 I would like to speak to you today about the theology of work. I have, in my preaching of a thousand sermons at Hungry Jen, this is probably a thousand sixtieth, have never preached on work. But today it's going to be the first time that I'm going to do that. And I believe it's a very important message. The reason being is because the first thing we meet about God in the Bible is not Savior, healer, or deliverer. We meet God as a worker. In fact, we meet God as a creator. So all of the creatives in here, and you take pride, even your Instagram says creator, you are reflecting the image of your creator. To some degree, all of us are hashtag creators. Because our God's nature, his first attribute that we saw in the Bible, wasn't out, healed. But let there be light, let there be waters. He is a worker. In fact, Genesis chapter two, verse two and three, it says the following. Verse two, on the seventh day, God had finished his work of creation. So he rested from all his work. I want you to see this, that God works. And then we see in Genesis one, God looks at his work. His work didn't give him a paycheck, but it gave him satisfaction. In Psalms, it says God's works praise God, meaning God's works declare God's nature. God's works brought him satisfaction. God didn't work so he can get paid. God worked so he can have satisfaction. He found joy, honor, and pride in his work. Looked back at his work and said, this is very good. Did something again, said, this is very good. This is very good. And God did that for six days. On the sixth day, you and I were created, and God said, this is very good. And our first day as humans on this planet was the day of God's rest. So first day we got in, we're like, what do we do? God says, relax, rest. And then after that, the Lord gives us work. Now for those of you who are maybe, there are some people who you are like, workaholics. You love work. You're going to love this message today. For those of you, you're soccer, meaning you just love to just, just like to enjoy, just like to chill through life. You're more like, man, easygoing, man, work, this is not for me, work, hashtag, struggle is real. I don't like that kind of stuff. I want to live hashtag, blessed life. No work whatsoever. I'm looking forward to heaven because when I go to heaven, no work, work is a curse. I get you, but I do want to present you a God from the Bible. Our God, he's a worker. He hustles. Our God is a hard worker. In fact, this is what Jesus spoke of his father in John chapter five, verse 17. He says, my father is always working. Does anybody here have a dad who's always working? It's like always working. And Jesus says, and so am I. Now, in our culture, somebody who works a lot, we look at them, we're like, man, you got to spend more time with the kids 100%. We have to have balance and work. We have to have balance between work and rest. But I want you to see God from a different angle. Jesus says, my father is always working. And Jesus says, and so am I. In fact, 90% of Jesus's life on this earth was manual work. A work we would call not spiritual. A work we would call not dignified. In fact, Greco-Roman culture viewed manual, physical work with your hands as below human's dignity. But if you work sitting in the office, bossing people around, that is dignified. But being on the bottom of the food chain, working in the fields, working in the vineyards, or working with the manual work was not dignified. And I find it interesting that the God of the Bible, Jesus Christ, spends 90% of his life doing a work that Greco-Roman culture said is below dignity. Why? Because Jesus brought dignity back to work. God puts dignity back in work. Amen. I'm going to share with you three points and 47 sub points. 47 was an exaggeration. I'm just seeing if you're with me or not. Number one, God created man to work with him in the world. There's three, actually four types of work. Work against God, work without God, work for God, and work with God. Let's review. Work against God, Lucifer is an example. It's when you do something to oppose God. It doesn't end well, but some people still like to make attempts. Work without God. It's when you're doing something, you're putting hard effort into it. You don't see God's blessing in it. You don't sense God's grace in it, and you feel like you're in a treadmill. You're working hard, you're getting nowhere. Very difficult place to be in, and very challenging to place to be in. The third category is to work for God. At first, this is good. You're trying to do something for God, you're pleasing Him. It's a good place to be. But that is not where God created us to be. What God put us to be is for us to work with God. God made work, and made us not to work only for Him, but to work alongside with Him. For example, think of this. God made the garden, plants Adam in that garden, puts Adam in that garden, and says, I want you to take care of this garden. So God makes the garden Adam manages. God makes the animals, and Adam names them. So you see the collaboration. It wasn't, hey, Adam, here's a bunch of dirt, go make the animals. No, God makes it, and says, Adam, I want you to name them. God didn't give Adam, hey, here's a lot of seeds, go make the garden. God makes the garden, and says, Adam, I want you to go and maintain the garden. So I want you to see that God who owns the heavens and the earth, and in Psalms it says this. The heavens belong to the Lord, but He has given the earth to all humanity. Think of this, God says, heavens are mine, I make the earth, and I'm giving the keys to the earth to the humans. I'm not gonna make tables, I'm gonna make trees, you make tables. I'm not gonna make babies, I'm gonna place a seed in the man, and I'm gonna place stuff in the woman, and things are gonna happen, and you're gonna make babies, and you're gonna populate this earth. You're gonna discover gold, you are going to discover iron, you're gonna discover things, I put them in the ground, it's your job as my image barrier. You mirror me, I create, you're gonna make things as well, but I'll make it easier for you because I'll give you all the material and I'll give you the brains. God was created by God initially, not for a paycheck, but for a purpose. Adam did not need a paycheck. Adam ate from the garden. Adam lived in the garden. Adam didn't need a job, but he needed work. God did not create a job. He created for Adam work. Job is what gives you a paycheck. Work is what gives you a purpose. So even if you get to the point where you don't need money because your basic needs are taken care of, you still need work. Why? Because you're made in the image of a worker, to work on his created planet. If you stop working, you forfeit your purpose. And what the devil will offer to us instead of purpose is the pursuit of pleasure. Or what we call in America, pursuit of happiness. We don't live for happiness. We live for purpose. And happiness is the direct result of living on purpose. Are you with me? Be fruitful and multiply, God says, and to go and subdue the creation. I want you to see this is purpose. You and I have a purpose for existence. That's why you can have a job, get paid, have a medical insurance, have retirement benefits and everything, and feel that you have no meaning. Why? Job doesn't give you a meaning. Purpose does. Work does. You may say work and job is the same thing. Slightly different. Is what we need to do to take care of our needs. The work for which we were created, we need to do so we can fulfill our purpose. Adam didn't need a job, but he was created for work. Now, we are coworkers belonging to God. You are God's field, God's building, 1 Corinthians 3-9. That's why I work and struggle so hard, Paul says, depending on God's mighty power that works in me, Colossians 1-29. I want you to notice in the beginning, God made us to co-work with God. So I want you to think your view of you, change your view of work. Don't think of work as, I hate job, I hate my job, my job sucks. Your job probably sucks. I get that. Your work, the reason you exist on this earth, no it's not. It doesn't, hashtags suck. You just need to change your attitude because you were created to create. Created to make things happen. You were made in God's image. Unlike an animal that you have in your house, a pet, who's driven by the basic drive for satisfaction of its physical needs. You are not driven just to satisfy food, lodging, and extra money for your family. You have something greater that's craving inside of you that came to you from your creator. And it's called a sense of meaning, a sense of purpose. And that's why God gives us work to fulfill both our basic necessities, to honor him and to fulfill that purpose. He wants us to work with him. Think of work, when I think of work, after this revelation, I started to change my attitude of work. Before I kind of saw that this is just me doing stuff for God. And it gets tiring when you do it for God. But if you do it with God, there's a pleasure in the reward that exists. And you see this as a strengthening of your relationship. My dad, he likes the electrical stuff. So every house that my dad built, the one especially he lived in, he ran electrical by himself. Now I am not an electrician. I know how to turn on lights, turn them off, and that's as far as my electricity goes. But because my dad would pretty much buy the electrical wires, and then he would come and he would give us the tour and say, hey, I want you guys to run this many wires from this part of the house to that part of the house. And then he would give us the tools. Next thing that happens is that I got to know more about the electrical stuff by running the wires for my dad, actually with my dad. I would run him, he would connect them, and then the inspector would come and tell us to change a few things because of the way we ran them. And that is how I collaborated with my dad working on his house. Same thing happened on my house. I collaborated with him. When your God created the universe, you must understand, he is a grand master who knows everything about the universe. He oversees the whole universe, the planets. He makes one little planet and he puts us there and he says, as I manage the universe, I want you to manage this planet. Take care of the animals. I want you to take care of the nature. I want you to take care of all of this stuff. And I want you to make a lot of babies, populate this whole planet. Why? Because I want a lot of people like me everywhere managing things. I want you to store this and have a relationship with me. Why? Because I really know how to do this in my world. But in your world, I want you to do as I would do with me. That is the purpose of work. That's why. Every work is significant even if it doesn't change the world. A work does not have to be world changing to be valuable. I have different organs in my body who are not visible. They're still valuable. If I will use this terminology or because you can't see my lungs, therefore let me gut it out. That's stupid. No. The things that you don't see are also very important. The things that are not visible are very valuable. Things don't have to change the world to be significant. Everything we do matters to God. Think about this. God didn't just make your spirit, your soul, and your mind. God made the trees. God made seas and oceans. We're not gnostics. Gnostics were the people who believed that the spirit is good. Physical matter is bad. Meaning we want to escape from this physical world and go into the spiritual realm. Many Christians embrace this same heresy and they think if you do something that deals with people's spiritual life, that is awesome. But if you do things like you're cutting wood, you're taking care of a lawn, and I'm like that's not spiritual. That's not important because it's not dealing with your eternal relationship with God. But God didn't just make eternity. He made oceans. He made trees. He didn't just make your soul. He also made a park. He also made all that you see. Your God created that. It's so important that one day He will recreate that because it's important. If you're a doctor and you're working with physical bodies, you might not be working with their soul or their spirit. Your work matters because you're working on God's creation. You're stewarding God's planet. You're taking care of what God says for you and I to take care of. This planet does not belong to atheists, agnostics, naysayers, and haters of God. It belongs to humanity that's in relationship with their Creator. And this planet is going to be remade. I'm going to jump to the end of my message, Tim, let's cut that out. This idea that all of this earth is going to be burned in fire, meaning this world's going to end. Why do we need to work? Why do we need to make it better? We have to get rid of this. The world is not coming to an end. That devil is coming to an end. Sin is coming to an end. The curse is coming to an end. I'm going to say one more theological word. This age is coming to an end. The Jewish eschatology, the end times, divided the world into two ages. This age and the age to come. And these two ages will be separated by the coming of the Lord. So this age is coming to an end. The world is not coming to an end. This world, this earth you are living in, one day will go through a heavy remodeling and God will make a new earth. But the Bible says we will be on this earth forever. Now remodeled, new bodies, new earth, maybe more space, some good stuff that's going to happen. There's going to be no night. But this idea that God is going to create this earth and then afterward like a ball tossed it out because of all this sin, that is not our God. Our God is into recycling. Remodeling. He created it, sin destroyed it. God will make it new. He will remodel it. This earth will be here and heaven will come down. And what happened in the garden, God's going to make it better in the new city called Jerusalem. Therefore, we don't live with this view, oh yeah, antichrist is coming, everything's going to go bad. So why bother? Antichrist is coming for a very short borrow time. He comes in and the Lord is going to kick him out. But God's children are going to inherit the earth, the Bible says. We will be on this earth. So even though we die, we come back with new bodies, God's going to make the earth renewed. Kind of like our building. You know, we bought the building on Edison and we are renewing it. It had like a lot of cubicles, totally took that out, raised the beams and now we're making it totally different, but the structure is the same. The new earth that God's going to make, it's going to be this earth. God's just going to remodel it completely and we're going to have resurrected bodies and we will have new work that we will do on this redeemed earth. Kind of excited. So for those of you who think, you know, Christians, we don't care about the planet, yes we do. Why? We were entrusted with it. We just don't think that the global warming is our biggest problem. Global sin is, I had to slip that in there. The founder of Forever 21, when talking about partnering with God in work, she said this, God told her that she should open a store and that if she would be successful. Tyson Foods Company employs 150 office chaplains to provide compassionate care to employees. I'm using these examples to portray people who take their work as partnership with God versus a work just to make a paycheck. We were entrusted to manage this planet, manage its resources and to rule and reign not over people, but with people over creation, to discover things that God deposited in this planet and God wants to do it with us. Chick-fil-A. Kathy believes that all franchise Chick-fil-A operations and their restaurants employees should have opportunity to rest, spend time with family and friends, worship if they choose to do so. That's why all Chick-fil-A restaurants are closed on Sunday. And this is what they say, it's part of our recipe for success. Mary Kay Ash, all of you ladies appreciate that kind of a business. As a founder of cosmetics, she contributed her company's success to the choice to, this is what she said, to take God as our partner. So I'm like, well, I didn't know God could be somebody's partner. He wants to partner with us in the very work he created us to do, to create, to make things happen. And she would take God as a partner, she says, God has blessed us because our motivation is right. He knows I want women to be beautiful creatures he created. After women's beauty, come on somebody, by putting all the fake stuff on them, amen. I mean, good stuff. See, my wife is not here, so I'm a little bit, a little bit unhinged. Hobby Lobby, honoring the Lord. This is actually Hobby Lobby's mission statement. It's like you typically put stuff in the mission state and they're less trigger words. And Hobby Lobby just absolutely triggers them with their mission statement. Being the Lord in all we do, by operating the company in a manner consistent with biblical principles. We believe that it is by God's grace and provision that Hobby Lobby has endured. He has been faithful in the past. We trust him for our future. Now again, to be partnering with God doesn't mean you have to put Jesus on your bio and Instagram. That's not what I'm pursuing. What I'm pursuing is in our mind. We don't see our work as I'm doing this thing. God has nothing to do with it. Why? Because I'm just, you know, I have a plumbing company. I have an electrician company. I'm just a teacher in high school. I'm just teaching sports or I'm just doing videography, photography or I'm just doing the training online. I'm just running a sales business online. I'm in customer service. I'm a clerk. I mean, what does God have to do? This is not contributing in any way, shape and form to spiritual well-being of people. Don't ever think like that. Your God is not religious. He is the creator of heaven and in earth, invisible and visible, spiritual and physical. Your soul and your body. And he wants, he puts us here for that purpose. And we work with him in every facet and form. Amen. Now let's talk about the problem. Number two, sin entered the world and it right away entered workplace. It entered the workspace. In Genesis three, you see that when sin enters, it right away enters our home. Pain comes in the raising of children. For a lot of mothers, your workspace is your home. And God said, when sin entered our hearts, it entered the world. Guess the place it came to. It right away went to home, went to work. Sin went to work. Sin not only enters into the workspace at our home, it enters the workspace at the marketplace. The Bible says the men will work with the sweat of the brow. There will be futility, meaning a sense of like, is there a point to this? I'm tired. And no longer we work for satisfaction and purpose, now we have to work for a paycheck. The Bible says from the ground he will eat. That's not how God made us to be. God made us to eat from the garden. But when the sin comes, now this is the way that provides for us. The sin starts to mess everything with the workplace. Think about it. The first murder happened where? In the workplace. Genesis four, two brothers working at the field. And the first murder happens at the workplace. Joseph, Jacob, I'm sorry, works 20 years of his life and describes 20 years of his life as harsh toil and harsh labor. This is God's, one of God's men. Sexual harassment enters the workplace. Joseph gets sexually harassed and accused. Guess where that happens in the workplace. No wonder why this author, Bob Black said this, no one should ever work. Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world. Almost any evil you'd care to name comes from working or from living in the world designed for work. In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working. How many of you want to say amen to that? No, he's a heathen, okay? So this is not the Bible. But honestly, how many times you felt that discrimination? You did the work, somebody got the credit. You work hard, your boss is getting brand new cars and you're not getting even the minimum wage. Jealousy, the envy, being made fun of, office drama, office temptations. These things are real. And the Bible is very honest that the sin that comes in the world, it right away comes into the workplace. So the workplace we have today is not how God intended it. It's broken by world. Now some of you may say, well, I'm going to get a job at the church. You know what the church has? That every workplace has people. And you know what people are? Broken. So as long as you have broken people, you will have a broken workplace. And it doesn't matter if the title of that company is the church of Jesus Christ. And it doesn't matter if your employer is Pastor Vlad as amazing as he is. He's a broken person. And if you walk into a perfect work environment, you're like, this is heaven on earth. That's only because it's your first week there. Because about the time that you are leaving that workplace, you said, this is predatory. This is hell on earth. I'm leaving this toxic place and I'm getting in the journey. I'm going to sue every one of these people. Why? Because you encountered what the Bible reveals as brokenness in this world. Now what some of us think, well, I know what we need to do. We need to report it to the supervisor. We need to tell it to the higher authorities. We need to fix this thing 100%. And we're in America. We're really good at protesting. We're really good at making Facebook posts, thinking that our post is going to change the world. And we're really good at commenting because those with internet access now, everybody became an expert in every single thing because they can type really fast. Or because we can have a poster and walk around with posters and, you know, fight for social change. All of these are very important. I'm going to shock you today and offend some of you by letting you know that God's approach to the sin in the workplace is slightly different than what I'm comfortable with and most likely what you and I are comfortable with. Let's dive in. Point number three, we are not saved by good works. We are saved for good works. If you go with me to Ephesians in chapter two, verses eight, nine and ten, it says the following. For by grace you have been saved through faith. That not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So we're created to work with God. We're not created to run around but naked on this earth. We're created to create and work with God in God's perfect universe and world. We commit sin, sin enters us, enters our world and enters our workspace. It enters our home. It enters where we work and because of that jealousy, hatred, backbiting, retaliation, all of these feelings. People who are being deprived of proper pay, people who are being mistreated at workplace and this is still happening in the world today, including in the United States. God provides a solution. And God comes and His Son, Jesus Christ, He saves us through His finished work. So God works to get us saved. We get saved by grace, not by having rosaries or having praying for Virgin Mary. We're not getting saved by coming to church. We are saved by grace, somebody say amen. We're not saved by good works. Good works cannot save you. We are saved by grace. But I want you to notice right after that it says we are saved to do good works. Interesting. So God saves us. He heals the brokenness in us. He forgives our sin. He becomes our father. He becomes our savior. And He says, now that you are saved, option one is you just wait until you die and you go to heaven. Oh, you praise the Lord. Can you get me out of this nasty, horrible earth and just keep me in heaven and bring me back when you make everything new. But God says, no, I'm giving you now an assignment again to do good works. If you don't bring the gospel into your workplace, you will miss God's work inside of you. That means the workplace that we are a part of, whether you're an employer or employee, God expects you to bring the gospel, the good news into your workplace. Now some of you think in the gospel like, oh, no, I'm not doing that. I'm not grabbing a megaphone coming to my workplace and repent. The end is near, cure code, scan if you want to be saved. That's not what I'm talking about. When I say to bring the gospel into the workplace, what I mean is look what Paul is telling to people who are not just marginalized. They are slaves. He says, slaves must always obey their masters and do their best to protest them. I mean, I'm sorry, to please them. They must not talk back or steal, but must show themselves to be entirely trustworthy and good. Then they will make the teaching about God, our Savior, attractive in every way. Now at first you're reading this, it triggers, you're like, excuse me, is Paul pro-slavery? No. Paul recognizes unjust institution of slavery. He recognizes the broken world that Christians find themselves in. And he recognizes that as Christians, we might not be able to change the whole system, but we can infect the system by being dissolved in whatever position we find ourselves in right now. Joseph did not change Egyptians position of slavery, but he thrived right in the middle of it being a slave. When the salt hits the food, it doesn't change the kitchen, but it savors the food and preserves the food. Paul's goal wasn't to make Christians protest everything in their world. His way was you go into work and he says, if you're a slave. But first you're like, yeah, if I'm a slave, I'm no longer a slave, I'm going to be free from this. I hate this job, that's not fair. 100%. Totally not fair. This is totally wrong. It's totally unjust. But Paul says, so was your Savior dying on the cross. Totally not right and totally unjust and totally unfair and he did it for you. God reconciled you being a rebel against God through the death of his son. Your Savior is not some high roller on a Bentley. He's a crucified, mutilated man died for you, reconciled you with God. Now this love he had for you, you can carry into a place where you are not treated right. You are not being favored, liked, you're ignored, underappreciated. You did the work. Somebody took the credit. You feel like, man, this is just not fair, I'm not being treated right. This is not good. You're putting the gospel there and Paul says, you serve them. Don't talk back. Don't steal and be humble about it. You're like, but that's not fair. That's the gospel. A broken world needs the gospel. Not an opinion. What we think is we can change the world with our opinion. We can only change the world with the gospel. The reason some of us don't bring the gospel to change our work environment is the gospel never changed us. When you meet Jesus and you recognize, you nailed him to the cross. The most unfairest thing that has ever happened in the history of the world is how you and I rebelled against God and how he had mercy and let his son bleed and die. And the fact that somebody didn't like you in the workplace is easier pill to swallow because you exemplified the gospel because you experienced it. Paul doesn't expect Christians to be doormats. Everybody walks all over us, but he does expect us to be greater than conquerors. And he does expect us to go into our workplace bringing the gospel. So when I feel jealous of another coworker who seems to get promoted, but I did the work on back end, the gospel kills the jealousy. When I feel like I am not being appreciated and nobody's watching, so I'm going to steal from my work. The gospel then comes and says, do not steal. Jesus died between two thieves. Don't be a thief. When I noticed that there's late, they're cutting people off from work and my job, I hear rumors that they're saying they might sack me, meaning they might fire me. And I'm concerned for my future. The gospel comes in and says, don't be worried about your future. I will provide for you. So you're no longer afraid walking on eggshells in your workplace. What if they fire me? You know, one thing is that you were created to work. God will supply your needs and you live without fear. The gospel changes you hard, but they haven't given me a raise in 10 years. The gospel changes that as well. Because you're no longer working for a paycheck. You're now working for God. If you work as if God is your boss, you will receive not just a paycheck, but also a reward. Colossians three, 24, 25, work willingly at whatever you do. I'll find it interesting. The gospel, good news, doesn't focus on because this is our American approach. I remember when I was in high school, every single specialist I was finishing the senior year. The goal was make sure you find the job that you like. Make sure, I mean, what do I know about what I like? That changes every week. And that's why most of us change our majors four times. We don't know what we like. And then the things that I like, they don't pay good. So you have to find something that you like and then something that pays really good. And hopefully that's not illegal because there's some things I like. They're just illegal, you know, and like, man, I want to do that. But that's just, that's just not legal. All right, so it has to be legal. Something that I like and something that pays good. I mean, the options are very narrow. And then you finally get the degree in that area and then there's a problem. Nobody's hiring. So guess what you end up doing? What you don't like. And I love that Paul doesn't say, hey, guys, make sure what you do, make sure what you do that you like it. Paul says, whatever you do. Can somebody say whatever? Can you turn to your neighbor and say, whatever you do? Stop obsessing with, make sure it matches your gifts. Whatever. What does God want me to do? Whatever. Oh, I'm going to fast and pray. Should I go to that job? And God says, simple, whatever. Your career is like a 10 lane highway. God says, depending on which lane you take, as long as it's headed in the right direction, meaning it pays, it's not illegal, and it helps other people. Whatever. Paul is not saying, make sure you do what you're passionate. Make sure you do what you're good at. He says, whatever you do, you do as though you were working for the Lord rather than for a paycheck. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward. Did you know that you can be double dipping? You can do one work and get two paychecks. One from your employer, it's always going to be less than what you deserve. And one from your master, it's always going to be more than what you deserve. Lord, help me. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the master you are serving is not Jose, but Jesus. Jesus Christ. Your master is not Bob. It's Christ. So think about this. What would happen if you would go to work tomorrow? I know you're punching numbers on Excel sheet. I'm just answering the phone call. I'm just cleaning the carpet. I'm just mowing the lawns. I'm just hanging the Christmas lights everywhere. I'm just opening the doors. I'm just a security guard. I mean, there is no promotion. There is no future in that. But God doesn't look. The gospel does not see work like that. God says, when you're doing that work, while you're getting paid from your boss, probably less than you want, you might not like the conditions. God says, do it as for me. Then he says, at the end of the day, you're not only getting a paycheck. God says, you're getting an inheritance, inheritance as a reward. That's why a lot of you are going to be blessed beyond your employment. Why? Because God is watching what you do. The gospel doesn't teach us. Make sure we get the most lucrative job. The gospel says, whatever job we do, we do it with all of our heart. And we remember not only the boss is watching, the king is watching. The boss has a paycheck. The king has an inheritance. And Lord knows I won both. An inheritance as your reward. When my wife was working in a post office, and she had a Mercedes from auction, but it was still Mercedes. And she comes out on Friday, she got her paycheck, and her manager said, well, you're rushing to the bank so you can cash this check to make payment on this Mercedes. She said, no, my Mercedes has paid off. He looks at her, he says, with part-time job? She says, and my wife, a little bit overconfident. And she says, this job is not providing for me. I'm just doing this because I have time. She's like, my, what I drive, what I wear is not, doesn't come from post office. She's like, it comes from my husband. I was like, babe, that's what's up. That's what's up, yeah. But honestly, that's how she lives, is that she does that work, but ultimately her provision doesn't come from her resource, which is the job. It comes from her source. I wonder what would happen if we would view our life like that? That we would give all the providing weight upon God and say, Lord, provide for me as for your daughter, as for your son, the single moms, provide for me, Lord, and I will do my best, all the work, as on to you. I will not come late and leave early and be on TikTok because nobody's watching. I'm going to do my work as though God is watching. He's keeping the record and I will do it with integrity. I will do it with honesty. I will do it hard working because my God is planning a reward. You're like, but Vlad, you don't understand. How will God give me that reward? May I remind you, he knows the last four digits of your social security. He also knows your routing number and your account number. God knows where you live. He knows the post office box that belongs to you. He knows how to surprise you. He knows how to send that inheritance your way. He knows how to protect you from things that will cost you money. He knows how to guide you where you will not make certain decisions that will completely empty your bank account. He knows how to keep you away from that idiot, excuse me, that person that is going to destroy your life. God knows how to provide and protect. Trust him. The gospel. See, why the gospel is crazy is because it teaches me that my work has to be done with an eye toward obedience, not toward the paycheck. You know, when I was, I worked at the church since I was 16 until last year. So until December of last year, then in January, I felt on my heart that it's time to give my pay every month until we move into the new building. But somehow I feel like it's gonna be for the rest of my life. But at least right now I know strongly it's until I move into the new building, till we move into the new building. So for 20 years, I was employed at the church. Now for those of you who think that your tithing was paying for my salary, most of you were not here, so just relax. We had a government school that rented the facility. They actually pretty much paid for my salary. It was a small salary. I one time compared it. It was, I think it was about 50 cents above McDonald's because I was checking what my other options are. And so with my pay, so I had a lot of options actually. And for about seven to eight years, I never got a raise. And never asked for a raise because the church wasn't growing, so I felt guilty even receiving the pay that I was receiving, even though I was working 24 seven at the church. And it was, it's very, I don't know, brought me a lot of guilt working at the church because I almost felt like I was guilty for why the church wasn't growing because the church is paying for me, paying me and then it's not growing, but I was like God, you know, it's kind of your church, not my church. And my people are looking at me, I just feel funny. And it was just, I had a lot of emotional things that I needed to process. And when I got married, you know, I was concerned for my future, like every person is concerned for their future. And I remember I started to ask the Lord, I said, Lord, this is what changed. When I stopped looking at the church as my provider, I started to look at the church as a place where I serve and I work, and God is my provider. And the Lord started giving just the very basic thoughts and ideas. It first started with a property instead of buying a new car, I bought a property. It started to produce a little bit of cash flow and then we got married. And instead of getting a nice house, we got an apartment and then bought another rundown property, remodeled it, you know, put people in the basement, put people upstairs, kind of maximized every room. And I've noticed that within about a few years, my income started to almost double, but the same time, same thing was received from the church because the shift of, oh, the church is my provider, being mad at the church, being angry at my employment. And instead saying, Lord, I trust in you, activate these things that I have right here that you gave me called brains, help me to see what I don't see, give me some creative ideas. And Lord, I'm here, especially if I knew this is what I needed to do with work and there was just no way that I'm gonna get paid more, though I needed more. And so the Lord has a way of providing for you if we stop expecting our job to be our God, expect God to be our God, and allow God to stretch us and to help us to think outside of the box, something God is really good at doing. Amen. If you work like God is your boss, you'll receive not just a paycheck, but also every word. All legitimate work is an act of worship. There's no such a thing as secular or sacred work. Greco-Roman culture saw manual labor as beneath man's dignity, as I mentioned before, but Christianity presents Jesus as son of a carpenter and apostle Paul as a guy who makes tents. Martin Luther during Reformation really revolutionized work. He said, your work is very sacred matter. God delights in it and through it, he wants to bestow his blessings upon you. There's a guy named Robert Luterno. Robert Luterno was born in the Christian family in November 30th, 1888. He walked away from the Lord as a teenager, then at the age of 16, came back to Jesus, and then at the age of 30, recommitted his life to God, seriously recommitted his life to God. And during his recommitment to God, he of course wanted to give all of his life to God, like a lot of people do, and the best way he knew how is to be either a full-time missionary or a full-time pastor. He comes to his pastor and he says to his pastor, I want to give my whole life to the ministry, and his pastor being wise, he said, let's pray about it. Before you go full-time into ministry, let's pray about it. As one thing about this guy Robert that he had a fascination with is with big machines. He just loved metal and loved machinery. After some time when they prayed about it, Robert comes back to his pastor and both the pastor and Robert felt that Robert shouldn't be in a full-time ministry. Robert should be God's businessman. This metal obsession that he has is an indication that's what he should do with his living. In fact, Robert is known to have created, he's the maker of 300 inventions and had hundreds of patents in his lifetime. In fact, what happened with him is that he designed and built machines beyond the imagination of ordinary men. He introduced into the earth-moving and material-handling ministry the Robert Tire, which today is almost universally accepted. So if you see these big combines and these big machines today, they are used in war and they're used also in agriculture. Robert is the guy that created them. He started to create big machinery. In fact, he actually developed an oil rig for George Bush Sr. that was first used and Robert was a very honest man. He developed this rig, made this rig. They put it in the Gulf to extract oil. And Robert said this, I will not charge you any money if the machine doesn't work. And when the machine worked, of course he charged him really well and he started to produce all of these things, many patents. He developed a university to teach Christians how to be successful as businessmen. And he actually called himself, instead of a pastor or a minister, he called himself God's businessman. As his income increased, he increased his giving. Toward the end of his life, his giving was 90% and he lived on 10%. In fact, I like two quotes, he has a lot of them. I'm gonna mention just two quotes. He says, I believe faith in the old-fashioned gospel that makes better mechanics, better accountants, better salesmen and better executives. When somebody asked him about giving, he says, I shovel money out and God shovels it back and God has a bigger shovel. So this is the man who, instead of going to full-time ministry, he went to full-time ministry, it was just business. He helped Billy Graham with his crusades. He helped a lot of different ministries and nonprofit organizations and he loved, he did what he loved, which was big machinery and God used them in it. Don't think that the work that you do is not sacred, just because it's not directly connected to spiritually meeting needs of people. It's still important to God, amen. When you retire from your job, do not retire from your work. I'm gonna just hit on the retirement. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older that I'm starting to think about this now more. I don't think I've ever mentioned that in the church, but as I am looking at the Bible and I'm looking also, we have more and more people that are coming with gray hair and my hair is becoming more gray. I am looking toward that season. When I was younger, I looked forward to retire. And I think it's good to retire from a job, but don't ever retire from work. Priests were serving and at 50, that was the retirement age, but I find it interesting that the priests were told by God in Numbers 8, verse 26, after retirement, they may go fishing and get a trailer park, live in some kind of a trailer park and just simply disconnect from life. That's not what it says. After retirement, they may assist their fellow Levites by serving as guards at Tabernacle. That they may not, but they may not officiate in the service. This is how you must assign duties to the Levites. Fireproof your retirement. Excuse me, rustproof your retirement. Don't get rusty when you get old. Don't go fishing, go hunting. Meaning, stay active. If you stop working, you're gonna die. And God wants you to die when your work is finished. When your work is not finished, stay active. This doesn't mean you have to keep your nine to five. It simply means that even when you resign from that job, do not resign from living. Your body will stop working after a while. If all you do is eat chips, watch TV, and just simply just go fishing. You start hearing and talking to the fish. It won't be good. Stay active. Do something. Caleb at the age of 80 wanted to conquer a mountain. Anna stayed in the temple, old lady, and she was interceding and praying. See me and he, he took Jesus as an old man and says, God, you spoke to me that I will see your Messiah. Now that I see your Messiah, my job is complete. I'm ready to die. Be like that. Don't be this person who simply look forwards. And so many of us, we look forward to retirement so that we don't work anymore. It's okay to look forward to retirement so we don't have a job anymore. But you were created in God's image. You have to embrace work till you die. Even if that work is your garden. Even if that work is taking care of your grandchildren. Even if that work is volunteering on Sunday. But if God gave you legs, God gave you arms. If God gave you a breath, he made you in his image and likeness. Jesus says, my father always works. We rest and we work. When we go to heaven, we're not gonna be in the clouds singing 24 seven in an endless church service. We will manage cities. We will work. So do not resign from work when you retire from a job. Write something, create a blog. Volunteer, be involved, come to our church building and help us there do something. Stay active when you retire. Amen. Just wanted to help all the retirees cause you guys have a lot of free time and we need a lot of help. Just gonna slid that in there right there. Paul said, widows who self-indulge are dead even if she's alive. That's pretty strong words. That means if you're a widow and all you're doing is you're indulging in the flesh. And when you retired, Paul says, this is not me, Paul says, you're dead. Meaning you're no longer living, you're existing. Some people die at 40, we bury them at 80. Live fully with the purpose. And when you retired, you know, you have the money. You don't need to work anymore. And that's why because work was always about the job instead of the purpose. Now you're like, man, I don't have a purpose. Yes you do. The purpose is still the same. Just because you don't need to work for the paycheck, work for purpose. Work to fulfill your God divine given destiny on this planet. Do something, volunteer in such a way. We have people in our church who are at their old age, they're serving, answering the church phone call would come early for prayer, vacuum, help there and there, go meet with people, they stay active. Some of them are more active than the youth. And morning prayers, they're always there. I think it's because they also don't sleep at night. And so, but still they're there, pressing in and praying and all the kids are sleeping till like 10 o'clock. And that's exactly how God wants us to be. Not the kids sleeping till 10 o'clock, but us being active and engaged in our old age. The Bible says in your old age, you'll be fruitful, you'll be fresh and you'll be flourishing. Not grumpy, whiny, complaining, every bone broken. Come on, I believe in our old age, we'll be like Caleb. We're like, I'm ready for a mountain. I'm ready to do another campus. I'm ready to do another service. I know some people are planning for a funeral, I'm planning for revival. Come on somebody. I see Sister Anne is happy, come on somebody. Be like Sister Anne, now that we wrapped this up. So what it has to preach about today, turn your job into work for God. Work with God, but also allow God to work in you at your work. Are you currently facing problems in your work? One of your employees is driving you crazy. What if your job, your employment is also God's work factory? What if God decided to use our workplace as a place to work on our character? You know you're stuck in there for 10 years. You spend 10 years of your life working. Only about 300 something days of your whole life spending with friends. Your friends don't drive you that crazy as your coworkers or the employer or the employees. They know how to get to the last nerve and pull that out. What if God uses that? You go to work, somebody did something and it goes like a chihuahua comes out of you, like constantly barking, like just annoyed and your attitude shows up and of course, it's never your fault, it's everybody else's fault. Never your fault. It's that person, that person and that person. But what if you would see that opportunity as God exposing the ugliness of our character so we're confronted with it and we take responsibility and work on it. Think of this, when you wake up in the morning and you look in the mirror, you most likely do not see the perdy version of yourself. Hair, just like everything spiked. You don't go and look for a hammer and go, let me break the mirror. This mirror is lying to me every day. Lying, lying mirror, I break it, break it in the name of Jesus, I break it. No, you don't break the mirror, you fix the hair. The mirror is just showing you that your hair's messed up. You're not messed up, maybe just a little bit. The hair is very big messed up. So the mirror is showing you that, what if I were to say our workplace is a mirror that shows that we have attitude problems, jealousy problems, anger problems, impatience problems. With all of these stuff surfaces and instead of constantly blaming every single person, we take responsibility for our reactions and we say, I'm so sorry, I should have not acted this way. I'm so sorry. You know what, you're right, I am lazy. I've been showing up late all the time. We need to break the, can you pray for me right now? Now that's hoping that your employer will pray with you instead of fire you. Most of your employer, if you acknowledge that you are lazy and coming late, they will say, well, right up, number one. Tumor rides up and you're lost your job. Your issues at work could be a reflection of what God wants to work in your heart. Allow him to do so. Amen. Number three, God gives us special skills to build his kingdom. Exodus 31, two and three talks about God telling Israel and Moses to choose this man who had special skills. I find that interesting. I said, I have filled him with the spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability and expertise in all kinds of crafts. So for those of you who have the spirit of God upon you, but this spirit of God upon you is not necessarily making you prophesy, cast out demons, but it can make you design, create, make things. Did you know the Holy Spirit isn't limited only to the gifts in the church? God wants you to use your gifts, not only to build a nice business company, or in place of employment. He wants to use them for his kingdom. Now this does not mean that every work at the church always have to be a volunteer free work, but it also means that God does want to involve us as Christians who feel sense of purpose in our work and who will give our work for God's kingdom. Number four, working is how we wait for Jesus' return. I mentioned that already. Martin Luther said, if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. We don't wait for the end of the world. The end of the age will come, but we work while we wait. We don't sit idle on our hands hoping for everything to burn to ashes. We go and make things that happen for God. And if Jesus is coming, if some of you will get this inside information that Jesus is arriving tonight at 8 p.m., the youth should still have friends giving. We should still go about our business. And if you would have a wedding to plant and to have tonight, you should still get married. Why? Because till the last moment the scripture teaches us we have to do work. We don't pause, we don't pack our bags. No, the Bible says we will leave everything behind, go there and then come back. So we work for the Lord. We don't look at what is happening in Israel and Jerusalem and Middle East and say, well, you know, maybe should we be building a church right now? Absolutely. Oh, look what's happening at the White House. Interest rates are high right now. Should we be involved in this? Absolutely. We're look at that. We continue to press in for God. And lastly, giving sacrificially is also a good work. Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me. Finally, I can come down just for a second. If you are here today and you've been coming to Hungary Jen for some time and have never served at Hungary Jen, I wanna invite you today to offer your skills and gifts on Sunday to serve God's house. You can serve one service, receive another service. There's a QR code right behind me. You can pull out your phone and just sign up today. Kids' zone needs help. Parking lot needs help. Other places needs help. You may say, why do you speak so plainly? Because a lot of times we can speak about, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah, and we're like, oh yeah, that was so good. That convicted me. What are you gonna do about it? Let's serve. Why is this important? We are ready to do three services on Sunday. And I think we need to with what's happening right now. We can't do it. Not because the anointing is not here, the building is not here. We don't have enough workers. Jesus says the harvest is plentiful. The problem is not with the harvest. It's too many people love to sit in God's house and very few people like to be thrust out into God's harvest. So I wanna have less people to be sitters and more people to be the ones who are being sent. Somebody say, let's do it. The second thing I wanna highlight, if you are here and you have a specialty in working with plumbing, electrical, underground work, and you may see it, oh, just the construction work. I'm always busy with that. This is a big deal for where we are at right now. In fact, in this next phase, everything is gonna move so fast. Tomorrow, a lot of the work is gonna be done. Nehemiah built a whole wall in 52 days and the whole book was written. But it was a construction wall. It wasn't spiritual stuff. It was just a wall, construction bricks and mortar. Yet it was spiritual work. Construction can be a spiritual work. We need help in that area. We will be hiring companies for a lot of things. But what if God sent you to this house and one of the things that you're gonna help us with this building is by contributing your work. For example, the family that's here right now from a different city that's gonna be serving for a week. We don't believe that every work is gonna be covered by volunteers, but we also don't want to not give opportunity to our church to step up and serve. In the lobby, the moment I finish the service, Paul is gonna be there. If you have some of those skills, and you're like, man, I would love to help once in a while. I have these skills. I have this company. I have these connections. Come up and talk to Paul. Let's make it happen. Make this about your home, not just that church. Let's make this about our home in Jesus' name. Amen? And lastly, his next Sunday is going to be our generosity Sunday service. So once a year we do that where we pray what the Lord will have us to bring above our tithing. All of us do that. And so if you're part of this church, if it's your first time, you can ignore it, everything that I'm about to say. But if it's your home, we wanna ask you to prayerfully consider with your spouse to pray this week what the Lord will have you bring. Whether it's one time the best gift or a 12 month commitment of a partnership. And next Sunday, we're gonna bring that. Our goal is we wanna reach those $650,000 by the end of this year. So that the Lord will provide for that. We know that the Lord doesn't provide without his people. And so he will involve us in doing that. So just prayerfully consider, there's no pressure. We're not desperate and we're not in need. This is God's project and God will take care of it. If God brought the people, he will bring the finances. But the way God brought people, how did you guys come? Somebody told you, somebody invited you, somebody texted you, you saw on Instagram, God didn't just show up with an angel and say, come to hungry Jen. No, somebody texted you, somebody texted him, somebody called him. How does God provide? Sometimes it's the same way. A pastor gets up, makes an appeal, we all participate, we pray about what God gives us and we bring that and we see the Lord move. And then when we move to that facility, not only we don't have to get stuck in the traffic for 40 minutes, but it's gonna be beautiful, glorious, more people will come to know Jesus and greater things will happen. Amen. For watching this sermon, if this was a blessing to you, would you let me know in the comments below what stood out to you from this message? What are you taking home with you from this message? 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