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I thought I would share a little bit of that with you. If your problem is laziness, no big deal. Lazy no longer. You will now be called motivationally dispossessed. You've got a problem with drugs or alcohol, not that big a deal.
You're not called a substance abuser. You're called chemically inconvenienced. If you're dishonest, no big deal. You're morally different. Are you differently honest? I like that one. Are you ethically disoriented?
And if you're a shoplifter, no worries. You're now called a person who engages in non-traditional shopping. What I love about the Bible is not only its authority, but its efficiency and how direct it is when it comes to this is right and this is wrong, no spin, and let's turn our Bibles, if you will, the most politically incorrect book of all time, the Bible, and let's turn to Ephesians 4.
I love the Word of God because not only is it so great in its doctrine that teaches us how to worship God, but it helps us to live out that doctrine in light of God. That is to say that since we know about God and His program and His kingdom and His glory, He now tells us exactly what pleases Him and God is not sitting up in heaven like a big Easter egg hunt saying, now you're getting warmer.
He tells us exactly what He wants us to do for His glory, that we might conform ourselves into Christ's likeness through His Spirit. A theologian named Arthur Pink, who was in the doctrine, he said, quote, how intensely practical is the Bible.
It not only reveals to us the way of heaven, but it also is full of instruction concerning how we are to live upon the earth. And that's exactly what we'll look at today, work, employment, and how we do that for God's glory.
I don't care this morning if you're a mother at home, if you're a college student, you're a woman in the workforce, you're a man in the workforce, it doesn't really matter how you fit in there, you'll see how to look at God through your work.
Great, great passage. Now, just to catch us up to speed in Ephesians 4, Ephesians is a book that is for a new church, an immature church, and isn't it strange that Paul writes to the church at Ephesus and he doesn't say, well, there's a lot of heavy doctrine and I can't lay that on you now, I'm just going to give you the easy stuff.
He doesn't do that at all, does he? He starts off and says, I'm gonna give you a great view of God. And here's God high and lifted up. Yes, God is close to us, and we can talk with Him and we can have a personal relationship with God.
But God is not only close to us or eminent, He is above us and He's transcendent. And Paul says, I just want you to fix your eyes, not at what's going on at Ephesus and the temple of Diana and other issues, but I want you to see this God that has given you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and it's found in one person, Christ Jesus.
He's great. And this great God that we worship, this Trinitarian God, before time, God the Father chose us for no reason, not because we were holy and blameless, but that we might be. And then he says, this same God, the Son, He dies for us.
He gives us redemption. He gives us forgiveness of sins and gives us hope of eternal life. And then the Spirit comes along and seals us to the day of redemption. He's our down payment. He's at a positive, our glory.
And Paul comes in and doesn't just say, now, I want you to work well. He says, no, based on who you are, now work for the glory of this great God. And he says in chapter two, used to be a Gentile. It's like, think of it.
We used to be running around, as I say, in England, naked, worshiping trees. At least most of us come from that background. That was what we would have been. Yet God takes us and says, I know you're not Israel.
I know you're not Jewish, but I love, and even in my Abrahamic covenant, my plan is for more than just Jewish people. It's for Gentiles. And he says with a command form in Ephesians two, remember, you used to be a Gentile.
And then in chapter four, he says, okay, now that you know this, now I want you to live your life in unity and in holiness. And if you see the passages that we've been going through lately, if you look at Ephesians chapter four, verse 25, there starts to be some very specific practical application of who we are in Christ.
He says generally in chapters four, 17 through 19, don't live like you used to. Chapter four, verse 20 through 24, live like that new person that you are. And then he gives us specifics and he has kind of a pattern.
And that pattern is with a little deviation. Here's what you shouldn't do. Here's what you should do. And here's the purpose, our motivation behind that. Don't do this, do this. And here's the reason why.
So he says to start off in verse 25, don't speak falsehood, speak the truth. Here's the reason. The last two weeks, we look at that other passage, be angry, righteously angry, but don't sin. And here's the reason.
And now we come to this third kind of nitty gritty text. And I've been waiting to preach this passage because I think it is so important, especially for those that drive away from home and spend 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 hours a week at what we call work.
And today is going to be a good reminder that you can work, let me put it a different way, you can worship at work. In other words, your work is worship. And as William Tyndale once said, he doesn't care if you are someone who's washing dishes, are preaching God's word, you can do it in a worshipful manner.
It's a great passage. It should make Monday morning a lot better. All right, so here's what we'll do. Let's look at this section, verse 28. We'll see basically it's got a couple of commands, it's got some reasoning and it's got a purpose.
And then we'll see how it affects our church life. Because remember, this whole passage is set up in body life. How does the church function? Church should tell the truth, the church should be angry at sin, the church should work hard.
And why? Well, let's find out. Verse 28 of Ephesians chapter four. By the way, we're just marching through Ephesians. At this rate, it should be about 2006 when we get done. But it's so rich, isn't it?
Who wants to zip through? I just got in the mail a MacArthur Daily Bible that if you read a few chapters a day, the whole year you've read through the entire Bible. That's good. But there's also a kind of reading where you say, I just want to get in there and get the depths and the riches and just kind of wring that thing out, every little drop.
That's what we're doing today. Because it's an important subject, work. And it's not just work, go be better tomorrow at work. It's because you're a Christian, you're a new person. How should you work now differently than when you used to?
For me, just to let you know, before I worked as a Christian, I worked for myself. And I started when I was a young man and I was 12 and 13 and 14 years old in Nebraska and South Dakota. And we would go door to door to farms and say, we will work for you.
We will scoop manure, we will cut down beans, we will detassel corn, and I did it for one reason and one reason only, money. And I worked hard for that money. And you'll see today, as a Christian, you should have different aspirations and different motivations for work.
So good, I mean, it gives work a reason. It gives you contentment and satisfaction. It's just wonderful. Let's read the verse first and then we'll dissect it a little bit. And for those visiting, we are trying to attempt expository preaching, to expose you to the passage, verse by verse, line upon line, in context, trying to find one thing and one thing only.
What did the author intend for us to learn? 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 need.
You see the pattern there again? Don't do this, do this, and here's the reason. Excellent way of teaching. Let's look at the first command. It's a command in the original language as well. Don't steal.
Let him who steals, steal no longer. Really interesting word. When we were kids and we wanted to talk about a thief, we had a little slang word. And what was that slang word? It starts with a K, K-L, klepto.
That's the word, klepton. Don't be a klepto. And that's where it comes from, the Greek word, five-finger discount kind of thing. What does it mean in Greek? It means a thief, it means to steal. And what he's saying is, not you used to be a thief, don't do what you used to do, although that's true.
He's saying, Christian, new person in the church, I still don't want you to steal. There should be no theft of those in the church who steal, and there is even a problem in churches with theft. We'll talk about some of those reasons in a moment.
He says, those who steal, don't steal any longer. And notice how broad it is. He just gives you that, just like from Exodus, don't steal. It covers all kinds of unjust gain. And think about the background a little bit.
You got all these slaves working in the Roman Empire, and the slaves could use rationale like we could. Well, it's just a corporation. I'm not really hurting a person, it's a corporation, and the slaves wouldn't say that, but the slaves would say, they own so much, and I own so little, and I work all day, and they don't.
There's cases of theft that's recorded in New Testament times. People would go down to the bath areas there, and then the people come over and grab their clothes. Don't steal. You used to be a thief, don't do that anymore.
How can that happen in a local church? They didn't have welfare systems back then, and there would be thieves. Matter of fact, 1 Corinthians chapter six says, if you are a thief, and there's been no change in your life, and you're characterized by being a thief, there's no kingdom for you.
So we're not dealing with people who are pro-thieves, and still are thieves. We're dealing with people who used to steal, now have been saved by the grace of God, and Paul's making sure we don't want to have any more theft involved.
Notice he says, let him who steals steal no longer. He didn't say, let him who stole. It's not a past tense, it's his present tense. I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but stealing is not just avoiding work, but it's attempt to get around the curse.
Paul doesn't want that. This is very common in the Bible. Exodus 20, 15, you shall not steal. Mark chapter 10, verse 19, know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not what? Steal.
Romans 13, nine, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit murder, you shall not steal. You can read stories about Achan. Remember Achan in Joshua chapter seven? Achan saw those things, and he coveted them, and he took them.
I always remember when I was a kid, Achan was aching to steal something, wasn't he? He just had to steal those things, and it's a common practice in the Old Testament, and commonly forbidden. And I came up with a list.
It's not necessarily my list, it's my order. Areas in which we as a church, you as individuals, should use caution when it comes to stealing. The first one is a time. How about this with your employer?
I read this week that an average employee spends 14 .9 minutes a day making personal phone calls. That's 62 hours a week. It's like Gladys Cootie who said, I never like to drink coffee on the job because then I toss and turn at my desk all day.
Can't sleep. We have been hired to work, and some are by the clock, and some can work 80 hours, and they're their own boss, and so maybe your boss lets you make personal phone calls, but that's just an area.
One research said time theft, a deliberate waste and abuse of company time costs the economy $120 billion a year, and the workers under 30 are the biggest offenders. So we have to be careful. We want to honor our employers.
Could be outright theft. It's like the dad who got mad at his son for stealing pencils at Walmart, and got caught, and the police came, and he said to his son, it's mad. Son, I can't believe you'd do that.
I can get all the pencils I want at work for free. See, we're different now. We're Christians. We're in Christ. We don't steal for things. We work hard. Believers do this. How about overcharging people?
How about cheating on taxes? How about buying hot goods? How about illegally hooking up your cable TV? How about copyright issues, DVDs, and downloading? How about insurance claims? How about school examinations?
And what Paul is trying to say, inspired by the Spirit of God, just be honest in everything. It's true, honesty is the best policy. For Christians, honesty is the only policy. So long as I live, I remember my grandfather, not a Christian man, a moral man, upright, relatively, compared to humans.
And one time, we went out for one of those things that my grandparents loved to take me to. One of those all-you-can-eat buffets. It's like the golden A, you know, OK Corral, $5 .95 on Sundays, you just get to eat everything.
It's tons of food, but the quality is just miserable. You know, it's one of those places. That's not a real store, is it? I don't want to steal someone's reputation or defame them. But we went to this place, and then got everything ready.
We ate, we had our fill, we went out to the car, and Grandpa looked at Grandma and said, I forgot to pay. I just looked at Grandpa, I was watching him. Turned the car off, walked in, paid the money, come back out, and I thought, I'll never forget that.
That's the way the Christian life should be led. Matter of fact, in the Bible, it says, it's better to be poor than a liar. It's better to be poor than a stealer. And everybody does it, and all these kinds of rationalizations just don't work.
And then I began to think, not only stealing those things, but let me give you some other theft issues in a local church, often overlooked. How about giving? Now, for those who are visiting, they think, oh, here's that other giving sermon.
You can ask our congregation how often I preach on giving. But at least with Israel, remember, in Malachi, you have what when you haven't given? You have robbed me. That's a way of theft, not giving to the Lord.
How about serving in the local church? We've, each of us, as 1 Peter chapter four says, received a special gift, and we're to employ it. We're to use our gifts. Can you imagine? God saves us and gives us spiritual gifts, at least one, and then we don't.
Could that, in fact, be stealing? How about holding back due worship of God? This is convicting. Listen to Jeremiah 2 .26 and 27. As the thief is shamed when he is discovered, so the house of Israel is shamed.
They, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, who say to a tree, you are my father, say to a stone, you gave me birth. For they have turned their back to me and not their face, but in time of their trouble, they will say, arise and save us.
We are to worship God Almighty and serve him and bow down before him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and if we don't, it's what? It's theft. 1 Peter chapter four, verse 15 says, by no means let any of you Christians suffer as a murderer or a thief.
Paul is saying, you have a clean heart now, and your heart's different, and so then your body follows. Your actions follow. Let's go back to Ephesians chapter four. There's that's the negative command, don't steal.
What's the positive command? Let him labor. Here's the antidote, if you will. Here's what we're supposed to do instead. But rather, let him labor. But rather, instead, in place of, let him labor. Let him work hard.
Hardly working, or working hard. This is that kind of work that is original means to sweat, and to toil, and to grind, and to be exhausted. You just come home, and you sit down, and before you know it, you just pass out.
You're so tired. Strenuous work. Other places this word is used. Luke 5, 5, and Simon answered and said, Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. John chapter four, verse six. Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well.
The point of this word is exhaustion. Instead of stealing, exhaust yourself with manual labor, with your hands. Diligence is now the new M .O., not the laziness. And what kind of God could do this? This is really the power of the gospel, isn't it?
To take a bunch of lazy people, who only work for the wrong reasons, and now save them, and now they work hard. Work is valued in the Bible. Exodus 29, six days you shall labor. Proverbs 6, 6, go to the aunt, O sluggard, observe her ways, and be wise.
Did you know there was work before the fall? Before the fall, there was work. The Lord took, Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. Genesis chapter two.
A true or false, there's work in heaven. There may not be work in your heaven, but the real heaven, there's work. What I mean by that, it's like my boss who said, if there's no dogs in heaven, then I don't wanna go there.
Well, he may get his wish. I hope he doesn't get his wish. But here, there's work in heaven. Revelation chapter 22. His bondservants shall serve him. But what we don't have in heaven and before the fall is the sweat and the toil and the struggle, the repetitive nature of things.
It's as one farmer said, the hardest thing about milking cows is that they never stay milked. It's work. That yard, that grass just keeps growing. I wrote down OTJ. What's OTJ stand for? On-the-job training.
I thought, well, this is gonna be corny, but if you remember, that's fine. Solo Deo Gloria is SDG as, I think it was Bach who used to write at the bottom of all his manuscripts. Was it Bach? SDG, Solo Deo Gloria.
And that's what we're doing. He's saying, you used to be lazy at work, now work hard for the glory of God. Barnes, the commentator, said in a convicting statement, to talk of a lazy Christian is about the same as to talk of burning water or freezing fire.
He says, work. He says, work hard. How? Let's read the rest of the verse. Verse 28. Performing or working with his own hands what is good. Working with hands. Instead of taking those hands to steal things and to pilfer and to rob and to be dishonest, now you take those same hands, and this verse is not saying there can only be blue collar labor and manual labor, but with your hands you work and create and produce and you do things, white collar or blue collar.
And what do you work? What is good? Literally, the good thing. Something that's good versus negative where you steal. This is the good thing, the useful thing, the satisfactory thing. What is good and upright?
Matter of fact, Ephesians chapter two, verse 10. What does it say? For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. For what? For good works. Work hard. Now what this also implies is there's a job that a Christian have and there's a job that a Christian cannot have, because you need to perform with your hands the good.
Matter of fact, in Acts chapter 19, verse 19, they used to practice magic, and then they went out and said, we're gonna have a little barn fire, a bonfire. Maybe it was a barn fire, I don't know, but a bonfire and we're gonna burn all those books.
We can't be magicians anymore because that's dishonoring to God. And if there's a job that you have to steal and have to lie about and lie in and all those things, you can't do it, you have to quit your job.
There are other jobs that are fine and you produce the good. Good outcome, good means. For what purpose, for what motive? Look at the end of verse 28, this is wonderful. In order that he may have a club med vacation, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need.
Now remember, this is the local church context. What's the purpose? To make enough money so that you can personally give some of that money to other people. This could be a whole other sermon, but communism is a lie.
It's not to give it to the state and then the state gives it out. It's for you individually to give. You work for yourself, yes, but for others. John the Baptist said, let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none.
Let him who has food do likewise. It's common. Romans chapter 12, verse eight. If you give, give with liberality. Galatians chapter six, verse 10. So then while we have an opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially those with a household of faith.
You make enough money for yourself and for your family and for your needs and then enough to give to other people. Why don't you turn over to Acts chapter 20, verse 33 and let me give you kind of a summary of this verse.
It's wonderful, you probably recognize the last part of Acts 20, verse 35, but I don't know if you've ever thought about it in this manner before, where we are to work with a purpose and that purpose is to make extra for other people.
It's amazing, I went to college and they said, well, the number one income for any job out of school after the four-year school is a chemical engineer. I said, okay, sign me up. Why? For me, it wasn't for anyone else.
This is a sign of Christian love. This is real love for the brother. Look at Acts chapter 20, verse 33. I've coveted no one's silver, gold, or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands, notice that, same kind of word, the hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me.
I could have said I'm an apostle and preach God's word. You owe me. He could have. Verse 35, in everything I showed you that by working hard, working hard in this manner, you must help the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he said, that he himself said, it is more blessed to give than to what?
Receive through hard work. One of the reasons why you work is so you can give. Very, very important. Are there other reasons why you work? Let's go to 2 Thessalonians chapter three and find out. There are some other reasons you should work.
Now we're out of Ephesians, but this will help us understand work a little bit more. We have to save some of the work information for Ephesians chapter six, verse five, that talks about how to work and our attitude and our bosses.
But let me just give you some more reasons why you should work. 2 Thessalonians chapter three. An additional reason to work is so that you are not a burden to other people, that you are not a burden to others.
Chapter three, verse seven of 2 Thessalonians. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we attempt to eat anyone's bread without paying for it.
But with labor and hardship, we kept working night and day so that we might not be a burden to any of you because we have the right to do this in order to offer ourselves as a model for you that you might follow our example.
So he says, I as an apostle didn't have to work. I minister God's word and I could get paid for that. But just to show you an example, you need to work so other people don't have to take care of you. And we as the church, we work to help take care of others.
Don't be one of those others because of your laziness. Let me give you another reason why you should work. This is a big one. This motivates me because everyone likes to eat. Why should you work? Because you can make enough to give other people so that you yourself are not a burden.
And if you like to eat, you should work. Verse 10 of the same chapter, 2 Thessalonians 3. For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order. If anyone will not work, neither let him eat. Of course, there are exceptions and people cannot work for some physical reason.
They can't get a job. They're trying hard, the exceptions. But generally, as one man said, God gives the birds their food, but he doesn't throw it into their nests. That's right, we are to work or we are not to eat.
Of course, there are widows in other situations, of course. Let me give you another reason found in verse 11. To keep you from being undisciplined and a busybody. Why should you work? Because otherwise, as one phrase said, the devil will find work for idle hands to do.
You need to have a job so you keep busy. Verse 11. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life. Not working, not doing these things. Doing no work at all, but acting like work-arounders.
That's literally the Greek word. They're acting like work-arounders. You ever try to get around work? I remember when I was a kid and the lawn and everything else. I remember as an adult and the lawn and everything else.
There are ways to try to get around work. That's what it means, to work around, around work. And you try to get yourself around work. He says, if we don't have work to do, if you don't have anything to do, you are gonna be busybodies and you're gonna be undisciplined and you're gonna go around getting in trouble.
Hendrickson said, not busy workers, but busybodies. If you get an inheritance, you need to work. If you win the lotto, you need to work. Maybe there's a bigger problem if you win the lotto, but that's another sermon.
We'll talk about Christian liberty and resources and stewardship of God's money. But it's like that old show in the 60s, The Millionaire. See, you think you come for one sermon, you get like five. It's like The Millionaire in the 60s.
I don't know why somebody doesn't do the lotto show. Every time I walk into a honey farms and see 19 people in front of me and I'm just trying to buy a little thing of milk and they've got the scratchers from here to eternity, I think about this.
I could make money with a TV show. What they did in the 60s, it was black and white. It's kind of a Twilight Zone-esque thing. Somebody would win a million dollars tax-free. The butler would show up at the door.
You've won the money. And then they would be chronicled for the next hour, half hour, what that money did to them. And nine times out of 10, it did horrible things. And I'll tell you one of the reasons why it did something horrible.
Because if you win enough money and you don't have to work, you will be a busybody and undisciplined. And if you're in the local church, you need to get a job anyway. You know, they always say to the ladies, you know, cafeteria moms and 16 of them get together and win a hundred billion dollars.
You know, what are you gonna do? Well, she should say, I may change jobs, but I'm gonna work. We don't wanna be work-arounders. We've already learned this in Ephesians, but let me give you the additional reason because it's in the passage in verse 12, because God commands it.
God commands work. Second, that's 312, for such persons, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in a quiet fashion and eat their own bread. Work, work hard till you sweat. For those of you that do, verse 13, isn't God good.
But as for you, brethren, as for you people that do work, do not grow weary in doing good. Furthermore, let me give you an additional reason. Disobedience to this command of work is costly. Disobedience is costly.
Why should we work? Well, Ephesians says we should work so we can give. Second Thessalonians gives us other reasons, and in this one, it's costly. Verse 14, if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, specifically what?
Working, that's the context. Take special note of him. Take note of that man and do not associate with him so he may be put to shame. And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
It was in Southern California, Grace Church, and we would see discipline cases announced from the pulpit. So-and-so is no longer going to be at the church anymore, and they are excommunicated, they are disfellowshipped because they will not get a job, and they are going around, even though they are able-bodied, they are sponging from the church.
Have no more fellowship with them. That's exactly what he's talking about here. The end result of not having a job and not doing anything about it, there should be excommunication. Why? Because we're mean?
No, the whole idea should be, okay, you're a brother, please get a job, we'll help you. Come on, come alongside. And so if someone doesn't have a job, it doesn't mean they should be excommunicated because some we even have in our own church who are looking for jobs and they can't get jobs.
They're certainly not in this category. It's a big deal. It's costly. I'll flip over a couple books to 1 Timothy 5, verse 8. This is one of the most important things a Christian could do. That's an additional reason because it's high on the list for Christians.
Some people are so heavenly minded they're no earthly good. I don't know if I like that phrase very well, but it could apply here. We're to work, why? Because it's important. There may be nothing more important than working to provide for your family.
In the context of widows, here we see this principle, 1 Timothy 5, verse 8. But if anyone does not provide for his own and especially those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than a what? Unbeliever.
It's a pretty big deal. So we are to work because we are to have extra to give. We are also to work because we don't wanna be busybodies, because God commands it, because we want to make sure we have a good witness in the world.
There are many reasons. All right, well, the time I have left, let me give you a few pointers on how to love your job. All right, let's do that. I usually don't do these kind of felt needs, touchy-feely things.
And after you hear this part, you won't think it's touchy-feely either. But all that to say how to love your job, how to have more contentment and satisfaction in light of this command where God says, I want you to work.
Certainly I'm not against retirement or anything like that. I am against retirement where you say, now we've worked hard and now we're gonna go buy an RV and we're not gonna minister anywhere. We're just gonna drive around the world in our RV for our own hedonistic pleasures.
You're gonna get your RV and go someplace and minister? I like that. We have family of the good nows do that. So for those of you that might give me a little blue card, are you after the good nows? I am not after the good nows.
You can buy an RV and travel around with it and minister, can't you? All these disclaimers today, it's amazing. Americans rate most important qualities in a job, 47 feeling of accomplishment, 22 high income, 17 chance for advancement, 8 job security, 2 short working hours.
May I just say, none of those things matter. Let me give you ways to love your job. And of course, these are by God's grace. These are found not what we can do with our own bootstraps, but in light of God's grace and His strength and His power because we're in Christ would be good for us.
Number one, you wanna love your job? Get born again. You need to get saved. Why? So you can have this kind of attitude. So you have the new resources. So you can say, this was the old man, this was the old person, the old woman, and now I'm new in Christ and I have different loves and different hates.
You know, before I got saved and now after I'm saved, I have completely different affections. My religious affections are different. I love what I used to hate and I hate what I used to love. How about you?
Did you get that? That's what happens. The first thing you need to do is get born from above and that's only by God's grace. Can't walk an aisle or sign a card or do anything. You can't even demand to be saved.
You ask God, God, save me. Repentance is a gift. Faith is a gift. I can't love you, God, but I want to, help me. Secondly, boy, this is good. It's not good because I made it up because it's good, it's from the Bible.
See your job in light of God's sovereignty. See your job in the light of God's sovereignty. God's sovereign, isn't He? In everything? If He's sovereign in salvation, if He's sovereign over that lunar eclipse last night, since He's sovereign over everything, He's sovereign where you are with your job.
Let's turn to the passage that you know, but we want to just remind ourselves again. Look at Romans chapter eight, verse 28. See your job in light of God's sovereignty. And I'm talking about your job, even if you've got one of the hardest jobs in the world, you're a mother at home.
Not trying to say this is for corporate America. What you're doing, if your job's a student, then see it this way. If your job's retired and ministering in the church, I don't mean you have to clock in.
See your job in light of God's sovereignty. And before we read this verse, there's a little book by Thomas Watson, the most readable Puritan writer. It's called All Things for Good, about Romans 8 .28.
In typical Puritan style, he has a whole book on one verse. It is a great book, but there's a warning that goes with it. When God teaches you something, He very often gives you the privilege of living that out, doesn't He?
Your sermon about anxiety, and then there's an anxious moment in your week. You hear a sermon about work, you'll have a wonderful time this week in the next 60 hours, but live it out. Well, I was at a corporate America job and things were going so well, and it was one of those deals where if you get one contract in sales for the year, you've made it.
And they were gonna have a downsizing, and I was supposed to meet with the boss and the boss's boss and some other hatchet man, who was gonna meet me at LAX in one of those conference centers, and the meeting was in a week.
And I just was going through my library and said, oh, I need to read that book. It's sitting right there, just a little Puritan book, All Things for Good. I need to learn that truth. I love it that God's sovereign and that He cares for us, and I just need to know that.
So I pulled it off the shelf and I go, whoa, if I read this, I'm going to have to live it. So I put it back, and then I started preaching to myself, and I go, that's sure stupid. I said, I need to live that, and I need to read it.
And okay, God, took it out, read it. Next week, I walked in the thing. I could see my boss was all white and shaking. He's having coffee. You know, you want a cup of coffee? Oh, no, thanks. And so we sat down, and all these people around, and they said, well, you know, we're sorry to say there's no longer a position for you.
We have these two forms here. This form is you agree not to sue us. We'll give you 22 weeks of pay. COBRA, you know, email, et cetera, voicemail. Or if you want to sue us, here's two weeks, and we have the check right here.
I had a wife and kids, and I said, I'm suing you. No, I'm just kidding. I said, well, I'll obviously take the one, this one. Thank you, I'm just, you know, glad to have the job, and now that I don't have it, that's okay.
And they said, well, we have a psychologist here on standby, and if you need to talk to him or her, you can. And I wanted to say, I didn't say it, but I should have. What are they gonna do, fire me? I have been, I know, rather, I have been known by the God of this universe, and it says in His Word that He will work all things together for good to those who have been called and to those that love Him, and I'm one of those, and I don't need your secular advice right now.
Thank you very much. I didn't say that, because then I probably would have had to read another book on sinful anger. God was in control, and He knew what He was doing, and sometimes we don't think about it from the big picture.
Think, oh, you know, the Keller's move, or I might get transferred, and I don't know if I wanna stay at this job. Do you know the job? Yes, you could worship at the job, but you might be there for that one unbelieving soul that you need to preach the gospel to, and God could care not for any regards that you need to make a 15 grand more a year because you're on your career path.
There's a bigger issue, and if you work in light of God's sovereignty, He has me there. He has me there for a reason. I'm going to worship here at work, and if I don't like it, I have the right to go get another job, but while I'm here, it's for your glory, God.
It's amazing. Look at the passage. Romans 8, 28, and we know. We experientially know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
God is sovereign over your mean boss. Did you know that? He could fire him tomorrow. God is sovereign over those underlings that you have at your feet that don't do what you say when you want them to do it.
Of course, I'm exaggerating. Lose your job? Oh, I'm walking on thin ice. I could get fired tomorrow. Okay? The job that you don't have, but you want to have. God is faithful to provide for you, and we'll have that job.
We can trust Him. Number three, how do you love your job? Number one, you have to be a Christian. Number two, you see your job in light of God's sovereignty. Three, see your job, as I've mentioned before, as worship, as worship.
See your job as worship. The Old Testament would teach this, but during the Bible times, the Jews had skewed their view of work where it became something demeaning, something under their feet. They wouldn't want to do it.
Matter of fact, the Talmud says this. Here's how you should pray. A Jewish tradition and law book. I thank Thee, O Lord, my God, that Thou hast given me my lot with those who sit in the house of learning and not those who sit at the street corners.
For I am early to work, and they are early to work. I am early to work on the words of the law. I study the Bible, and they are early to work on the things of no importance. I worry myself, they worry themselves.
I worry myself and profit thereby, they worry themselves to no profit. I run and they run. I run towards the life of the age to come, and they run toward the pit, end quote. Every job you have, from dishes to your corporate American job, to preaching from the pulpit, we can see as worship.
Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, do all for what? For whom? The glory of God. How many times do you drive into work saying, God, help me today as I worship you for these 10 hours? But we can, we should.
Or we could say, work fascinates me, I can sit and watch it for hours. Hard work may not kill me, but why take a chance, another one said. And see, here's what happens. We need to get that old Puritan ethic back, and here's the ethic that Luther had and Calvin had and many others.
There is no difference between the sacred and the secular, did you get that? There is no bifurcation, there's no, there's not something in between secular work and sacred work, where I'm the sacred work guy because I'm the pastor and I get paid to do the work of the ministry.
That's wrong. You say, here's my job. My job, whether in corporate America or a wife or a student or whatever, it can be sacred, can't it? Of course it can. It is. Schwab, I don't think he was a Christian, but he tore up a $1 million contract a century ago, and he told Forbes Magazine this.
I was not animated by money motives. I believed in what I was trying to do and wanted to see it brought about. I canceled that contract without a moment's notice. Why do I work? I work for just the pleasure.
I find in work the satisfaction there is in developing things and creating. Also, the association's business begets. The person who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to make money nor find much fun in life, end quote.
How much more if we added and pleasing the God of the universe as we work? It's like Eric Liddell, you know, the great Scottish runner. He said, when I run fast, God is pleased. I feel God's pleasure when I run fast.
And God has given you brains and hands to work, and you work for the good of society. You should feel pleasure in that because that is a God-given gift. I could give you another one. What's this, four.
Think of your boss or manager as if he or she was God. Now, what I don't mean by that, of course, is that they are. But Colossians chapter three says what? You submit to them as unto the Lord. They tell you, do this.
Of course, you can say, well, it could be done this way better, or I appeal, or this or that. There's some talk back. Not back talk, but you can talk back. But then when the bottom line comes down, we submit.
And there's great joy in submitting, isn't there? I mean, we're in the society. Well, all submission is bad, and everybody's equal. There's times where you just submit. It's nice because God holds the one who's in authority responsible versus us.
Our responsibility is only to submit to the boss. How about this one? Relax. You wanna love your job? Relax when it comes to evangelism on the job. Should you see your job as a mission field? Of course.
But if you get paid to evangelize, you better evangelize. And if you don't get paid to evangelize, you better use your brains. And my brains I better use when it comes to saying, well, you know, computer programming's beneath me, and it's company time now, and I'm just gonna preach the gospel to my friends.
You don't get paid to preach the gospel to your friends. You get paid to work. And when there's an opportunity, there's dinners and lunch breaks, and you get in there early, there's thousands of opportunities.
Then you use those. I love what Lloyd-Jones says. If I happen to be paid by a firm to do a given piece of work, for me to spend a part of that time in trying to evangelize a fellow worker is stealing.
I have no right to use my employer's time even to evangelize another's soul. I am paid money to use a certain space of time in doing what the firm has told me to do. And though it may be an excellent thing to tell another soul about Christ and salvation, I have no right to do it in the time that does not belong to me, but it is my employer's time.
That is so relieving. Should you be praying for them? Should you say, you know, I can't wait to talk to my loved ones, my friends there, people at my work. Yes, but there is a time and a place. And to me, that just takes all the pressure.
By the way, isn't salvation of God anyway? Yes, and so we don't have to try to manipulate things. And if your job says, oh yeah, like my job back in California, if you're a janitor, what else are you gonna talk about?
You can talk about those things. You're a security guard. There's many of those places, but too often I see frustration in the church because our hearts are right. We want to preach the gospel to others, but then we can't really, and then we don't feel like we're good enough to witness it at work because we don't preach all the time.
Well, be a good witness at work by laboring hard and worshiping God there. You don't have to witness on work time. You shouldn't, and I agree with Lloyd-Jones. Well, lastly, remember there are eternal consequences to your work.
I loved it when I was first in corporate America and they said, you know, if you do anything wrong, we're gonna put that down on your permanent record. This will be on your permanent record. That thing will chase me my entire life?
What do you mean my permanent record? I didn't even know I had a permanent record. You're gonna be writing this up on here. The permanent record, I mean, I was, it was 1982 when I was 22 years old out of college, and I'm working for Duracell batteries at $14 ,400 a year, and I got a permanent record?
I should at least make a little more money if I'm gonna have something follow me in my entire life. I sound like I'm 80 now saying, well, you know, in my day, I made $14 ,400. My grandpa would always do that.
You know, in my day, it's five cents for such and such. Shows my age, or lack of. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter five, last passage to look up today. 2 Corinthians chapter five, we'll talk more about working and priorities and being encouraged and discouraged when we get to Ephesians chapter six.
Let's just look up this last one. I want you to know when you go to work tomorrow that you have a job to do, yes, but as you're worshiping, I want you to remember that God does what you do, and there are eternal consequences.
I don't mean judgment for your sin, but eternal consequences when it comes to working for the Lord. What do I mean? Well, let's let the passage explain it. 2 Corinthians chapter two, verse, excuse me, 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 10.
And I agree with Tommy Nelson. This is probably one of the most under preached doctrines in all of the Bible. The judgment of the Christian's work, not the Christian sin that's been taken care of Calvary.
The judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Again, not for our sins been dealt with. Teresy to think of anything else.
So that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body. At work included. According to what he has done, whether good or, horrible translation NES, bad, it should be worthless. Whether good or worthless.
Whether you do things with the right motives for the right reasons and the right way with work and sweat and toil. God says, I will reward you. We can look at 1 Corinthians chapter three as well. I will reward you for what you've done as a Christian.
So when you go to work tomorrow, don't think, well, I can't wait till Sunday to get back and serve at the church because that's where all my eternal rewards are going to come. No, they start today. They start tomorrow.
You drive into work. Here's my challenge for you. You either drive into work or you wake up at work. You know what I mean? And you say, Lord, today's the day. And whether I do the dishes, whether I have to take out this client that I don't want to, but I've been told to do, I'm going to do it for your glory.
And part of doing it for your glory is the eternal rewards that follow in that train. You're just so good. Paul says, you're not like you used to be. You're different. And now you have the resources to do what you couldn't do.
Now you can work for the glory of God. And instead of everybody's working for the weekend, everybody's working for the Lord. I owe, I owe, so off the work I go. How about, I long to honor Christ and have him reward me, so off to work I go.
God, I get to go to work today. There's some people in this church who would love to have the job tomorrow to go to work. Thank you. Oh Lord, it's so good to give us not only work, but also reasons to work and a great Savior who worked hard.
Look at how Christ worked as a carpenter. Diligently, with his hands, to God's glory. Oh, I could be out preaching the gospel to people and I'm sitting here doing carpenter work. What a great example of work and worship together.
Let's pray. Father, we do thank you this day and.