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Sermon Notes: http://notes.cornerstonesj.org
The Believers’ Work
What can I do but give my life to you?
Hallelujah Hallelujah, what can I
do?
But praise you every day make.
Everything I do.
Hallelujah Hallelujah
Hallelujah.
The desire to work To build the kingdom to work at
our jobs Our vocations as unto you
and to do the hard work of evangelism To go forth proclaiming That
Jesus is Lord.
Help us now Lord by your word to be stirred up to work for you.
So I drove from 85 degree Florida into what feels like negative
16 degree, New Jersey.
We were visiting my parents and my brothers and cousins at all in Florida.
The kids were swimming in a pool one day and then sledding on a hill a couple of days
later.
But to get from point A to point B from Florida back to New Jersey it requires a 17 -hour drive.
And so to occupy my mind during that time I listened to an audio book called the
traitor and the spy.
It was the story of.
Oleg.
Dorofeyevsky.
Who Gordievsky who was a KGB officer in the Soviet Union in the 70s
and 80s?
He was Raised and just born and bred KGB.
His parents were both in it and then he became the spy to Denmark.
I'll spare you the whole story, but I just wanted to share this one part of it that when Gordievsky
went to Denmark He noticed that there was something about the West which was actually better
than the USSR.
Even the poor in Denmark were better provided than the average rations that the USSR was
doling out.
Is communism actually better.
Or have I been indoctrinated into a lie?
Well the final straw for Gordievsky was when he saw the Berlin Wall
Separating West Germany and East Germany and the people in the East were trying to get to
the West.
And the Soviets were shooting The citizens who were trying to swim
across himself
if what we have is better.
Why is it that we have to shoot for them
to remain
communists?
And so this man
acted mi6 the British and began to inform his
work We're disaster because he fed information to Reagan
which which averted some terrible long story short.
He got caught by the Russians.
But mi6 was able to rescue him out of Moscow and bring him back to Denmark and
he lives to this day in Britain.
So very interesting story that I heard but it raises the question.
Is it only a matter of preference?
Or does the Bible have something to say about this?
Max Weber was an economist in 1904 1905 who wrote a book and told and coined the
term Protestant work ethic and What he showed is that where the
Protestant Reformation went into Germany's Scandinavia and then ultimately the Puritans
taking Protestant theology to America wherever it went
prosperity followed and the Capitalistic system that we live under was born
from the Protestant Reformation.
He couldn't fully explain why this was because he noticed that it was Calvinistic.
So if people are already predestined Why are they the hardest workers?
They can't earn anything from God.
So why do they work so hard?
He thought that maybe they were just trying to Prove that they were elect and that was his thesis.
But what he missed is that the Bible from Genesis to
Revelation teaches the Protestant work ethic.
The Reformation Taught people to go to the scriptures to learn everything about
life including public things.
Things that have to do with economies.
There was a reformer kind of a proto -reformer named Tyndale Who translated the
Bible into English because back then all they had was the Bible in Latin and the average person couldn't even read the Bible
and He said after we're done getting the Bible into the hands of the people.
Even the plow boy will know more than the priests of Rome about God's Word.
And that was true where the gospel went the scriptures went and as people had the Bible in their hands
They began to learn an ethic of how to live from this book.
Some have said Jesus is a socialist.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Jesus taught parables where a worker Contracted to go into the field
and after coming out was not paid with equality as the measure.
But rather by the contract between the employer and the employee.
He said didn't we agree upon a denarius?
In another parable Jesus taught in Matthew 25 that the person who just
Buried the treasure and didn't invest it was rejected.
But the one who worked and made from the capital that he invested Was commended
the parable of the talents is about money.
Jesus spoke about money often and it is very much Capitalist doctrine that taught if you doubt
me as regard as doubtless some people will not miss room, but some will doubt
read a book by Jerry Bowyer Called the makers versus the takers.
It is a fascinating read.
It shows how Jesus spoke to the free Galileans over against the collectivist
government run economy of Jerusalem and where he rebukes collectivism
and how he Commends freedom to the Galileans.
It is a very interesting read called the makers versus the takers.
We have an issue in our country.
This country was founded on the Protestant work ethic but in June of 2020
Some things began to change in response to a virus.
The administration at that time decided to print close to a trillion
dollars unfunded by taxes.
There was a an economist who commented on this.
He said that in the first two centuries after this country's founding
this last month June of 2020 printed more money than in the 200 plus
years before 864 billion dollars the largest larger than the
total debt that was incurred from 1776 to 1979.
He then contrasted the effects of money printing in recent months to how the equivalent amount of currency had
performed across the centuries.
The first trillion dollars.
With it the United States.
United States at that time becoming a nation defeated the British imperialists.
Then went on to buy Alaska and the Louisiana Purchase.
Defeated fascism ended the Great Depression built the interstate highway system and went
to the moon on the first trillion dollars and yet we printed a trillion dollars
in June of 2020.
Evidently that was not enough because with the new administration.
It's multiplied six times over and.
The plan.
That they called build back better was a six trillion dollar unfunded spending proposition.
Aka Socialism.
We have a problem in this country that the Protestant work ethic built upon this book is being
rejected in favor of Policies that have failed wherever they've been tried.
The preachers of this country need to preach the whole counsel of God and call
this country Back to the roots of scripture or else what has been built
by hard work will be lost.
But I'm not here first and foremost this morning to talk to the country.
I'm here to talk to you and to me about this issue of work.
This Protestant work ethic is a Pauline doctrine.
From 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 9 to 13.
Let's read it.
I'm not just talking about this stuff as a hobby horse.
It is the very point of the text this morning and we need to go there now to 1st Thessalonians 2 9
through 13.
For you remember brothers Our labor and toil
we worked night and day.
That we might not be a burden to any of you
while we proclaim to you the gospel of God.
You are witnesses and God also how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.
For you know how like a father with his children we exhorted each one of you and encouraged
you.
Charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God
Who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
And we also thank God constantly for this.
That when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us you accepted it not as
the Word of men But as what it really is the Word of God
Which is at work in you.
Believers.
So from this text we will Derive that work is a
good gift from God.
It is the charge to the Christian.
But we don't work to earn anything from God.
Rather our work is an expression of worship To the God who's given us everything
by grace to enjoy.
Work is a good gift.
Now notice how this theme becomes so prominent in the books of 1st and 2nd
Thessalonians.
Easy for me to say Thessalonians.
Notice in 1st Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 3.
Here the Apostle is reminding us of what we really need to focus on faith hope and
love.
But he describes those things as your work of faith and Your
labor of love your steadfastness of hope.
Work labor.
Steadfastness.
Then again at the end of chapter 1 from verses 4 to 10 He shows the marks of someone who has
been elected by God who's been chosen by God who's become a believer.
This person is marked by the work that stems from their life.
In chapter 2 we move in and Paul begins to describe his ministry among
The Thessalonians and he says that his work was not in vain.
Chapter 2 verse 1 That work was effective it accomplished things
and the reason for that is he spoke the truth.
He wasn't trying to please man.
He was trying to please God and he shared not just the truth, but his very life and so in verse 8 He says
being Affectionately desirous of you.
We were ready to share with you.
Not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves.
While we proclaim to you the gospel of God he'll say in the end of verse 9.
So the first major point this morning is That work is
good.
Your work your vocation.
What you do to earn a living the work of your hands the sweat of your brow.
The effort that you put in 9 to 5 Monday to Friday or whatever your hours are.
This is not different than your calling.
This is your calling.
This is good.
Mothers as you raise your children, this is good work.
Men women who go to work as a vocation.
This is holy and so it says in verse 9.
Remember brothers our labor and toil we worked each of these three Greek words
labor toil.
Work, they all refer to a strenuous activity.
It's not pleasant.
What makes work good is not that it feels good.
In fact the very work the very word toil in the Greek refers to strenuous Activity that
exerts the body and saps you of your strength and leaves you.
Dog -tired at the end.
So what makes it good.
Well, Paul explains he's not here referring to his work in preaching.
Which he did.
He's referring to something else.
It is productive work that provides for need.
There is a profit taken from what he does because halfway through verse 9 he says that we might not be a
burden to any of you.
He's making tents.
Paul is a tent maker.
We learned that from Acts in the book of Corinthians.
He is working night and day now notice night comes before day in
Verse 9.
Why does Paul list it that way?
Well in the Jewish understanding of time a day ends and the new one begins when Sun sets
not when the Sun rises.
So the day begins at sunset and right away Paul was working until he went to bed.
He was making tents rising in the morning working and as the day Arose and people were out
and about he began a different kind of work Preaching the message of
Jesus Christ.
He in this passage is not referring to the latter.
He's referring to the former the work the toil that he does with his hands making tents.
As he did that he did not need to take any kind of offering from the Thessalonians.
But did he have any support?
Well, actually he did.
When he arrived in Thessalonica, it was just three people that formed the church Paul
Silas and Timothy.
However behind him was a funding that came from the Philippian Church.
If you turn to Philippians 4 16 You'll see that Paul indeed did
receive some missionary funds.
Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again, by the way when I read this
verse this week I realized I might have been wrong about something probably first time.
No, I Recently said that Paul was in Thessalonica for only three weeks.
Remember that?
Three weeks in Thessalonica because Acts 17 2 says for three Sabbaths.
He reasoned in the synagogue.
But it doesn't say that he didn't continue.
Elsewhere.
So for three Sabbaths, he was in the synagogue and from this verse as I got to thinking about it Philippians 4 16
It says here that they were sending him help again and again while he was in Thessalonica.
Which would imply because of the distance between the cities they couldn't just like wire the money.
That he was there longer than three weeks three weeks in the synagogue.
But then he continued elsewhere with the Gentile believers and continued to work.
So he had a prolonged stay in Thessalonica.
Maybe it was a few months.
But whatever the case he is working with his hands and he's being supported financially
by the Philippians.
He's receiving funds that way for his missionary work.
Brothers and sisters we have a Privilege to contribute to the work of God
to be a Philippian and to put money in the offering plate.
To offer to the work of the Lord is a gift and a privilege for the Christian.
It only comes by hard work.
To have something to share as it says in verse 9 that we might not be a burden.
But rather to be a contributor a help to the advancement of the gospel.
This is a privilege.
I Like to think about how the Israelites crossed over the Jordan River.
Remember the story God dried it up and they just simply walked across.
But to make a memorial to what was done Joshua commanded that
one man from each tribe should take a stone from the center of the Jordan River and
Hoisted on their shoulder and carry it through the mud.
Trudging along to the shore to build a monument to what God had done.
Now you think that's a hard job, isn't it?
To hoist a stone of this size upon the shoulder and to trudge through the dried -up Jordan River.
Was that a curse or a blessing?
Clearly the text indicates that the man chosen to do that is blessed
to be able to work that way.
Work is not a curse but a blessing and Likewise a man was
chosen to carry a stone into the Jordan River.
So that when the water flowed over there was also a monument underwater.
Now I ask you why is there a monument underwater?
The Israelites can't see that.
What does it remind them of it doesn't remind them of anything God sees it and
So it is with your giving when you have worked and Exerted yourself and
given in secret.
Let not your right hand know what your left hand is doing.
None of us knows what a person gives in the offering plate in the back.
But God does.
It's underwater to us, but God sees and he will richly reward you for the
work that produces something to share.
Listen work is a blessing from God.
Ecclesiastes 3 9 to 13 what gain has the worker from his toil?
I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
He has made everything beautiful in its time.
Also, he has put eternity into man's heart yet so that he cannot find out what God has done
from the beginning to the end.
Some things are beyond us.
But what we have is our work.
I Perceive that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good
as long as they live.
Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his
toil.
This is God's gift to man.
Is that how you think about your work?
When the alarm clock goes off and you have to slap that thing to sleep a little longer.
You got to go work at the sandwich shop or the bakery
or in real estate or whatever.
It is God has called you to do think of work.
The way Paul does work is awesome.
Work is amazing.
It is a gift from God.
Work was in the Garden of Eden before mankind fell.
The curse on man's work was not on work itself.
But on the ground that now work will be all the more difficult and by the sweat of the brow.
We must bring forth the things of this earth.
But this earth produces and gives us nothing apart from work.
It all must be cultivated.
There are no goods and services.
And.
For those of you who grow up in America By the way, we have we're preaching on Thessalonians.
We have someone here who was born in Thessalonica.
How cool is that?
But we're born in America most of us and we are surrounded by so much stuff
buildings skyscrapers homes cars and we think well shouldn't all of this
stuff be equally distributed understand this.
There is no stuff apart from work.
There's nothing to distribute.
It all must be brought up from the ground by hard and smart work.
It's a good thing.
And what we enjoy is a heritage of the Protestant work ethic.
The very thing that this country is losing.
So God sees the stones underwater.
God sees the work that you do and Your work is good.
It should be something celebrated.
That's the physical work.
But there's one more thing to notice in verse 9.
There's a kind of work That's not for profit -taking.
If it were that's called simony in the book of Acts.
There's a kind of work that all of us should be passionate to do.
That brings no money.
It's not for the purpose of money it's for the glory of God and that is proclaiming the
gospel.
Notice that while Paul is working He's proclaiming the gospel he's
building tents.
Which is providing opportunities.
He's out in the marketplace selling a tent and He takes a profit from the tent.
But look what it says while we proclaim to you the gospel of God
a different kind of work.
But the two are connected.
Listen your place of employment is an opportunity for the gospel
there is a reason why God has you where you are and Whatever circle of
influence you're in it is for the proclamation of the gospel.
It's an opportunity for the gospel if you weren't working where you are.
You wouldn't be rubbing elbows with the people that you work with.
It is for the preaching of the gospel, but what is the gospel notice
here it is described as the gospel of.
God.
Look at verse 2 of The same chapter we
had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of.
Verse 8.
We were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also
our own selves.
The gospel is All about God.
It's not about us.
It is a free offer of salvation based on what God has done in Christ.
If I were to ask you a question this morning If you died today, would you go to heaven?
There are some here today who do not know the gospel of God and you would say yes.
I think I would because I'm a pretty good person.
I try.
I Do what I can.
My good deeds are hopefully outweighing my bad.
I go to church.
That's why I'm here.
I Read the Bible I give in the offering plate.
I.
I the gospel is not I.
The gospel is God.
It's what he has done in Christ for us what we could never do.
All of the work of our salvation was nailed to the cross.
And it was done by him.
God in Christ Lived a perfect life.
He walked among us.
He lived in perfect obedience to the law of God and so he procured procured an active
righteousness by being obedient to the law and then he passively
laid down on the cross to incur into himself the punishment that we
deserve.
He took the crown of thorns.
He took the nails.
He took the whip.
He took the spear in the side and it was his blood poured out for sinners like us.
He was buried he rose from the dead he ascended he
sits at the right hand of God and He offers forgiveness to those who will believe in
his name.
Not to those who do anything and work to earn anything but those who are willing to say I have nothing.
He is my only hope he is the gospel.
Christ is the gospel.
God is the gospel.
He's the reward and This is what we preach.
We preach Christ in him crucified.
We know nothing else in the world.
We're there to tell them that Christ.
Lives.
And turn eyes to him.
This is what we ought to be preaching.
This is what Paul was doing working hard and yet.
Looking for opportunities to share this good news.
So the first thing work is good and your work is twofold.
It is your vocation, but it is also proclaiming the work of.
You must tell someone that they can't save themselves.
That God alone saves.
But now.
Midpoint of my sermon the second thing verses 10 to 12.
We need to dispel the myth that we're hard -working people.
By nature.
The human nature is lazy as all get out.
We are slothful creatures.
That's our disposition.
So where does this zeal to work come from again?
We can't earn anything from God.
It's what confused Max Weber.
Why are these Protestants the plowboy in England reading his Bible working so hard.
Where does that come from?
The answer is it comes from the scripture.
But the human.
Instrument that God uses is The father
and that's what's missing in our culture.
I know it better than most because I was an inner -city missionary for 12 years and.
Fatherlessness is.
What's destroying the inner city and.
Now increasingly so the suburbs and the rural parts of the country.
Country itself as it descends into socialism.
The problem is fatherlessness.
This is what Paul says.
Look at verses 10 to 12.
You are witnesses and God also how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you
believers.
For you know how?
Like a father.
With his children we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you.
Charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom
and glory.
This is the language of a father with his son.
Or his daughter.
He says in verse 10.
You are witnesses and God also how holy and righteous and blameless.
Again, there's there's always a trifold statement in Thessalonians faith hope and
He said in verse 9.
Toil and labor and work.
Here he reiterates a point as holy righteous and blameless.
Sounds a little bit arrogant.
He doesn't say humble here.
Does he.
But Moses said humble in Numbers chapter 12 verse 9
Moses recounts that Moses was the most humble man on earth.
That must have been hard for him to write.
But he was carried along by the Spirit to say it.
It's not bragging for Paul to declare these things.
It's a statement of fact and Moses was in fact the most humble the most meek man on the
face of the earth and God records it that way likewise Paul Filled with the Spirit
carried along by the Spirit is writing scripture here.
Paul is an example of Blamelessness.
They saw it for those weeks that he was there or months that he was there.
Paul was blameless and he worked and he worked and he toiled and they saw it with
their own eyes he was a father figure to them and So it says
in verse 11 like a father with his children.
I Mentioned the years in the inner city.
There was one time when as a missionary I met a guy at a
Chick -fil -a.
Who was going to open a new Chick -fil -a in Kensington?
In inner -city, Philadelphia.
Oscar so we became friends and I started to meet with him from time to time and When he came to open his
Chick -fil -a about a year later.
I arranged for 30 people to come and be his original
employees.
From our church he hired 27 people within a
year.
26 of them had quit they were given
the opportunity to work, but they didn't have the work ethic to
work.
One was upset because Oscar made him shave.
Who's Oscar to tell him that I must shave.
Another couldn't make it on time.
Six o 'clock was too early.
And he lost the job.
Another didn't like that.
He couldn't have his phone on the thing that breaks my heart
about the inner city.
His fatherlessness.
They hadn't learned from a father how to work and if you know how to work
thank God for your father and If you didn't have a father who taught you how to
Thank God for being that father to you this morning.
That's what's happening here.
Paul is filling that void and he's teaching them an ethic that was not natural to them.
The Thessalonian was not just a hard -working man.
He was a lazy sloth like the rest of us and Paul is stepping in as a father to them.
And what does he say now notice before I say this notice?
He's already given a mothering metaphor in verse 7.
This deep care that he has for them like a nursing mother.
He dares to compare himself.
He cares so deeply for them.
He'd give us the totality of his being his psyche.
He.
He works for them.
He's affectionately desirous of them in verse 8.
That's the mother metaphor but look at the father metaphor now in verse 12.
We exhorted each one of you we
encouraged you so he didn't just say man up.
That's not what it means to to strengthen a man to just say man up.
No, he encouraged he spoke courage into them.
You can do this young man.
But I failed dad.
No, but you're not gonna fail next time you can do it.
He was a father to them he encouraged and built them up he exhorted and he charged them
and So he charges us this morning to work as
Christians.
Your vocation is a calling and you're charged to
work at it with all your might as unto the Lord.
That's what Paul is doing for them here, he's filling a father
Role, I think of Steph Curry not because I'm a fan.
But because I heard it said by an announcer.
He is a gifted shooter.
The announcer was going on and on about how gifted Steph Curry was.
Because he's he's a basketball player for those who don't know.
He makes a lot of three -pointers.
He breaks all the records and the announcers go on and on about how gifted he is.
But what they don't understand.
Which we ought to is That the gift Was named Del Curry
his dad.
Who since the time Steph and his brother were kids?
Taught them how to work.
They didn't grow up as four -year -olds throwing little paper balls into
the trash can and never missing.
It wasn't just natural they didn't just start making shots as they they got bigger.
It was that they worked and they worked thousands upon thousands of reps doing the same
thing the muscle memory was developed by work and It was the father that taught
that.
That pressed him to be who he was your father in heaven.
Your champion Jesus Christ.
Through Paul as the spokesman here is Calling you to excellence.
He's calling you to work at your craft.
Whatever that is until you're the best at it.
That's the Protestant work ethic and You can do it.
So what is then the means that he uses?
To bring that about answer the Word of God.
Verse 13 and we're done.
You think well, I can't change my nature.
I'm a sloth.
I'll just always be a sloth.
No the Word of God Can change you and this is what it says in verse 13.
We also thank God constantly for this.
That when you receive the Word of God Which you heard from us you accepted it not
as the Word of men, but as what it really is.
The Word of God, what does it do?
Which is at work in you believers?
It's that seed of the Word that accomplishes the work in us.
Anybody here have nobody brings a pen to church anymore, right?
I was gonna say I'm gonna write down some verses.
But you have a smartphone.
You have some way of taking note of this.
I'm gonna give you seven verses.
To build your work ethic because what I'm seeing here in my Bible in verse 13,
it's the Word That conforms us it works in us to will and to do according to his good
purpose.
So the first is Proverbs 6 10
about work ethic Proverbs 6 10 a little sleep a
little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest and Poverty will
come on you like a robber and want
Like an armed man Proverbs 6 10.
Secondly the Protestant work ethic is a life of work built on integrity.
Proverbs 20 23 unequal weights are an
abomination to the Lord and false Scales are not good
you earn What you're given in this in the sense of the world and the world's
goods by honest work.
There are no shortcuts.
Integrity, I'll share a quote from Michael Foster who speaks to young men often.
He says young men need to realize that an exceptional life is
often the product of consistently grinding out mundane tasks.
Amen.
We need to hear that no shortcuts.
It is Consistently doing your work with integrity.
Number three second Thessalonians 3 8.
This is about independence.
Not to be a taker but to be a maker.
It says in second Thessalonians 3 8 nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it?
But with toil and labor we worked night and day.
That we might not be a burden to any of you.
That is an independent spirit that the Bible teaches.
Now, I will give a qualifier here.
I have a friend who's an officer police officer and in the line of duty.
His back was broken.
He is not being a taker.
By receiving government support based on that the contract of being an officer.
Where you go in to the line of duty on our behalf to protect?
People if you're injured in that line of duty and and you have to receive help.
Because of that That help is earned.
It's not a gift.
You earned that in the contract that you sign and putting your life on the line.
That's a far cry from someone who doesn't work who could work.
Who takes and takes and takes in the spirit of socialism very
different thing.
Number four Colossians 3 23.
Working is worship.
Whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and not for
men.
Whatever you do now that's referring to your workplace your vocation.
It's not just these Sunday mornings when we gather that you worship our God.
It's how you do the job that you do Monday to Friday.
It's the heart that you have that you pray and incidentally here Paul says in verse 13.
That word constantly will reappear at the end of 1st Thessalonians where he tells us pray constantly
unceasingly as.
You're working.
You're worshiping because in your spirit you're in communication with God.
You're worshiping through your work.
God help me to figure this Three -dimensional printer out.
How do I make this work and You're working at it till you get it and you're praying while you do it.
Your work is worship because you're talking to him he's in it.
He's not just your Sunday God.
He's your God all week long.
Your work is worship.
Colossians 3 23.
Redeem the time.
Oh, we need to hear this.
How much time do we just fiddle away?
When there's something productive we could do to earn money for missions to earn money.
For the support of the church's work or to actually go out and
hand out tracks we could have spent that entire football game that we watched instead of watching three or
four games, maybe just watch one or two and Use the spare three or four hours that you have
to just put a tract in every door in your neighborhood.
That's how you use your time, right?
Ephesians 5 16 making the best use of the time.
Because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5 16.
Number six is Zechariah 410.
Despising not the day of small things
if that Chick -fil -a worker Was still working from 2007 when he got the job
to 2021.
He'd be a manager by now.
He might be opening his own franchise by now.
Do not despise the day of small beginnings.
Zechariah 410 for whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice and shall see the
plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.
The context here is the building of the temple.
It just looks like they're never gonna be able to do it.
Don't despise the days of small beginnings.
You set your hand to do whatever God has called you to do you work.
Where you are you grow where you're planted and you learn to work and your work ethic
Strengthens as you do that.
It's the days of small beginnings and lastly Proverbs 21 20.
This is the principle of thriftiness.
We all need to hear this.
Because for some of us money just burns a hole in our pockets and that's not Christian.
That's not good.
Proverbs 21 20.
Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling.
But a foolish man devours it To be frugal.
It's what built this country and many homes.
But just wanton spending on pleasure is what destroys a home and a
city and a country.
Wayne Grudem actually wrote a book called the poverty of nations in which he traced out why nations are
poor.
It's kind of a parallel to Adam Smith's the wealth of nations.
I Was an economics major forgive me.
I Mentioned these things.
Sometimes I wonder why was I an economics major?
When I turned out to be a preacher and in this age of socialism
creeping into the world I think I know why God's Providence had me learning
these things for four years in college for such a time as this and
To train other preachers as well to stand up against communism and socialism and all the
lies of the devil.
This book is not Indiscriminate with regard to Social
matters and especially with regard to economics.
I'll just say this there is a pastor in the EFCA Who's actually the chairman of the board?
Who doesn't understand?
These doctrines of Scripture he just emailed us this week and Said that what
we need is more people working in both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
We need committed conservatives and we need committed principled progressives.
The Bible is not neutral on these matters of economics.
We do not need progressives as Christians working toward that end.
That end is destruction.
One thing I learned from my father Is that we can outwork them
and I might be saying a few things now and I'll say more later.
But battles are won.
Not despising the days of small beginnings.
Forgive me this detour into the past but
This is what I learned as a young man.
You have to work to win as a basketball player in
college the Sunshine State Conference Player of the year was Brandon
Palmer.
He was going into his senior year.
I was going into my junior year.
I Didn't see how I could beat him because he was better.
He was 6 '6.
I'm a little shorter than that not much but he was just better by a little bit at everything.
So the summer before his senior year my junior year I set out that summer to be better.
So I would go out and I would run sprints because I'm kind of slow and the
rock a few hundred yards from my house.
Growing up was always a marker for me as I was coming in.
I had to sprint the finish.
To get faster.
I named that rock Brandon Palmer.
So when I saw Brandon Palmer I took off and I sprinted as fast as I could to finish that workout.
And when it came to the Sunshine State Conference championship, it was a tournament game.
We faced FIT Florida Institute, I was Eckerd College.
We were down by three with a few seconds left.
And by God's grace my buddy Russ Wilson dribbled right and I dragged behind him.
He tossed it back to me and I hit a three to tie it.
Sounds like I'm bragging but there's a point here.
It was fun, I'll never forget that game.
But then once you you're kind of playing with house money at that point.
So in overtime, there's no nervousness.
I was just hitting threes.
We won by like 12 we beat Brandon Palmer.
But as I think back on that the life lesson is this I Didn't beat him.
That day I Beat him the summer before I
Beat him when I was racing a rock named Brandon Palmer and I
think the reason this is so heavy on my heart is because Christians we need to be working.
Like an athlete tries to win a game.
We're not playing a game.
This is not a game.
Our country is on the line.
Our churches are on the line your life your children's future.
Everything is on the line.
We have to learn to work.
Paul says in 1st Corinthians 16 to the men act like men be strong.
And it applies to the women as well in a different way be strong work.
Our Christianity is to be worked at.
Till we can say that we were righteous and blameless from night and day.
We didn't live a compartmentalized life.
We gave it all don't you want to get to heaven one day and Hear well done good and
faithful servant and know that you were poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service
coming from the church.
Don't you want to be poured out what else do you have to live for see the Christian we're already saved.
Playing with house money.
It's all accomplished for us.
Now.
What we do is only worship.
It's our thank you to him and He is worthy of it, isn't he that we would go all in for
him give everything we have.
That's what Paul is calling out of the Thessalonians in verses 9 to 13.
To go all in to work.
Let's outwork him.
To the socialist who's leading people astray still love him.
Tell him the truth and by constant work overtime win
in your workplace.
Work and win for the glory of God not your own and by the way, I close with this.
Paul in this passage gives you the motivation for what you do.
It's at the end of verse 12.
It says who calls you into his own kingdom and glory
the Christian is motivated by the glory of Jesus Christ and To share in that eternal
kingdom.
With him.
CS Lewis famously Said that we're far too easily pleased.
He compares us to being like a kid who lives in the slum and he's content to make mud
pies in The dirty running water in the slum because he has no idea What
it means to take a holiday at the shore.
We're far too easily pleased.
The reward that were promised in Christ for the work we do for him.
There's an eternal weight of glory that far surpasses anything we could ask think or imagine.
We see it only through a dark glass now, but there's coming a day.
We'll see it face to face.
This reward is worth your life.
So work as unto him at the job in the preaching of the gospel in Everything he
calls us to do.
Let's pray.
Father we thank you for this passage.
It challenges us it Charges us it exhorts us and we know father.
We're hearing your voice.
Because you are a good father who disciplines the children that you accept as your own
you accept us as sons and So you discipline us to learn to work.
It doesn't come natural to us Lord.
So produce in us work By your spirit and by your word.
I pray for this church Lord that we would read Proverbs.
For those who don't have a Bible reading plan right now, let them read a proverb a day to be
trained in righteousness.
We thank you for first and second Thessalonians and the message that were given throughout these books to learn
to work as unto you in Jesus name.
Amen, let's stand and sing.
Is our hope in life and death.
Christ alone Christ alone.
What is our only?
Confidence.
That our souls to him belong.
Who holds our days?
Within his hand.
What comes apart from his command.
What will keep?
Us to the end.
The love of Christ in which we stand.
Oh.
Sing Hallelujah our hope
springs eternal.
Oh sing Hallelujah now and ever
we confess Christ our hope in life and
death.
What truth can calm the troubled soul.
God is good.
Where is his grace and goodness known?
In our great Redeemers.
Blood who holds our faith.
When fears arise.
Who stands above?
The stormy trial.
Who stands the wave that brings us nigh?
Unto the shore the rock of Christ.
Oh Hallelujah our hope
Oh Hallelujah now and
ever we confess Christ our hope and life and death.
To the grave, what shall we sing?
Christ he lives.
What reward will heaven bring?
Everlasting life with him.
There we will rise To meet the Lord.
Then sin and death Will be destroyed.
And we will feast in endless joy.
Then Christ is ours forever more.
Oh sing Oh.
Sing.
Hallelujah our hope springs
eternal.
Oh sing.
Hallelujah now and ever we confess
Christ our hope in life and death.
We're gonna sing that chorus one more time.
There's a reason why things don't work out with the sound this morning.
But we can sing louder because we can work hard and sing to praise our Jesus Christ.
Ready.
Hallelujah our hope springs eternal Oh
And ever Christ our hope and life.
Think one of the reasons is when I get so worked up it pops this mic and then it starts pulsating.
So it was actually my fault.
I got too worked up.
Listen guys next week John MacArthur has called on pastors all across the country
to preach on sexuality because in Canada they've outlawed anything that
calls for conversion of People who are not
Sexually pure living the way God has designed.
They'll throw you in jail in Canada and John MacArthur's friend James Coates is
under threat of that if you preach that the gospel has power to change the The hearts and the
desires and the orientation of people you can be thrown in jail in Canada.
So we're gonna preach the gospel as it relates to sexuality next week.
So it'll be a topical sermon Next Sunday, so be in prayer for that for our church and for churches
across the country to stem the tide of this wokeness.
It's either woke or it's work.
There the two are mutually exclusive.
Alright, so in closing before I preach again.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father Who loved us and gave
us eternal comfort and good hope through grace?
Comfort your hearts and Establish them in every good work and word.
Go in peace.
Okay.