The Believers’ Work (1 Thessalonians 2:9-13, Jeff Kliewer)

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

You may be seated.

Thanks be to God, for it is so demanding, always pleading what it's owed, counting itself a victim, but Lord this morning we pray that you would work in us to be thankful for everything that we have all that we have is a gift of your grace we pray that you would stir up our hearts to be thankful and stir us up to love and good deeds we pray that you would work by your power at work in us 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 amen 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 and all in Florida the kids were swimming in a pool one day and then sledding on a hill 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 audiobook called the traitor and the spy it was the story of Oleg Gordievsky who was a

KGB officer in the Soviet Union in the 70s he was raised and just born and bred

KGB his parents were both in it and then he became a spy to Denmark I'll spare you the whole story but I just wanted to share this one part 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 he started to think 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 the boat and climb the wall and he thought to himself if what we have is better why is it that we have to shoot people to keep people in pretty good question right communism versus why do we have to kill people so this man realized he was serving the wrong side and he became a spy he contacted mi6 the

British and began to inform what the Russians were doing it his work probably averted a possible nuclear disaster because he fed information to Reagan which which averted some terrible anyway 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 a very interesting story that I heard but it raises a question about communism and capitalism 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 coined the term

Protestant work ethic and what he showed is that where the

Protestant Reformation went into Germany 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 well 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 employee he said didn't we agree upon the denarius and another parable

Jesus thought 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 a capitalist doctrine that he taught.

If you doubt me, as doubtless some people will, not in this room, but some will doubt, read a book by Jerry Bowyer called

The Makers vs. 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 vs. The Takers we have an issue in our country this country was founded on the 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 first 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 first 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 first and second

Thessalonians easy for me to say Thessalonians notice in first 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 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 nine to five

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 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 the 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 God 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 so I am here

I read the Bible I give in the offering plate I 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 the 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 plow boy 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 always a trifold statement in Thessalonians faith hope and love 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 is 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 work 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 610 about work ethic

Proverbs 610 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 610 secondly the Protestant work ethic is a life of work built on integrity

Proverbs 2023 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 there are no shortcuts 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 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 amen 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 we also thank God constantly for this 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 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 redeem the time

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 in a city in 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 first Corinthians 16 to the men act like men be strong and it applies to the women as well in a 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 leave live a compartmentalized life we gave it all don't you want to get to heaven one day and here 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

C .S. 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 what is our hope in life and death

Christ alone Christ alone is our only confidence that our souls to him belong who holds our days within his hand what comes apart from his command and 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 God is good where is his grace and goodness known in our great

Redeemer's 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 our hope springs eternal

Oh sing hallelujah now and ever we confess

Christ our hope and life and death unto the grave what shall we sing

Christ he lives Christ he lives and 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 the

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 Oh sing hallelujah our hope springs eternal

Oh sing hallelujah now and ever we confess

Christ our hope and life and death I 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 all right 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 amen go in peace we sweat here so we don't bleed there

I can share that as a reminder next week because I'd like to review a little bit before I go on to the next one because that's the goal right there we sweat now so we don't bleed there when our victory is lost when we get lost that's it that's the victory that's the victory very good okay so you're going back up to school well we'll be in touch and maybe when you come back we'll figure out what we're doing from there