Turning Work into Worship (Part 4)

No Compromise Radio

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

00:07

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

00:16

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.�

00:24

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

00:30

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

00:37

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

00:44

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Message four about work, employment.

00:51

Do you work for the glory of God? Should you work for the glory of God? Should you act like a pagan for eight hours, and then immediately on Sunday you�re the saint?

01:01

I wonder if people know you�re a Christian at work. I wonder if they know you�re a Christian at work because you work hard, you work well, you�re an excellent craftsman, or you just are all talk.

01:13

Should you witness at work, etc.? Today on No Compromise Radio, I want to talk about a subject that I hope you find important, and the reason why you should find it as important is, you spend a lot of time working.

01:24

Whether you work as a man to provide for your family, whether you work around the house as a mother who provides for the needs of the home and the children, whether you are a senior citizen thinking about how you should spend the rest of your days working for the kingdom of God, whether you�re a student and you�re at school and you should be considering school as work, at least with the same attitudes, work is important, and it goes without saying.

01:51

This is not a list of things to do to somehow please God. Remember, we have been made pleasing in God the

01:59

Father�s sight through the perfect work and ministry of Jesus Christ, the virgin -conceived

02:05

God -man, the one who in a substitutionary way atoned for our sins and made the wrath of God silent because he absorbed, he made propitiation for our sins, and was raised from the dead and will soon return.

02:20

Jesus is going to come back, and so since that has been done for us, since salvation has been done to us, since this great plan of salvation started in eternity past in the eternal counsel of the

02:33

Godhead, the covenant of redemption, and we have now experienced salvation, how then shall we live, according to Francis Schaeffer, to use his quote.

02:43

So how do we live in response to the gospel? We work hard, and that�s what we�ve been talking about for the last three

02:49

Positive Encouraging Thursdays. No Compromise Radio, we try to just do a variety of things.

02:55

People say, �You�re always negative.� Well, I�m just trying to do now part four on work in positive, a sweet, kind, a molasses kind of show.

03:06

You expect me to just always blast things? I could probably move into that. I probably could immediately go into Love Wins� Rob Bell critique, but that�s on another day.

03:16

We�ll do that on another day, another day, another dollar. Making a dollar a minute. We are talking about work today, and I�m picking up in this part, part four, four of four, hopefully, how to work.

03:29

And I was giving you 15 adverbs on how to work. So work is the verb, modifying the verb is the adverb.

03:37

Most adverbs are LY words, and so how to work, you work, number 12, honestly.

03:44

You want to be an honest worker. Titus chapter two, we looked at Ephesians six last time, pretty much in detail.

03:52

Today we�re going to look at, continuing to look at Titus chapter two.

03:57

Chapter two, verse nine said, �Urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters and everything, to be well -pleasing, non -argumentative.�

04:05

And we said, in case you missed it, that if slaves were to work this way to their masters, how much more should people who live in a free society, who can terminate their contract basically at will, how should we work for our corporate

04:20

America boss, et cetera. Number 12, honestly. In chapter two, verse 10,

04:27

Paul said to Titus that these bond slaves should not pilfer, not pilfering.

04:33

We get the word, the word pilfer rather means to keep back, to withhold.

04:44

It could be used for embezzlement. And we know that dishonesty in corporate

04:50

America, and if you live anywhere else in the world, is rampant. I did a little study here.

04:56

This is a little old, but it gives us an idea at least of a recent, of a not so recent survey. Falsifying timesheets was admitted by 5 .8

05:05

% of workers. Stealing merchandise was admitted by 6 .6 % of the workers.

05:11

Among people working in retail stores, 75, you can tell

05:17

I'm tired today, pray for me. 57 % said they abused their employee discount privileges.

05:25

We are thieves at work all too often. This survey said the average employee spends 14 minutes a day making personal calls.

05:36

That's 62 hours for a year. If you add it up, that's a week and a half. I'm wondering how many hours are spent now, since that was a dated survey, texting, emailing, cell phone calls, cell phone calls.

05:54

Oh, help me. How about this? I never like to drink coffee on the job because then

06:01

I toss and turn all day at my desk. Time theft, time theft, wasting time at work.

06:13

That is not a Christian thing to do. That is not honest. So you want to be a worker who doesn't pilfer and steal from your employer.

06:23

Let's even get more no compromise like. Do you evangelize on company time?

06:30

You are paid to make widgets well. You are not paid to evangelize. So if you're taking company time to evangelize, you ought to reconsider that.

06:40

Of course, are you to obey the Great Commission and give the gospel? Great news that Jesus Christ has provided himself as a sin bearing atonement sacrifice.

06:51

He is the high priest. He's also the sacrifice. Obviously the answer is you are to obey the

06:56

Great Commission. But there's a wise way and there's an unwise way. The wise way says, well, while we have an opportunity on break, at lunch, before work, after work, at work outings or something, and company picnics, et cetera, and everybody else is just talking about their idols,

07:13

Boston Red Sox, and the Boston Celtics, and the Boston Bruins, or wherever you live, your idols, the idols of, sometimes people make idols out of children, or sex, or pleasure, or whatever.

07:25

When they're talking about their idols, golf, then you can certainly talk about the real

07:31

God. When you think about the wrath of God, it is especially poured out in the

07:36

Old Testament on those who are idol worshipers. You want to make God really angry? Worship somebody besides him, the one true

07:44

God, the one true and living God. So I want you to be very careful. You are not paid to evangelize.

07:49

There are certainly times, I would say almost in everyone's job, short of being a radio disc jockey, how are you going to do that?

07:57

But there are times that are appropriate, but there are times that are inappropriate, and you say, well, God just led me to do it.

08:03

God never leads you to disobey him, and you don't want to pilfer by always talking about the

08:09

Bible, always reading your Bible, always doing those kind of things instead of working. Now when you have a break time, you'd like to go read your

08:16

Bible, probably one of the best things you could do, especially if you work in an office, is to go out to your car and read your

08:22

Bible in the car, not because you're ashamed, just to get away and think properly. Or you could take a walk and pray, take a walk and have your

08:29

Bible .is app and listen to the Bible being read. You can do all kinds of things, but you don't say,

08:36

I'm now on company time, and therefore I read my Bible. Unless you work for a company that says, let's pray, let's have a

08:42

Bible study, and it can be on company time, then that's fine. I'll never forget at Grace Church, John MacArthur is the pastor, and I became a janitor there because I lost my job and I knew

08:50

I needed to work, even though I was a Fortune 500 kind of company background, corporate

08:56

America, white collar, I knew I needed to work, so I got a job as a janitor, and we would pray for the first half hour for the needs of some of the other janitors and the needs of the people at the church, and that was part of company time.

09:09

Now certainly there are those kind of jobs, few and far between. I know, but I don't want you as a no -compromise radio listener, as a

09:17

Christian, to respond to Christ's salvation with, I'm going to steal time from my company.

09:22

So maybe you need to take your phone and turn it off, maybe you need to say don't receive texts except once an hour,

09:30

I don't know how you want to do it, but you'd like to be very, very careful to not be a bad employee, not being a sinful

09:37

Christian by stealing company time. So work through those. I don't have fast and hard rules for evangelizing at work, but you want to be known as a hard worker versus every time this guy gets a chance, he begins to preach the

09:51

Bible, and he's not working very hard. I'd rather have you be quiet and work hard, and then have people notice that, and then you'll have an opportunity versus running your mouth all the time about the

10:03

Bible, but you're a bad worker. Number 13, how do you work? Faithfully.

10:09

Titus 2 .10 goes on to say, but showing all good faith.

10:15

So you have this faith that you're showing by your work and your work attitude, and it becomes sweet to people, like honey to people, like it's attractive to people.

10:28

That's what you're after. Number 14, how do you work? Respectfully. It says in 1

10:35

Timothy 6, verse 1, If you've got that yoke of the master over your neck, you're like the cow with a yoke on it, you give your boss honor.

10:57

You give your boss respect. You give your boss an attitude of he has value.

11:07

You say to yourself, if the Christian religion of Jesus Christ can make a slave think of a master that way, certainly the

11:15

Spirit of God can energize my life in such a way that I could give my boss honor and respect.

11:23

1 Timothy 6 goes on to say, But let them serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved.

11:38

Teach and preach these principles, Timothy. Number 15, how do you work?

11:44

How do you figure out what to do in light of the cross? We are looking at No Compromise Radio today, the doctrine of work.

11:50

Maybe we want to call it a word about work, workology. And I know this is important for you, and it's a good reminder.

11:57

I think in my Ephesians 6 series, out of all the sermons downloaded at Bethlehem Bible Church that I have preached,

12:04

I think that was downloaded the most. I mean, we all struggle with work. We all have bad attitudes.

12:10

We all have laziness issues. We all have a hard time being consistent in our work. That's one of the ways we know we should realize that we're still sinful and that we're fallen and that we're finite.

12:21

Some days we really have a good attitude, and then we slip back into kind of a funk of, I don't have a good attitude.

12:28

All of us have fallen short and continue to fall short of this pattern. That's why we need someone who doesn't compromise, who doesn't have a bad attitude.

12:36

Jesus always obeyed His Father and always obeyed His Father. Small F, Joseph, and large

12:45

F, God the Father. And so on No Compromise Radio today, you can always write us about other topics, info at NoCompromiseRadio .com,

12:53

or you can talk to us about what you believe, what you don't believe. We get all kinds of emails. When should

12:58

I go to seminary? Should I go to seminary? What seminary should I go to? Should I stay at this church? How do

13:03

I leave a local church? And the list goes on and on and on. How to work, number 15, thankfully.

13:11

Fifteen and final, thankfully. Colossians 3, verse 17, whatever you do in word or deed, the context here is work, do all in the name of the

13:24

Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Are you thankful for your work?

13:30

Have you said, God, thank you for this job? I know some unemployed men here even at the church, and if they got a new job,

13:37

I just wonder how thankful they would be. I think they would be extremely thankful. I think they would be so thankful that God gave them the ability to work, the mind to work, and then the job to work at so that they could provide for their family and earn money and have benefits and health insurance, and the list goes on.

13:57

The opposite of thankfulness would be what? If you had to give me an antonym, a word meaning the opposite of thankfulness, you'd probably say ungrateful.

14:06

You'd probably say manifest itself in complaining. If you're complaining about your job, then stop complaining sinful.

14:17

That's basically saying, God, you're so sovereign and providential over everything. You could have given me a different boss, a different job, a different amount of money.

14:25

All complaining, even if it gets against another person, even if the other person is sinful, it's against God because God didn't have to bring that sinful person to give you trouble.

14:37

Complain about your spouse? It's basically, you know, the woman you gave me, God, is just like Adam talking.

14:43

So you ought not to be a complainer. And you, by the way, can I tell you this? While I'm thinking about it, if you ever have to leave your job, you should do that to the glory of God as well.

14:53

Whether you're going to leave a church or leave a job, why don't you do it in a way that's mature, godly, and like a grown -up?

15:01

You probably know all the inside scoop about the workplace, your boss, your co -workers, how they're lowering your commission, how they're taking away some of your sales base, how they're increasing your quotas, how they're doing all these other kind of things, taking away some financial benefits through insurance, and you have to increase your co -pays, and the list could go on and on and on.

15:24

But when you have to leave your job, why don't you do it to the glory of God? You should go to your boss and say, thanks a lot for the job.

15:30

I really appreciate all you've done for me, and I am very thankful to have been working here, and I'm going to go have another opportunity.

15:37

I wish you God's bless, Godspeed. You could trash him if you want, and then when that guy gets transferred to where you're at and you have to go report to him, that would be bad.

15:47

When you have to eat crow and go back to this company, or try to go back, and then you say, well, you know,

15:53

I trashed you, but now I need my job back, practically, pragmatically, humanly, don't do it because it's unwise.

16:01

The only reason people trash their employer or they trash their church that they're leaving is because they want to feel good.

16:06

It's all pride. It's nothing but pride. I want to feel good to trash the pastor. I remember a man came in here once and said, we're going to leave, and he sat there with his wife and he said, we're going to leave because I don't, we don't,

16:18

I said, well, why are you leaving? Oh, we don't get fed here. Your sermons don't feed us. And I thought, you know what, if you're holding out a thimble, a full, some kind of little spoon, a teaspoon, it's hard for me to put in the doctrine of the word into that.

16:34

You don't get fed. You know, if I didn't feed people, that would be proper for a pastor to hear.

16:41

But to preach the Bible, Christ -centered way, exegetically, expositionally for 60 minutes, I'm not getting fed.

16:47

Here's what he was saying, I'm selfish, I'm a baby, and I don't like how you're feeding me.

16:53

I want felt need sermons. How to, I want moralism. I want to have these things taught in a way, the way

16:58

I like, and I should be leading. And therefore we're going to go someplace else where people will accommodate my needs.

17:06

And so that is just, you know what he should have done? He should have said, you know, we really appreciate, you know, the church and the ministry and, you know, we just, we're just going to go someplace else.

17:18

Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it. We have people here at our church, and I'm sure that you have them at your church. They leave in such a way.

17:24

They leave in, you know, it's the typical coward letter that's sent and not representing really the truth, justifying actions, trying to make themselves look good.

17:34

And then they send the letter and then you know what? Then they can't come back. Of course they can come back because they only have to say, sorry, please forgive me.

17:42

And we're restored into fellowship. Why? Because we're all sinners. Welcome to the sinner fellowship. Having one great captain, the person who never sinned,

17:50

Jesus Christ, welcome. But their pride won't let them. Their pride says, you know what? I can't go back because I left stupidly.

17:58

I left disrespectfully. I left wrongly, and therefore I can't now go back because I don't like to have egg on my face and I don't want to be shamed.

18:09

And I don't want to go back because I'm too prideful. Well, you should go back and just say, you know, I'm sorry, please forgive me.

18:14

I shouldn't have done it that way. And you'll see the elder board. You'll probably see your old boss say, we'd love to have you back.

18:20

Thank you. I even heard the other day, I don't know what show I was watching. Somebody dogged somebody else and then they said they were sorry.

18:27

And that person said, you know, I respect that, that you're able to say, I'm sorry, please forgive me. Even unbelievers know that. So here's my point.

18:33

You're to work thankfully. And even if you're at a church, you should be thankful. And if you're the opposite, that is not good.

18:40

It is not good to say, well, you know what? I know all the scoop at the church. I know all the scoop at the place that I work, at the bank, and therefore

18:49

I'm just going to trash them on the way out. No, why don't you even leave in a godly way? Some people would love to even have your job.

18:56

Well, what are we doing today? As I think about all these L -Y adverbs that speak how the

19:01

Christian should work, it does remind me of Jesus Christ. Did you know Jesus was called the servant of Yahweh?

19:10

Did you know he took the form of a servant? A lot of these things we looked at today in the last few weeks, servants responding to the master of the servant.

19:21

And here I think Jesus, the one who washed the disciples' feet in John 13, I think of Jesus who came to serve, not to be served,

19:29

Mark chapter 10 verse 45. He could have easily said, and I'm not trying to change the verse, but in one sense you could get the sense of it, that Jesus Christ came to work, not to be served.

19:40

He came to serve. So when it comes to the doctrine of work, let me give you a few other practical exhortations.

19:48

I think the first one was, leave your job to the glory of God. Number two, see your employment as your mission field.

19:56

See your employment as your mission field. And I made allusion to this before about it's not your job to preach there, but it will inevitably come up.

20:06

You're there for a reason. Maybe you're the only gospel witness there. Maybe God transferred you to where you are now so you could go there and be an influence to these people because you're the

20:14

Christian and you'll have opportunities galore, inviting people to your house and having barbecues and doing this and doing that.

20:21

It comes up. It's inevitable. So you could have your job as a mission field. Do you see your job that way?

20:26

I'm here by God's will to work hard and I'll have plenty of opportunities to witness these people in a way that doesn't steal from company time.

20:36

Number three, don't see work as secular. Gospel ministry is sacred. There is no bifurcation.

20:43

Secular sacred. The Puritans were really good at this. I'm looking over here at my library,

20:48

Worldly Saints by Leland Ryken, R -Y -K -E -N. That book is worth it just for the chapter on work.

20:55

How did they view work? And they didn't view work, Puritans didn't view work as, well, you know, I've got to go to work now.

21:00

That's my secular thing and I come home and do family devotions. That's sacred.

21:06

You know, pastor, he's got a sacred job and I have a secular job. I wash dishes, you know, that's my secular thing and then

21:14

I have to, you know, do Bible memory with my kids. That's sacred. No, no bifurcation.

21:20

Your whole life, your whole motive, your whole worldview is what

21:26

I do I can do to the glory of God. Number four, I've said before if you're unemployed, make your job getting a job and you'll sleep well and God will honor it.

21:37

Number five, if you're retired, you should be serving the Lord full time. Now maybe you're not having the

21:43

Constitution at 75 years old to work 40 hours a week for saints in the local church ministry.

21:49

Well, that's fine, but as you have opportunity to serve, you serve the local saints. Maybe if you're not able to serve anymore because your body's breaking down, you still can pray for the saints.

21:59

You could have a great ministry of prayer because your body won't let you do things, your mind still can. Number six, don't worry about keeping your job or losing it.

22:09

All this, you know, downsize after downsize, after downsize, after downsize, it's a sin to worry.

22:15

It is righteous to trust. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, right? You don't have to lean on your own understanding, you just have to honor the

22:22

Lord and He'll direct your paths. He'll make them straight. You have a job where you're seeing everybody else around you downsized.

22:31

You know God still cares for His people, and if God gave you the greatest gift, Christ Jesus, He'll give you everything else, including a job.

22:38

If He has given you children, I think He'll give you a job to take care of your children.

22:46

Let me give you another practical point of application. I think it's number seven. If it's not, that's okay.

22:52

Don't be discouraged if you never get recognized at work, because if you're doing a good job, your

22:58

Heavenly Father recognizes your work. Bits and Pieces said there, quoted someone,

23:07

I won't tell you who the quote is because I don't know about their theology, well I do know about their theology, it's not good, but broken clocks are right twice a day.

23:13

MacArthur said, my grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group, there was less competition there.

23:22

If you work hard, God will notice, and that's all you need to know. That's Colossians chapter 3 verses 23, 24, and 25.

23:30

He is the one you serve, and He will give you the reward of the inheritance. Number eight.

23:38

Number eight. If you're a Christian boss, you ought to be the best boss in the planet.

23:46

You ought to treat your employees fairly, that's Colossians chapter 4. Grant your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a master in heaven.

23:56

Treat them fairly. You're going to answer to God, so treat them fairly. Pay them on time.

24:03

Keep your word. Create a good environment for the people. Try to create a place that you would like to work in.

24:10

I think of Ephesians chapter 6 verse 9, masters do the same thing to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him.

24:20

So don't let there be partiality with you. You act like you work for the

24:28

Lord, and you have a master. We're No Compromise Radio Ministry. This is the fourth show

24:34

I've taped today, and I am exhausted from work. This is part of my work.

24:41

It's not my only work, but it's part of it, and I want to work for the glory of God. If you've been helped by No Compromise Radio Ministry, we'd love to hear from you.

24:49

It is nice to be encouraged. If you've got an issue or problem or something we've said drubs you the wrong way, we'd love to hear from you as well.

24:56

Someone said to me the other day that I said ectopic pregnancies were wrong. I'm sad that we have to do end ectopic pregnancies, but if you don't, both the mother and the child dies.

25:07

So I don't know how I botched that up, but that's my view on that. This is No Compromise Radio. God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Avendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

25:18

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.

25:28

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.

25:35

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

25:43

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