Work Hard - Brandon Scalf

All right everyone, grab your Bibles and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians chapter 4, and today we will look primarily at verse 28.

Verse 28, and today's message is entitled very simply,

Don't Steal. So Ephesians chapter 4 verse 28, and if you would please stand with me for the honoring and reading of God's holy infallible and all -sufficient word.

I will begin reading in verse 17 for the sake of context.

This is the word of God, Therefore, this I say and testify in the

Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind being darkened in their mind, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.

And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you heard him and were taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus, to lay aside in reference to your former conduct, the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Therefore, laying aside falsehoods, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor.

For we are members of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.

He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen? Amen. Go ahead and have a seat and get your eyes on verse 28.

Eight. As you're turning there, I want to remind you of a quote you might be familiar with.

A quote by the great Victorian preacher Charles Spurgeon, who is a friend of ours around here.

He once said, stealing is a foul blot on the human character.

And the reason that he said that is because theft is heinous in the sight of God.

In fact, one who makes a habit of stealing, of thieving, is said in 1

Corinthians by Paul to be something that does not warrant the belief that you would inherit the kingdom of God.

In other words, the stealer is the one who does not know

God, and God does not know him. He is not a Christian. Stealing at its very core stands opposed to the biblical

Christian ethic, and the reason for that is because it stands opposed to the very character and nature of God.

This is why one of the Ten Commandments, the Eighth Commandment, is do not steal.

Stealing is abhorrent to God. But here's what

I know. I know preaching to a group of Christians, the first thing that you're going to think to yourself is when

I say, this is going to tell us that we ought not steal, that you're already checking yourself out mentally.

Because you're thinking probably, though I don't know everybody's situations, I don't know here who is secretly a klepto or something like that, right?

But most assuredly, most of you are not going to the store after church and swiping things, you know, off the shelves when no one is looking.

And so you might be thinking, well, what in the world does this text have to do with me? Well, let me remind you of the context of what is going on here, and maybe that will help clue you in because it has everything to do with every one of you.

You notice that in the flow of Paul's argument here, as it pertains to the letter he has chosen to write to the

Ephesians, he has begun chapter 4 by essentially giving us the duty that lays at our feet as those who have been,

I guess we could say, doctrined by God. We have been saved by him, and we said that Ephesians is split right down the middle.

The first three chapters are what God has done in Christ to make a church and make Christians, and then everything after that, although it's not divorced from doctrine, is all about how we live in the light of that reality.

And what Paul is trying to get you and me to understand, but first and foremostly, the Ephesians to understand is that the truth can never be divorced from doctrine.

Or you could say it this way, the truth is not to be applauded, it is to be applied.

Truth is really all that meaningless if you don't actually believe it, trust it, and live it out. In fact,

Martyn Lloyd -Jones says, in relationship to this truth, the purpose of all doctrine and of all knowledge is to lead us to a life that is in conformity to the truth that we believe.

And so in chapter 4, it really is him, Paul, trying to get them to do just that. And he's trying to get them to do that, not because he just wants them to live right, not just because he wants them to check some moral box, although that's the way many

Christians think about morality, but he wants them to do it because there are some things afoot, namely the church.

It's being built, it exists, and it needs continued to be built and upheld.

And so yes, we are to be a moral people because we want to reflect the moral character of God and those who have been saved by God have had the old man done away with and have put on the new man.

Our old man was crucified with Christ and the new man is being transformed from glory to glory.

While at the same time, we are to, as verse 4 says of chapter 4, or verse 3 rather, to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

So by the time we get here to our verse, Paul here is trying to show the

Ephesian church, and us by extension, how to keep doing church and how to do church in such a way that we actually can be unified even amongst differences and so we don't blow this thing up or cause the ship to sink.

He's trying to say if you are in Christ and you really believe these things and you really care about the church, then you're going to live like this.

And so if you remember where we've been, he said the first thing that we need to take seriously as it pertains to living in conjunction with how the church operates is first and foremostly to what?

Speak the truth. To be a truth -filled people. To not lie.

And he goes on to say why that is important. Because we're members of one another.

The eye doesn't lie to the hand, the hand doesn't lie to the foot, right? The knees aren't lying to the ribs. They are working in uniformity with one another.

To lie to a member of the body is about as foolish as lying to yourself, if not more so.

He then says that we are to what? Last week, we are to be angry. We're to be angry

Christians, with this caveat, right? We're to be angry

Christians who are angry at the sin that tears apart the unity of the church, tears apart our families, and tears apart our lives.

But we are to be angry righteously, not unrighteously.

And we are to go to war with our unrighteous anger. And the reason for that is because if we do not, according to this text, not only do we destroy the things around us, but we give the devil an opportunity to drag us down.

And today we get to our admonition, our command that continues on.

This third thing, which follows the same pattern that the rest of these have. The promotion of what not to do, then the promotion of what to do, and then the explanation as to why you should go about doing that.

And that is what? That we ought not steal.

Look with me at verse 28. He who steals must steal no longer.

At its core, you must understand before we move forward that stealing, whatever it is, whatever it looks like, declares that what

God has given to the sinner or the saint or the sinning saint, what it is doing is declaring what

God has given them is not enough and that they or we will take matters into our own hands or their own hands, literally.

And so the first thing that I want you to see as we look at Ephesians chapter 428, which by the way is a potent verse, a potent verse where Paul is going to put his crosshairs, as it were, squarely on Christian living, even though it may not seem like it.

And he's going to call us to abandon stealing. So the first point that I have here, very original, spent a lot of time thinking about this particular one.

Don't steal. Don't steal. That is simply what he is saying here.

Don't steal. Don't be a stealer. Now the

Legacy Standard Bible says here at the beginning of verse 28, he who steals must steal no longer.

Some Greek scholars make the argument that this is somewhat confusing.

Not that it's incorrect, but they would like to phrase it this way. Let the stealer steal no longer.

Because sometimes we can think that this is talking about a specific person in the body or someone who has done stealing and now they're not anymore.

But it's actually just speaking of the stealer. And so that may not confuse you, but if it does, there it is for you.

The Greek word here, which essentially is translated steal, comes from the

Greek word klepto. And you've already heard me say this word already. What does that make you think of?

Kleptomaniac. Someone who steals all of the time and can't seem to help it.

But as we will see as we journey through this text, the specific word actually covers a myriad of different realities.

It covers dishonest gain. It covers embezzlement, fraud, piracy, which was way cooler of a word when

Napster existed. And if you don't know what that is, this is a long time ago. Just google

Napster Metallica, stuff will come up. But it even points to subtle forms like underpaying taxes and things like this.

And it's important because stealing violates, as I said earlier, the eighth commandment and reflects a lack of trust in God's provision.

Now, I need to help you understand something. Why would Paul say this?

Because remember he's saying it to a bunch of Christians. People he believes to, if you remember at the beginning of the book of Ephesians, have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Is he speaking to non -Christians at this point? Some commentators would say, well, most certainly

Christians don't steal. Well, those people probably have never pastored or they don't understand the human heart.

But they also don't understand the context in which this is given. It's given to Christians on how to live more

Christian and how to guard unity in the church. But also, we need to back up and we need to think about their cultural context.

You see, life was pretty hard back then. I don't know if you knew that or not. It was pretty hard.

And it was hard in a way that maybe today is not, at least in America. Now, people across the pond might have issue with some of the things

I'm about to say. And obviously things are beginning to change in America. But there is a lot of help for people in need outside of the church today.

You can go to different government agencies and get help if you need it. But at the time, you could not.

And Paul had to talk to the church many times in the New Testament telling them, hey, help people out.

And it was hard for them to do. In fact, there is a story in the book of Acts, I believe it's chapter 5, where a couple lies to God and they do not give what they sold their land for.

And God struck them dead. So who is he talking to?

These stealers are likely laborers who were, quote unquote, upstanding citizens in the, as it pertains to the watching world, but they were essentially maybe not giving the goods they were supposed to give, not paying on time.

Or maybe they were slaves stealing from their masters when they weren't looking.

And we know that slaves were a big majority of the early church. And so many people at that time did not have enough wages to be able to save for when maybe times of employment would cease, right?

For instance, people who work off the land and other things like this, there are seasons where money is good and there are seasons when money is bad.

And so this is who he could have been talking to. But the reality is, whatever it is, these people were stealing, defrauding, and keeping stuff they should not have been stealing, defrauding, or keeping.

So let's define it. What is stealing? Well, John Owen seems to think that stealing really is at the heart of sin itself.

So yes, it's taking from the store. It's taking candy children from the store when no one's looking. It's taking and cheating on your taxes.

It's taking whatever, but it's also much bigger. In fact, like I said, John Owen says sin is in fact an act of theft.

He says it like this. Every sin is an act of theft against God. It takes what is his and misuses it for selfish ends.

Now, as we look at this text, it needs to humble us, and that is what the Christian life is all about.

It makes us conscious of what we are not and what we do not live up to. Stealing is taking what you did not work for.

So that's the simple definition, but it goes much further than just physical goods.

Now, I want to break this down for you. Stealing can be stealing

God's glory. It could be stealing the reputation of others.

It can be stealing time, talents, and resources. It can be plagiarism, sexual sin, neglect, and so on and so forth.

Let me take this one at a time. Glory theft. When you think about theft, yes, you need to think about just stealing goods when no one is looking or grabbing things that you did not work for.

But oftentimes, we don't actually think about glory thieving.

If you remember as we walked through the book of Ephesians already, chapter one is filled with certain phrases.

After it talks about a beautiful reality that God has accomplished by himself, it says what?

He did this to the praise of his glory. And if you remember me saying this,

God is a glory hunter and he will get his glory. He's all about his glory and glory, glory, glory, glory.

He's all about his glory. Isaiah 42 says, I am Yahweh. This is my name. I will not give my glory to another nor my praise to graven images.

Now, one of the sayings that I hear a lot when it comes to people pulling themselves out of the gutters, as it were, and kind of living a life where now they can buy things that they need to, or they can take care of their family, is that they are self -made men or self -made women.

But the reality is not a single person in here is self -made. And if you think that in any sort of measure, then you are stealing glory from God himself.

When you attribute your success to your own abilities, instead of God's grace, you are lifting yourself up.

There is not one thing that you have not, as Paul has said elsewhere, that you did not receive. And when you desire applause for anything in life, whether that be when you preach a sermon, or when you stand and you give communion, or whether that's when you're at your job, whatever that might be, or whether that's even if you're a wife and you're making sure the things are in order, that they need to be at the home, that you're cooking baller meals, that you are completely and utterly obsessed with making sure the house is meticulously clean.

If it's all about you, and it's all about how well you've done, and you're needing that pat on the back, then you're stealing glory from God who has given you the gifts to be able to do such thing.

Now, if that's offensive to you, it should be. That is the very reason that C .S. Lewis rejected Christianity, because when he read the

Psalms, he heard that truth, and he said, doesn't sound like a humble

God to me. And then when he was converted, it was by that same reality, because he said, yeah, actually,

I learned that I was wrong about that. I was a glory thief, essentially. And the best thing for me is to chase his glory, to promote his glory, and to not try to steal his glory.

So give him the glory in every area of your life. But you can also steal by making a name or damaging a name, right?

So you can steal God's glory by essentially propping yourself up.

But when you try to tear others down, or run around and gossip and say, this shouldn't be done, this shouldn't be done, instead of coming to your brother, just talking behind people's back and ruining their reputation, you're stealing from them, and once again, from God.

But you're stealing from them, because you probably don't have a clue what you're talking about.

Nine times out of 10, the assumptions that you make are not the right ones about those people.

And you've stolen from them the ability to answer the charge that you have given them. And I could belabor this point, but we must move forward.

Stealing other people's reputations in the sight of everyone else is a heinous thing in the sight of God. Not only that, but you can waste time.

You can waste your own time and steal it from God, right? God has given you, each one of you, on this earth, whether you know it or not, a certain amount of days, which means you only have a certain amount of hours, which means you only have a certain amount of seconds, which means you only have a certain amount of milliseconds.

And so when you do not use your time to glorify the Lord, and to use it wisely, or as he's going to talk about later, redeeming the time, then you are stealing from the time that God has given you for his glory, for his purposes.

And when you're late to things, you're doing the same thing. And you're actually stealing from other people, because every time you're late to something, or every time

I'm late to something, what's happening? You're stealing seconds of their life where they have to just sit and wait.

More than that, you often, we often, as people, steal

God's talents. We do not give to God what it is that we have in terms of the gifts that he has given us.

And we've just got done talking about this, right? At the beginning of Ephesians 4, it talks about how God in Christ, through his triumphal work on the cross, is able to and does give each individual member of his church gifts to serve the church, which means you all have a gift, which means if you're not actually using that gift to further the growth and promotion of the church and the unifying nature of that work to the church, then you're stealing from God.

He's given you something that you are throwing down and not using, as well as resources.

If you are gathering all of the gifts that God has given you, namely, as it pertains to money or other things, and you're just keeping it for yourself, and you're not giving it to one another, and you're not using it to further

Christ's kingdom, and you're not using it to love on one another, then you are stealing from God.

So if you want to be a non -stealer from God, you must steward rightly your time, treasures, and talents, as it has been said.

You must not squander the gifts God has entrusted to you and strive to use them for his glorifying purposes.

Plagiarism. Some of you are in school, and AI apparently is a huge thing.

People are trying to get me to use it all the time, and I do when I make graphics sometimes, and that's why they look like weird stuff, right?

But when you are promoting ideas, whether that be from a pulpit, or whether that be in writing, either for books or even for school, or even

Facebook posts and text messages, if you are dishonestly saying that something is yours when it is not yours, you are committing intellectual theft.

And here's one, sexual sin. Sexual sin is also a form of theft.

1 Thessalonians 4, 3, 6 makes this irrefutably clear. And not many people think about this, but listen.

He says this, Paul, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual morality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion like the

Gentiles who do not know God, and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter, because the

Lord is the avenger in all things. The word defraud there is literally speaking to this same reality, to deceive, to take advantage of, to steal from, to some degree.

But on a more even practical note, if you are engaging, and this is especially for those of you who are not married, but especially so for those of you who are married, but speaking to those who are not married, if you are engaging in any sort of premarital sexual sin, very practically you are stealing from that person's future spouse intimacy that belongs to them.

Neglect is a form of theft. You withhold the kindness or service that you are called to, biblically speaking, in your marriage or in the church, right?

Ephesians 5 says, you are to love your wives, men, as what? Christ loved the church.

And if you are not loving your bride as Christ loved the church, you're stealing from her that which

God has commanded you to give to her. And likewise, women, if you are not being submissive and respectful and honoring, you are stealing from your husband that which

God has commanded you to give to him. Now is there grace?

Of course. But this concept is broader, and we need to reflect on this reality that stealing is more, which is why he's saying this to Christians, than just grabbing stuff off of a shelf.

Children, would you look at me? I know it's been a second, but I want you to hear what I'm saying. I want you to understand why this is so important not to steal.

Because when you steal, whether it's taking a toy from somebody or taking something that you like from somebody or a store, or whether it's something that is seemingly outside of those things, it's a big deal.

Think about this. I want you to imagine a thief, like the ones that you see maybe in TV shows or cartoons, and they're dressed in black, and they're out, and they're looking for something to steal.

They're robbers. And they sneak into a farmer's barn. I don't watch a lot of kid shows, but I assume this is on there because it was when

I was a kid. People are always out there looking to steal stuff. And they steal some grain, and they steal some eggs from this family's farm.

Well, you might be thinking, or the show that you're watching, if this is a show, might be trying to get you to believe, is that it's one egg.

It's a little bit of grain. What's the big deal? Well, here's the big deal. Firstly, God sees it, even though they don't, and it is sin against his character.

But more than that, it's a ripple effect. Because if you steal that grain, then you have stolen hours that it took to make that grain or to grow that grain, to thresh that grain.

But more than that, not only do you steal the hours it took to make that grain or to grow that grain, you then steal what?

Food. Especially when you get the egg involved. You steal food from those farmers who was going to put that on the table, not just for themselves, but for their family.

And you see how that ripple effect goes out and out and out.

And so what is true for you children is true for all of us that the all -seeing eye sees.

And I don't mean the one in the Lord of the Rings. God. God sees.

But here's the deal. Consider the respectable kind of sin. The Christian who steals glory by boasting of their own achievements, by tearing other people down, they're both equally as horrid in the sight of God.

So what can you do? Well, you can identify hidden forms of theft in your life. You can examine your life and say, how am

I robbing God and others? Do you ask yourself that often? Well, this text is teaching us that we should.

We should ask that question. Are we guilty of wasting time at work?

You know, that crazy statistic I read this week, something like $95 billion is gone from big box stores every single year because people steal.

And you might be saying, okay, well, that's not me. I don't have to worry about that. Okay, fair enough. But something like four and a half hours of work time is stolen every single paycheck from employers.

That means when they should be working and doing the things they're getting paid for, they're doing something they shouldn't be doing in the first place.

And that's just the stuff that people would admit to. It's probably much higher than that.

Much higher than that. The second thing that I want you to see is the switch.

It's the switch, right? So he says, verse 28, he who steals must steal no longer.

In other words, don't steal. But rather, alternative way of living, he must labor performing with his own hands what is good.

So the second point here is work hard. Instead of stealing, work hard.

Instead of grabbing something your hands didn't work for, use your hands and work hard.

Now, I don't know what the Lord is doing, but the two guys from Ecclesia came and they decided to preach essentially the same subject on the book of Proverbs.

I really didn't think that was going to happen. And here we are yet again to talk about a similar thing.

So apparently there's some people in this congregation who need to hear this message, including myself.

I mean, everybody can probably work harder. Amen. And so what is work and how should we work?

Well, I won't belabor the points since we've been hearing about it for a couple of weeks, but this word here that is being used in verse 28, when it says that he must labor, he must labor, it means some important things.

The New Testament uses this word 23 instances. In 23 instances, this word is used in 14 of those times that is used by Paul.

But interestingly enough, it is only used by Paul here in the book of Ephesians. And what he's saying is that you must labor.

He's essentially saying this, because this is what the

Greek word means. Work to the point of exhaustion.

Work to the point of exhaustion. If you look at the

Greek dictionaries, you will see that there are other definitions given to this as well.

To wear out in work, to be or grow weary from toil. And what

Paul is doing here is he is contrasting idleness or useless busyness with real work that produces good things.

In the New Testament, this word is used to talk about being tired after a long journey.

It's used this way in John 4, 6. It's used for speaking of endurance that you would have, though it might be weary or without weariness with the proper negations in Revelation chapter 3, 2 verse 3 rather.

It is used of hard work, toil, physical struggle in places like Matthew 6, 28,

Luke 5, 5, Romans 16, 6, and so on. It is also used by John and Paul in some sort of measure when it speaks of spiritual exertion.

Spiritual exertion. But here is actually what's being got at here.

Instead of taking what you didn't work for, sweat a lot. Work hard.

Get up in the morning with a purpose. And every time you sit down to work or every time you stand up to work or every time you ride up a ladder or whatever those things are called, work hard.

Every time you get out, the paint gun, every time you get out, the mouse clicker, every time you get out, whatever the case may be, you sweat.

You work like no one has worked before. The same concept is used when

Paul is telling, and we know that's why it's not just speaking of manual labor, though we'll get into this in a minute, when he says that Timothy needs to be what?

Absorbed. Absorbed in the reading and studying of God's word and take great pains with doing so.

To work is painful. And in some ways that's good. In some ways that's a result of the fall.

But here's what you need to understand. The idea of work is biblical and it's biblical because it's the way

God, what God created men to do, first and foremost. Mostly it happened before the fall, but also it's important because as Thomas Brooks has said, idle hands are the devil's workshop, but diligent hands bring glory to God.

Want to glorify God? Use your hands in some sort of way, right? People who are stuck in habitual sin, who can't seem to put down that pet sin, a lot of that reason is because they're just too bored.

They don't have enough on their plate. Well, you don't know how much I have, pastor. Well, if you're stuck in habitual sin,

I know you got time to do that. Work hard and it will protect you from all types and kinds of sins.

We know this because God designed work before the fall. In Genesis chapter 215, it says, then Yahweh God took the man and set him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

Working existed before everything went to heck. So work.

But the redeemed, those who are in Christ, are called to glorify him even through honest labor.

And when it says in Colossians chapter 3 verse 23, whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the

Lord rather than for men. Or as Ecclesiastes says, whatever your hand finds to do it, do it with half -heartedness.

No, with all of your might. If you can work harder, you're not working like the

Bible is telling you to work. That's just the truth.

There will come a time when you will sleep the sleep of death. Until then, you plow. Until then, you work.

Until then, you give everything you got for the glory of God and the good of his people.

And it says here, and I want to pause here because it's important to do so. If you look back with me at verse 28, he says, you rather must labor, performing with his own hands what is good.

Now, this hands piece here is important to consider and it's important to consider because it's meaning some things that it's not meaning some things and the things that it's not meaning can be maybe obscured if you don't stop and think about it.

And what I mean by that is what this is speaking about is the manner or the means that labor is to take place.

It's not specifically talking about the type of labor. Does that make sense? It's the means or manner.

And this is important in context, right? Because as I said, they had a culture where slaves often performed menial tasks.

And what's happening here is this command elevated manual labor as noble for all believers, but it also took this slave manual labor mentality and deepened it.

Because it's more than just picking some heavy things up and putting some heavy things down. It's about exhausting yourself no matter what it was.

And so you had people in the church looking over at the slaves who were doing this more manual labor stuff and going, but that's slave work.

And then you had the slaves going over here looking at the white collar guys and being like, yeah, but that's not real work.

And what Paul is trying to get at here is it's all work if you do it to the glory of God and you sweat when you do it.

And when you sweat when you do it. So it doesn't matter what type of work you do so long as you do it.

And here's the point by yourself, you're not relying on other people and the work that they do to survive.

And you're not being lazy, but all work is

God's work. And just do the work that he has given you to do and do it well and work hard at it and become the best at it.

So that people can look at you and say, look at that great God that he serves.

He's not even thinking highly about himself. He's not even trying to glorify himself. He's doing it for his glory and for the good of others.

So for his glory and the good of others and his joy, right? Ecclesiastes 2 .24

says, there is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and have his soul see good in his labor.

This also I have seen. Solomon says that it is from the hand of God.

Work is from God. The fruit that comes from work is from God. So you better work.

You better work. And when you have different tasks before you, work as hard at those tasks as you do any other tasks.

One of the things that I told the focus group when we were going through the second

Timothy stuff for my doctoral program is, I don't want to make it sound like, though a sermon series has the potential to make it sound like, that like being a pastor and preaching is way harder than any other job.

It's not. But it is, if you work hard at it.

Because it's hard to go to work and do anything else. The question is, what has God called you to do?

And what are you willing to bleed for? When I think about dudes who get up in the morning and they just go and do manual labor jobs.

I remember when I was in the army and when I used to do those types of jobs. And I think, man, I would much rather bleed for this work over here.

I'd much rather spend my time preparing sermons. I'd rather spend my time walking with people through their relational situations and their sin struggles and having conversations with them that are no doubt hard, being accused of things

I didn't do. I'd rather bleed that way than getting up and doing the manual labor job.

Not because God just has me here, but when I'm here, that's what I'm working on.

But when it's time to say, I don't know, put up fences for people in the church, when

I show up, I have to do that. Though I don't know a lot. And I've got to look around and say like, what am

I supposed to do here? I'm still working as hard on that as I am anything else.

And for the manual labor guys who love that, they're going to, if they're honest, they're going to look at this over here, unless they have a certain proclivity.

And they're going to say, you know what? I would rather bleed for this thing over here because I get to go and I get to make something beautiful in my hands. It looks awesome.

When I'm done, there's this finished product over here. It just feels like there's never anything to finish and it's just all chaos all the time.

And so I'd rather bleed for this over here than this over here. But then when it's time for them, the manual labor guys to go over here and to study the word so that they could lead their family.

Well, guess what? Now they must work as hard at that as they do at this over here. And if they don't, they're stealing from God and their families and their church.

You must work hard. Proverbs 10, 26, like the vinegar to the teeth and like the smoke to the eyes. So is the sluggard to those who send him right when you're sent out and you're a sluggard and you are put before people, people see that.

And then you make yourself look stupid, but also the dude who sent you. Proverbs 14, 23 and all painful labor.

There is profit, but mere words from the lips lead only to want Proverbs 12, 24.

The hand of the diligent will rule, but the slack hand will be put to forced labor. So here's the deal.

Either you work hard at the things God has called you to do, or you'll be forced to work hard for someone else.

You'll be first forced to labor doing something you don't want to do.

So maybe work hard at the things you want to do. So that way you don't have to spend your life doing the things that you don't want to do.

So you must work and you must work for God, not the applause of men.

Children, would you look at me for just a second? I want to try to, as best I can drill this truth home as well.

I want you to imagine with me or think about a person.

And that person is a lazy person, a lazy farmer, let's say.

Someone who goes out and puts things in the ground and causes them to grow.

God causes them to grow, but that's neither here nor there. But imagine that you or someone else ask this lazy farmer why they refuse to work, to get up in the morning, to put the seed in the ground, to water it, and so on and forth.

Like they're just sitting around doing nothing. And you say to them, why are you not working?

And they're good Bible believing Christians, quote unquote. And they've got a Bible verse for you.

And they're going to look really spiritual. And they're going to say something like this. They might say, ah, because I trust

God to provide. That's silly, isn't it? Right?

Because you should think about it like this. And maybe this is your reply to that lazy farmer.

It's interesting that he also provided you with two arms and two legs and two hands.

And what I'm getting at here is not only does God provide for us, most certainly he does, but he provides for us the means to do it.

He gives us hands, he gives us feet, and he gives us vigor. And for you men, you've got a lot of it when you're younger.

And it starts to dissipate as you get older. So spend it as much as you can now and work hard. Because here's what

I know. I work hard. But if I would have had my P's and Q's minded when

I was younger, I could have got triple the amount done. Every day seemed like it was a week long, a month long.

Now it seems like 30 seconds. Use up the time now, because for some reason, it seems to be way more available to you when you are younger.

Let me ask you this, if it hasn't been asked to you enough already, Heritage, do you approach your work or the thought of working in this way?

Are you willing to work hard? Are you willing to bleed?

Are you willing to sweat for everything? From the time you get up to the time you go to bed, and then even in your dreams, you're still working to the glory of God the

Father. Right? That last part was silly.

I just made that up. That's not a biblical idea there. Right? Kind of like we are to work like Arminians, but sleep like Calvinists.

You ever heard that? Right? We're to work as if everything, you know, depended on us, but then trust

God to handle it. Well, that's stupid too. Right? We're to work like Calvinists.

We're to labor like Calvinists. And we're to sleep like Calvinists too. We trust that God has given us the work to do and therefore we do it.

It's been preordained before the foundation of the world that we should walk in these works. And yet we can sleep knowing that the

Lord will cause the fruit to go. So you must, if you are to be a Christian person in the church, essentially helping keep the unity of the bond of peace to reclaim the dignity of work because it's worship.

Not only is your work needed, not only is your work a response to what

God in Christ has done because Christ has worked for you. Ultimately, you're now going to work in this way.

It also is worship. He's given you breath. He's given you life. Why would you not work?

Why would you not approach every single task, no matter how mundane, as an offering to God?

Why? One of the most beautiful things that Brandon Allen said when he was here last week, that I can't get my mind off, and I'm wondering which

Puritan it came from. No, I'm kidding. But he talked about how essentially there was, you know, a cupbearer in Solomon's court who took holding the cup as seriously as Solomon did as being the king.

That's what a good Calvinistic theology of worship would get you.

But also you need to value good. So he goes on, and that's my third point, value good. And we're going to have to just push right through this one, but value good.

He who steals must steal no longer, verse 28, but rather he must labor for forming with his hands, with his own hands, not somebody else's hands.

What is good? This word here for good found here is also found in Ephesians 2 .10,

when it denotes that good, which is moral as well as beneficial. If you're a member,

Ephesians 2 .10 says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them. So it's not just making stuff, it's making good stuff.

And what's happening here is Paul is trying to get the Ephesian church, and us by extension, to know that the stealer, the one who steals, the robber, had used his hands to work injury to others, but now he is to work that which is good.

He was working in a way that was immoral, evil, and bad, and now he must work in a way that is good.

In this verse, Paul stated that the believer is God's workmanship, having been created for good works.

And here in this present context, and it's consistent with this teaching, is that the new person in Christ is not to steal, but to work the good which he has been designed to do.

And the reason for that is really, it's stated next. So this word here is, it means virtuous, it means beneficial, it means pleasing to God.

This is why Cain could go to God in Genesis, if you're in the

Bible reading plan, and offer his sacrifice to God because he did it for God, or Abel rather.

And then Cain comes to him, and his sacrifice and his work was not accepted because he wasn't doing it for himself, or for God.

He was doing it for himself, and he was covetous of him.

And that kind of thinking must be put to death. Greed is at the heart of stealing.

Greed is at the heart of stealing. This is why Colossians 3 .5, Paul says, therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to sexual morality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.

So stealing is rooted in greed, which is rooted in idolatry, which really dishonors

God and pulls down his glory. And it ceases us when we do not do good to reflect

God's character, right? Because as we read the Bible, it's very apparent that God is a giver and not a taker.

And we need to be givers and not stealers. And so when we honestly labor and work hard and steward in a godly way, the things that God has put in front of us, we rightly reflect his image.

This is why John Wesley has said, earn all you can, work hard, save all you can, be well steward, and give, give all you can.

His godly stewardship, his lack of greed actually enabled him throughout the course of his life to give generously, if you read the biographies, while also maintaining his integrity in his work.

The person who hoards all of his stuff, all of his gold, believing that it will bring him security, it's not good.

So what do you do? And this brings me really to my last point, which is share with others.

Now, here's the purpose. So he tells us what not to do, right?

Then he tells us what to do, what it's rooted in, and then why you should do it.

Why you should do it. So my fourth point here is, share with others, right?

Very elementary, share with others. That's the purpose. The reason that you work hard is not for you, it's for others.

First it's for God, and then it's for everyone else. In other words, you do not work hard men, you do not work hard women, because it'll make you feel better about yourself.

Your self -esteem will grow. You'll look back and say, look what I have done.

Look what I have done. Nor is the reason to be able to buy things that you want and enjoy the quote, unquote, good life.

There are people who have worked hard to achieve lots of paychecks, and they're just spending their way to hell.

Paul says, rather than doing all of these things, because you have been saved by Christ, and because Christ has given to you grace upon grace, because you have been but Godded, you have something to share with those in need.

Your work, your time, your love, your allegiance, so on and so forth.

And you have something to share, not just with others, but others in need.

William Perkins, a Puritan, said, God hath made thee a steward, not an owner of what thou possessest.

Give to others as freely as God in Christ has given you. You're a steward of the things that you work for.

You're a steward of your job. He's given that to you, work hard at it, or he might pull you from it. Or you might make

Jesus look silly, make you look silly, and kill it yourself by not working hard and not doing the job that is before you.

It's a steward. It's a thing to steward, and not to steal, to just mess around while on the clock, and so on and so forth.

See, some people are busy, and then other people are busy. Do you know what I mean by that? Some people are working hard, and they get a lot done.

Some people are just busy, and they're like constantly nudging away at stuff, and they never have time to do anything.

And the reason that they don't have time to do anything is because they're never actually doing anything while they're doing something. The question is, which are you?

Are you stewarding the time that God has given you and stewarding the work that he has given you so that you could share with other people?

Now, to be sure, there are people out there in the world who have nothing because they will not work for it.

They do not deserve, the Bible says, too many handouts. It's a hard truth, but if you will not work, the

Bible says, you don't get to eat. Now, if you can't work, that's a different story.

We're to take care of people who can't work. But if you will not work, then the

Bible says you only have so many handouts coming, and to keep giving handouts to people who work is just going to make them not work even harder, which is work kind of in itself, but that's an aside.

But, and this is what the text is pointing to, there are others who, through no fault of their own, genuinely have needs that they need met.

And who is to help those people? The state? The government?

The fact that the state even is involved in that is really a picture of how epically the church has failed. The fact that there's parachurch ministries out there that help provide for people's needs to some degree, although depending on how connected they are to a local church, the argument can be made that it is good.

Yet they are really a judgment against the church.

The world is not responsible to help the poor.

This is who are in need. And that doesn't mean just like the always poor, but the sometimes poor, or those who are always in need, but sometimes need.

It encompasses it all. They must be helped by Christians.

They must be helped by Christian people who work hard precisely so that purpose clause, look with me, verse 28, it just tells us, right?

So that he will have something to share with the who is in need.

You don't work hard, you can't share. But if you work hard, you can share.

And here it's important to remember that it says here two different things that deserve a little bit of a comment.

The first is that he's emphasizing meeting needs, not wants or desires, needs.

So you work hard and it's not as though he's saying as soon as you work, you just take that paycheck and you give, which is the second thing that I want you to notice.

It's to people who are in need, so they need it. It's not something they want or desire, but also you're sharing, you're not giving.

And so this requires you to take seriously the money that's coming in from your work, the produce and the goods that are coming in from your work and the things that your work produces so that you can be wise about how to share.

But the sharing is something that must be done.

But this is very practical, very helpful. Sacrificing, sacrificial giving rather, helping is nothing new to the

Bible. This isn't a new concept. It's all over the Old Testament. It's all over the book of Ruth, if you remember going through that.

It's also found in James chapter 1 verse 27 when it says, pure and undefiled religion before our

God and father is this. So Christianity is pure,

James says, and undefiled when what? We visit orphans and widows in their affliction and keep oneself unstained from the world.

See, the world tells you to keep everything or to steal things, to steal time, to steal treasures, to steal talents, to steal affection, to steal

God's glory as promotion of your own. But the Christian, the one who loves

Jesus, who has been purchased by the blood of Jesus, and who is trying to preserve unity in the bond of peace, is to do that which the world rejects, to give.

To give sacrificially, which means sometimes it'll hurt.

And it's got to be purposeful. The Greek word that is used for share here means to impart or distribute freely.

Don't be disgruntled. Just do it. And do it freely, do it happily, understanding that the ultimate purpose of labor is not personal enrichment.

It's not so that you can feel generous. Look at me, I'm so generous.

Or I was watching a reel the other day with one of these, you know, really popular, you know, wealth gurus, and he was like,

I am a notoriously good tipper. I tip like 150 % on my bill.

And you're like, oh, that's good, man. Awesome. You know, you got the money, dish it out. That's awesome.

Help those people, you know? And he said, and here's why. Because I know that when I do that, more money is going to come to me.

And I was like, that was a hard left turn out of nowhere, right? That's, I mean, okay, right?

Not biblical. That's not going to happen. If you share, you may not get sharing back. That's, it is what it is.

God has given you enough in Christ to be in lack if you still have enough to feed your family, because you exist for more than yourself.

Who cares if money comes back to you at the end of the day? Who cares? Who cares? Give freely, which means give expecting not to get paid back.

John Calvin says it like this. We are not born for ourselves. How many of us believe we were born for ourselves?

We are not born for ourselves, and neither is any man at his own disposal. You're a tool in the hand of God to make everybody else around you better off.

And the best way to do that is by not stealing God's glory, not stealing anything else, and promoting his goodness in the water, in the water of this world.

Children, one more, and then we'll close up shop. Now, have you ever been around a pool or a lake that's been just kind of sitting there for a while?

It's a little harder to see this in a lake, but definitely a pool. Have you ever seen a pool that nobody's really touched at all for like,

I don't know, all summer long or maybe all winter long, and it starts to just look nasty and have like green stuff on it?

You can definitely see it in certain parts of certain lakes that nobody goes to. It looks all mossy and nasty.

Well, the reason that that happens in the pools, the reason that that happens in the lakes is because when the water stagnates, which means when it just stays still and there's no water pushing it to and fro, it becomes a breeding ground for bacteria and nastiness and disease.

It's pretty disgusting if you think about it. So it is with the

Christian who hoards instead of sharing. One Puritan said, giving generously keeps the heart flowing with grace and compassion.

Here's what this Puritan was getting at and what I'm trying to say. The more that you share freely, the more you will delight in sharing freely, and the more that you hoard it, the more you're going to want to hoard it, and you will stagnate and you will become diseased in the soul, and you will die both physically and spiritually.

So when was the last time that you gave sacrificially? Uh, not just as an act of charity, but as worship to God, stewarding his things well, not stealing, but giving, because it is your job,

Christian, to do this to protect the unity of church, their home, and the world, and you are to do so living

Christward. Christward. Martin Lloyd -Jones says it this way. The reason why the

Christian does not do certain things, but does other things, is always in terms of the

Lord Jesus Christ. He reasons that because Christ has come into the world and died for him and rised again and has given him new life.

Now you're the new man. Therefore, therefore, because God did all of these things, chapters one through three, you live this way, and you live this way in worship to God.

He continues on and says, notice the beautiful phrase used in verse 27 of the first chapter of the epistle to the

Philippians, only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, not your country, not the done thing, but as it becometh the gospel of Christ.

You can almost hear Lloyd -Jones saying this. Our reason is always personal, and it always refers back to the

Lord Jesus Christ, who he is, what he has done, how he has done it, and why he has done it.

And the reasons are diametrically opposed and different to the world.

It's all about Christ. It's not about you. And it is about the others, but it's really about Christ.

It's about living unto Christ, and what this text shows us is a transformation.

The stealer no longer steals, and if you go back, the liar no longer lies.

The unrighteously angry is only angry at his unrighteous anger, and the evil which perverts the unity that exists.

We must, Paul is saying, put off the old self and put on the new self, and that new self is created to be like God in true righteousness and in true holiness.

And so Christ redeems our labor. The curse of the garden was that this is going to be hard, and the curse is still present.

It's still hard, but it's for him, and it's our worship. It's our worship.

When we work, we worship. He transforms us from takers to givers like he is, and our labor and our sharing become acts of praise for what he has done.

This is what happens to Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19. He has a complete and utter reversal in the way that he is.

He did defraud people. The gospel touched him. Jesus saw him, and I mean he saw him and caused him to be born again, and he undid all of the unrighteous things that he did, and he stopped stealing, and he became a giver.

Do you reflect this way of thinking? Do you see Christ as beautiful as he is?

Do you see the work of Christ as something that fuels your work? Because that's what

Paul wants us to see. So Paul is here, is doing nothing less than summoning us to radical transformation.

He's not just telling us not to steal some things on the shelf at Walmart on the way home. He's telling us that in Christ, as we put on the new man, we are transformed takers to hard -working givers, and that, my friends, is the power of the gospel.

Because apart from that, we are all takers to the point of explosion, and we see that in Genesis chapter 1.

The thief, in other words, in all of its forms, in all of his or her forms, transforms by the saving work of Christ.

He no longer takes, but toils to give. The hands that he once used to grasp what was not theirs now labors to bless others and to extend praises to the

Lord Jesus Christ, and this is the miracle of the gospel. This is the miracle of chapters 1 through 3.

You are moving from self -glorifying, self -indulgence to other people -focused, to God -glorifying and good -chasing for others people.

Beautiful. And for those of you who don't know Christ, you're going to work hard, you should work hard, but then you die, and you will experience more hard work as the

Lord rains down his wrath upon you for forsaking his work on the cross.

And so today is the day where you throw down your self -made crowns, you stop taking his glory, you stop trying to put yourself on the throne in heaven, and you trust in his work.

You trust in his work. You trust in his blood that absorbed the wrath of God on our half, his active obedience, his passive obedience, so that we might be able, if we trust in him by faith, to stand before the

Lord blameless and without joy. And that can be your story today if you throw your foot at the cross.

It can be. Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you. We thank you for all that you have done for us in the person and work of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask that you would help us to live and love out of this and that you would help us to work heartily unto the

Lord and that you would help us to apply this truth to our lives so we might look more like Jesus and that we might spread his love and compassion to this church and to the world, not making much of ourselves, not needing to hear it from others that we have done good, but that we do good because it is good and it is honoring to you.

And Lord, we pray for those who have not worked heart heartily that you would give them a spirit that is like the ant and not like that of the sluggard and that you would help them to repent of their sluggishness and that you would help them to live working hard, not stealing in all of its forms from you or for anyone else.

And Lord, we ask that you would save those sinners today that do not know you and that you would continue to sanctify your saints and that you would use the preached word here to do that.