you were declared a freedman. But slavery was very common. As many as a third of those in the Roman Empire were slaves at the time of Paul's writing, and another third had been slaves earlier in life. And so Paul addresses bondservants here in the household code because they were part of the household.
[00:11:19] We have to understand that for most of world history, families work together.
[00:11:24] The Industrial revolution has largely changed that for our society, drastically changed that. But the family enterprise was something that husbands and wives were working together in and children were engaged in that work as well. And it was passed down as a family business.
[00:11:42] And bond servants would work in that family business. And so fathers were considered lords of the house.
[00:11:48] Just think Downton Abbey, if you will, bosses of the family business. So most of the time much smaller than that.
[00:11:55] But so as we address masters later in this passage, keep in mind that very often the father of the house, the lord of the family business, would be what we would identify as a self employed proprietor.
[00:12:10] Interesting fact, at our nation's founding, we were a nation of 80% proprietors. 80% would be what we'd call self employed. Now it's about 10%.
[00:12:21] Okay? So just even think about how much that has changed our notions of freedom.
[00:12:27] You know, because as a wage earner or an employee, like a bond servant, you trade your freedom for security, okay? You trade the ability to be flexible with your time for a benefits package and the security of a regular paycheck.
[00:12:45] You work for the man, basically, and the man takes care of you.
[00:12:50] Sorry for getting everybody down about that, but Paul says elsewhere that if you can avail yourself of your freedom to do so.
[00:12:57] But let me say this, wherever you find yourself working, work there with all your heart for Jesus. Work there as assigned by him.
[00:13:07] So then what does that look like? Let's get into some principles for employees and then I'll give you one additional principle for bosses before we close.
[00:13:16] So, first principle is that we are, as employees, we are to work with reverence for our earthly authorities. He literally says to work with fear and trembling, to show respect, to show reverence. To do as you're told.
[00:13:33] To not talk down about your boss when the boss is in the other office.
[00:13:39] You don't gossip about your boss and talk down about them. You are to respect them both in your presence and, and outside of your presence. And what you need to understand is that your boss serves hierarchically under the Lord, that Jesus is essentially your boss's boss. And Jesus has appointed this man or this woman to be an authority over you. And so your obedience to this, to this boss, to this supervisor, is obedience as unto the Lord. Now, obviously, if that supervisor gets out of line from what something that Jesus would command you to do, then you should disobey that boss as obedience to The Lord Jesus. Amen. That's easy to understand, is it not? Should be. Okay, so if your boss commands you to lie or cheat for the sake of the company, you should disobey that out of obedience for your boss's boss. Okay?
[00:14:32] And, you know, that's a principle that's been throughout this household code, that wives are to submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
[00:14:40] So if your husband commands you to do something sinful, you absolutely should not do that. That children, you are to obey your parents in the Lord. And then here we are, serving as bond servants of Christ.
[00:14:53] So that's the first principle, is to work with reverence for your earthly authorities. And let me just say this has a very sanctifying effect on us as we learn to submit to a boss. We are learning to submit to Jesus and God. I have noticed very often uses, you know, even just like things like calling me out of my own laziness or sloth to get to work. God has. He forms our character through our jobs, does he not, through our learning to submit.
[00:15:23] Second principle is to work with integrity. He says to work with a sincere heart.
[00:15:31] Literally, to work with singleness of heart. Not with mixed motives, but with purity of heart.
[00:15:37] Not acting one way when the boss is looking, giving eye service as a man pleaser, but working hard, doing as you're told all the time, whether the boss is looking or not. Because ultimately the boss is watching and it is him we must give an account to.
[00:15:56] Integrity means that there's a seamlessness to your character. You're not duplicitous, but you're the same when you're watched as when you're not.
[00:16:07] Third principle is to work for Jesus.
[00:16:09] Some of you are excited about how fast this is moving. We're going to slow down right here. So we're going to work for Jesus. And that's really the heart of this passage. And I want to give you three words to kind of shape what I mean by working for Jesus. The first one is worship.
[00:16:25] Did you know that the Hebrew words for work and worship are the same?
[00:16:32] It's a Hebrew word, avodah, and it gets, you know, depending on the context is how it gets translated. So what we are to do is to see your work as worship, see your work as service to the Lord. On the days when I struggle to get going or when I have to do something that I really don't want to do, sometimes it takes me way too long to get moving. I've learned I work like a boulder. It takes. I'm Hard to get moving. But once I'm moving, you can't stop me. Don't get in my way, okay? But it takes me too long to get moving sometimes. But on the days when I really struggle, I will remind myself, is Jesus worth me working hard for?
[00:17:13] Is Jesus worth me doing this? Absolutely.
[00:17:17] And just remembering all that he has done for me, all that he has worked for me makes me want to go to work for Him. And let me say that you may feel like you're at a dead end job that you absolutely despise and I sympathize with you. I have been there myself.
[00:17:33] But can you see yourself as assigned there by Jesus?
[00:17:38] He has assigned you there to do your work as glad service unto Him.
[00:17:43] Can you work for him who has worked for you as he has on the cross?
[00:17:47] Second word is service.
[00:17:49] Does Jesus not want you to serve your neighbor?
[00:17:52] And is your workplace not your primary arena for doing so?
[00:17:57] You know, we lament that so much of our time is given to our work. But that is where Jesus, that's where he has called you to be of service to your community.
[00:18:08] Does Jesus not care, brothers and sisters, that people have working electricity, running heat, clean running water? Does he not desire that codes and databases and other information systems work properly and securely? I. I don't pretend to know about what you nerds do, but I know those are words I hear you say.
[00:18:27] Does he not want children taught, houses repaired, windows cleaned, and property easements secured?
[00:18:38] You know, we bow our heads at dinner time and we thank the Lord for the food on our table, but do you ever consider the thousands of people that are involved in getting that food to you?
[00:18:48] You know, the farmers and the merchants and the drivers and the grocers and the cashiers and the cooks. You know, God works through us as workers to provide for us and to serve us. And you are one of those workers that he uses to provide for others. And there is great dignity in that. And you should take real pride in that.
[00:19:10] The third word is competence.
[00:19:13] You know, serving. Following that, we're serving our neighbor. It follows that our work must be done with competence because incompetence serves no one.
[00:19:23] It's actually destructive and it is the product of sin.
[00:19:27] So we should work hard and do a good job. Do you want an incompetent nurse?
[00:19:33] Incompetent doctor? Right. Do you want an incompetent mortgage officer?
[00:19:37] Now you want people who are doing the best that they can to serve you?
[00:19:46] Yeah. I mean, if people come to me and I do a bad job, I'M a mortgage officer for those who don't know if I do a bad job, if I don't serve them well, do you realize how much of their lives that affects?
[00:19:59] And same with you and your job. You need to see your work as needs to be done with competence if it's going to really be of service to your neighbor.
[00:20:07] The fourth principle is we must work with zeal, doing the will of God from the heart. Paul says. Literally, he says, when it says from the heart, it's literally from the soul. So put your heart and soul into doing what God desires, rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not to man. When he says goodwill there, it's literally wholeheartedness, enthusiasm, eager benevolence. That's how we are to work on our jobs.
[00:20:38] Beautiful testimony that I heard from my brother, Matt Acree, when he was college age, working at petsmart, unloading trucks and organizing the warehouse, working the night shift. He was telling me one time that the morning manager would come in and he worked with another guy, both of them believers, and just notice that everything was unloaded properly, that all the overstock was sorted through and the warehouse was tidy when they left. And the manager asked him one time why his work was so different from everyone else's. And he had an opportunity to share, to walk him through the Gospel and to his motivation to work well for the Lord Jesus. And you know what the guy did?
[00:21:25] Matt was at liberty at the time. And so the guy ended up hiring three or four more guys from liberty because he wanted that kind of work ethic in his store.
[00:21:33] And glory to God, you know, working through Matt in that way. Proverbs 22, 29 says this. It says, do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings, working hard, with zeal, with integrity, serving your neighbor. This creates an audience for the gospel as well.
[00:21:55] We are to work in faith that God sees and rewards you, Paul says, knowing that whatever good anyone does this, he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bond, servant or free.
[00:22:09] Let me ask you, who is your provider?
[00:22:13] Who ultimately pays your paycheck?
[00:22:17] Who is your rewarder?
[00:22:20] You know, Jesus says in a different context that whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones will not lose his reward. Jesus sees this and he promises to reward this. He sees every little mundane thing you do, and he imbues it with great significance. And he is pleased by every good work you do and promises to reward that. Guys, imagine if we actually believed that we work for Jesus and that he will reward every single little thing we do.
[00:22:54] Imagine, go to work like that tomorrow. Pray for me to go to work like that tomorrow. But let me tell you how this was really brought home for me.
[00:23:03] One of the ladies I work with, I won't comment on whether she's still there or not, but she was in the boss's ear.
[00:23:13] She's all the time in the boss's ear. And at the time, she was telling on me for things that I had done wrong, but also slandering me.
[00:23:22] And I had a couple choices there. I could, number one, be furious and try to pay her back somehow, or I could just trust the Lord that he sees both my good and my bad, and I repent of my bad and trust him to reward me with my good. Trust him to give me the promotions that I need when I need them, the raises that I need when I need them.
[00:23:44] And that helped me to forgive her and to work from a peaceful heart and trust the Lord to reward me. And not even, you know, doesn't matter what the boss thinks, because my boss's boss sees everything and he controls her.
[00:23:59] So we must have a broader view even than our present employment.
[00:24:06] And there are earthly rewards which are good and fitting and appropriate.
[00:24:11] Paul says elsewhere in First Corinthians that your labor is not in vain, that the resurrection is real, it will happen, and the promise of eternity is real. And so there is no good that you will ever do that will ever be for loss.
[00:24:26] That Jesus sees it and he promises to reward it.
[00:24:32] The parable of the talents.
[00:24:35] What was the reward that was given to them?
[00:24:39] Jesus says to them, well done, good and faithful servant. Here's your promotion.
[00:24:45] Here's more good work for you to do. And we will work in heaven. We will work as good, it was created before the fall, but we will work without the curse. And so the Lord sees, and I don't pretend to know exactly how all it's going to work, but the Lord will reward it and we can trust that.
[00:25:03] And finally, one additional principle for bosses. He says that he will repay your work, you know, whether you are a bond, servant or free, and that masters, bosses should do the same.
[00:25:17] What does he mean when he says do the same?
[00:25:21] He's not saying. He could either be saying, obey your earthly masters, but I don't think that's what he could be talking about. That or he's talking about rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not to man. And I believe that's what he's saying. Obviously, it obviously must be the latter. That we, as those of us who are bosses, supervisors, whether you're a supervisor or the business owner, we must also work wholeheartedly with integrity, serving our neighbor and our boss, Jesus.
[00:25:55] But then he then comments on how bosses should exercise their authority. I want you to first of all notice what he does not say. He does not go egalitarian on us and try to flatten all authorities. He does not say, you know, because your bondservant is a brother in Christ, that you should not exercise authority over him. No, he doesn't flatten the hierarchies.
[00:26:19] No, what he says is what he changes is the manner which you rule or exercise authority. He says to stop your threatening, to stop abusing your employees and manipulating them with harsh language. Because he says there is no partiality with the Lord, that Christ the judge shows no favoritism based on your position or your social status, but he will judge you based on your works. And, and this would have really been scandalous for a master, for a lord of the house to be addressed this way in the first century, because as our brothers have explained the last few passages, they had absolute authority.
[00:27:02] And so it was actually scandalous to address them as well as to address bondservants at all and with such dignity.
[00:27:11] You notice up here that I say we must, as bosses, you must rule your sphere as Christ would, avoiding opposing ditches of abuse or abdication. I use the word rule.
[00:27:26] C.S. lewis comments somewhere that we've kind of softened our language in the egalitarian spirit of the age. And we like to say lead instead of rule.
[00:27:36] Leading means to hold someone by the hand and to guide them there. To rule means to hold someone to a standard. And as bosses, we must rule. We must rule our spheres as Christ would, you know, John, a couple passages ago as we were talking about husbands loving your wives as Christ loved the church and being the head.
[00:27:56] You can go back and look in that passage. It doesn't say husbands act like the head. It says you are the head. And John gave us a nice not whether, but which. It's not whether you will exercise authority, but how you will exercise your authority. And so you can either, as John said, you can either rule your household like Caesar being abusive with an iron fist, or you can rule your household like Christ and being servant hearted. But I would add another, another side to that, the other side of the ditch, which would be not ruling at all, which would be abdication.
[00:28:32] And I personally think that's a bigger problem in our age of men. Not taking up authority of those who are in authority, not exercising their authority as they should for the good of those under them. And so, as people in authority, don't abuse that authority, because Jesus will discipline you for that, will hold you accountable for that, but also don't abdicate your authority. You do the work that you're supposed to do and exercise that authority, but exercise it as Christ would.
[00:29:05] Okay, I said I'd give a word to retirees, students, homemakers, you know, the disabled and those otherwise unemployed. You know, in short, work for Jesus with all the same attitudes, you know, integrity, zeal, faith that God rewards.
[00:29:22] You know, doing good, competent work as an act of service. But let me tell you, don't. This is especially for retirees.
[00:29:30] Don't waste your time and your opportunities. Ultimately, our retirement is in heaven.
[00:29:37] So long as Jesus has you here on earth, you are to work for him and you are to serve him and really will be working for all eternity. Now, Paul does say, if you can avail yourself of your freedom to take it, so if you can retire and be more free to do other things, then absolutely do it, but don't stop working. And serving.
[00:29:59] For homemakers in particular, I'll say, man, God sees every diaper you change, every dish you put, away, every homeschool lesson you give, God sees that. And even though you're not getting a paycheck, God will reward that same for students. You know, you're not getting a paycheck either. But God sees you and he expects you to put good work in, to do good, hard work preparing for that next stage of life, you know, learning his world in worship of Him.
[00:30:28] And then I'll say to those who are disabled, you know, there's varying degrees of that, you know, inasmuch as you can serve and work, do that. But if, at minimum, you can pray, you know, to our. To brothers who may be disabled, we're called to provide for our families. Maybe you can't get out and earn a paycheck, but you know what you can do? You can pray to the provider to take care of your family. And so we are called to work for the Lord.
[00:30:58] Finally, to the unemployed man, serve the Lord where you can trust in the Lord to reward you as he sees fit. In good time, I'll tell you a bit of my story.
[00:31:10] I was a religious studies major at uncle. If you guys thought, man, what kind of job do you get with that? That's a great question.
[00:31:22] After I graduated, I spent a year overseas in China. When I came back, it was 2009.
[00:31:28] The whole financial crisis had happened. Nobody was hiring a religious studies BA from UNC Chapel Hill.
[00:31:37] Okay? So for five months, I was unemployed. But I started substitute teaching over it, mostly at Northern Middle School. And anyway, I was just doing what I can with what I had. I won't say, I won't gripen lamenting, you know, but as hard as it was during that season, that's when I started coming to church here and saw God at work here among this local body.
[00:32:06] And so even after, you know, I finally got enough money to buy a ring, I got hired by the credit union December 2009.
[00:32:13] I said I would only be there two months. And it's been, I think, 15 years now.
[00:32:18] God's in charge, obviously.
[00:32:21] But, you know, a year and a half into our marriage, it's like, man, love to be back in Roxboro, see God doing some good work there, and I won't, you know, I told that to my boss. I had applied for another job, and he basically called me, and he's obviously, you ain't ready for that.
[00:32:40] And so a bit humbling there. But he was very gracious, and he said, where do you ultimately want to be and how can I help get you ready for that? And he was new to his position, very gracious with me, and I said, well, I'd love to be in Roxboro someday. He's like, okay, well, they don't have a lot of turnover there. People tend to go there and they stay there.
[00:32:57] But I'll just call another branch manager. I'll call and just plant a seed, you know, let them know, you know, we got this guy here. We're trying to get him ready to be a loan officer, and so they'll know that you're here when that comes time. Well, come to find out, a lady had put in her retirement notice the day before that and that the manager was even looking for a man, because it was all ladies there at the time who had some experience with the credit union and who was from the area. Those were her ideals.
[00:33:26] And so God. God arranged for me to move back here to Roxboro to be a part of this family of believers a month later. So God rewards you. You can trust that God will reward you. Get to work and you serve the Lord where you can and trust the Lord to take care of you.
[00:33:48] In closing, it's a long closing, but it's okay.
[00:33:54] Tomorrow morning, it's Monday.
[00:33:56] Everybody loves Monday, right? But I want you to wake up tomorrow morning not seeing this as something you have to do, but something that you get to do to serve the Lord and to bless your neighbor. This is the image of God on us. To work and to create with him as our Father and Creator. We work because our Father and Creator works. We are made in his image.
[00:34:22] Work is good.
[00:34:23] Can I get an amen?
[00:34:25] Work is good. It was given to us before the fall.
[00:34:30] What makes work so difficult is the curse of sin. But work is inherently good and it is a partnership with God as a co creator in his world. You know, God creates ex nihilo from nothing. He doesn't need raw materials. But we take raw materials and we work. We, we take sand and we make computer chips. Isn't that amazing?
[00:34:52] I don't know how electricity works, but it does. But we figure that out because it's the imprint of God on us to go to work and to explore, to discover and to serve our neighbor. And yeah, I mean, when God said be fruitful and multiply, he's talking about more than just making babies. Okay, what a blessing that is. But he's called us to go to work and to be fruitful and to multiply in our work as well.
[00:35:21] Let me remind you as well that Jesus worked.
[00:35:25] He says in John 5:17, my father is working until now and I am working. And what he was referring to was his, you know, Jesus lived a life of complete obedience and righteousness, which by the way included working a trade for most of his life if that doesn't give dignity to your work. And even that part of his life was counted as obedience and righteousness. And he worked to be obedient every moment of his life. And then he offered that work up on the cross. And what did he do after he was crucified?
[00:36:06] He cried out on the cross, it is finished.
[00:36:10] And what did he do after he was resurrected and ascended to God's right hand?
[00:36:15] He sat down.
[00:36:17] He sat down because his work was finished. And so Jesus has lived a life of complete obedience for you lousy workers who haven't been obedient at every turn so that he might justify us and make us righteous. But before God, Jesus worked.
[00:36:38] And in response, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. And Paul says, this is your spiritual worship as we respond to Jesus work with our own good works. And so those of you who have been. Those of us who have been self serving in our work, who have been lazy, who have been incompetent, who have been disrespectful to our authority figures, or who simply Just haven't worked like we should.
[00:37:13] You're invited to repent.
[00:37:15] You're invited to repent and to trust in Christ who has worked on your behalf in heaven. We will work. But you can get started on that job today. Consider this your interview. Only in Christ are you qualified.
[00:37:33] Are you ready to get started?
[00:37:35] Are you ready to go to work again? Work is worship. Work is part of our warfare. You know, wherever the gospel has made significant advances in a culture, people have been blessed, the community has been blessed as we've set up hospitals and, you know, you know, started schools and, you know, God's people get to work when the gospel gets into them. And so go out and be salt and light to a decaying and a dark world. And as people see your good works, may they give glory to our Father in heaven. Let's pray, Father. God, I don't know how well I've really laid this out. God, I pray that you would impress upon hearts to see Jesus. I praise you for your work. I praise you for going, for serving us, for going all the way to the cross, being obedient even to the point of death, even death on a criminal's shameful cross. Jesus, praise you for the work that you have done on our behalf.
[00:38:40] God, we confess we have no audience with you except by Jesus work. God, our works are but filthy rags at best.
[00:38:51] But Jesus work is pleasing to you.
[00:38:54] And so in his work we come to you. And by his work, in response to his work, God, may we get to work. For the sake of our nation, for the sake of our neighbor, our family, send us to work for your glory and our neighbor's good. And it's in Jesus name we pray.
[00:39:10] Amen.
