Heaven In Your Work [LIVE] 10/18/2026

Alright, let's go. We come seeking the face of God. Do not hide from us, O Lord. Let us know you are near. Bring everything you are and everything you carry. All that we have belongs to God. Install the Lord, our God, and worship at God's footstool. Holy is the Lord. Holy God, we divide our loyalties. We give our best to whatever promises comfort and security, and we offer you what is left. Forgive us when we hold back our hearts, our time, and our trust. You have marked us with your image. Reclaim us as your own. God of glory, you sheltered Moses in the cleft of the rock, and pass by in goodness and mercy. We cannot see your face, but we can follow where you have been. Teach us to recognize what bears your image, and to give ourselves back to you, heart, and hands, and all our days. Amen. Come out with your hands together. ♪♪♪♪ ♪ I'll praise when I'm sure, I'll praise when I'm down. ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪

I won't be quiet, my guy is alive I won't be quiet, my guy is alive I won't be quiet, my guy is alive I won't be quiet, my guy is alive I won't be quiet, my guy is alive I won't be quiet, my guy is alive There was no way till you made one Grace upon race, hallelujah Even though I don't deserve it, it didn't Even though I couldn't earn it, it gave up Whoever that you keep me on your mind, God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you All my life, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you All my life, there's only one I give you glory for all that you've done Even though I don't deserve it, it didn't Even though I couldn't earn it, it gave up Whoever that you keep me on your mind, God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you All my life, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you Whoever that you keep me on your mind, God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you All my life, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you All my life, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you All my life, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you All my life, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you All my life, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you 'Cause you gave me chance after chance, after chance I'm given all that I had 'Cause you gave me chance after chance, after chance, come on I'm just grateful for you I'm just grateful for you 'Cause you gave me chance after chance, after chance I'm given all that I had

'Cause you gave me chance after chance, after chance Whoever that you keep me on your mind, God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you All my life, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you All my life, that you gave me on your mind, God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you All my life, you've been right here by my side, God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ But God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ I'm all right ♪ ♪ If they say I'm out of my mind ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ ♪ God, I'm just grateful for you ♪ Welcome to Grace Way. My name is John Stevens, and I'm so glad you're joining us today. Whether this is your first time with us, or you've been watching for a while, we're really glad you're here. You are a valued part of the Grace Way family, and it's a privilege to worship with you each week. No matter where you've been, or what your story looks like, God isn't finished with you. Throughout the Bible, we see Him using ordinary people with imperfect past, doing incredible things. Your past doesn't define your future.

In Christ, there's always hope. There's always purpose, and there's always the next step. If you have a family or friends who use the Pando app, encourage them to watch Grace Way 2. This is a great way to experience the same message together, even when you're in different places. One of the best things we can do is grow in our faith together, encourage one another, and keep the conversation going long after the service ends. If you're currently in a correctional facility in Kansas or Missouri, and would like to see Grace Way offered where you are, let your chapel know. They can learn more about bringing Grace Way to your facility by visiting visitgraceway.org/prison. As we get started, don't just watch the service, jump in, worship, pray, and listen, and ask God to speak to you. I believe He has something He wants to say to you today. ♪ ♪ Leasing the song with me, let's continue in worship. ♪ ♪ ♪ As the spirit was a movie, over the water ♪ ♪ Spirit come, move over us ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ As the spirit was a movie, over the water ♪ ♪ Spirit come, move over us ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪

♪ Come down ♪ ♪ Spirit when you move, you make my heart ♪ ♪ When you fill the room ♪ ♪ You're here and I know you are moving ♪ ♪ I'm here and I know you will fill me calm ♪ ♪ Spirit when you move, you make my heart ♪ ♪ When you fill the room ♪ ♪ You're here and I know you are moving ♪ ♪ I'm here and I know you will fill me ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ As the spirit was a movie, over the water ♪ ♪ Spirit come, move over us ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ As the spirit was a movie, over the water ♪ ♪ Spirit come, move over us ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ Fire and wind, come and do it again ♪ ♪ Open up the gates and carry on in ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ Fire and wind, come and do it again ♪ ♪ Open up the gates and carry on in ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ Come down ♪ ♪ Spirit when you move, you make my heart ♪ ♪ When you fill the room ♪ ♪ You're here and I know you are moving ♪

♪ I'm here and I know you will fill me calm down ♪ ♪ Spirit when you move, you make my heart down ♪ ♪ When you fill the room ♪ ♪ You're here and I know you are moving ♪ ♪ I'm here and I know you will be moving ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ ♪ Come rest on us ♪ Holy Spirit, come rest on us. Here are we you. Here are we you. Here are we you. Here are we you. ♪ Here are we one ♪ ♪ Here are we one ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, compress on us ♪ ♪ Here are we one ♪ ♪ Here are we one ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, compress on us ♪ ♪ Here are we one ♪ ♪ Here are we one ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, compress on us ♪ ♪ Here are we one ♪ ♪ Here are we one ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, compress on us ♪ ♪ Here are we one ♪ ♪ Here are we one ♪ ♪ Here are we one ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, we one ♪ ♪ When you feel the room ♪ ♪ You're here and I know you are moving ♪ ♪ I'm here and I know you will kill me ♪ ♪ Oh now Spirit, when you feel the room ♪ ♪ You're here and I know you are moving ♪ ♪ I'm here and I know you will kill me ♪

♪ Oh now Spirit, when you feel the room ♪ ♪ You're here and I know you are moving ♪ ♪ I'm here and I know you will kill me ♪ ♪ Oh now Spirit, when you feel the room ♪ ♪ When you feel the room ♪ ♪ You're here and I know you are moving ♪ ♪ I'm here and I know you will kill me ♪ ♪ Oh now Spirit, when you feel the room ♪ ♪ You're here and I know you are moving ♪ ♪ I'm here and I know you will kill me ♪ ♪ Holy, holy ♪ ♪ The God of mine ♪ ♪ Early in the morning ♪ ♪ Our song shall rise to you ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ First of all and my dear ♪ ♪ God in every person ♪ ♪ Blessed we live in Christ ♪ Come on, family, let's pray together. God, we come before you right now and admit to you, Lord, that maybe it's been a busy week. Maybe we have things coming up next week, things on our mind, things on our heart, things weighing us down. And I'm afraid, Lord, that we're going to miss this opportunity to be in the room with you. I'm afraid, Lord, that there are things that you want to say to us that we're too busy to hear, things that you want to do in us that we're not paying attention to. And so I just pray, Lord, right now,

that your people gathered here under your name, to your name, for your name would be still in your presence. ♪ I'm more ourselves before you get as low as we can go. Not worry about yesterday or the day that is to come, but to lay hold of that promise that when two or three are gathered, you are there in their midst, Lord. The God of heaven and earth is here with us today. And so, Lord, we make ourselves available to you. We hold nothing back. We're not here to play games, Lord. We don't have anywhere else to go. You are the one who has the words of life. And so, God, would your Holy Spirit now rest on this house? Lord, don't just pass through. Lord, don't just touch base. Stay with us, Lord. Speak to us, Lord. Break what needs to be done. today, Lord, and set people free, help them to see things in a way that they've never seen them. Help them trust you for the first or the 50th time. And Lord, if I've prayed for too little today. If I've asked not enough, according to your abundance and your power, would you give me, Lord, would you give us according to your will and your goodness? We want everything that you have for us, Lord. Just speak to us now. We love you. We thank you. And in Jesus' name, come on, all God's people said, Amen and amen. Hey, welcome to church. How are you? So good to see you. Hey, listen to me. Somebody around you needs a little bit of love. Least a little bit of acknowledgement, a little encouragement. Take some time, pass some peace before you grab your seat. [Music] Family, how are we? Come on, I've only been gone two weeks. You know that ain't going

to work. How are you today? It's good to see you. So glad to be here with you. I miss you all. For those of you who don't know, allow me to reintroduce myself. Come on, somebody. My name's Tim. I'm the lead pastor here. And man, miss you all. So glad to be back. Thanks for giving me a space to do the stuff that God's put in my lap, but good, good, good, to be back. If you're a guest with us, we love you. Thanks for being here. For real. We know you could be a lot of different places, but you're here. And we're glad if you're watching us online. First off, let me say to you, if you're in Kansas City, put your phone down, close your laptop, and get here for the third service. All right? It ain't the same without you, and you need to be in the room with us, okay? So if you're watching in Kansas City and you're well, get in your car and come to this room. Amen? If you're not in Kansas City or you're not well, man, God bless you. I hope that you're doing well. Let us know how we can serve you, pray for you, take care of you in any way, shape or form. And then church, say hello to the men at Crossroads and at Ozark. What's up, fellas? We love you. Excited for what God's doing, praying for you tonight. Lots going on at Graceway right now. What's y'all know about these hoodies, huh? You don't know anything about these hoodies, all right? You don't know anything. I'm the, there's only three people in the world who's got these hoodies, and I happen to be one of them. But we can fix that today, okay? We can fix that today. Today we are launching the Graceway Store, GracewayStore.com. There it is right there. Right now we got about four. Y'all aren't excited, apparently, okay? We got four pieces in there right now. We got a bunch, a bunch of pieces coming up. You can look at them in the Resource Center, okay? Let me help you here. I don't need any Christians losing their sanctification over a sweatshirt. Let me tell you what's going to happen. You can go to the Resource Center. You can see it. You can touch it. You can't put it on, okay? That would be weird. We don't want, we don't want your Sunday germs on us, okay? But you, oh, stop. I just a little joke. Oh, my goodness. Go to the Resource Center. You can order it online right there. It'll come directly to your house. But the reason that we want these available to you is, one, we just want you representing our church. You really are the representation of our church, so behave yourself out on these streets, okay? But you really are the representation of our church. It's also just a good conversation starter, okay? We got some other stuff coming out,

but you know, when you're wearing a shirt that says Kansas City belongs to Jesus or trying to make it hard to go to hell in Kansas City, some of the things that we talk about all the time, it's just great conversation starters. So go to GracewayStore.com and pick those up. Speaking of representing our church, something I'm really excited about is our foster adoption ministry here at Graceway, Graceway Fam. So excited about this. Let me tell you why this matters, okay? This matters because in God's grace, He adopted us. You and I were orphans. You and I were without a home and the gospel is that God made a home for us. God also tells us to take care of and love the vulnerable. And it's a matter of righteousness and it's a matter of justice. So the church doesn't have a choice but to care about this community. And we've got an incredible team that has been doing an awesome job around Grace Way fam and this Saturday at 1 p.m. in the growth track room. We have a Grace Way fam meeting. Let me stop you for a second because I know what you're thinking, well, I'm not gonna foster anybody or I'm not gonna adopt anybody. That's not just who the meeting is for. The meeting is for anybody who just has this sense of wanting to be connected to what God is doing through that, whether it be prayer or service or in any way, shape or form. And I just want you to hear what God's doing in our church through the Foster and Adoption Ministry. We got a great team. So this Saturday at 1 p.m. in the growth track room which is right through those walls. I want you to stop by, say hello,

hear what God is up to and show up to that space available to the Spirit of God so we can continue to bear witness to God's kingdom in this community. Amen. All right, if you have a Bible, get over to Ephesians chapter two, Ephesians chapter two. And we're gonna get into it, but I am going to pray and ask God's Holy Spirit to speak to us. Are you happy to be in church? I am too. I am too. Lord, we love you. Speak to us now in power and authority for your glory and our good, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen, and amen. Grace Waze, mission statement. And let me pause because a lot of churches and businesses, they have mission statements, but it's really just words on a wall. We really want the things that we talk about this church being to be the reality of who we are. So here's our mission statement. We wanna bring the future kingdom of God into the present. And this is a statement that is ripe, that is pregnant with big theology. This idea that Jesus came and that he brought a kingdom, and that it is coming in its fullest manifestation,

but that God's people are right now the citizens of the kingdom of God. And that we have the privilege of being able to bear witness to who Jesus is, who the king is, what his kingdom is, and to bring heaven to earth, not as a place that we go when we die, not as out in the sweet by and by, right here and right now. We want to bring what Jesus began at the cross in empty tomb, and we'll ultimately bring at the second coming. We wanna bring that reality to Raytown, Missouri right now. I'm already preaching 97% better than y'all are responding. Come on, 930, wake up. Wake up with me, okay? This is really so important. And so this year we have been in a couple of series. We did the Book of Acts, the Unstoppable series, because I wanted you to see how the early church thought, how they treated one another, how they looked at the world. Then we went to Dear Church, and we talked about the early seven churches in Jesus walking among them and speaking to them, and knowing what's going on then and now. And now we are going to pick up this idea of heaven on earth. I want, in case you missed it, I want to just talk about what does it look like

for heaven to come to earth? When you look at the early church, listen, you see that they had a bigger view of church than we do in 2026. They just thought about it bigger than us. They didn't think about church as a place to go. They didn't think about church as a place to put their membership in. No, they thought about church as I'm a part of a king who came in the kingdom that he brought. And they didn't just think about what that meant about God, they thought about what it meant about them. And I want us to get this understanding of what church is and the part that we get to play in it. And so hang with me here for a second. Over the last month or so, I've been traveling. I've been traveling a bunch. Got to go to a bunch of different cultures. I got to go to Paris. Have any of you ever been to Paris? Yeah, Paris is a beautiful place, beautiful art, philosophy, politics, architecture, opulence, and revolution, right? Yeah, it's a pretty interesting place to go. Went to Amsterdam, commerce, religious history, tolerance, it's really the beginning place of the coffee trade. You all love your coffee shops, right? It all actually began in Amsterdam, but if you go to a coffee shop in Amsterdam,

you can't actually get coffee there. Just a pro tip here, if you go into a coffee shop in Amsterdam, you aren't going to get beans. You're going to get herbs. Come on, somebody, all right? But just consider yourself warned, okay? And then I went to Indianapolis, When we lived in Indianapolis, I had somebody say to me, "Indianapolis is like vanilla ice cream. "Nobody hates it, but nobody wants to order it either." I was like, "That's perfect. "That's exactly what Indianapolis is." Right, yeah. Civic pride, youth sports, roundabouts. Have you seen these roundabouts? No traffic lights, another pro tip for you, all right? It doesn't say stop, it says yield. Okay, please Jesus, help my heart, okay? Right, stopping at the end of the NASCAR left-hand turn circuit, just on and on and on. Then I went to Joplin, Missouri. Very like Paris in absolutely no way, right? (congregation laughs) Yeah, and Joplin's interesting. It's a mining town, it's an agricultural town. Route 66 goes straight through. It has had an interesting history with race. Also an incredibly resilient community. If you all remember, there was a handful of years ago, a tornado completely wiped it out.

Interesting to see a group of people kind of pick that community up. Went to Chicago, immigration, industry, race stuff again. Seems to be everywhere. An incredible pizza, come on somebody. Yes, I'm like, "Oh, this is what heaven tastes like." Right here, yeah, yeah. So I go to all these places, and I want you to think with me, these different cultures, these different ways of looking at the world, and here's my question for you. Which one's right? They all look at the world differently. Which culture is right? And we tend to have strong opinions about this, and the way that we frame it is like, oh, that's real. You go to Paris, you're walking down the street, and someone goes, oh, that's a real Parisian. That's how Parisian is supposed to look, and there's kind of this arrogance to it. We don't like that, but you know, we do the same thing. We go, that ain't even real barbecue, bro, right? We do it in a colony, bro, come on, come on, Texas. Trying to bring a whole state against our city. Have you lost your mind? Come on, Memphis, we know it came from you all, but we've perfect, come on, North Carolina with your yellow sauce, it's creepy, all right? It ain't even real, it ain't, it's not real barbecue.

We do it in politics, right? A rhino, a Republican in name only. You're not a real Republican. Okay. Can I make it a little uncomfortable? We do this in our ethnicity. Pastor Tim, you gotta understand, they aren't a real black man. Oh. And what I've noticed is that every time we bring up real, we mean right, and whenever we bring up right, we mean me. Yeah, we tend to have this idea that my experiences, my preferences are the standard, that my culture is the reference point. I'm right, and people who look like me, talk like me, vote like me are also right, because they are real. Yeah. And I wanna say to you, you're right. You are right, because every culture has beauty. You are right, because God extends common grace, reigns on the just and the unjust. You are right, because the image of God is on every person you are right, because every culture has something worth celebrating, appreciating, and learning from. This is why we should not be blind to culture or color. And, man, you're wrong, because every culture does something wrong. No culture gets everything right. No culture fails to have blind spots.

Every culture bears the marks of the goodness of God and the brokenness of man at the same time. Yeah. And so scripture comes along, and it gives us this framework to look at the world. It simplifies for us all these different cultures that we could see, and says there's really only one, well, two cultures. The first is the culture of heaven, and the other is the culture of hell. Heaven and hell, don't worry about Parisian or not. Don't worry about barbecue. Don't worry about politics. It's really just two kingdoms and kings and cultures. You see, we tend to think about heaven and hell in two smaller ways. You think that heaven is a place that you might go whenever you die, and I don't wanna go to hell, so I pray a prayer, so I go to heaven. But can I tell you, the Bible talks about these things a lot differently, a larger reality. It's not so much where you go as much as it is government. Authority, allegiance, rule, heaven, biblically, is the realm of God's uncontested reign, where his will is perfectly accomplished. 'Cause there's gold streets, pearly gates, and chubby angels with harps. No, heaven is heaven because it's the place that the rule and reign of God is perfectly executed. It is a place, but it's bigger than a place.

It's a kingdom, and it's a rule. And the Bible says, in Psalm 115 verse three, our God is in the heavens, he does all he pleases. No more gangster version of the Bible than that. Here's where I am, I do what I want. That's what God says. Heaven isn't just a place we go, it's a place that God rules. Philippians three and verse 20 says that if you have given your life to Jesus, you are a citizen of heaven. What does that even mean? I live here, how am I a citizen of heaven? You live here, but you're under the rule and reign of Jesus. And Paul says, this isn't your home, you're just passing through, you're a sojourner, your citizenship is in heaven, and Jesus picks this up, and when he teaches us to pray, the disciples come to him and say, bro, we ain't ever heard anybody pray like you, Jesus, can you teach us how to do that? He says, of course I can. When you pray, pray this way, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, Jesus is not teaching them to pray for something that will happen someday, he is not teaching them to pray for a place they will go

when they die, he is teaching them to pray that God's kingdom will come and will be done here now. And so Pastor Clayton got us started on this idea of heaven in our hearts. Last week, heaven in our home, dressed like John Wick, that was a little confusing to me, heaven in my home dressed like an assassin, but he looks good, right, he looked good. And so now we're gonna talk about heaven in our work. Heaven in our work, can I want you to take this biblical narrative, heaven isn't this place, it is a place, it's not only a place, heaven is this concept of God's rule and reign being brought to bear on our lives in every aspect. So in Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine, let's pick this up together, Paul begins, so that in the coming ages, he that being God might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God says God, Paul says God wants to pour out his immeasurable riches, his grace and his kindness on you through Jesus Christ. How does he do that? For by grace you have been saved through faith. It is not your own doing, it is a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one can boast. Here's what the Bible says, God loves every single person in this room, knows every single person in this room, wants to pour immeasurable riches out on your life

that begins with his grace being brought to bear in your heart, in your mind, in your home, in your work. How? By placing your faith in the grace of God and the person and work of Jesus. Paul says you don't have the ability to save yourself. There is no work that you can do, there is no job that you can get, there is no education that you can possess, there is no affluence or influence. You cannot perform, you cannot earn your way into good standing with God. Only Jesus makes that possible. And only Jesus is available because God just loves you that much. Paul says nobody gets to heaven and says, you're welcome. No, no, no. When I go to heaven or heaven comes here, whichever one comes first, I will not congratulate God on my Christianity. I will hit the ground, bust my nose and say I cannot believe that you would be willing to save me, cannot believe that you would be willing to call me son or daughter, cannot believe that you had thoughts, intents and plans for it, cannot believe that every word, every promise came true, cannot believe, thank you doesn't even begin to say it.

Paul says you don't earn that, you get given that. We like to stop there, here's verse 10. Four, because all that, we are his workmanship. Which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in him? You aren't saved by your works, but you are saved to good works. And this is obviously bigger than your workplace and your occupation, but can I tell you, it isn't smaller than that. It isn't smaller than that. We are created and saved. God planned to do it before the foundations of the earth. God planned to save and God planned to point you in the direction of good works as ordained by him. And here's what I've noticed. I have noticed that lots of Christians have a massive gap between God saving them Sunday morning and Monday. You see, it makes sense to you and here. All these things make sense, even though I'm continuing to preach significantly better than you're responding. (congregation laughing) There's this gap between what I believe on Sunday morning and how I feel when I wake up before I get to the coffee pot on Monday. There's this gap between God saving me and creating me and aiming me at good work and that showing up in my work on Tuesday afternoon. And when there's a gap, three things happen.

Number one, we do careless work. This means I do the minimum, Christian. This means I show up late. It means I show up unprepared. It means I'm unreliable. It means I cut corners. It means I complain. It means I treat work as something to endure rather than something to steward. And Paul would say, oh, baby, you have a terrible theology of heaven. I thought we were talking about work. No, no, we are. We're talking about heaven in your work. I thought heaven was a place that I go when I die. It is, but it's also something that you can bring into every aspect of your life. And if you are careless in your work, not bringing your best to work, oh, baby, you don't understand heaven. Secondly, we do compromise work. And this is work that our character gets exposed. And so we go to work and we're the office gossip. We lie, we exaggerate, we take credit for what we didn't do. We treat people on the org chart differently. We work differently depending on who on the org chart is watching us work. We compromise to get ahead. We fudge the receipts. We fudge the budget.

We work really well when it gets us further down the road, but we're lazy and careless when it doesn't. Baby, you don't understand heaven. You don't understand heaven. Because if you did, if you did, you wouldn't be careless at work and you wouldn't be compromising at work, you would understand, you would understand that you're called to bring heaven to work. Thirdly, we do consuming work. And this is when we sacrifice our family for work, our health for work, our faith for work, the football game for work. This is the person that can't go on vacation and can't rest when they do. This is the person that gives your best to work and everybody and everything else gets left over us. Oh, baby, you don't understand heaven. You see, you can dishonor God by not caring enough about your work, by compromising your character at work or by caring so much about your work, it takes God's place. And this is regardless of where you work or the kind of work that you do. So let me help you. There is no such thing as a spiritual secular divide. There is no such thing as, oh, this is a secular thing that I'm doing and Tim does a spiritual thing.

Kind of like there's no such thing as Christian music. There's only heaven music. (laughing) And if it's heaven music, it better be good. Okay, that's different, sermon. Y'all aren't ready today. Y'all aren't ready today. I got my hoodie on. I've been gone for two weeks. Y'all are just staring at me, all right? Somebody say amen up in this house. All right, so you can do it. Let's keep that energy up, shall we? This is regardless of the spiritual secular divide. You can be and can bring the way of heaven or hell to any and all aspects of your life. You can be bringing God's way or the course of this world way in every aspect of your life. Listen to me, I can be the pastor of this church and have careless, compromised and consuming work and not be pleasing to God. And when I do, watch, I bring hell into this world. saved and created you for a good work. A good work. Can I tell you why you're having a hell of a time at work? Because you don't understand heaven. You say, "He cussed." No, I didn't cuss. I didn't cuss. And I'm going to keep doing this the whole series, so just get used to it, okay? I'm trying to teach you how to bring heaven into your heart, heaven into your home. Some of y'all, your home is a hellish place. It is a place where God is absent. Doesn't matter where you come on Sunday morning. And some of you, your workplace is supposed to be a heavenly place because you're a Christian, you work there. But we bring careless, compromised, consuming work. And what does the Bible say? God

didn't save you for that. I didn't save you for that. And do understand, listen to me, it's all going to be better in heaven. I get that. But you're still here. Why? Why? Why would God save you? And then be like, "All right, I'll see you someday." Because you have a good work that he created you for. And some of you are waiting for someday an ignoring bringing heaven to this day. So good work understands a handful of things. Are y'all still with me? Work was God's idea before sin was our problem. Work was God's idea before sin was our problem. In Genesis chapter 2, everybody put two fingers in there. Genesis chapter 2, it says this, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it." When was the fall? Everybody put three fingers in there. Now wave them like it to everyone. In Genesis 2, God takes man and puts him in the garden of Eden in paradise and says, "All right, boy, here's your J-O-B." Work is not a result of the fall. Now listen, frustration and confusion about work is a result of the fall, but work itself is God's idea. More than that, God's version of paradise includes work. I think about this. Your version of paradise includes a sunburn and a my time. God's version of work includes you having a job that matters to you and blesses others. In other words, God says, "Wait a minute, you're dying to go on vacation. I put you in paradise with purposeful work and you need a break from that to do what?" You see how far off we are on this? You go, "Bro, I can't wait for vacation." And God says, "I thought you were. I thought you were in paradise because I created you for a good work." Oh, baby, you don't understand heaven. You don't understand heaven. God's version of paradise included work. God says to Adam, "He puts him in the garden. Everything's perfect." And he goes, "All right, man. Monday morning, 9 a.m. I'll see you there. The coffee will be hot and ready." Number two, work is one of the primary ways that we reflect the character of God. So listen to Genesis 1, 26. God says, "Let us make man in our image after our lightness and let him have dominion over the fields and the air and the bird." He takes dominion, okay? The ability to bring order to bring beauty to bring management of, he connects it to the image of God. Are you with me? He commissions Adam to represent his rule in the garden. You aren't just building, coding, producing at work. You are representing at work. And here's where we get this wrong. You think you're representing you. That's why you think if work is going successfully, you think, "I'm a success." That's why if work is you're getting more responsibility, you think, "I'm powerful." That's why when you have a bad week, you say, "Oh, it's been a

and you love Jesus, but you cuss a little and I'm being theological." You with me? Yeah, because you don't understand that you aren't there to represent yourself. You're there to represent And here's what that means. That I should be able to look at you and watch you work and learn something about God and heaven. How would my theology be if all I could see is you on Tuesday afternoon? What would I think about heaven if all I could see is you on Wednesday afternoon? Would I still want to go there? Or would I be like, phew, that looks like hell to me. What does God say? Adam, I'm going to give you my image. I'm going to give you a job. And I want you to represent me at your job so that when people look at you working, they understand who I am. Number three, your work is vocation, not merely occupation. Now for some of you, listen to me. This is important because I don't care about this job. I'm just trying to pay my bills. You're misunderstanding the point. Listen to me. The word vocation comes from the Latin vicatio, which means calling or summons. I am called to bear the image of God. God picked me to do it. Come on, boy, come over here. Boop, there it is. And Ephesians 2, I am called to be God's workmanship

and to do a good work. We already said, doesn't matter the work that you're doing, doesn't matter where you work, who you work for. In the kingdom of God, there is no such thing as ordinary work in a biblical hands. Your good work is part of God's good provision. Okay, let me help you, okay? Someone prays for healing. 21 days of prayer, someone prays for healing. And in this church, we believe that God still heals people. Amen, okay, some churches you go to, and they don't believe that. They say, God used to do that, but now we have the Bible and God doesn't do that anymore. Come on, God still heals people. God does what he wants, okay? And there are times that we pray for healing and that God heals somebody, almost spontaneous. We've had that happen in this church. There are other times where God heals somebody in this way. God healed me and he says, "Baby, I got just the thing "for you, meet the doctor." And if that doctor is bringing hell to his workplace, 'cause he's lazy, 'cause he's cutting corners, 'cause he used chat GPT on his final exam. (laughs) Yes, fair game now, baby, right? He is not bringing heaven to earth and he is unable to be the answer to your prayer and God's provision.

Someone prays for provision, "God, I need more money." And God says, "Congratulations, meet your boss." And you go, "No, I meant like an envelope full of cash." And he goes, "No, no, no, I gave you a job." It's amazing to me, the amount of people are like, "God, give me money." And God's like, "Here's a job." And they're like, "God, give me money." (audience laughs) Get out of here, that's the answer. And if that boss is bringing hell to earth, he failing to be the answer to your prayer and God's provision. You pray for wisdom and God says, "Here's a teacher." You pray for protection and God says, "Here's a police officer and a firefighter." You pray for a home and God says, "Here's a construction worker." Listen, your job might be ordinary to you, but the people who benefit from your work might experience it as extraordinary on answer to prayer. Unless you have a bad theology on heaven. Heaven's just the place we go when we die. Well, what about now? I need you to be the answer to God's prayer in my life, doc. I need you to be the answer to God's prayer in my life, cop. Do your job. Represent God to me. Bring heaven to earth. Your work is one of the ways you love your neighbor

as yourself and contribute to human flourishing. But again, watch, we tend to use our work as an expression of the love we have for ourself in the hopes that somebody will love us more. Look at what I built, look at what I have, look at who I am, respect me, love me, admire me, which is the opposite of the great commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself. We use work and we say, love me more. Instead of going to work and saying who I work with, I'm gonna love them as much as I love me. I'm gonna bring heaven to earth. This is why Colossians 3 says, whatever you do, whatever you do. - Yeah. Great, whatever you do, I'm an administrative assistant. I'm an entry level administrator. I'm a data entry, no one cares about me. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, and that includes you. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ, say I hate my boss. He ain't your boss. (audience applauding) You don't understand why I work, it's a... (audience laughing) It's a hell of a place. Why do you think you're there? We want to land in heaven, and God says,

I want you to bring heaven. Come on, honestly, let me help you. Let me... (audience applauding) Especially in America, we have escapist theology. The reason you think heaven is this great thing coming someday, and you see it over and over and over again, is so you can be on cruise control now. Well, one day it's all gonna burn and God will get us out of here. Oh well. (audience laughing) You ain't read your Bible. You have a terrible theology on heaven. Yes, in Jesus, one day you will go to heaven or heaven will come here. One day, but until then bring that thing. Stand in the gap, be righteous and just, pray and protest, be humble and strong. These are all the elements of, and this is why we do the book of Acts, and this is why we did Revelation 2 and 3, so I can see. Hey, church is bigger than you think. Your faith is supposed to be bigger than a place you go, and a song you listen to on the radio. Kingdom work brings heaven to your earthly workplace. Let me unpack this for a second. Everybody in this room who gets a job at a reasonable time in life

is gonna work between 80 and 150,000 hours in your life, okay? So I'll give you five seconds to be depressed about that, okay? This means you're gonna spend more time at work than you are with your family in church or doing your hobby. It's not close. And this also means that it is not possible to have a good life without good work. Without work that you wake up on Monday, and listen, Monday, maybe you're a little tired, I get it, but you wake up, and as you're putting your boots or your loafers on, you say, I'm going on purpose. I'm going to bless, I'm going to bring. I'm not going to receive. I don't expect to receive. I have everything that I need in Jesus. (congregation applauding) I don't expect to be love. I'm there to love you as I love myself. I don't expect for you to do it, right? I'm there to bear the image of the King to you. I'm there to explain it to you. And if I go along with you, neither of us will be able to see heaven. You with me? Somebody's got to say, come and see. This is what it looks like. How, watch this dude work. Watch this, watch this work.

Watch how they think, but watch how they carry themselves. It's not possible. Hear me. Biblically or otherwise, for you to have a good life and not do good work. It's not possible for God's kingdom to come to earth as it is in heaven, which Jesus told us to pray. If the church doesn't get work right, it's not possible. You hear what I'm saying? If I pull the largest percentage of your quantitative life out of your life and you live like hell and then pray the Lord's prayer, that don't make no sense. Don't pray. That can come. I will be done on earth as it is in heaven and go, but not here 'cause look at my boss. But not here 'cause look at what I do, but not here 'cause they want me to work overtime in the game zone. No, no, no, no. Be the answer to that prayer. And if we do not understand that, God loves you. But stop asking God to do something that you're the answer to, but you don't wanna do. (congregation applauding) Jesus has to be Lord over. Listen, you're going to have to see your work differently. Who benefits from the work you do? And how can you serve them more faithfully? You're going to have to work differently, probably.

What would change about the way you work if you genuinely believed you were working unto the Lord, bringing heaven to your office, place, or work site? You're going to have to treat people differently. Do people experience more dignity, more fairness, more kindness because they work with me? You're going to have to start defining success differently is work about what I get from work, or is work about what I get to bring. Am I building my career, or am I bringing God's kingdom to Kansas City? Because Kansas City belongs to Jesus, and we're trying to make it hard to go to hell in Kansas City. Listen, I want you to come home every day from work and say, bro, that was a heaven of a day. That's what I'm looking for. That's what I'm looking for. Come on, Christian, don't come home and say to your wife, man, it was a day. Why were you there? Why were you there to just go along with the course of this world, the way that is wide, and many go on it? No, you were there. Come home and go, hoo, heaven today, baby. Bro, you work at the-- stalking at Amazon, heaven of a day. Bro, you work in a mud pit somewhere out in the country, heaven of a day. Bro, you work with a bunch of kids,

heaven of a day. Come on, pray for your teachers, all right? Pray for your teachers. Heaven of a day. Listen, don't-- hear me. Let me help you. Don't pray that we will make it hard to go to hell in Kansas City if you're going to come home and say, it's been a hell of a day. We're trying to make it hard to go to hell in Kansas City by coming home and saying, man, that was a heaven of a day. Doesn't mean it's going to be easy. We're in the already not yet. He ain't here yet. But you might be the only him that they ever get to see. Let me reiterate, I'm not cussing from the platform. It's theological, all right, OK? Come on, send me all the emails. I'll read all of them. I promise, it'll be a heaven of a day. OK, here's how I want to end. Here's how I want to end, OK? I want you to close your eyes, get your stuff together, and let's make space for God to speak to us. If you're a Christian in here and my hope, my hope is that you can pick up the workplace differently. My hope is that God's spirit has made it more substantial, more purposeful. My hope is that you will submit to the way that God sees your work rather than surrendering

to the way that you feel about your work. My hope will be that one of the greatest testimonies of this church will be the workforce from this church. I want you to do some business with God. I want you to talk to him candidly about how work has been. I want you to listen to him humbly about what he would like you to change. If you are not a Christian in here, can I respectfully say, I'm grateful that you're here, but I haven't been talking to you this entire time. Because it would be a mistake for you to pursue heaven in your work or in your home without inviting Jesus into your heart. You get in the cart before the horse. Heaven can't come where Jesus doesn't rule. So with every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to ask you, if you do not know, if you died tonight, if you do not know beyond a shadow of a doubt, I would wake up in heaven. where I would go after this life ends," then can I tell you something? You're so close to heaven coming into your heart right now. Here's how it works. You invite Jesus to be in charge. And by God's grace, He saves you. And by God's grace, He brings Jesus into your life. And by God's grace, He not only brings heaven to you now, but heaven is where you will go when you die. And if you want that, then I want you to pray this prayer with me. It's very simple. Every head bow, every eye closed. Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me. I know that I am a sinner and that I need a Savior. I believe Jesus died for my sins and rose again. And so today, I turn from my sin and put my faith in Jesus. Forgive me and make me new. Give me eternal life. Jesus, I surrender my heart and my life to You. Be my Savior and my King. Let Your kingdom come and Your will be done in me. In Jesus' name. Amen. And with every head bow and every eye closed, if you prayed that

prayer with me, would you raise your hand? Keep it up. Keep it up. It's going to happen as somebody from our team is going to come by and they're going to put a Bible in your hands. A couple of things I want to tell you about that Bible inside is a resource called You Said Yes. I want to help you understand how to get heaven in your heart, in your home, in your work, in your life by making Jesus the King. It's bookmarked to the Gospel of John where Jesus' best friend introduces Jesus to the world as God. I want you to read a chapter a day. John 1, tomorrow. John 2, Tuesday. And next, there's a connection card. I'd love for you to fill that out. Bring it down to me. Bring it down to the team. Stop at the next steps desk. Promise you we're not going to bug you, spam you, sell your stuff. We just want to welcome you into the family and celebrate. God's saving you. Church, why don't we do that right now? Let's celebrate God. Saving people in the room today. It's awesome. Watch stand up. Growth track, step three, happening in the next service. Giving boxes in the back. Prayer team, come on down if we can pray for you. Let us know how GraceWayStore.com for the swag. GraceWay fam this Saturday. Come on to only leave. Let me pray for you. Let me pray for you. Let me pray for you. Let's lift the hand. Let's pray together. God, we thank you that you love this first. We thank you for saving us. We thank you for the person and work of Jesus. We thank you for saving us. Exempt our work in calling us to a good work. And I pray, Lord, that the people of GraceWay, within the sound of my voice, in the room and online, would bring heaven to this city this week. To make it hard to go to hell. To say this city, this workplace, this workforce, it belongs to Jesus and this is what it looks like. And I pray, Lord, that you would use that for your glory in the good of our community. We love you. We thank you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen and amen. Church, I love you. I'll see you next Sunday.