Christian Industry (part 2)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Dear God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for bringing us here together on this beautiful day.

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Lord, as we open up your word, as we study it, we pray that you would quicken our minds.

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May your spirit teach us. May your spirit quicken us that we would live by the truth and we would live by your power in these areas that your word illumines in our lives.

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In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Okay, so the title for this one in your handout is

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Biblical Service. As I mentioned in part one, I wanted to talk about work, about industry, about being gainfully employed while we have breath here on earth.

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The Lord has given us a great opportunity while we have our strength about us to do things.

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Many a time when we think of work, we just think, okay, I'm just going to go 9 to 5

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Monday through Friday and I'm going to earn the money that my family needs to live.

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But the Bible doesn't just relegate work to some corner that we just have to do in order to just have provision in our families.

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Work is something a lot more broader, which is why the title that I gave was the Christian worldview.

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Everything that a Christian sees in his life is seen through the lens of the

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Bible. And the Bible has a lot to say about work. So very quickly in review, we work because we have a

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God who works. I have a few examples there. What are some of the things that God does?

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We see creation, God created out of nothing everything that we see around us.

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That's the power of a God and the magnitude of the work that he did.

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And it's not just a one time thing, day 1 to 6 and then God said, I'm finished, I'm a deistic

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God, you guys do whatever you want, I'm just going to rest, in a wrong sense.

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We have the preservation in Colossians 1. It is by the word of, it is by Jesus Christ that this entire universe is upheld.

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The moment God stops working, we will implode, we will no longer have life as we see it.

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In John 5, 17, Jesus talks about my father is always working and I too must work.

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And it is God's work that is ongoing and continuous. In Exodus 14, 13, it's talking about the work of God in redeeming the

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Israelites out of Egypt. There is a mighty hand and with great power, God brings out his people from Egypt.

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And the work of God is demonstrated in that redemption. And that becomes a picture of what

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Christ will do when he brings us out of sin. And then we saw in Deuteronomy 32, verse 4, the nature of this work that God does.

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His work is perfect. God's work is complete. There is nothing lacking or flawed in what

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God does. So that's the God that we worship. He is the God who works in all these different attributes.

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And then I began with God's image. Because when God made man, God made man in his own image.

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So the reason we can do certain things is because we actually are image bearers of God.

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And just as how God has certain attributes which are called communicable attributes, we share those attributes and that's how we are made.

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So also when it comes to work in Genesis 1, 27 to 28, right after the verse which talks about God's making man in his own image, he's now given dominion over the earth.

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And there is a responsibility that is placed upon mankind. So we just don't work because we're just born in Worcester in 2000 and we just have to start doing things.

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God made us 2000, maybe a little early. Maybe child labor is still illegal,

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I think here. But there is a purpose in all of humanity.

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And this is both for fallen humans as well as those who are redeemed. And in Genesis 2, 15, we see the command that God places to work the ground, to provide for oneself.

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And then we also see the sin that mars this work. So work could have been satisfying if Adam hadn't fallen.

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The work that he was given would have been a joy and the ground would have cooperated. The earth would have been a lot different than where it is.

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But because of the fall, we have in Genesis 3, 17 through 23, the curse that is placed and therefore labor becomes hard.

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You do not always achieve what you attempt to do. And then Genesis 4, 12, it continues with Cain and the curse that is given again.

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And then in the points 4 and 5, we saw how because of the fall, our knowledge of God has been suppressed.

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In Romans 1, we see how unbelievers have suppressed that truth. And because of that, God has ordained us to work, but we either fall off on one side and say,

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I'd rather not work. How can I get around it? I'd rather sleep. The proverb says, you know, you turn around and don't get up.

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Or there's the other side of sin, which is work is all there is to life. I'm just going to make as much money and gain as much power, and I'm just going to keep that as my focus.

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But the way God has ordained this is that work would be as a means of worship.

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As we employ all the faculties, everything that God has ordained us to do, we do it in a way that is to worship and honor the

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God who gave us the ability and these opportunities to exercise this work.

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I just remember, I see Caleb and Deb. Last time when I taught this, Pastor Dave was here, and I asked him this question, is there sacred and secular work?

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You got to listen to it on tape. He gave like the most succinct answer to that question. Is there anything called sacred and secular work?

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Maybe those who weren't here last time. What do you think? Is there a difference between sacred and secular?

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No, because in the world, especially if you come from an institutional church, sometimes there may be like this, you know, clergy does certain things and the laity do different things.

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You know, there is a certain type of work that is ordained and holy and sacred, whereas the rest of us, you know, we just do mundane work, mundane, earthly, common.

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But the answer is no. This dichotomy between sacred and secular, the way you want to think about it is this.

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What does secular really mean? It means something that is separate other than, and it's something that relates to God.

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Is there any place that is outside of God's rule? Not no.

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God rules over everything. It is the modern mind that somehow wants to break up these different things that we do and say, you know, this

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Sunday I come, I worship, I do all these holy things, and then Monday to Saturday, I just go and do the things the way the world does things.

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There is no such division. And there is no such division in your work either. But I'm going to use these terms because the way we normally think of sacred is, we think of work that is full -time ministry.

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We think of that as sacred because you're doing gospel ministry. That's what you do all the time. And so that seems somewhat sacred.

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And then when we think of being a carpenter or doing software or whatever else as not directly connected with the gospel, so it just seems to be secular because we are in the world doing those types of work.

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So we use that terminology. But what I want to do in the second half of your sheet is, when we talk about sacred, it's the direct gospel and then the indirect gospel.

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Because there should be no place where we are just cut off from the gospel. We are ambassadors of Christ.

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Matthew 20. Where is the Great Commission?

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Who knows where the Great Commission is? 2820, right? Okay. Matthew 2820.

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Every single Christian has a responsibility to go out and give the gospel, the good news to the whole world.

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So whether you are at work or wherever you are, the gospel should be a part of who you are as a Christian.

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And but there is a work where you will... We talked about this last time.

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We don't want a person to be hired for an hour of typewriting and spend that hour giving the gospel.

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That would be cheating, right? So you have a responsibility that is given and you want to do that work with great excellence and you want to honor

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God in that work that was given to you. And when you then take a break and your co -worker says, what makes you so diligent and excel in everything that you do?

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You want to then point to Christ. You don't want to keep your mouth shut because you want to be about the gospel, but you want to do it the right way.

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And everything that you are ordained to do, whether it is preaching the gospel or it is digging a ditch, you want to do it with excellence.

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And we will see later because God has ordained it and you want to do it for him. There's a few more things in terms of review.

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Both within code sacred and secular work are needed and they are meant to support you.

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So if you do a work as a computer software engineer and you make some money, that's meant to support your family.

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And the same thing if you're preaching the gospel, do not muzzle the oxen. We see in 1

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Timothy 5, 17 through 18, and the elder who serves well is worthy of double honor.

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We find in Romans 5, 15, 17 that this work is satisfying. The work that God has given to us is meant to be satisfying, both types.

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God has given talents. To be a preacher, you need to be gifted with this gift of teaching.

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And we actually used an example from Exodus 35, where in the work of the tabernacle,

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God actually gave certain specific skills to these people, embroidery, all the different things that went about that they were skilled in these things and they served.

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So whatever gifts or talents that you have are given to you by God. And then ultimately all that we are to do must glorify

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God. So whatever type of work that you are called by God to do, you want to glorify

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God in these things. So we covered all these in the first time. And now we will look at the second half of your handout, which is the two types of work.

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We'll just spend some time in the direct gospel ministry and then we will spend some time in this indirect gospel ministry.

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So I have certain things which are unique when you are doing direct gospel work.

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So I have John 9, 4 listed under this area. And I say that there are some unique challenges to this work.

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I'll just read that verse for you. It says, this Jesus is saying this just before he heals the man who was born blind.

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He says, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is still day. Night is coming when no one can work.

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This was Jesus responding to the disciples asking, why was this man born blind?

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And then Jesus says, it's not because of his sin. It's not because of his parents' sin, but it's because God's glory is to be manifested.

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And I need to do this work at this point in time. And he is talking about his earthly ministry.

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This is the day Christ is here on earth and he must fulfill his ministry. And there's going to be a time when he's going to be crucified.

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And he's talking about a time when there will not be any work. Now, are there certain, what are some of the challenges that come to your mind when you think of gospel ministry?

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So let me rephrase it. So if you went to Worcester today and you went to go give the gospel to some of the people in downtown, would you be challenged to do that?

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Fear internally. Now, let me just compare that with, let's say you were in West Linton, Kuwait.

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I don't know, maybe Kuwait is not that bad. Saudi Arabia or somewhere else. You would have a different type of challenge because there is a direct opposition to the gospel from the outside.

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If you're in Mao's China and or if you were in any of the communist lands or in the

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Muslim lands, there are opposition. In fact, even in Acts, you will see there are certain kinds of challenges when Paul is going about his missions and the spirit of God says, no, you need to turn and go a different place.

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There are challenges to the gospel ministry, which you normally wouldn't encounter in here.

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You know, here you can pretty much do your work wherever you want. But when you are here doing the gospel, there are certain challenges that you will face.

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And the reason is because there is a unique opposition to your gospel ministry.

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And I want to just read that verse for you in Ephesians 2 .2. I'm just picking it up in the middle.

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We ourselves walked following the course of this world before we were saved. We used to follow who?

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The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

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One of the things we need to remember when we are doing gospel ministry is we belong to the king,

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God himself. The world is still under the power of the devil.

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And it is under this kingdom that we are to come, the kingdom of darkness, and we are to proclaim the message of the truth.

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And the devil is going to do everything he can to try to oppose the work that we do.

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And what are some of the ways in which the opposition to the gospel in practical terms, when you actually go out and do gospel ministry, whether you're preaching or you're doing evangelism or anything else?

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Yeah, people get angry. You go write a piece of software, they might get angry if it doesn't work.

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But if you give the good gospel, you will face opposition from people because these people are under the dominion of darkness.

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The prince of the power of air, we just read that spirit is now at work in the sons of disobedience. And no one wants to be told that they are lost.

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No one wants to be told that they are doomed and going to hell. That's one opposition.

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Anything else that comes to mind? Yeah, there is always doubt.

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And one of the reasons, let me put it this way. Let me go back like 200 years. You are living in, you know,

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Jonathan Edwards time. The whole town is Christian or maybe where Pastor Dave is, you know, if you're in Texas, you know, when you, if you talk about Jesus Christ, they may not be believers, but they wouldn't say, what are you talking about?

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Yeah, we are all Christians. There is an, the environment in which you live in is Christian in some sense.

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And there is no opposition. You don't have to be afraid of talking about Jesus Christ. You may have to think about how to creatively talk to people who are not saved in that environment.

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But in today's world, when you start to go out and talk, you're, you know, the kind of questions you probably haven't thought about.

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Those are the things that people will be asking you. And do I know the Bible well enough to speak? That's very good.

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So the environment, the world system in which we live in is not really conducive, if you will, you know, to just freely speak.

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You need to study the word and you need to be faithful to God in giving the gospel. But if that was all there is to it, okay,

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Christians, you got saved. We're giving you the gospel. Go out and die for the gospel.

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We, I hope we would all gladly do that, but that's not how God has left us after he saved us.

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He didn't say, I'm, you're saved. Now just go give the gospel. And then when you die, you can come to heaven. God has given us everything that we need in order to be faithful ministers of the gospel.

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So the verses that I have for you here, Ephesians 3, 20. Now to him who was able to do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think according to the power at work within us.

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And I'm going to read a few more verses and then we'll talk about this. Ephesians 4, 12. If those of you who are in the new members class, we talked about the equipping of the body and Ephesians 4 talks about the pastor teachers, the various people that God has gifted to the local church in order that they would equip the saints in verse 12 for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ.

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So we're not here just, okay, you're saved and then just go out and do whatever you will. Those who normally go out as missionaries are normally trained in the word.

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They grow up in the local body and they are ministered to by fellow believers who are in turn ministered by the spirit of God.

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Philippians 2, 12. And I think this is one verse, I think whether you are in full -time ministry or contemplating full -time ministry or you're not thinking about it at all, you're just going to be serving wherever God has placed you.

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As a individual believer, I think this 12 and 13 are important verses for you to think about on what strength do you do gospel work?

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Verse 12 says, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

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For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

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The context here is sanctification. It is a believer who is saved. How do you grow in holiness?

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How do you grow in your salvation as you become more and more like Christ? Part of it is an active work.

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You know, sometimes we think that we get saved and we just keep coming to church and we'll automatically just keep growing.

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Is that true? That is true.

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So in what sense does it happen? And the

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Bible talks about the word being like water, right? It washes and it makes you holy as you hear the word being preached consistently and faithfully.

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So there is an element in which as you keep hearing the word over and over again, there is a sense in which you will get purified as God's work does its work in you.

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But there is also an element in which you need to work out your salvation. So if God has given you a new life internally, that needs to be energio.

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It's like exercised. You need to apply that. So the words that we hear in Romans 12, 1 and 2 be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

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So the word changes your mind and then you need to live that life out in the context in which you are placed.

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So that working out of your salvation is primarily your own sanctification as you exercise those muscles as you start to work out that truth.

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But the point is, it's not just by our own strength that we grow because it is

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God who works in us. So for a Christian, we have the power of God in us that works itself out as we let

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God work in and through us. Now, and that's very important for us to remember because many a time we think of justification, right?

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So when we are justified, how much work did we do? None, because we can do nothing in order to be saved.

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It has God who has to pluck us, who are dead out of our sin and make us alive in Christ.

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And when it comes to salvation, sanctification, sometimes we think, oh, you know, God has done that and he will do let go and let

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God, God will take care. And that's not biblical at all as we just saw in this verse. It's God who works in us and yet we need to work out that salvation.

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And that is not just within ourselves, but it is also the work that we do outside. Sanctification is not just,

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I want to get holy, so I'm going to put myself in a little closet. I'm going to make a list of all the little areas where I'm sinning and I'm going to work at it one at a time and I've gotten holier in these areas.

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Year 2011 finished, 2012, let me make a new checklist. Part of that is true.

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I mean, each of us has our own areas of weakness where we want to grow, but it is never in isolation.

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It is always within the context of the local church. Ephesians 4 .12, we just talked about equipping of the saints is done by one another.

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So we work with one another as we serve one another, we help the other person grow and we are helped in turn by the other person as we grow in ministry.

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And that's gospel ministry too. Many a time we think of gospel ministry as outside in the world, but the gospel is active in our lives as we grow in sanctification and is active in our one another lives as we serve one another and as we work in God's power.

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And actually the next point gives you that sense of God's provision. I'll just pick 2 Thessalonians 1 .11.

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To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.

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So while God informs us of the kind of work that we want to do, it is only God's power that needs to enable us.

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And what Paul is doing here is actually praying for people who have that desire. If you know the

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Thessalonians, they were well known for the way in which they served the other people and also the other churches.

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And here he is praying for God's power to strengthen them, to equip them, to do what they have committed their lives to do.

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I'm sorry, I'm going a little fast. We are out of time. I want to make sure we get to the next section. Ministry has a unique judgment.

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So if you do a bad job at work, you probably will lose your job. But when you do gospel work, we read in 1

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Corinthians 3, verse 13 through 15, each one's work will be manifest.

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So when you do God's work here on earth, in the end, in the judgment day, those will be revealed.

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For the Lord will disclose it and it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

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If the work that anyone has done, anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

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If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

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So there is a sense in which each of our work will be tested. And those work that was done by God's power and for his purposes will stand as people are saved and as they grow in the

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Lord. And those that we did would be on our own strength and which was unfruitful would be like hay and stubble and they would be burnt up in the last day.

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And then finally, we have unique rewards. We see in 1 Corinthians 15, 58. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

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Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain. And that's one of the things that we always want to remember.

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As we think of gospel ministry, we saw Matthew 28, 20. We have this commission that we need to be going about making disciples of all people.

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And this is one labor that will have its reward.

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You know, sometimes you go talk to people about the Lord and you're like, you know, these people are just so hard hearted.

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They don't want to hear anything. It seems like it is just fruitless. What is the point of even doing this anymore?

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You can get easily discouraged. Like we talked about the environment we live in. Most people are close to the gospel.

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But the Lord says that he will, your labor is not in vain because there is a time when all things will come to an end and the

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Lord will bless the work of your hand for his glory. But in Galatians 6, 4, there is a caution because sometimes, especially this is more in the context of within the church body, the verse says, let each one test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone.

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That is in what the Lord has done through him alone and not in his neighbor. Because sometimes while we are doing

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Christian ministry, we can tend to just look at all the problems of other believers and say, you know,

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I'm a spiritual police. I'm just going to go around checking everybody. And the

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Lord gives us Matthew 7 to say, you know, watch out for your Lord. Make sure when you minister to another, you are doing it in the spirit.

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So we want to make sure that the work that we do is done not just by God's power, but also in God's intent and not foolishly in our own foolishness.

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What I think is work may not seem to be work in God's eyes. And we want to be very careful when we are in gospel ministry that we're doing what

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God has ordained in that point in time to our brothers and sisters that he has placed in our lives.

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Let me stop here. And then I want to get into this. This is basically the finishing of work.

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So how do we actually work? Any questions on what we covered? I've been going really fast so far.

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Okay. So let's now begin this next section, what I call indirect gospel ministry.

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How do we, each majority of you will tomorrow go back to work. So how do you do your work?

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The first verse I have there is from Colossians 3 .23. We want to work for God. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the

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Lord and not for men. Why do you think that verse was given to Christians?

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Do we need that verse? Why? Excellent. So you may be in a circumstance where people do not appreciate your work.

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They may not even recognize your work. But if it's a work that's given to you, you want to do it not just to get the praise of those people, but rather the praise of your

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God. Excellent point. What other reason might there be? So, and that's the mindset of the world, isn't it?

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So when someone comes into the work that they do, it's what do I get out of it? And I want to develop the skill, or I want to make this money, or I want to grow up in this position.

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But rather, instead of recognizing, as a Christian ought to, that everything that we are given is given by God, and we do this work to God.

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And we didn't, like I said last time, we didn't just drop out of heaven, you know, completely tabula rasa, you know, just empty slate.

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We all came tainted with the thinking of the world. And we need to consciously put aside the thinking of the world and think like how

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God expects us. So God commands us to work for the Lord. And this is something that we need to remember and renew our minds.

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So any other thoughts on this? Excellent.

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And this is for most moms who are at home. Yeah, and anything we do, sometimes we think of work as just that eight hour of work.

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But like you said, whether it is chopping wood, whatever it is you do, you want to be doing it as an act of worship toward God.

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And when you consciously submit that, whatever activity that God has placed before you toward God, you honor him and you worship him with your work.

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All right, so the next one is a motivation. So what should be the motivation for our work? Actually, this is a little bit of a stretch, but I love this verse.

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And I want us to just think about this for a minute. This is from Deuteronomy. Let me read the verse and I'll give you the context.

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So this is Moses saying, for your eyes, he's talking to the people, your eyes have seen all the great work of the

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Lord that he did. And then he says, verse eight, you shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess.

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And that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.

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You know, many a time when we think of the redemption narrative of Israel from Egypt, we remember the slaves in Egypt.

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We remember the 10 plagues. We think of the mighty hand of deliverance to the Red Sea. And then we think of the 40 years of, you know, chaos in the wilderness.

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And then they entered. And then, of course, they all dispersed, didn't do exactly what

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God did. But it's like a saga. You know, we just see those initial points.

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But Pastor Mike likes to talk about the 10 commandments. He would always say, what is the most important thing about the 10 commandments?

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We got to read this. I don't want to read this wrong. Does somebody remember what's the most important thing about the 10 commandments?

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What is that? Yes, the commandments do point us to Christ.

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I think he phrases it a little differently. Pastor Steve, do you remember how Pastor Mike phrases it? Yes, Carol?

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That is true. Because it is because of sin that the law is given. Okay, let me just read this.

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All right. So yeah, I remember now. He says, what is the most important commandment or what was the most important something along this line?

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I don't ask Pastor Mike. But he would say, you need to go back to verse 2 of Exodus 20, which says before, this is just the verse before the 10 commandments.

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It says, I am the first commandment. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

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And then you shall have no other gods before me. It is because of who God is and what

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God has done to us that we are to then do what

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God expects of us. It is this image of this God, this greatness of this God that we want to fix before our eyes, before we do anything.

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How does our work become worship? And even here in Deuteronomy 11,

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Moses is saying, all right, you have a huge task ahead of you. You have this land that you need to go and fill and take over.

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But what you need to do is your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord. Remember who your

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God is, who it is that you worship. And it is in that knowledge that you go out and fulfill what

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God has commanded you to do, to go over and take possession of this land. And us as Christians, our life itself is bought by Christ, right?

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I mean, when we become Christians, I'm no longer Pradeep, my own man.

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I am crucified with Christ. The life that I live is now to be lived on bought time, borrowed time.

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It is because of Christ that I have my life and I need to live this life on account of the one who has purchased my life.

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So that's the focus and the motivation of all Christians. We need to remember that the opportunities that lie before us, it is because God has bought them, bought me, and he has purchased these opportunities for me to work out.

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And then let's move to the next one. And this is kind of important, especially in our context. I'd like to actually have someone read this.

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Can someone turn to Psalm 104 and then read verse 21 through 27?

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Because we live in a time when work is scarce and some of us here don't have a job and we are looking for work.

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And it is always good to remember what the source for our provision is.

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Does someone have Psalm 104? You can raise your hand up. Bruce, as we saw earlier,

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God made this world. His work never ends. He's the one who sustains this world and he's the one who provides.

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Whether you take the natural kingdom, it is God who provides for them. And even us here, he was talking about those who go in the ships and each of us, we trust in God to give us the work that we need.

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And especially in our times when things are difficult, it is always good to remember, whether it is good or bad, in both times, it is important to remember that the source of our work comes from God alone.

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I mean, he is the person who gives us the skills to do this particular work and also those opportunities in which we can exercise those skills and be gainfully employed.

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And then in Proverbs 16, 3, we read, commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.

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Because as a Christian, we recognize that it is God who has enabled me. It is

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God who has provided for me. And I need to be going about this business with God's intent, his goals in mind.

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Because, you know, let me ask this question. So when you get a job, let's say you've got a couple of jobs, what are some of the ways in which you'll find which job is the best one for you?

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What are some of the things that go through your mind? Get good wise counsel from other people.

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Yes. What would be some criteria that you would use? Money, yes.

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So if there is a job that pays 20 ,000 and another job that pays 40 ,000, you know,

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I'd be able to provide for my family better with the 40 ,000. That's one criteria. What else? Who said that?

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Time. Can you elaborate? Excellent.

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So it is not just money exclusively. If they're going to pay me 200 ,000 and I have to be there 15 hours a day, it's not worth it.

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So there are other priorities that you balance. One of them is the time with your family. Exactly.

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So you want to find a job that would honor God with what you do. And if you find that it is crossing over the lines either into overt sin or areas where it would transgress your conscience, even if it paid money, you would say, you know,

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I'd rather take a lesser paying job that would honor God. Yes.

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Yeah. So experience. So you basically know what skills God has given you and you want to use them wisely.

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Was there someone in the back? All right.

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Let me actually, I don't want to do a part three on this. So we'll just quickly go through and finish what else we have here.

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So one of the things that we have to realize work is not, you know, the labor, the term labor just talks about sweat and toil.

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And that's nothing wrong with sweat and toil. But there is also a drudgery that we think of because in a fallen world, the land doesn't cooperate with you.

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It is difficult. But the work that God gives us can be satisfying and you can actually enjoy what

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God gives you. I have a few verses here.

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I'll probably just, let's skip. I want a few other verses that I want to look at. And one of the things that we want to think of work is not just in terms of ourselves.

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Work is not just something that is meant to just provide for me and my family and the people that I personally just care about, you know, just my parents or my siblings.

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In Ephesians 4, 28, we read, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

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So we want to be generous. We want to be hospitable. We want to be kind. We want to show

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God's grace to those who are in need. Work, that was, that is one of the means by which

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God has ordained for us to be able to bless others who are in need.

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So the work that we have, and we will actually talk about this in a few, actually next month, when we talk about how the

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Christian must think of his life here on earth. We are not just here to, you know, make more money for myself or get from my current state to the next best state.

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Some of us may come to a point where we say, you know, this is, I'm satisfied with the level of provisions that God has provided for me.

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And our mindset should be toward what do I do as a good steward of the blessings that God has placed in my life?

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How am I going to be using these blessings? I mean, maybe the Lord's like, I don't care if you don't want,

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I'm just going to keep pouring on you. What do I do with what God has given to me? And we want to be good stewards in serving the others that God has placed in our lives.

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In the verses here, work is personal and commended. I'll just read a few here so you can think through those.

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People, you may need to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, to work with your hands. Here, Paul is instructing those in the church so that they can be gainfully employed.

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And then he talks about something, and this is within the local church. He says, esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

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He's talking mainly about gospel ministry here, but it is also applicable for regular work. When you see someone who is laboring in the church, someone who is serving with excellence, they are to be esteemed.

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And not just esteemed and say, you do that kind of work. You want to emulate those people and work with excellence also.

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1 Timothy 5, 10 talks about, I think widows having a reputation for good works.

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If she has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the feet of saints, cared for the afflicted and devoted herself to every good work.

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This shows the lifestyle of someone who is showing a sanctified life and these people ought to be cared for.

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The sanctified worker is useful. Let me just read the first verse. If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

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One of the things that we normally don't think of, we think of our experience, we think of our skills, we think of our talents that God has given us.

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But when we are doing work for the Lord, which should be whether it is direct gospel or indirect gospel, we ought to be a people who are holy and set apart.

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So when I come back every day from work, I shouldn't just be looking at myself and saying, did I write good code?

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Did I finish the eight hours as faithfully as I did? But also examine to see how much of a

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Christian I was in my ministry. You wanna be living each moment as a sanctified vessel for God and you wanna keep yourself pure.

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You are in a circumstance that is gray. You wanna watch yourself that you actually obey the

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Lord rather than do whatever was brought in your path. Because God will use, maybe at that work, in that circumstance, you may not be as successful as the world might be, but God will use you when you look at yourself as working for the

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Lord and you examine every motive of what you're doing, every task that you accomplish, that you do it in a way that is holy and sanctified and set apart for him and he will use you for his good purposes.

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The abhor sinful work, I think it should be pretty obvious. It talks about the different ways in which we can work very successfully, but it would both dishonor

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God and it would bring God's judgment upon you if you would sin. And then back to the work is necessary.

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And I think this is very important because last time when I opened, I said, if you got a million dollars as a gift, would you just lay back, kick off your shoes and stay home or would you still continue to work?

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And it is important to realize that when God gives you the ability to work, you ought to use it for his glory.

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And then moving on to the generous and righteous principles in Deuteronomy 15, 10, it says, you shall give to him freely to the one who's asking and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him because for this, the

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Lord, your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. Today, we live in a world where you work, you gain, you protect, you save, you somehow guard the positions that God has placed in your hand.

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The Bible has another word for it, it's called hoarding. There is a sense in which you need to take care and plan for the future, but there is a sense in which our society has lost its grounding in terms of being generous, in terms of leaving those fields, the gleanings for those who are in need.

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And I think that's a sense in which the church is growing again in terms of recognizing how we ought to love those who are in need and be generous with what

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God has given us. I have this last two things here, handling struggle.

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If you look at Exodus 1, 13, the Egyptians ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and they pressed them into hard labor.

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And then when God was about to bring his redemption, even the straw was taken away and they had to do even more hard labor.

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Sometimes our work before whatever kind of boss you have might seem that way, that it's unjust, you need to work extra long hours, it is unfruitful, you don't get paid for what you are doing.

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But one thing you need to remember is that while you are employed under that person, you need to still continue to submit and serve them with the best of your ability, knowing that it is

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God whom you are serving. It is God who observes all that goes on in your work and it is

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God who will ultimately reward you for your work. And then the last thing here is the balance.

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Exodus 20, verse 9 says, six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your

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God, on it you shall not do any work. Now, obviously we are not Sabbatarians. This is actually a command given to the

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Israelites. So this was something that they had to follow. On every Saturday, they had to stop from labor and reflect on the

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God who rested from those six days of work and they needed to rest as well.

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And we are under no such injunction. So if I were to do some work today,

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I know Andrew gets a call from work and he has to pick it up. He is not sinning against God by doing so.

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Yet there is a principle here for rest that is built in into the fabric of how we are made.

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And it is not all about work. It is about knowing the priority that work plays in our lives and making sure that we work wholeheartedly and yet we do not compromise our family.

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We do not compromise the need for rest and we use work as a means of worship to God himself.

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Sorry for the rushing tour, but any questions before we close? Yes, Tim. You're talking about the satisfying nature of work or are you talking about...

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Well, that's very, very true. So when I talked about the challenges in work, we are not the

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Israelite slaves. They had no choice. If they try to walk away, they would get killed, right?

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Here, you have a choice of, let's say, you know, this particular job demands 20 hours of work, you know, seven days a week.

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We can choose to find another job that would take us out of that position. But what I was trying to say was, as long as we are in that position and we are working for that particular master, if you will, whoever it is, we want to make sure that we do what was asked of us.

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Obviously, we live in a democratic society, so you can actually talk to your manager and explain this is what you think.

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And then after the third time, I give my notice and I move on. Yeah. Good question.

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All right, let's pray and we'll be done. Dear God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.

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We thank you that you who made us continue to uphold us and you provide for us.

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And you, oh Lord, are the source of all our good. You yourself are good and you give us good gifts.

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We thank you for your hand that is so bountiful in our lives. Lord, even in times of ill health, in times of no jobs, we can always look up to you for your provision and for your care.

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And Lord, we pray for those who do not have jobs here. We pray that you would provide for them. We pray for everyone here that we will all work to bring honor and glory to your name.

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And we pray, Father, that in the rest of this day that you would receive, continue to receive your, the honor that is due your name.