← ArchiveDucks in a RowSunday, August 20, 2017DateAugust 20, 2017Speaker—TextColossians 3Passages in this sermonGenesis 21:54Colossians 3:232:13Genesis 33:30Colossians 3:228:44Colossians 38:48Genesis 1:2619:33Matthew 626:342 Corinthians 5:1730:56Ephesians 2:840:26TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00*music* *music* *music* *music* *music*0:20*music* I want to thank our youth for just constantly serving every Sunday. It made me laugh because you guys just coolly strolled up there and I was never that cool. Still I'm not. I'm past the point of trying to be cool.0:49But thank you guys for serving. It's amazing how our youth desire to serve us in worship. And I'm thankful for having youth that have the desire to serve the body of Christ. Even if it's behind the scenes. So thank you guys for that. We have some work to do today. So the sermon this morning is entitled A Christ-Centered Work Ethic. A Christ-Centered Work Ethic.1:15This is our third or fourth. Sometimes it runs together. Part of our series we've called Ducks in a Row. We just want to reorient ourselves with godly, Christ-centered priorities. We've looked at our relationship with Jesus first. We looked at families. And now we're looking at what does it look like to have Christ in what we do and how we work and how we serve. You know, we were created to work.1:43We were created to work. You say, well, how do you know that? Work is good and it glorifies God. Genesis 2 verse 15. The Lord God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. So work is a good thing. I don't want you to mishear anything that we say from this point forward. We can work for the glory of God.2:10And we're going to see that in Colossians chapter 3 verse 23. That in everything that we do, we work from the heart. Not unto man, but unto the Lord. So go ahead and join me in the book of Colossians. We are created to work. And from the beginning of time, work equals worship. So I don't want to go too far off a tangent here. But what is heaven going to look like? Well, if the Garden of Eden, we were worshiping God by serving and watching.2:39I believe in the new heavens and new earth, we will be worshiping God by working over his creation. So I don't think we're just going to be in robes of white, just singing constantly. I think we're going to be serving the Lord in the new heavens and the new earth. Because the new heavens and the new earth look like the original heavens and the original earth. That's just a freebie there. So from the beginning, work equals worship.3:06But here is our difficulty. We don't live in paradise. We live in unparadise. That's even a word. We live in a place where we are bound by sin and broken in our relationships. And that also means that now our work is broken. You say, well, what do you mean by that? If you look at Genesis 3, you have to go there right now. But one of the curses of our sin was in childbirth, there will be pain.3:33And not even anesthesia can fully remedy the pain of childbirth. But there's another curse. One of the ground is now cursed. And so when we work, we will sweat in the high humidity of the south. And we also will have thorns and thistles in the places that we cultivate. And so work is now what we think of it as work.4:01So no longer is work worship. It is truly difficult. So we must understand from a biblical worldview that our work relationships are broken because of sin. So what does that truly look like in our lives? You and I have a tendency to do one or two things. Some of you are workaholics. And you have forsaken your families and your other responsibilities because you just want to work too much.4:25We're going to address that. That is because of sin in the world and sin in your life. Some of you are like, this is awesome because I'm lazy. I'm a bum and I don't have that problem. Well, you too. That's a sin. Right? So we don't often live in Christ-likeness in the way we work. We either, especially men, we want to overwork and then we want to become lazy.4:50And some of us do that at the same time. Right? We work, work, work, work, work. And then when we get home, we just want to veg out in front of the TV or in front of the phone. And what do we do in the same day? We overwork and we find laziness at the same time fighting for our attention and our soul. So may we have Christ-centered priorities. I'm not going to give you thoughts on how to have work-life balance.5:19I don't really care about that. I'm just kind of a blunt person. I want you to have Christ-centered priorities in your life and in your work. I want to give you a story and then we will look at God's word together. An evolutionary biologist at Purdue University. You might say, what is that? He's just smart. Trust me. His name is William Muir. He studied chickens. He was interested in productivity, which is an easy way to find and develop productivity because it's5:47easy to measure the productivity of chickens. They lay eggs. So this is what he did. A phenomenal, fascinating study as someone who has a research background also. So he wanted to know what made his chickens more productive. So he devised this experiment. Chickens live in groups, if you didn't know that. So he found that he was going to take an average flock of chickens and leave it alone for six generations.6:15Which is easy because most chickens are average. It's okay. Chickens don't have a complex about being average. Right? They don't get participation trophies or trophies for laying the most eggs. Chickens are okay being average. So he said, I'm going to take average chickens and we're going to watch them. And then in the average section, he found one or two chickens that were like super chickens. They were extra productive.6:44They had A-type chicken personalities. And what he did, he took them and developed a super flock of super chickens. So he had the average chickens here and he had the super chickens here and he watched them both for six generations. Now, listen to the outcome. This is not a Christian study. This is an evolutionary biologist from Purdue University with high-level graduate research. So after six generations, what did he find?7:13Well, the first group, the average chickens, were doing just fine. They were still average. They were plump and fully feathered and their egg production had increased dramatically. So they were fat, they were feathered, and they were laying like they should have. So you might be asking, well, the super chickens, I bet you they were like supplying Walmart. So what about the second group? Here's what he found. All but three were dead.7:42And you say, well, why were they dead? They had pecked the rest to death. And only three were left. And he said, well, that's a crazy story. Why would you share that? That's horrible. We love chickens. Well, this is a reminder to us. If we are not careful and we overwork ourself and we are only interested in productivity, that work will kill us.8:06It will kill you spiritually. It will kill you emotionally. It can kill you physically of stress. It can kill you mentally. And more importantly, it can separate us from what God wants in our life. So I just want you to know it's okay to be an average chicken. Because if your goal in life is to be a super chicken, that could have devastating effects.8:34So with that, let's look at God's word. Colossians 3:22. Colossians 3 is in the New Testament. Halfway through the New Testament. Paul is writing to the church at Colossi and says in verse 22 of chapter 3, Slaves, obey your human masters in everything.8:59Don't work only while being watched as people pleasers, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do it from the heart as something done for the Lord and not for people. Knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord, you serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray, Father, we confess to you that we live in a broken world.9:28And Father, this is manifest in the way we work and serve and retire. Lord, we have a tendency to overwork and do it on our own. And we have a tendency to be lazy and not glorify you. And Father, we just ask that you would give us work priorities. That we would work with our whole heart, not unto man, but unto you, our God and our Savior.9:52Father, change us. Mold us. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. I want to give you four thoughts on what godly work looks like. They're all P's. The first is this purpose, people, passion, and ultimately pay. Right? So purpose, people, passion, pay.10:19A great preacher outline. First, we need to address this. Verse 22. Paul is addressing slaves. And he says, "Slaves, obey your human masters and everything." And I just want to speak to a question that maybe you have. Is the Bible sanctioning slavery? That's a question we have. If we're honest, we need to ask, Paul, why would you even, God, why would you even address slaves? Are you endorsing it?10:48Is it okay for us? Or is this something that's so outdated, it no longer applies to us? First, it is significant that Paul addresses slaves here. Now, very fundamentally, if Paul is addressing slaves, what does that say about the population of the church of Colossae? There are slaves in the church. That was a paradigm shift. That was monumental. That's only something the gospel can do.11:15That slaves and free men are worshiping together for the glory of God. And Paul takes time to address these people and says, "Look, you can live a life that honors Christ. Slaves, obey your human masters." I want you to hear what Paul does not say. He never sanctions or endorses slavery. He never does. But he does address it and take it to task. So Paul's word here is revolutionary.11:42Historians estimate that there were 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire at this time. Over half the population was a slave in the Roman Empire. He said, "Well, what does that look like? How does half the population become a slave?" Several things. If you lose a war, you become a slave. If you have a debt, think about that next time you use your credit card. If you have a debt and you didn't pay, you would become a slave.12:11Maybe some people sold themselves into slavery because they just could not take care of themselves. And they knew that they would have a better life if they were a slave to someone, especially a master that was honest and even more God-fearing. He said, "Well, what does a slave look like?" In the Roman time, that practically everything was done by slaves. So slave owners felt like work was beneath them.12:37So they wanted to live a life. Their goal in life for these slave owners was we want to work in a way where we don't have to work anymore. This was the ultimate retirement. Let us just work really hard and then I'm not going to have to work. That is not godliness. And sometimes we can get caught up in the American dream of I'm just going to work. I'm going to kill myself for 30 years. That way I can have a really good life for about 20. Sometimes the American dream and a good dream is not God's dream for us.13:06I just caution you there. But slaves in the ancient time were doctors and teachers. So your kids will be taught by slaves. And if you went to the hospital, it would be a slave who were educated and God was using them and working through them. And that's what Paul is addressing here. He says, "If you are indentured, we want you to work for the glory of God."13:30In general, being a slave was not good in the Roman Empire. And often it was terrible. And even if that was the case, God's word addresses that. So let me pull some parallels here. So we cannot pull an estimated or an exact one-to-one relationship. Okay? So when we talk about work, we cannot say, "Well, bosses are slave owners, slave drivers, and employees are the slaves."13:56No. We can't do that. That is not a good hermeneutic. But what we can do is say, "God, give us principles to live a life that honors you." And so we can find biblical principles here at work in our life. And with that, let's look at verse 22 again. So first, God wants in our life for us to work with purpose.14:23Work with purpose. Verse 22, "Slaves obey your" what? Your masters, right? So I'm preaching from the Holman Christian standard. And it says, "Not only obey your masters," but what masters? "Obey your human masters." So God is differentiating between earthly masters, human masters, and heavenly masters or owners.14:44So God is reminding us that we should live with purpose. And we struggle with this because we live in a world that we just define ourselves by what we do. And God is breaking those barriers saying, "If you define yourself as being a slave or by what you do, don't find identity in your work." Now, this is the struggle.15:13What's the first question we ask people when you meet someone? "Hey, my name's Josh. What do you do?" That's a question of identity, isn't it? And we're not doing that to be hellish because we feel like we're demons running around in disguise. We do that because that's natural. Why? Because we define ourselves by, "Look, I'm a pastor. You're a doctor. You're a teacher. Or you work here. Or I work there." And we get worth and value from where we work.15:42That is not bad. But if my only identity is from the place that I work, I will never find purpose in life. We are to work with purpose. The British magazine The New Scientist wrote an article by another man with a PhD from Montana State, Brent Rosso. And he found that most people find meaning in their job in six ways. So I want to give you this and think about these ideas of purpose.16:11And we're going to look biblically. The first is most of us try to find authenticity in where we work. Going to work makes you feel like you're accessing your true self. Maybe you find that you're following a calling or that you can just be yourself. So maybe you work because you want to find who you are. Authenticity. Like this brings out something that is real in me. And this is good.16:40This is godly. Maybe that's you. Maybe you say, "Look, my job just gives me authenticity." That's a great thing. Some work because of agency. You feel like you're able to make a difference. So this taps into your desire to believe that you have free will. You work because you say, "Well, I work here because I make a difference." We're drilling wells in Africa and we're providing water. Or maybe we're doing this. Some of you feel like you're not doing that. You think, "Well, I'm just crunching numbers all day.17:09I'm not making a difference. All I'm doing is finding a paycheck." We'll address that. Some of you find self-worth in your job. Your job makes you feel valuable. You are able to see milestones of achievement no matter how small. I like that because I find worth in what I do. I'm a list person. So I have on my desk like four or five lists and it gives me satisfaction when I cross things off the list. Sometimes I just make things up so I can cross them off.17:37Right? I want to get a cup of coffee. Boom. Look at that. Accomplishment. I don't have a list that big. But some of you find self-worth. That's not bad. So if that's you, glorify and thank God for that. Purpose. Some of us find purpose in our jobs. You see your work as moving you closer to a strongly held goal. The downside is that you are more likely to sacrifice pay and personal time.18:03So if your boss knows that you're only working for purpose, they might not pay you as much because they know you'll do it continually regardless of the pay. Some of us work for belonging. It's not what you do, but it's who you do it with. You belong to a special group of colleagues, even if your job seems mundane or poorly rewarded. You find belonging in your job. Think about football.18:32Why would you throw your body at someone knowing it could cause injury? Because there is camaraderie and belonging there. To win something gives you a sense of belonging to a group of men who are equally want to throw themselves at other people for the detriment of their body. So, transcendence. Some of you find value because it's about sacrificing for a greater cause.18:57Your meaning comes from this or perhaps an inspirational boss. So you just find transcendence that there is something about that. Now, let me just say about those good ideas of work. You and I cannot ultimately find identity in our jobs. If the only reason you work is to find your purpose in life, you will never find it.19:23There's no job in the world that is satisfying of our soul. There's none. Genesis 1:26 says, The Lord has made us in his image according to our likeness, and he gave man the authority to have dominion. So we are made in the likeness of God first, and then we find identity and dominion second. So if you find purpose in your job, that is awesome. But if you don't find purpose in God first, that job will not fulfill you.19:52Find purpose in Jesus Christ. And to rearrange the order of God's design in our life has catastrophic consequences spiritually. Some of us say this, if I define myself by my work, we will go and live a life that is ultimately leading us to hell. Because we will not find identity in there. So I ask, who are you?20:20Who are you? What is your identity? Some of you are teachers. You say, well, I'm a teacher. God has called me to teach. And the reason that's important is because when school starts, the only thing you have is your calling. You've lost your insanity. You lost your sanity. You're stressed out to the max. You can't rest. And so the only thing that's keeping you there is God has called you. But focus on the fact that it is God that has called you there.20:47Some of you say, well, I am a doctor or I am a lawyer or I'm a pastor. There's going to be a day in your life where you will no longer be a pastor, where you will no longer be an accountant, where you will no longer be fill in the blank. What happens when that is gone? We have been created to find identity in Jesus Christ. And purpose is ultimately fulfilled in joyful submission to the King of Kings.21:15No job will satisfy our souls. So I ask you this or challenge you. You will work with purpose when you walk with Jesus Christ. You will work with purpose when you walk with Jesus. Now, our youth are saying, you know what? I'm not going to work. I'm in school. You will go to school with purpose when you walk with Jesus.21:41Some of you are tired and you're like, ha, work? What is that? You will serve Christ with purpose in your retirement years when you walk with Jesus Christ. And if you are enjoying a period of laziness and you're not serving the Lord, you are not living in righteousness. Serve him. Retirement means that God has freed you up to serve him more. Be used for his glory.22:11We find purpose in Jesus Christ. Secondly, how do we work for the Lord? We find purpose in Christ, not our jobs. Secondly, we work with a mind for others. Verse 22. Slaves, obey your human masters in everything. Do not work only while being watched as people pleasers, but work wholeheartedly fearing the Lord. Any people pleasers in the audience?22:39Anyone going to be honest and say you, the rest of you guys are not telling the truth. Even the Grinch, who had a heart that's three sizes too small. When he heard the little people singing in the village, it did something to his heart. Even the person that got up this morning and said, you know what? My goal, my list, I want everyone to hate me. You still have something in your soul that wants others to like you. Everyone wants to please someone at some time.23:09Some of us were honest, the rest of you, the altar will be open at the end of the service. This is going to sound very creepy, but just stay with me. Second point. You are being watched. You are being watched. Look at verse 22. Don't work only while being watched, but as people pleasers, but work wholeheartedly. You know, we are not to be people who work only when others are watching us.23:39And we've all have done that, right? So when the boss is coming from corporate headquarters, we're going to make sure our ducks are in a row. I'm going to work harder and smart, right? I'm going to keep the floors clean. I'm going to have all the numbers right. When I'm being watched, I'm going to do well. And God's word says don't do that. You know what? If you're lazy, be lazy when the boss is watching and you're going to face the consequences. At least be honest. Be sincere.24:09Be sincere. The word watched here is not found outside of the New Testament. It means doing something in your life. So the boss would say, look at you. So Paul is addressing people who say, you know, I'm working. So look at me, boss. Look at I want a promotion. Look at what I'm doing. Right? So when you're not looking, I'm going to be a bum. Who cares? But when you are watching, I want you to see what I have done. And we are radically called to live a different life in Jesus.24:37We're not called to live. Look at me. But we're called to be people that say, look at him. Look at Jesus. Right? So people, I know you're watching me, but look at Christ. The reality is this. We are not called to be invisible. Because you're being watched. I just creeped some of you out in a major way. But you're being watched by the world.25:05And they need to see. They need to see that you are God-fearers. Did you know that there are ancient documents from the Roman Empire? That for slaves, if they knew you were a Christian. The price that they could sell you for. And this is, we've already condemned slavery. But the price of a Christian was more valuable than a non-Christian. Because Christians would work in a way that the world would see there's value there. The world would say, we don't believe in your Jesus.25:33But man, you guys are working differently. When we're not watching you, you're still working. And you know what? You command a higher price. We need to work in a way that others see Jesus. Listen, the greatest mission field that most of us will ever have is the place that we work. The greatest mission field that you will ever have in your life, other than your family, is the place that you work. And some of you are brokenhearted today because you're working with pagans.26:01They're sacrificing goats. And they're killing cats. And they're throwing blood on the door. That's okay. They don't know Jesus. So I can't believe them. They're drinking and they're partying. And I don't agree with it. That's okay. They don't know Jesus. They speak of things that are unmentionable. That's okay. They don't know Jesus. And you know why you work with them?26:29It's because they don't know Jesus. But if you do, live in a way that when they see you, they will see your good works in Matthew 6 and glorify your Father in heaven. Studies show that 80% of people in the world today, in America, will come to church if they are invited and if you would meet them at the door. Not just say come, but hey, if you come worship me, I will meet you at the door.26:57That includes your co-workers. 80% of co-workers in this place would come to worship if you invite them and meet them at the door. You know what? It's okay. Skip Sunday school, which we don't even have anymore. It's life groups. Skip that and meet them at the door. You have my permission. We will forgive you. God will forgive you. But let them see Jesus Christ. And there are hundreds if not thousands of co-workers represented in this room that need Christ.27:25Look, we are being watched. Work and live in a way that when people see us, they will glorify your Father in heaven. We work with purpose. We work with people in mind. We also work with this way with passion. Look at verse 22 again. Do not work only while being watched as people pleasers, but work with your whole heart, wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord.27:48Whatever you do, verse 23, do it from the heart. So you see what God's word has now done for us. We've already talked about purpose and now working externally so other people when they see your work ethic. Now God's attacking our heart. He said, okay, so we fixed the way you work and the way others see you.28:16Now let's work on your heart. So we are to work with single focus in our lives. Now, let me just remind you of this. Who is Paul writing to? Verse 22. Who is he writing to? The church and what population within the church? Slaves. Okay. I know some of you are thinking, Pastor, you don't even know where I work.28:43If you knew how bad it was, you wouldn't even ask me to give them my heart. Okay. I don't know how bad it is for you, but I guarantee you it's not as bad as some of these slaves. So let's just kind of, okay, there's our excuses out the window, right? So my excuses when I felt bad, I'm like, Lord, I work at church. Help me. Lord, save these people. That was a joke, by the way, for my coworkers. But whatever our excuses we have are not thrown out the window because even if you are at the worst of the worst,29:12God is saying, look, give them your heart. So what does that look like? Paul does not say, find what you love and be passionate about it. Paul is not saying, if you just, if you would just love your work, everything would be okay. That is not what a biblical worldview says. This is what Paul is saying. If you love Jesus Christ, he will fundamentally change your heart and you will be motivated in new ways.29:38Think about that. Paul is saying to slaves, look, Jesus has radically changed your heart. Change your heart. So now you can work in a different way. I know you pick up trash for a living. And yes, we know trash smells really bad, especially ours with dirty diapers. I feel bad for the person that has to work, go our neighborhood.30:05But if you know Jesus, he has fundamentally changed your heart in a way that you can serve differently. So serve with passion, maybe not because you love the job, but because you live and love Jesus Christ. So what does it mean to serve with passion and with the whole heart? It means with simplicity and sincerity. The world should see that we are sincere people.30:32They need to see our hearts. Serve in a way that people see your heart, that it has changed radically and fundamentally. And we say, well, how can this be? How, pastor, how could God's word ask me to do something that I don't like and put my heart in it? I'm glad you asked. Second Corinthians 5:17. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.30:58Behold, old things have passed and new things have come. Right? If anyone is in Christ, he is new. Look, God does not make you better. He makes you new. And that includes our hearts. Without Christ, when I was far from Christ, my heart did not need to be made better. I needed a heart transplant.31:26And thank God, Jesus offered me that. He said, well, I just, my heart's not in it. Good. Christ can change that. In Ezekiel, God says this, I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove your heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh. Some of you are very stony right now. And your heart is hardened. That's okay.31:55That's okay. God is not scared of you. Right? God is not scared of your questions if you don't believe. God is not scared of me. God says, give me that heart and I will change it. I will give you a new heart. And I will melt that heart of stone and you will see that Jesus loves you and he motivates you differently. Count Zinzendorf, I love that name. Count Zinzendorf said this. He said, I have but one passion. It is he.32:25It is he alone. The world is the field and the field is the world. And henceforth, that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ. Count Zinzendorf says, I have but one passion. If you follow Jesus Christ, how do we work differently? We work with passion, with a heart that has been changed with Jesus Christ. We work as people that say, it is he.32:53It is he. When you go to work tomorrow morning, just open the door and say, it is he. It is he. You'll get security called on you. And you can say, it is Jesus. It is Jesus. I have a passion for Christ. Look, I hate collecting trash, but I love Jesus. And so I will work in a way where my heart is in collecting trash because I love Jesus. Because he has changed my heart.33:22We work differently. It is he. It is he alone. And lastly, the most important part of why we work. Right? With purpose. With people watching us, we serve the Lord. With passion. And we work for pay. We work for pay. Right? Look at verse 24. Knowing that you will receive. Right? We love to receive. That we receive what?33:52The reward of an inheritance from the Lord. So we work in a way that we want to get paid. I love that commercial. It is my money and I want it now. John Wesley famously said, Get all you can. Save all you can. And give all you can. So let me just address this quickly as we move on. It is quite okay to work and provide for your family.34:19If you have a great job and you are making a lot of money, do not be ashamed of that. That is a blessing from the Lord. Look, God is our Jehovah Jireh. He is the God who provides. We should be people who provide. And so don't feel guilty if God has given you much because you have an awesome job. But give much. Right? That God has given us so we can give to the world who is in need of Christ and in physical need.34:46But I want to remind you of this. If all you do is work to receive a paycheck. As in Matthew 6. You have received your reward in full. If the only reason you work is to get paid. You have received your work in full. And I am just so convinced that one day I am going to get to heaven.35:13And God is going to say, Josh, don't you remember when I gave you this? I offered you an eternal reward. And you chose the heavenly one. And I believe we are going to be devastated at points when we are held account to God. Because God is going to say, look, I offered you glory eternally. And you chose a now and later. Right? You chose the now.35:42And you did not want eternal blessings. So what does that look like? This inheritance language here in verse 24. Knowing that you will receive an inheritance is used throughout the Old Testament to denote the promised land. So if we live in a way that we say, God, radically change my heart. I will live with purpose because I find identity in Jesus. And I will live when people watch. I will work when they're not watching. And I will work when they are watching. And Lord, I will work because you have given me a new heart.36:09God says, and I will give you eternal rewards. What's the date today? It is the 20th? 21st? Mine's halfway in between on my watch. Can you imagine? 20th. Okay. I've really preached a long time if the date's changing. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? On the 30th of this month, you check your direct deposit and it says eternal reward in the bank of God.36:35How awesome would that be? Even if it says zero dollars and zero cents. But if God reminded us, Josh, you don't work to earn a paycheck. You work to receive an inheritance that cannot be taken away because of his glory and his honor.37:01So I ask you, what are you working for? Would we work in a way that is so much more than the daily grind? But it's about sovereign grace. Look, some of us work in places where they need to see grace. And it is a grind. But may we grind for the glory of the Lord.37:29And it is okay to receive a paycheck. But it is so much better to work for the Savior. And one day, God's going to open the bank account and say, look at all these crowns I've been storing up for you. These eternal, you didn't even know about it. But look at all these eternal crowns because you served me when no one was looking. Because you found your identity in Jesus Christ. And you worked with a sincere heart unto the Lord.37:55Oh, that Jesus would find us faithful. So how do we respond to the gospel, the good news this morning? I ask you, have you found your purpose and identity? Some of you are here today and you, if your job was taken away tomorrow, you would be crushed. Because that is your hope, that is your security, and that is your identity. I want you to know that if you are a child or a daughter of the King, people can take your jobs.38:26They can take your house, but they cannot take your identity and your salvation because it is secure in Jesus. But maybe you need to spend some time and say, Lord, just help me find my purpose in you. God, I know that I love my job and that's okay, but I want to love you more. Because, Lord, when you take this job away, right now or at death, I will still trust in you. Help me work for your glory.38:55Are you working missionally when people, when the creepers watch you and they're watching? Would they see Jesus? People are always watching us. They're watching what you do. They're watching what you say on Facebook. They're talking about you behind your back. That's okay. But when they talk, would they talk about God? Because they say, you know what? That dude is really weird. When the boss is not here, he works.39:24I don't get that. He works just as hard when no one's watching. We don't get that. Something's different. And you know what? He says something about Jesus one time. And I don't know Jesus, but apparently Jesus has changed the way he works. Are we living missionally? Maybe you need to spend some time in confession saying, God, I've failed you. But I'll start tomorrow. Living missionally that others may see Christ in me flowing from your throne.39:55Are you living with passion? I didn't ask if you loved your job. I asked, are you loving Jesus? And in so doing, is he changing the way that you work? And lastly, I want to end on a weird note. I want to tell you about something that you cannot work for. I know we spent time talking about work, work, work. There's one thing that you cannot work for. And that is your salvation.40:23Ephesians 2.8 says, It is by grace that you and I have been saved through faith, not of works, lest anyone would boast. So maybe you're here today and you felt like you could work. And I just want you to hear this in your soul. You cannot earn your salvation. And there are two people that just took deep breaths here. Some of you have been badness for a long time and you feel like you're a good person.40:53And you just got really mad at God's word. Because you feel like you're good and you have a good work ethic. And you've been a Christian all your life because your parents raised you in church. And you have a great work ethic. And you know what? People even call you good. Listen, you're not. You can't work for your salvation. It's okay to be wrong and mad. And there's another group that just took a deep breath because you've been trying to earn your salvation. And you come here broken every Sunday because you just can't do it.41:23I want you to know that quit trying. You can't earn his grace. You can't earn his favor. And you can't earn his merit. But you know who did? Jesus. Who lived a perfect life. You see, we're held accountable not by our standards. We are held accountable by God's standards. One day I'm going to be judged not according to what Josh does. Even if I were, I fall short.41:51But I'm judged by the image that I am created in. I'm created in the image of God. And we will all be held accountable. And God is going to look at every one of us because of our sin. We've all fallen short. And he's going to say, Ken, you're guilty. Josh, you're guilty. John, you're guilty. And you cannot earn your salvation. And Jesus is going to say, but Father, I lived a perfect life.42:18And died in their place. Substituted them. And Father, I want you to know that I died. I didn't deserve to die. I know Josh deserved to die because he's fallen short. But he believes on me. And I died in his place. God, every punishment that was intended for Josh, you put on me. You know, if you believe in Jesus, you will no longer be punished for your sins. There are consequences of our sins.42:48But every punishment that I deserve has been put on Jesus. And Jesus is going to say, I have atoned and covered for their sins. Have you trusted in the one who has earned your righteousness? You say, well, what does that look like? How do I trust? It is by his grace alone, through faith alone. And it is his gift that is offered to every single person in this room.43:14Have you accepted the free gift of salvation? You say, well, how does that happen? You can pray a simple prayer. It could be as simple as God. I am crummy. I'm horrible. I deserve death. And Jesus died for me. I need him. Amen. But we do so with a sincere heart. If you believe in your heart and say with your mouth, he is Lord. He is boss. I trust in him.43:43We have a promise that we will be saved. So maybe you're here today. You need to make your faith public. You need to put your faith in Jesus right now and make it public. We want to offer you that chance. Let's pray together. Father.← Previous in Ducks in a RowSunday, August 13, 2017Next in Ducks in a Row →Sunday, August 27, 2017More sermons on Colossians →
