Smoke & Mirrors Series | Good Work — Jeremy Taylor

Hey, I'm Pastor Forrest, and welcome to the Multiply Church Podcast.

Each week we open God's word together to help you meet God and multiply good in your everyday life.

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Now, let's dive into this week's sermon.

Man, what a what a blessing, what a privilege and a pleasure it is to worship with you today by way of Somerset.

I gotta be honest with you for the record.

But uh we missed them dearly, and it was great to visit with them last night as we got here uh in Frankfurt.

And um uh man, you all are surrounded by some wonderful people, and I'm so grateful uh to have a friendship that's building uh with your pastor.

Um I have a special place in my heart for um guest services, um, in that I have the opportunity to serve as the director for guest services with our church back home in Somerset, the Creek Church, which is a satellite campus of the main hub in London, um London, Kentucky.

And so when I when I hear that number, about 103 volunteers in what is still the emphasis stages of what you guys are building here at Multiply and what God's doing through you all and how you're reaching this city and how you're ministering to Kentucky.

Um man, I'm just I'm I'm um I'm grateful for that.

Um I'm excited to hear that.

And and I want to lovingly challenge you.

Um if if you if you haven't, if if you call Multiply Church your church, I want to lovingly challenge you to get involved.

Um you know, I you hear people say that the sermon starts in the parking lot.

Uh, you hear people say that uh it takes volunteers to make this thing happen, uh, so forth and so on.

The truth is, is that if you consider yourself a part of Multiply Church and this is your church, um then in order to get the most out of what we're doing here, you gotta be involved.

You gotta you gotta participate.

And I'm not saying that because Pastor Forrest grabbed me earlier and said, hey, listen, man, can you make a little plug for me?

He didn't say that.

Uh it was just a personal conviction because I know the challenges of church culture.

Uh, and I know how in in workspaces and organizations we've heard from for years and years, you know, 80 or 20% of the people do 80% of the work and so forth and so on.

And I think just because we speak about those things so often, we've just kind of reduced it to accepting that that's the way it is.

But I I I I beg to differ.

I think it can be different.

I think it can look different.

Um, and so I just want to encourage you all to consistently be thinking through what it's like to be someone who walks through those doors for the very first time.

To feel welcome, to be to feel invited, to be encouraged, for someone to ask you what your name is, uh, for someone to help you find a seat, for someone to say, man, I'm glad to see you today.

Right.

Um So I just want to challenge you, get involved.

And then uh also lovingly, I want to say this.

You know, in life, we have a tendency to complain about a lot of things, do we not?

And uh I want to encourage you, man.

You know, be thinking through the fact that we don't have a right to really complain about much.

Things not looking the way we want, things not going the way we want, if we don't have any stake in it, right?

So get involved, right?

Labor alongside of one another.

Uh, unity is not sameness.

We're not always gonna agree.

There's gonna be some squabbles, uh, there's gonna be some things that we don't like, uh, but we are here to reflect uh the body of Christ in a world who is lost, who is broken.

Um lock arms and do that together.

Um and I just want to say this, man.

Give your pastor a hand, please.

Give him a hand, man.

Um, I don't know if you've noticed, but every time this guy's on this stage with a microphone, joy exudes from him.

It just oozes out of his pores, does it not?

In the conversations that he has, whether it's preaching, whether it's a one-on-one conversation, whether it's helping raise uh raise money for uh for whatever cause, missionally, whatever it is, uh this guy is just full of joy.

And it's evident, man, that Christ is in his heart, right?

Uh and so I just want to say thank you, Pastor Forrest, for being who you are, um doing the work that you've done, um, and being bold enough, being bold enough to be a to be a pastor who loves people but also challenges people.

Uh and as adults, I want to I want to encourage you to be okay with that.

Be okay with being uncomfortable, be okay with dealing with tough stuff in the church, be okay with working through things that we don't like.

Everything is not an opportunity to dismiss somebody or check out or unfollow or leave the church.

Uh life is hard, and life together is hard, and uh and growing a church is difficult, right?

Um there is an adversary that we have.

Um, and so uh you got to do it together.

So I just I felt compelled to say that on the front end.

I promise you, I'm gonna get to the message.

Uh, I'm excited today.

It's Super Bowl Sunday, and uh I know most of you don't care about football because I asked last year if you were looking forward to the Super Bowl.

No one raised their hand.

So we're just gonna skip right over that, okay?

Uh, but I will say my my wonderful wife, Jayla, and uh the two kiddos, Miles and Mia, are here with us for this service, and uh she is a fanatic.

She she she loves sports, she loves football.

Winter Olympics are on, she's jacked about that as well.

Uh, I love the fact that we're she's my best friend and we enjoy sports together.

Uh one of those gifts from God, as we're gonna talk about from Solomon today.

Uh, but I'll tell you, man, she uh she checked me earlier this week.

She's like, hey, what uh a couple days ago, what are we gonna eat for Super Bowl night?

And I'm like, man, I ain't got time to be thinking about what we're gonna eat for the Super Bowl.

I'm doing the Lord's work preparing the sermon.

All right, and she's like, Okay, Mr.

Ecclesiastes, right?

Uh finding joy in what you do.

Don't make me call you out on Sunday uh for not for not walking the walk, right?

Uh so uh we're uh we're excited to be here.

And uh I will say this that when you're working on a message, the message usually is working on you.

And so I'm thankful for working through this message because of what it revealed to me and how it challenged me, uh how it grew my faith in the process.

Um and I appreciate Pastor Forrest um, you know, dropping a word on uh a lot of distractions that we have in our culture and in our world.

So many things that can uh knock us off course and uh uh help us lose sight of what's most important.

But at the end of the day, man, all we can control is what we can control, and that's what's right in front of us and making the difference that God has called us to make right where we are, right?

To do what you can with what you have, where you're at, because I can't do anything about uh who's in Washington.

I can't do anything about uh what so-and-so says across town.

I can, I'm only responsible for myself.

Um, so thank you for that, Pastor uh Forrest, as well.

Um I'm gonna open with uh a quick question before we step into some scripture from Ecclesiastes.

But what I what I really enjoy about the opportunity to help launch this series on smoke and mirrors is that this really aligns with a lot of the work that I get to do on a consistent basis where I help people um understand that who you are is more important than what you do because who you are determines how and why you do it, that your work is not your identity.

And so I'm really excited about this conversation today.

Um, but I want to begin with a question.

The most common question people ask in America when meeting someone new, particularly in professional or network settings, is help me out here, what do you what do you do?

And I love the fact that you all stopped right there because that's the truth.

That that's exactly how the question goes.

It's not what do you do for a living?

It's not what is your career, it's not how do you make money, uh, it's not what is your job title.

A common question that we ask in our culture in America is, what do you do?

Now the nature of that question, the intention is to ask about a person's job or profession, and it's used to establish context on some level, right?

In an initial interaction with someone.

Context and it allows us to gauge potentially shared interest rather rather quickly in a conversation.

But sadly, in my personal opinion, and you may agree or disagree, sadly, the overuse of this question, I believe, points to something much deeper.

Something much deeper in our culture.

That many of us, if we're honest, attach our identity to our job title.

We attach our identity to our job title, and we determine our worth by our level of accomplishment and accumulation.

You know, we've we've been told from a young age that in the United States you can pursue the American what?

Dream.

That you can uh uh through the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness, you can uh have a build a career.

Uh you can stockpile a savings account and build for retirement, and you can own a home and cars and uh raise a family, and all those things are good.

They're not they're not bad in and of itself, but but sadly, that pursuit, I think, has become a large part of our identity and our culture.

That what I'm building and what I own and what I've accomplished becomes who I am.

And that those things are what make me important.

And that allows me to stack myself up against other people.

Consider a study from Andrew Neighbor in 2007, obviously several years ago now, feels like a lifetime ago.

A graduate of Gettysburg College, he did some research, and from the ages of 25 to 65, on average, five days a week, 40-hour work weeks, two weeks paid vacation.

Now I know the typical work week doesn't really flow like that today.

Uh things are a little different.

We have some blended work hours and whatnot, but Monday through Friday, uh eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, five days a week, two weeks paid vacation, 25 to 65, that the numbers say that most people in America would spend 90,000 plus hours of their life, where at work.

One-third of their life.

That's a pretty ridiculous statistic when you really think about it.

And when I talk about this in corporate settings or team building sessions, we're talking about this as in finding ways to enjoy our work and protecting ourselves against burnout, so forth and so on.

And oftentimes I say this if I'm gonna devote 90,000 plus hours of my life to something, I'm gonna have a good time doing it, whether you like it or not.

All right.

I don't have to be miserable doing the work that I do, right?

By the way, Dave hooked me up with some tea a minute ago, and I tell you, that water was so hot it changed my life.

So I'm speaking real numb up here right now.

But I believe what we can conclude from those numbers as we look to open some scripture here in just a second, is for the most part, in our advanced nation, now I know that there are pockets in America and there are people groups, and there there still are systematic injustices and a number of things that I really believe in as advanced of a nation as we have, if we really cared about changing things the way that we could or should, I believe these things could be completely eradicated.

That's just my personal opinion, based on as advanced of a nation as what we live in.

But for the most part, in comparison to other places in the world, we are for the most part pretty materially secure.

For the most part.

Most of us, for the most part, we have food, we have clothing, we have water, we have shelter.

I know that's not everybody, and I know some of us are challenged in some of those areas, but as a whole, for the most part in America, we're materially secure.

We work harder and longer hours than some other comparable nations, but we're less fulfilled for some reason.

And our spiritual commitment is declining in the process because of what we've chosen to hang our hat on.

So doesn't it make sense that if we're going to labor and toil, as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, if we're going to labor and toil doing the work that God has set before us, shouldn't we consider how to do so in a life-giving way instead of a soul-depleting way?

Shouldn't we endeavor to do so in a way that honors God, that's fulfilling, that's meaningful, that's purposeful, that edifies other people in the process?

Shouldn't we endeavor to, if it's gonna be here, if we gotta do it, if it's a part of this life, shouldn't we endeavor to do so in a way that's sustainable instead of in a way that grinds us down, that wears us out, that discourages us, right?

And I believe that has everything to do with what we believe about ourselves, the setup at which we live in, who our creator is, what we exist to do, and the purpose for which we work.

What is the purpose of our work?

We're gonna look at a few passages from Ecclesiastes, but what I really like about what we're gonna talk about today is that Solomon was a guy who wasn't just inspired by the Holy Spirit to uh write a few things down that would give us a little bit more wisdom as to how to live our lives and make it more meaningful.

We're talking about a guy who legitimately uh had seen it all, had done it all, uh, and essentially had it all.

Uh, we're talking about a situation where been there, done that, and got the what, got the t-shirt for it, right?

And here's what Solomon says in the opening of Ecclesiastes I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all.

Everybody say all.

He said, All is vanity and a striving after the wind.

In other words, everything apart from God is fleeting.

Doesn't matter.

Doesn't bring, doesn't give our life purpose or meaning, right?

If you would please uh humor me by uh standing as we read some scripture together here.

Uh, we're talking about the gift of work today, and we're gonna open with Ecclesiastes 20, 24 through 25.

Would you read out loud for me uh as we uh we have the scripture here on the screen?

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.

This also I saw is from the hand of God.

Verse 25.

For apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment.

Let's let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word, we thank you for your truth, we thank you for being the ultimate truth, we thank you for being the author and the finisher of our lives, and we thank you, Lord, for giving us, uh loving us so much that you've given us an opportunity to learn, learn, and gain wisdom and understanding how to how to position our hearts and how to live our lives in a way that uh is surrender to you, glorifies you, but also brings us immense pleasure because you love us enough that you gave us the opportunity to experience that.

We could be just drones down here on this earth going through the motions, singing songs with no feelings, no emotion.

That's not what you created.

You created us in your image and you gave us opportunities to experience life and experience it to the full because of your son Jesus.

And I pray, Father, that what we discuss today would move minds, would move hearts in a direction that we could further glorify you even more, and it can make a difference in their lives and the people around them because of the way that we position work in our lives, because we surrender it to you.

Uh I say all these things and I ask all these things in your son's most precious name.

Amen.

You guys can have a seat.

Um, we're gonna this is gonna be a quick four-part game plan, if you will.

Quick four-part game plan.

There's four quarters in the game tonight.

We got four parts here to this particular message, and we're gonna break it down and we're gonna close things down, get out of here because obviously OJ is ready for some queso and some wings.

Um, I don't know if you guys are ready to get some some game day foods in, uh, but I'm getting a little hungry talking about it myself.

Um, and so the uh the the first part of our discussion today, uh what we're gonna break down, um, and I'm just gonna kind of give you a glimpse here.

What this looks like is is understanding that uh uh our creator is author and finisher of all, and he is the giver of all good gifts.

And whenever we surrender those gifts to him, he gives us an opportunity to enjoy those pleasures, right?

That's essentially the the the foundation of what we're talking about.

So uh God is the giver, Ecclesiastes 2, 24 through 25.

We just read 25, 24 and 25, but I'm gonna quickly read 518-20 for you.

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment, and all the toil with which one toils under the sun, the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.

Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil.

This is the gift of God.

This is his blessing, for he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.

God is the giver.

Ecclesiastes repeatedly says that enjoyment in life and work is from the hand of God.

So we have to understand that work is not ultimate, success is not ultimate, but God is.

And if we build from that foundation, it gives us an opportunity to enjoy the things that He's blessed us with.

God is not bothered by you enjoying your pickup truck.

God is, he delights in knowing that you enjoy good food.

We know Pastor Forrest likes to get down with some good barbecue, right?

God is not bothered by the fact that you delight in your relationships.

It brings him glory when you enjoy the people around you.

It brings him glory when you delight in your children.

But we have to remember that any and all of these things, whenever we choose to put them in God's place, they don't make for a good Savior.

He delights in knowing that your job, your food, your possessions, your relationships can bring you joy.

In fact, again, these are gifts.

They are gifts that he has chosen to bless us with that he didn't have to.

When you look for meaning in those things, right?

At that point, you're trying to find something in them that they weren't designed to provide.

I remember one of my pastors, whenever uh I was uh in some premarital counseling before marrying Jayla, and uh he reminded me early and often listen, my friend, you are going to have a wonderful life with your beautiful wife, but don't ever put her in a position where she has to be for you what she cannot be because only God can.

She is a gift in your life.

She is not your savior.

Our marriages, our finances, our careers, our interests.

Got any pickleball fans in the house?

Yeah, maybe, huh?

I don't know.

Right?

God delights in those things, right?

He's the giver of all good things, even work, which is what we're talking about today.

But you don't find meaning in your work, you receive it from God.

And if God is the giver of all good gifts and work is a gift, then we understand that work can be an immense blessing in our lives if we position our hearts the right way as we pursue that work.

I think about a short story of three bricklayers that some of you may have heard before.

But in this particular story, a traveler comes across three bricklayers working in the hot sun and asks each one of them what they're doing.

The first man, clearly exhausted, says, I'm laying some bricks, dude.

I'm out here getting after it.

It's hot, I'm tired, but we're gonna stack these bricks today, right?

The second one says, as you can see here, I'm building a wall.

Doesn't it look good?

Number three says, with a smile on his face.

Emphasis with a smile on his face and with joy in his heart.

What are you doing?

He says, I'm building a cathedral, and it's gonna be beautiful.

Same job, same heat, same bricks, but completely different perspective.

The difference wasn't the work, it was the help me out, everybody say meaning?

It was the meaning behind the work.

Me and I want to speak specifically to you today because I believe, like myself, for many of us in our culture, we've been reduced a lot of times to being a protector and a provider.

We talked a little bit about that last year during our message on Super Bowl Sunday.

And so it's very easy for us to get wrapped up in and identify ourselves by what we.

We provide and what we can do for others.

And if we are no good for others based on what we can provide, then sometimes people have no use for us.

And that's sad.

But I want to speak specifically to you because I believe that some of you, like myself, can at times feel like that first bricklayer.

Clocking in, clocking out, just paying the bills, just getting through the week, just surviving.

Others, maybe some of us, we see work as a career, advancement, an opportunity for promotion, an opportunity for success, an opportunity to feel important, an opportunity to have a title and feel uh distinguished.

But when work is surrendered to God, I believe it becomes a calling and it's laced with love.

And we have the ability to represent Christ in all those spaces that we're in.

That work now becomes participation in something much bigger than a paycheck.

And it reminds me of a story about a uh a janitor that JFK was introduced to while touring NASA, and he asked the gentleman, What is it that you do here at NASA?

And clearly the guy had a pushcart, he had a broom, he had trash bags, uh, he had cleaning supplies.

It was evident that he was a uh custodian, but he said, I appreciate you asking, Mr.

President.

You know what I do here at NASA?

I'm helping put a man on the moon, sir.

That's what I do here at NASA.

Uh he saw his work as something much bigger, uh much greater than himself, not just cleaning the toilets, sweeping the floors, taking the trash out, right?

Our work becomes something bigger than a paycheck whenever it's surrendered to God.

It becomes a gift and a blessing to us.

And we have the opportunity to model what it looks like to be to be Jesus in the spaces that we operate in, uh, in the medical field, in the retail spaces, right?

As a stay-at-home mom, as a coach, as a pastor, as a teacher, what have you, in construction.

Our work provides, it creates purpose, it makes contribution, it serves others even.

And most of all, our work reflects God's creative nature.

But here's the deal: it collapses when it becomes our identity.

When our work becomes our identity, it collapses.

And we know there's something in our hearts, we know that there's something bigger, there's something greater than just showing up and going to work.

We know there's something bigger, something greater than just accumulating wealth.

We know there's something bigger, something greater than just paying the bills.

We know that because we feel that, we sense that, and we know that the only thing that can fill that void is Jesus.

And so, what are we invited to do?

We're invited to enjoy what God gives us now.

If God is the giver and work is the gift, and we know that we are going to toil and labor under the sun all the days of our life on this side of eternity, then Solomon invites us, based on his personal experience and what he knows, that everything is vanity, he invites us to enjoy what God gives us now.

Everybody say now.

Now, not tomorrow, not next week, not next month.

Right now, you have the ability to say, I'm going to make the decision to glorify God, operate from a place of thanksgiving, to be grateful for what I have, grateful for what I get to do, grateful for the difference that I get to make, and I can redeem, and my work can be can be redeemed by Jesus Christ, and I can enjoy the process right now, even though let's call it like it is, work is hard and it's frustrating.

And you know why it's hard and frustrating?

Because work usually involves other people, and people are frustrating and people are messy, just like you, just like me.

Right?

But I like this here, I like this word here.

We often live in the when, not the W-I-N, the W-H-E-N.

We often live in the when.

When I get the promotion, when the kids get older.

I know I'm speaking to somebody.

When we save enough money, when things get just a little bit better, and then what happens is as life passes, only for us to realize that the only when we truly had was now.

When things get better, then I'll be able to enjoy life a little bit more.

No, my friend, that's not the secret sauce.

The secret sauce is God is saying, I have sacrificed my son to give you an opportunity to be in right standing with me.

And I created you in my image.

You are an adopted son or daughter in my kingdom.

Uh Jesus said, I have gone and prepared a place for you.

Uh we have the opportunity to pull a slice of heaven down to earth right here, right now, where we're at.

And when we do that, we reflect something in the world that is so uncommon that it gets people's attention and they want to know about it.

People say, Man, why?

How on earth can they do this hard work with so much joy and contentment?

How do they handle such difficult conversations with grace and love and compassion?

How on earth do they show up day in and day out when it's hard, when we're tired, when they're sick, when we're frustrated, whenever they didn't get the promotion?

How do they show up and still do what they do with so much joy?

It's because we've surrendered it to God and we know why we're doing it.

But if you lose your why, then you typically lose your way.

And that's when work gets frustrating, whenever we're focused on self.

Solomon teaches us through scripture to eat, drink, enjoy your work, receive your portion.

Everybody say, now, now.

In other words, operate from a place of gratitude because a glad heart is a grateful heart, and God has given us that opportunity to enjoy his gifts.

I once heard someone say, I might be praying for steak and potatoes tomorrow, but man, I'm gonna praise the Lord for this pork and beans because I ain't starving right now.

I'm gonna say that again.

I'm praying for better.

I'm praying for more.

I'm praying for a healthier situation.

I'm praying for steak and potatoes tomorrow, but you know what?

I'm gonna praise the Lord right here, right now, today, and I'm gonna enjoy the gift of these pork and beans because you know what?

My belly ain't growling and I ain't hungry and I ain't starving, and God's got my back.

We sang a song earlier that said he carried us through the water and he was right there with us in the fire.

He's always been on top.

He deserves our praise.

He deserves to see us enjoying what he's given us versus being bitter and frustrated and resentful about what we don't have right now.

This life is too short.

This life is too short.

This life is too short to not enjoy the life that God has given us.

There's always gonna be somebody else with more.

There's always gonna be somebody else that looks better, there's always gonna be a marriage that looks like it's all together, there's always gonna be kids that that uh listen more than yours.

There's always gonna be people more athletic, there's always gonna be people a little bit smarter, but I'm telling you here, God made you the way he did for a reason, and he's positioned you right here, right now, at this time in human history for a reason.

He wants you to delight in him and bring him glory and make a difference for other people.

He wants you to do that.

We can enjoy his gift right now.

So don't miss the life God is giving while chasing the life that you're planning.

Number four is work hard and trust God.

What that means is that, guys, we can work hard and we can rest well.

I'm gonna say it again.

Work hard and rest well because God is in control.

You do not determine the outcome.

Ecclesiastes 9 10, if I can find it here, is laced all throughout the entire book.

Says here that whatever you find, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, do it with all your might, do it with all your heart.

Do it and do it well.

Do it with excellence.

Ecclesiastes is not an anti-effort gospel.

What we're talking about here today is that it's we're not saying don't work hard.

Uh we're not saying forfeit your ability to build great things.

We're not saying don't use the energy that you have to do do wonderful things, do, do, do good works.

It's not an anti-effort gospel, it's a pro, do it for the glory of God.

And when you do it for the glory of God, there is enjoyment and satisfaction and peace that's a part of the process.

You can't secure your future, you can't control the outcome, you can't outwork mortality.

Because in the beginning of chapter 9, here's what it actually says that no matter what you do, how hard you do it, how much you grind, the common denominator for all of us in the end is death.

Solomon says that it, a matter of fact, he was depressed at one point.

Uh it says in a commentary that the the the state of his heart was that of depression, where he came to the realization that, man, I have accumulated so much, but the truth is that whenever I'm no longer here, that all may get wasted away by someone else who doesn't care about it as much as I did.

So, what happens to all the stuff that we've worked for when we're gone?

It's a vapor, it's fleeting, it's vanity, as Solomon says.

But so here's the bottom line as we uh get ready to transition.

Here's the bottom line.

Help me out here.

Everybody read this together.

Work is a gift to enjoy, not a God to serve.

Guys, we must surrender it to the one who created it.

We must surrender it to the one who created it.

Work is a gift to enjoy when we do it with the right posture of heart, not a God to serve, because it makes for a terrible savior.

A truck is a great tool, and some of you all have a pickup truck.

A lot of folks in Kentucky have one.

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna uh call anybody out in here, but I know I can get frustrated about some of those pickup trucks riding your rear end whenever you're driving down the road on the interstate, right?

Woo! Good old Kentucky.

A truck is a great tool.

Matter of fact, somebody tried to run over me on the way here.

And I had to pray through it.

What I was gonna do in response.

A truck is a great tool, it can haul lumber, it can pull trailers, it can help friends move.

You get where you need to go, but if you start polishing it every night, if you start obsessing over it, ignoring family over it, and refusing to use it because you don't want it scratched and you don't want to put any mileage on it, the tool now owns who.

God gave work to serve your life, my friends.

God gave us work to serve one another, not to become your life.

He is your life, he is your portion, he is your pleasure, he is your gift.

I want to show a flow chart here before we transition to a story that I think can highlight and give us a great example of Christ's likeness in the workplace.

Whenever we are operating under God's design and pursuing a life-giving direction through our work, here's what it looks like: identity is anchored in God.

Work is received as a gift, enjoyment received with gratitude, limits accepted with humility, and I'll emphasize this again: rest is trusted as provision.

God gives us rest.

And whenever we operate this way through our work, this is a life-giving model where we can flourish, where we can have pleasure, we can have joy.

Will we be tired?

Absolutely, because we're confined to a human body.

But it's beautiful when we pursue it this way.

But on the other side of the coin, here's what it typically looks like for us, especially in the Western world that we live in, is self is promoted.

And because self is promoted, this broken pattern, value is rooted in performance, work becomes our identity, achievement replaces enjoyment, limits are ignored, and rest feels unearned or impossible.

A striving that leaves us soul depleting.

So when God is first in our life, it's a gift.

But when work is first in our life, it's a grind.

And I can remember conversations with guys years ago when I was in my 20s and my 30s, and they would talk about, man, grinding your face off, burning the candle at both ends.

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

I I got to get this bag, I gotta get this money, right?

Only to find out, after chasing all that, that they were empty, that they were lost, that they were insecure, that it was fleeting, that it was vanity, as Solomon says.

I want to offer you a story in closing today about a gentleman who I feel like once again provides a beautiful example of what Christlieness looks like in the workplace.

Um, I don't know about any of you all.

I know some of you aren't football fans, um, and that's okay, but I'm a I'm a basketball guy.

Got any big Blue Nation fans in here?

Got any Cats fans?

Love y'all, but I'm a cards fan.

Any cards fans?

Come on! Let's go.

There were some people in the front row, man, that lit up when I said that earlier, and I was like, God bless you.

I honestly, I never got that type of reception before, ever, in my entire speaking career or being in the pulpit pastoring anywhere.

Whenever I said that I was a cards fan, I was like, man, God, Jesus is on the throne and God is good.

What a gift to have some cards fans in the house.

Uh praise the Lord.

But I want to share a quick story about a gentleman by the name of Junior Bridgman.

I don't know if anyone has ever heard that name before.

There's a good chance you may have not heard his name, and here's why.

Because he's just a simple guy.

He wasn't a guy who flaunted what he had created, what he had built.

Uh, he didn't show off with his wealth.

He was just a simple guy who loved the Lord, who loved people, and he did his work in a way that glorified God.

Junior Bridgman played basketball at U of L in the 70s.

Um, he recently passed away this last year.

He suffered a heart attack at a during a fundraising event at the Goldhouse in downtown Louisville, was rushed to a hospital to whereas he passed and uh in March of 2025.

He was a state championship uh winner in Indiana and high school.

U of L Final Four, 1975, eighth pick NBA draft to the LA Lakers, later traded to Milwaukee.

In that trade, someone else went to the Lakers by the name of Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

That was kind of a big deal back then.

The Bucs, he set a franchise record.

Bridgeman did.

700 plus games in his career.

But his name was only called in the starting lineup 105 times.

He came off the bench.

But his number two jersey is retired by the franchise.

If the six NBA sixth man award was around at the time, there's a really good chance that the sixth-man award would be named after Junior Bridgman.

After his career, he became the president of Players Association, and then he pursued a career in business as a franchisee.

His father was a second-generation steelworker, and I would assume that Junior Bridgman's father, like many of you, was one of those guys that just worked really hard to provide for his family because he wanted his children to have a better opportunity.

So he comes from humble beginnings.

2016, he was named the fourth wealthiest retired athlete behind Michael Jordan, David Beckham, and Arnold Palmer.

At the time of his death, his net worth was over a billion dollars.

Billionaire.

Now, I want you to get the message inside the message today.

I don't want you to get caught up on the fact that this guy was as wealthy as he was, because I promise you that's not what people remembered about Junior Bridgman.

And we won't all be billionaires.

The numbers don't lie.

But here's the beautiful thing.

He was a faithful member and servant at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

And most people would attest that you would never know that he was a billionaire by the casual polo and pair of jeans and tennis shoes that he had on while he was serving at church.

In an article from 2014, it was stated that his business empire was so large, comprising of over 250 Wendy's, more than 100 chilies, at the time of his passing, there was over 500 Wendy's chilies, and pizza huts.

That's a lot of restaurants, guys.

And a Coca-Cola bottling and distribution center, and the acquisition of Ebony and Jet Magazine because they were going bankrupt, among others.

At one point, now this was in 2014, so he probably employed more people before he passed.

But at this particular time in this particular article, 18,000 people were employed by his enterprises.

Listen, some of us know what stress feels like, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say we don't know the stress of being responsible for 18,000 paychecks.

Especially when we don't know what the economy's gonna do.

Especially when we know that God is in control, but we really don't know what's gonna happen.

In that article, it says that the path to success began by drawing on his experience as a team first player.

Bridgman rejected the belief that his restaurants and the food at their restaurants could sell themselves.

But we know that a greasy, juicy, salty burger can oftentimes sell itself.

But he thought that people would do a much better job of selling food than the food itself.

And so he believed in a model of hiring the best possible people that he could.

But here's something beautiful.

It says here that Junior Bridgman said that as he began hiring people to build these businesses and run these restaurants, he began investing in them as people.

He cared about them, he poured into them, he mentored them, he loved them because he knew that if you love the people, the people will take care of the business.

Helping some, it's hard not to get emotional here.

Helping some of them make rent when they were short, helping bail some of them out of jail when they needed a second chance.

In our culture, we're quick to write people off when they make a mistake.

Junior Bridgman was the kind of guy that says, I believe in second chances and I believe in you.

Doesn't that sound like someone named Jesus?

In a comment on a Facebook post of the announcement of his passing, I took a screenshot, I want to read that for you, and that's what we're gonna close with.

I I would venture to say that all of us would agree that the comment section on Facebook posts in America can be a pretty nasty place.

Am I right or am I right?

Oftentimes you go to the comments and you see people saying things that you should never read.

You hear people saying things about one another and you think, my goodness, are they really the Christian that they say they are?

You see people arguing about things and talking to people about things and knowing that those people do not care anything about who you are, where you come from, what you're going through.

So why are we even giving those people any attention?

But it just so happens that the comment section on the announcement of his death was laced with people and their experiences about Junior Bridgeman and how he impacted their life.

And here's what Mindy Amos said.

She worked at a Wendy's.

She said, Junior Bridgeman owned the Wendy's that I worked at as a teenager many years ago.

He owned many restaurants and he would visit them all periodically.

He knew every position in the restaurant, and he would jump in on the line to help out wherever.

Can you imagine showing up at Wendy's and the billionaire owner is cleaning the toilets?

Can you imagine showing up at Pizza Hut and the billionaire owner is taking out the trash?

The billionaire owner is handing you fries, the billionaire owner is mopping the floor.

The billionaire owner is running the cash register because he knew that if you really want people to do good work and do it with the right attitude and effort and energy and mindset, that you got a first lead.

But it said here that he was extremely friendly.

He was friendly, extremely humble, and a hard worker.

I'm gonna say that again.

He was friendly.

He was extremely humble and a hard worker.

How many people, by show of hands, will be okay with folks saying that about us?

He was friendly, extremely humble, and a hard worker.

What a testimony.

What a testimony of the way that we should do our work.

When he was around, we all wanted to work hard, not out of fear, but out of respect.

Because we knew that he cared about us.

We knew that he loved us.

We wanted to work hard for him because the way that he treated us.

And at Christmas time, he had a huge party for all the employees.

He would shut the restaurants down.

And he would have this very nice dinner catered at a beautiful venue.

Many of the employees who worked for him had never been to an event as nice as the one that he would put on.

I can't help but think that maybe in Junior's mind, as he hosted these events, the way that he served these people, the way that he celebrated this people, that in his mind that I want to create something where they see a small slice of heaven.

That you are worthy of putting on some nice clothes, that you are worthy of a great meal, that you are worthy of door prizes and surprises.

You are worthy of recognition.

You are worthy of gift, of the gift of joy and pleasure in all of your toil.

You are worthy because you are God's son and God's daughter.

I can honestly say that he was the single biggest influence for me on how I wanted to be as a manager more than anyone else.

Condolences to Mr.

Bridgman's family.

He was a great man, and so many people will miss him.

Guys, this is what it looks like when God is at the center of what we do and why we do it.

This is what it looks like when we do our work for the glory of God and the good of others.

This is what it looks like when Jesus shows up in your workplace and you're his representative and you're showing people what their true value is.

That's why we close with this.

That work is a gift.

When it's surrendered to God, it becomes a blessing.

When it replaces God, it becomes bondage.

Work is a gift.

Let's treat it as such.

Let's anchor our hope in Christ.

Let's not hang our hat on what we can do.

Let's hang our hat on who He is and who He created us to be.

And when we do that, work can be a gift.

It's been such a pleasure to be with you all today.

I'm going to close with the word of prayer as the music team comes back.

Lord, thank you for this day.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you for this word.

Thank you for this message.

Thank you for these people.

Thank you for this church, Father.

Thank you for your kingdom and what you're doing in Frankfurt.

Thank you, Lord.

I pray, I pray that what we learned today in this serious kickoff of smoke and mirrors, that we would understand that truly, truly, all is vanity apart from you.

That our work, our relationships, our finances, our health, any and all of those things can become idols, but none of those things can satisfy the way that you can, Lord.

You are good.

You are rich in mercy, and you have gifted us with the opportunity to enjoy pleasure in our toil.

Let us do such.

Let us do such and show people what it looks like.

To steward the gifts that you've given us in a way that glorifies you and invites others into the kingdom.

We ask all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

We're so grateful you joined us for this week's message.

At Multiply, we believe life was never meant to be lived alone.

If today you made the decision to follow Jesus, we'd be honored to walk with you on this journey.

Visit multiplyky.com to let us know.

We love you and we'll see you again soon.