Kuyperian Business

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

As you know, I’m the last one. We’ve had a huge gap in between us all this year. And the subject was a mind to work, and it’s the opinion of the four elders. We kind of picked our section that we wanted to talk about, and then you guys get to have a question and answer with us. This subject, I think, gives more questions and answers than a lot of them do, in that, you know, I can’t find Boeing in my concordance shows. Should I go to work for them? So those are the kind of questions that you get, OK? And for those of you that don’t know the answer to those questions, you don’t think that I know them, do you? OK. So anyway, people are pretty good about how to comport their Christian behavior with friends and family and that kind of thing, because there’s very explicit instructions, but they do get lost in the work atmosphere.

And to kind of review, that was Sean’s big point in his discussion. Take Dominion was his title. And the idea is we’ve really lost in our fundamentalist churches the idea of how important the other six days of the week are. We do those so we can get money to give to missionaries and give to the church and buy some Christian junk to put around the house so people think we’re holy. And after that, we’re not sure why we work. Now, some of us have figured it out a little bit. Others of us got saved late in life like myself at 37. I had a business going and I’d done other businesses and all kinds of stuff. And to me, when I got saved, the only thing I could think of is I need to learn about this God thing because I’m way behind the circuit.

So I immediately turned my business over to the guy that gave me the gospel. And I basically buried my head in theology books and went to seminary for three years. So the idea is I needed that kind of shock treatment. But if we’re growing up the kids right and everything, their theology is strong and they should be able to graduate immediately into a great biblical work ethic in the home and helping people and everything else because they’re being trained right from the get-go. So the idea is that God is in charge of everything. If you’re at all Calvinistic or understand God’s sovereignty, you know, I get, when I disciple people and stuff, I said, you see that little piece of dust?

It floated down there and fell on that table, and God knew before he found the foundation of the earth, he knew that was going to fall right there. And if it didn’t, he wouldn’t be in charge of everything. So that must mean that he’s in charge of your work situation, how you feel, you know, all kinds of stuff that you don’t really think of. And he created the earth and during before the fall commanded Adam and Eve to take dominion over the whole earth and run it well, which required some work. So right from the get go, that was happening. And that was before the fall.

Sean then described how he would go, His dad was a draftsman and he wanted Sean to get a college education so that he didn’t have to go and have some college-educated guy look at his drawings and approve them. So Sean could go to college and Sean could be the guy that could approve the drawing or whatever. And then Sean decided he wanted to be in the ministry and, you know, on goes the story. So he worked a lot of interesting jobs, which I think is really a good thing for pastors to do. I’m in the philosophy that a lot of good could happen if this country had two years of military service for everybody. That kind of teaches you if you haven’t learned it at home, that somebody can command you and make you do what you don’t want to do, and that sometimes is a good lesson to learn.

then you don’t have trouble getting to work on time and the rest of it. For those of you that have businesses and meet with me, the biggest thing is, and the Dirty Jobs guy, he says it in his academy, if you just show up to work on time and do what the boss says, you’re gonna get promoted. It’s that simple. But most people don’t wanna do that. I got to do it my way. I know a better way, all that kind of stuff. So there’s principles in all that. Jonathan really hammered on the golden rule. And I hammer on this all the time with people, especially in discipleship situations. Treat other people the way you would be treated.

Treat your customer as if you were the customer. If you make good customer service, they’ll come back. You’re doing what they expect. If you don’t oversell them stuff that they don’t need, they’ll decide what they need, and they’ll be happy to come back and deal with you. And if it doesn’t go the right way, be wise, and go the extra mile. Now, does that mean you have to be a pushover and turn the other cheek and give your cloak and bankrupt your business because some guy’s being an idiot? No. There’s a bit of common sense that you have to do. But most of the time you can settle the thing by if things go wrong, go, okay, what went wrong here and how can I make that right?

I think Jonathan talked about that a lot. I thought it was really interesting for you to hear Jonathan also say, because I know how much he loves the idea that he can pastor and shepherd and run the school, it’s like his dream job. But like he said, I could be happy if I had to go back to work for Home Depot or whatever job came in the hang in his circumstance. And I think that’s a great way to be. If everything falls apart and you’ve got to go back to the bottom rung, you do it unto the Lord, which then gets into what Jim said. Remember Jim as a young man would say, well, it’s close enough for government work. And one of the guys that loved the Lord said, well, we’re working for the king, so we got to do it the right way.

And that is really a good thing to think about. Even when you’re doing it for yourself, try to do it in a way that’s honoring and do the thing right. Do a job big or small, do it right, or don’t do it at all. The problem that don’t do it at all, I used to try to use that on my dad, it wouldn’t work. You had to do it. But anyway, I can’t do it right, so I just won’t do it. Well, you know, you learn how to do it right by doing it. And that’s another thing that as bosses or fathers, as you’re training up your kids or people that don’t know how to do something, sometimes the mistakes need to be made. Now, obviously, you don’t, you know, give them an ax and don’t warn them about chopping their hand off and stuff like that, you can’t fix.

But there are times when you let them make the mistake and then they go, oh, I should have done it that way, you can correct it, okay? So as all those things come about, all those principles come into play. God’s given us dominion over it. We need to use the golden rule in those situations. And then when we’re doing the work as unto the Lord, There’s a great satisfaction in it. Even if you’re just mowing your lawn, or you just swept the floor, or you dumped the garbage, you did it right. And if you dumped the garbage and something fell out of the can, you stooped down to get that piece, put it up, and put it back in the can, you walk away, I did that right.

Those things are greatly satisfying. And helping in the kitchen, learning about how much work mom does. Anybody thinks that women, the workers at home, and they don’t do work, and they need a career, and they need a job so we can have money so we can buy the second boat or the second house and all that kind of stuff. No, no, no. Just try to babysit some kids for a while or whatever. It’s tough. And it’s tough to get the meal together, get it on time, get all the supplies, have the place stored right, all that things. We take all these things for granted and we shouldn’t.

The other interesting thing that Jim brought up that at my age, and some of you guys are at least getting older, all of us are getting older, and is the retirement situation. You just don’t find it in the Bible. You know, you look it up and it’s not in the concordance and you know, I don’t know what the retirement word is in Hebrew because I’m not sure there is one. So the idea is we are to keep on going. Now, do we have to go at the same pace? Jim mentioned that, no. But you should keep curious and learning and everything else. I mean, I think one of the greatest things that happened to me was the ability or the opportunity to teach logic at the school.

They didn’t have anybody to do it. And I was willing to jump in and learn how. And it’s been fantastic. And it’s something I’ve always wanted to know in a more formal way, but I’d never done it. You know, you always think, oh, I’ll study that next summer, you know, that kind of thing. It doesn’t work that way. You get forced into the situation and then you do it. So all of that to say, those are great general principles for work. The biggest one is if we are to take dominion over the world, obviously your job Your marriage, your relation with your boss, your company, whatever it does, making things, supplying a service, all goes into making all this happen.

It’s like Jim reading that essay on a pencil. When you realize how many people get employed just making a stupid pencil, and you look around in a building like this, there’s a lot of careers in the steel for that hanging lamp, and the boards that go on the roof, and the carpet, and all the stuff, you realize that God has designed this system and given us the Protestant work ethic and the creeping of Calvinistic thinking in the world to build all this stuff we have, cars, and airplanes, and computers, and all of that comes out of that system. The other theologies, third world theologies, look what they’re making, baskets and pottery and stuff like that.

And when you start to put God into the situation and give you a God-fearing look at it all, the amount of stuff that happens and the opportunities it creates for you to think and do other jobs is really incredible. Now, the best resource that I’ve found since I’ve been looking into this over the last year is a website. And it really pains me to have to recommend this website because, and now I’ve forgotten his name, the guy in New York, Tim Keller. Tim Keller made this website theologyofwork.org. I’m now going to talk about what’s on that website and the principles that I think they have really put out there well.

Now this is done by, you know, Presbyterian type guy in New York City who has some seeker friendly theology that I don’t really all agree with. And he’s a little loosey goosey with women teaching men and those kind of things. But he is a believer and they have taken on this subject and I think really done a good job. And I think that you who read your Bibles will be able to look at certain things and go, hmm, that’s a little whack. But almost all of it is really good and makes you think.

Because the principles to find, I think with the principles that I just said that have already been discussed here, If you take those principles to your job and put those principles in play, you will be a good Christian worker and could build a good Christian thing. But there are other things that happen that you might not greet and what do I do then? Like, a simple example is, I have a guy that I meet with and he works at a large company and one person that claims to be a Christian every day goes through a complaint routine about the previous shift not tightening some stuff. That in other words, they’re leaving work for the shift that that person’s on.

And he’s mad because they’re leaving that. So he comes in to the break room or the place they assemble to go do their work and immediately complains that the previous shift didn’t do this and aren’t they a bunch of jerks and tries to get everybody to his side so they can sit and complain. And this guy is tired of it. And he said, what do I do? And I smiled and he said, I know, that was a stupid question. What I should do is talk to the guy and say, is that Christian? If we have a problem with Joe and Jim or whoever’s in the shift before us, shouldn’t we go talk to them and see what the problem is? Well, yeah, but I want to do that.

Well, if you do that, you have the communication. You find out what the story is, and you either fix it, or it raises into another problem. But that then lets that boss, or whatever, do his stuff. He had, for the last five years, just thought, well, the Christian way is I just roll over and smile and let him complain like that. And I said, what kind of witness is that to the other people that this guy claims to be a Christian, you’re a Christian, they’re watching you guys complain about the work, wondering what’s the matter with you, why don’t you fix it. So he went, oh, there’s a whole nother level that we can help make things better.

And so most of the time, if you think of it that way, you can fix things. There are a couple other principles that you need to think about in work and building a company and all of those things. And all of these things are really well done on this website. I mean, it makes it so you, you know, they’ve got the deal like we have in our doctrinal statement where you put the mouse over the verse and the verse pops up. I mean, it’s really good the way they go about it. The problem is that as you get into it, again, you need to remember they’re coming from a certain kind of point of view and stuff. Most of the time though, the articles are written by congregation members that are, one of them’s a CEO of a hedge fund.

Other people work for big companies, make a lot of money. You can tell by the website they’ve invested a lot of money to make it look right and the way it runs. But it’s really fascinating how if you keep going back to what the word says, how you will make something that is really good and can hold their feet to the fire of fate, think about it also. So like they have, the first thing they want you to know is the 10 key points about work in the Bible every Christian should know. Work is a part of God’s big picture.

Their verses would be Genesis 2 and Genesis 1.28, take dominion over the world, And then it goes all the way to Revelation. In the new Jerusalem, we will be working running that city. So from the beginning to the end, it’s part of God’s big picture. Our actual work matters to God now and eternally. So you can think, oh, I’m just a poor schlub that does this and it doesn’t matter. Again, think about it. You’re part of the wheel that’s turning and all the cogs have to work. If one cog gets broken, then the wheel slips and things don’t run as well. If you’re part of that, make your part right. Think about doing a better job, or maybe you can offer a whole career.

If you’re doing something and you realize, oh my goodness, I know something about computer programming and there’s this huge notch that if I made a program that did that, I could make a living out of it, whatever that is, okay, those kind of things. God provides us with unique skills, gifts, and talents, and calls us to particular roles and activities. This is the one that’s interesting, okay? I think I’m the greatest musician ever. And you know, you got a 10-year and you sing as badly as I do. About the only guy you can copy is Bob Dylan. There’s already one of those. So. Yeah. So there you go. See, one too many, so it’s a good thing I didn’t try that, all right?

So, but if you do have a talent and or you have a great interest in it, you don’t necessarily have to be the guy up front. You can be the backup guy that’s making that happen. You could be a manager, you could own the record company, you could actually give some Christian ethics into the music business or into the movie business or whatever you’re thinking of. I mean, Kelly’s great dream is if he could write scores for movies, it would be good, yeah. for the movies you guys are making, which is like crazy. So those kind of things, I think that you have those talents and you should invest time in doing them. And sometimes I think the stubbornness of you know you’re right and hanging in there is good.

We’ve all seen the movies. Everybody hates it, it guy can’t paint, he’ll never be famous, he can’t act, he’ll never get a part, all that kind of stuff. And then the big part comes along and oh boy, now he’s famous. So that, you know, some stick to it and this is good, but there are some times where you just don’t have it and you shouldn’t be doing that. I’m probably not going to become an Olympic weightlifter at 72 years old, so I probably shouldn’t aspire to that. Quality and character and ethics are foundational for our work. Quality, character in ethics are foundational for any good work. All right? And that’s most of the things you get involved in that are screwed up.

You can fix it just by displaying those characteristics. We have an interesting president right now, who if anybody were to say, oh he’s such a ethical man and he’s all of this kind of stuff, they would freak out, right? Oh he’s just terrible, he’s this and that. But you know what’s happening? Every time he says, I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna make this happen. Oh, you can’t do that. You can’t take that money and do that. So some lower court takes away the two and a half billion to build the fence. So he goes to these guys and he says, hey, fix this, sue him, do whatever you gotta do. We’ll move the thing, we gotta build the fence.

People are crawling in here without the right things. Oh, he’s such a bigot, he’s such this, blah, blah, blah. He just clearly kept saying, I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it. God blessed it, and the Supreme Court said, oh, sorry, you can use that two and a half billion. And now they’re building the fence. So when you have a mission, and God wants it to happen, and you know it’s the right thing, you’ve promised it, or the country needs it, or your company needs it, or whatever, we need to get these orders to that restaurant on time so that they can get the food ready by lunch. Well, don’t show up with the stuff at one o’clock.

You gotta show up at nine so the guy can have it ready and peel the potatoes and do all that stuff. There’s ways of working and thinking about all these things. Most of the time when you’re complaining, you’re just not thinking of the solution. You’re just, I don’t like doing it this way. And sometimes work is dull, boring, and hard because it’s work. That’s another thing. You know, Chuck likes saying, you know, watch the fat guy in the shops because he usually knows the easy way to do it. That’s true to an extent.

But the issue is it’s still got to get done. Sometimes the fat guy’s just sitting there. OK. Another principle is our work is yoked with Christ. Now this one is unique to us Christians. And this is where when you’re working with a real jerk, it gets hard. And you have to be Christ-like. And sometimes there’s you going the extra mile or doing the extra thing, even though, That’s not fair. I don’t like it. I’m not going to do that for my little brother because he messed his room up and I don’t want to clean his room. Well, you need to help mommy cleaning the room. Now, what I just said is maybe to some three-year-old.

But it’s actually to the 40-year-old that works at Les Schwab that’s not putting the tool back on the rack with the painted picture of the tool. I mean, they got it so most people with any kind of sense could go, oh, this goes there. But if you put the tool back, then the next guy knows where to find it. And see, Thomas, you make those guys do that when you have a shop. He will too. They won’t mess with your tools, right? So anyway, your work is yoked with Christ. And sometimes you do have to go the extra mile. But by that example, you can turn people around. I was probably the foulest mouth except for Gale. Gale would embarrass…

Gail would embarrass chiefs from the Navy when they would come into our store. And I could swear with the best of them also.

Once I got saved, I would go into plants that knew me before I got saved and I would have to go and supervise installation of our equipment in pumps or a valve or something. And these mechanics all knew me and I was still pretty much a character like I am now. So I would look at things and say, who’s the idiot that made this? You know, because the only thing you’re going to do messing with this bolt is bark your knuckles or whatever. And I would go in and work then with them after I got saved and they would look at me and go, what happened to you. And I said, what do you mean? What’s wrong? You’ve been with us now an hour and you haven’t sworn once. I can’t believe it. You’re embarrassing me. I don’t know what to think of this. And it gave me an opportunity to tell them why I didn’t. And they all went, oh, wow. And the interesting thing is in this one plant, a mechanic that was on a different table, they have all these workstations usually in these big plants, and he had watched me for years and he did not like me as the previous Dave. I got saved and I found out

he was saved and he and I started a Bible study at this plant and 10 people would show up early to look at the Bible. And that guy watched me for, man, six years probably. And then after I got saved and he watched that day where the guy said, I can’t believe you’ve been here and now and you haven’t sworn, he came over to me and he said, I’ve I’ve been watching you too Dave and we need to talk and have coffee and all that kind of stuff. So you never know what’s gonna happen. Now, don’t think though that the success to the story is that I started a Bible study in a plant. The success in the story is that I was doing the work required by the plant properly and I didn’t need to swear and be a jerk and all the rest of it.

So it added a flavor of grace just to that stupid job of fixing a pump or making something work. All right, which goes to the next point they have. Our work should be centered on service to others. That’s interesting, isn’t it? If you’re doing something other people want, they’re gonna be your customers. They’re gonna come to you and say, I like that, I’ll do that. I wanna hear your song again, so I’ll buy your record or your disc or your MP3 or whatever you’re selling next week that they invent. It’s just interesting how if you’re making something that’s needed, people will come and find you and they will buy it from you.

And they’ll be, if you make a better one, they’ll be the path to your door for that. The next thing they have is a rhythm of work and rest is essential to life. Huh, you mean I can’t just keep truckin’ on, I can’t work 24 seven every day of the week and not rest? No, if you do, you’re gonna burn out. and God made the universe and then he rested. Whoa, dude, God did that? Why did he do that? Does God need to rest?

Need, I’m not sure. Did he want that example for us? Yeah, I think so, or he wouldn’t have done it. He wouldn’t have talked about it, okay? So make sure you have the right rhythm. Don’t burn yourself out. The use of wealth in our investments should be directed by God. Okay, I think they really worded this one right. The use of wealth in our investments should be directed by God. Now, as a pastor or an elder in previous churches I’ve been in that are big and got a lot of stuff out there and really humming ministries, they’d alter that sentence. The use of wealth in our investments should be directed to God through us.

We’ll be able to talk to you about how the right way to use that money is. You that are earning it and making it, if you’re a Christian, you should be directed by God. Now, that might mean buying a $3 million piece of equipment that makes the widget that you make better and quicker or more efficiently or stronger or whatever, developing a better way to weld metal together, stronger to hold, or whatever that is, and whatever required equipment, may be a much better investment of that money than giving it to missionaries in India. And that work of welding that joint can be as important as the other work. Now, does that mean I shouldn’t support the guy that’s in India?

But does the guy in India need three million bucks in the village he’s in? Or does he need some tools to train the people or just a good pump for some water that he needs some fresh water? He doesn’t need billions. You might be in a position where you’ve gotta make decisions for million dollar investments to make something that’s going to make something really crazy big. So you want to use the wealth and your investment, but be directed by God in whatever way he’s directing you, in whatever position you’re in. You can be the accountant counting the beans to make sure they really have the money. You can be the mechanic that’s looking at it and going, you know what, if we well that on the bottom, I think then when we get to stage number three, we’re gonna put too much pressure on it, it’ll crack there.

You might be that person, and that’s your direction from God to slow down the project until they figure it out. All these things, if you really think about it, it will make you realize your position, even though you may not think it’s important, is important in these things. The other thing you might recognize is your position is not needed. One of the best things you can do in a company, once you really understand their system, is come to them and ask the question, why are we doing this?

And everybody may look around, and well, we’ve always done it. Well, but why are we doing it? Well, because we always did it. Why do we need to do it? We don’t. Oh, well, gee. We could save some money, we could get this done quicker, we could have a whole space over here that we’ve reserved for that that we don’t need to do anymore and do something more productive with it. So there are those times where you can be that person with the best idea or the new idea. God’s work multiplies through relationships and through the local church.

God’s work multiplies through relationships and through the local church. That’s a hard one for me right now. My business is in San Diego. Now, God’s work multiplies through relationships I have with other people or that I had that talk to me or talk with Gail about whatever. But through the local church down there, eh, not really. But what does the local church do to me? It keeps honing my skills. As I listen to other people talk about their business, I’m always going, how does that apply to our business? Why are we doing this? Why are we doing that? What in our service business selling parts to people to fix certain things?

Am I in danger of going out of business because there’s Amazon? Oh, there’s a danger. But the problem is people have to know what that stupid little part is exactly called in my business or they get the wrong thing. So I’m a little bit safe because right now, unless you know the exact number of that part, you can go on the internet and buy something really close or looks close and get it and it won’t work. So you need that expert to come and look and see what part you need. That’s why auto parts stores though and stuff like that, as long as you can identify the part correctly, then it becomes more of the game of figuring out, how do I keep track of the right part numbers?

How do I get the right part number for the person? How do I interchange that part correctly so it isn’t a bad thing? The last thing that they say is work is a gift from God.

I think it’s really interesting how the very things people want to do for fun or for vacation, they can work so hard doing those and yet they don’t see work as a gift. They think playing golf is a gift or whatever hobby they have, right? All those things take a lot of work too. Just go start a hobby somewhere or have a hobby. You work a lot of times harder at the hobby than you work at your work. So maybe you ought to be doing the hobby as your work. Oh, how could I do that? I don’t know, but maybe you could. If you really love music, but you can’t play a lick, and you’re a very good craftsman, maybe you’ll be the next great guitar maker. Maybe you’ll make a great violin, all kinds of things, you know. It is incredible how Stradivarius lived quite a while ago and they’re still looking for somebody to make one better than he made them.

So, same thing with pianos. Pianos are now basically, they’re very difficult to sell, but people that play the piano want to play that kind of piano. Not that particular brand necessarily, but that kind of instrument. There’s a lot of going into that to make that. And right now, the market for it is zip and doo-dah. People want to buy collector ones, but the electronic keyboard industry has taken that over and for good reason. They make a really good product. So interesting. So all of that to say, those are the 10 principles that apply to everything. This website goes into calling and vocation, competition and work, ethics, equipping the church, finance, provision and wealth, rest and work, truth and deception, women workers in the Old Testament, women workers in the New Testament.

All of those subjects have probably 20 different subtitles with verses, references, people that talk, run little videos on things. They’ve even got an interview with Johnny Cash about his calling. It’s fascinating to just scroll through the thing and you can put a search subject in and look it up by yourself. Now what I’m doing here is I’m supplying you all this info so that when it comes up to the question and answers for the elders, we’re going to have to bring our computers and look for the answer when you guys ask a question and try to trick us. But it is really a good site and they have done a lot of work and the people sign the articles that made them.

Sometimes they’re pastors or Tim Keller or some other theologian because he wrote on in the theological aspect of it. But most of the time, it’s people that are actually doing the work that are Christians. The one guy I did follow was the investment banker that talked about how he felt he was being really sinful, just making all his money. And apparently, he’s very successful at it. But then when he realized all that money is allowing people to invest to make another thing happen. And those tools need to be done to make things happen. You got to have the money to buy the unit, to make the product, to, you know, all of that kind of stuff needs to happen.

And all that trading creates jobs and places for people to work and organize even better and do a better job. The biggest thing though is the joy when you’re just starting out. And I think it’s really interesting. I’m gonna pick on Taylor and not pick on him because he did a bad job, but he did a really good job. He decided that he wanted to do this. So he would go and study. The first thing he wanted to be was a highway patrolman, right, do what? Diesel mechanic. Diesel mechanic, okay. He went, studied the whole thing, and you got to be a good one, right? I mean, you understood how it worked and made it happen.

There you are, yeah, okay, right next to Cal, okay. As he studied it, he really got good at it. Then he went and interviewed for the job, took the job, and realized, oh my goodness, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in a garage fixing this problem in this truck. I mean, you get real good at fixing lifters or whatever it is, and you’re the guy they’re going to bring every one of those. So he realized that if he got to be the best at that, that he could, then he would just be doing that endlessly. And he went, I can make a good living doing that and it’s honorable and I’m fixing the truck and everything, but I really don’t wanna do that.

Now, people would say, you better be happy with the job and you just better get there and fix it and make it happen. No, the interesting thing about when you back up and look at the whole picture like this investment banker guy does, Because the Calvinistic Protestant work ethic has created the banking system and lending and all these different things, you don’t necessarily have to stay in the job you’re in.

We have such an economy that you can say, I don’t like doing that anymore. I’m going to learn how to do this. So then he thought, you wanted to be a highway patrolman next? Was that the next jump? Kind of. Yeah. And so, you know, he checked into that and took the test and all that kind of stuff. But then he realized, if I did that, then I’m a highway patrolman here, but how do I transfer over here if I want to move or do whatever? So he’s had quite the experience, I think, in looking at the labor market. And now you’re fixing computers, right? Running whatever, depending on places. Getting to watch people fall off of platforms and die, the Mercedes-Benz plant.

But the thing is, it’s incredible how just in our little group, how many people are touching and involved in things that we don’t think about. I mean, you spent what, three months in South Carolina at the Mercedes plant or two months? Six months, yeah. And that’s where the guy fell off the platform and actually did die. So, you learn how to be careful.

I’ve been in plants where I couldn’t believe they did the jobs they did and made me nervous got out of there. So all of that to say we live in a place that if you’re just miserable and you hate it and everything you can get another job. But you don’t get to say well I don’t like doing that and that’s really hard and so now I’m not gonna look for something else or whatever. You do have to be responsible and do a good job where you’re at and then in your extra time you can look for something else or try to do that. That’s not wrong. But when you’re employed to the guy that you’re working for that you’re looking to get something different, you serve him as well as you can and you honorably give him the two weeks notice and all the rest of that and then go to another job. Now there are those times where you get involved when you get canned and all the rest of it or you’re in an unfair situation somebody’s lying about you or whatever.

Make your case, do the best you can, and if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out, and move on. You want to be able, though, to clearly do everything and have a calmness to your decision at the end when it’s blowing up and everybody’s screaming at you, and you just can calmly say, we’ve done the best we can here, we’ve tried to deal this out, and we’re just going to have to call those quits at this point. And I’ve been in those kind of situations and it’s worked out. Some of those have recovered, others haven’t. That’s the way it is. You do the best you can and that’s the way it goes. So the idea is to remember that this book teaches God’s in charge of all of this and how did I get to where I am.

You might have stumbled into it just because I think that our churches really don’t teach how to be good workers and the joy it is to be part of the big system. I think our church is trying to do that and trying to understand it in a much deeper way. And I think we’re just now learning that and trying to develop a congregation that knows that. And I am confident that the next generation will be much better at this than we are if we lay this foundation and have these tools. I think it’s really interesting that how much work has been put into this theology of work website and how many people are contributing into it and how listening to some of the The little talks that they give are kind of cheesy, but if you just listen, you realize this person is really enjoying what they’re doing and they are reflecting a joy that they have in doing it that is infectious.

And that’s a winner wherever you go and whatever you do. And it’s a really good thing. I think that we have those tools and the ability to do that and yet We are blessed to live in a situation where we’re not just strapped I mean when you read the New Testament and Paul is telling slaves to be happy and be good slaves as you’re a slave to that master and yet Christianity brought about a reduction of slave labor And when you read Philemon and those kind of things, Paul is instructing people, we really don’t want servants that are, you know, in like slave conditions. And remember that Christians were the one that got rid of slavery first in Europe, and I believe we could have gotten rid of slavery here in the United States.

Without the Civil War, if Christians, everybody just would have been patient. We were on the way of doing that and 600,000 people wouldn’t have had to get killed to do it Now does that mean that slavery is totally gone? No Slavery is happening all over the world in all kinds of places still but everybody’s so busy talking about the Civil War and our Evil America having slaves, you know 150 years or well. Yeah 150 years ago now That they’re not even paying attention to the evils that are going on now So, all of that to say, look at your situation, think about how God has blessed you, that you can live in a place like this.

I mean, I would doubt that we have anybody in our church that I can think of that is going to bed hungry because they don’t have food. Now, you might be going to bed hungry because you won’t eat your spinach and Mom has your dinner that you’re going to get to see tomorrow morning at breakfast and then you get to see it at lunch. That part’s okay. That’s a training mechanism. But we live in a blessed situation and we can follow our dreams and really live them out to the fullest. I think it’s really interesting how God has blessed us with all of this stuff and how we quickly complain about it. That’s not good. We should think about that and think of all the blessings that He gives us.

Some of those blessings are curses. You got so much stuff you don’t know what to do with it. You got boxes of stuff you got to go through. What part to save, what part to get rid of. Oh my goodness, I’m doing that. And I’m still looking at boxes that my dad collected. Oh, no. So anyway. So the bottom line is I think that all the questions you have, most of them are really simple. When I meet with people, most of the time, if you absolutely hate what you’re doing and your attitude is right, I mean, you’re assessing what you’re doing is correct, You probably should find another job. It’s just that simple. If you’re being a jerk about your job though, and you’re not doing it right, and you hate it because it’s miserable, because who you’re working for keeps saying, but you’re not doing what I’m asking you to do, you need to think about being a good servant to your master who’s giving you the money to do it, and want you to do it a certain way, salute and do it, and do it with joy.

Be a good worker. And that’s the military thing that sometimes those that haven’t been in the military realize, well, you know what? This is one of those times when you just salute and make it happen and make sure it gets done. And that means work overtime with maybe not getting paid for it and that kind of thing. That’s a good testimony to that thing. We need to make this job happen. We can make it happen. So those principles, you can go through all the illustrations. I thought about reading all the little details to these different things. You guys can read, you can look at it. I think it’ll be interesting if we have a discussion when the elders get up here, you guys actually have some questions.

But most of the time, when you think about the questions you have in your Christian life, it’s like counseling decisions, it’s the Bob Newhart treatment. When I do this, I just feel so bad, then stop doing that and you won’t feel bad. Okay, end of counseling session, but, but, you know, that’s, most of the time the problems are like that. And it’s really pretty basic. And sometimes it gets so confused because there’s so many people and the place is big and we’ve done it this way for this many years and, you know, all of that. Just take a deep breath, look at it and go, No, we can do this better, or I can manage this better than what it is.

So with that, we can go home and do our work better. And quit yawning, Laura. It’s exciting. I mean, in our little church, you’re going to go to Scotland to learn how to do music. What great composer came out of Scotland? I’m sure there’s somebody, right? There will be. There you go. There will be. Okay. So, just think about your situation. Think about the big principles. Most of the time when you apply the big principles, it gets really simple. And the joy that you can get from just doing the job, just put your nose down, you know, sweep the rocks, the thing, cut the bushes, pull the weeds, whatever it is, just put your head down and do it. And when that happens, you never know how God will bless us. So let’s pray and then let’s go home and rest up because Monday’s coming, right?

Father, we thank you that you give us the principles to these things and help us not get stuck in the mud trying to be on a theological tree way down the little tiny leaves when just studying the trunk of the tree is enough to do the job and do it well. Help us to be those people that are a witness through the things that we do do and have people to ask us, why are you always happy? How come you can laugh through this and why are you always smiling or whatever? Those are good questions. Help us to be those people that those people ask us why. And we do think of all the people in our church that would like a different job or a different assignment from their company through travel or it’s just not the right fit and those kind of things.

I would pray that you would give them the wisdom and supernaturally reach down and arrange some of those things so some of these people that are in those kind of situations would be able to find a better fit. And for those that own the companies or are in charge of the situations and they don’t like certain situations they’re in, I would ask Supernatural help for them to be able to see the solution and be part of the solution and how exciting that would be and how helpful it would be just as those little things get cured all over our world. So we thank you for those things and I thank you for these people and the ability to live in a country where we can change jobs and do all these things and keep what we earn and that kind of thing.

Help us to be good stewards of all of those things and be those people that bless other people. We thank you for all of these things. In Jesus’ name, Amen.