Turning Work into Worship (Part 1)

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. My name is Mike Abendroth, and our slogan here is always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. We are glad you're listening today.

I'm getting a slew of emails from listeners, a bevy of emailers. We are having our podcast subscriber list shooting out of the sky. I thought, you know, the way I could make some money is I'll just charge a dollar a download.

The only problem is then you wouldn't listen anymore. So we don't want to do that. It's free and it's for everyone. I think it was credit due to John Piper. John Piper was the one who really said, you know, all the ministry that we have, all the downloads, all the podcasts, all that, let's give it away for free.

It's all for free. And so I think you'll have John Piper to thank for that. And certainly that was the Lord working through him, and I'm glad everything's just free now. And ministries that charge for downloads and all that stuff, I just kind of wonder about that.

If you'd like to really listen to someone, if you ask yourself the question, who does Mike Abendroth like to listen to? My favorite to listen to, of course, my pastor for a long time is John MacArthur, but I've listened to thousands, literally, of his sermons.

But right now, my favorite to listen to is S. Lewis Johnson. Matter of fact, if you ask John MacArthur, he regularly listens to S. Lewis Johnson. S. Lewis Johnson, he has now graduated and he's with the Lord, and he has a ministry that goes on past his death, and that's through websites.

And so if you just type in S. Lewis Johnson Institute, or I think it's Believer's Chapel outside of Dallas, you can go get those messages for free, and you are going to be encouraged. Pull up Malachi, verse-by-verse exposition of Malachi, and you will hear this southern gentleman wax eloquently, preach in such a way that you're going to understand the text better, and you'll want to read the text and you'll want to understand God better.

S. period, Lewis Johnson. I cannot believe that I've forgotten what the S stands for. I used to know that, but I no longer do. So S. Lewis Johnson, and he is the one that I'd suggest you listen to. Today we're going to talk about work, work.

Now, I don't want to keep going in the pet peeve series because that could just be an eternal, infernal, infernal kind of thing. And so although John wrote me and said, let's have a pet peeve where husbands make the wives carry in the Bible and look up the verses for them, i .e. the husbands don't know how to get around their own Bible and navigate the Bible.

He also said cell phones that go off in worship services. That's a pet peeve. That is a huge pet peeve, by the way. And I just keep my phone on the vibrate mode the whole time. So I never have to switch it, never have to worry, never have to do any of that stuff.

And then what was the other pet peeve that he had? Something about singing. Too shy to sing, too embarrassed to sing, just not singing with your whole heart unto the Lord. So I don't think I can do any more pet peeves shows because if I do, the pet peeves that you will have will all have my name in it.

So we don't want to do that. But if you'd like to write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com, that would be great. 21 minutes left for the show and here's what we need to do. I want to talk about work, employment, labor, jobs.

I'd like to talk to you about whether you eat or whether you drink or whether you have a job, do all to the glory of Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus has purchased you. If you're a Christian, that is true. He has ransomed you.

The price of four-year salvation was great for you. It was free, but this great cost of salvation that Jesus boasts, both the high priest and the sacrifice, it is of an infinite value. He is of an infinite value.

And so in response to the great salvation of the triune God, you should respond with honor, exaltation, obedience, et cetera. And so when God instructs you in his word to work, you need to work hard and you need to work with an eye towards the glory of God.

Now, maybe you go to work and you're a man and you have a job. Maybe you're single, you have a job, man or woman. Maybe you are waking up at work. If you're a stay-at-home mom, you're certainly working.

Maybe you've got a unique situation and you're a single mom and you have to work anyway. There's all kinds of people that work in various degrees. If you're a student, you should consider your education work and so all of you need to deal with this.

Even those who are listening today who are retired, I guess I could add this to the pet peeve list. If you are retired from your work because you put in 40 years at the Telegram and Gazette and now you're retired, I'm glad you put in that time and I'm glad you have a pension, I'm glad you have retirement, I'm glad you get social security, et cetera, but you are not retired from gospel ministry, from service in the local church.

These are the prime years that an older man or an older woman with gray hair, biblical wisdom should pour into the life of the local church and so if you wanna get an RV and travel around the country and that's all you wanna do, I'm sad about that.

I'm sad for you because that is not retirement. Maybe you drive around in an RV and you do gospel ministry. Well, that's something else but what I'm trying to say is when you say, I don't have to work, I have no more responsibilities and now it's time for me.

I put in my 35, 40 years and now it's time for me. No, it's time to continue to serve the Lord. So, Mike Ebendroth here, No Compromise Radio Ministry. We're talking about work today and so my point is everyone who listens today, even if you're five years old or 15 years old or like Luke who's age 13, one of our faithful listeners, Virginia DC way, you need to understand work.

Now, listen to this that was written in 1852 and just see and hear how far we've come when it comes to attitudes about work and now when you say you're overregulated and you don't have proper views of people don't treat you right at work, listen to this.

This firm, this was from a real business. This firm has reduced the numbers of work hours and the clerical staff will now only have to be present between the hours of 7 a .m. and 6 p .m. weekdays. Clothing must be of a sober nature.

The clerical staff will not disport themselves in raiment of bright colors, nor will they wear hose unless in good repair. First of all, most people today, we're going back to 1852, 160 years ago, most people could not understand what the word raiment is.

Most wouldn't know what the word disport means and I think we probably know what hose is. Number three, overshoes and topcoats may not be worn in the office, but neck scarves and headwear may be worn in inclement weather.

Sounds like it's kind of cold in that office where these people work. A stove is provided for the benefit of the clerical staff. Coal and wood must be kept in the locker. It is recommended that each member of the clerical staff bring four pounds of coal each day during the cold weather.

So you have to heat your own office basically. No member of the clerical staff may leave the room without permission from the supervisor. No talking is allowed during business hours. No emailing, no YouTubing, no March Madness.

The craving for tobacco, wine, or spirits is a human weakness and such is forbidden to all members of the clerical staff. Now that the hours of business have been drastically reduced, the partaking of food is allowed between 1130 and noon, but work will not on any account cease.

So you don't only have to whistle while you work, you have to eat while you work. Nine, members of the clerical staff will provide their own pens. A new sharpener is available on application to the supervisor.

You have to apply for the new sharpener, but you bring your own. That's like the guy who reminds me who got all mad that his son got caught at school for stealing pencils, and he brought his son into the living room and was chasing him, and the man said to the son, now listen son, it's wrong to steal, and you know, daddy can get all the free pencils he wants at work, so why would you steal them from school?

The supervisor will nominate a senior clerk to be responsible for the cleanliness of the main office and the private office. All boys and juniors will report to him 40 minutes before prayers, and will remain after closing hours for similar work.

Brushes, brooms, scrubber, and soap are provided by the owners. The owners recognize the generosity of the new labor laws, but will expect a great rise in output of work to compensate for these near utopian conditions.

I found that in bits and pieces, May 26, 1994, page 13. How about that? How about that for a good motivator to say to yourself, I need to work for the glory of God, and today I have it pretty easy. Now maybe some of you work for some horrible boss, it's back-breaking labor, et cetera.

I'm not exactly sure, but I do know that you can, no matter what job you have. If it's an honorable job, if it's prostitution, or you're working at the gambling casino or something, then that's another issue, and you're going to have to quit and get a new job, but if you'd like to work for the glory of God, then this show's for you.

Maybe we could call it work-ology, the doctrine of work, labor, employment, and again, whether you're full-time or part-time, whether you own a company or you're an indentured servant, whether you're white collar or blue collar or ring around the collar, you need to understand that you should work for the glory of God.

As a matter of fact, the average number of jobs each American worker has held by the age of 40, and back in the old days, it was probably two, one in high school and then the one that you've had the rest of your life.

Now people have eight jobs by the time they're 40. Why is that? Because many people find their work unsatisfying, unfulfilling, they're not motivated, and they don't have any stick-to-erness, so maybe this message could also help those people.

It's not wrong to leave a job for a better job. It's not wrong in and of itself to do that, but if it's because I cannot find contentment and joy in my work because it's hard or it requires sweat or toil, then it's good to go back to the subject of work.

So let's just think about big picture and then we'll focus into smaller views when we think about the topic of work. There is, true or false, work before the fall. There was work before the fall, true or false?

Well, the answer is yes, and since the answer is yes, there are implications for that. Listen to Genesis 2. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

Genesis 2 .15, that's before the fall, there is work, and so work before the fall tells us something. It tells us that it was good. It tells us that work was not a consequence of the fall. It's not some kind of chastening, disciplining factor of God.

There's work before the fall, and so that was something that was very good. And if you go now toward the future, we're back where we were back before, now we'll go forward. Do you know there will be work in heaven?

Can you imagine that? And there, Revelation 22, shall no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his bondservants shall serve him. They shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads.

We've got work in the garden before the fall. God makes everything good. He makes man very good. All these things are pleasing in his sight, including what Adam would do. It was good for Adam to have a wife.

It was good for Adam to be with his wife in all the ways of intimacy and friendship and camaraderie and fellowship. It was good for Adam to name the creatures. There was lots of things on earth that were good, and one of those things was work, and there's gonna be work in heaven.

And so people say, well, you know, if my dog's not in heaven, it's not gonna be heaven for me. If I have to work in heaven, then it's not gonna be heaven for me. That's just not thought out very well, is it?

What happened, though, after this in Genesis chapter two is something called the fall, and Adam, as the federal representative of all mankind, sinned, and then there was a catastrophe, and that catastrophe, that technically called the curse, here's what happened, and here's what happened to work.

So Adam fell, there's sin introduced into the world, and all the damning effects and the effects that will run the gamut of affecting creation that would groan, affecting Adam, affecting Eve, affecting their relationship to each other, affecting their relationship to the world, affecting their relationship to God, et cetera.

It was a complete fall. It was much more than humpty-dumpty. The pieces can be put together again through the last Adam, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Genesis 3, 17, the fall made work different. It was good before the fall, work was, but now it's different.

You're gonna notice toil and sweat and hardship and thorns, et cetera. Then to Adam, God said, "'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife "'and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, "'saying, you shall not eat from it.

"'Cursed is the ground because of you. "'In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. "'Both thorns and thistles, it shall grow for you.'". Notice that? "'And you shall eat the plants of the field.

"'By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread, "'till you return to the ground, "'because from it you were taken, "'for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.'". So now, Adam has fallen and there are consequences to behavior.

That's something our society doesn't really get today, consequences for behavior. There are God-ordained, chastening, disciplining penalties, if you will, for the fall. Now, after the fall, work is supposed to be hard.

Before, it was fun, it was glorious. I don't know how to describe it, really. If you like to garden and you're out in your yard gardening and you work all day and you're tired at the end of the day and your fingernails have dirt on them and your knees are sore because you're bending down, your back is sore, but you just had a great day working in the garden, you just say to yourself, you know, that was just, it was fun.

I just enjoy gardening so much and planting these different kinds of bulbs and orbs and scaffoldings and all this stuff. I just had a great time. I think that's a good picture. It's not perfect picture, but it's a good picture of what work was like before the fall.

It was enjoyable. Of course, I know gardening, there's weeds, et cetera, but you get the point. It was just fun, enjoyable, glad to do. And then the fall and then work is supposed to be hard. That is part of the punishment.

That is part of the penalty of the fall. There are other penalties, yes, but then there's work. And some of the problems with work after the fall, you just have to redo things. I like what one farmer said, the hardest thing about milking cows is that they never stay milked.

Work is hard after the fall. I don't know if you like bumper stickers, but this whole axiom, I-O, I-O, so off to work I go. There's a correlation here, a dissatisfaction, repetition. I do like what Andrew Carnegie, who was a man who owned a steel company, it was taken over by the U .S. Steel Corporation in 1901.

Here's what happened. 1901, acquired one of his obligations, a contract to pay the top Carnegie executive, Charles Schwab, the then unheard of minimum sum of $1 million. J .P. Morgan of U .S. Steel was in a quandary about it.

The highest salary on record was $100 ,000. He met with Schwab, showed him the contract, and hesitatingly asked what could be done about it. This said Schwab as he took the contract and tore it up. The contract had paid Schwab $1 .3 million the year before.

I didn't care what salary they paid me. Schwab later told a Forbes Magazine interviewer, I was not animated by money motives. I believed in what I was trying to do, and I wanted to see it brought about.

I canceled that contract without a moment's hesitation. Why do I work? I work for the pleasure. I find in work the satisfaction that there is developing things and in creating. Also the association business begets.

The person who does not work for the love of work but only for the money is not likely to make money nor to find much fun in life. Isn't that interesting? Even in, I assume, an unregenerate man, he's made in the likeness and image of God and he finds fun at work and creation work, but the only problem is with the fall, and he would believe it.

Schwab, Carnegie, and J .P. Morgan as well would all say, work requires sweat, labor, toil. Things go wrong, things break, products aren't made properly, and so today I wanna give you a good motive that will revolutionize your attitude of the daily grind, same old, same old.

I want you to have the attitude of the Disney character, making a dollar a minute, happy. What would a dollar a minute be? Not that much anymore. Let me give you, in the time we have left today on No Compromise Radio, some motivations that in light of Christ's great salvation, if you're a Christian today, a great salvation was done to you.

God gave you everything. He gave you his Son, his Spirit, his Word, your faith, all these things God has done, and then in response to this great salvation, you wanna please the Lord, don't you? You wanna honor him, and so let me give you seven reasons to work in light of Christ's great atoning sacrifice for you as the high priest.

First reason you should work. Number one, I guess that is the first reason, right? Number one, No Compromise Radio Ministry. Go to www .nocompromiseradio .com. Our website now is being updated almost every day.

If you'd like to see a cool little graphic Jonathan or Tim has put up there, or Josh, that would be great. If you're already on the podcast, well then, hallelujah. Number one, first reason you should work, because everyone likes to eat.

You ought to work because I know you like to eat. I've never met a person who doesn't really like to eat. Now, I've met people who don't like to eat certain things. The other night I had a wonderful dinner and I had some steak tartare, just dead cow smashed up.

It had some fennel on it, it had some, I don't know if a little cilantro, a little bit of garlic, a little bit of olive oil, and they put some things to kind of doctor it up, but just dead cow smashed up.

That was really good. That's making my mouth water right now. I could go for some of that here in my little No Compromise break. But you should work because you like to eat. Second, Thessalonians 3 .10.

For even when we were with you, Paul said, to the church at Thessalonica, we used to give you this order. If anyone will not work, neither let him eat. So if you aren't a worker, you shouldn't be an eater.

Now, of course, the default immediately goes to those that can't work. Those are too young to work. Those are too, they're incapacitated. They've got some kind of disability, et cetera. I'm not saying that.

I am saying nothing about widows who can't work. I'm saying that if you are able to work, and I think I'll have to eventually talk about, people say, well, I've got a mental illness and I can't work, and then I just get money from the government.

The longer you keep doing that, and the longer you don't have a job, the more you're just gonna keep spiraling into yourself because you're made to go work. You need to get a job. If the only job you can get is at Walmart or the gas station or at McDonald's or someplace else, then go get a job.

I remember when I got laid off in corporate America, I went and got a job to be a janitor at Grace Church, from wearing Armani suits to wearing Grace janitorial shirts. Why? Because you need to be busy, and laziness is not good, not profitable, not righteous, and to say, well, I've got some kind of anxiety disorder, so I'm at home all day and I can't work.

No wonder you have an anxiety problem because one thing leads to another. So I'm getting off the point a little bit, but if you are able to work, you need to work. God gives birds their food by having them go around getting seeds and pecking into the tree.

If they're a woodpecker, He doesn't just say, open your mouth, I'm going to throw it into your mouth. No, you have a God-ordained way to get food, and that is by work, and then by barter, by trade, by exchange, by currency.

You need to work. If you would like to not work, then you should receive the justice from God for being selfish. Certainly, we want to be kind. Certainly, you don't get disciplined the first day we find out you don't have a job, but you need to work, and if you are unemployed now, you need to make it your full-time job to get a job.

So you spend eight hours a day thinking, praying, surfing the web for new opportunities, sending emails, working on your resume, doing that kind of stuff. You can also say to yourself, I'd like to just go to the church and help serve there.

You need to be busy at least eight hours a day, and then you'll sleep well. Your conscience will be good, and you will eat, and you will not be under church discipline. That's for sure. You need to work because you like to eat.

That's just the way God has ordained it. That's the way it goes. Before the fall, Adam needed to work. After the fall, Adam needed to work, but it just was hard. Of course, that's why they call it work.

Take sweat and toil, and you need to keep the seat, your seat, like the seat of your pants, to the chair until the job is done. So MacArthur said is the key to making good sermons if you're a pastor, and you are gifted, and you have the Spirit of God, is you just have to work, and so the reason you should work in light of Christ's great cross, to honor Him and to show Him that you are appreciative of His great atoning, perfect work, concealed by the resurrection, confirmed by the resurrection, you need to work.

So I ask you, do you have a job? If you are 25 years old, do you have a job? Some college students just want to be terminal college students because they don't want to work. Not every student that gets his bachelor's, then master's, then doctorate, et cetera, falls into that category, but I think some hide behind that, and I think especially men have a propensity to be lazy.

Why? Because God told Adam to work, so his problem was after the fall, laziness. Wives, they had their own punishment. It was different. You can be a lazy woman, I know, but men struggle with it more.

So no compromise radio. We've just touched the tip of the iceberg. We've just put our toe in the deep end of this workology, the doctrine of work. It would be good for you to have the right doctrine of work so you can say whether you eat or whether you drink, do all to the glory of God, including work.

So work under the Lord today. Pray that God would honor you and for you to be a good worker today. 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 six. 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 in staff or management.