Work as Mission

My name is Carlos. I get to preach today about

work, but specifically work is mission.

And so I want to show my cards from the from the jump.

All right, I don't have a lot of technical.

This is how you be on mission at work because my job is not to

show you how to live your life with Jesus.

That's your job with the Holy Spirit.

So what I am going to do is I want to paint broad categories

this morning and I'm going to show us an example of a church

that's just knocking it out the park.

But before I do that, I'm going to throw myself under the bus.

OK, y'all with me? Oh, OK, All right.

I was like, I'm talking to myself up here.

Come on, let me throw myself under the bus.

All right, The year was 2011. I was a new I like these.

I was a new Christian, new ish Christian at Georgia Southern

University. Go Eagles.

Thank you. This is actually part of my No,

it's not. I was a new Christian at Georgia

Southern University and I was an art major.

Any art people in the house? There you go.

I was an art major and I was heavily involved in my campus

ministry at the time. And Jesus had just become like

so sweet to me. And I was like, man, like these

are going to be my people. These are going to be people

that I, I do ministry to, that I do life with.

It was in college that I grew up passion for the loss.

And then I began to see that like my passion for art and then

my passion for Jesus, I could actually like put those things

together. And so I began to get on mission

and things went good. In fact, one of the highlights

of my time and in college doing ministry and and as a vocational

student was in my 3D design class.

It was a highlight of my missional pursuits at Georgia

Southern. See, what had happened was this

small little group of us had formed kind of in the back of

the classroom, and we'd have all these inside jokes, we'd be

teasing each other, we'd be teasing the rest of the class,

and then we'd eventually get into real life conversations

about who we are and then the meaning of life.

And I even got to start a Bible study with that, that little

group. I'm still friends with one of

them, especially to this day. He's the guy who tattooed my

hand. He gave me a couple tattoos, and

he's still a really good friend of mine.

This class was remarkable in many ways because I learned so

much about myself and about how God wanted to use me for His

mission. But it was also memorable

because it was in this class that I learned one of the most

important lessons, one of the most important lessons about

mission. And because my vocation at the

time was a student, and because our sermon series is on work,

and because my sermon today is on being missional at the

workplace, I believe that this memorable lesson will help us as

we seek to marry mission and work together.

But before I do that, we have to ask the question, are we even

supposed to be on mission at work?

Does it make sense to be mission minded in the workplace?

Is it wise to let your faith bleed into your vocational work?

Right? Isn't work just a place where I

like go get my bread and and then go back home?

Is it work? Isn't my job just where I like I

find my ultimate fulfillment, right?

This is this is my purpose in life.

Those are really good questions. And before I share with you my

answer and my sermon, I want to share with you how one preacher

answered that question in the single most important sermon I

think it ever recorded when looking at a crowd and

attempting to give them direction on how they should

live in every aspect of their lives, right, including

vocations. This preacher says this.

He says this in Matthew. He says you are the light of the

world. A city situated on a hill cannot

be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it

under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light

for all who are in the house in the same way, right?

Just like that lamp. Let your light shine before

others, so that they may do what?

See. See your good works and give

glory to who? Give glory to God your Father in

heaven, Jesus. Spoiler alert, the best

preacher. I think this is my opinion.

Jesus. The best preacher there ever was

and ever will be. In one of his most famous

sermons, the Sermon on the Mount tells a large crowd of his

followers that they are light. They are placed in The Dark

World. To do what?

To shine bright, to shine forth, to illuminate everything around

them. And what is the way that they

accomplish this? What is the way in which The

Dark World that they live in is to be illuminated?

Jesus says through their good works.

Notice he says that you are light.

Everybody say I am light. I am light.

You are light. When Jesus mentions good works,

these works are not works that are used to save you.

No, these are good works because you are already saved, right?

This is the gospel. You have been saved apart from

any works that you could do for God.

Your works cannot save you. Praying can't save you.

Going to church can't save you. Tithing can't save you.

Reading your Bible, that can't save you.

Only God can. You are light, you have been

saved apart from your works. You have been made righteous by

the blood of Jesus. And when you remember Pastor

Cole's sermon from last week, right?

When, when, when, then then it all kind of makes sense, right?

Last week Pastor Cole told us that, that, that we are made in

God's images, that we are God's statues put throughout the whole

earth to, to remind people of who God is.

This is what Jesus is saying. He's saying you are the light of

the world because who, who is who is the ultimate light?

Jesus, Jesus, God, God is light, but our light is a borrowed

light, right? Kind of like the moon.

You know how the moon shines bright in the night, but like it

only shines because the sun is reflecting off of it in the same

way, In the same way, we are reflection of the SON at the

SUN, right? Everybody say I am light, I am

light, you are light and the way that you shine and display the

glory of God is through your good work.

So does it make sense to answer our question right from the

beginning? Does it make sense to be mission

minded in the workplace? Is it wise to let your faith

bleed into your vocational work? Well, my answer and I think what

the answer to the Lord Jesus says is absolutely yes,

Absolutely yes, yes. The workplace is not just there

to provide for you, right? The workplace, your vocation,

you're caught, whatever you want to call it is not there just for

you to simply find ultimate fulfillment.

We aren't just to go through the motions.

No, God says that you are to shine to shine, shine in such a

way that people see and say, Oh my gosh, glory to God, glory to

God and they see they see him through your works.

And this brings me back to my story.

This is the one I'm about to throw myself under the bus.

All right, you see, I had created really, I had created

some really dope friendships. We had a ton of fun in the class

and we even talked about spiritual things.

The lesson that I learned this, this memorable lesson about work

that I learned in this class, was that the reality that before

anyone cares about what I said about God, what I proclaimed

about God, what I declared about God, they will first notice the

quality of my work. I represent Jesus to them in my

workplace. Our work is the first

evangelistic witness that you have of who God is in your

vocation. And unfortunately for me, my

work sucked. I mean, it wasn't terrible.

It wasn't terrible, but I was definitely just coasting.

I had believed the lie that, yeah, work is important, but

really what happened? What was this really important

is I just got to, I just got to let him know about Jesus.

I got to let him know about Jesus.

I cared way, way more about being a good communicator about

my belief in God and more, more than demonstrating my belief in

God through my good works. And this came to the to his head

and one of my biggest projects. So we had to create this like,

man, this was such a hard project.

It was like this big house. We had to create the interior of

a house and it was all white. And I couldn't like I couldn't

keep this thing. I had smudges everywhere on it.

It was it was the worst. And I was like, hey, this is

fine, whatever, I'm going to turn in.

And my professor, she called me out on it, right?

She called me out while I was presenting my project and

getting feedback and whatnot. She pulled me to the side.

She didn't want to embarrass me. Praise her, praise her heart.

Professor Virginia, if you listen, I don't know what she

is, but I appreciate this. This has changed my life.

She says, you know, Carlos, shouldn't the effort of your

work reflect the God that you proclaim?

I was like, Oh my gosh, she was not a believer, by the way.

She says how you work speaks volumes of what you believe in.

And I, I was just like, let me go crawl in a hole right now.

It was as if someone sucked all the air out of the room.

What was the hardest part about this was that she was right.

I let myself give into the lie that my work didn't matter as

much, my words did. I believe that if my words were

full of Jesus, then my work, it just didn't.

It didn't matter that much when in reality she was not just

listening to my words, but she was watching.

She was watching my life. I believe the lie that my works

meant nothing at all. Dorothy Sayers says this.

Dorothy Sayers has this really dope quote that has just haunted

me. She says this quote.

The Church's approach to an intelligent Carpenter is usually

confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his

leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays.

What the church should be telling him is this.

Y'all listening that the very first demand that his religion

makes upon him is that he should make good tables.

Church, by all means, yes. Decent forms of amusement,

certainly, but what use is all of that if in the very center of

his life and occupation, he is insulting God with bad

carpentry? No crooked table legs or I'll

fitting drawers ever came out of the carpenter's shop in

Nazareth. Nor if they did, could anyone

believe that they were made by the same hand that made heaven

and earth. Or Simply put, your work is a

missional tool that God uses for you to shine bright in the

world. Our work matters.

And as I look back on it, I wish that I could redo that class.

Not the projects, definitely not.

No, because I don't, I don't think that.

Like, it wasn't, it wasn't the fact of me having a perfect

project. It wasn't the fact of me

designing this thing. It was it was the way that I did

it right. I wish that I could do it over,

but I can't. And So what I'm going to do this

morning is I'm going to preach the 21 year old Carlos.

I want to be like, hey bro, get yourself together and I'm just

going to let y'all listen in. All right, That was a long

intro. We're going to go all right.

It is true that we have to open our mouths and and declare who

Jesus is, declare the hope that we have.

But mission begins as soon as you clock in.

It begins as soon as those kids wake up.

It it it happens as soon as your shift begins or as soon as you

walk through the doors of your classroom.

How you work speaks volumes about the God in whom you trust.

All right. And there's one church in the

New Testament that has been such a shining example of for me.

And so I just want to hold them up as an example of what does it

look like to work in such a way that people look at you and they

praise God. All right, this is the church in

Thessalonica. These dudes were killing it.

All right, so we're going to be in First Thessalonians 1/2

through three and then verse 8. So if you're able, let's go

ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word.

This isn't going to be technical.

I think I said that at the beginning.

This isn't going to be technical on how on that the tools of how

to be on mission. We have an e-book that we have

designed for you guys. I'm sure they're around here

somewhere where you get the opportunity to ask those

questions. But this is going to be more

high level, more high level vision.

All right, First Thessalonians 1233, this is the word of the

Lord. We always thank God for all of

you making mention of you constantly in our prayers.

We recall in the presence of of our God and Father, your work

produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your

endurance inspired by hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 8 says this. I can find it.

Oh, for the word of the Lord rang out from you, not only in

Macedonia and Achaea, but in every place that your faith in

God has gone out. This is the word of the Lord.

You can be seated. Heavenly Father, I pray that

your word will shine bright this morning in a lot of ways.

Lord, everything that I'm about to say from here on out, Lord, I

am. I'm a, I'm a hypocrite, Lord, I

don't live work like this and work like this.

And that's OK because you are slowly and steady making me new.

And so I pray that people will look beyond my hypocrisy, Lord,

and look to you, Lord, you are worthy of our work, our labor

and our endurance. And so I pray that you would

help us to be people who work in our in our vocations like this,

that that display the glory of God.

Lord, empower me with your Holy Spirit.

Yeah, make this just a fragrant offering to you in Jesus name.

Amen. All right, y'all with me, We're

good. OK, All right.

Well, Paul is writing and reminiscing about this church.

The first thing that he recalls about them is their work

produced by faith, their labor that is motivated by love, and

their endurance, which is inspired by hope in the Lord

Jesus. Everybody say work, work, work,

labor, labor, endurance. These three things are the

ingredients that make up the recipe for your vocation being a

myth for for you being a a missional witness in your

vocation, right? Because Paul, because of these

Paul says that that the word of the Lord rang out from them or

as Jesus says in Matthew 5, they shone like the lights that they

are. So let's break this down.

The first thing that we see about this church is that they

are a people who work, right? This work, this word work means

that they have they have a duty, they have a task, they have an

assignment and they actually accomplish it like they do the

job that that was given to them. And on the surface, this seems

simple enough, but you would be amazed at how much of A witness

you would be if you just actually did the job that you

were given, right? If you if after you cleaned the

windows, there were like actually no smudges on the

windows like after you, like you actually submit the report on

time, like stay at home parents, you actually feed and nurture

your kids, right? Doing the task in front of you

speaks volumes. But let's keep going because the

church at Thessalonica, that is a tongue twister.

The church at Thessalonica didn't just have this work

appear out of thin air. No, their work was produced by

something, right? And what was that?

It was faith. Their faith is what produced

this work. Faith is what helped them get

the job done. And faith is going to help you

and your work. But this ain't just like some

whimsical faith. This is not just like pray, eat,

laugh, love faith, right? This faith that Paul is saying

is a particular faith, this word faith refers to the fact that

these people, they have a firm assurance, they have a

confidence not in their work, but in the person and work of

Jesus Christ and all that he has done for them and all that he

has made them to be. You see, this type of work isn't

just produced by putting your head down and grinding.

No, this type of work rings out. That rings out is produced by

what Jesus has done for us. It's produced when you recognize

and remember that you are the work of God that God sent Jesus

to complete the task of ransoming people from every

nation, tribe and tongue. This type of work is produced

when you see that the work of God is sending Jesus actually

paid the penalty for your sins. This type of work is produced

when you see that the work of God that that God had given to

Jesus and giving you his his righteousness, it actually

happened. You are the righteousness of

God. This type of work is produced

when you see that the work of Jesus that it has adopted you

into the family of God, right? This this, this type of work

looking at faith is produced when you realize that man,

because of Jesus, I am the beloved of God.

And when the work of Jesus is the faith that you cling to,

then what results is the type of work in your vocation that

points to the divine reality that God is real and he desires

a people for himself. This is work that is produced by

faith, right? This is this is what was

produced in these people. But let's keep going.

Oh, nice. The second thing that Paul

recalls is that this church had labor now.

When I first studied this, I was like, why is Paul saying the

same thing twice? Work, labor, Like maybe he's

just trying to emphasize that. But then when you, when you look

at the word labor, what Paul, it's a, it's a different word.

It's a completely different word by labor.

What Paul means is that work, this is work that takes effort,

considerable effort. This is not just work.

This is this is toil. It's hard work.

This is the kind of work that that if you, if you work a blue

collar job, this is kind of work that when you come home, your

muscles are sore. You're like, man, like I've been

whatever worse is chatting here, been hanging wires.

I don't know what electricians do.

I think they like hang wires and stuff.

You've been on your feet all day.

It's that type of work. If if you work at a desk job,

I'm trying to who works in the desk?

There you go. If you work in a desk job, this

is the type of work that you've been looking at a screen all day

and you like rub your temples, You're like, Oh my gosh, man,

I'm so tired. This is this is this is what he

means by labor. If you're, if you work at home,

this is the type of work that makes you actually believe that

you have an infinite amount of dishes and laundry.

Like you're like, I'm never going to catch up.

I'm never going to catch up. Like this thing is, is, is going

on forever. This is the type of work that

when we get a large rush in our Cafe and I look up and I see a

line, I'm like, OK, we just put my head down to keep going and

30 minutes left. I'm like, it seems like the line

has not moved. It's just it's hard work.

This is what Paul means when he says labor.

And, and more specifically, this is the type of work by labor.

This is the type of work that that that reduces one strength.

But this labor isn't 1 where people drag their feet toward

it. No, what Paul is saying is that

they ran to this type of work. They ran toward this type of

work. Think about this for a second.

Think about the the vision of seeing a group of people

willingly running toward this hard and and laborers work on

purpose. If I weren't part of this group,

I'd be like, man, like, why do all y'all like embrace this?

To which they would probably probably reply, man, I'm glad

you asked. I'm glad you noticed.

We're motivated because of love. That's what our text says,

doesn't it says that their labor, this hard work that

reduces their strength is motivated by love.

Now this word love isn't just it's kind of off his losses

meeting because I think this this morning I saw a blueberry

donut and I was like, man, I love that.

That's that's not the love that that we're talking about.

Love is kind of lost. It's it's it's it's meaning.

This word love is not general generic liking of something.

This is this word love is agape agape.

And if you don't know what that some of you might know what that

is. But if you don't Agape is used

in two ways in the New Testament.

The first way of this type of love is to talk about like

goodwill or benevolence. It's like this, the charitable

love where you just you freely give of something or yourself

without anything in return. The second way is use or spoke

spoken of and in the New Testament is it's the love of

God, the way in which God is. And in other words, or, and

actually in first John 4, when John says that God is love, he's

literally saying God is agape. So when we read that the labor

of these people is motivated by the love of God, then it makes

sense why they would embrace this type of Labor.

And if we want to be missional in our vocations, then we too

have to embrace this hard work and labor motivated by God's

love. Y'all with me?

OK in Christ, right? God has been so benevolent to

us, hasn't he? In Christ, God has been so

charitable toward us, seeking nothing in return, hasn't He?

The love of God has been made known through the labor of

Christ. In the Gospel, Jesus actually

sweats for you. In the garden Jesus sweats blood

and and water for you, representing right the blood

that will pay for your sins and the the water that will wash you

by the snow when you work hard at work.

People will take notice and when they take notice what an

opportunity to point them to the fact that there is a God in

heaven who laborers for us who laborers for us.

And lastly, we see Paul recall this church's endurance.

Now I'm going to I'm I'm not going to draw.

Can you read my notes here? Now this is admirable just

because we all know what it's like working after the fall,

right? We all know what it's like to

work so long and so hard for years and get tired.

I'm almost sure that everyone in here has aspects of their job or

moments or seasons or days when you're like, I don't want to do

this no more like I'm done. Like let me just, I just leave

right now. But Paul says one of the things

that stands out about this church is that it is full of

people who endure. To endure means to stay, to be

steadfast, to stay the course. It's an inward resolve that

manifests itself outwardly to be inwardly resolved and then

manifests that stuff that outwardly.

And this is what these people had, but their endurance, they

didn't just pull it out of thin air.

This was an inspired endurance, meaning something they look

toward produce this within them. And what is that hope?

By hope, what is meant is not just a general wishing that man,

maybe things will go well. No, this hope is from this Greek

word that I can't pronounce, meaning to anticipate, to

anticipate something, but to anticipate it with pleasure and

confidence. The person inspired by by this

hope anticipates that there will be good that comes to them.

What a cheat code, right? Like, what a cheat code to

endure to, to be convinced that this is hard, but I got

something good coming for me. And this is, this is what gave

these people endurance. They knew that good was coming

their way because we learned that their hope was where?

In Jesus, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Their hope was that Jesus, yeah, he came, but he's going to come

back again. Their hope when Jesus came is

that he would make all things right.

Their hope was that Jesus would restore all things.

We have to understand that this is a church that probably worked

in a time where not only was Christianity and following Jesus

not cool or popular. Like people were actually like

out to get you because of because of what you believed.

And yet they are described by Paul as a people who did not

give up, who endured, who probably endured, who probably

were the best workers, and they endure probably hostility.

And when this is your hope, when the hope of Jesus is your hope

at your vocation, what is produced in you is an endurance

to remain steady and steadfast in your work.

When the hope of Jesus return is your inspiration, you can't

endure hardship and being overlooked and not being taken

seriously and tons of work and rude customers and kids who are

constantly disobedient and disobeying.

When the hope of Jesus is your inspiration, you can remain

steadfast. And when you remain steadfast,

it witnesses to the world that there is a God who did not give

up on us. When you endure, especially when

things are hard, people will ask you why, and you will have the

opportunity to open up your mouth and tell them, because God

stayed obedient. God didn't get off the cross for

me, so I'm going to endure this. You'll show a God who endured

the garden instead of tapping out.

When you work this way, you will be a witness for Jesus.

So how? How does work admission help us

shine like lights in the world? How can our work help us make

much of God in our workplace? Whether we work inside the home

or outside the home, we can look to this church's example here.

We see that when our faith in Jesus increases, our work

increases, right? This is what you see here.

You see that man, when our love for God increases, our

willingness to to labor in in hard circumstances increases as

well. When we see that when our hope

increases, my God, you're coming back.

There is there is good that is coming to me.

Then you can endure. Being on mission for Jesus in

your life is a requirement for discipleship of Jesus, and this

means your vocations too. But family, never forget that

our witness is simply a reaction to the greatest news ever told,

that there is a God who works on our behalf, who lived the life

that we can never live, who died the death that we deserve, who

lived to work on our behalf. The good news for those who want

to be on mission in their workplace is that there is a God

who so loved the world that he labored to teach people and heal

and cast out demons. He carries a cross up a hill

motivated by his love for you. He sweats water and blood for

you. He gives up his spirit for you.

He laborers even now at the right hand of the Father.

For you can be mission on your vocation.

Because Christ has endured shame, the shame of the cross,

for the hope that was set before him, for the hope that all who's

who would say yes and Amen to His work would be will be

secured forever. Christ endured the joy that lay

beyond the cross. Christ endured because the joy

that lay beyond the cross was you.

It was you. You are the result of the work

of God. Being missionary at work is an

overflow of marinating in God's mission for you and letting that

truth overflow in the way that you work, you labor and you

endure. Then we we have an e-book.

Like I said, I've said this a couple times that that basically

is going to walk you through Daniel, Daniel 6, Daniel 6,

right? Where you get to watch Daniel

literally do everything that this church did and, and you get

to see Daniel be a witness. And so my prayer is that I guess

my prayer is that we would see that being on mission starts

with being excellent workers, with enduring, with looking to

Jesus, with having Jesus at the center of our lives.

And so let me pray and I'll get out of your way.

Heavenly Father, I just pray that.

What do I pray, Lord? I pray that, Lord, when we work

like this, because I'm confident, I know these people.

These are some of the hardest working people I know.

I pray that you would give us the courage, Lord, that when we

work and we labor and we endure in our vocations, that you would

give us the hope, excuse me, the courage to speak of the hope

that we have. If there's anyone under the

sound of my voice who hears this is foreign who's like I, I don't

know what it's like to be motivated by the gospel of Jesus

and to let that bleed into every aspect of my life, even my

vocation. I pray that I pray that you

would maybe made this be the first first step toward that.

And Jesus, I just pray that you will be glorified in our work.

Lord, I thank you that the gospel says that the pressure is

off to perform and be perfect, that we are satisfied and

secured in you. And so for anyone who is

struggling to work, anyone who is struggling to labor, anyone

who is struggling to endure, I pray that you would help us all

because I'm included. Help us all to remember the

gospel that before we work, we labor and we endure.

Lord, we have a God who did that on our behalf.

Yeah, pray that in Jesus name.