God’s Divine Design for Work and Time

Here comes another change of seasons, as we will soon shift from summer to fall. God created the world and us with a divine design for work and time. The Bible gives us a strategy to spend our time wisely and compels us to get the most important things done. Come to Rockwell Church this Sunday and be encouraged that the way you work (at your job site, school, or as a volunteer) really does matter to God.

I hope this message helps you understand and apply God’s Word. Find sermon transcripts at https://Well.faith, learn more at https://ChrisTeien.com, or come visit us at https://Rockwell.church in Virginia, Minnesota. If this message encouraged you, I’d love to hear from you at wellfaith24@gmail.com.

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Chris T 0:16

This would be a perfect message for Labor Day weekend. But Labor Day weekend is one of the most unattended church Sundays, and this is not an excuse for you not to attend church. I'm just telling you that every senior pastor lets his associate pastor staff preach on Labor Day and Memorial Day, because the assumption is only one-third of the people are going to be there. So why waste a great sermon on a holiday weekend? Is what some senior pastors think. But God's divine for work and time is about labor. It is about, uh, you know, the government gives you a day off for Labor Day. And the Bible has a lot to say about work. The Bible has a lot to say about our attitude. The Bible has a lot to say about how we're supposed to treat one another. And in Colossians, Paul uh wrote a letter to that church there, modern day Turkey, today, uh, because they were under attack from false teachers, and I love Ephesians and Colossians because it just lays out a to-do list of the way we're supposed to live our Christian lives. If you didn't know, Paul makes it clear on the way that we're supposed to treat each other and the way that we're supposed to live. So in Colossians chapter 3, verse 17, um, let me back it up to verse 13, not on the screen, but um, it's make allowances for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you, you must forgive others. That would be a great sign to put, like it in front of your cubicle or on the dashboard of the truck you drive, uh delivery truck, or whatever it is, to remember that we are supposed to be forgiving. Above all, clothe yourselves, verse 14, with love which binds us all together in perfect harmony, and let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts, for as members of one body you are called to live in peace and always be thankful. Let the message about Christ and all its richness fill your lives, teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives, sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And then he says, and whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Does your boss know you're a Christ follower? Does your customers have any clue that um Jesus is your Lord and that you are a Christian trying to live a Christian life? Whatever you do, think about that, the work that you do, or say, or say, whatever you say. You know, it's easy in sales to oversell. It's easy in sales to overpromise and sometimes underdeliver. It's easy for us to you know say things that aren't true. Um but God sees what we do, God holds us accountable, God cares. I I got I told you before, I think that I got my opportunity in marketing. I got to be in the marketing department because someone else got fired. Someone else got fired in the marketing department because they wrote the wrong, actually, they forgot a word in a brochure that said the anti-reflective coated lenses you put in the brochure, printed brochure color brochure. It was like tens of thousands of dollars of brochures on pellets, all had to be thrown away or recycled because this person said the lenses were scratch proof. The lenses are not scratch-proof, they're virtually scratch-proof. Now, virtually doesn't mean anything, it's a weasel word, it's a marketing word that basically discounts everything you just said. Virtual reality, is that real? No, not at all. So, legally, in a marketing brochure, to tell somebody that the lenses are virtually scratch-proof means absolutely nothing. So, and they're scratch resistant anyway. But if you're in the marketing department and you're told to put that kind of stuff in the literature, you're you're made to make brochure uh charts with bar graphs that um you know make it look like there's this huge difference from one section to another. And then in really tiny fine print in the bottom, it says uh showing the difference between 80 and 84 percent. Because visually it looks like, oh, it's spectacular. And in real life, it's like, oh, it's not really that much. If you're paid to do that and that's an honest thing to do, then I guess that's what you do. If you own that company, though, you might want to think about how does God see this? And can I really trust God to help me be successful in business? Can I help God to help me be successful as a teacher? Can I trust God in all these things? So Paul continues on then in Colossians. So there is a part there if you want to read it. It skipped over the part about how husbands and wives are supposed to treat each other and how you're supposed to treat your kids. So skipped over that. Now, verse 22, slaves, okay? Nobody wants to hear about slaves, but it was a very common thing back in that time for there to be slaves in that economy in that time. Um, and if Paul would have just said, you know, uh Jesus sets all the slaves free, everybody's free to go do whatever, I'm not really sure that they would even have a place to live or a place to go or how that would work out. So uh it doesn't necessarily condemn in these passages in this culture, condemn slavery, it doesn't promote slavery. Uh in one place it does say if you can gain your freedom to get your freedom. And then also uh Paul has this thing in um Vi Lehman with Onesimus. But so when I say slaves, you think employees, okay? I think the um English Standard Version, latest edition, instead of saying slaves, I think it says bondservants. Anyway, slaves obey your earthly masters. So employees, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you are working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that master you are serving is Christ. So that means whatever your job is, you should do it well. And when your boss or your supervisor is gone, you should still do it well. Uh it's easy to act like you're working when no one's around. Um, it's easy to do the work slower so it lasts longer. I've literally heard people say, slow down. You're working too fast. If you keep working like that, the job won't last us through the day. So I don't know. Um, someone had posted this thing online of a worker that was paid by the hour, you know, going through very slowly, doing stuff. And a worker that was paid by the job, you know, getting stuff done really quick. And we should be good workers. We should be the kind of workers that our employers value. We should be the kind of workers that um are trusted, and maybe we even train other people because the boss trusts us. But we should work hard, we should learn all that we can about our skill. Um, if you hate your job, pray about it, learn some new skills and get a different job. If you are at your job, don't just assume, well, I've been here for a long time. I'm union, I'm tenured, I'm whatever, you know, I'm good. Uh, what could you do to become better at it? What could you do to um be uh better like a coworker with other people? How could you increase your skills? So, and then it says, uh, but if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done, for God has no favorites. God is watching you, God cares about the way you work, God cares about what you are doing. So, in um I think I have it here, Colossians 4 1. Um, masters provide your slaves whatever is right and fair because you know that you also have a master in heaven. And there is a section here that talks about how important it is to be a good employer. To be a good employer. Um yeah, here I have it. Okay. Um so if you're the employer, God sees the way you treat your employees, God sees what you do and how you treat them, and what you want to do is you want to treat them fairly. You want to um provide for them. If the cost of inflation is going up and you've raised your prices, telling your customers, I have to charge them more because all my costs went up, um, you should also then and pay your pay your workers more money because their cost of living went up. Instead of just saying, Oh, I'm getting so much money off this now, I've I'd be able to get a third leg home and a bigger boat. But instead, we should invest, if we if we're the employer, we should invest in our workers, we should train our workers, we should value our workers, we should pay our workers well. I was reading this thing about the evangelist D. L. Moody, who started Moody Bible Institute, about how he went out of his way to pay the people that worked for him well, so that they would continue to stay uh working for him and so that they would be provided for, so that they're they wouldn't be distracted to pay well. And in the economy we have today, it's easy for people to get lured off to other jobs. And just think if you're the employer and you've got a great uh worker and he's trustworthy or she's trustworthy doing everything that you need them to do, um, but you were cheap and you didn't help uh you know pay them, and then someone else came along and took them away. Um, everything that you trained them to do, everything that you invested in them and taught them, uh all the things you trusted them with have just walked out the door and gone somewhere else. So, but God sees the way that you treat others, master provide your slaves with what is right and fair because you know that you have a master in heaven that God sees. So I'm gonna show you a video now about work if someone can grab the lights, that would be great.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Most of us spend over half our lives at work. Whatever it is you fill the nine to five with, hunting crops, building cars, taking care of patients, teaching students, or running a business. Work is where most of life happens. For some, work is a drain. They dread Monday mornings, forcing themselves to struggle through because they need the paycheck, or many times feeling trapped and beaten down by their job. Some people love their work, they're good at what they do, it energizes them. It's a place of security, a place to chase dreams, desires, and success. At work, they find fulfillment. We often forget to connect our faith to our work. We don't consider the reasons we got a happy set of jobs. We don't think about the purpose and meanings we can bring to our work, we simply focus on how it makes us feel. What if we are working as an opportunity to worship? As Christians, we're called to serve Christ with our lives. For you, that means working as a pastor, a youth minister, or a missionary. Most of the church outside of the church. Our mission is in the marketplace. We may not be the kind of missionary who moves to the far each of Africa. Around the country stable, around the water cooler, or on the cubicle, we have an opportunity to worship the art to create. He gave us cash, he gave us work. We do a job with action, an integrity and diligence, it's an active wish. We are displaying the artist activity. We are earning the rights. We are seeing the side between Sunday and Monday. Between the safety and the speculation, we've been invited in the parts of the world that it has a missionary we never see. We have conversations with people with never set place. But we like to spread our work. We choose to turn the focus away from ourselves with a mission that I have to. Church is not the only place we worship. Sundays are not the only days in our calendar that have been. Every day a mission for God brings us great joy. Like the heroes before us, we can be modern-day Noah's and justice and peers who are called with a purpose. God has designed us, He created us to work and to worship. For us, work is worship.

Chris T 13:16

One of the things I did this, that's funny. All right, so I've got a list, a countdown list. It actually came from a biblical counseling manual that uh talks about workaholism and work, which I found helpful. So it's uh uh top 10 countdown uh from 10 to 1. And on your bulletin, uh, you've got blanks there. Um if you uh don't fill it in or miss it, um at I don't know, 1120 or something on our website, the um the notes and everything filled in will automatically appear on the website. All right. So God is a worker and we are made in his image. God is a worker. Um I found what I was looking for, by the way. So in the um letters to Timothy, commentary by William Barclay, he talks about being a Christian worker. He said it may be well that the man who takes his Christianity to work with him will run into trouble. But if he sticks to it, he will end by winning the respect of all men. He says, E. F. Brown tells of a thing which happened in India. A Christian servant in India was once sent by his master with a verbal message which he knew to be untrue. He refused to deliver it. Though his master was very angry at the time, he respected the servant all the more, and knew that he could always trust him in his own matters. He says the truth is that at the end, the truth is that in the end the world comes to see that the Christian workman is the only workman worth having. In one sense, it's hard to be a Christian at our work. In another sense, if we would try it, it is much easier than we think, for there is not a master under the sun who is not desperately looking for a workman whose loyalty and efficiency he can rely. And that is so true. To be a faithful worker, to be a worker that so much cares about the product, the goal, the customers, that they literally pray about it before they start their workday. Lord, help me to be a good worker. Lord, help me with this problem, Lord, help help me come up with some ideas for this. Lord, there's this product that we're trying to make and we can't figure it out. Holy Spirit, help us to figure out how to make this work or fix this problem, or help me in this relationship with coworkers to help us to all get along or help me to become a better leader, or all of those things. And some of you are like, Well, this is very interesting, but I'm retired, I don't have to do this. But you volunteer, some of the retired people I know are the busiest people I know. Well, they're we're busier than people that were working the job. I'm part of this. I'm volunteering here, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. You're working, you're just not getting a big check for it. But you are retired and you are working, so this applies to you. So God is a worker and we are made in his image. Um, in John 5 17, Jesus says, Uh, my father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working. So God is a worker. Uh, we are to be workers. Actually, when God created Adam, he gave him a job to do. He was naming, he was tending the garden and he was naming the animals. He had something to do. Work is a gift from God. We don't have to see work. There is a curse uh that makes work more difficult because of sin, but work itself is a gift. And heaven, I think, we will have stuff that we can do. There'll be work to do, there'll be things to do. Can you imagine if there was absolutely nothing to do that you just sat around and there wasn't anything to do? You would probably find something to do. But if there were no work, if all if all the robots took over and did all the work and all you did was sit around and sip lemonade and um play video games or whatever, play golf. Um, I think you'd get very bored with life. Work is a gift from God. God is a worker, we're made in his image, we're made to work, and we should be good workers. We should enjoy work. If we, like I said, if you hate your job, pray about it, get some skills, look for another opportunity, find a job that you enjoy going to, find a work that you enjoy doing. I've known some people that have left super high-paying jobs because they absolutely hated it. It's like I got the education, I do the job, it pays a lot, I hate my life. And so they get a job, they're paid less, they're willing realizing, you know, that um they won't have as much money to do stuff, but they're much happier. They're like, they feel like they're investing in something, they feel like their work has a purpose, they feel um like things are better. And actually, uh, that's another way to spin things in your head, too, is that your work has a purpose. When I worked at that optical company, I convinced myself that I was helping people see better. So everything I did, all the work that I did, whether it was menial or not, um, eventually, in the end, I'm helping people see better. That's what I'm here to do. And God is using it to provide for me and my family so I can put food on the table and provide. So, number nine, God is the creator and owner of all things. Therefore, it is for him that we work. We honor God with what we do with the time and resources we have. We honor God with the way that we use our talents and treasures, we honor God by um what we choose to do with the resources that he gives us. So when we keep our whole paycheck for ourselves and we don't need to, so that we can put more in savings or um, you know, get more toys or all those things, it doesn't honor God as much as when we're faithful to take what we need and then to use the rest to build this kingdom, to uh provide in ministry, to help other people in need. God is the owner and we are managers, stewards of his resources. And it's very easy for him to change the amount that comes. I mean, one day you could have a lot and then something could happen, and then you'd have much less, or the flip side, uh, one day you're just kind of going along and um you know things are real tight, and then all of a sudden something changes, and then you have more money. You have more resources. Will you be faithful with them? Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to a person that doesn't know how to manage money is for them to get more money. Sometimes God keeps people in a paycheck-to-paycheck existence because he knows they're gonna stay faithful there, but he if he gives them too many resources, too much money, they're gonna run off, be unfaithful, um, get distracted from following Jesus. But God is the owner of the earth, is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. So we um are just serving him, part of his plan. And again, uh James says we have not because we ask not. And sometimes when we ask, we do it for selfish reasons. So um if you need more, you should pray and ask. And if you have a lot, you should look around and ask God what he wants you to do with it. How can you invest that into what God is doing? And so many times you give, uh, you do things for God to bless to be used by God, and he blesses you with even more. Number eight, work is a natural part of current and eternal life. So I've already uh talked about that a little bit, but work is part of life and will be part of eternal life. The Lord God took the man and put him to work in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. So, uh, but then the ground was cursed and it made it much more difficult. Um, actually, in um Genesis to Adam, he said, Because you listened to your wife and ate the fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat from it. Cursed is the ground, because of you, through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field by sweet by the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you are taken, for dust you are, and dust you will return. So um work is difficult, but work can still be blessed. And there will be a day when the curse is removed. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him, and we will do awesome work uh without the curse, without the difficulty, without the thorns or difficulties that there are. Number seven, work is a requirement. Work is a requirement. And um if we value work, then we would want to train our children to be workers. I was reading this thing that talked about how your children will be more successful when you raise them, giving them chores, expecting them to do chores. So every kid's like, oh, great, thanks a lot, Pastor Chris. So 2 Thessalonians 3:10 says, When we were with you, we gave you this rule the one who is unwilling to work shall not eat. And there are some people, uh, when Paul wrote this, they're like, you know, Jesus is coming back, he's gonna return at any time, so we should just, you know, stop, stop work and just you know, kick back. And other people are like, Well, I need to not work to be more spiritual. So they wouldn't work so that they could, you know, hang. Out in the church and be more spiritual. But Paul says that leads sometimes to uh inner chaos and gossiping and all sorts of things. But working is good, working is helpful. If you have the ability to work, you should work somehow, doing something. You know, if you're if you're watching this and you're retired uh and stuck at your house and you can't get out, one of the greatest works you can do is a prayer ministry. Um, praying for others be an intercessory prayer. But we should all work. Um, number six, work that is worth doing should be worth doing well. Van Sabner, uh Billy Graham really liked Van Sabner, said God is not interested in mere quantity production. We sometimes can do more by doing less. Sometimes the quality of work is way better than just the quantity of work. So work is a physical or mental activity performed in an effort to produce a result. So uh using our time wisely, um doing all that we can to follow Jesus. So Proverbs 22, 29. Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings, they will not serve before officials of low rank. So in um Exodus chapter 31, God is laying out all the things he wants the Israelites to have so that they can worship him as they they travel around. So then the Lord said to Moses, see, I have chosen Bezal. Uh I never know how to say I have a computer program that actually says how to pronounce these names, but Bezalul, Bezalil, I don't know. Uh Bezi, Bezi. Anyway, um, I have filled him with the Spirit of God with skill, ability, and knowledge and all kinds of crafts to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. Moreover, I've appointed um Oli of the tribe of Dan to be a craftsman as his assistant with skills. So um God has given different people different skills. God has given us different abilities. Sometimes it's just this inner thing that we were born with. We were we were born really great with music. We were given a spiritual gift when we got saved. Some people are great craftsmen, some people are great speakers, some people are great cooks, some people are great salespeople, some people are wonderful managers, some people can just see numbers in their head, and they're just like perfect when it comes to accounting. Um, so many different skills, so many different things. And God gives the church those kinds of people. And back then, God specifically appointed uh craftsmen who knew what they were doing to oversee what was going on. Ephesians 5.16 says, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. So we think about the time that we have, we think about the opportunities that we have, we want to make the most of every opportunity. So sometimes we need to just pause for a moment and think about okay, what is the best thing that I can do with my time? Uh I like when I'm really structured to write stuff down, a priority list. There's been different phases in my life where I've made priority lists, and so I work the priority list and I try to get the important thing. I'm I'm kind of working a list right now, though I I don't have a list for next week. But um you write down the priorities, you do the important things on the list, you make the most of every every opportunity, uh keeps you out of trouble, uh, keeps you from being distracted because the days are evil, lots of temptation out there. And then I take great delight, I don't know why. I take great delight in like checking the task off. I just like sometimes I write down what I did so I can sit there and just check it off because I just I did it, and then I can look back too, because my life is a blur. You know, it's like I know I did a lot last week, but it would take me a few minutes to try to remember what it was. But I know I was busy, I just couldn't tell you exactly what it was at the time. But on that day, it was the most important thing, usually. Usually. All right, sometimes I admit I have a tendency to do the thing that's the most fun and put off the thing I don't want to do the most. That's why the one year, the only one year I sent my taxes to the tax guy before April 15th. He called me and said, I just about had a heart attack. He's like, You never send your taxes in on time. Every year it's a request for an extension. What happened? I said, Well, I was trying to be more organized. So I just dread taxes. So work should never be done to the exclusion of rest and time with the Lord. It is not a sin, actually, to work on Sunday. But if you can get Sunday off to worship in a church, that's awesome. I had told my employers in the past that it's my sincerely held religious conviction that I need to worship the Lord on Sunday with the church people that I'm involved in. But and I don't want to work on Sundays, but if there's an emergency and you can't find anybody else, I will come in and work then. And very rarely did that happen. And sometimes when it happened, I would go to church first and then go to work. But you can't always be in control of your schedule. But somehow, sometime you need to find time to rest. In Genesis 2, uh, thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array, and by the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day he rested, he rested from all his work. And then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all the work creating all that he had done. Do you think that God created the world and said, Whoo, I'm tired. I think I'm gonna sit over here and take a break. I think he did it to set an example for us. I think that he did it because he knows that we need to rest, that we need to recharge, that there needs to be a time when we we stop and recover. So if I was really diligent at lifting weights all the time, uh the best thing that I could do is lift weights on like a Monday and then take Tuesday off to recover, and then you know, maybe get back to it again on Wednesday, but not to, you know, go vigorously lift weights every day so your body doesn't have a chance to recover. Instead, in that recovery period, your body has a chance to um restore, uh mend, uh, and you get stronger that way than if you were to go crazy lifting weights every day. And the same thing is true with your work. Uh, if you follow God's guidelines to rest, to take a break. If you stop all your busyness and craziness to stop and worship the Lord and put him first and have a spiritual discipline like attending church, that is all very helpful. Um, one Psalm 127, too, says, In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat, for he grants sleep to those whom he loves. It's easy to become a workaholic. It's easy for us to worry, worry, worry, and never sleep. So um actually verse one says, unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over a city, the guard stands watch in vain. So, and then it says this in vain you rise early and stay up late. And sometimes it is hard to stop, but we need to trust. We need to trust that the Lord will provide. We need to trust that we have done our best with the time that we had, and now we need to take a break, and we need to sleep. Um, sometimes it is really hard to sleep when you've got a pressing problem, when there's been a conflict, when there's a difficulty. Um, and sometimes you just need to pray about that and ask the Lord to help you to sleep and then you know deal with it another time. Actually, the Bible says it's better to resolve your conflict and not go to bed angry if you can, so you don't take that uh problem to bed with you. But that's not always possible. So we need to do all that we can. Um, sometimes when we become workaholics, it's easy for us to uh make ourselves impossible. Lists of things that we can never accomplish. We can't get it all done, it'd be impossible. Um, sometimes we are all about pleasing others. Uh Galatians 1.10 says, Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. Sometimes that man, men pleasing, women pleasing, can um keep you from getting sleep, keep you from getting rest. Mark 2.27, um, Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. They had made the Sabbath day. The Pharisees did this list of rules, this impossible day where you couldn't do anything, and it wasn't a joy, it wasn't rest, it was just more rules of all the things you couldn't do. And so God knows that we need to rest. And sometimes if we can't do it on Sunday, um, then we should take another day to put him first. So um, Matthew 6 33 says, Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you. And what does it say in that passage? It says you don't need to worry, you don't need to worry, therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. We need to trust God. So we seek him first, we put him first, we trust him with our finances, we trust him with our business, we trust him with our work, we trust him with our kids. We do the best we can, and then we trust that as we're putting God first, confessing any known sin, doing the things that we need to be doing, that God will work it out, that God will work out what's going on now, that God will work out the future. So the old people tell me that so many things that they worried about in the past never happened, never came true. And they also told me that when they had the least and they were relying on God for everything, it was one of the best times of their life. So I don't know than many people that were around in the depression now, but often stories of you know a lack of all these different things and what they did together to uh provide, to work, to care for one another. Um so I'm not sure which company it was, but I was I was watching this thing about one of the flower companies realized that women were making dresses out of their flower sacks. So they started to make flower sacks in beautiful patterns. So that when the women were making dresses out of the flower sacks, they could have different patterns and stuff, because they were trying to be helpful and trying to help those poor people that were trying to make their own clothes out of the flower sacks, which is a pretty cool thing to do. I think that honors God. But you seek Him first and you trust and you hope that you you have hope in God. Number four, the fruit of our work is established by God. So um Dietrich Bonhoeffer says time is lost when we have not lived a few full human life, time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment, and suffering. So we need to live life and we need to do all that we can to do our work, but then also to have balance and trust that God will provide for us. Harvey McKay said time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it, you can never get it back. And time is important and the fruit of our labor, the fruit of our labor. Psalm 9017, may the favor of the Lord our God rest on us, establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. You know, God is the one who can do miraculous things to help us to uh find success, to help us to learn, to help us to see things that we don't see. Sometimes He sends people in our life that can teach us skills or teach us uh better management or teach us how to be more fruitful, how to be more successful, how to do ministry better, how to do um whatever job it is that you have, how to be a better parent. And actually, that's one of the reasons that we offer that right now media video service because there's 20,000 videos on there that would help you if you watch some of the good videos on there to be a better parent, uh, to be a better worker. There's actually right now media at work, so it's the same kind of service, but it's for employers to have their employees watch. But there's all sorts of leadership stuff on there, there's all sorts of things to help you to be more successful at your work. And if you are a successful worker, if you are a value-added employee, that's gonna bring value to wherever you work and it's gonna glorify God because when they see you being reliable and helpful and even profitable, and then they know you're a Christ follower. And the reason that you're doing it is because you say it's your faith in Christ, and because you know that Christ sees what you do, what you do, they may be more interested in following the Lord. Work must be done in God's strength for lasting rewards. It's easy for us to try to do everything in our own strength and not pray it through. Again, uh Psalm 127.1, I already read it, but unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. So we need to trust that God will help us. Many times I have prayed that God would help me. Um, so junior high, I was the volunteer youth pastor in my church, and I worked full time and I was going to two taking courses from two Bible colleges, and I was really tired. And I would show up in the church parking lot before junior and senior high ministry, and I was so tired. And I'd be like, Lord, please help me. I'm so tired. I just want to take a nap. Give me strength. And every night he did, every night we had an awesome youth group. Every night he helped me and empowered me. I was faithful to show up. Colossians 1 29. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. First Peter 4 11. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. We do it through Christ's strength. Two, people were meant to enjoy their work. People were meant to enjoy their work. So the preacher in Ecclesiastes says a person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This, too, I see from the hand of God. We are meant to enjoy our work. Um, work is a gift from God. When we do work well, we should find satisfaction. Um, being a pastor is tough because it's hard for me to see my progress. Really, it is. I mean, some days you people are so spiritual, I'm like, they have really grown. And then you just like flip the switch, and it's like, nope, they they have not grown. And you know, it's just hard to you know tell. Uh sometimes that's why pastors uh, you know, pick other hobbies. You know, I don't have time or money for hobbies like woodworking or other uh for a period of time I was really into restoring and repairing cars as my teenagers were blowing, crashing them and going through them or whatever they were doing. But um so we can find satisfaction in our work. And sometimes if you uh add on to a house, if you uh start a business that thrives, if you start a church that's still alive, um, all those things can bring you satisfaction in your life. But number one, the work of God for you is to believe in his son. The most important thing that you need to do in this life is receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Second um John 6 29. The work of God is this to believe in the one he has sent, to believe in Jesus, to follow Jesus. And 2 Corinthians 6, 2, in the time of my favor I heard you, in the day of salvation I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. So um we don't work our way into heaven, we believe Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, for it's by grace you've been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves. It is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. But then once we receive Christ and we receive that salvation, then we can work out our salvation, we can grow in our spiritual disciplines, we can do more and more to learn about the things of God and to teach that to others. But the most important thing is that we get saved, that we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior. Um, one way to do that is by asking, but you need to believe that Jesus Christ, that he lived among us, that he died on the He was God, that He died on the cross for our sins, that He rose again and uh ascended into heaven, that by believing upon Him our sins can be forgiven, and we will receive eternal life. The Bible says that when we come to Christ, when we uh repent and come to Jesus, that we're a new creation, we're adopted as children of God, children of God, we're assured heaven, we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive at least one spiritual gift to serve in the church with, and so many other things. And one great way to do that is to repent of your sin and ask, Lord Jesus, anybody here that knows that today is the day they need to be saved, let them pray something like this. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. Please forgive me of my sin. Come into my life and save me. Make me the person you created me to be. I want to follow you. Lord, help us to proclaim uh your life-changing message to others. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. So, um next week when we get together, we're gonna go through a series called The Secrets to a Happy Life. And I met a friend on Facebook who was very interested in me. And we've had conversations, and I've eventually found that he would give me direction with my worship team can come forward. Give me direction with the issues that I had in ministry, Bill Giovanetti from a church in California. And so he wrote this book. He's written a lot of books on grace and um life. But Secrets to a Happy Life is a book that you could read along as we go through the series on secrets to a happy life. So I'm not going to preach everything in the book, but if you wanted to get the book for more information, I was able to arrange discounted versions for $7 each on the table out there. And if you want, if you take a book, uh you can reimburse the church the $7 by marking on the envelope. You can grab an envelope from behind one of the chairs for the $7, or you can get it online. If you go to Rockwell Church forward slash happy happy dash life, uh you can see links where you can get it on Christian book distributors, Barnes and Nobles, Amazon. You can get it as an ebook, um, all those things. But so when we get together next week, we'll have um letting go uh as the first one. And what it is, is it's a study of the life of Joseph in the Old Testament and how he went through all of those hard things, yet he was still faithful. He still trusted God. And then there will be consistency and destiny on the 11th. So worship team is about to sing, but um, would you please consider helping with Iwana and helping us with our children's ministry? Uh, Lord Jesus, I thank you for this worship team. I thank you for these people, I thank you for work. I thank you that you have created us to be workers, and I pray that we would be godly workers that influence everyone around us for your glory and our good. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 44:21

We know less things to sing God's praise we first. You're dismissed, connects.