WEBVTT 00:00:01.604 --> 00:00:01.985 Hey, what up? 00:00:01.985 --> 00:00:02.587 It's Mark Carter. 00:00:02.587 --> 00:00:03.870 I'm the pastor of Fierce Church. 00:00:03.870 --> 00:00:04.892 Welcome to our podcast. 00:00:04.892 --> 00:00:07.208 I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today. 00:00:07.208 --> 00:00:16.728 I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you. 00:00:16.728 --> 00:00:17.871 Enjoy the message. 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:24.091 Folks, those of you joining us on Facebook Live or watching by video, thank you so much for being a part of this experience. 00:00:24.091 --> 00:00:25.734 We're super glad that you're here. 00:00:25.734 --> 00:00:31.213 We're glad everybody's joining us today for the continuation of the Make it Rain series. 00:00:31.213 --> 00:00:34.189 We're talking about making it rain, and not literally. 00:00:34.189 --> 00:00:44.799 We discussed a passage last week, deuteronomy 28, all about how, when we obey God, he increases the effectiveness and productivity of our lives. 00:00:44.799 --> 00:01:08.525 We looked at the people of Israel and as they were working, as they were planting their crops and having their livestock even sometimes going to war they not only experienced the normal blessing that would come from that kind of work, but then God compounded the blessing that came onto their lives, and so we're going to dive into how to make it rain with regard to our work today. 00:01:08.525 --> 00:01:11.552 Before I do that, I just want to encourage you. 00:01:12.820 --> 00:01:15.950 Some of you have come in here today and maybe you're feeling a little bit distant from God. 00:01:15.950 --> 00:01:18.831 Maybe you're not so sure about this religion thing. 00:01:18.831 --> 00:01:24.167 Can I just remind you of his commitment and affection for you. 00:01:24.167 --> 00:01:27.192 You know the book of John the writer John. 00:01:27.192 --> 00:01:36.804 He was one of Jesus's disciples and he said to those who believe, god gave the right to become children of God. 00:01:36.804 --> 00:01:38.227 I am a child. 00:01:38.227 --> 00:01:39.629 I'm a child of my parents. 00:01:39.629 --> 00:01:41.492 They chose to have me. 00:01:41.492 --> 00:01:43.281 I didn't have any choice in the matter. 00:01:43.281 --> 00:01:44.902 They chose to have me. 00:01:44.902 --> 00:02:13.671 And now, through the years, even if there were ever static eye to eye or if we're very tight, nothing can shift the reality that I am their son, because that's what I am. 00:02:13.671 --> 00:02:19.495 Even if they didn't want me to be their son, I wouldn't stop being their biological child. 00:02:19.495 --> 00:02:23.044 You know, your relationship with your heavenly father is a lot like that. 00:02:23.044 --> 00:02:28.133 You may feel distant from him, you may feel like you've messed up too bad or you can't approach him now. 00:02:28.133 --> 00:02:41.145 But listen, his commitment to you, his desire to celebrate you, his desire to cherish you, and his commitment If he makes you his child through Jesus Christ ain't nothing you can do about it. 00:02:41.145 --> 00:02:43.168 It don't rub off, it doesn't go away. 00:02:43.168 --> 00:02:58.104 And so I just want to remind all of us, if you're feeling a little bit on the outs from God, he is not on the outs from you and he is going to be sure to fulfill his commitment. 00:02:58.104 --> 00:02:58.646 Well, hey, let me tell you. 00:02:58.667 --> 00:03:00.375 Let me take you back in time a little bit, to the year 2000. 00:03:00.375 --> 00:03:12.459 I was working construction and we had these 10 hour days for four days of the week, and so, myself and this other crew, we'd be out in the middle of nowhere outside. 00:03:12.459 --> 00:03:29.912 We were working on the railroad in any kind of weather, and it was beginning to get colder and colder, and one day in particular it was probably somewhere in the thirties outside, but it was raining all day and we don't get to go inside. 00:03:29.912 --> 00:03:36.689 So now I'm sopping wet and I can remember the sensation of walking around and my shoes are literally filled with water. 00:03:36.689 --> 00:03:39.181 Like you just splash, splash, splash. 00:03:39.181 --> 00:03:52.632 And this is going on hour after hour after hour, and in my heart, as I'm just out there, I'm just saying, jesus, this is not what I wanted, this is not the job that I thought I was going to have. 00:03:52.671 --> 00:03:54.704 I've got a heart for ministry. 00:03:54.704 --> 00:03:56.348 I've got a heart to be a pastor. 00:03:56.348 --> 00:03:58.051 What are we doing here. 00:03:58.051 --> 00:04:03.743 Have you ever had a job where your question was what are we doing here? 00:04:03.743 --> 00:04:12.871 Even if you aren't in that particular job right now, I think you know what I'm talking about and let's use some Bible language for it. 00:04:13.812 --> 00:04:34.920 Whatever your job is, whether you're a student, whether you're retired, whether you're at the beginning of your career or you're nearing the end, whether you're at a good moment or a poor moment, you know what it means for there to be thorns in your job thorns and thistles, hard stuff, pressures, things that don't seem to work out. 00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:40.052 The reason that's a Bible idea is because we see this in the very beginning of the Bible. 00:04:40.052 --> 00:04:46.774 After our first parents, after they betrayed their loving God and they went their own way, god tried to warn them. 00:04:46.774 --> 00:04:51.428 He said hey, don't do this, because it's going to jack you up, and it's going to jack up the entire world. 00:04:51.428 --> 00:04:57.327 Our parents still went ahead and did it, and God says this is going to mess with your work life. 00:04:57.327 --> 00:05:00.668 Now let's read it together Genesis 3, verse 17,. 00:05:00.668 --> 00:05:10.750 And to the man he preached, pronouncing this is what happens because you've sinned against me, since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat. 00:05:10.750 --> 00:05:13.153 The ground is cursed because of you. 00:05:13.153 --> 00:05:18.391 All of your life you'll struggle to scratch a living from it. 00:05:18.391 --> 00:05:22.932 It will grow thorns and thistles for you. 00:05:22.932 --> 00:05:28.521 Thorns and thistles for you. 00:05:28.540 --> 00:05:34.812 Do you know what it's like in your job situation, your work situation, your at-home situation, to have thorns and thistles encroaching on your productivity? 00:05:34.812 --> 00:05:36.180 I mean, work is hard, man. 00:05:36.180 --> 00:05:36.884 Have you noticed this? 00:05:36.884 --> 00:05:37.807 Work is hard. 00:05:37.807 --> 00:05:41.959 Work has all kinds of pressures, all kinds of stresses. 00:05:41.959 --> 00:05:44.605 There's all kinds of weird conflict that people have at work. 00:05:44.605 --> 00:05:46.550 Well, the wrong person was hired over here. 00:05:46.550 --> 00:05:49.122 Well, I thought I was going to get this role, but now they have it. 00:05:49.122 --> 00:05:50.867 Now I'm butting heads with this person. 00:05:50.867 --> 00:05:52.512 Now we're not seeing eye to eye. 00:05:52.512 --> 00:05:56.329 Then, you know, the boss forgot to order that thing and now they're blaming it on me. 00:05:56.329 --> 00:05:57.661 And now I have to go out of town. 00:05:57.661 --> 00:05:58.843 I have to have this conversation. 00:05:58.843 --> 00:06:05.033 All I want to do is want to get home, I want to get some rest, and yet, around and around this merry-go-round, we go. 00:06:05.033 --> 00:06:08.309 There's just hardship after hardship after hardship. 00:06:08.309 --> 00:06:28.136 My friends, what you're experiencing there, when that shuts down your productivity, when it shuts down your energy, when you feel like this isn't significant, this isn't meaningful, what you're experiencing is the curse You're experiencing, the thorns and the thistles that are now a part of work here on planet earth. 00:06:28.136 --> 00:06:31.490 And what's hard is when we start. 00:06:31.629 --> 00:06:33.560 You know, when we're young, we're very optimistic. 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:34.543 Most of us. 00:06:34.543 --> 00:06:36.810 We start, we're like, hey, this is going to be great. 00:06:36.810 --> 00:06:48.370 But then time goes by, life goes on and we have more disappointments, more reasons to be discouraged, and slowly we begin to ask the question, like is this all it's going to be? 00:06:48.370 --> 00:06:51.048 Is this all it's ever going to happen to me? 00:06:52.000 --> 00:07:03.271 I have these dreams, but maybe as I get older now I'm old even and I'm thinking do my dreams even have a place anymore? 00:07:03.271 --> 00:07:05.807 I can't keep up with these young ones. 00:07:05.807 --> 00:07:07.583 I can't keep up with these new technologies. 00:07:07.583 --> 00:07:10.630 I can't have a platform that these other people have. 00:07:10.630 --> 00:07:12.925 I don't know how to get you know. 00:07:12.925 --> 00:07:14.028 I don't know about LinkedIn. 00:07:14.028 --> 00:07:17.105 I don't know how to hook up with the right people to take my career forward. 00:07:17.105 --> 00:07:18.509 I don't know about all this. 00:07:18.509 --> 00:07:32.432 Maybe it's just too late for me and we operate from a place, even on good days of no rest, and so we we go around the calendar again and say, when I get to this final destination, this vacation point, then I'll be able to rest. 00:07:32.432 --> 00:07:38.035 But as soon as you get back on monday morning, you're not living from a place of rest. 00:07:39.298 --> 00:07:41.444 But you know, jesus christ lived from a place of rest. 00:07:41.444 --> 00:07:44.355 Jesus christ I. 00:07:44.355 --> 00:07:47.023 He had a lot of work to do and he never shied away from work. 00:07:47.023 --> 00:07:47.964 But we find him. 00:07:47.964 --> 00:07:52.663 The Bible declares that he was asleep in the boat while the storm raged around him. 00:07:52.663 --> 00:07:54.185 There's Jesus taking a nap. 00:07:54.185 --> 00:07:58.074 He's completely unperturbed by his situation. 00:07:58.074 --> 00:07:58.279 Why? 00:07:58.279 --> 00:08:00.425 Because he trusted his heavenly father. 00:08:00.425 --> 00:08:08.206 And see, to explain it a little different way, jesus understood that the heavenly father was his real ceo, he said. 00:08:08.206 --> 00:08:13.300 He said god's my ceo, god's my boss and I just trust his sovereignty. 00:08:14.343 --> 00:08:15.949 Well, many of you have a boss. 00:08:15.949 --> 00:08:26.254 Some of you might even be your own boss, but what I want to submit to you today is your opportunity to trade in your boss, or at least you're thinking about your boss. 00:08:26.254 --> 00:08:33.767 I don't know if you can really get rid of her For the boss, god. 00:08:33.767 --> 00:08:36.749 Have God as your CEO. 00:08:36.749 --> 00:08:45.509 Nothing may change practically in your world, but the way you view your work, I think, will substantially change. 00:08:45.509 --> 00:08:52.951 So we said last week when we started this series if you will fully obey, god will make it rain. 00:08:52.951 --> 00:09:01.648 If we will fully give ourselves to God's ways, he will increase our effectiveness and productivity when it comes to life here on planet earth and the work that we do. 00:09:01.648 --> 00:09:06.928 But I want to give you a little break this weekend, and so here's just my encouragement Take the pressure off. 00:09:06.928 --> 00:09:09.323 Go ahead and slap somebody on the knee, tell them, take the pressure off. 00:09:09.323 --> 00:09:14.642 You see, when God is our CEO, you're going to take the pressure right off. 00:09:14.682 --> 00:09:18.230 Now here's four ways work is different when God is your personal CEO. 00:09:18.230 --> 00:09:25.456 It was five ways, but I cut one of them and I cut it because really it just wasn't very good. 00:09:25.456 --> 00:09:26.038 I cut. 00:09:26.038 --> 00:09:26.961 I cut number three. 00:09:26.961 --> 00:09:31.740 How many you've ever listened to a sermon and you're like pastor, you could have quit 15 minutes ago. 00:09:31.740 --> 00:09:33.684 You know what I'm talking about. 00:09:33.684 --> 00:09:39.201 I've certainly been in those situations, and so I'm just like, hey man, sometimes less is more. 00:09:39.201 --> 00:09:41.524 I'm just going to give them the less and it's going to be more. 00:09:41.524 --> 00:09:44.948 Trust me, it decent point, but we'll come back to it another time. 00:09:44.948 --> 00:09:50.956 So here's really four ways that work is different when god is your personal ceo. 00:09:50.956 --> 00:09:54.447 Here's number one work is always significant. 00:09:56.191 --> 00:10:02.047 Work is always significant, whatever you're doing, wherever you are, whether you are the house mom, you are the mechanic, you are the bank teller. 00:10:02.047 --> 00:10:06.520 You are whether you are the house mom, you are the mechanic, you are the bank teller, you are the cashier. 00:10:06.520 --> 00:10:15.644 Whatever you do, whatever your work is, it is significant in the eyes of God, because when you and I do it, we are imaging God. 00:10:15.644 --> 00:10:31.350 See, I can't love my work and you can't love your work if we don't see it as significant, if we don't really believe that in some way we're representing a good God, the God of work, we can't really enjoy it the way that we're supposed to. 00:10:31.591 --> 00:10:35.188 Let's go back and get a little bit of God's vision for work Genesis 1.28,. 00:10:35.188 --> 00:10:35.851 Here he is. 00:10:35.851 --> 00:10:38.821 Work is a part of this perfect environment. 00:10:38.821 --> 00:10:39.763 I want you to get this here. 00:10:39.763 --> 00:10:45.134 This is within the Garden of Eden, so the fall of the sin has not happened yet. 00:10:45.134 --> 00:10:49.311 But in this perfect environment for human flourishing, what is there? 00:10:49.311 --> 00:10:51.427 There is still work. 00:10:51.427 --> 00:10:53.047 Listen to what God says to these humans. 00:10:53.047 --> 00:10:56.548 Then God blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply. 00:10:56.548 --> 00:10:57.410 That's a work word. 00:10:57.410 --> 00:10:59.707 Fill the earth and govern it. 00:10:59.707 --> 00:11:04.436 Rain over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky and the animals that scurry along the ground. 00:11:04.436 --> 00:11:06.543 He says I'm giving you work to do. 00:11:06.543 --> 00:11:07.525 Here's your work. 00:11:07.525 --> 00:11:12.961 You are going to be like me and do work while you're on this planet. 00:11:12.961 --> 00:11:23.706 There is no task, there is nothing so minuscule that God does not say that is work and that is dignified. 00:11:23.706 --> 00:11:27.553 There is honor in what you're doing, because it is what I do. 00:11:27.659 --> 00:11:38.451 You may not be aware of this, but other ancient cultures, like the Greeks and the Romans, like other Eastern cultures, they did not see work the same way that the unique text of the Bible does. 00:11:38.451 --> 00:11:43.291 Take Zeus and Pandora. 00:11:43.291 --> 00:11:46.426 You guys remember them right, maybe from English class when you were in high school. 00:11:46.426 --> 00:11:47.710 Remember Pandora? 00:11:47.710 --> 00:11:56.429 Zeus puts all of the difficulties and hardships of the world into this box and Pandora comes and opens it up and what's in there? 00:11:56.429 --> 00:12:03.052 Death and disease and plague and sadness and work. 00:12:03.052 --> 00:12:05.326 Work is in that box. 00:12:05.326 --> 00:12:13.432 Then you take let's take another Eastern account of creation. 00:12:13.880 --> 00:12:15.607 Some of you may remember Marduk. 00:12:15.607 --> 00:12:25.504 Marduk was this kind of king of gods and he and his friends just take this new territory and they say well, we don't want to have to run this, so what we'll do? 00:12:25.504 --> 00:12:26.732 Marduk says this. 00:12:26.732 --> 00:12:32.030 He says, he says I will create, I'll produce a lowly primitive creature. 00:12:32.030 --> 00:12:39.447 Man shall be his name and to him shall be charged the work so that the gods may rest. 00:12:39.447 --> 00:12:44.793 So in Marduk's version, the gods get to rest and man gets to work. 00:12:44.793 --> 00:12:47.107 How different is the God of the Bible? 00:12:47.107 --> 00:12:48.081 Notice this. 00:12:48.081 --> 00:12:49.408 Here's the God of the Bible. 00:12:49.408 --> 00:12:53.820 He creates this perfect paradise for human flourishing. 00:12:53.820 --> 00:12:56.203 And what do we find when we approach him? 00:12:56.203 --> 00:13:00.913 We see God himself with his hands in the dirt. 00:13:00.913 --> 00:13:05.190 God is working, god himself is doing the honorable thing. 00:13:05.450 --> 00:13:13.269 The Bible is a unique text among ancient literature that defines work not as a bad thing but as a God-like thing. 00:13:13.269 --> 00:13:18.186 It's a noble, it's a good thing to find ourselves working. 00:13:18.186 --> 00:13:25.241 Now let's fast forward to the appearance of God, the Son, jesus Christ. 00:13:25.241 --> 00:13:26.203 What does he do? 00:13:26.203 --> 00:13:34.096 Even then, he comes as a baby and he doesn't come as a philosopher, he doesn't come as a general. 00:13:34.096 --> 00:13:35.645 What does he grow up into? 00:13:35.645 --> 00:13:39.426 Into a carpenter, into a worker. 00:13:39.426 --> 00:13:41.144 That's what God does. 00:13:41.144 --> 00:13:48.373 That's how he shows up, and you don't get any sense from the Bible that there's some kind of conflicting class system. 00:13:48.373 --> 00:13:49.482 There's not snobbiness. 00:13:49.985 --> 00:13:58.349 All work is significant in the universe of the Bible because when we do our work we are imaging God. 00:13:58.349 --> 00:14:04.649 So, whatever it is, whether you're an investor, whether you're a gardener, whether you are an artist, whether you are a manager. 00:14:04.649 --> 00:14:15.140 When you and I, whatever our task is, when we say I am doing this unto the Lord, our work is significant because it is the kind of thing that God would do. 00:14:15.140 --> 00:14:24.595 Now, on the negative side, because in this perfect garden, even there there was work. 00:14:24.595 --> 00:14:33.225 When we don't work or we don't give ourselves to something that makes us proud, there's something in our soul that begins to shut down. 00:14:33.225 --> 00:14:34.169 You guys have seen this. 00:14:34.169 --> 00:14:41.849 You've seen what happens when we're not giving ourselves to something that is meaningful, there's something in our soul that begins to atrophy. 00:14:42.421 --> 00:14:43.986 We were made to work. 00:14:43.986 --> 00:14:47.370 God wants us to work in order to image him. 00:14:47.370 --> 00:14:52.922 Even when it's not what we would prefer, god still says if you do it unto me, it is meaningful. 00:14:52.922 --> 00:14:54.121 So what do we do about that? 00:14:54.121 --> 00:14:58.524 Well, obviously, don't be lazy and give yourself to the work. 00:14:58.524 --> 00:15:05.869 But also, here's what's powerful about it Because God says whatever I do is significant. 00:15:05.869 --> 00:15:06.809 Here it is. 00:15:06.809 --> 00:15:07.549 Now check it out. 00:15:07.570 --> 00:15:08.951 I don't need anybody else to affirm it. 00:15:08.951 --> 00:15:10.951 I don't need anybody else to tell me that it's significant. 00:15:10.951 --> 00:15:11.792 I don't need anybody else to affirm it. 00:15:11.792 --> 00:15:14.193 I don't need anybody else to tell me that it's significant. 00:15:14.193 --> 00:15:17.115 I don't need the applause of the people over in the other cubicle. 00:15:17.115 --> 00:15:19.456 I don't need the applause of the mama down the street. 00:15:19.456 --> 00:15:20.876 I don't need anybody's applause. 00:15:20.876 --> 00:15:21.677 Now, would that be nice? 00:15:21.677 --> 00:15:24.702 Oh sure, yeah, everybody loves un-at-a-boy or an-at-a-girl. 00:15:24.722 --> 00:15:25.626 But listen, this is what I'm discovering. 00:15:25.626 --> 00:15:29.150 As a disciple, you actually need to, to only need, jesus. 00:15:29.150 --> 00:15:32.091 I mean, that's the place of power, that's the place of strength. 00:15:32.091 --> 00:15:33.592 When you can say, yeah, that's great. 00:15:33.592 --> 00:15:38.515 Thank you for encouraging me, but at the end of the day, I get my affirmation from Jesus. 00:15:38.515 --> 00:15:40.557 He says this is meaningful. 00:15:40.557 --> 00:15:42.298 He says this is significant. 00:15:42.298 --> 00:15:47.503 If you agree with him, that's great, but I'm getting my props from him. 00:15:48.624 --> 00:16:11.913 So, whether you're a student, whether you're a Marine, whether you're helping out here at the church, whether you spend your whole day in sewers doing waste management, whether you spend your whole day in a cubicle and you go hours and wonder if anyone has even noticed that you are in the building, whatever you do, god sees it and God says it is significant. 00:16:11.913 --> 00:16:13.845 So tell somebody to take the pressure off. 00:16:13.845 --> 00:16:15.711 Take the pressure off. 00:16:15.711 --> 00:16:17.707 You don't have to make yourself significant. 00:16:17.707 --> 00:16:21.386 Jesus has already made the work significant. 00:16:21.386 --> 00:16:22.249 So take the pressure off. 00:16:22.931 --> 00:16:23.471 So what do we do? 00:16:23.471 --> 00:16:25.908 Number one we know that work is always significant. 00:16:25.908 --> 00:16:29.711 Number two work is focused on the community. 00:16:29.711 --> 00:16:34.368 Work is focused on the community. 00:16:34.368 --> 00:16:36.232 You see, we have to check our motives. 00:16:36.232 --> 00:16:40.048 We have to be careful because we can build our own little kingdoms. 00:16:40.048 --> 00:16:52.644 We can say I'm going to do work so that finally, they'll know I'm going to step over this person, I'm going to aim at the promotion, I'm going to do whatever I've got to do just so that I can get where I'm trying to go, because it's about me, it's about my world, it's about me getting there. 00:16:52.644 --> 00:17:02.172 And we want to be very careful because, according to God's word, that's actually not how we should be thinking about work, if God is our CEO. 00:17:02.172 --> 00:17:03.472 And how do we know this? 00:17:03.493 --> 00:17:07.076 I'm going to take you to a strange text to demonstrate this to you. 00:17:07.076 --> 00:17:09.457 You remember the story of Cain and Abel, right? 00:17:09.457 --> 00:17:13.609 It was the first murder in human history. 00:17:13.609 --> 00:17:23.233 Cain murders his brother, abel, and God weighs in and is going to give this severe punishment to Cain. 00:17:23.233 --> 00:17:24.823 And we're like what's he going to do? 00:17:24.823 --> 00:17:27.107 Is he going to bring fire from heaven? 00:17:27.107 --> 00:17:30.461 Is he going to invent some kind of crazy dinosaur to eat him? 00:17:30.461 --> 00:17:31.462 No, he doesn't do any of that. 00:17:31.462 --> 00:17:33.365 Listen to what God says invent some kind of crazy dinosaur to eat him. 00:17:33.365 --> 00:17:33.964 No, he doesn't do any of that. 00:17:33.964 --> 00:17:34.865 Listen to what God says, genesis 4.12,. 00:17:34.865 --> 00:17:38.529 No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work. 00:17:38.529 --> 00:17:43.075 From now on, you'll be a homeless wanderer on the earth. 00:17:43.075 --> 00:17:44.797 And I hear that I'm like, are you serious? 00:17:44.797 --> 00:17:56.567 He just gets to wander around Like that doesn't even sound, that's not even jail. 00:17:56.567 --> 00:17:57.509 Like like that's all that this guy gets. 00:17:57.529 --> 00:17:59.537 But as we look at ancient rabbis and what they understood about this text, they make the case. 00:17:59.537 --> 00:18:00.259 This is actually about community. 00:18:00.259 --> 00:18:02.544 Cain is forbidden. 00:18:02.544 --> 00:18:03.868 The curse is Cain. 00:18:03.868 --> 00:18:05.373 You don't get community. 00:18:05.373 --> 00:18:07.740 Now think about a town, think about a city. 00:18:07.740 --> 00:18:09.365 Here's what's great about our lives. 00:18:09.365 --> 00:18:17.842 Right now I can go down the street, I'm going to stop at Chick-fil-A and I'm going to take advantage of their gifts and I'm going to eat some good Chick-fil-A. 00:18:17.842 --> 00:18:38.982 And then I'm going to go on over to Meijer and I'm going to pick up a prescription and I'm taking advantage of their gifts and on the way home, everybody's contributing to everything and we're all taking advantage of everybody else's gifts. 00:18:38.982 --> 00:18:40.166 Are you seeing how that's supposed to work? 00:18:40.166 --> 00:18:48.894 And so it's a curse on Cain you don't get to take advantage of the community gifts and you don't get to contribute to the community gifts, cain. 00:18:48.894 --> 00:18:57.878 And it's a curse on us when we don't understand that we're not just absorbers, we're not just consumers, we're not just supposed to make it about us. 00:18:57.878 --> 00:19:00.526 We're supposed to make it about the community. 00:19:00.526 --> 00:19:02.770 I'm supposed to use my gifts to build you up. 00:19:02.770 --> 00:19:06.567 You're supposed to use your gifts to build me and others up. 00:19:06.567 --> 00:19:07.690 So what is the pattern? 00:19:07.690 --> 00:19:14.992 The pattern is in order to make it rain, I need to make it about others, not just personal advancement. 00:19:14.992 --> 00:19:19.770 And our hearts are so important when it comes to this because there's something humanizing about it. 00:19:19.770 --> 00:19:25.333 When I remember my work, it's not just for me to go to work here today so I can add more to my bank account. 00:19:25.333 --> 00:19:31.942 My work here is about the people who are benefiting from my work, who are benefiting from my work. 00:19:31.962 --> 00:19:45.170 Acclaimed English crime writer and poet, dorothy Sayers, back around World War II, bemoaned this habit of thinking of work as something that was only about making money. 00:19:45.170 --> 00:19:47.948 She's watching this and here's what she says. 00:19:47.948 --> 00:19:57.113 The habit of thinking about work as something one does to get money and position is so ingrained in us that we can scarcely imagine what would happen if we begin to think about work otherwise. 00:19:57.113 --> 00:20:02.633 People become doctors these days, not primarily to relieve suffering, but to bring their family up in the world. 00:20:02.633 --> 00:20:08.570 People become lawyers, not necessarily because they have a passion for justice, but to bring their family up in the world. 00:20:08.570 --> 00:20:12.922 Here she goes, up in the world, here she goes. 00:20:12.942 --> 00:20:13.503 During World War two. 00:20:13.503 --> 00:20:18.767 One of the greatest surprises we had in our lives listen here is that we found ourselves, for the very first time, happy. 00:20:18.767 --> 00:20:20.030 Why? 00:20:20.030 --> 00:20:33.151 Because for the first time in our lives we found ourselves doing something, not for the pay and not for the social standing, but for the sake of working together to get something done that benefited everyone. 00:20:33.151 --> 00:20:41.790 Dorothy's writing and she's saying there was a social revolution because people during World War II said look, I just have to help, I just have to get in there and help somehow. 00:20:41.790 --> 00:20:44.282 And it turned into a psychological revolution. 00:20:44.282 --> 00:20:49.643 People became actually happy because they weren't just building their own kingdoms, they were helping out everybody else. 00:20:49.863 --> 00:20:53.309 Now I wasn't alive during this time, but I asked my, my grandma, grandma Sue, about it. 00:20:53.309 --> 00:20:56.240 I said tell me about what that time was like during world war two. 00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:58.026 And she said you know, that was really how it was. 00:20:58.026 --> 00:20:59.250 Everybody just wanted to help. 00:20:59.250 --> 00:21:01.002 Everybody was all in. 00:21:01.002 --> 00:21:06.103 They just wanted to make sure they could participate in some way to this horrible situation. 00:21:06.103 --> 00:21:11.211 Well, I do remember nine 11 and I remember what it was like how many of y'all remember this? 00:21:11.211 --> 00:21:18.483 For like three weeks after 9-11, like everybody was just nice in the whole country, like you'd go to restaurants and people are just giving away food. 00:21:18.483 --> 00:21:22.285 Everybody wanted to help and then, like three weeks in it just fell off and just tanked. 00:21:22.464 --> 00:21:28.651 What would it be like if in the church of Jesus Christ, that's how everybody was all the time, if everyone, just like this, is about other people. 00:21:28.651 --> 00:21:36.940 This isn't about me, I'm just doing, I'm just using my gifts not to advance my own cause, but just to help to be a blessing to everybody else. 00:21:36.940 --> 00:21:50.461 It's so freeing when we know because it's not really about me and it's about community I don't have to build my own empire because that's not going to last anyway and no one's going to give two rips when you're dead, who cares? 00:21:50.461 --> 00:21:54.792 But if we can use our gifts to build one another up, baby, that's eternal. 00:21:54.792 --> 00:21:57.984 That's something that lasts and God says here it is. 00:21:57.984 --> 00:21:59.564 I can't make it rain. 00:21:59.564 --> 00:22:03.405 If you keep making it about you, I can't make it rain. 00:22:03.405 --> 00:22:07.846 I can't give you the joy that you're supposed to have, if you keep making it about you. 00:22:07.846 --> 00:22:13.304 But if you start making it about other people, then you'll get a fierce download of my love. 00:22:13.364 --> 00:22:14.785 And you know what this is hard. 00:22:14.785 --> 00:22:16.606 It's not always intuitive. 00:22:16.606 --> 00:22:18.808 We need to connect the dots ourselves. 00:22:18.808 --> 00:22:25.013 We need to look at okay, so what do I do and how can I translate this into helping the community? 00:22:25.013 --> 00:22:26.974 Okay, so let's say you're a housekeeper. 00:22:26.974 --> 00:22:28.236 You're like Carter. 00:22:28.236 --> 00:22:34.494 All I do I mean I vacuum, I clean people's windows and behind the refrigerator, I mean, what is that really doing for others? 00:22:34.494 --> 00:22:35.160 Well, let's think about it. 00:22:35.160 --> 00:22:38.589 So you go and you create these beautiful spaces. 00:22:38.589 --> 00:22:46.406 You give people margin in their minds so that when they come home they're a little bit more soft, they're a little bit more at peace. 00:22:46.406 --> 00:22:49.087 I don't think that you're just a housekeeper. 00:22:49.087 --> 00:22:50.705 I think that you're a peace bringer. 00:22:50.705 --> 00:22:54.883 That's what Jesus has really sent you to do. 00:22:54.883 --> 00:22:56.828 When you say, carter, I'm just a nanny, I don't see how this helps. 00:22:56.828 --> 00:23:00.086 All I'm doing is like changing diapers and wiping noses all day. 00:23:00.086 --> 00:23:03.582 Well, you are, but don't forget the fact that you are pouring in. 00:23:03.582 --> 00:23:11.445 You have a lot of influence to pour in virtue into young lives that will echo for the next several decades. 00:23:11.445 --> 00:23:14.684 Get to you, get to miracle grow that little plant. 00:23:14.684 --> 00:23:19.041 Maybe you're not just a nanny, maybe you're a future shaper. 00:23:22.107 --> 00:23:24.111 Probably about six years ago I was coming home. 00:23:24.111 --> 00:23:26.542 I was, I was by vocational pastor at that point. 00:23:26.542 --> 00:23:30.682 I was, I had a non-church job and I was a pastor of a church at that time. 00:23:30.682 --> 00:23:33.410 And I'm driving home and it was, it was about 545. 00:23:33.410 --> 00:23:37.200 And I go to stop off at the, the Haynesville Starbucks there on 120. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:40.607 And you know it's cold outside and icy it was. 00:23:40.607 --> 00:23:47.086 It was this time of year, it was a lot like the weather we've had recently and I just been beat up just under a lot of stress. 00:23:47.086 --> 00:23:56.407 It's stressful to do those jobs and and you know just, you know just the thorns of what work is and my heart was just oh, what is the point? 00:23:56.407 --> 00:24:01.046 Like this is so hard and you know at the end of the day you're drained anyway and you're just kind of all out. 00:24:01.046 --> 00:24:02.226 So I'm like I'll just get a mocha. 00:24:02.299 --> 00:24:17.164 So I stop over at Starbucks and I order the mocha and then I pull up, you know, to the window and this barista she didn't know me and she wasn't flirting or anything, she wasn't doing anything wrong. 00:24:17.164 --> 00:24:26.029 But she looks me in the eye and she passes this mocha to me and she just says tough day. 00:24:26.029 --> 00:24:28.506 Huh, be strong out there. 00:24:28.506 --> 00:24:36.321 Hey guys, there was something in me that was breaking, there was something that was melting. 00:24:36.321 --> 00:24:46.773 Because here's this girl I don't know, I'm like the 500th car in her line that day, but she's doing something human and she's reminded me. 00:24:46.773 --> 00:24:56.147 Man, maybe, maybe, maybe it matters what I do, maybe, maybe it makes a difference, maybe there's really still people out here and not just everybody's angry about everything. 00:24:56.147 --> 00:25:17.614 I was just one guy in her life in that moment, but she used that moment to say here, like I see that you're a human and you matter, and so all I am, all I have, is this stupid mocha that you paid for, but I'm just gonna give it to you in such a way that you understand hey, man, you can make it. 00:25:17.614 --> 00:25:29.411 I wonder what it would be like if we just all started to see the people around us and said it's not about me and it's not about my agenda, it's about the community, it's about what I bring to the other lives around me. 00:25:29.411 --> 00:25:30.973 I wonder. 00:25:32.455 --> 00:25:39.224 Bob Goff says every act of selfless love is a declaration of faith, and I think he's right. 00:25:39.224 --> 00:25:43.887 So work is always significant and work is focused on the community. 00:25:43.887 --> 00:25:46.305 We're going to skip over number three and we're going to land on number four. 00:25:46.305 --> 00:25:48.708 Work is a sign hidden in plain sight. 00:25:48.708 --> 00:25:53.182 It's a sign hidden, a sign of the kingdom of Jesus Christ hidden in plain sight. 00:25:53.182 --> 00:25:54.537 It's a sign hidden, a sign of the kingdom of Jesus Christ hidden in plain sight. 00:25:58.125 --> 00:25:59.689 Let's jump over to the book of Proverbs. 00:25:59.689 --> 00:26:00.089 There's this. 00:26:00.089 --> 00:26:02.343 It's a little strange if you're not familiar with it. 00:26:02.343 --> 00:26:06.392 There's this personification of wisdom. 00:26:06.392 --> 00:26:07.042 It's, it's it. 00:26:07.344 --> 00:26:20.693 God's representing wisdom as this woman who stands in the town square and she begins to shout to everybody hey you people who don't know wisdom, hey, you people who are doing foolishness, look to me and I will teach you the right way. 00:26:20.693 --> 00:26:27.230 I will help your life, and the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. 00:26:27.230 --> 00:26:28.461 I want you to notice the, the places she is. 00:26:28.461 --> 00:26:28.982 Let's let's look at this. 00:26:28.982 --> 00:26:29.404 Proverbs 8 1. 00:26:29.404 --> 00:26:31.794 Listen as wisdom calls out here as understanding raises her voice on the hilltop, along the places she is. 00:26:31.794 --> 00:26:32.174 Let's look at this. 00:26:32.174 --> 00:26:32.576 Proverbs 8.1. 00:26:32.596 --> 00:26:33.319 Listen as wisdom calls out. 00:26:33.319 --> 00:26:43.263 Hear as understanding raises her voice On the hilltop along the road she takes her stand at the crossroads, by the gates, at the entrance of the town, on the road, leaning in. 00:26:43.263 --> 00:26:44.007 She cries aloud. 00:26:44.007 --> 00:26:45.526 I call to you, to all of you. 00:26:45.526 --> 00:26:47.847 I raise my voice to all the people. 00:26:48.269 --> 00:26:49.071 Where is she? 00:26:49.071 --> 00:26:51.520 She's at the crossroads. 00:26:51.520 --> 00:26:52.584 She's in the town square. 00:26:52.584 --> 00:26:53.005 Where is she? 00:26:53.005 --> 00:26:58.903 She's right in the center of commerce, right in the center of social life. 00:26:58.903 --> 00:27:00.901 She's also at the gates. 00:27:00.901 --> 00:27:03.102 This is like the justice system. 00:27:03.102 --> 00:27:06.625 This is where the elders of the community meet to decide things. 00:27:07.655 --> 00:27:08.500 She's not hidden. 00:27:08.500 --> 00:27:17.641 She's right there in the middle of everybody's coming and going and she calls out Yoo-hoo, hey, hey, pay attention, I have a message for you. 00:27:17.641 --> 00:27:19.480 I will teach you. 00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:25.924 My arms are wide open and the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. 00:27:25.924 --> 00:27:39.721 Can I encourage you that you, in the role you're in right now, wherever you are maybe you're a student, maybe you're at your first job, maybe you're getting along in your career, maybe now you're retired and you just have these different places that you go, where you're plugged in. 00:27:39.922 --> 00:27:56.930 Wherever you are, god knows how to get glory for himself and he's placed you right there so that you can be a sign and a wonder to say you, who, you who, come this way, come this way, look at Jesus, look at his ways, look how wise he is, look how adoring he is, look how fantastic and forgiving he is. 00:27:56.930 --> 00:27:58.701 And they look at your life. 00:27:58.701 --> 00:28:02.925 And it's not that you're Bible thumping, slapping everybody upside the head with a devotional. 00:28:02.925 --> 00:28:06.125 You're not walking into the meeting like, hey, who wants to get saved today? 00:28:06.125 --> 00:28:07.638 That's not what you're doing. 00:28:07.638 --> 00:28:14.624 But you're representing a wise life, a forgiven life, a life of excellence, a life of integrity. 00:28:14.624 --> 00:28:18.160 And yes, you're not gossiping, you're not participating in that, you're not. 00:28:18.180 --> 00:28:24.346 You're certainly not foolish enough to walk around pretending you're holier than thou, but what you are doing is you're being winsome. 00:28:24.346 --> 00:28:30.295 You're listening to people so that they won't, so that when they encounter you they'll just say, hey, man. 00:28:30.295 --> 00:28:30.655 So what's? 00:28:30.655 --> 00:28:32.297 What's your deal, sweetheart? 00:28:32.297 --> 00:28:33.157 What's going on with you? 00:28:33.157 --> 00:28:34.318 You say I don't know, hey, man. 00:28:34.318 --> 00:28:34.960 So what's your deal, sweetheart? 00:28:34.960 --> 00:28:35.460 What's going on with you? 00:28:35.460 --> 00:28:35.881 You say I don't know. 00:28:35.881 --> 00:28:36.300 I just live my faith. 00:28:36.300 --> 00:28:37.102 I believe in Jesus Christ. 00:28:37.102 --> 00:28:47.971 I'm not ashamed of that, I'm not trying to slap anybody with it, but it's a real thing and it is a sign to the rest of the world hey, when you're ready, jesus is a handshake away. 00:28:47.971 --> 00:28:49.556 He's right here. 00:28:49.576 --> 00:28:52.521 And it's not that maybe you wouldn't have the Bible study, maybe you would have the prayer meeting. 00:28:52.521 --> 00:29:09.287 I'm not saying you know, as God would lead anybody that way, but whatever it is, at the very least you're saying I'm going to be the very best manager that these people have ever seen, because my God is a God of excellence and he's a God of virtue and a God of character, and I'm going to stand in my little town square and say I love you, I'm on your side. 00:29:09.287 --> 00:29:18.742 I was sent into this dark, dank place that's how some of us see our jobs and I'm the one light that is here with a smile not to bemoan it. 00:29:18.742 --> 00:29:29.438 What if God is honoring you just by having you there, because you're his one opportunity and that particular little location that people might find out about Jesus Christ? 00:29:29.438 --> 00:29:31.884 And some of us I know, I know what it's like. 00:29:31.884 --> 00:29:34.844 I know some of us you're like I don't even know what I'm doing there, carter, like I, I want to do some of us. 00:29:34.844 --> 00:29:35.027 I know what it's like. 00:29:35.027 --> 00:29:39.224 I know some of us you're like I don't even know what I'm doing there, carter, like I want to do some of the God stuff. 00:29:39.224 --> 00:29:42.685 I feel like that's the significant stuff and I got to do all this dumb stuff over here. 00:29:42.685 --> 00:29:44.622 I wish I was one of these minister people. 00:29:44.622 --> 00:29:47.084 I wish I was doing church things for a living. 00:29:48.935 --> 00:29:58.342 You know, the awesome thing about you being assigned in a wonder exactly where you are is that you no longer have to compare yourself to anybody else. 00:29:58.342 --> 00:30:07.759 You don't have to be the pastor, you don't have to be the preacher, because God has strategically placed you right where you are to do the work that you're supposed to do in your context. 00:30:07.759 --> 00:30:10.221 You are a mission. 00:30:10.221 --> 00:30:14.228 You are a message from God to the people around you. 00:30:14.228 --> 00:30:15.710 Somebody say take the pressure off. 00:30:15.710 --> 00:30:18.402 Take the pressure off. 00:30:18.402 --> 00:30:19.926 Hey, how many want to hear one more? 00:30:19.926 --> 00:30:24.241 All right, this is kind of my favorite here. 00:30:24.241 --> 00:30:26.066 It is it's number five. 00:30:27.509 --> 00:30:30.215 Work is honored and expanded in heaven. 00:30:30.215 --> 00:30:35.346