Well, today we're concluding our series through the book of Ephesians, and we're also beginning a new series at the same time. So it's like we're walking over a bridge today out of Ephesians and into our new series that is called Good Work. Everyone say, Good Work. Yeah, why God made labor to be an act of love. And the aim is to help us all connect our work to the kingdom of God, so that our work would be a means of reflecting God's kingdom ethics in the world, and so that what we produce through our work would be a means of advancing God's kingdom presence in the world as well.

And one thing in particular that I want to prepare us for through this series is our upcoming end -of -year offering called Our House Offering, which we'll be receiving here in L .A. on November 10th. And in November, we'll be receiving it on November 10th. We'll be receiving it in Nashville on November 17th. And so throughout this series, I'll also deal a bit with the subject of biblical finance. And historically, normally what I would do to prepare us for that end -of -year giving moment is I would talk specifically and almost solely about the subject of money, but I thought this year would be really powerful and holistic to contextualize finance in the overall framework of our work and our productivity, so that we have a biblical understanding of how and why we are meant to be productive.

And why we're supposed to earn money, and why we're supposed to create wealth. I know things that feel very holy and spiritual to us, but in fact, they very much are. And so we just have one verse to go through today, but don't get your hopes too high. I do have a lot to say based upon this one verse, so it'll still be a normal length message. Ephesians 4 .28 is where we're going to be as we conclude our Ephesians series and begin our Good Work series. The Apostle Paul says this,

Now just as a bit of a refresher, the big idea, or at least one of the big ideas in the book of Ephesians is this right here, if you guys could pop that first slide up for us, that God is overcoming evil and filling the earth with His goodness and glory, how? Through the everyday order. Through the everyday ordinary lives of Christians. This is one of the major messages of the book of Ephesians, that God is overcoming the presence of evil in the world and filling the world with His goodness, His glorious presence, through our everyday ordinary lives.

And this is actually what we would call spiritual warfare. Okay, so Ephesians 6 talks about how you and I, we are in a spiritual war, that we don't fight against flesh and blood, against other people. We actually fight against... We fight against spiritual powers in the heavenly realm, in the unseen realm. But the way that we engage in that spiritual fight is not by like going to stand on the highest peak in Los Angeles or Nashville and like pulling down spiritual strongholds as prayer warriors, right? You could do that. There's not necessarily a problem with that. But that's not Ephesians' prescription for you and I as how we fight in the spiritual war.

The way we fight in the spiritual war is faithfulness to God in our everyday life. Just like David Campbell, who was with us a few weeks ago, he defined faith for us, right? What is faith? Faith is obedience. Faith is faithfulness. And so it's in that daily obedience that we are actually practicing faithfulness to God and participating in His victory over the powers of evil and redeeming and restoring the world. Isn't that awesome?

And so one of the ways that Ephesians describes this reality in chapter 1 is that actually through the church, Jesus Christ is filling everything in every way. And I just love that about Christianity. That Christianity plays... There's immense value on the fullness of our human experience and that through the church, Jesus is filling up all the spaces of human life and redeeming them with His love and purifying them with His fire as well. And I love that Christianity is so human like that. It's so earthy.

And of course, nothing communicates that better than the incarnation of the eternal Son of God, right? That Jesus actually became a man, not so that we could escape our humanity, but so that our humanity could be redeemed. And that speaks to everything. Every single part of our lives. That's what we've been learning throughout this time. It speaks to how we operate together as a community of faith, as God's church in the world. It speaks to how we approach and practice marriage and family, how we operate as husbands and wives and sons and daughters. It speaks to our morality and our purity, sexually and otherwise.

And as we'll uncover today and throughout the rest of this series, it speaks also to our work. You see, like... Everything that we've studied over the last several weeks, work, derives its significance from the fact that it is one of the ways that God is accomplishing His work of overcoming evil, filling the world with His goodness and glory through our everyday, ordinary lives. That whole plan right there involves your hands and feet, your mind at work, your 40 plus hours, whatever you put in. God wants to work through all. And that's what this one little verse in Ephesians 4 is going to help us understand. You guys ready to study some scripture together? Okay, let's take it line by line. Ephesians 4, 28. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer. This is going to be fun.

Okay, so for those of you who are familiar with the Ten Commandments, you might recognize this right here as an echo of the Eighth Commandment, which says, you shall not... Yeah, that's so good. I'm so proud of you guys. You didn't get it wrong. Okay, you shall not steal. You shall not steal. Imagine if you had said the wrong one at that. That would be concerning. And we might be tempted to just like skip over this quite quickly because I doubt any of us is in the habit of taking things from shops without paying for them. Although, have you ever done that thing where you walked out of the grocery store and you were so preoccupied with what you were thinking about that you forgot to pay for your groceries? No? Yeah, me neither. I've never done that, ever. Ever.

I walked back in and I undid my unintentional theft, okay? So, I'm not going to do that. I doubt, you know, based upon that response, that many of us struggle with outright theft. Me, myself, I'm a recovering kleptomaniac. It is what it is, okay? And, of course, we don't do that because whether you're a Christian here today or not, you probably think of theft as morally wrong. But, even with that, I don't think we should let ourselves off the hook here too quickly. We shouldn't limit our understanding of theft to the act of taking something without paying for it. Because theft actually comes in many forms. And, evidently, it's a common enough temptation that God decides to take something without paying for it.

And, he decided it was worthwhile including in his top ten most foundational laws for Israel. And then, 1 ,500 years later, the Apostle Paul says, I should speak to this because it's clearly still a problem for these Ephesian Christians who are unable to leave behind their life of stealing. And so, I don't think we can be too quick to think that actually we've perfectly overcome this temptation in all of its forms. In Isaiah chapter 61 and verse 8, the prophet Isaiah says, For I, the Lord, love justice. Justice is when people get what is due. to them and i hate robbery and wrongdoing so there's some parallelism here going on where we see that that robbery and wrongdoing are equated with one another and wrongdoing just in general is acting unjustly towards god first of all and also towards others by withholding what belongs to them whether that be payment or property or service or whatever else and so yes in ephesus they probably are struggling with literally not stealing it's also true that many times we do wrong to others by withholding from them what it is that we should provide and that can manifest in all different kinds of ways today because theft i think a really basic understanding of it theft is ultimately the belief or at least the practice that we think we deserve more for less that we can have more without a fair exchange taking place you and theft is an entirely me -centered practice so that's the real heart of the issue that paul is getting at here we all come up against the temptation of me -centeredness in relation to work so in america 85 to 90 percent of americans are w2 employees and many of those are paid hourly they're hourly workers and that would be some of us here today and if you're a worker who's paid hourly the question that as we seek to apply this to us the question is how do we apply this to us the question is how honest how diligent are you about making sure your time card is completely honest when i was a young man i worked at the apple store and i would watch co -workers come in late to work and they wouldn't clock in digitally on the computer so that they could fill out a manual time card later that says that they had arrived on time that's theft if you're on a fixed salary can you say that you're working as hard as you are reasonably reasonably able in order to complete the projects and the tasks that have been entrusted to you or because you're on salary do you drag your feet a little bit if you work remotely does your work ethic look the same as it would if your boss worked across the hall from you did you miss that deadline because you couldn't meet it or because you didn't meet it you're among the 10 to 15 percent of people who are 10 .99 and you're a business owner are you proactive about making sure that your employees are paid on time and paid in full do you manage your company's finances responsibly so that you can look after those financially whom you've committed yourselves to basically in all of these scenarios the question is are we living up to the expectations of our role because if not then we could maybe say that money was not enough for us to live up to the expectations of our role exchange but we can't necessarily say that the job was done or that the duty was fulfilled we're trying to get more for less and it's a me -centered approach to work but the scriptures call us to something much greater than that approach you see no matter who you work for whether you work for a client or a ceo or a middle manager or a board of directors or if you work for yourself at the end of the day as a follower of jesus who you ultimately work for is actually the lord colossians 3 i think sarah read from this passage a moment ago beginning in verse 23 whatever you do work at it with all your heart as working for the lord not for human masters not for your human boss since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the lord as a reward it is the lord christ that's jesus that you are serving anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs and there is no favoritism so if jesus in the flesh was your boss or your client would you shortchange him on the hours that you put into the job of course you wouldn't you would steward your time and your time and your time and your time and your time and your time honestly right you wouldn't be dishonest with god right that'd be crazy you wind up like ananias and sapphira and that's a bad day friends and family that's a book of acts reference i'm sorry go read the book of acts you'll get that bible joke but these kinds of things that we're talking about this is as followers of christ this is the length that we should go to avoid theft in all of its forms in our lives see here's the deal about christianity christians are not trying to get the most amount of pay for the least amount of money for the least amount of money for the least amount of work done christians work joyfully and faithfully because ultimately our work is an opportunity to glorify god you're not in it to try to get the most while doing the least that's not your motivation for your work that might be how your co -workers think but that's actually not how you and i are called to think and what's more than that is that you and i are called to work hard even if we don't feel like it's always appreciated or noticed because according to the what colossians 3 just said we can trust jesus to reward us for our work you see much of the time theft in all of its various forms is rooted in the belief that there just isn't enough to go around and we need to get more for ourselves even if it means doing so in dishonest ways but if you work with the character of christ do you believe that god will provide if you resist all those little temptations to get more than your work deserves do you believe that god is able but not just able to get you not just what you need but even more than you need because god according to the scripture owns all the wealth of the world anyway basically do you believe jesus when he says in matthew 6 and verse 33 seek first his kingdom and the righteousness of god including in your work life and then all of those material things that you tend to worry about those will be given to you as well you see ultimately in light of the goodness and the grace of god a life of theft is a disbelief in god's willingness to provide for you but faithfulness however is understanding that your good work will not go unrewarded by the lord and that faithfulness does indeed look like you doing good work in the world and that's what paul is going to help us to understand if we bring back up ephesians 4 and verse 28 anyone's been stealing must steal no longer but must let's say this word together but must yeah that's what you and i are called to do we must what i love the must wow it's just so emphatic right like it's must work and this section right here this is really about the character of your work word work there in the greek is describing work that is laboring to the point of weariness or exhaustion it's the practice of regularly working hard that's what paul classifies as good work it's the opposite of like working to take a break it's the opposite of working for the weekend it it's the opposite of working for the weekend it's the opposite of working for the weekend it's the opposite of working for the weekend paul is jewish he's got the practice of the sabbath he understands the value of rest very well but he also understood that the purpose of rest in the story of israel and in the overarching story of scripture is that that sabbath rest is meant to point us towards the ultimate rest that christ will usher in when he makes all things new until that day the sabbath day is one day among seven days for a reason friends and family clearly do the math the priority is on working hard not relaxing a lot for the glory of god and actually this hard work this good work is part of god's intention and design for us we might even stay with a little bit of tongue in cheek directed towards some of the popular messaging of our time remember the work day to keep it holy because hard work in fact is holy that is literally something to be devoted to god in the beginning of the scriptures in the book of genesis it says that god places adam and eve in the garden of eden to what to work it and keep it and this is actually a really incredible hyperlink to what we're learning about here in the book of ephesians because when genesis says that adam and eve were to work and keep the garden that activity is what's connected to them fulfilling their purpose of being fruitful of multiplying of taking dimension and of fulfilling their purpose of being fruitful of multiplying of taking dimension over the earth basically work is how they were supposed to fill the world with the goodness and the glory of god it was really central to fulfilling the plan of god through their lives if you fast forward a little bit further on in the old testament what you find is that those same words work and keep are used to describe the activity of the priest the jewish priest in the tabernacle and in the temple as they serve god they're working and keeping god's dwelling place just like adam and eve were supposed to work and keep the garden of god and so we might not be surprised then as we fast forward back to the book of ephesians that in chapter two paul says what that you and i are now the tabernacle you and i are now the temple of god so god's dwelling place has gone from garden to temple to the church to the people of god we are the kingdom of priests and so when paul says in chapter five that you and i or chapter four that you and i are supposed to work he's reaching back to the old testament and saying hey just like adam and eve were working and keeping the garden as priests of god and so we're fulfilling their mandate to fill the world with the goodness and glory of god so also we now is the temple of god we do that same working and keeping to still continue filling the world with the goodness and the glory of god and so because of that priestly connection to our work we wouldn't just say that work is good we'd say that work is worship that that work our vocation is a means of bringing worship and glory and honor to god which is actually where the meaning of your work is found you see vocation all by itself will never satisfy you never ever i don't care how long you've been dreaming about doing that thing or pursuing that call it will never satisfy you only god can satisfy but vocation is meant to be an act of worship and when you steward it in a way so that it is done as worship unto god that is very satisfying being god -centered and others focused with your work about 500 years ago the reformer martin luther made the statement he said that the maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of god just as much as the monk who prays not because she may sing a christian hymn as she sweeps but because god loves clean floors it's good work done unto the glory of god the letter to the church in thessalonica in first thessalonians chapter one and verse three which we'll spend quite a bit of time in during this series paul says this we remember before our god and father your work produced by the church of the church of the church of the church of the

church of the faith and that phrase right there has to do with the things that you would normally think about when it comes to christian servanthood serving in church loving people through acts of service but that's not all we remember we also remember your labor prompted by love and this is a theme that he's going to deal a lot with in the letters to the thessalonians because work was an area in which they were struggling for different reasons than the ephesians but one of the ways that paul tries to reshape their view of work is by putting it right alongside things that are regularly associated with christian servanthood you see what paul is trying to get us to understand is that there is no divide between sacred and secular in types of work that we do now of course we would say that there is holy work and unholy work depending upon the actual activity of our work but what i'm saying is that writing sermons isn't necessarily more sacred than making sales or films or music or cakes that in fact all of it if it's being empowered by a passion for the gospel can in fact be sacred and holy unto god in acts chapter 19 when paul is actually in the city of ephesus where he spent about three years planting and building that church there the church that he's now writing to there's this amazing little anecdote about his time there where it says that paul's aprons and handkerchiefs were being taken to sick people laid on them and those people were being healed well friends that apron of paul's was not a priestly apron it was a business apron paul was a tent maker he spent his days making tents he was a leather worker and it was his his garments his tools of the trade that were being taken to be laid upon people for their healing and i think that speaks to us that when our work is aimed at serving god and serving others with sacrificial love and joy we are opening ourselves up and opening our work up to be a conduit of god's heavenly kingdom to flow into the world bringing the goodness and the glory of god through the world to the world through the world through the world through the world through the work of our hands how does this apply to us it means that christians should be the most stand out hard -working people at their job or in their field laziness should never be something that you are accused of hard work is not merely a necessity that we must tolerate and try not to avoid no it's something for us to embrace we're not trying to make it through this life doing the least amount of work possible we're not trying to do the bare minimum our actual mandate from god in the scripture is to work hard and do the least amount of work possible we're not trying to do the bare minimum our actual mandate from god in the scripture is to work hard to go above and beyond in our work and that has implication for us no matter what we do for work whether it be babysitting or baking or building our aim is to work hard as if for the lord and not for human masters you see we're not aiming for early retirement on a beach somewhere that's not our goal in life and even if we made that amount of money that would allow us to make such a choice we would take that money be generous with it and still continue working hard for the glory of god while impacting other people's lives now of course most ordinary people aren't often faced with the choice of do i want to retire today work is an inevitable reality for a long time to come and so the question then is what is your attitude towards your work are you trying to do the least amount possible just to eke by for the sake of yourself well i would submit to you that that mentality is maybe a notch or two above the mentality of theft because your work is still about you and i think paul is going to lead us to a very different conclusion and i think paul is going to lead us to a very different conclusion and i think in this verse by the time we get to the end do you spend a lot of time complaining about work or complaining about what you earn friends just a tip if you've got time to complain about how little wealth you have you probably have time to create more when i was a kid i had a manager who always used to say to me at the shop if you got time to lean you got time to clean friends and family you got more time than you think it's all about how you steward it what does paul say in a feature be very careful then how you live peripeteia how you daily walk not as unwise but as wise making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil which means that they are in the you and i are called to redeem time and the way that we redeem time is we steward every ordinary everyday moment for the glory of god and that includes at our job right and so as you steward the opportunities that you have basically as you work hard you're going to be able to do more and more of the things that you're going to be able to do and so if you work hard you'll be doing it for the lord's glory and and that revelation of working hard will grow out of understanding that i don't work for them i work for him paul goes on anyone who's been stealing must steal no longer but must work i love this part yep there we go doing something useful with their own hands this is all about the content of your work that that phrase doing something useful with their hands is literally translates producing with their hands good things and what the scripture is getting at here is the meaningful nature of your work because hard work is one aspect of good work but meaningful work is another and both the hard and the meaningful are ingredients of good work meaningful work lives at the intersection of the quality of what you actually produce and the need that it meets in people's lives so like if feeding people is your work then meet the need of hunger with the best meal that you can if clothing people is your work then make and sell quality garments if you're in business then provide a product that will genuinely help people and serve them in a way that fills them with joy if you're a teacher don't just teach to educate teach to inspire and encourage and challenge at cathedral we've got everything from soccer coaches soccer coaches to singers app developers entrepreneurs everything in between and i love it all but let's do all of our work to the glory of god and make sure the content of our work is something that would bring the lord honor and of course to treat our work in this way requires self -discipline to not phone it in with the things that have been entrusted into our hands but that self -discipline is the best kind of self -discipline because it's aimed at loving others if you're on a team at work how's your attitude does the attitude that you bring to your team help your team prosper or hinder their prospering are you the kind of team member at your job whose opinion is sought out

or does your boss walk the other way when he sees you in the hall because he doesn't want to deal with your antics again jeremiah said to israel seek the welfare of the city that you've been sent into as exiles because in its prosperity you will prosper and you should think that same way when it comes to your work seek the welfare of the company that you work at because as it prospers so too you will prosper my boss doesn't notice me i know that's why you work for god not for them because it's the lord who rewards you for your work you stay diligent you just stay faithful and the lord is looking do good work pursue excellence make good stuff grow in your craft whatever skills are required for you to do your job well intentionally improve upon those skills meet people's needs of joy love them through the quality of what you provide and produce like i still read books on preaching i haven't arrived yet i'm in seminary i haven't arrived yet because i understand that as i grow i can serve you better and it's the same for all of us as you grow in the field that god has called you to as you improve as you discipline yourself to get better you'll be able to serve people better and love them in in more helpful ways and some weeks for me like are crazy packed like it's overflowing with assignments and sermons and leadership and pastoring and everything in between but a full life is often the overflow of deep love when you have deep love that is going to overflow in a full life just ask jesus just ask paul they worked hard paul said in first corinthians 15 by the grace of god i am what i am and his grace to me was not without effect and we read that like oh man that's so lovey -dovey and so awesome god's grace must have just given paul a big cuddle and made him just feel so special and paul says no i worked harder than all the other apostles yet not i but the grace of god that was with me that will mess with your understanding of grace you see grace is not an excuse for phoning it in and hoping that jesus will pick up the slack god's grace is there to empower you in a life that serves him and serves humanity well through your work and that gets us to the why anyone who's been stealing must steal no longer but must work doing something useful with their own hands why that they may have something to share with those in need and this brings us to the cause of our work now it is amazing how much life transformation this one little verse covers that paul begins the verse by instructing christians not to steal and in the same breath ends with instructing them to start giving things away one brilliant bible scholar john stott he made this statement he says none but christ can transform a burglar into a benefactor that was his summary of this verse that jesus he he transforms thieves into people who are generous who can give things away it's a radical change of priorities and of course that's the kind of transformation the power of the gospel can bring about now i would just say for any of us who feel like we're falling short in this area of life and it's probably not because you're stealing but maybe it's because your your work ethic isn't all that good or maybe you're struggling to find meaning in your work i would just say that if jesus can indeed transform burglars into benefactors then certainly if you invite him into your work life he'll be able to do a transformative work for you as well it just begins with you recognizing god's calling in this area of your life and actually asking him to come and help you and that's really essential because there's a lot on the line good work is about much more than your own well -being good work paul says here is for the sake of being able to be generous that's the why in the scripture for your work i wonder what your so that is wonder what your why is when it comes to your work is it genuinely aimed at god and other people is it aimed at generosity and when you think about it this is the true antithesis of theft theft is a me -centered approach to work but uh generosity

and i think that that's actually a more profound idea for us in the west than we may realize because we tend to view work through the filter of personal success and personal fulfillment that's how we think about work work for a vast majority of people is aimed at either making enough money to attain a certain standard of living or it's aimed at pursuing a particular passion so there can be the experience of fulfillment which tends to be elusive maybe we'd say that business types tends toward the former artist types tend toward the latter we probably all gravitate a little bit towards both and both personal success and personal fulfillment as the why behind our work i think are missing the biblical picture now it's fine to have a standard of living that you'd like to achieve lord knows i do it's fine to have a a passion that you want to pursue in your work as long as it's not unnecessarily making you dependent upon the state or upon other people as a burden but to make status was that bomb right there was i'll come back to that later in the series make status and personal fulfillment the the priority of your work the ultimate aim that is more of a a modern western mindset than it is a biblical mindset paul says here that we do good work not for the sake of personal success not for the sake of fulfillment we do good work for the sake of generosity so here's a big idea for us straight from the bible we view work through the filter of personal success and fulfillment but paul teaches us to view work through the filter of generosity and mission grounded in love that's where that verse takes us here's why you and i are called to work hard and this has some amazing implications for the way christians think about work and money you see contrary to what a lot of people may think the aim of christianity is not poverty the aim of christianity is fruitfulness that results in generosity and it is important that you and i have a clear -eyed recognition of money's power to corrupt and to be idolized but it's also important to make sure that we don't overestimate money's power to corrupt and underestimate the holy spirit's power to redeem we give ourselves to good work and what paul is saying here is that good work here's here's the result if you work hard that will result not only in your own needs being met so that you don't need to steal from others so that you don't need to be overly dependent upon others but it also amounts and you being able to give to others that you can be a generous person that you can be a fruitful person who is able to meet the needs of people who are genuinely in need and that's part of god's central plan for humanity from the beginning just as adam and eve were in the garden and commanded to be fruitful and to multiply they were called to abundance so that they would have uh fruitfulness to share now that's not to say that you're all going to be filthy rich you probably won't antithesis of of poverty is not riches per se the antithesis of poverty is abundance it's having more than you need so that you can give away to others and that's why you're meant to work hard and if you live with that north star that's actually how you will experience true success and true fulfillment some of you in your career you're actually experiencing great success you're doing really well and you got goals and you got a plan and you're on track to achieve your goals and you're on track to achieve your wants and you're on crossroads achieve them, and we celebrate that. I want that. My question, though, for you is, how does this idea of working hard so that you have something to share, how does that adjust your goals? How does it adjust how you would spend your money? How does it adjust your life plan?

That's what Paul is coming at here, is this idea of, why are you working? Is it for you, or is it for the Lord and for other people? Some of us, we maybe suffer from laziness. Some of us view work in a merely utilitarian way. We do just enough to pay the bills. Others of us may be too narrowly focused on the kind of work that we pursue. We refuse good jobs because they're not in line with what our dreams are. Your work is about your fulfillment. You wouldn't refuse the good work if you understood that this is an opportunity to be a generous person. Some of us are driven to succeed, and you've achieved a lot, but your motivation remains focused almost exclusively on the good work that you do. You're not focused on the good work that you do. You're not focused exclusively on the kind of life that you can provide for yourself or for your family. And God's invitation to us is very clear. Commit yourself to good work for the glory of Christ, the beauty of the bride, and the good of the city. Now, clearly, I'd love for every single one of us to see a connection between what Paul is teaching here and our upcoming house offering, because ultimately, our earning, our work is aimed at the advancement of God's kingdom, and there's lots of ways that we advance the kingdom. And one of them is us partnering together as a local church to see our church continue to advance and take territory in the cities that God has called us to. So I want you to be prayerfully thinking about that. God, why have you put me in this position to earn what I earn? Because I see that it's not just for me. I see that ultimately it's for you and to advance your kingdom purposes in the earth. Now, everything in God's kingdom strikes us as upside down, and this is no different, right? In the world, we have to be prayerful. We have to be prayerful. We have to be prayerful. We have to be prayerful. In the world, we think, well, I want to get ahead, and I want to earn a lot so that I can store up enough for myself, and when I have enough for myself, then I'll be a generous person. Then I'll think this way about my earning. But of course, anybody who's made that their MO has found out that starting with yourself in the center does not end up with putting other people in the center. And when personal success and fulfillment is your filter, and we've all lived that way, you've learned that there is a way to make that happen. And I want you to be prayerful. There's no success that is successful enough, and there's no job that is fulfilling enough. But when you work for the sake of loving God and others, you'll have more success and satisfaction than you bargained for. Some of us here probably watched the show Breaking Bad. Any Breaking Bad fans? Yeah, it was a great show. Really well done. As I was writing this, that was just me tipping my hat to the creators of Breaking Bad. As I was, writing this sermon, I thought about this one thread that was woven throughout the entirety of the show where Walter White is confronted by his wife and what he's doing, you know, creating meth. What's the term for creating meth? I don't know. Cooking? Cooking. Clearly, I never did drugs.

And, you know, he's this super notorious bad guy. And every time she confronts him about it, Walter White's response to her is always, I did it for us. I did it for our family. And that thread gets traced all throughout the show until the very last episode where he has this final confrontation with his wife. And he says, honey, you need to know that the reason I did all this, and she cuts him off. She says, I don't want to hear it any more times. I don't want to hear that you did this for the family, that you did it for us. He goes, no, no, no. I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. I was alive. And, of course, the irony that the creators of the show want you to recognize as he utters those words, I did it for you. I did it for you. I did it for you. I did it for you. I did it for you. And one of those words, I was alive, is that the entire time of the show, he's dying of cancer. And his entire world is crumbling and decaying around him. And I wonder if we would have a Walter White moment of honesty today when it comes to our work. Hopefully, you're not cooking that.

But if you are, let's pray for you at the end of the sermon. That would fit into that unholy category of work that I was referencing earlier. But if we would have that moment of honesty about why we do what we do. What would we genuinely say? In our heart of hearts, would we look at our work, our vocation, whether it's something that you want to keep doing for a long time or something that you're just doing in the meantime? Would you say, I do this for me to pay the bills. I do this for me for fulfillment. Maybe you'd say, I do it for my family. There's nobility in that. But ultimately, where the Lord wants to lead us is that we would say, I do this for him. Because when our work is something done for the Lord, that's where good work can truly begin.

And that's the idea that I want to leave us today is this idea right here, that your good work is integral to God's good work of restoring God's good world. So when you wake up on Monday morning, have that idea ringing in your ears. What you're putting your hands to is a means through which God wants to bring restoration to the world. And all you have to do is show up ready and willing to do good work. Let's all stand. Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you for calling us higher in this area of life. And God, we know that the reason you call us higher is because you have more for us. And we don't want to live beneath our potential. We want to live into the fullness of what you've planned for us so that we can do all your will and so that we can experience true satisfaction that comes from serving you and loving you. I do pray a blessing over, everybody's work life right now. Lord, that they would have a change of perspective about how they view the work of their hands, their minds. Lord, even if it's mundane work, I pray that you help them to see it in a new way so that it is done unto your glory. I pray that you'd open their eyes to see every single image bearer who crossed their path at their job so they could be a minister for your glory right there in the workplace. Show them, Lord, that they're your temple. your dwelling place on the earth. So they can take your presence into the workplace and bring redemption in their office, in their restaurant, in the home where they nanny, across every single space of human life. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you guys so much. Love you.