Pastor Paolo Esposito - "The Gospel at Work"

[Music] [Music] [Music] and the funny thing is it's okay the last thing i need is to be hurt [Music] washing my eyes to see your majesty to be still and know join this place [Music] let of god speak [Music] i'm finding myself in the midst of you beyond the music beyond the noise all that i need is to be with you and in the quiet hear your voice where did god speak but he pulled down like me washing my eyes to see [Music] please let me stand rest [Music] rain washing my eyes to see [Music] please [Music] your wholeness i'm finding myself at a loss for words and the funny thing is it's so okay good morning i um i assume most people here are aware uh but maybe you're here for the very first time or you just uh not that uh informed about the different happenings when uh giovanna said uh you know welcome chloe and daniel vasquez she said that because today is the first time they lead us in worship as one they got married about two weeks ago i believe it was and yeah we can do that and if today they sounded a little bit more harmonious if they were a little bit more you know in tune with each other it's because they have become one so congratulations daniel and chloe we are so happy that you're here and uh we wish you well you survived the first two weeks uh we wish you many many many more doing all right yes it's been busy but you're good all right thank god for that uh last week we made an announcement about this i just wanted to just make you aware this morning i got in contact uh well sandra got in contact with me she's our pathfinder director leader and if you saw a box outside in the lobby that's for our pathfinder that's where we are collecting items for refugees who are relocating from afghanistan to our area we're partnering primarily with adventist community services of greater washington and also other local community service partners to leave things so there's a list of items that are collected from personal care and hygiene items to clothes about clothes i want to say something i don't want to be rude and disrespectful and state the obvious but um as you give out clothes if you or your child wouldn't wear that because it's too ugly and stained and stinky maybe somebody else shouldn't wear it either so so give away things that maybe they don't fit anymore or maybe you have too much i understand and in order you're the generosity of your heart you want to give but let's make sure that we give dignified things to make the life of these refugees things i i hope nobody's offended what what i'm saying and i hope you understand um but let's give good gifts as we give gifts we reflect the character of god in our giving our generosity we reflect god's character and god doesn't give junk he gives beautiful things so let's let's do our best to give beautiful things so um if you want the list of things there is a fire that has been prepared and sandra left it out um in by the box and there'll be more but you can also text refugee refugee that's two e's somebody some people texted refuge or a different word and then they didn't get the other response text refugee to 5436 and you will receive a list of items uh that um we are collecting and partnering with local community service outposts in our community primarily adventist community services of greater washington okay let's take a deep breath okay and now turn to the person next to you and just tell them that you're happy to see them and if you're so bold you can tell them that they look very nice today okay all right let them know that okay it's nice when we come to church it's special okay very good we have some people that have come back from overseas i think and this is their first i think it's the first time i've seen you since you've been overseas you look beautiful back i'm wearing new shoes today my wife got me new shoes because she thought that i needed new shoes for sabbath so you can tell me how nice my shoes look afterwards new shoes are very nice but they're also uncomfortable so if you see me standing still today you can thank her you could tell her that maybe she should get me new shoes every sabbath so i don't walk around as much and i can stay still a little all right it's good that we can laugh because i knew that the sabbath was going to be a hard sabbath it is not um very often that a sabbath falls on such a solemn day such a meaningful day a day that many of us who happened to be alive 20 years ago will never forget and i still remember that september 11 20 years ago i was at tacoma academy which means that i was much younger than many of you and that's still older than some of you that's okay i was i believe in mr hooker's class and uh it's a day that i will never forget and that i believe you will never forget um and i had a lot of time to pray you know what should we do this morning should we scrap everything that we've been doing and just spend the whole day on this and i reflected you know i took time to pray and think how disruptive that date was there were at least 2996 people that we know of that um woke up that day and went to work uh that went to do what they were here to do and they never came home and it reminded me of how precious every moment is that what we do here matters it also reminded me and that the sun did come up the 12th but at the same time it wasn't the same something had been lost all of us lost something some much more than others but something had been lost and yet we are here so i want us to take a moment just to pray because i think this is something that we must pray over and we took a moment throughout our service at the beginning we had the video feature pastor tap we thank him for making that available for us and we took time to to reflect on this and we will move on and complete our series on the good work but it's good to do it in the frame of recognizing that our work here also matters and that every day is precious so let's pray and we will then transition into our sermon our heavenly father thank you for this day thank you that we get to be here thank you that we get to tell the people who are here that we are happy to see them that it's good to see them even that they look beautiful maybe thank you that there is a sun that is shining bright and beautiful and like giovanna said a few moments ago it's not too hot it's not too cold it feels just perfect even though 20 years ago i didn't feel that way so father help us to navigate through this day all the emotions all the memories help us to first of all appreciate the gift that it is to be here help us to also acknowledge everything that has been lost and to maybe draw our hearts closer to those who have lost and who have experienced tragedy and pain to be empathetic for one another give us hope that there is a brighter tomorrow and help us to realize that even today there is a work for us to do and that that work matters in that it's meaningful and that it's beautiful so thank you father we pray for all these things praying that your spirit will speak to our hearts today and and convict our hearts and minds of exactly what it is that we need today not because of me but in spite of me in jesus precious name we pray amen amen so today we will close our um series the gospel at work uh if this is your first time coming and you haven't been here for the last three weeks this may seem a little abrupt and i apologize the good thing is that all of this is available online and if you so choose you could go and catch up the first uh the first installment of the series talked about the garden view and what is god's view of work and in the garden god prepared work he told men in in his perfect companion adam and eve to cultivate the ground to tilt the earth to multiply to have children to establish society and that all work was good that physical labor was good that um creative work and administrative work was good they were to name the animals be creative and that somehow in our work we partake with god first of all we partake with god because we share his image his dominion his power god is a creative god he worked he worked six days and then he rested on the seventh and he told us to do the same thing to work to multiply so we share god's image in sharing his dominion and his creativity in this world and that makes all of our work good administrative work physical labor artistic work all work is good of course there are things that you can do that are not good if you're in an industry that hurts people and damages people then maybe that's not what we mean because sin broke work but in god's view work is good but we also partake and we also connect with god through our work because that's how god also provides to this world remember we pray many of us pray before each meal and we thank god for this food and we thank god for providing this food and how does god provide that food through the farmer through the supermarket manager through your hr uh you know uh payroll analysis and uh and payroll department who make sure that you get paid so you can buy that food so god protects us how does god protect us he protects us through the firemen and the policemen and in our active military service men who protect us how does god strengthen our gates through all these things how does god how does god give the care that we need many times through human beings how does he keep us healthy many times through doctors through health care professionals so we also connect our work when we with god when we use our work for the betterment of others in the food that we make in the way that we manage that we do administrative work in all the things that we do we connect our work with god's work so that we got that from luther then last week we also recognized that work sometimes is hard how many of you had a bad day at work right i had a few bad days at work i won't tell you about it because it might have to do with you and i don't want to offend you but i have had i have had bad days at work sometimes and uh we remembered that uh enroll in paul once said in romans all creation groans in genesis it says that cursed was the earth the ground and thorns and thristles you know came out of the ground and god said you will still work you will still till the earth and labor and work hard but in your work there will be thorn and thristles and we talked about some of those thorns and thresholds the fruitlessness of work how sometimes we can work so hard and have so little to show for our hard work we also talked about the pointlessness of work how sometimes at the end of the day it feels like it's pointless we gave everything we had we worked so hard and at the end of the day if jesus doesn't come before we're gonna lay in a tomb and all our hard work will go to someone else and then last but not least we talk about the idolatry of work when work becomes our idol and we talked about brick making remember you really need to watch last week if you didn't if you didn't watch brick making how bricks became an idol to you know a few people in the past and how sabbath tells you no this brick it's not the boss of you and if that doesn't make any sense to you you need to go and watch last week and then it will so today i want to kind of wrap it up we're wrapping up this series and i want to give you four things plus a fifth that the gospel gives our work four things and then maybe a fifth that the gospel gives our work and we're gonna kind of be concluding wrapping up borrowing from the last two days and and maybe expand a little more so four things that the gospel gives our work are you ready yes it seems like i'm working you too hard are you ready okay okay let's do it the first thing the gospel gives us a new story without which work can tear us apart so the gospel gives us a new story without which the gospel can tear us apart now it seems like i'm already burning you out so so let's do a little imagination imagine you're sitting at a bus station at a bus stop okay in a large city and then a young man approaches you and he tells you the name of the common duck is histronicus histronicus histronicus what do you do now this is taken from mcintyre's book after virtue it's an example that he gives there okay so so just put yourself you know in that situation somebody comes up to you and he tells you this young man tells you the scientific name of the common duck is histonicus histronicus histronicus now his sense grammatically speaking as far as i can tell makes good sense it's a well-constructed it has a subject it kind of you know has a verb it kind of tells you what it kind of is if you think about it the sentence in its in and of itself makes sense however you're totally confused why because that action that event that just happened needs a story to give it context so now your mind starts spinning and you think well maybe this young man has some mental you know issues and and maybe he's not doing so well so the best thing i should do is maybe just ignore him or just smile kindly because i don't want him to you know you know go go terribly bad you know maybe he's violent maybe he's not maybe he's unstable and he'll hurt himself so maybe i'll just smile and ignore him right because this makes no sense or maybe the story is a little different maybe you're young too just like that young man and you go to the same high school and maybe this young man just had a test the day before and in the test there was this question what is the name of the common duck and he had a friend that looked just like you who had asked him you know what's the answer to this test and he couldn't remember and now you remember so now you say oh this is the answer to to which point maybe you could just laugh it's a coincidence right oh no i'm not your friend but that's funny i hope you didn't cheat on the test and you leave it at that right or maybe maybe this young man is a cia spy and those words were the code words to engage in a covert operation or maybe even worse he was a soviet spy and those words were against the the the the the covert words to engage in a in a uh secret operation that would bring a lot of damage in which case maybe you should you know maybe shoot him because he's going to hurt people you know he's on a bad mission you see how the story changes everything and in many ways when we live our lives it only makes sense according to the story that we put around our lives and these stories begin to tell us who we are and it also begin to tell us who other people are i remember 20 years ago being in the classroom when that first airplane crashed into a building and i don't know about you but the people that i was surrounded with we all began to just go through the story in our heads it's an accident how tragic and somebody said in in the classroom i was sitting he he was just very transparent with his feelings this this teenager this young man how could the pilot not see the building i mean it's pretty big and it was just like you know things like this don't happen like what in the world what kind of accident is this and some minutes later the second airplane hit and the story changed very very rapidly and still now my my i get the goosebumps because in that moment we were all made acutely aware of the presence of malevolence that something evil had happened in that story just changed how we felt and what was sadness also became a little bit of fear and anger and and and and just sadness and and most of the people in that classroom that i was with maybe some of them got confused and they didn't know what to do many others were just crying because that story changes everything interestingly enough a few months later i found myself in argentina because i finished high school there and i just happened to move make that move a few months later and the whole world tried to come to peace with this tragic event the senseless loss and some people made the story that you know uh just people hated other people because of the freedoms that they had so they had to hurt them other people begin to tell other stories and i remember being a young person how this affected me and it made a lot of internal tension well you know and i was the american in in another country so well you guys go around the whole world thinking you're the police of the world so things like this will happen and i remember how that wounded me how that hurt and then all this alternative story started coming out you know theories that some of them have conspiracy on them and i remember how much that made how we cope with this tragic event so difficult because these stories they tell us who our enemies are who are enemies uh who our friends are and it tells us how to navigate through this world and if you live your life with the wrong story it will hurt you and it will hurt a lot of people and when it comes to work we also have stories if you grew up maybe in a country where there's a very heavy marxist you know emphasis maybe you learned that the good guy is the hard-working poor guy and he's the hero and the villain is whoever owns the means of production and they're the bad guys and you should reveal because they're bad people if you grew up maybe with a more capitalist you know influence you'll learn that you know the good people are those who who who enable production and who are able to you know make abundance so i can trickle down and everybody can have some and these stories you know permeate even our work if you live in maybe uh you know in a very hedonistic uh culture and surrounding freudian maybe maybe you learn that whatever gives you know pleasure and satisfaction those are the good guys and whatever makes you you know feel bad and work hard those are the bad guys but the bible gives us a very unique story in romans chapter 3 verse 22 24 it gives us another story to wrap our hand our head around and i'll tell you why this is so important but romans 3 verse 22 we're kind of copying jumping in the middle of it but even the righteousness of god through faith in christ to all and know who believe for there is no difference and this is the part that i wanted to hone in okay verse 23 okay for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god and are being justified freely by his grace through the the redemption that is in christ jesus now take a moment to think why this matters look at this quote from tim keller we've been following his book to some degree throughout the series every good endeavor and check this out as far as i can tell the bible is unique in its rejection of all attempts to either demonize some part of creation as the root of our problems or to idealize some part of creation as a solution see all of the stories that many times we live our lives have some people being the bad guys in this creation and some people in this creation being the good guys and this makes us tear each other apart and this happens at a great level how we live our life but this also happens even in our daily work who the good people are who the bad people are why we should fight why do we live in such a polarized time because of the stories that tell us they're the bad guys you're the good guys and then we tune into more stories that reaffirm that yeah of course we're the good guys and of course we're the bad guys they're the bad guys and yet the bible tells a radically different story the bible says that we were all good and we all have sinned and we are all being redeemed for those who open their hearts and accept that redemption will be complete and yet some will will reject it but in god's story the whole world was created good and the whole world has fallen and it's all ready to be redeemed so it's harder to make somebody else the source of all of our problems because they too might just be a sinner who has been redeemed like you and me and it's also hard for us to say that we are the good guys because we too have sinned and been redeemed we are fallen but we are being saved and this story i think it's extremely important also as we do our work and as a church because in the other story it's very easy to be disengaged if i'm the good guys and they're the bad guys then what do i do i just want to hang out with the good guys forget the bad guys but in this other story it takes us from disengagement to actual engagement to be part of that redemption story so if you're a journalist you're not going to bog down in this very simple cheap politics that they're good we're bad and you just do whatever again you will tell a better story if you're an artist you will paint a more beautiful a more comprehensive a wider picture if you compose songs your songs will have a new depth if you're a judge you will not only settle for what is fair but you will look for justice if you're a doctor you will you will be a part of that redemption if you're an entrepreneur you will see your work as part of that redemption that god is doing in this world i had a friend who uh about five six years ago traveled to uh pennsylvania to visit uh the hershey company um was and it was built by milton hershey and he thought that he was gonna go there to eat a lot of chocolate um and maybe come back a few pounds heavier and that was totally to be expected and when he came back from that trip he invited me to his house and his experience there impacted him in such a way that um he couldn't help but tell me so he said you have to come to my house so i can tell you the story and i was like man this guy must really love chocolate i haven't seen somebody so excited about this and he began to tell me the story of milton hershey and tears began to just drip down his eyes a man who had suffered and who had lost much who had also received a lot of success but in a time of great need when his community was stricken by tragedy he turned all his capital to build his community up he built parks and beautiful places so during the hardship that had stricken that community his workers could come and find beauty and joy and that's where hershey park came about that's where all that beauty came about from him seeing his work as an opportunity to bring goodness to people who were suffering and though he lost much during that crisis personal wealth he even lost loved ones he also left a legacy for people to enjoy and we forget that but sometimes the stories are powerful so if you're an entrepreneur if you own a business you too can see your business as a way to redeem what god is actively redeeming so the gospel gives you a new story a new story without without which work can tear us apart it takes us from from from disengagement to engagement and to tell a better story through the work that we do okay that took a little way too long let's see if we can do the next ones a little faster are you ready for number two number two the gospel gives you a new identity without which work can destroy you so again the gospel gives you a new identity without which work can destroy you because if work becomes your identity it will destroy you and there's two reasons why this happens are you ready reason number one if you're really good at your work if you succeed it will destroy you by getting to your head have you ever met somebody with a big head they're a little obnoxious you know they're not very fun to be around with and ultimately they end up alone losing everyone because it got to their head now have you ever felt met somebody who on the opposites they believe they're good at nothing see if you're not good at your work if it gets and destroys your heart so what's a better way well let me tell you first one more way this destroys you another way to destroy you when it gets to your head is like this you know you may or may not know this man his name is leonel messi um and he is without argument the best soccer player the world uh uh currently has uh and he's argentinian of course that's why he's the best and you cannot argue that uh and that's the end of that now he's very good he's very good indeed he's very good at playing soccer okay he's very good at one thing exceptionally good the best that there is yes you agree with me okay good i like you guys the rest of you i'm not sure yet okay he's the best i need we we won't move on until you say he's the best okay is he the best okay he's the best we all agree that he's the best tomorrow tomorrow you have a terrible headache and it turns out you have a tumor he's the best there is do you want him to do your surgery what do you mean no he's the best you just said that he's the best see this is the other way that sometimes also being good in our work success destroys us it gets to our heads we might be good at one thing but we're not good at everything you might be very good at uh doing programming on the computer but you might not be very good at relationships but because you think you're very good you know at programming in your computer you think you're great at picking somebody to share your life with and you might make a terrible mistake because you're ignoring all the wisdom and counsel that people want to give you you might be very good at fixing cars but you're not that good at you know fixing people so so don't try to go around and give medical advice see when we're good at one thing one of the most destructive things that happens is sometimes just because we've experienced success in one area of our lives we think that then we're good at everything else my father was a pastor and he was the director of adra in the northeast part of argentina and i remember when he would go into a town he would be i shared this with you the most qualified person in many areas he was the most educated person because he had gone to college and had a master's he was you know well spoken because he loves sharing and talking and and preaching so suddenly he became the best of everything so when people were sick they would come to my dad and ask him for medical advice and i was like dad wait a minute you might be really good at this one thing but like let's not get carried away so you need to protect your mind and protect your heart because sometimes when you're good at the work that you do you might think that you're better at everything and you're not i'm sorry but this is also good news on the contrary because just because you failed that one thing doesn't mean that you are a failure it just means that maybe you failed at one thing and so many people that i meet carry this very heavy backpack because one thing that they did fail that they consider themselves a failure no just like if you're good at one thing it doesn't mean that you're good at everything just because one thing maybe you weren't very good at it doesn't mean that you're bad at everything it simply means that maybe you need to move on and look for something better because when we go through this view when when we make work our identity again if it if we're good at it it destroys our head if we're bad at it it destroys our hearts if we're good at it it makes us legalistic have you ever seen a youtube video of somebody working out really hard and looking very good and they say well if i can do it you can do it well no maybe you can't maybe your metabolism is just different okay and when we achieve something all of a sudden we become self-righteous so we need to protect our hearts and minds but at the same time just because we fail have you met people who have no aspirations and then bring other peoples down with them oh it don't matter don't worry just live it up no no we were created for goodness we were created to do good and great things so we protect our hearts again because if we make worker identity again if we're good at it i'll destroy by getting to our heads if we're bad at it it'll destroy us by getting into our hearts and god instead what's something different there is an idea that as adventists we haven't fully developed and it is within our doctrines when we talk about the nature of god and also when we talk about spiritual gifts but i think there's even a broader sense of it and it's this idea of common grace in james 1 17 the bible says every good and perfect gift comes from above god gives good imperfect gifts in romans in romans and we were in romans a few moments ago so we can just turn the page romans 12 6 check this out and it's also repeated paul uses this idea over and over it's also in corinthians but romans 12 6 it says um and there are diversities of activities but it's the same god who works all in all giving these gifts um there are diversity of gifts but there's one period there are differences of ministry but it is the same lord and there's this god who gives gifts and later on he says and to all a gift has been given so this god our god he gives gifts to every one everyone has received a gift maybe you haven't discovered yours yet maybe yours you're trying to find the utility of it but everyone has received a gift um and in that generosity again we find our identity that god gives us our gift so the success that we have is our gift from him and even our failure somehow is also a gift for him so it helps us to move on to the to the next thing and this is another reason why this is important that we're making a parenthesis here one of the most difficult things that i find sometimes as a pastor is when we share the good news that we have and we become the biggest hindrance in sharing that good news ryan i think we were talking a few weeks ago we were referencing you know gandhi i have no problem with your jesus it's your christians that i have a problem with right so how can people that believe certain things live their lives in a way that is so contrary to their beliefs and how can there be people that don't believe and somehow live their lives in a much better way it makes some noise doesn't it many people are turn away from christianity and adventism because of the way people leave and here's another reason why this point matters believers are never as good as their beliefs would lead them to be we can believe things and yet we fall so short of what we believe and here's the other part that's even more unbelievable unbelievers are rarely as bad as their unbelief would lead them to be an unbeliever probably believes in evolution evolution tells you you know survival of the fittest just eat anything in your way murder whatever is producing you know resources that you should be using and yet somehow you don't need many people who are just destroying and killing everybody else because of survival of the fittest have you met somebody that's actively doing that maybe not so much actively maybe we could talk about societies but anyway let's leave it at that unbelievers unbelievers are rarely as bad as their own beliefs so because christians are never as good as their right beliefs should make them and non-christians are never as bad as the wrong beliefs should make them we will always adopt a sense of critical enjoyment we can be critical we can pass judgment not be judgmental but we can pass judgment we can have a critical enjoyment of human culture and its expressions in every field of work we will learn to recognize the half truth and resist the idols and we will learn to recognize and celebrate the glimpses of justice and wisdom and truth and beauty we find arouse us in all aspects of life because this god he lets the sun and the rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous to all he has given gifts so when we see these gifts first of all we don't allow them to destroy us by getting to our heads we don't allow them to destroy us by getting to our hearts but also we don't allow them to destroy our relationships because we're not hateful of other people we see in them a new appreciation for their gifts and their talents so again the gospel gives us a new identity without which work can destroy us let's do the last two as quickly as we can the gospel gives us a moral compos compass without which work can corrupt you what does the gospel give give us a new moral compass without which work will corrupt you now talking about this is a little difficult for me because i grew up in a latin american country i already gave it away which one it was i love the country i was born i i still visit uh when i can and it's still a place that i call home god has blessed me with more than one home i have many places that i go home but one of the things that is very different there than here is the conception of what is right and wrong in other words corruption over there you get pulled over by the police and sometimes you just wonder you know how hungry are they that day are they going to ask you enough for dinner or enough or just a drink or you know and they have a lot of silly rules they're like over there it's illegal to drive without a fire extinguisher so they check the expiration date on your fire extinguisher each time they stop you over and it can get really really tedious so again you know the the concept of how things work changes depending on where you live uh a few years ago i was talking to uh one of our um agile directors in a very far away country and and it was a very amusing conversation it was in a country where corruption was rampant and he told me how difficult it was for adria this is our non-profit disaster relief agency where we go out throughout the world to help how difficult is for azra to function in some parts of the world because of corruption and in a way if you don't grease the wheels you cannot do the good work that you're here to do and yet it feels like you're not doing something right you know you don't want to be part of corruption and yet if you don't work within that system you cannot help and you see how quickly it gets complicated so i remember moving to this country and i was so relieved that um you know at least corruption wasn't as it was at least a little bit more covert and that as a daily reality of my life but i quickly realized something that happens in this country that is very different and yet somewhat similar and that is settling for what is legal and something that is legal is not always just it's just legal and i met so many people who in their dealings just settle down for is this legally okay okay then we're good and it may not be the right thing to do and sometimes as christians we can live within the scope of legality and completely miss out on the heart of the gospel the morality that it gives us and this is why the gospel gives us again a new moral compass without which work will corrupt us 2008 remember the finance crisis i have family that works within the the lending sector and i remember them telling the things that you know some of these people are doing is just immoral it's legal but completely immoral we're giving out loans to people that we know cannot pay them and we're giving them out because also our cut is so big it's like stealing from a baby but it's legal and that doesn't make it right and i remember them saying you know 20 years ago things like this just didn't happen we had this unwritten code of what was right and wrong and though there were no laws that didn't say that we couldn't take this much our ceos couldn't take so much such big cuts you know though there were no laws uh we knew what was right and wrong the gospel gives us this new moral compass there's another word for it it gives us wisdom according to the bible wisdom is more than just obeying god's ethical norms because when it comes to god many times we also fall for just what is legal you know what that is called legalism have you met somebody who is a legalist not very pleasant is it okay so according to the bible wisdom is more than just obeying god's ethical norms it's knowing the right thing to do in the 80 of life situations in which the moral rules don't provide a clear answer in your work many things will be regulated many things will be legalized and there's 80 percent of decisions that you'll make that come from an inner compass and the bible tells you your relationship with god tells you what is the right thing to do in the 80 percent of situations where there is no rule yes or no binary for what you should do and the gospel gives you that compass to do the right thing in the 80 of life's situations some years ago i was talking to a high-ranking official in our military uh he was a former member of one of the churches that i used to pastor several years ago and i remember being very young and a little bit naive you know just sitting with him he was a faithful member of our church and in i was just struggling a little bit i believe in the fact that jesus taught non-violence right be peacemakers blessed are the meek the peacemakers and at the same time i also grew up believing that there is a cosmic conflict there is a universal war i open my bible and i read jesus saying you know turn the other cheek and yet in every book of the bible i find violence and war is there a book of the bible where you don't find some sort of you know you know conflict either relational or nations warring nations and i remember being that and i kind of you know i he gave me just a little bit of trust he gave me the hand and i kind of like grabbed his elbow uh and i told you how does your christian affect the work that you do as a high-ranking officer in our military he tells me a story a very simple one he said well i'll just tell you one example and this is very low level and practical but um during one of the wars that happened after september 11 we were going into this foreign nation and there was some activity going on there with some of these terrorist cells and we had three options and i needed to make the decision or give the advice for the commander of in chief to make this decision we could do nothing and then things would escalate and a lot of people get hurt we could do something very disengaged like an air strike and then we estimated the number of casualties that we would have but none you know civilian casualties that would have but none of our troops would be put endangered or we could go in and try to do you know a man mission putting a lot of our troops in danger but minimizing casualties losses and because i believe that every life is precious that doing nothing would cause a lot more loss we decided to go in ourselves and put ourselves at risk to try to save as many lives as possible so so the gospel sometimes gives you a moral compass even in very ugly and difficult situations and he told me and he told me most of the military people i know are the ones that long more than anyone else for a war for a world where there will be no more wars don't think that this is enjoyable don't think that this is no we more than anyone else want peace on earth and yet evil still exists and the gospel gives us that moral compass to deal in the midst of all these things and this is kind of like a big way of looking at it but it's also a very small way of doing even in our daily work the gospel gives us a moral compass to do our work young people you go to college and you will be taught that everything is relative but sometimes good and evil is just good and evil and you will need to make those choices what is right and wrong ephesians ephesians gives us a little advice um oof this one is going to kind of rub many of us the wrong way especially now but check this out check this out this is to bring it to a very low level then uh daily work level bond servants um and some translations are slaves um slaves bond servants be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in sincerity of heart as of christ not with eye service as men pleaser but as bond servants of christ doing the will of god from the heart with goodwill doing service as to the lord and not to men many people have used this text and abused it to justify slavery let me tell you slavery in the greco-roman world was not the slavery that we know it was kind of a contractual thing that happened for a number of years for you to be relieved of your debts it was kind of like doing work hard work but to pay your debts to well fargo that's kind of like what it was when wells fargo comes and sometimes you know they take your paycheck well it's more similar to that than the slavery that we know just to be clear it's very different and we can talk at length about this no it's not justifying slavery in the mistreatment of men and you'll see in the second part how that matters but it's also saying when you do your work do it let do it wholeheartedly if you're getting paid to do good work don't be on your phone all the time how are you reflecting god's character if you're paid to do good work and you're on facebook the whole day what what is that saying about god and our beliefs and who we represent it says when your word don't work just doing eye service don't do just when your bosses are on men please have you ever met met a man pleaser ah they're hard to be around right when the boss comes they're the best person you ever know and as soon as the bus goes away you know the real them and ah paul is saying don't be like that just don't be like that okay work and do your work well and do it with all your heart and says remember that you are a bond servant a slave of christ doing the will of god from the heart so so so if you're an employee if you're on the payroll do your work well do good work but now if you're an employer if you're a boss check this out check this out um with goodwill doing service as to the lord and not to men knowing that whatever good anyone does he will receive the same from the lord whether he is a slave or free and you masters so if you're a ceo if you're an entrepreneur if you're an uh a boss if you're you know the employer and you masters do the same things to them giving them up giving up threatening them knowing that your own master also is in heaven and there is no partiality with him so if you're then in a place where you get to kind of have influence other other people's work he says remember who your real boss is don't think that because you were given this power you're above anyone else remember that your boss is the same as their boss and you will present to them so now lead them as god would lead them there is a story happened in new york city sometime over the last couple of decades her name was katherine and she had just been hired in this big big company this big corporation and she was getting paid very generously and she was working very good she was fairly new and within the first few months of employment she made a miserable miserable mistake it hurt people it cost a lot of money it was just those mistakes that people don't make so katherine got the phone call to go up to you know the top floor uh to have a little conversation in the office you know and most of those conversations in that world and with somebody being fired and usually not in a very nice way but as katherine was getting ready to go to the elevator her supervisor went in with her he says i'm gonna go with you and they rode the elevator together maybe a little awkward and the supervisor then went into the office and the ceo was just you know in flames and yelling and everything and then in a second the ceo became silent and katherine's supervisor stepped in and says i know this was a big mistake and i know it cost a lot it was my fault i didn't give katherine the training that she needed and this man he was in good standing with the company he was respected in love but he took a hit that day some of his credibility was lost and you know they kind of looked at him sideways and on the right down catherine talks to him and tells him why would you do that that wasn't entirely true i i made a mistake and training or training i should have known better why would you do that and the supervisor tried to plate it off and then catherine said you know no no i want you to tell me why you would do that so then the supervisors went together and said well katherine i know your whole life people have taken credit for your work and they never taken blame for your work for your mistakes so i wanted to do something different and then catherine says all my life people took success for all took credit for all of my success and never took the blame for my mistakes but why did you do that and she kept pressing him until he finally said i believe that there was a god who sent his son to take my blame so as i live my life whenever i have a chance i try to live with the same grace towards others i didn't have to do it but it was the right thing for me to do that day catherine went from being an unbeliever to being a devout believer you see the gospel gives us a moral compass without which work can corrupt us but with it it can transform the work that we do last the gospel gives us a new passion without which we can bore you or burn you have you ever heard somebody say how was your week and they say busy okay has anybody answered that to you like how was your week busy okay i would ask you to raise your hand how many times you have said that but we won't do that we won't do that because um i know that would be many of us busy we live in a world where there is like a virtue of busyness isn't it like being busy is virtue and somehow we confuse busyness with maybe being very passionate about something maybe we're so busy because we're so passionate about the work that we do and yet most people profess to have deep dissatisfaction with the work that they do it's actually something a little different because many people many people maybe find in their busyness a form of redemption maybe we're so busy we're living meaningful lives maybe if we're so busy we're redeeming the time that we've been given but there is this danger because that that kind of redemption always leads to dissatisfaction and disdain i'm going to read a few a few paragraphs here i'll try to and and we're this is the last one we're kind of like landing the plane um catherine sawyer said on on the deadly scenes it talks about this thing called acidia and she says a city of many times is understood as sloth that's being lazy right the sin of laziness but she says in the world that we live in that definition could probably be further as far from the truth as possible because a city is actually something different is the laziness of the soul a city is the sin which believes in nothing cares for nothing enjoys nothing loves nothing hates nothing finds purpose in nothing lives for nothing and only remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die acidia is working like one of my friends said work is like breathing you have to do it because without it you'll die really i think there is so much more behind work than that and it says in many times it masks itself as relentless activity but still manifests itself in an empty soul without something bigger than yourself to work for then all your work and energy it's actually fueled by one of the other six deadly scenes and we're not very familiar many of us with this but this is pretty big in other parts of the christian world um it is one of the favorite tricks of of of of satan for sin to dissemble itself um under the cover of whistling activity of the body we think that we are busily rushing about and doing things we uh we cannot be suffering from slothy for so busy we're not being lazy but gloony offers a world of dancing and dining and sports and dashing very fast from place to place uh to to cape and at beauty sports beauty spots and and be happy with that covetness rakes us out of bed every early in the morning in order that we may put a pep and hustle into our business envy sets us to gossip and scandals to writing can take genius letters to the paper into unearthing the secrets and scavenging of the desperate of others because we're jealous of them okay and wrath provides very generously the argument that the only fitting activity in a world so full of evil doers and evil demons is to curse loud and and incessantly to always be critical of everyone whatever brood and black and black guard made the world white lust provides that round of jury promiscuity that passes for bodily vigor but these are all disguises for the empty heart and the empty brain and the empty soul of acydia in a world it's called tolerance but in hell it's called despair busyness what is our busyness hiding an empty heart sometimes an empty soul it's easier to be busy than to sometimes sit with the realities around us but when you see jesus suffer and sacrifice for you when his passion is burning to your imagination it will become very clear whether the things you are passionate about are trust forms of the other six deadly sins or if they're the real thing instead of working out of the false passion of a city just busyness for business sake which is born out of selfishness you are working out of a true passion which is born of the selflessness you are abducted into god's family so you already have your affirmation you have been saved through a dying sacrifice so you are free to be a living one you are loved ceaselessly so you can work tirelessly this doesn't work you will work ceaselessly you will work and not get tired you will work and have passion for the work that you do because you will find rest uh elder you were talking about that during sabbath school today that was phenomenal you will find rest in response to that quiet inner fullness that the gospel gives you so the gospel gives you a true passion a true passion colossians 3 23 says and whatever you do do it as unto the lord romans 12 1 romans 12 1 says be um let me find it for you i'll read it and with this we will come to a close romans romans 12 1. romans 12 1 and it says and i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy acceptable to god which is your reasonable service verse 11 verse 11 12 11 says um not lagging in diligence fervent in spirit full of passion serving the lord rejoicing and having hope in the work that you do so work the gospel will give your work a new passion without which it will bore you or that will burn you okay when i first talked about work in a previous district one of our church members said you know what does it mean you know you talked about you know luther's view of work that all our work is is good and and and and christian and he's telling me but i'm a pilot you know what's the christian way to be a pilot and i had to think about it a little bit and i thought really hard and i thought well land the plane and then i thought well better yet the christian way to be a pilot is to land the plane safely and on time and then he just looked at me and says oh pastor maybe you should try to do the same so let's see if we can land this plane now safely and on time so the gospel gives you a story without which the gospel uh will tear us apart the gospel gives you a new identity without which work will destroy you it gives you a new moral compass without which work will corrupt you and this could have opened sermons and a new passion without which work will burn you or bore you but the last thing that word gives you is hope hope hope that we can face tomorrow in the year 1939 j.r tolkien he's a very prolific writer and uh he's very influenced by christianity and he influences christianity uh he was going through a very personal dark time in his life he had writer's block and he was also going through a very hard period of time in the world world war ii had just broken out and he would start you know writing out a short little book during that period called um a leaf by niggle and in this tale it's a tale it's a story it's fiction it's it's uh it's made up uh he tells a story about this little man named niggle who was an artist and he knew that at some point in his life he had to take a very very important trip uh that trip would take him to a place yonder that trip would mean he would leave the place where he was death and he knew that he had to prepare for that day and at the same time he also knew that he had a passion to do things to paint he was a painter an artist and he would one day he had a dream about a tree that was beautiful and he wanted to paint that tree so he got a huge canvas that was bigger almost in his house and he had to get a ladder to reach the different areas of the canvas and he began to paint this picture that he had seen it was beautiful but he also had a neighbor his neighbor was named parish and his neighbor was his neighbor was laying he couldn't you know he he couldn't move too well and his wife was ill very sick so all the time when nico was about to start painting his neighbor would knock the door it was perish and what is it perish this time and he would try to be nice to perish but parish would eventually get him on his nerves because it was always detracting him from his work and niggle had a kind heart and and so he went and he helped perish every time he knocked in the door but nicole sometimes then got frustrated because when he would get back from help help him perish he would be tired and he also had some character flaws he had a little bit of you know that uh that um you know uh distraction syndrome that some of us suffer from like me you know uh uh squirrel yeah something like that you know we're always distracted uh we have a work for it but uh it's falling out of favor but anyways uh so niggle you know he some days he would feel down so he couldn't paint and one day there was a knock on his door and the train had come to make his trip and all he had been able to do was to make one beautiful leaf from that tree and he tried to argue and say no no give me a few more days just give me one more week so i can i can finish my work i just got the leaf i think conductor said we gotta go got him on the train and then he left a few months later a terrible storm hit niggles town it leveled most of the houses and his neighbor's house had developed a huge leak on the roof and they took his canvas and they cut out that leaf and they used the canvas to patch the roof on parish's house and that leaf was cut out and it was put in a museum in town sometime later negl eventually arrived at his destination and the train stopped they let him out and there was some other stuff in the story but for the sake of time we'll admit it and when he gets to his new home everything looks brighter and more beautiful and the person there the ga the gatekeeper tells him go in explore and there as he's walking around he sees this beautiful hill and there he sees the tree he just raises his hands and say it's a gift and just as he was saying that parish walks around and parish wasn't lame anymore he was in full vigor and he was the garden keeper he was the one that made that tree possible and there wasn't just one tree there were two trees three trees and a whole forest put together maybe in our work today we will work tirelessly and know we will be able to get out is a leaf but there is a tree and all the nuances all the things that got in the way of our work might be part of that tree that we one day we'll see each person that we are able to help and serve they may be part of god's redeeming work here on this earth there is a tree there is a tree and through our work god connects us to that tree remember last week he who began the good work will bring it to completion i saw a new jerusalem a new heaven and earth i will make all things new and in that city we said it last week if you're a city planner the streets are straight if you're an electrician the lights never go out if you're a healthcare worker in that city there will be no more sickness and no more death and in that city if you're a law enforcement or you're in the military there will be no more wars if you're a judge there will be justice forever and ever in that city our work will at last be everything that there is to be everything that it was meant to be but here's the thing through our work that city draws near through that work god begins to to to to create that city around us and through that through our work god wants us to long for that city he's bringing soon so today i want to finish with prayer um all these other days we've been uh talking about three things for you to discuss at work but today i just want to pray for your work pray for your work what is your tree what is the dream that you have what what is the hope that you need what is the story that you need for your work what is the passion that you're needing today i want to pray for your work i don't know where the story intersects with you maybe you're needing courage strength maybe you're needing rest today maybe you just need hope because you have lost so much i just want to pray for your work would you want to be part of this prayer wherever you are i just ask you to stand as we close with prayer our heavenly father i thank you that in heaven there is a tree that heals the nations that gives us life eternal and father we long for that tree we cannot wait to enter those pearly gates and be welcome into that city where we will live forever and ever however the work of the the world around us sometimes seems dark in a day like today we we are reminded of malevolence of of evil of senseless loss and we long for the day where you will come and restore everything that's been lost and yet in a day like today we are also reminded that every moment is precious and that you are redeeming all things and that you will come again to make this earth what it was always meant to be and somehow somehow our work will connect with that the work that we do here matters it shows other people your character through our work we can connect with people and maybe we can share your goodness to other people through our work and through our work we are also preparing to serve you as a living sacrifice for the ages to come so god i pray that today you will redeem us and redeem the work that we do teach us how to work well and to be good christians in all the work that we do father whatever it is that we need today some of us just need rest give us rest some of us need courage give us course some of us need that new identity because we have looked for work to be our identity and it's destroying our minds or is destroying our hearts because it's not going so well or it's getting to us because we think we're great at everything help us to restore our identity with you help us to be reminded that we are children of the kingdom that glorious cities that is coming redeem our work and whatever pain and sorrows is affecting us help us to again look to the future with hope knowing that you're coming again and lastly like negl help us to live a life of service to others let work not be what stops us from serving our neighbor but help us to see how somehow by helping others we are bringing closer ever still that city that you're preparing for us so help us to to serve you in all that we do to be that living sacrifice today and again we cannot wait to see you soon all these things we pray in the name of jesus amen amen

Channel: Fredericksburg SDA Church

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Length: 70min 56sec (4256 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021