Work…And Leave the Results to God

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me. Don’t ever let me get soft or distracted from that truth, Lord Jesus, I pray. God’s people just have a seat in the house and the lights are going to stay down for a moment as we kind of reset a couple of things here for some prayer time. Many of you know this, but some have not heard that on Wednesday of this past week the butcher family Brad and Jen and their four kids who were part of Grace Point Brad was a youth pastor here and some of you have heard the news, but it’s nonetheless real and very serious. There was a head-on collision that they were involved with on their way to a camping trip.

This was their vacation at Fort Stevens over on the coast. Many of us have been there and en route they it was so fast moving and all, but five of the six of them were in a motorhome heading there. Brad was coming another way and the motorhome to avoid going off a cliff and perhaps being the very worst outcome hit head on a another vehicle heading eastbound on that stretch of highway not far from Camp 18 if you’ve been there and it was a head-on collision

that resulted in very extensive injuries and life-lighting three of them to trauma one here in Portland and Jen was one of them Hudson their son they have three daughters and the driver of the other vehicle were all they’ve all they all remain alive but are very badly injured. Some of the injuries they have been talking about and asking prayer for Jen broke her back and will be at least five to six weeks I learned just this morning before she can even have surgery. She’s in terrible

pain no matter what movement they make and it’s a hard road to climb.

Hudson broke eight ribs and broke a collarbone and just last night complained that he’s having difficulty breathing because his lungs were collapsed in the process. The three daughters have various injuries some all broken bones all very badly injured and I understand that the driver of the other vehicle pulling a trailer as well so massive amounts of energy colliding is is alive and looks like he’s he’s gonna be able to make it so I tell you all that I did I assume many of you have heard

some of the news but I received a briefing from Brad just minutes before we he loves Jesus they love Jesus this is as close to a job experience I think they’ve ever had and they though they would not describe themselves that way they are Jesus lovers and they will walk with him through it through it all but I would describe it that way and it’s hard to grasp and hard to understand but I give you one verse and I’d like us to just where we are

stop and pray the verses Jeremiah 32 verse 17 it said Jeremiah who was living through the most horrific time in the decline of Judah the South it was about to all go up and smoke and and it turns out that’s what happened but Judah says in a moment of clarity and authority and conviction Ah sovereign Lord and that’s the starting point here people it’s it’s bad news in every way I can define bad news but we have a God that’s sovereign and I I’m not prepared

to preach on that today I just know that’s true and you know it too so he’s sovereign Lord and Jeremiah adds maker of heaven and earth which means he’s got all the power and all the knowledge he needs to do amazing and in that spirit he adds nothing is too difficult for you so in that spirit knowing that God is sovereign and all powerful I’m gonna ask Grace Point to really pour out the hearts for the butchers and we’ll watch God do what humanity can’t touch

doctors are doing their best and so are nurses and hospital staff and now it’s time for the people of God to say God move mountains bring victory here and bring a testimony because you you want to leverage our stories for your glory God and they they work before I could say that I would not say that in this crisis they said that to me so that’s the butchers we know let’s pray and then we’ll get into God’s work together you you we’ve learned a lot recently

about who you are Holy Spirit in moments like this in Romans 8 when it says we don’t even have words to pray you hear our hearts and you pray for us so on behalf of the men and women and young people of Grace Point a family we pray for some in our family that are suffering greatly the butchers and we’re not sure what to pray or how to pray we just know that you know our hearts and we are people who rejoice when one of us

has a victory and we mourn with those who have have stuff like this happen the butchers are a lot like Job to me Lord because they walk with you they are among the most righteous in the land if I can put it in Bible words but God there’s this terrible thing that no one planned and no one expected and and no one really caused it was the moment that that occurred and in in that moment we come to you as sort of reduced to say God

please have mercy on the butchers please do things in their physical bodies to surprise and astonish onlookers in the medical world that they would see that it’s more than medicine here but I know medicine and I know the medicine that’s best of all for those of us that’s that have suffered in anything like this and that is the medicine of your people praying so God we come to you knowing we just saying it that you’re the God that makes a way and and we asked for

you to make a way for the butchers to be fully restored to never forget this story in a in a redemptive way and how you used it to bring yourself great glory soothes comfort take away the very deep trauma that is theirs to bear at this time both physically and emotionally and spiritually they will land on their feet Lord they will really land on their knees blessing you and we will be right there with them thanking you for being the sovereign God the creator of heaven

and earth who truly has never met is equal in difficulty that you’re able to fix and restore and we asked for nothing less than than in the name of your son Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thanks everyone.

I want to leave you with a parting thought as you try to kind of get your head around this if it’s brand new. Judy Armstrong, my assistant, our church secretary will be sort of the captain of the communication here. If you have updates you need, we’re getting them out as we get them. You can go to Brad Butcher, or Passion for People, the mission organization that he’s the president of. You can find updates there and feel free if you missed all that, call the church office and Judy will help you find the information you need to better support and pray for the butchers.

Transitions are always an interesting moment in a ministry. I want to talk to you about something that all of us have done in life. Some of us are still doing it. Most of us know kids and grandkids that are just starting to do it. Some are even praying that their kids would learn how to do it.

Talking about work, how many of you are retired? Let me get that out of the way. Okay, so a bunch of us. How many of you, when you saw those hands go up, looked around you with envy and went, “Wow, lucky.” How many of you want your kids or grandkids to learn how to give it all?

Do it right. Today is going to be for you or your grandkids. Hopefully this will be of value to you. I’m going to call this a COVID hangover. I hate COVID.

I loathe the very fact that we were subjected to it. I’m grateful that very few people died in a world of 8.8 billion people or 8 billion people. But everyone that died is a tragic loss to whoever was their family or friends. I get that. But there’s a COVID hangover that is quite severe.

One of the examples, I’ll quickly mention it, is church life. The fact is maybe you remember when people would come together weekly and they would spend time in fellowship and in prayer and in worship and in the Word. Did you hear my earlier word weekly? Well, that ship sailed with COVID. Not for you and I’m not scolding anybody when I say this but there’s a whole new approach for many.

In fact, the very latest statistics show that that happens less than one time a month where people do that very thing. Don’t know why. I may fix it guy and those two collide and I just go, “Lord, I don’t know how to, I don’t know.” We need a Jesus revolution, amen? I mean, it’s a tease about COVID but the truth is it’s deeper than that.

We know that. So whatever it is, I don’t have a full grasp on it. But I do know that the Bible never changed what it says in Hebrews 3 that says, “See to it that none of you has an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” Now that by itself is enough to take home and try to plug and play in your life. But then it says, “The way to see to it that none of you has an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”

is to encourage one another once a month. No. Day after day so that none of you will be, I’ll use the word. This is a good example. Soft or hardwood.

Harden. That will happen if we avoid the regular getting together, coming together. Hebrews 3, 12 and 13, check it out on your own. See to it that none of you have that kind of heart and so the prescribed antidote in the Bible is come together day after day so that none of you will be hardened by sins deceitfulness. There’s a two word thing you need to talk about at lunch today.

How does sin deceive? It means it doesn’t come dancing in full view. It slips and slides its way into the habit in your life. And you find yourself saying that old method of walking with God doesn’t really need to happen the same way. And we come with a new enlightened way.

We can fast track maturity in Christ or something silly like that. So that’s an example. But the other example I want to talk about from God’s word in more depth this morning. And I’m going to call it work life. If that first one’s worship life, I’m not scolding anybody.

I’m not that guy. But I am burdened by these things. And I love conversation. So if you’re burdened and you like conversation, give me a call. Let’s talk.

Let’s try to talk about how to increase our times together from 1.0 to 1.5 times a month or something like that. You know what I mean? So enough of that. But I’m going to call this second one work. I heard a common complaint expressed by a lot.

I read quite a bit in the business realm and find this to be true. And companies that I’ve never worked for or been around. And then I hear it locally. I hear it from people I know who run businesses. And I heard an example that I wanted to share with you.

It was a situation in this person’s business where an employee as a result of a flagrant misconduct will call it. Something happened in that place. And it cost a great deal of money to the business. It was avoidable. It was not just a ooh, that was a mistake.

Didn’t mean that. It was a pretty careless kind of mistake. In fact, it was so careless that it was described as a termination of offense according to the previous world order. In other words, I can’t afford you. You cost me money.

You’re here to make me money, said the boss. That’s just how business runs. And instead of releasing this person, I’m going to call it gentle, soft reprimand was issued. When asked why the employer’s employees action was tolerated by the employer, the answer came back. If I let them go, who would I get to fill their spot?

Translate that through the rank and file of employment. And you have a very low incentive today. To do anything but fog a mirror to get a job and show up when you feel like it. Because what are they going to do? Let you go.

Somehow that will change. And then the day will come when unemployment goes higher and there’s fewer jobs. And we know how the economy kind of works out that way. But I think for reasons like that, and I’m not assuming they exist in all of our hearts or just little traces of them. But when you don’t have to really go all out, you don’t necessarily go all out.

And it’s just kind of maybe human nature. So to begin, I want to give you a couple of thoughts on work from the Bible. So I’m going to open my Bible to the very earliest place in Genesis. Open your Bible there too. And fascinating facts about, let’s say, labor in general.

Did you know that work has existed from the beginning? From the beginning. In fact, the first worker in the Bible is God. That’s right. It’s God.

And chapter one, the very first chapter of the Bible, details what God did six of the seven days in that first week. He did a lot of work and stayed at it. And then these words in chapter two, they begin chapter two, actually. Describe God at the end of the first known, I don’t call it work week because it was, right? So look at verse two of chapter two.

By the seventh day, God had finished the work Yes, it’s written in the Bible. He had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested from all the work, his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. He’s not done talking about work because on it, he rested from, he repeats the work of creating what he had done.

So all the work of creating took six days in time and the seventh day he rested. The seventh day, not days. What? No weekend? Right?

One day. All right, we’re just getting started here. A second fact, Adam, who we know to be the first human, he was on this planet alone for a time. Still in chapter two, if you just look across the page, I need to note this if you’re new to the Bible. This is before a cataclysmic event took place in chapter three.

Chapter two, we like to say in Bible study circles, sin had not entered the world. Chapter two said everything was cool. It was all going well. And verse 15 actually describes work in a perfect world. Lord God took the man Adam and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Now, some of you are thinking, wait a minute, I thought that didn’t happen until later. Oh, it’s coming in chapter three. But work here is not a punishment. Work here is a purpose. Adam, you got something to do.

Do it, bro. That’s God’s words to Adam, the one and only human on the planet at that point. Now we’re ready for number three. Only after sin happened in chapter three, in the early part of chapter three, do we discover this third insight or thought about work as we get started in this study. Verse 17 of chapter three says, this is after sin had entered the world.

6, woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took it and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. Sin entered the world. Now, verse 17, to Adam as a result of sin, God said, because you listen to your wife and some people would like to joke at this point.

And I’m going to go right by this because that’s not what says. It’s a full sentence because you listen to your wife’s bad idea, Adam. She knew and you knew it was not good and it would not go well for you. But because you listened to her and ate fruit from the tree as she did, about which I commanded you, you must not eat from it. Now watch this.

Here’s the consequence. Curse it is the ground because of you and through painful you don’t even say work now. Toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles and blackberry bushes and stuff. Is it true?

Somebody just set my mind, give me a new joy. There are, there are, what do you call this thing? The pokers? The thornless blackberry bush? Is that true?

I haven’t heard it either. Somebody was messing with me yesterday. Oh yeah, I picked up. Was that you, Rick? It’s true?

Everybody go to Rick’s yard and pick like crazy because you want, it’s a great thing. All right. Notice it will produce thorns and thistles for you. So I’m not sure how you work in there, Rick. I just don’t know how that goes.

But you will eat the plants of the field. Notice verse 19, don’t miss it by the sweat of your brow. You will eat your food until you die, until you return to the ground since from it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you will return. This is the moment where work became toil and grudgingly and we call it blood and tears. Blood, sweat and tears.

All right. And ever since, ever since. Toil. Has characterized labor. On your way to the New Testament, which is where we will land in just a moment.

I want you to stop by a statement made, two of them, by the wisest human to ever live on planet earth. Give me a name? Solomon, right? Ecclesiastes. I want you to go there.

It goes psalms, big book in the Bible. Proverbs. I think they resonate with most of us who are either working or have worked or know people in your family maybe that you want them to learn how to work. Ecclesiastes chapter two, look at verse 24. Okay.

I see this as from the hand of God. Would you flip the page to chapter five? Verse 18. So chapter five, verse 18, same Solomon and he makes this observation. I have observed this to be good that it is appropriate for a person to eat and drink and to find satisfaction.

He says again in his or their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life. God has given them for this is their lot, but read on moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them to accept their lot and be happy in their toil. This is a gift of God. Do we hear him correctly? Work is even the hard part of it has some kind of quality.

Or property that in his words he says so twice is a gift from God. Some of us are thinking right now, have we? You know what pastor? Jesus wouldn’t work where I work. Not even close.

I mean, for the record pastor, my work feels more like a sentence than a gift. I understand that. I’ve had terrible jobs. This isn’t one of them. Came a nervous chuckle from the people, right?

No, this isn’t one of them. My worst job was one summer long and I gave up my career in building subdivisions. As I was down in a sewer connecting a sewer main. Don’t let don’t get me started. I can still smell it.

It’s terrible. It’s horrible. So listen, listen, if that is your tone toward toil. You say it’s not, I can’t see God in it. I don’t see God at work.

I don’t see any value or redemptive good coming from my job. Then the rest of this message is I think for you. So go to Ephesians five and we’ll land it there this morning. And it’s one of many passages that God uses to I think, let’s just say it, press reset. So the Apostle Paul is the writer of this.

It’s known as a prison epistle, meaning simply that he was in prison when he wrote it. And he has some really great things to say, not because he was in prison, but because the Holy Spirit gave him these words and that’s what we have in every writing of the Bible. On your way to chapter six, I want you to stop at chapter five and just see the theme of the whole book. Chapter five, verse eight, you were once darkness. This describes all of us.

We did not start life in this world as perfect little beautiful children. Okay, there was a deeper and darker reality. You were once darkness, And now you are light in the Lord. So something changed. That’s the gospel.

You bowed your knee to Jesus and said, I really, I’m not that good. Not as good as I thought I was. And I need help being good. Would you change me? In fact, would you change my heart?

‘Cause that’s the problem with me. It’s bad. Check out Jeremiah 31 Ezekiel 36. You’ll see what I’m talking about. But here, you were all Steve.

You all of you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. So live as children of light. What’s that look like? Well, the fruit will show the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth. And then I love this very simple verse, verse 10.

And find out what pleases the Lord. We’re gonna do that right now when it comes to work. What pleases the Lord? So would you look across the page to chapter six and it begins in verse five, where Paul gives God’s counsel for not only workers, but bosses, we’ll see. Slaves obey your earthly masters, verse five, with respect and fear, with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

Let me say something about the context here. There was slavery in the first century. And it’s a fascinating study to try to make sense of that. But the fact is, we go on to find out that he says whether slave or free. So this is an inclusive statement, not just for you who are in servitude or some kind of indentured servant.

This is true of people that willfully apply and give a resume and are selected for a position of employment at will. It covers it all. The principles do. Thankfully, slavery is at least outlawed and hopefully having less of a presence in our world today. Praise God.

But slave obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Look at verse six, obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart, will heartedly as if you were serving the Lord, not them, not people. Because you know that the Lord will reward each one of you for whatever good they do, whether they are, here’s the word, slaves or free. And masters, verse nine, treat your slaves in the same way, do not threaten them. Since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no favoritism with him.

There’s a great book out there called Your Work Matters to God. Doug Sherman was the writer of this thick book and it covers it in all kinds of angles. But he coined a word that I want to camp on the rest of our time. Said he, if the term lifestyle refers to how you live your life, okay? You agreed on that part?

We say my lifestyle. It’s, I go camping a lot. I like camping, my family and I. Okay, so if lifestyle refers to how you typically live your life, work style, the word he coined, has to do with how you typically do your work. So we’re gonna talk about three quick work style principles.

And I think these will work and they’re transferable and I don’t know of a setting where they won’t make a difference. How we do our work and leave the results to God. Okay, so we’ve just read several principles for Jesus people that are meant to shape our, do you Sherman’s word, work style. Okay, the first is this, work style principle number one. Work in a way that shows you work for Jesus.

Work your job, whatever it is, that shows that you’re really truly working for Jesus. Verse five says that, do it as though you are obeying Jesus. So Jesus is in focus here. Verse seven, even more so, wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord, you could switch not people to not your boss, not the one in charge. There’s really another one that’s truly in charge.

He’s known in this passage as the Lord. Notice he says not, showing respect, showing his words in verse five, fear. It’s not afraid of getting a beating in our case today, but a healthy kind of appreciation. Your boss isn’t the bad guy necessarily. And with sincerity of heart, we’re told here.

And I like the word, wholehearted, do you see that? Serving wholeheartedly in verse seven. That’s there as a contrast to halfheartedly. Have you or somebody you know or somebody you work with ever shown up with a halfhearted approach to work? I still marvel at a friend of mine that got the ultimate job.

And we’re all, it’s a head turner like, you got that job? And less than a week later, he was horsing around, he said, hey, wanna get coffee or whatever it was. And I’m like, bro, aren’t you working today? He was now I quit. We went, why?

Why did the boss, like, I don’t know what happened? And he says, the boss didn’t like my plan. And I said, what was your plan? And he says, well, he corrected me. I showed up at nine and he says, bro, we show up at eight.

Workday starts at eight. He goes, not for me, it doesn’t. You’re much more muted in your reaction than we were. I was just like, I love you enough to call you an idiot. That’s ridiculous.

Good for that boss. That’s better. And anyway, so that’s halfhearted, okay? And this is already, I get it. This is already going too far.

When you hear show respect, show some fear, show some sincerity, go all out, put all you’ve got into it, you’re saying, man, no, you don’t know my boss. Pastor, he’s terrible or she’s terrible. Here’s the reality, you’re right. You do not know your boss, but I know Jesus. And this is the biggest shift in our thinking that most of us need to make.

He says it twice to make sure we get it. I want you to see two sets of words and circle them. He says, just as if you worked for Christ, that’s in verse five, you’re gonna work in your job, just as though you were working for Christ. Not inspired by how you would work if Jesus were the boss. It’s not a what would Jesus do.

It’s you put yourself in a spot where you work as though, just as though he were your boss. It’s a step bigger than that. You see it? You’re hearing it? And he says the same thing in verse seven, if you were serving the Lord.

So when we work, it should show. It should show what should show. That our real boss, the boss that we are serving is Jesus. Your boss may not care a twit about Jesus. He’s gonna see the reality in your life.

He’s gonna go, what makes you so good, you get here early, you work, you go for it. That’s what we’re talking about. Here’s the second work style principle. Work in a way that shows you have your whole heart in it. We touched on this on the wholeheartedly, but he says it more than that, sincerity of heart.

Think about why he keeps coming back to that. Because what you perform, what you do in your job, in your work, what I do in my work, I can fake it, but you’ll know it. And you’ll receive from me as a pastor half what you need. You won’t get it if my whole heart’s not in it. So verse five says with sincerity of heart.

That’s a good word. Verse six is another good word from the heart. That says though, to contrast again, not just going, through the motions. But Steve worked from the heart and verse 7 again wholeheartedly. So I have a question.

Is the way you do what you do such that we started back in chapter 5 verse 10 that it makes Jesus smile. Workplace cameras are pretty common today where employees performance is being monitored. What if that camera was actually a feed straight to heaven and Jesus were sitting in front of a bunch of screens? The nervous chuckles growing as I asked that question. You know your boss will never see it.

But who’s your boss? And he sees it all. You’re on that screen. He can see it playing his day. It’s high death.

It’s really high death in heaven. Heaven deaf. Okay. So do you please the Lord? Who are you working for?

I want to tell you quickly. I was a union member at a job in Southern Cal when I was in seminary. It was a job that paid an insane amount of money even back then. And that’s what I needed. There’s lots of money quickly because I had a full load of school.

And so I got this job and the company had very simple saying. When you clock in, go all out, give everything you got until you’re clocked out. And frankly, none of us question that because the fact is they gave us this cherry job. I worked three days a week and put myself through, not me. Jesus did, but he gave me a killer job.

And I paid all school. I never owed a penny. Okay. And kept living on like peanut butter. But anyway, we got through it.

No, no, I had a lot of money. You get through all that because God provided. But the standard seemed normal to us. Work, go all out, clock in, give us everything you got. And when you clock out, go home and you’re dead.

You were exhausted. Grocery warehouse. Oh, I need to tell you there’s, we were union members. So you couldn’t work in a shop there without being a union member. It’s closed shop, I think they used to call it.

And they had a standard as well. The union did. And it was much lower known to be and obviously was much lower than the company’s standard. It just was. By contrast, if you worked at the union pace, your production would be way down, but you’d keep your job.

You’d have a job. Because they set the standard. I could keep my job and live happily ever after. The only two things the union wouldn’t tolerate and you were terminated in the moment was sleeping or stealing. Oh, three, fighting.

And that worked in some cases because we’re a bunch of warehousemen at that time. So anyway, one day I was called in by a supervisor. And he said to me something to the effect Steve, you need to step it up. They know exactly how much production you’re putting out. And I said to him, I was a lot younger and walking in the flesh at the moment.

But I said to this guy, you know what? I’m keeping the standard. It happens to be the union standard. And if that’s not acceptable to you, you need to talk to the shop steward. This happened to be a supervisor that loved Jesus.

And he knew I was a seminary student. Wanna get away? He knew I was. And then he said this. I have a question, Steve.

No one else was around. I was about to leave the room. And he says, how in my seminary studies had I yet come across these words? And he quotes, whatever work you do, do it hardly as unto the Lord, for it’s the Lord Christ whom you serve. Busted.

I was getting by the union was thrilled with my performance. The company and this boss was saying not so much, Steve. Only the boss had the right words. The supervisor said, bro, have you come across Colossians 3 or Ephesians 5, Ephesians 6? Is this right there?

John R.W. Stodd asked some compelling questions about work. See if you don’t agree. Is it possible for teachers to educate children, for doctors to treat patients, and nurses to care for them, for store managers to serve customers, accountants to audit books, and secretaries to type letters, as if in each case they were serving Jesus Christ It’s a question.

Can the same be said in relation to the many who work labor jobs with tedious routines? And he answers it. Surely the answer is yes. Or else we need to close this book and say it doesn’t apply to me. So that takes us to a third principle.

Workstyle principle, remember, remember, remember that the Lord sees the effort you give in your work. And he will reward you for it. That’s what verse eight said, because you know the Lord will reward each one of you for whatever good you do, whether you are slave or free. That’s the day that’s coming. This has the sound of Jesus saying, I’m asking you to work as though I’m your boss.

So no matter, no matter how it turns out for you now, the day is coming when in fact I will reward you then. It could be when we’re face to face. I’m not sure we have to wait that long. Somehow the reward is built into this or verse eight wouldn’t be here. So if you don’t get paid well now, they used to call it blue flu in police work when I was studying for criminal justice.

Just its work slowdowns and they called it blue because they wear blue uniforms. Well, if you don’t get paid well, that’s a tactic that’s used by organized labor today. But Jesus says you will get paid well. If you don’t get paid vacation, at least as much as you think you should, you will. If you don’t get paid well, fancy perks as some do in your company, you’re going to get them.

Verse eight keeps saying, if you don’t get appreciation, what’s better than hearing? Well done. Well done. As you might expect, and I read it already, but verse nine gives you the other side very quickly because it’s in view, not only those that work, but those who are their employers or let’s call it boss. And here’s a single principle for you who are bosses, whoever you might be.

Be a good boss. Verse nine to read it again. Masters, bosses, treat your people in the same way. Don’t threaten them. You got the power though, like I illustrated at the beginning, not the power you used to have apparently because most employees can walk.

They can go, I’m out of here. I don’t need to listen to you. Don’t threaten them since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven. And there’s no favoritism with him. I’m reading in the words of verse nine, the golden rule.

Isn’t that what he’s saying? Treat your slaves the way you want to be treated by the one you will answer to. If you want respect, Who doesn’t? Then show it. If you want excellence, here’s an approach, some of your amazing bosses, model it.

Let me just talk it and sit back and have a coffee or something, but you’re out there, you’re first in first and last out at the end of the day. That’s what good bosses do, that’s what you have to do. If you want your workers to do their best, you need to do your best. And don’t forget that you have a boss, that’s the wonderful news, that is the common denominator, as it’s been said. There’s a democracy about the gospel that says at the end of the day we will all be equals at the foot of the cross.

You have a boss too. Though you are required to do things as a boss, and I’m not taking any of that away, you have to be in charge, or the business wanders and squanders, it doesn’t work. But when you do remember too, the Bible is saying you are under authority as well. It’s like your employer. That’s a lot to take in.

Some of you are breathing a sigh of relief that you’re retired again, and that’s okay, I get that. There’s a takeaway for lots of us when it comes to this, and probably as you’re trying to shape the work ethic of a child or a grandchild, there’s some great truth here. We have one life, every one of us, and only one life to live. And it’s measured by years and months and moments for all of us, and many of those days actually are spent working doing a toil or task. So I’m really glad, and I think you are, we didn’t go into Colossians 3, but it’s an excellent parallel passage to all of this.

Let’s do what we do for the Lord because it’s the Lord Christ whom we serve. Whether you’re here in the house or away from us, and your house or some other place. You can’t do this for a sustainable length of time, unless you’ve got something going on inside you. Everything we’ve considered about work is possible, or it wouldn’t be there. But to do it in a sustainable way, we need Jesus to do a work in us.

You’ll be a good boss, maybe, and that’s good. You’ll be a good employee, that’s good. But you want to do it for a weekend, month, and year-end, a career long. And how do you do that? You turn to Jesus and say, “I need your help to be a better boss or an employee than I am on my own.”

And that starts by saying, “I need you to change me.” It’s kind of back where we began. Give me a new heart. Make me your man, Jesus, you’re a woman. And make me that so that I can be the kind of person that can do this and bring you glory in doing so.

Would you bow with me, and we’ll sing our way out this morning. Jesus, you died for us. You did a job. You carried it on to completion. And you even described this life that we live.

You began a good work in you. That’s you, beginning the good work in every new person that says, “Jesus, I need you to come and live in me.” That’s the work that day you show up on the job site. And you do that work. And you’ll keep on the job site until the day that you call us home.

The work in me you have begun by your grace will be fully done. And so I want to ask, if you’re here in the house or someplace else, and you’re saying, “Wow, you brought it back to me.” And that’s really the good starting point, because I try to just learn a new habit as a good guy. And if that’s true, you need to surrender to Jesus. That’s the gospel.

He did a work on the cross. He died for you so that you might have a new heart and live for him. Even on the job. To do the work he’s given you to do. If you’ve never surrendered to Jesus, never turned to the light of the world and said, put your light in my world.

Would you do that today? It’s just a moment of faith. I want to start this moment, Jesus, and I surrender. If you’re making that prayer right now, I surrender to you. I want to hear from you.

I’d love to have you write me steve@gracepointfamily.com. Let’s talk some more about it. We’re going to sing a great song. Let’s sing a great song.

We’re going to sing a great song. You’re going to sing a great song.

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 7,101 words.