Turning Work into Worship (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order, always coming up with new slogans. No compromise a day keeps the confusion away.

How about that? I don't know. That's a pretty good one. Ray came up with that one. We are No Compromise Radio ministry. We, the royal we, the royal I, Mike Abendroth. We have a whole staff of people here.

We are not here in the studio right now, but Steve Cooley is the Tuesday guy. Charlie Crane. Charlie takes the Sunday morning sermons and gets them all ready to be played on Mondays. Josh McDonald is the executive director and does all kinds of things.

We have Ray Johnson and Tim Boslin who write emails for me and responses. We have Mark Gale who is a research assistant. We're going to have a show on Masonry soon and a show on the greening of the church that Mark has helped me with.

Basically it's all Mark's stuff and then I just Abendrothize it. We have Jonathan and Tim working on the website and helping. And I'm sure I forgot somebody else. I don't know who I've forgotten, but those are the team members that I can think of right now.

If you're one of those team members that's ostracized and I forgot to mention your name, it's probably because you need a good dose of humility and or I have a headache. So in fact, I've had a headache for about four months.

I kid you not, since November 8th when Rick Phillips came, there is no connection between Rick Phillips and my headache. And I have been to endodontist, I've been to dentist, I've been to acupuncturist, I've been to osteopaths, I've been to masseuses, I've been to internal medicine doctors, I've been to infectious disease doctors, I've been to ENT doctors, I've been to neurologist.

And I'd say I'm probably 30 better than I was. But the trip to Greece that I had, I taught first Corinthians, was a disaster because I hurt so badly I just wanted to crawl into bed seriously and die.

And then the trip to Israel was a little bit better. I was on some steroids so that wasn't too bad. I can think, but if you thought some of the shows in the last four months have been kind of boring and not up to normal standards, then you're probably right.

I don't use that as an excuse, but if you'd pray that the doctors could figure out what's going on, I would love that. And if I have to live with a headache the rest of my life and my ears ringing, that's the other issue, they just both ring, then I have to live with it.

For those of you that would pray for me, I'd appreciate it. For those of you that somehow think this is, you know, you don't like the show, therefore you don't like me and the Lord is disciplining me, maybe the Lord is disciplining me, but I don't think he is for no compromise radio, although I don't know the secret mind of God.

Only the revealed will of God. So that's the scoop there. By the way, soon, if there's just some more personal information, my second book should be out soon with a really great publisher, Day One Publishing, and the new book is about Jesus is the King.

And we've had all different kinds of titles, Jesus the Gracious Despot, King, but I think the working title at the moment is Jesus, let's see, The Sovereignty and Supremacy of King Jesus. And so it's a whole book that helps you understand that God is a king.

And if you don't know who or what a Near Eastern monarch was like, you can't really understand God like you should. We throw out our kings about every four to eight years around here. We don't understand what it's like to have a Saudi Arabian king or monarch who has control, let alone complete control, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent control like God.

So that's going to be out soon and you can get it on Amazon or wherever you want. Day One is a great publisher, English publisher. My first book, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Preachers, was on that as well.

And so that's the scoop, enough about me, let's talk about you. How to work. It's supposed to be a joke, by the way. How to work. We've talked about work and employment last week, and now I'd like to continue the theme on work.

Work as a Response to Christ’s Great Salvation

Basically, I said, here's how you think about work because you want to glorify God where you are. For those of you that missed last week's show, here's the scoop. Jesus Christ, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, one God, they have devised a great salvation.

And so our one God has done this great salvation for us. And the architect of salvation, if you were, originator is God the Father. The one who accomplished redemption for us is the Son, and the one who has brought us to life by regeneration is the Spirit, and we are blessed people, aren't we?

We're forgiven people. We're adopted people. People who are now able to call God our Father because of the high priestly work of Christ Jesus. So, in light of that, when God says work, essentially, if I could summarize theology, systematic theology, work to the glory of God, then our response to Christ's death should be, we want to work.

So I gave you the first reason why you should work in light of Christ's death for you, and that is because everyone likes to eat. If you like to eat, then you should work because that is God's ordained method of getting food.

Not necessarily even working in the cornfield, although if you worked in the cornfield as a farmer, then you could go inside and then shuck the corn, boil the corn, have corn on the cob. That would be work to get your food.

But we also could trade, or we could also work for money and then use that money to buy things. So the first one was found in 2 Thessalonians 3 .10, because everyone likes to work. Number two, to keep you from being undisciplined and being a busybody.

Why should you work today if you're listening to No Compromise Radio Ministry? Why should you work? Because you don't want to be a busybody, do you? You don't want to be undisciplined, do you? 2 Thessalonians 3 goes on to say in verse 11, for we hear that some among you, you know, we listen, that kind of hear, not we hear like in a positional place.

We hear, somebody's told us that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies, running around sponging off other people. If you win the lottery, let's just say for some reason it's righteous, somebody gave you a scratcher for free and you scratched it and won, you would still need to work.

Even Morrissey says the devil will find work for idle hands to do. Even an unbelieving rock singer knows that. Hendrickson said, these people were not busy workers, they were busy bodies. You probably know people like this.

I hope you're not like this. Once again, from last week, I'm not saying if you're unemployed that that's sinful. I'm saying that if you are unemployed and you're running around being a busybody, that part's sinful.

If you're running around with no discipline, that part's sinful. So make it your job to get a new job. Make it your, you know, take 40 hours and figure out how am I going to fill this in by making resumes, praying, working on things constructively, getting some of the things done around the house, working on my resume, working on how to interview well, working on investigating companies and doing research, spending time at the church ministering.

It doesn't really matter exactly, it doesn't matter what you do exactly, but it matters that you're busy and that you work even if you're unemployed. The third reason you should work in light of Christ's great salvation is because God commands it.

This is found in the next verse in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 12. Now such persons we command and exhort. So did you get that? Command and exhort in the Lord, boss, sovereign, king, in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in a quiet fashion and eat their own bread.

Here you have a formal commandment. This is obedience by you working. It says in verse 13, but as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. It's a possibility that you could grow weary from doing good.

So don't do that, brethren. If you have worked very, very hard in your life and now you have extra money and you are giving it to people who need money, don't grow weary. And also don't grow weary when people who don't work and try to sponge off you try to get your money because you worked hard for it.

Number four, why should you work in light of Christ's great death? Because disobedience in this area is costly. If you don't want to work and you want to hide behind your mental illness and you're on some kind of psychosomatic drugs and that's the reason why you tell me you can't work and you have to sit at home all day to get the money, there's going to be a problem.

You have a problem. If you are, you know, you have a disability and you're at home that's a real disability that prevents you from working, i .e. you are blind or you're deaf or you're paralyzed or something like that.

I fully understand that and so does God. Just like we don't expect 90-year-old widows to get out there and work. They have worked. I expect them to minister still. But if you are an able-bodied person and you don't want to work, if you're an able-bodied man and you don't want to work and you don't work well, if you're an able-bodied woman and you don't want to be a housewife that works hard and you want to just kind of coast and watch soap operas and drink your Moga David 20 -20, I don't know what you do.

It's just going to be hard. It's built into life. In light of what God has done for us, we want to respond for the glory of God. And by the way, there's forgiveness found for sin. Aren't you glad for that?

For those that haven't worked properly, say, Lord, I would like to work for you. I'd like to work as unto you. I don't want to experience this chastening. If you plant corn, guess what grows? If you are lazy and don't work, you suffer the consequences.

And here it says in 2 Thessalonians 3 .14, if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that man and do not associate with him, they're telling the church this, so that he may be put to shame.

He may be put to shame, disfellowshipped, church-disciplined. Mark that person off. Do what Matthew 18 says, go to them with a brother or sister, I mean, sorry, go to them privately, then take one or two, then tell it to the church, then kick them out.

Why? It's that big a deal. Yes. God is not lazy. Jesus was not lazy. We ought not to be lazy. Of course, when we sin, we can look to Christ and say, Jesus lived a perfect life in my place and he was never lazy.

He always worked. He worked hard for his father, the carpenter. He worked hard for his father, who is in heaven. He worked so hard he'd fall asleep on a boat. He was a hard, hard worker. And so we have the righteousness of another.

That's true. We have forgiveness. We are credited with the righteousness of Christ. I understand all that. But since that's happened, then we should say, Lord, help me to work hard. I do not want to be church disciplined because I'm lazy.

When was the last time your church, A, did church discipline at all? B, it's usually of the sexual nature people are church disciplined, but how about for not working? There were some people at this great church, Thessalonica, who were not working.

And if you don't work, you have to undergo church discipline. If you are able to work and you just simply will not work and you're full of all kinds of excuses why you can't work, then you should be church disciplined.

If you want to work and you can't get a job and you're one of the one out of ten people here who are unemployed and you're really trying, this verse doesn't apply to you. And what happens here so that he may be put to shame?

Our society doesn't understand shame. Maybe in the East, there's still a modicum of shame related to society, China and Japan. Even standing in line in Japan after the tsunami, they're just orderly. Why?

Because it would be shameful to do some kind of stupid Florence and Normandy thing and just loot and riot and cut in line. No, you'd like to get some water after the earthquake, you stand in line and you act like an image bearer, one made in the likeness and image of God.

And if you cut in line in front of a bunch of 85-year-old people, shame on you. There's a lot in the Bible about shame. Paul said in chapter 6, he said, you know, that's just shameful when you sue each other.

That's shame. Second, Timothy chapter 2, you need to be an approved worker, Timothy, the elder pastor, an approved worker who rightly divides the word. Why? So an approved worker who needs not be ashamed.

And so who would want to be shamed by known, you're known in the church community as lazy, undisciplined, busybody, soaking the system to get money that's not really your own, and then off you go. You don't really want to be that, do you?

Second Thessalonians 3, 15 goes on to say, and yet do not regard him, the lazy person who's to be shamed, as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. We're all sinful. We all fall short. And you say, you're not my enemy, you're my brother, but God disciplines those that he loves.

And this is the discipline of God through the local church. Why should you work? That's what we're talking about today on No Compromise Radio. I have been getting a whole slew of emails, a bevy of emails, a figurative, what would it be?

I don't know. I was thinking about a pack of wolves, but most of the emails are nice. So I appreciate that. If you do want to send a flamethrowing email to me, you are very welcome to do that. I just have one request.

Could you be so bold? Could you be so non-cowardly to put your name there? When it's just like, Jim, you know, you're a Roman Catholic basher and I hate you and you ought to grow up and you're snarky and you've got an attitude and you're arrogant.

Jim, you know, Eric, Bill, just put your name on there. That should just be a no compromise rule in your life, even if you don't like No Compromise Radio. If you are ever going to write a letter critiquing someone or saying something, then just be man enough, just be human enough to say, this is my name.

These kind of anonymous letters. I was told back in seminary by Professor Montoya that if you get an anonymous letter, don't read it. Don't read it. It's so easy. I used to get anonymous letters when I first became the pastor in 1997 here in Worcester, West Boylston, Massachusetts.

And I'd go to the post office box and get these letters. You know, the thing is, I knew who was writing them and I just thought, what a coward you are for not writing your name. So if you want to write us, you can.

I just suggest that you send me your name. You don't have to say, this is your phone number. This is where you're from. Sometimes I like to know where you're from so I could send the attack dogs out. No, it's just curious because how do you find out about the show locally?

It's on the radio. And then how do you find out about it? You know, wherever you live, Todd Friel, you know, Retro Radio, et cetera. So I am digressing. But like I said many times before, hey, it's my show.

Work Should Be High on Your Priority List

Number five, because it is high on the list for you to do. When you think about life and priorities, you know, the old Brian Piccolo and Gail Sayers, the movie Brian's Song. You think about, you know, God, family, friends.

People have different, what was Gail Sayer's three people in order that he had priorities for? I can't really remember. Oh, bummer. This is live radio. So what are you going to do? But when you say to yourself, what's the list of my priority?

If you think about work as low on the list of priorities, you're not thinking biblically. Listen to 1 Timothy 5, 8 as Paul writes to the elder Timothy. But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

I know the context is for widows, and so if you have a widow and they're in your family and you don't work to provide for them, you're worse than an unbeliever. And I think a good principle could be extracted from this verse as Paul applies it to Timothy.

Paul writes it specifically to Timothy. You want to take care of your family too. The implication is there. It's not the main point of the passage, I know, but the implication is there. You need to work to provide for your family.

If you have, this has nothing to do with 1 Timothy 5 directly, but now just common sense-wise, if you have a family, don't you want to work to provide for your kids, for your wife? I don't want my children to ever say, you know, my dad was such a bad provider for us.

We didn't have clothes, and we didn't have food, and we didn't have things in the house that were essential. And so therefore, you know, it blurs my view of God because I call my dad, Dad. God has called Abba Father, Dad, Daddy.

And so when I think of God the Father, I think of a God who doesn't provide. Wouldn't that motivate you to work? Now there are things that I don't provide my kids for. I mean, we don't have sushi every night and drink pomegranate juice every day and have Ben and Jerry's all the time.

There's some things in our life where we say, you know what, we're going to splurge. We're going to let our hair down. If it was up to me, I would have a filet mignon every single night. Well, every other night, because then I'd have sushi every other night.

And then I'd have some kind of guava, nectar, mango juice, pomegranate, something. I mean, it's hard to eat well when you're not loaded financially. It's hard because you say, how am I going to go to Whole Foods?

It's going to cost me twice as much, even though I know that's better for me. So what I'm not saying is this. I'm not saying send me a gift certificate from Whole Foods. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying this, work in such a way that when others look around you, especially your kids, they say, you know, my dad's a good provider.

And when I think about God, then I think about how much better of a provider he must be versus my dad doesn't provide. And you know, when I think of God, I don't know if he provides either. This is on a to-do list that should be at the top priority, a priority.

Work So Others Are Not Burdened

Number six, so you don't become a burden to other people. 1 Thessalonians 4, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you may behave properly towards outsiders and not be in any need.

Work hard so pagans don't have to take care of you. How about that? How about pagan governments don't have to take care of you? If you really need money from the government and you're on unemployment because you're out there looking, again, I have to say it because people are going to run with this the wrong way.

I don't mean that at all. If you are getting social security because you put into it for 40 years and you're retired, cash the check. I'm not saying that. You should not. I'm saying that if you are a slacker and you're calling yourself a Christian and you're letting the pagans take care of you, you ought to reexamine the fact, did really Jesus die for me and am I really a Christian?

That's good to examine yourself. And then number seven, so you can have to give to others. Work so that you can have extra so you can give to other people. Listen to Ephesians 4 .28. Let him who steals, steal no longer, but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good in order that he may have something to share with him who has a need.

So Paul says to the churches at Ephesus and other places, the church at Ephesus and the circular letter that would go around to people, here's Christianity in light of the cross. Don't, then do. Put off, put on.

Stop, start. So don't lie, that's the negative. Tell the truth. Don't be lazy, work. Don't steal, work. That kind of thing. And so when you work hard and you have extra, then you're able to give. Then you're able to help your local church, and you should give your money freely to the Lord Jesus Christ through the instrument of the local church for gospel ministry there.

You should say to yourself, I have extra, so if somebody has a need, I can help them. I know people who say, you know, I pretty much work because, not because I have to, but because if I do work, I'm able to have money to give to other people.

And that is a very valid thing. I'm not saying you can't be rich. Praise the Lord for rich Christians. We need rich Christians who can support ministries, who can support churches, who can support the outreach of the local church, and in reach for that matter as well.

Abraham was redeemed. He was rich. The list goes on. Job was redeemed. He was rich. You have, of course, a rich young ruler who loved riches. He wasn't saved, although some commentators think he was just because it said Jesus loved him.

And they don't understand the tricky nature of the love of God and the love of creation, the love for creation God has, and then love specifically for the bride, that special saving love. But here's the point.

The point is this. Work hard so you have some extra money so you can use it for other people. Wouldn't that be good? Wouldn't you be pleasing the Lord if you have extra money that you can just give? And when you give, people don't need to know about it.

It's just kind of under the table. And I don't mean tax-free. That's not my point. But under the table in regards to this. Not everybody needs to know. It's just between you and the Lord. And, you know, there have been times that I've just received something in the mail and it doesn't say who it's from or there's some envelope I get.

I don't know who it's from. I might have my deductions or something like that. But it's just a gift and that it's to God for another person. And so if you're a listener today, I'd like you to work. I'd like you to once again examine the cross and remember how humble Jesus was as he cloaked himself with humanity.

As Thomas Watson said, the Puritan, that it was more of a humbling thing for Jesus to cloak himself with humanity than even to die on the cross. Now, both were great humbling things, but Watson was trying to say that was an amazing thing that God would cloak himself in the likeness of human flesh.

Amazing. It wasn't that he was sinful at all. His flesh wasn't sin-tainted at all. But in the likeness of that is this flesh that got tired, that got hungry, and the list goes on. And so since God has done all that, when you look at him and then he says, I want you to work, work hard, work for all these reasons.

He didn't even have to give us these seven reasons. There are more than seven, but I just gave you seven. He could just say work. You need to have a job so you can stay busy. Then we'd like to respond in obedience.

And if you've fallen, ask God for forgiveness, and you can experience that today because he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And we know that Jesus Christ, we can look to him as a man who always worked with sweat and toil, and he worked for the glory of God.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.