Back On Track with Work - Saddleback Weekend Service

I raise a hallelujah in the presence of my enemies I raise a hallelujah louder than the unbelief I raise a hallelujah, my weapon is a melody I raise a hallelujah and heaven comes to fight for me I'm gonna sing in the middle of this storm Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar Up from the ashes, hope will arise Death is defeated, the King is alive I raise a hallelujah with everything inside of me I raise a hallelujah and I will watch as the darkness flees I raise a hallelujah in the middle of the mystery I raise a hallelujah, tear your past as you hold on me I'm gonna sing in the middle of this storm Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar Up from the ashes, hope will arise Death is defeated, the King is alive I raise a hallelujah in the presence of my enemies I raise a hallelujah and heaven comes to fight for me Sing a little louder Sing a little louder in the presence of my enemies Sing a little louder, louder than the unbelief Sing a little louder, my weapon is a melody Sing a little louder, heaven comes to fight for me Sing a little louder, in the presence of my enemies Sing a little louder, louder than the unbelief Sing a little louder, my weapon is a melody Sing a little louder, heaven comes to fight for me Sing a little louder, I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar Up from the ashes, hope will arise Death is defeated, the King is alive I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar Up from the ashes, hope will arise Death is defeated, the King is alive

Come on, let's raise a hallelujah I raise a hallelujah I raise a hallelujah I raise a hallelujah I raise a hallelujah Oh, oh Come on, let's raise a hallelujah Amen We worship a God who loves us He is the God who sees us Even in the deepest, darkest valley He is with us So come on, let's lift our voice to Him today Who thought I'd find you at the lowest place? Who thought you'd feel me in the crowd? Who knew you'd make good on my mistakes? You're nothing like I thought you were You're better What a God, what a God Oh, oh What a God, what a God That's who you are What a God, what a God What a God, what a God I thought you'd show up for perfection This one kind of God was for the lost They say it's over for a sinner Although you say, no it's not, no it's not You say, no it's not, no it's not What a God, what a God

What a God, what a God What a God, what a God What a God, what a God And if the highest place I reach is at your feet Then I've done it all If the best thing that I've seen is your glory Then I've seen it all Cause your love has changed my life Forever satisfied, God You are my everything If the highest place I reach is at your feet Then I've done it all If the best thing that I've seen is your glory Then I've seen it all Your love has changed my life Forever satisfied, God You are my everything If you're on the roof, that's the only thing you see Then I've heard it all If I feel your heart and never see your head I still have it all No treasure of this life Could ever satisfy, God You are my everything, God You are my everything, God You are my everything What a God, what a God What a God, what a God What a God, what a God What a God, what a God

So if the highest place I reach is at your feet Then I've done it all If the best thing that I've seen is your glory Then I've seen it all Cause your love has changed my life Forever satisfied, God You are my everything You are my everything Oh God, you are my everything God, what a God. We're not just singing about what He's done, but we're singing about who He is. The God who created the entire universe is right here with us in this room right now. And as we sing and as we worship Him, we can sense the nearness of His presence. And so let's lift our voices and worship Him together and declare how great, how awesome, how worthy, how powerful our great God is. All the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will say, great are You, Lord. All the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will say, great are You, Lord. All the earth will say. All the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will say, great are You, Lord. All the earth, all the earth say.

All the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will say, great are You, Lord. Lord, it's Your breath. It's Your breath in our lungs. So we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise. It's Your breath in our lungs. So we pour out our praise to You, Lord. It's Your breath in our lungs. So we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise. It's Your breath in our lungs. So we pour out our praise to You, Lord. All the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will say, great are You, Lord. All the earth, all the earth. All the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will say, great are You, Lord. Just one more time. All the earth say. All the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will say, great are You, Lord. Great are You, Lord. Come on, just the voices. Say it. It's Your breath in our lungs.

So we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise. It's Your breath in our lungs. So we pour out our praise. Come on, lift it to Jesus Church. Let's praise Him. It's Your breath in our lungs. So we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise. It's Your breath in our lungs. So we pour out our praise. All the earth say. All the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will say, great are You, Lord. All the earth say. All the earth will shout Your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will say, great are You, Lord. Thank you so much for joining us this week online. No matter how you're joining or where you're joining from, you are welcome and you are in the right place. We got a great service for you today. And I just want to let you know, if you're brand new with us, first time checking us out, we want to hear about it. You can do that in two ways. There's a link in the description if you're watching on YouTube, or you can download the Saddleback Church app, go into the profile settings, make sure you set your campus as online community. And in the notes section, there's a program you can say, I'm new here. And actually the app is a great way. You can follow along every week online, save your notes and kind of

take a, take a bunch of like next steps as well. One of those things you can actually do is sign up for Activate. Activate is a really important class we offer here at Saddleback. It's a way you can kind of find out what Saddleback is all about. Meet our online community team and so much more, even connect with other people, part of the online community. We offer it at all of our campuses and we even offer it online. It's going to be February 8th and you can sign up for it in the description. If you're watching on YouTube or in the app, it's going to be right there on the home screen. So we want to make sure you show up to Activate. If you haven't taken that next step and gotten plugged into our church, we have a place for you, no matter where you're joining us from, you can show up to Activate next weekend. Now, something that I love about our online community, I love about our church is how generous you are. You are a very generous church and community. And one of those things that I just want to highlight when you give either a one-time gift or a reoccurring gift to our church, you are part of so many amazing stories that happen. One of those things that happened was this past week, we had 23 pastors. We hosted them. These are pastors that were impacted by the fires that happened in Southern California, specifically in the Altadena area. This fire was a terrible, a tragedy of a story. And what we did about six months ago is we got them together and cared for them. We wanted to do it at the 12 month mark. And we did that at a ranch. We had them all together for a couple of days. We just heard from them, cared for them, really provided a space where they can

just breathe. And that story of helping those pastors is only possible because of your generosity. So I just want to say thank you, online community, especially our online community and all of our extensions. When you give, I think about this all the time, this idea that we have people all around the world that engage primarily online from faraway places, and you still give to our church and you are part of all those stories like that story that happened this past week at the ranch. And so I want to invite you, if this is the time you worship every week through your giving, you can do that by texting the word, give to 83,000, and we'll send you a link directly to your phone, or you can give through the app. And if you've never given to us, you can also participate as well by texting the word, give to 83,000. Thank you so much, Saddleback. Thank you so much, online community and all of our extensions for being so generous. Now, I want you to check out this story of the power of groups. It's a really powerful story because we're going to be kicking off groups in the next couple of weeks, and this is something you can be part of. So let's watch this together. About July, June, July of last year, I started, uh, noticing that I had this a lot of pressure in my head and I'd wake up every morning with my eyes full and shut, but the biggest thing was this pressure in my head that I couldn't do anything. It like made my life almost unlivable. I did turn to prayer because I'm a very faithful believer, but I just felt like, God, are you, are you with me here? Because I am struggling and I would just be crying out to God. And I felt like I just wasn't like the Lord wasn't hearing me. Then I decided to join a small group with a pickleball because I thought that would be fun and I would have community in it.

I said, okay, what can go wrong here? I'm going to do a pickleball Bible study and, and I just got out of the hospital a week ago and I couldn't walk in the hospital, but here I am. And I lasted maybe 15 minutes and playing pickleball before my heart rate and heart blood pressure was so high. I thought I had a diagnosis that had a really bad mortality rate and I kept pulling into the doctor's office parking lot to just get the test. And I pulled in probably three times into the parking lot and left, but I just couldn't go in. I have two kids and I didn't want to leave them alone and I wasn't ready to not be here anymore. I told the group that I was struggling with trying to get the diagnosis. They, they encouraged me and we did a prayer circle and I've never been part of something like that before. And I'm telling you that God was in that room that day. He, he heard our prayer because every day I was praying, God just let these doctors. A team of doctors figure out what's wrong with me so that I can get better. That prayer circle changed my life. And today, I am back to running. I am back to living my life. I'm actually able to work again. I'm living my life versus before I was just surviving. I am so thankful for my small group and for everything that they did for me last year. I couldn't have gotten through last year without my small group. And I was praying by myself all the time. But I didn't see real movement until I had a group of believers that were praying with me.

And so join any of the small groups because it can change your life. Let's thank Danielle for sharing her story. I love hearing these stories of how God is changing lives through small groups. And I do want to say welcome to all of you who are joining us online, all of our campuses spread across Southern California, our international campuses, and extensions. Today, we're in the last week of our message series called Back on Track. And I have a message that's burning in my heart that I cannot wait to share with you. But I do want to take a moment just to highlight what we watched in that story. You know, as Danielle was sharing her story, I was thinking about how she represents thousands of people from our church whose lives have been radically changed by being a part of a small group. You know, there's something that happens when you're in a group of 10 to 12 people and you're like getting together, you're encouraging one another, you're praying, you're being supported. It helps you grow so much faster in your journey with Jesus. And if you're not in a small group, I want to say you are missing out. This is one of the best and most important things

that we do as a church, is to connect people into community. And on a personal level, I look forward to my small group. Every Wednesday night, I get together with a group of guys, same season of life, same challenges, and I leave refreshed and encouraged every time I go. Our kids, Stacy, our whole family is in small groups and we believe in this. So if you're not connected, today you can take that step. I'm gonna tell you really practically how you can get into a group. If you open your app, there's a place that says small groups right at the top. You're gonna see it. It'll take you just a few moments. You'll see right at the top of the app and you can search. Like we literally have over a thousand small groups across our campuses that are open and they're all different types of groups. Like you saw the pickleball group, somebody like, I want to be in the pickleball group so I don't have to wait for a pickleball court anymore. You can be a part of that group. And then we have a group called Holy Smokes and no, they don't smoke together,

they eat meat together. And it's an awesome group. There's so many all across different days, different times, different age groups, multi-generational, all of it. I wanna encourage you to take that step this weekend. Now in addition to that, there's so many great things that God is doing in our church. And this last week, I just gotta highlight our 21 days of prayer launched last Monday at all of our campuses from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. We had over 1,300 people on average gathering together every day. Seeking the heart of God. And you're gonna see some pictures here. And what I love about this is you're seeing the hunger in our church for more of the presence of God. You're seeing this longing for God to move in and through our lives. We're praying for God to break through in our communities. We're praying for healing, praying for people to come to faith in Jesus. And I wanna honor you. So if you came this week, from my heart to you, thank you for joining. Thank you for believing God can move through prayer. And also, if you didn't come last week,

you can come this week. So we invite you to join us as we keep praying. That's leading us into, this is very important, that's leading us into a sacred assembly that we're calling the Return Gathering. So it is a three-day event that starts on a Wednesday night. It goes Wednesday night, Thursday night, all day Friday. And we're inviting the whole church to come together for one big gathering with a purpose of seeking the heart of God, to go after Him, to chase Him, to pursue His presence and experience more of Him in our lives. And we did this last year. We brought all the generations together from kids to students, all at Lake Forest. We saw so much life change in a very short period of time. And you know, if you're a parent and you have kids or students, I don't know if this happens to you guys, but I often, I probably shouldn't say this, but I often get jealous when my kids go to camp. Like, I wanna go to camp too. Like, what's up with that?

You know, where's the adult camp? Well, this is the adult camp. This is the time for all of us as a church family to gather together. And I believe God's gonna use it in a powerful way. Now, I wanna tell you, we are like halfway full and we're already, like we got close to three weeks left and it's gonna fill up. So if you're not registered. I'm gonna encourage you to take that step this weekend to get registered. And you might notice when you go there, there have been a couple questions. You might notice that it's $25 to register. Last year it was free. You're like, well, last year it was free, this year it's $25. And well, that comes with four meals. So you can't even eat at Chipotle for $25 for four meals. So if you just come for the food, it's worth the cost. So it's not really, we will lose money on the event. We're doing that for buy-in and commitment. And it's such a low bar of commitment if you ask me. But there were a lot of people that registered last year that didn't show up. So this commitment is just saying, I'm coming. We also, we're making it free for kids and students

because we want as many kids as students in the room as possible. All of that, again, is at your app. We're gonna encourage you to sign up. So many awesome things that God is doing. And today we're wrapping up a series. These last five weeks I've loved so much. And today I wanna talk to you about a subject that I love so much, the subject of work. And I wanna begin with a story. So I grew up, my dad is an entrepreneur, he still is. He started a business the year I was born. And I remember growing up watching my dad. He is a very hard worker. Still to this day, at like 70 years old, he's one of the hardest workers I've ever met. And I remember as a kid always feeling like I could never quite work as hard as my dad. And in fact, it really became apparent when I was about 18 years old, the disparity between my dad's work ethic and mine. And so I would oftentimes work for my dad during like school breaks and summer. And there was this one summer where my dad had just bought a piece of property and he was gonna develop the land. And he hired my buddy Mike and I to clear the land and to help get ready for him to do construction. So we one day went to my dad's shop, we got there, and my dad started giving us instructions.

And he's like, okay, you guys go to the property and I'll leave behind you, it'll just be a few minutes. You get there, you guys can get started, and then I'll show up later. And if there's any questions or instructions you need, I'll give you those. So Mike and I, we left, it's like middle of the summer, Midwest, I grew up in Michigan. And if you're not like from the United States, Michigan is nice like one month a year. And it was June, it was this month. So we got to this piece of property which is on the lake and it was like 70 degrees and sunny. And it just warranted for a nap. I mean, it was like prime sleeping moment, like a summer nap. So we got there, we rolled the windows down, and we're like, we'll just close our eyes for like 15 minutes while we wait on my dad. So we close our eyes, 15 minutes turns into 30 minutes. This is where my dad and I differ in the story. My dad said, turned into two hours, and he shows up at the property with Mike and I in the company car with the seats laid back, drool coming down our faces. And my dad was so mad, rightfully so. Now as a father with two teenage boys, oftentimes I'll get mad at them for not working hard. And then I remember, I was the chief of sinners once. And in the midst of all of that,

like God somehow taught me about work. Now, maybe you had some experiences in your life where work was really hard. Or maybe for you, it took you a while to figure out how do you know what kind of career you should pursue. But the truth is, work dominates all of our waking hours. It's a part of all of our lives. And we think about it, we spend time on it. We actually spend 40% of our waking hours working. And some people spend more, but that reality of not only our time, but our mindset and our thinking so often goes to work. And in the midst of that, there's so much pain. Like maybe for you, when you go to work, there's a coworker that you just can't stand and she chomps on her gum and she bangs on the keyboard next to your cubicle and she drives you crazy. Or maybe you have a boss that's like breathing down your neck and you still struggle with them years later. Or maybe you have an employee and you're a boss and they just drive you crazy and they never show up on time and you're trying to figure out what to do with HR law in California. And you're like, how do I deal with this? And there's like all this pressure that you feel. And then on top of that, it's not even just relational issues. There's like all kinds of stress with work. And sometimes there's too much in the amount of time that you have to get done.

And maybe you have a job where you're like, I'm working past when I'm supposed to work. I'm taking it home. There's pressure, there's stress. Maybe for some of you, work's not the pressure and stress, but you're like, I just need a job, man. And if I could just get something, that would be awesome. And everything in between, work dominates our life and the pain that we all carry with work is real. And what do you do with all of that? Like, how do you deal with the pain of work? And yet at the same time, there's so much that God speaks about with work. the Bible. In fact, the work in the Bible oftentimes is so confused with the way the world looks at work. And today what I want to do is I want to go back to what the Bible teaches about work. And I want to give you a bigger vision for your life with work. Now I know some of you are students, that's your work right now, school is your work. Some of you are stay-at-home moms, and if you've ever been around a stay-at-home mom, you know a stay-at-home mom works, doesn't she? Like that's one of the hardest jobs on planet Earth. So all of it is work. And I want to encourage you as we look at Scripture with God's divine design for your work. Genesis 1, verse 27, can we read this aloud together? All of our campuses says this, so God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. God blessed them and said, be fruitful and increase in number.

Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Now this is the word of God, and it's right in the middle of the creation story. Chapter one goes days one through six in creation, and then chapter two, there's a double click. And these first two chapters, God is helping through his word, helping us understand this is how creation started. And God makes mankind, and he gives a very specific instruction, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. So Adam and Eve are brought into this invitation and experiment with God. And in Genesis 2.15, you see a deeper look at what God is doing in Genesis 1.27. It says the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. So before the fall, before sin enters into the world, God creates work. This is so important. God creates work and he makes it holy. It's sacred and set apart. So before work is ever hard, work is holy. And I want you to see this important point. God creates, blesses, and uses work. God creates, blesses, and uses work. And sometimes maybe your job or your place of employment feels like it's filled with demons, but it's good to know that before there was ever sin in the world, God wanted there to be this invitation to humanity to work with him to transform planet earth. And notice this quote from Tim Keller. It says, work is rearranging. I love this. This is a definition of work. Work is rearranging the raw material of God's creation in such a way that it helps the world in general and people in particular thrive and flourish.

Now that's a mouthful right there. So maybe we should look at it just a little bit longer. Let's bring it back up. Work is rearranging the raw material of God's creation in such a way that it helps the world in general and people in particular thrive and flourish. So God says to Adam and Eve, I want you to go forth, be fruitful and multiply. Work with me to bring flourishing to the ends of the earth. Now on a personal level, I love this subject. And I've read several books that have made a huge difference, two of them. One is the book that this quote is pulled from, from Tim Keller, called Every Good Endeavor. It's worth reading. It is a great book. It helps us understand a belief or a theology, a philosophy of work according to the Bible. And the other one is Garden City by John Mark Comer. And both of these books kind of complement together a richer, more robust view of what the Bible teaches around work. And I love this concept because what Tim Keller is saying is that work is a sacred gift given from God. And I love how even this idea comes out of Martin Luther. If you've ever read about him in the Reformation, he would say in his teachings, he insisted that the farmer who shoveled manure and the maid who milked her cow, both of them, they were pleasing God as much as the minister preaching or praying. So God is trying to encourage us today through his word that your work matters. And in Genesis chapter 3, after all of this happens, there is a moment where sin enters into the world and it impacts work. And in Genesis chapter 3, verse 17, notice this, it says, cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life. So when Adam and Eve sin, what the Bible says, God actually curses the ground in such a way that now the relationship that we have with work is impacted.

And in Genesis 3, 18, God again speaks and says, will produce thorns and thistles for you. And you'll eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your brow. You will eat your food until you return to the ground. Since from it you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return. So what the Bible teaches us is that not only does God bless work, but sin corrupts and complicates the very work that God blesses. This is important because if we understand this, we can see the frustration that we experience with work. So in your notes, it's sin corrupts and complicates the work in front of us. And maybe for some of you, like your work is so frustrating to you. And the natural tendency when work is hard can be to misinterpret the frustration and be like, oh man, because it's hard, I just haven't found my calling yet. And the reality is every job has a hard part to it because we live on the other side of the fall. And sin now is a part of work. So that frustration actually is most likely connected to the fall, not because you work for a horrible boss. And so the call from God is to understand how sin has impacted our work and how he wants to redeem it.

So God is a redeemer of work and it's still a sacred gift. And there's three ideas I want us to see from these verses. The first one, good work done God's way, good work done God's way is a gift, not a God. It's a gift from God, but not a God to be worshiped. And a lot of people when it comes to work, their work becomes the very thing that they give their soul to. And that comes from a lot of deficits in our heart that we think somehow that the work that we do will please this void on the inside of us. But if you come back to Genesis chapter two, verse 15, and it says the Lord God put Adam in the garden and told him to work it and take care of it. He's inviting Adam and Eve into his work to do the work with him. And when Adam and Eve were placed into Eden and this garden, there were no cities. It wasn't like there were roads. It wasn't like there were in and out restaurants. Like none of that had been created. And it was just this untamed beauty that God says, I want you to work with me, to be a gardener, to be a builder, to be an architect, to go forth into this world that I've created. And the key response for us when it comes to this gift is to receive it as a gift from God, to receive the gift from God. Now I have here this shovel and this shovel represents work.

And I like yard work now, even though I don't do a whole lot of it. I do like it from time to time. And sometimes when you go out, you take a shovel, you dig a hole, or maybe you move some things around, but you have a shovel and it represents what we do with our hands. Now your work might not be a shovel. Your work might be a keyboard. Your work might be a conference room, but there's something in your hand that God has given to you to do your work. And as you consider the very thing that God has placed in your hand to do your work, there are a couple things that you can do with that. And one is that you could ignore the call that God gives to work. I mean, there are some people that do this and they rely on the government and other people to pay their bills and that's a problem, right? There are some men that don't take responsibility for provision in their own home and they ignore work. You could also reject work. So you could be like, okay, I don't like work. It's not fun. I'm gonna complain about it. You know anybody that complains about their work all the time? Just all the time.

I don't like my boss. I don't like my company. And you could do that. So you could complain about it, you could reject it, or you could receive it as a gift. And when we receive it as a gift, we're literally making a decision. Okay, I'm going to learn what to do with what God's placed in my hand. I'm gonna grow over the course of time and get better with my work. I'm gonna apply myself with diligence, but I'm going to receive it as a gift, but I'm not going to allow it to become my identity. And the question becomes, does my work look more like a gift or more like a God? So a lot of people take their work and they worship it. And that's the thing that they give their heart to. Like their whole life is about their work. Their work is their identity. Their work is where they derive their value. And it makes me think about how when men get together, I have to be very careful that I don't put this in the wrong place and hit myself on the head. I'm making some people nervous. But when I think about, especially for men when they get together, there are two questions. that men will often ask each other.

And the first one is, what is it? What do you do? The second one is, where do you live? What do you do and where do you live? And both of these are in a conversation, a form of identifiers. Like, oh, you live in that neighborhood. Oh, you work for that company. Oh, you do that. And then all of a sudden, we interpret an identity based upon those things. And what can happen is then we can begin to serve an identity hoping that maybe if I could work at that company or live in that neighborhood, somehow I'll fill a void in my heart. But if I wanna live with God's peace with my work, I have to put it in the place of a gift, not a God. And I wonder for some of you today, if there's a void inside of you that you keep trying to go back to, saying somehow maybe this is gonna make me feel better about myself. But the truth is there's a different identity that God gives. And who you are in Christ, if you are a follower of Jesus, the Bible says is the moment you put your trust in him, you are a son or a daughter of the most high God. And no longer are you working for an identity, you are working from an identity out of an invitation from God to live a different kind of life.

So the call is to receive the gift from God as a gift. Now, as we receive that gift into our life, then we have to make a decision. Then we have to make a decision with that gift, do we use it in such a way that blesses and makes the world a better place? And the second point is that good work from God is to build and to bless, not to destroy. It's to build and to bless and not to destroy. And I think that the idea of your hands being used to build or to destroy is so important. When our kids were little, we used to always say to them, especially to the boys, because boys love to fight with their hands. And it's okay to wrestle and all of that's wonderful and God made us, made little boys like that to wrestle and get that energy out. But there's also a point at which you have to remind a young man that those hands are to build and to bless, not to destroy. That God gave you two hands, all of us, to make a difference here on planet Earth. And look at Genesis 128 in the King James Version. I love the way that this says this, God blessed Adam and Eve and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Now that phrase or that word,

I want you to write it down in your notes, replenish is significant. So when God says, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, this word has very significant meaning in the original language. In the Hebrew, the word is male and it's the same way that we spell our word male. And it means to fulfill, complete, or finish a work that has begun. So what the scripture is saying, God actually started with creation, his work. So he wanted to beautify planet Earth, he wanted to build, and then he calls Adam and Eve into that to be his partners, to work alongside of him, to replenish, but to fulfill the very work that he started in creation. So I love this quote from our very own Pastor Buddy. He and I had a great conversation about this and I put his words into a quote and I want you to see these. It says this, work was God's idea, not to make life miserable, but to invite us into partnership with him. From the beginning, God brought order out of chaos and beauty out of emptiness, and then he entrusted that same work to us and work is how we continue what God started in creation, bringing order where there is chaos,

beauty where there is brokenness, and fruitfulness where there is emptiness. Don't you love that quote? And the power of God's invitation to create. So God is inviting you to create with your hands. So the key response for us is to create. It's to use what God has given, what God has placed into our hands to build, to bless, and to create. And when you consider this, God calls humanity to complete the work that he started. So God has been building this eternal kingdom and that eternal kingdom of God is simply where God is ruling and he is reigning. And that happens in hearts, that happens in homes, that happens in churches, that can happen throughout communities. And whatever is surrendered back to God, where he's the king, that becomes the kingdom of God. So my life, I believe. is a part of the kingdom of God. Our church and this building we're in today and your local campus is a part of the kingdom of God. And the invitation is to go forth and build and bless with the rule and reign of God here on planet Earth and your career, your vocation, what's in your hand, God wants to use to accomplish that purpose here on planet Earth. So it gives so much dignity to your work. In fact, in Ephesians chapter two,

I love this image of God calling you his handiwork. And what Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, it's by grace you've been saved through faith and this is not from yourself, it's a gift of God, not by work so that no one can boast. This is so important. What Paul is saying is there's no way to earn your salvation by doing good deeds. With good work, your performance at your company, your hard work religiously, none of it will acquire salvation for you. Salvation actually comes as a free gift from God based on what Jesus did on a cross when he paid the sin, paid for the sins of the world that all who would come to him and turn to him might be forgiven, stand holy and righteous before God. So the cross and the empty tomb is the conduit, it's the way when you turn to God by faith that you receive the gift of salvation into your life. So that statement when it says not by work so that no one can boast is so important. God does not save you through good deeds. This is important. God did not save you through good works but God does save you so that you might do good works and it's after salvation that he then invites you after you've been forgiven to be a person who brings about his goodness here on planet Earth. And so as it says, we are now his handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works

which God prepared in advance for each one of us to do. So if you're a follower of Jesus, God already has the work lined out for you. Like he has a plan for your life and the gifts and talents. This is why we do Activate. Activate is a place where we talk about those gifts and talents. But this should give so much joy to your heart knowing that your work on Monday at 12 p.m. when you're sitting in an office and you feel like you are so done with this job that your work can be a part of the good work that God is accomplishing on planet Earth. That you can build a business that blesses lives and generations of families to come where there is dignity that people are living with. You could be in the hospitality industry and serving families. You could have a restaurant and welcome people through and make great, excellent food and they're encountering the goodness of God. You can run an HVAC company, like a, I should say an air company for those of you who are international. You could run an air company that fixes air. And this last week in our house, it was like 95 degrees in the back part of our house. We called an HVAC company from Saddleback. They came and fixed it. And the next day we were like, ah!

And they blessed our lives because they worked on our HVA system. Or you could be a plumber. And the things that work because of plumbing, imagine the difference if you didn't do your job. All of this, this should be encouraging your heart. All of this is a part of what God does to build and to bless here on planet Earth. It's all sacred work from the hand of God that when it's done unto him, you can be a part of building God's kingdom. Not to mention that at your place of work, you can be a light with the way that you actually work. So Christians, one of the greatest calls that we have on our life is not to just be somebody who talks about Jesus, but somebody who works really hard so that the people around us, they see a difference in our work ethic. Like imagine, man, he talks about Jesus all the time, but he never gets his job done. It's like, no, that's not the call. Yeah, talk about Jesus all the time, but be the best employee with the way that you serve and you love, and that leads to this question, what's the wake of my work? So behind every person, when we leave a conference room after a meeting, are you the kind of person that when you leave the meeting, they're like, oh, I'm so glad he's gone. He only threw one coffee cup in the meeting today.

Or are you the kind of person that after you work with an employee, they're so torn down, or are you the kind of person that what you touch when you serve people are better, and you pour into people's lives, and years later, there's a trail of people that your life and your company has served and loved? Or do you work in such a way that after you're done with a project, there was wisdom that was applied, and it's like, there's something beautiful about that because he made that restaurant, or that hotel, or that clothing. moving line item, but you did something that with your hands, afterwards there was a wake that made the world a better place. This should be encouraging somebody today. This should be giving some hope to your heart that there is a meaning behind your work. And there are so many moments that you're just so frustrated with your boss or your coworker, but there's a different vision that God is trying to give to us with our hands that we can use to bless and to build. And I love this quote. John Mark Comer says this, human beings are responsible for art, for science, for medicine, for education. The Sistine Chapel handles Messiah, New York City, space travel, the novel, photography, and Mexican food. And he says, but we're also responsible

for a world with 27 million slaves and blatant racism in the Holocaust and Hiroshima and the genocide in Rwanda and ISIS and the financial meltdown of 2008 and pornography and the list could go on. So the question is, what are you building with your hands? And God gave you, God gave you gifts and talents to build and to bless. And there's a deeper call that he has upon your life. And this leads me to this last part of this message, which I think is the most important part. See, good work done God's way is ultimately for God's pleasure and not man's applause. So you can do the same work for a different reason and now all of a sudden have meaning that fills your soul. And a lot of people are going through the motions of a job, trying to fill a need on the inside, trying to get a father's approval that you never got from your dad when you were growing up, trying to fill some ache inside of your soul of meaning and purpose. And like, I hear these phrases all the time, like, I'm just looking for my call. I'm just looking for my passion. And I got to leave this job after six weeks because I just can't, I'm just not passionate about it. And that's my best impersonation. And you're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You can be passionate about Starbucks as a barista because when you have a higher purpose

and vision for your life, your call is not to a company. Your call is to a savior who bled on a cross for you, who conquered the grave, who redeemed your life, that your life, that your life would please him. And in Colossians 3.23, I love these verses. They changed me. By the way, from 18 to 44 now, my work ethic is very different than it was at 18. And I pray that my kids would grow up and say the same thing about my work, that I honored God in a way that they could look and say, my dad, my mom, they worked so hard as they loved us, but they modeled work ethic in our home. And this verse, it speaks to my heart so much because Paul says these words. He says, bond servants, and he's speaking of like a master. And there's a lot we could talk about there. In essence, this applies to your employment and being under leadership. Obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with a sincerity of your heart, fearing the Lord. And whatever you do, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. So if you're pouring a cup of coffee, pour it with your whole heart. If you're fixing a pipe, fix it with your whole heart. If you're sending an email, send it with your whole heart. Not because you're trying to please a man, but because the eyes of almighty God are upon you

and he sees you and there is a commendation from God. Well done. At the end of the day, when you lay your head down on a pillow at night, you can hear that, commendation, well done, you worked hard today. And you did it for me. You did it because you love me. You did it because you wanted to honor me. I saw the way you treated that person in the meeting. I saw the way that you were faithful when nobody was watching. Well done, son. Well done, daughter. Don't do it for eye service. Do it as worship unto the Lord. So all day, every day, the very thing that you dread that is 50 hours of your week that you just have been complaining to your wife about for years now, now has meaning and purpose on Monday morning. That when you walk through the door of your place of work, you walk through with vision because you're there to please God. You're there to work for him. You're there to please almighty God who died for you and gave his life for you. You, so you can do it with your whole heart as under the Lord. And there's so many things I could keep preaching on, but many times we get so thrown off because we work for imperfect companies, imperfect bosses,

and I want you to hear this. Might even take a picture of this quote. I'm gonna say it fast and it's gonna go down. There is no such thing as a perfect job. There is no such thing as a perfect company, a perfect church, a perfect employer, a perfect manager, a perfect employee, amen. There is no such thing as perfection this side of eternity, but there is a perfect God that we get to serve in imperfect situations, in settings, and His eyes are on you. And the call is to be faithful. It's to be faithful with whatever He's placed into your hands. College student with your classes, young adult with a part-time job, dad who goes to work, bust in it, trying to do everything that you can to provide for your family, mom at home changing diapers when nobody is watching, grandparent investing in the next generation. It's the faithfulness unto Almighty God that gives the sacred calling to your life that makes your work this beautiful demonstration of worship unto God. I used to, when I was a kid, hate doing dishes. And I remember my parents would make me do dishes all the time, and I would loathe it. I would say, I hate dishes. And now that I'm married, I love dishes

because my wife loves when I wash dishes. And now what has changed is not the dishes. What has changed is the who that I'm doing it for. So the question is, who are you doing it for? Who are you doing it for? You can do it for God. You can do it for God. And I hope that that sits in your soul on Tuesday at 9.45 a.m. I hope that that sits in your soul on Thursday afternoon when you gotta go to another weekly meeting. I hope that you can wake up with vision in your heart that you can do your work for God. Now, I want you for just a moment, as we wrap up, to think about Moses. Moses in the Old Testament had a moment where he stood before God after 40 years in the wilderness. He had been on the backside of the desert, and God shows up in a burning bush. And Moses is there as he is like leading this little flock of sheep at the backside of the desert. He's there because he's run from Egypt. He killed a man out of anger. He was an Israelite who wanted the Israelites to be free. And God comes and says, Moses, I'm sending you back. Sending you back to Egypt to bring my people out. And Moses argues with God in Exodus 3, just go read it, over and back and forth. And finally in Exodus 4, it's almost like God eventually gets fed up with this back and forth,

and you see it in the scripture. But there was a moment where Moses says in Exodus 4, what if they don't believe me, God? Like, what if I go back to Egypt and they don't believe me? And then God asks a very simple question of Moses. And the question that God asks Moses that I think he wants to ask you today is he asks him the question, what is in your hand, Moses? Now Moses, after 40 years, is like, this is what I got to show. It's a stick, God. It's a stick, that's all I have. And that stick represented Moses' career, his shepherding. He's taking care of his father-in-law's sheep. And God says to Moses, take your stick in your hand and lay it down on the ground. And when he lays it down, it turns into a snake. And God tells Moses as he looks at the snake, he says, pick it back up. And Moses reaches down and he picks back up that snake that turns back into a stick. And now the very thing that was a shepherd's staff, now after it's been laid down, now after the power of God comes upon Moses' life when he lays it down and picks it back up, becomes the rod of God that God uses to liberate the Israelites. Moses lifts up that stick as the Israelites walk across dry ground as they move through the Red Sea. Moses lifts up that stick as the Israelites

would go into battle. That stick now becomes anointed by God, the rod of God, when surrendered back to him. And the question is, what's in your hand? What's in your hand today that God is saying, lay it down? Lay it down. And I will take your ordinary keyboard. I will take your ordinary small business that you run. I will take your tools and I will use them for my glory here on planet earth. at earth, and the question of what's in your hand, there's an invitation from God to bring it to God. And I want to ask you right now to do something that I think is very simple, but I want to ask you, you should have found a card, you should have received a white card, look around you somewhere if you can go ahead and locate that white card, and I want to lead you in a prayer of response. This is a moment to come to God with what's in your hand, and to say to God, I want to put what's in my hand in your hand. And on that card, what I'm going to ask you to do is I'm going to ask you to write a prayer related to your work that you are believing God for in the coming season. And friends, this last week when we did our prayers, we had so many amazing answers to prayer. We heard stories of people finding jobs, we heard stories of people finding even healing in marriages and relationships, but I want to ask you on that card to write a prayer back to God about your work. And it could be simple, like, God, help me find a job. That could be one. It could be, God, help me with that coworker that is just driving me crazy. One sentence, two sentences, just write it down. What is the thing that you're asking of God?

It might be for God to help you find meaning and significance with your work. It might be that you would say, God, help me stop looking to my work for my identity. But that prayer before you and God is so significant, and I'm going to ask all of our campuses that there's going to be an opportunity to respond with this card. What is your prayer to Almighty God with what He's placed in your hand? And now that as you're writing this down and you have it in your hand, the key, the key is surrender. See, God's work, God's way requires surrender. It requires for you to open your hand to God. And as you write that prayer down, I want to pray over you at all of our campuses, between you and God, that you would say, God, this is my prayer, and in just a moment, we're going to tell you what to do with that card. Let me pray over you. Lord Jesus, I thank you for the sacred gift of work. Thank you. Some of you even today, your prayer you might write down is, God, I'm committing my work to you, surrendering it to you. God, I thank you that you give us this sacred invitation to be a part of building and blessing here on planet Earth. And Lord, we want to surrender our work back to you today. We want to ask for your help. We want to ask for your wisdom. We want to ask, Lord, that you would anoint, God, their dreams you're placing in people's hearts right now. There's visions that you're calling people to. Lord, there's purpose that you're pouring out right now. There's a sense of meaning and significance that you're giving to the mundane because it's unto you. God, thank you that you give us vision for our lives that's well beyond nine to five, that you're lifting our vision today to see that you have called us to yourself, to be

your servants here on planet Earth. And God, we surrender our work back to you. We surrender it to you. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray, amen, amen, amen. And I will not be shaken. Holy, there is no one like you, and there is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder. Show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love. Holy, there is no one like you, and there is none beside you. Open up my eyes in wonder. Show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those. Say, I will build my life. I will build my life upon your love. It is my firm foundation. I will put my trust in you alone. And I will build my life. Can we sing this one more time? I will build my life upon your love. It is a firm foundation. And I will put my trust in you alone. And I will not be shaken. I want to challenge you right now. As Pastor Andy, at the end of his message, was talking about taking out that card and writing down some things that maybe you're sacrificing, maybe some things you're praying. And you might be watching online, maybe with your extension or maybe with your group. And you're like, Jay, I don't have a white card. I can't participate in that. You can participate. Now, remember, here at Saddleback, we believe church is much more than just watching something on YouTube or watching it on the app.

It's about transformation. It's about engagement. And so I want to encourage you. Maybe go back. You can even rewind right now and watch that moment. Take out a card, maybe on your phone, on the notes app. Write down something that you need to sacrifice. You need to give over to God. And if there's something going on that we can be praying for you about, we want to hear about it. So maybe take another step and go into the app. Again, you can find a link in the description if you're watching on YouTube. You can go in the app. You can go to the Next Step area. There's a prayer section. You can write that. And you can send it in to our team. Our team wants to be praying for you. While you're also in the app, in that area of Next Steps, we would love to have you at Activate next weekend. You can sign up for our group. We have groups all around the world. You can participate. No matter where you're at in the world, we have a place for you. And so it starts with you showing up to Activate, getting into a group. We have so many options, but it starts with you taking that next step. Now, this next week, we're going to be continuing a 21 Days of Prayer. We have a stream that you can engage with. And if you live near one of our campuses, show up. But online, we have hundreds of people watching online every week. I love watching all the people tuning in. Actually, if you watch real time, there's a counter of how many people you're joining with,

which is really powerful. So you can join that. And also, it's going to be leading up to the Return Gathering, which is going to be February 18th through the 20th. It's going to be really powerful. We have people all around the world traveling in. And so if you can be here, we want to meet you. Our team, Carissa, Nicholas, and team want to meet you in person. And so show up to the Return Gathering. Well, thanks again for being with us. I'm praying for you week as you're sacrificing and applying what Pastor Andy said. And we will see you right here next week. ♪♪♪