A Better Way: To Work | God & Us

Good morning.

Happy fourth.

You made it.

You made it with the 4th of July on a Saturday.

You didn't get any sleep last night.

At least I didn't get any sleep last night.

My kids didn't sleep last night.

So thank you for that.

I say it every year, and it never gets old.

I've lived in a few places.

I have never in my life been in a place like Williston.

It's like, yeah.

You're like, we got that.

Okay.

We got that.

I was like, it sounded like a war zone last night.

I'm like driving down the street, you know, this peaceful neighborhood.

It did not look peaceful.

It was just like, my goodness, never seen that.

Anyway, happy fourth, and glad that you're here.

And if I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, my name's Jason.

I get the privilege of being pastor here.

And this is a great weekend to be here.

Not only is it the fourth, so good job being here when you've had a lot of excuses to not be here on a Sunday morning, but we're starting a new series today, and I'm I'm eager to jump into this.

You know, you add up the amount of hours you have in a week, you have 168 hours in a seven-day week.

And of those, if you are getting decent sleep, not the best sleep, just decent sleep, based on our work schedules that most of us have, we are working a minimum at least 50% of our waking hours.

Many of us, far more than 50% of our of our days, is being spent at work.

And it's one of those things that work tends to be this category of our life that we separate from our faith.

We separate it from scripture, we separate it from God.

We think about we have the sacred and then we have the secular.

We have we have what's what's what's for God, and then we have everything else over here.

And so for many of us, when we talk about work, what we're doing with our lives, honestly, what probably gets most of our energy in any given week, most of us we don't really think of it in those terms.

In fact, we don't think of work theologically, we think of work as something I learned.

I learned my dad taught me how to work.

I had a you might maybe you had a father figure or a parent, a parental figure in your life.

Like, I they taught me how to work.

And so what does it mean to work?

It's like we we go to an experience, we we get pride out of it, we we get a sense of value and purpose out of it.

Theological, though, we don't we don't think theologically about work.

And I want to flip that on its head, not just for today, but we're gonna spend the next month talking about work.

And we're we're we're saying this there's a better way to work, there's a better way to do this.

I think it's appropriate for the month of July because for many of us, for many of you, this is the busiest season of the year.

We got very limited, nice weather, and so you get you get into the summer, and I know for a lot of you, this is you are slammed right now.

This is this is that time.

And I thought, what what a what an appropriate month to go ahead and say, hey, let's talk about the very topic that's probably capturing most of your attention.

We're gonna talk about work.

I have a definition for work, it's a it's like a it's a Bible-informed definition.

I didn't make it up, okay?

I just a few theologians, I had a college professor who kind of gave me this working definition, but when you read their definition, it sounded like some theologians and some college professors wrote it.

And so, of course, I can't just give you that one.

I got to do my own work.

All right.

So I did some work and I and I've got my own working definition, Bible-informed definition of work.

Here it is.

Pull it, pull it up for me.

It's using the creative energy God gave us to serve others and make our communities whole.

The creative energy God gave us to serve others and make our communities whole.

Now, you know, you you look at it, you go, yeah, okay, the Bible definitely sounds good.

That that's not how most of us probably think about work.

For most of us, we think about work, work is the thing I do to make money so that I can do what I actually want to do.

That's I just made that, I'm just making this up as I go, right there.

That's pretty good though, right?

That's that sounds about right.

What I did what I do to make money so that I can do what I what I actually want to do.

And I and I would just say this, like work, working, this this is something that preexisted.

Sin, this is not, you know, we often think of work as a demand of life, not necessarily a design from God.

And listen, we've all played the game.

I know you've all been driving down the highway and you see the big billboard powerball.

Come on, y'all.

Y'all, you see the powerball billboard, you're like, it's how high?

And then you play the game.

What would you do if you won the Powerball?

Right?

And for most of us, we're like, well, I'll tell you what, I'm not doing.

I'm not showing up to work on Monday morning.

That's what I'm not doing.

I don't have to anymore, right?

And then this is how we think.

And and and it's it's not that it's not that there's no truth to the idea that I get to make money and get to do things that I actually want to do.

And it's not like there's no truth to that.

But the the point is that it's not theologically informed, it's not Bible informed.

There's actually way more for you.

There's way more for you.

And here's what I'm gonna say, because today we're we're sort of kind of setting the foundation, and I and I would say this about understanding work, getting a hold of it in a way that God intended you to get a hold of what it means to work, is is I would say this to understand what work is, you've got to first understand God.

And that sounds, maybe that sounds a bit too elementary, but I but I I don't think you can overstate it.

If you want to understand what it means to work and what what real work is, you got to you have to understand who God is.

Now, here's the tension: a lot of us are pretty convinced we know who God is.

We're pretty convinced.

Oh, I I think we we would say if somebody asks most of us, we go, yeah, I know, I know God.

Oh, yeah, I know about the God of the Bible, sure.

I'm yeah.

In fact, this still to this day, the a vast, a large percentage of Americans go, yeah, I'm Christian.

They say they're Christian.

And then you ask a couple follow-up questions, you go, Oh, okay, so you believe in the God of the Bible, who second person of the Trinity embodied like an actual body in the person of Jesus, and then he lived his perfect life, and then he he died for your sins, and he rose again on the third day, ascended to the right hand of the Father, sent his Holy Spirit, has called us to follow his way, his model of doing life, adopt his opinions, his ideas, and his work ethic and everything else that goes with it.

Well, well, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't know about that.

It's like, oh, just to be clear, so we're not talking about Christianity.

See, we think we know God, we think we know about God, a lot of us, but the truth is that really none of us actually do.

And in fact, I mean that goes for me too.

It's like God, we you can't know God fully.

There's there's an element of God where there's you don't know him entirely.

We're always learning, we're always in this place where where, yes, you you can reduce most of the tensions and the stresses of life down to I need a better revelation of God in my life.

Most all of us can do that.

We we don't really know God, but we but we need to understand him better if we're gonna understand work better.

I'm gonna go to the beginning of the book here of Genesis.

Genesis chapter one.

I've listened I've taught out of this many times.

You've if you've been around, you've heard me teach out of this right at the beginning, a few verses here of Genesis chapter one, and and I always say the same thing, mostly because most of you don't even listen to most of the things I'm saying, so I figure I gotta say it like you know, I don't know, 12 times before stuff starts to stick it.

You know it's true.

Okay, you can't even remember what last week's server was about.

Okay, so here we go.

So here I'll say this it it's it's narrative, it's not a history book, it's not just intended for you to try to memorize some facts of like, oh yeah, uh what happened on the first day and the second day.

It's it's like, yes, that's great.

Know your Bible better, but it's not just a collection of facts.

It's trying to tell you an overarching story.

And so the way that it's said, the details that it that are in there, the details that are left out, all of those are strategic and intended to inform you and I as to who God is and set us setting us up on how to how to think properly, how to how to approach God properly.

And so this is Genesis chapter one, and we learn some things.

We're gonna learn about we're gonna learn about who God is here before we dive into work, okay?

This is chapter one, verses one through three.

It says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Okay, so I'll give you some a theology lesson here.

God created, there you go.

That's God the Father.

This is this is how this is commonly understood.

God the Father created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

You're good.

That's the Holy Spirit.

There's the Holy Spirit.

You have God the Father, you have the Holy Spirit.

Verse 3, and God said, Let there be light.

God said, John 1, he says, that God, that God is, that the Son of God is the Word of God.

And so here you have the Father, you have the Father, you have the Son, and you have the Holy Spirit, all present in the first three verses of Genesis.

And this is important because you need to see that like God's not lonely.

Like you need, like He's not lonely.

You're not, he's not, he's not just bored, He's not lonely, He's got plenty to do.

He is a self-sustaining community in and of Himself, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Okay, go on.

Look, look at verse 26.

Skip down a few verses.

Then God said, There it is, God said, Let us make mankind in our image.

It's us in our image, in our likeness.

See, there's there's you you're picking up on the language here.

God is related, God's in partnership.

Don't don't don't zone out on me.

This is important.

We're still we're laying some groundwork right here.

He's this is important.

He's relational, he's not by himself, he's a self-sustaining like community in and of himself.

He lives in partnership, he's related, and then he makes us, right?

He makes us, makes mankind, human beings, and then he sits back and he waits for us to make ourselves useful and valuable.

No, he doesn't.

That's not what he does.

He actually does this.

He actually makes the first move.

Look at this verse 28.

Look at the very first three words.

God's first action steps toward us, God blessed them.

God blesses you and me.

And this is really important because because um you need to know this blessing, by the way.

Most of us think blessing, we think, oh, they're blessed.

We think of like, you know, grandma and grandpa dropping off gifts at the house.

That's what we think of.

Like presents.

God bless them.

Gee, I wonder what presents he had that day for them.

And it's like, no, that's actually not what it means.

I'll prove it to you.

Because you talk to any kid, and maybe this is your story.

It's just like mom and dad work like an ungodly amount of hours and we never see them, and so then we try to make up for it by buying a bunch of presents, and then your kid grows up and they go, I really could have gone without the stuff, or really we just would have liked my mom and my dad to be around.

Because that's a blessing, because it's a relational word, it's relational.

So he's blessing them.

Why is that important for you and me?

You need to understand this.

God is actually better than you think he is.

He really is.

He's bet he's better than you than you think.

We have some really skewed ideas about God.

And for many of us, we don't even know that we have these ideas.

We have we have very skewed ideas about who God is.

You start talking to somebody, you we react a certain way.

We we go months sometimes without praying or reading our Bibles because we feel so much guilt or whatever.

It could come out in all kinds of different ways.

You start asking questions, and you're just like, that doesn't really sound like the God I know.

You start asking people what God is like, and it's like it's some mixture between, well, that was my dad growing up, that's my boss, and Morgan Freeman.

And they're kind of like all wrapped up in one little package.

You're like, who, who, God?

We didn't did we get that out of the Bible?

I don't.

That's not normally how, and I'm just telling, he's actually better than you think he is.

He's a self, because based on what we already read this morning, he's a self-giving God.

He doesn't, he has nothing to get to gain, only to give.

So he's self-giving, he's loving, he's others-oriented, others-centered, lives in community always.

Now you think about this.

This is wildly different than much of the world's opinions and ideas around who God is.

It's very different.

You even take much of the world's religions, larger religions.

You know, you can you can one way to like the dimensions of who God is, you can think of God as fully just and holy and um just, holy, and loving.

And in many of the world's religions, you get a God who's high on justice, low on love.

And not not a very a very condemning version of God.

So sometimes you'll get a God who's high on love but low on justice.

You're like, well, that that's that sounds really good, but there doesn't leave a lot of hope for the future, right?

You you get all these variations of who God, I mean, even like religions like Hinduism, even you have gods like literally in competition with one another.

Just a very skewed idea about who God is.

And let me just say this even amongst people who call themselves Christians, because we hear the phrase, everything's to the glory of God.

And while that's not untrue, we take it and we we allow that to kind of skew God's posture toward us, and we create this very narcissistic version of God.

Now we wouldn't say that because that just doesn't feel very fair, right?

We just go, well, that's just how God is.

We have this vision that God is sort of He made us, He did His part, He put you here, and He's sitting back and He's going, He's waiting for you and I to bring Him our worship.

I'm waiting for you to bring me your contribution.

God's sitting back and He's going, What are you gonna do with what I've given you?

And He's just sort of sitting back waiting to see what are you gonna bring to me?

And in reality, that's a very narcissistic vision of God.

When in reality, the way His His His actual posture is not sitting back here, He's actually on standby and He's going, When are we gonna do this together?

This is really I I don't need you, I don't need you to make yourself valuable.

I made you valuable.

Don't don't miss this.

This is a really this is a really important part of this.

Because from for a lot of us, we don't even know that this is our we don't even realize this is how we think about God.

And here's what here's what happens when you have this vision of God.

God sitting back just with the with the with the checklist, with the red pen, grading your life.

When you think about this, here's what ends up happening.

You end up going to your work to give you a sense of value so you can feel like you're in a good place to approach God, versus going to God, allowing him to partner with you and going, I can't do that.

He goes, I know, I got some ideas for you.

I I instead of looking for my value and work, listen, work, we're looking for work to give us something only God can give us.

Do you see it?

Do you see how it flips it on its head?

You know, you may even do good work, you may have this all backwards, and you might be deriving a significant amount of self-value and worth out of the things that you're doing and contributing, and and you may even do wonderful work, great work ethic.

People people love you, people are grateful for for your contribution, but the motives are all backwards, which is why you're often continually exhausted, continually in this place of like you know, you ever notice enough is just never a thing?

Enough is never enough.

Because it because that's a that's a that's an endless hole.

Work can't give you the things that only God can give you.

Here's another way to think about it: real work.

By the way, I'm using that phrase real, because you you can buy into the counterfeit work.

Counterfeit work is the work I do to make the money so that I can do what I really want to do.

I'm talking about real work, Bible-informed work.

Real work is actually partnership with God.

It's it's with him, it's with him.

I'm gonna read this is out of Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

I I bet you I've never heard a sermon on these two verses here, literally ever.

So I'm betting you haven't either.

Maybe you have, I don't know.

But I'm gonna read these to you.

And uh it this this this might be a little bit eye-opening.

Remember, real work is partnership with God.

So here's Adam.

God made him, put him in a garden.

He made God makes everything.

And then we have this scene in verse 19, chapter 2.

It says the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals, all the birds in the sky.

He brought them to the man to see what he would name them.

And then, whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

You notice it didn't go, and then God brought him an animal, and Adam sat there and went, Lord, what do you want me to name this one?

Lord, I can't move.

What am I supposed to do?

He's just going, All right, Adam, here you go.

Here, what would you like to name this one?

Dog.

Oh, that's great.

That's great, you know.

Good job.

You know, some strong names here, you know.

What about lion?

That's that's solid.

Eagle.

Oh, that's good.

That's good.

I feel like wart hog.

I feel like that was like the end of the day.

Warthog.

It's like God was like, is that the best we can do?

You know?

I don't know how it went.

This is how I read it.

I'm just saying, this is this is what I see in this story.

I mean, think about what's happening in this scene.

God didn't make him put him there, sit back.

What are you gonna do with this garden?

I put you, what are you gonna do with these animals?

He's bringing them to him.

He's with him, he's bringing him fresh ideas.

He's over here trying to trying to partner with them, do this with him.

This ought to, this ought to radically, radically like confront most of our idea around around work.

I mean, notice the creative energy that God gave him to bring order, to serve others, to like to do the things, to do his work.

And listen, you're like, well, naming animals, this is not exactly I wish that's what I did for work.

Naming animals must be nice, Adam, you know.

That's a lot of animals.

Don't act like that was an easy job, okay?

Platypus.

What are you thinking, man?

You know, I don't know anyway.

It goes for anything.

You'd be fixing a car, you can be fixing a vehicle, you could be fixing a piece of equipment.

You could be doing, you can be, you can be certain, you know, you can be working behind a desk, you can be, you can work in any number of arenas.

You can be, you could be fixing dinner once again on another night, and nobody says thank you.

Like you could be doing, it doesn't matter.

You can have a job that pays you in a paycheck, you can have a job that pays you in nice thank yous, and you can have jobs that nobody ever says thank you.

And the point is, is that whatever the work is that you are doing, God actually wants to partner with you.

He does this, he partners with you and me.

And in fact, this is one of the ways he makes himself visible.

Like God's we don't see him, but he makes himself uh visible through our work.

Uh this is we we already read this verse, but we're gonna read it one more time.

This is verse 26.

I want to show you something.

You probably haven't ever noticed this, but I'm gonna show you this key word.

Because I I think we need we need to understand, again, we we know who God is, and now we need to get a better idea of how that informs our work.

And so this is verse 26.

We already read it once.

He said, Let us make mankind in our image.

Image.

Now, if you remember last week I said all pastors, in order to validate that they're smart, have to drop in a Hebrew or Greek word every now and then.

So the Hebrew word for, here we go, Hebrew word for image is seleum.

Now I now that's what I went to seminary for.

There you go.

Selem.

It's the same word that we get the word idol.

So you remember the Ten Commandments?

Don't make any idols, right?

It's the same word.

God's going, I made you, you're the you I made you in my Selem.

Don't have any Selem.

It's the same word.

Your the translation of your Bible might say, instead of idol, it might say graven images.

Why?

Because the author's trying to, the interpreter's trying to make a distinction between this word and using it inappropriately.

So it's the same word image.

Here's what an idol does.

You think about think about this an idol is a way that somebody decides to take this.

Invisible entity that exists, and try to give it some sort of form, some sort of some some way we can we can see it so we know what we're worshiping and who we're worshiping.

So they make an idol to image the invisible.

And that this is what God is going.

He's going, He's going, you and me as individuals, image the living God.

We are the we are the idols, same word.

We are the image of God.

We look like God, you and me as as individuals.

But but it's more than that, because look at the next verse.

He says, God created mankind in his own image.

There it is.

And in the image of God, he also created them.

So so not only do we image God as individuals, this is why you matter when you think you don't matter.

This is why all lives actually do, in fact, matter.

This is why we actually like value those in our society that others don't value.

Why?

Because we see value in the individual because we image God as individuals, but we also image God relationally and in community.

In fact, there's ways that we image God as freedom church in our community that we're incapable of doing on our own.

We do that, it's individually in part as a community, in part.

It goes on from that.

Not only that, because we're not God, right?

We're not God.

We're still the created.

We're made in his likeness.

So it's also something that we grow in.

Look at 2 Corinthians.

Look how Paul says it.

He says, We all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory.

So it individually, collectively, as a group, as a as a church, as a community, but also we're continually growing in this, becoming more and more like God, the image of God.

You know, as individuals, as people, we haven't, we've been given incredible abilities.

So some of us have incredible abilities, some of you are incredibly talented.

You have the ability to do amazing things.

Not only have you been given, if you don't know that you're you have incredible abilities, you probably need to take the time to discover some of those abilities that God has given you.

But along with those abilities, you've also been given an incredible responsibility.

You've been given abilities and incredible responsibility to make God visible.

In fact, that's the this is the way to think about it.

Real work makes God visible.

The way that you and I do work makes God visible.

What's that look like practically?

It's like, well, it's things like, am I be actually helpful?

I mean that's a nice that's a novel thought.

It's like, am I a value added when I go to my work?

Like when I show up at a job site, am I actually, do I contribute?

Am I integrity?

These are big, these are big things.

They seem so small.

It's amazing how how we relegate some of these things.

You know, one of the things I like to teach my kids is I go, you want to be like God?

You want to know that one of the most transformative, most significant ways you can be like God?

Do what you say you're going to do.

God keeps his word.

It's an amazing, I know it seems so elementary, it seems so simple.

But these are the ways that we live our life and we work in a way that makes God visible.

And we and we have to ask ourselves, I mean, I gotta ask myself this.

It's like, am I am I doing this?

Am I I mean by by all means, you gotta get things done.

I get it.

It's like we gotta get we got a job to do, we gotta get some things done.

Yeah, but in the process of getting things done, am I showing people what God is like?

Or do I have a wake of dead bodies that I have left behind me all in the name of moving the bottom line?

I'm just saying, like, there's a there's there's there's a way in which your work is intended to make the invisible God visible.

Now listen, I know I've I've talked with many of you.

It's like you want to you want to talk to your coworkers.

You got family and friends and and co-workers who don't know Jesus, and you want to talk to them about Jesus.

And I'm all for that.

I'll talk to the wall if the wall would be willing to listen to me about Jesus.

In fact, I'm working on making my sermon shorter right now because I just love talking about Jesus.

I just get up here and talk, right?

That's great.

You want to talk?

That's great.

Talk about Jesus.

That's great.

If you have the opportunity to talk about Jesus, I hope you have the courage to go ahead and just kind of enter into that conversation.

Absolutely.

But make no mistake, your work, the quality of your work, your your commitment to work, the way you work, the excellence of your work, the integrity that that that that guides your work, your your willingness to bring your best every day, your work is a real and significant way to tell people about Jesus.

That's real.

You can do that.

That's that's a real way to tell people about Jesus.

Here's the tension, though.

This is the this is the tension because that sounds good, doesn't it?

Well, that sounds that sounds good.

I'm gonna work this week, it's gonna be great.

And now I don't have to worry about always having to be concerned about saying the right thing, or I'm just gonna work really hard, and that's gonna that sounds good.

Little problem.

It's called sin.

You know what sin has done to our work?

We'd like to think that our work is making God visible all the time, and it can.

But a far too common story is it makes what's in us visible.

We want it to make God visible, but it too often just makes what's in us visible.

And it's like I want to, I want my integrity, and I want my my level of excellence, and and I want my I want my commitment to my people.

When I show up, it's like whoo, it sounds like you you did your homework, you thought about your day before you showed up into your day, like these are all great things, and and that sounds good, but far too often it's like that part that's meant to serve others and make our communities whole, it ends up turning into things like a lot of competition.

Turns into proving, consuming, controlling, escaping, building our own kingdoms.

See, it gets it gets in the way.

It's like it sounds good, but there's a there's a problem here.

Now, I want to give you, I want I want you to think about the gospel differently today.

Because I I when I talk to people that the and I ask them, what's the gospel?

What is the gospel?

I usually get generally speaking the same answers.

And it's like the gospel is what like I pray the magic prayer, and now I get to go to heaven, I don't have to go to hell.

I got I it's it's how I make sure I don't go to the fireplace and I get to go to like the heaven place.

That's how we that's how we think.

And for many of us, that's probably how we've been presented the gospel, which is why we go, well, I've been a Christian for like 20 years and haven't I haven't done it.

I don't look like Jesus, sound like Jesus, and I've never committed my way to follow Jesus, but I'm a Christian because I made the I prayed the magic spell prayer.

By the way, that's called hope.

And that is a significant part of following Jesus.

You do get to one day spend your eternity with Jesus.

That it doesn't it's not that that doesn't matter, but it ain't everything.

In fact, I I want to I want to show you something because you know Jesus shows up on the scene preaching the gospel.

Isn't that interesting?

He hasn't even died, he hasn't rose again yet, yet he's preaching the gospel.

Do you know what the gospel was?

The kingdom of heaven is here.

That's what he says.

The kingdom of heaven is here.

It's like I don't really know.

That usually doesn't make our definition of the gospel.

Look at first look at what Colossians 1 says.

It says the Son, that's talking about Jesus, is the image of the invisible God.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

Here's what it means: it means it means this the kingdom of heaven, the gospel is this the kingdom is here.

Sin has been a problem, sin corrupts, sin it deceives and it twists things up, it twists our motives and our desires up.

And Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is here.

God has embodied through Jesus, and the kingdom of heaven is here.

And now listen, He He preached the truth so we get to know what's true.

He gave us a pathway to have like a new life and new desires and life with him, but he also gave us a new way to live.

He modeled a new way to live our lives.

I'm gonna show you that this is, we're gonna close with this.

This is at Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

First sermon post-resurrection.

Like first sermon.

I mean, you listen, Jesus has died, he rose again, he walked around for about 40 days, and they all watched him like ascend.

I don't even I can't even imagine what that what that meant or what that looked like.

But he's gone.

But then he sends his Holy Spirit, and now you get the first sermon of a New Testament church filled with the Holy Spirit, you with people leading the church who previously couldn't lead their way out of a wet paper bag, and now they're leading the church.

I don't even know what that saying means, but you go.

I digress.

Did you know in his whole sermon though, he never mentions heaven and hell?

He doesn't even, that's not even in the message.

Accept Jesus, so you go, don't go to hell.

So you go to heaven.

If you were to walk out of here and get hit by a truck, where would you go?

I'm not saying it's all bad, I'm just saying that wasn't in the first sermon.

Chariots, whatever.

I don't know.

And they're all like cut and they're like, oh my goodness, we got to respond to this.

And so they ask them, look what they say.

They they ask him, they go, What do we, what shall we do?

And look what Peter responds with.

He says, Here's what you need to do.

Because I just preached you the gospel, the kingdom of heaven is here.

Jesus died, he rose again.

And look what he says repent and be baptized.

By the way, after this service, we got several people that are gonna get baptized today.

Yeah, let's come, let's go.

Yeah, that's right.

So come out there and celebrate.

It'll be right outside here in just a minute.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ.

Look at this for the forgiveness of your sins.

Okay, oh, for you're like, okay, I've heard this before, right?

I'm not totally lost.

Okay, forgiveness.

Forgiveness of sins.

This is what they get in return: justification.

They're forgiven.

They can stand up or sit down in the presence of God.

They're justified, they can stand before God.

They're there, they have forgiveness.

Look at what it says next, and then you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

What is that?

What's that a reference to?

Your soul, like you get to be regenerated, your spirit is regenerated.

Like your deepest desires get to change.

He transforms you.

You get a new life.

That's what that means.

You get justified, you get a new life.

Skip down a few verses, verse 42.

Look what happens to this 3,000 people who say yes to this very first message.

It says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, breaking bread, prayer.

Skip down, it says all of them were together.

They had everything in common.

You know what they got?

A new community.

They got forgiven, they got a new life, they've got a new community.

I mean, they're they're living their life with people they were not previously doing their life with.

And then in the middle of all of these few verses right here, you read things like they're preaching, there's signs, there's wonders, they're gathering, they're they're meeting together in the temple, they're meeting together in each other's homes, they're praising, they're serving one another.

Do you know what that is?

That's a new mission.

They got justified, they got a new life.

The the promise of the gospel that you get in return is you get a new community, and you get a new mission, you get a new way to work, you get a new motivation for why you get to do and should do the things that you do every day.

You it all changes.

The promise of the gospel isn't just hope, although that's a big part of it, but it's forgiveness, community, new heart, and a new mission and a new way to work.

I'll tell you, the you want the gospel way, the Jesus way, the better way to work, is one in which the gospel actually gives meaning to your work.

Makes it meaningful.

We should just pray.

Let's pray.

Jesus, we need help with this.

We need help.

I know for for I'll just speak, I'll just speak on behalf of everybody.

There is a way that we have lived our lives, and I've lived my life, that has made a counterfeit motive for working ingrained inside of me.

And Jesus, we need you by your spirit to fix that, to realign us with your ways.

Now, listen, church, I we could talk all about working right and getting a fresh vision for your work and raising the bar.

But listen, new mission, new way of working is a byproduct of a life surrendered to Jesus.

And if you've never committed your life to Jesus, I encourage you to make this prayer your own.

Sing your own way, telling, Jesus, I give you my life.

Maybe I've heard the gospel before.

Maybe I've never heard it this way.

But I believe that you died for my sins and you rose again.

And I'm committed to following you for the rest of my life.

I want to be forgiven.

Thank you for forgiving me.

I want a new life by your spirit.

Thanks for making me new and giving me a new life.

I want a new community.

Thank you for bringing me into a new church community.

I also want a new mission and a new purpose and a new way and motivation for working.

Thank you for giving that to me.

Thank you for the gospel and thank you for saving me.

I also want to pray for all of us right now.

By your spirit, would you make us more aware this week?

For all of us.

Would you, would you, I know for some of you right now, you have ideas going through your head, places where where you haven't led with integrity, you've you've led with, you've allowed, you've allowed your motives for getting ahead, proving yourself, making more money.

You've allowed those things to compromise your own integrity.

And there's a split right now.

Because in one hand you go, I'm a follower of Jesus, but your work doesn't say that you are.

And so here's our prayer this week.

Help us to be more aligned.

By your spirit, would you make us aware of those parts of our life where we need to come into alignment with your ways and your thinking this week?

Help us to live our life and to work with a level of excellence that we haven't before, a level of integrity that we haven't before.

Would you, would you make our witness of you and our example of you bright?

Would you would you help us this week?

Because after all, it's a partnership, and we want to partner with you, Jesus.

We want to do this with you.

Thank you for being better than we realize.

We love you, we love you, and sing your name we pray.

Everybody said, Amen.

Come on, let's put our hands together, let's tell Jesus thank you.