Work is worship. God created work and work is given to us to utilize our potential and also
to bring Him the most glory. Today we're gonna look at what does the Bible teach us
about work. It's something all of us do, well at least should be doing if we are in a good health
and if we have the time to do it. So the first and foremost is work is a gift from God. Genesis
chapter 2:15 it says, "The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and
keep it." God created work before sin can came into this world. God created work before any of
the bad stuff happened. So work is not part of the curse, for those of you who think that, you know
work came after the curse. No God created man and God did not meant for men to just chillax
and do absolutely nothing. God wanted men to work and keep the garden so that he can
stay productive. God works and God wanted men to work as well. Even when we will be
in heaven it will not be an eternal worship set where we are gonna just play harp and you know,
be on the clouds. We are to be having responsibilities. We're going to have some work,
we are going to be active and God created work as a gift. Secondly is that, those who are able to
work should do so. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 3:10 and all the way to verse 12 Paul gives
us this very stern warning. "For even when we were with you, we would give you this command:
If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness,
not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we commend and encourage in the Lord
Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living." So Paul, part of his teaching
in the church of Thessalonia and other churches is for Christians not to be busybodies, for them
not to be doing nothing. When you are working you are fulfilling and honoring God, it's part
of your worship to God. And Paul's teaching would be if he would see you walking around saying no,
I don't need to work. He would rebuke you and he would say, come on.Iin fact there's a verse where
Paul said," If you're not working, you shouldn't be eating." Now of course this does not mean for
people who are handicapped or people who are not able, who are on disability but for most of you
watching this video you are able to work. I found many people who are complaining about not working
because they're like well I can't find a job. The problem is many people are so picky about the kind
of job they're looking for their dream job. You know taking care of the garden for Adam was not
a dream job, it was a job. It was taking care of his bills. I mean it gave him somewhere to
sleep and something to eat and you you shouldn't aim so high that you stay unemployed for so long
because unemployment is dangerous. Bible clearly states when we're not working we can become idle
and the idle mind is the devil's workshop. Number three. Work builds our character. As we have seen,
that if we are idle and we're not working you know, that idleness could lead us to other
things and Paul was very stern about us being busy with work and not being busybodies and he was also
telling us that we should work quietly and earn our living. Meaning we should be good workers.
We should be hard workers as Christians and we should be quiet workers. Meaning we shouldn't
just be the people who talk the talk, we should walk the walk. In Proverbs 14:23 it says," That in
all labour there is profit." See when you work there is profit. Not only financial profit but
you stay productive, your character is built, you develop certain skills, you develop people skills,
you develop essential level of punctuality, you develop things about you. I love this
quote by Howard Dayton. He said a primary purpose of work is to develop character.
While the carpenter is building a house the house is also building the carpenter. Skill, diligence
and judgment are refined. A close friend has a sister who has been supported by her parents for
more than 30 years. She had never had to face the responsibilities and hardships involved with the
job. As a consequence her character has not been properly developed and she is immature in many
of her ways. I've seen this. People who never held the job, they're not mature, they're not
responsible, their habits are all over the place, their attitude sucks and so because they've never
been fashioned and formed and having a job helps you with that. Or you know if you don't want to
have a job but you have your own business, that takes you to another level of being responsible
because then you know, you get employees who work for you and that takes your responsibility
and you get a chance to see the immaturity, irresponsibility up close and that really
fashions your character. That really forms your character and that's good for us, it's part of our
sanctification to have our character being formed. I believe also when you work you know, you get a
chance to practice the fruit of the Holy Spirit because people get on your nerves sometimes,
your issues come out and you really have to learn to practice the fruit of the Spirit. Workplace
is the best place to practice the fruit of the Spirit, as well as your family. Now another truth
is work like God is your boss. Colossians chapter 3:23-24 it says," Whatever you do, do it heartily
as unto the Lord, not as unto men knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance
as your reward. You are serving the Lord Jesus Christ." Imagine this. How would you work? Jesus
is your employer. How would you do? Would you come earlier? Would you leave later? Would you
be distracted? Would your work be better? Would your employer, like your physical employer would
notice it? See a lot of us we work for our boss but we don't work as though Jesus is our boss. But
the Bible says, if you work the work that you do and you do it as unto God you do that work as unto
Jesus as though Jesus is your boss even though if it's something as simple as answering phone calls,
cleaning the office or you know you're cutting videos or you know you're serving the doctor as a
nurse or whatever that is. Your construction work, educational work or you may be working or a judge
or police officer. If you do that, work as though Jesus is your boss, God says you will receive from
Him an inheritance meaning God will also pay you. Not only your boss will pay you, God will reward
you. That's incredible! See some people like, oh I don't get raises, I don't get recognized. But
I wonder what would happen if we would change our attitude toward our work and we would view
Jesus as our boss and work as unto the Lord. It's scriptural. Now sometimes Paul even told people
who were slaves not to go and protest their owners and so you know, I demand my freedom. He says to
serve them as you would serve Christ. Like that's crazy. Why would we do that? Because the Christian
life is not just about claiming our rights. A lot of times it's surrendering our rights and serving
other people regardless. The next one is take time to rest. Probably with your work you have a day
off. God wants us to rest. "Remember the Sabbath day and do keep it holy. Six days you shall labor
and do all your work, but on the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not
do any work, you or your son or your daughter, or your male servant or your female servant,
or your livestock or your sojourner who is within your gates." Exodus chapter 20:8-10. I want you to
notice that God says He expects us to work six days. Now for those of you who work five days
you're blessed. If you work four days, you know 10 hour shifts you're also blessed but Biblical work
day is six days and so He expects us to work six days and on the seventh day He wants us to rest.
Now this is the problem, a lot of people feel like rest is me taking time for me. That's not rest,
that's relaxing. Rest is you taking time from work to be with God and with your family. So I want you
to notice that God says, I want you the seventh day is to the Lord, not to you. Now from work,
to God. Your true rest is not when you stop work, it's when you start worshiping and sometimes we
need to stop and disconnect from our work to enjoy God. That's why for many people Sunday is the day
of rest. It's good to go to church with your family. It's good to have good lunch. It's good
to have a good dinner time. It's good to have a good family but to do it in the context of a local
church. Why? Because the day of rest scripturally was given to us so we can give it to the Lord. I
like what Billy Graham said. He said our work was never meant to be the center of our life,
that place belongs only to God. Someone who brags about working seventy to eighty hours a week
probably thinks he's the master of his job but in reality he has become its slave. My friend if job
is the center of your life as a Christian you're committing idolatry. Work is very important as I
mentioned already but we have to learn to rest and honor God. We have to learn to rest and honor God.
So many parents put their children in every sport available and then on Sunday, on their day of rest
they're going from one practice to another one game, to another and they're not actually giving
that day to God. They're not giving that day to their family. 99% of their kids will never
play professional sports anyway and very soon they find out when they made sport an idol, instead of
honoring the Lord's day and giving that day to the Lord and to the day of rest and being with their
family, the kids don't want to talk to them when they graduate, their health is failing because
you can't fool God. You got to be obedient to His commandments if you want to have His blessings.
The last truth about work is put God first when you plan for your old age. What I mean is this,
is that a lot of people look forward to retirement so they can self-indulge, so they can travel, play
golf and also have a lot of you know good time with their grandchildren. Nothing wrong in itself
but if you're thinking about your retirement as a time for you to stop working and stop serving
God you're missing the whole point of your old age. Actually there's not one scripture about
retirement. Yes there is you know a recommendation for Levites to stop serving after 50 from 25 to 50
and after that they would let go of their regular job as Levites but they would still assist in the
temple. God does not want you to retire. He wants you to renew, repurpose and to still serve Him.
Now you may stop your nine to five job but He doesn't want you to turn your life then inward
and become selfish and become indulgent into the flesh and into the things of this world. He
wants you to still in your old age to be fruitful. Meaning continue to serve, continue to volunteer,
continue to create, keep your mind sharp, continue to do things, begin to mentor younger people,
go to your local church, begin to serve in the youth ministry. Yes in the youth ministry.
Stay active. A lot of people die early because honestly they're no longer doing anything. You
were created to do work on this earth and when you stop being useful God's going to take you home.
I mean that's my prayer. I said Lord when you no longer need me on this earth you can take me. God
doesn't need my permission to do that by the way but I want to, even you know I'm doing a full-time
job at the local church and you know I'm planning to do that for quite a few many more years but
there's going to be a time I'm going to turn that over to younger people as I'm going to get older
but I'm still gonna serve God. I'm gonna still do youtube if youtube is gonna be there. I'm gonna
still write. I'm gonna still preach. I'm gonna still come alongside younger leaders and provide
all that I can do the way my pastor is doing it to me. I'm not planning to retire from the Lord.
I'm planning to retire from certain type of work but I'm not planning to retire from serving God. I
want to stay active till the last part of me until I'm no longer useful to the Lord. Then he's going
to say son you're done, it's finished with you and then I want Him to take me home. Like literally
the next day. I don't want to spend another day that he does not need me on this earth. Now some
of you may say well that's radical. You know when Jesus completed his work at the age of 33
He was gone. I don't want to stay longer than the Lord wants me to be here on this earth. I
want His purposes to be accomplished and I want to be like David who served his generation and then
he went on to glory. So be mindful even of your retirement that though you might walk away from
your full-time job, never stop being a full-time Christian. I hope that you learned something
about work today and I pray that you will go to work tomorrow with a different attitude in a way
that will cause other people to notice and in a way that will bring God glory. Don't think that
just your devotional time is spiritual, your work is also spiritual. It's an act of worship to God.
God bless you. Don't forget to hit thumbs up for this video. Subscribe to this channel. If
you have not clicked on the bell so you can be reminded each time we go live. Until next time.