Glory To Him - How To Bring God To Your Work - Ps Jono Kerridge

Hi there and welcome to the Garden Church Podcast.

We're excited that you've tuned in to hear a message from one of our team.

I know that you'll be encouraged in your faith and challenged to live for God.

We pray that you'll encounter Jesus in new and fresh ways as you listen to this podcast.

God has got something great for you.

So good.

Well, let's get straight into the text.

Um Matthew 5, 14 to 16.

If you know this passage of scripture, you'll you'll know that it's referred to as part of the Sermon on the Mount.

The most famous and most uh challenging sermon ever.

And Jesus preached it, and it's um amazing.

Matthew 5, 14, the 16.

This is Jesus speaking.

You are the light of the world.

He's speaking to disciples.

You are the light of the world.

A town built on a hill cannot be have we got it there, yes we do, cannot be hidden.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

God bless the reading and the preaching and the application of God's word.

And everybody said, Amen, amen.

Today I'm speaking on the thought to wrap up a collection of messages that the team has been preparing and um imparting to us as a church.

So I'm wrapping up with this message how to bring God to your work.

How to bring God to your work.

The question is, what does God do on Mondays?

Like, yeah, we've pretty well got it nailed like what he does on Sundays, because that's why you're here, right?

You know, but what does does he from Sunday afternoon does he have a long nap and think, whoa, I'm so grateful for that morning.

That was a great morning.

Um, and then kind of I don't know, go down and lie down South Beach for the rest of the week and um go fishing, um JP, you know, with the what is what what does God do on Mondays?

For that matter, what does he do Monday to Saturday?

Where does God go on Mondays?

Where does he go Monday to Saturday?

You see, if you're familiar with this language at Garden Church, if not, I want to tell you about it or remind you about it that we speak in terms of this is Sunday church, but then we uh are the church, so church doesn't stop, does the meeting together changes, but we are then entering Monday to Saturday church, which is the living body of Christ in our workplace, in our schools, in our homes.

Yes, we gather in small groups and encouraged and we love one another and honor one another, serve one another, but we're doing a majority of that Monday to Saturday church, typically either at school or at work.

We've been defining, redefining work.

I pray it's redefined in your heart.

That work is not just about a pay packet, but it's working with God to take the world somewhere, that you can discover meaning in your workplace, in your schoolyard by connecting with God, working with God and for God and through God, how to bring him glory through your work and connecting God to your work.

So, this is this is what we've been speaking about in the series.

We've been speaking about how God works, because he does work, and connecting God to your work, that's what we've been speaking about.

Also, how to bring him glory through your work, and so I'm wrapping this message series up today with maybe a message that you thought we were gonna jump to straight away.

Maybe or maybe not, but it's about how to bring God to your work.

So your workplace isn't separate, or your school place, or your university um campus isn't separate from your worship.

God can receive glory through the way that you work, you live, and you speak.

Can I hear an amen?

So reflecting on this passage of scripture, the key text for today, we're gonna rediscover that today again.

How do we have you got your notes?

How to bring God to your work, maybe your phone and your notes, um or or pen and paper, however you you uh record things, because it it really is important to engage with the word of God, not only now, to let the Holy Spirit speak now, but also let Him echo through the weak in your heart and marinate it.

Here's the first thing to let your light shine, to let your light shine.

You haven't heard a message on this for a long time, right?

But I I grew up on this kind of message.

Now, this is interesting because in John 8 12, Jesus said, I am the light of the world.

And then, like we read this morning from the Sermon on the Mount, talking to disciples, Jesus said, You are the light of the world.

So is Jesus confused?

Like, which which is it?

Is he the light of the world, or are we the light of the world?

Well, obviously, yes to both.

But the Jesus in us, have you noticed in human form, Jesus is not on the earth presently.

He lived 33 days, he rose from the dead and he ascended to heaven, but he set another, another to take his place, who now for every born-again believer, the spirit of God has entered our life.

So Christ is still the light of the world.

But JP, it's the Spirit of God in you at school, because Jesus said, You, you are the light of the world.

You carry the presence of Jesus.

I I love this picture of when Moses, and it's the same but different.

When Moses was leading God's people out of slavery after 400 years of slavery, he he wanted to hear from God, he he wanted to get in God's face.

He he knew he needed, if he was going to lead God's people, he needed to encounter God.

So he went up the mountain, right?

You know the story.

And time and time again, he'd go and hear from God, and quite often he would come back, all the time he would come back after encountering God, and not only was you know he'd given direction to lead and wisdom to lead God's people, but his physical presence would glow, his face would shine because he'd been in the presence of God.

He was literally the light of the world.

In fact, it got to the point where the Israelites were, man, can you put a bag on your head?

Now, now you can be insulted by saying that or saying, Oh, is that because I glow like Jesus?

But Moses took it to be the good thing.

You guys missed that joke.

Thank you, Josh.

Like if somebody says, put a bag on your head, it's normally means.

But they said this to Moses because of the glow.

It's like, man, we can't see.

Well, it's challenging to us.

It's so bright, is the glow that you encountered God.

For us as New Testament believers, the Spirit of God is within us, and it's that glow, it's that glow that the Bible says that we're transformed into his image, into God's image, into ever-increasing glory, that there's a glory, there's a glow within you as you continue to press into God, encounter God.

So when God's presence, you come into a place like this, and I pray, look, one of our mandates as a church, one of our mandates as Christians is to encounter the living Christ, not to encounter religion.

Religion will bind you up, it won't set you free, it will it will bind you up and to change, but encountering Jesus will set you free, free to live.

One of our mandates is to encounter Christ, not only for ourselves, but so that the glow of heaven, the light of the world would enter our life.

And when we take his presence, when you come under the word of God like you are today, it's not just some preacher on stage.

No, the word of God is being spoken over you.

It enters your life and it begins to change you.

You are transfigured, you are changed, you're transformed, glory upon glory, when you're in the presence of God.

The more presence of God you're in, the more you will be changed, and the more his presence will radiate from.

Oh, come on, come on, somebody.

I'm preaching better than you're picking up this morning.

Come on.

I think you can pick up your response a little bit.

And so this is where Jesus says, Matthew 5, 16, let your light shine before others that they may see your watch this, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

See, because we're saved by grace, it doesn't mean that good deeds are dead.

It means our good deeds don't get us to heaven.

In fact, show me a person that has encountered the grace of God, and I'll show you a person whose life has been transformed and they want to do something great.

They want to do good deeds, they want to do good for not because it's getting them to heaven, no, it's because God has already got them in heaven.

God's goodness and grace.

And this is what this says that your light shines before others, that your good deeds glorify your Father in heaven.

Let's think about light for a moment.

Light makes the invisible visible.

That's what your life does, it makes the invisible God visible.

Light is meant to be seen.

It is meant to be seen.

That's why Jesus followed up with the statement with two pictures: a city on a hill and a lamp in a house.

So in every way, friends, I'm telling you, the presence of God on you is gonna stand out in this world.

And the beauty that people talk about, maybe you're you're around some people that talk about how dark the world is and how the world's going down and down and how horrible.

Well, yeah, you could see that, and that's probably in some case reality, or you can see that where there's darkness, the light shines brighter, and the church, the church of Jesus Christ shines ever brighter, ever brighter.

Your life shines ever brighter.

I mean, some of you grew up with the song, you know, right in the in the 80s.

You you you know this little light of mine.

Come on, who's helping me?

This little light of mine.

I'm gonna let it shine.

Uh this little light of mine.

Uh I'm gonna let it shine.

Oh, let it shine, let it shine, oh let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel.

Come on, we could go all day.

Everyone that wasn't in church in the 80s, or your newly saved, you're gone, these guys are really fruit loopy, but I like it.

See, that that that that's that's God in you.

It's at work.

You know, at work, can I say this?

Light can look surprisingly ordinary sometimes, and other times really extraordinary.

Sometimes it can look ordinary like doing a job well, like excellence and integrity, uh, kindness, patience, refusing to gossip.

Come on, somebody.

Treating difficult people with honor, taking responsibility when you get something wrong.

They're they're all characteristics of uh you know, being the light alongside of the presence of God, just glowing through you.

The goal isn't to be saying, Look how good a Christian I am.

We read it.

Jesus says the result should be that people glorify the Father.

So here's the second thing.

The first thing is let your light shine.

The first thing is, second thing is let your life be read.

Same but different to the first point.

Second Corinthians 3 2 to 3.

The only letter of recommendation we need, this is Paul writing to a church.

The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves.

Your lives are a letter written in our hearts.

Everyone can read and recognize our good work among you.

Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you.

This letter is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.

It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

Tell the person beside you that you are being read.

You are being read.

You are your life, it is a letter.

Um, number one, no, no, no.

It's it's it's a little bit different in the sense that your light is what you do, your letter is who you constantly are, that you are being read.

What kind of thing are people reading of you?

If your your life was uh a news report being read or weather report being read, what kind of weather would be projected from your life?

And I I'm not saying we don't have cloudy days.

I mean, you know your pastor well enough to know that I walked through my own cloudy days, but I do know this that the promise of all cloudy days with Jesus is that the sun is going to shine.

That's the essence of hope.

And a in a pessimistic, cynical, um, skeptical world, a Christian allows Jesus to be seen in their life and for people to read the goodness of Jesus in all seasons.

People may never have opened a Bible, but every day they're reading us.

They read how we respond under pressure, they read how we treat the person who can't advance our career.

Come on, somebody.

They read whether our Monday character matches our Sunday confession.

Here's the third thing I want to get to is let your story be shared.

So let your light shine, let your life be read, and let your story be shared.

We all have a story, friends.

We all have a story, and God wants you to be confident in your story.

But I grew up in a Christian home and I've never wandered away.

You know what?

It's a story of grace because the quality, the impact of a story is not what you did before Christ, the impact of your story is Christ.

That's the message.

And you all have we all have a story.

God gets glory when we give him credit for what he's done.

The first two points were about demonstration, and that is so important.

Letting your life shine, letting your life be read, but just as important is declaration.

Not just demonstration, but declaration that your words echo, put, put meaning to your life being read.

Can I just ask here?

And I'm not going to uh embarrass anybody if this is not you just yet, but put your hand up if you are redeemed.

You are born again, you are saved.

Put your hand up nice and high, nice and high, that you have become saved by God's grace.

You received him as your Lord and Savior.

So the Bible says that you are redeemed, which means purchased with a price, and it was a price of Jesus, his blood.

I want you to put up Psalm 107, verse 2 here.

Psalms 107:2

And it says this that let the redeemed, let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.

There is power, oh that's Jesus.

That's Jesus, and he is saying, Amen to that.

Ding dong, the witch is dead.

Oh, I love our church.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, tell their story.

So sometimes, friends, uh let me give you this scripture and then I'll explain a little bit further.

1 Peter 3 15 says, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

So it doesn't just have to be on the spur of the moment.

You if you're wise as a Christian, you you have you're thinking, oh, you know what, I've got about 30 seconds sometimes.

I've got 30 seconds from between meetings when I'm going from this office block to this office block or this room to another room.

Maybe it's in an elevator, maybe it's on the trip down to get lunch at Smoker.

You you got like a minute, you got 30 seconds.

Sometimes I remember testifying when I was when I was doing concreting, waiting for the concrete truck to come.

So you got like a minute, which means in your mind you got to clarify, you got to clarify for yourself what has God done for me.

Are you hearing me today?

It doesn't have to be complicated.

You think about uh John John 9.

Um, there's this there's this man that's born blind, and now I believe he was 38 years old, so he's been blind his whole his whole life.

He he'd been blind, right?

And Jesus comes and heals him, and he can see.

And then Jesus, like he did quite regularly, he like just takes off, does his healing and says, Check you later, I'm out of here.

And he went so quick that the blind man didn't even know who healed him.

And then the religious people who always like to put squash when God's doing miraculous things or great things, they try to squash it like that.

And it's like, how dare, how dare you be able to see now?

Was it your sin or your parents' sin that helped?

I don't know where that voice comes from.

I've had four kids, I've lost watched a lot of kids' movies.

Come on, somebody.

That sounded like Robin Hood.

There was a king on Robin Hood, the movie.

How dare you do?

And like, and they're like, this guy was blind.

Come on, somebody, now we can see, and they try to frame him.

They're trying, isn't that what religious people do?

It's like, man, this guy can actually start to work now.

He can actually see his family now, and you're saying all that junk.

There's something in that for somebody to keep your heart sweet and pure.

Keep the main thing, the main thing.

And this is his testimony.

This is this blind man's testimony.

He's literally like, you know what?

I don't know how I'm gonna get healed.

I don't even know his name, the guy that was talking to me.

But I do know this.

That I was blind, but now I see.

That's ten seconds of testimony there.

I don't know how I did it, but I was in darkness.

But now I'm walking in light.

Come on, somebody, that is sharing your story.

The emphasis doesn't need to be about forcing spiritual conversations.

Hot.

You think this day's hot?

Wait till you uh feel the flames of hell.

No, no, that's kind of pushing it.

It's kind of oh come on, we've all been around those kind of people.

It's like Christian, no, I'm not a Christian, no, no.

No, I wouldn't say that.

It's being available and unashamed when the door opens.

Because I can guarantee you this that the Holy Spirit will open doors.

He's that good.

He opened doors for you.

Come on, somebody.

Those annoying Christians always turned up at your workplace.

Come on, somebody.

Because he loves you that much, God loves you that so much.

And now God is using you, He's positioning you, doors will open.

When someone asks, How did you get through that?

Simple response, honestly, my faith in Jesus carried me.

Someone notices a change in your life.

You say, That wasn't just self-improvement.

God has some done something in me.

One line in The Chosen.

I love watching The Chosen.

It's one of the most beautifully presented pictures of Jesus that I have seen, at least in this generation.

There's this line in the early uh season and and and um and episodes when uh Mary Magdalene has uh come to Jesus and her life is being changed.

And and once again the religious people are flipping out on seeing Mary Magdalene's life be changed, and Nicodemus comes up to Mary and says, Mary, how has this happened?

How has this happened?

And this is her testimony, this is her sharing her story, and this is what you can do.

I love what she says that messes me every time.

I was one way, and now I'm completely different, and the thing that happened in between was him.

You can share your story, friend.

You've got a story, please.

In the goodness of God, in the grace of God, you be bold with your story.

It doesn't have to be fireworks and this and that.

Uh, to God, it is a story of his goodness and grace.

You're following him, you're loving him, and we've all ended up at the same place.

And that was bowing the knee to our wonderful saviors.

We looked up to our precious Lord and Savior and said, God, you were so good, you were so good, I was blind, but now I see so good.

Well, here's the last thought.

Man, there's dust in the room.

Getting in my eyes, making my eyes water.

Here's the last thought is let the supernatural flow.

Let the supernatural flow.

Just don't bring Christian values to your work, which is important.

That's part of righteousness, that's part of living right, that's part of shining a light.

But believe that God Himself wants to be in your workplace, in your school, in your university.

You see, sometimes we can reduce Christianity in the workplace to be nice, work hard, don't swear, don't tell dirty jokes.

Those things matter.

It's a good start.

But we're also people who believe in a living God, a living savior.

We believe in the supernatural, believe that God heals, that God answers prayer, that God is moving, that he's not dead.

For three days later he rose from the dead and he's alive.

And he just didn't go to heaven and say, see you later, see you, see you in a few millennia.

No, he sent his Holy Spirit that today is working and moving and active in every spirit field, born-again believer.

I love in Acts 9, 10 to 18, we're introduced to a man named Ananias.

See, some of you are like, Ananias, yeah, I think I've heard him.

Is that he isn't an apostle, he's not a guest preacher or church leader.

He's simply described as a disciple.

As you and I, friend.

And God speaks to him and he obeys, he goes to a known persecutor of Christians named Saul.

He lays hands on Saul, and Saul receives his sight and is filled with the Holy Spirit.

God changes Saul's name to Paul, and he is discipled, and he ends up going to write two-thirds of the New Testament.

Now, God would have raised somebody up, but I'm so grateful for Ananias who said, Yeah, God, use me in my everyday.

You see, there is a whole bunch of poles in this room that will go on and have done or doing or going to do amazing things, huge things that will be that will shift cultures and that will shift atmospheres in your schools and universities.

Some of you will go into the mission field and your life will be sown to bring great fruit and fruitfulness for the kingdom.

That's Paul.

But for most of us, we're Ananias, ordinary disciples that are available to him for God to use powerfully in our everyday ordinary life.

Remember, Ananias was a disciple of God.

He got prompted by the Holy Spirit, he responded to that to that.

He went, he he went through prejudices.

Oh yeah, I've heard about that guy.

He he moved through that, he went to Paul, where where Paul was, he prayed for him, the Holy He laid hands on him, the Holy Spirit flowed into his life, through his life, and into Paul.

That's you and I, friend.

That's each one of us.

So what if we prayed before we work on walking into work?

What if we prayed these kind of prayers?

Holy Spirit, use me today.

Show me who needs encouragement.

Open a door for me to share Jesus.

Give me courage to offer to pray for somebody.

Or do something that only you can do.

How do we bring God to Lord?

Let's just um back.

I think we've got a slide for this uh again, and I just want to pray.

Bring God to your work and let your light shine.

Let your light be red.

Use us in our workplaces.

Whatever excuse we have in our mind.

Pray may your your courage and your boldness and your spirit overtake those sense of excuses or timidity.

I thank you that you haven't given us a spirit of fear, that you've given us love, power, and a sound mind.

Pray, Holy Spirit, in our universities, in our schools, in our workplaces, in our colleges, in our mums' groups, in our homes, that you would use us, that we'd be aware to carry you.

We'd be aware, Lord Jesus, to let our light shine, for our life to be read, Lord Jesus, for our story to be shared and told and Lord God for the supernatural to flow through our lives.

Through your spirit.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that this is not a to-do list, but it's allowing you to be God in our lives, that your Holy Spirit is alive.

Any sense of to-do can be broken over people's minds and hearts, but it'll be just allowing you to be God, to be Lord in all that we do as a church Monday to Sunday in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Before we close today, I felt really pressed by the Holy Spirit in preparation this week, but just in closing, just to speak into the thought that God is still moving.

I want to speak over you today.

Holy Spirit wants to speak over you.

Even since Him now, as I begin to speak this, he he spoke to me so clearly about sharing these thoughts today because God is working and we're going to respond out of this today.

He was there at creation.

The first four words of our Bible, Genesis 1:1.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning, God.

That He was there, He was at work.

Did you hear that?

Or is it just me up here?

That's awesome.

I'm used to it.

He was in It was in the beginning.

He was working.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

They were there, they were working.

They they created the cosmos, the the the bird, the earth, the trees, the seas, all that we see.

God is was still working.

He was working through the patriarchs.

Patriarchs of the founders of our faith.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

He was working through there.

God was was working through them.

He was working through their children.

He was God was positioning him and his family to become a blessing to the world.

He was working when he raised up Moses, who would take uh 1.5 million Israelites out of captivity and in the freedom.

God was working.

God was working when the Israelites, can I come down there?

God was working when for 40 years the Israelites walked through uh the desert.

Some of you walking through desert and you think, is God still working?

I'm telling you, there was men from heaven every day.

God was for them.

And if God is for you, who can be against you?

They realized the hand of God.

They saw the hand of God because God was still working.

He led them to the promised land.

It was through Joshua.

Joshua and Caleb, out of two 1.5 million people, there was only two that walked into the promised land.

That was Joshua and Caleb because God saw that they had a different spirit, because he saw that God would work on their behalf, and that's what the Holy Spirit did.

He worked on their behalf and they entered the promised land.

I mean, I could go through right through the Old Testament, I could go through the kings, I could go through the judges that God was working.

I could go through the kings like David and Solomon, men of God that restored worship because God wanted to be present with his people because God was working.

But then the major prophets of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, right through the minor prophets of Joel and Habakkuk and Nahum and Malachi, God was working.

And then between the last scripture of the Old Testament and the first of the New Testament, there was four hundred years of darkness, four hundred years of not a whole lot of seemingly spiritual activity, no prophets rising up, no books of what we know now as the Bible being written.

But God was still working, He was still working, and the Bible says, as prophesied in Isaiah some several hundred years before, that out of darkness will come a great light, and into that darkness will come the light of the world.

His name is Jesus, the most magnificent name.

Why?

Because God was working.

The Bible says in Galatians that just at just the right time he sent his son into the world.

Why?

Because God was present with these people, he was working, as you know, Jesus lived a perfect life, lived the life that we should have but didn't.

He ended up going to the cross for crimes that he didn't commit.

A perfect human, not put on the cross because of a Roman hand or a religious leader, but put there because of his decision to pay for your penalty and for my penalty of our sin.

He died.

Was that the end?

No, God was working through that.

What happened on Saturday?

Because the Bible says that there were three days.

Three days to the Jewish people, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, all included in one day.

So Saturday, what was happening?

Was God you know wondering what to do now?

No, no, God was still working.

Because he doesn't stop working, he's alive, he's moving by his spirit.

And the Bible says, of all things that happened on Saturday while Jesus was dead, that he went and plundered hell, that he took captives made captivity captive, that he could took the keys of hell and the grave because because Jesus was working.

And as you know, he rose from the dead.

Sunday morning, he rose from the dead because Jesus God is working.

He lived for 40 days, he walked on earth, showing himself, saying, Hey, look, look, here's where the spear was put.

Here's where the here's where the spear was put in my hands.

And he said to the disciples, you know what?

I've got to go.

I'm gonna go and I'm gonna go to the Father, but he and I are gonna send you another, and he's even greater than I, because he'll fill each one of you.

When I'm with you, you're with me.

But when he's with you, he's with everybody who calls on his name.

Why is that because God was working?

And you know the story.

Uh, 50 days after Jesus had ascended, 10 days after Jesus had sorry, uh, 10 days after Jesus had ascended, the Father, as the disciples are in the upper room, 120 of them saying, God, come and fill us with more of yourself.

We know that Jesus isn't here, but he said for us to wait, that we'd receive power from heaven.

And you know the story.

The Holy Spirit descended on that room.

The Holy Spirit felled filled every believer with a fire on every head.

Why?

Because God was not done yet.

God was not done yet, that he was working, that he had a mission, he had a plan, he was up to something, he hadn't finished, he hadn't put down his tools.

When he said it is done, he wasn't saying it my job's done, he was saying salvation work is completed, but we still got a work to do, we still got a job to do.

Why?

Because God was still at work.

I come on, I gotta fast right through through the New Testament, through the apostles, through the disciples, right through the Holy Spirit was alive and working through the apostles, that they would touch, they would touch just like Jesus did, they would touch the sick and they would be healed.

They themselves, through the power of Jesus, was raising people from the dead.

Why?

Because God was still working.

I'm here to tell you today that God's work did not finish in Acts 29.

He's like, see you in heaven.

Tell me how you get through it all.

You know, I just can't wait to meet you in heaven.

No, why?

Why, why, why would he not say that because God is still working?

The one that heals bodies is still working.

The one that breaks chains is still working.

The one that restores lives is still working.

The same God that raised the dead is still working.

The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive in you and he's still working.

He's still restoring lives, it's still breaking chains, it's still forgiving, it's still redeeming, it's still healing, it's still setting free, it's still calling people by name.

That is our Jesus, that is the wonder of Jesus, that he is still working in and through our lives today.

Would you stand to heaven?

Would you stand and raise your hands towards heaven and give him a shout of praise?

Thank him that he's working in your life today! Thank him that he's alive today, that is not done working on the sea.

Garden Church is a flourishing, life-giving church based on the northern rivers of New South Wales.

We have a passionate commitment to see you make a difference in your world, thrive in community, and most importantly, connect you to Jesus.

Visit our website gardenchurch.com for more details of ministries, our heart, and even some great resources to empower your life.

Be blessed, go and be life giving you.