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Colin Smith: Every week, there are folks buying lottery tickets. And in their minds is this thought, if I win the lottery, I don't need to work anymore. And so what they're thinking is that the only purpose of work is to get money and if I had money, I wouldn't need to work. Now, is that all that work is?

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you're listening. And Colin, we're looking at work today and it sounds like we're going to be looking at what is the purpose of work?

Colin Smith: We certainly are and to try and recover, I think a biblical view of work. I think it's a tragedy that so often work has been viewed as merely the means to the end of getting some money in order to survive. That's not what it is. We have a God who is a creator and God has created us with great purposes in view. He has planned work for us to do and that's part of what he does in creation. And so I think one of the great things that's happening these days in the church is that there's a recovery of a biblical view of work that this is not simply a means to an end, but a way in which we actually glorify God by doing things that he has particularly called and commissioned us to do and that that's true not only of what we call Christian work, but of all forms of work.

And to see that is to find new motivation, I think. And I hope that's going to be an encouragement for people to see in a new way that God is interested in the work that you do.

Steve Hiller: We see that in the book of 1st Thessalonians. We're in chapter four again today as we begin a message entitled the urgency of willing work. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Today we come to the subject of the urgency of willing work. And it's a theme that I think is obviously appropriate for us today as we celebrate the service that so many within the congregation give week by week and throughout the year in the life and ministry of this church. I tell you for me, it is a joy every morning to come in here and to see on the monitors the listing that often goes to more than one screen of things that are going on in any one day in the life of this church. Ministry to smaller groups and to larger groups and training courses and ministry to children and to young people and to folks of all adult ages, ministries of compassion and of evangelism and of world outreach.

It goes on and it goes on. I spoke the other week, just a few weeks ago, to someone in the foyer who was a visitor for the first time and I knew she was a visitor for the first time because she said to me, now you're the pastor, it must be really quiet working here during the week. And I said, oh, that couldn't be further from the truth. And the reality is that ministry happens in multiple ways because God has placed it into the hearts of many, many people to make it happen. And this is a gift from God which we cherish and for which we thank him today.

If you walk around this building on any given day during the week, you will find people somewhere around to are either practicing, painting, repairing, cleaning, restocking, printing, mailing or or whatever it is. And in the mercy of God, ministry multiplies because God has placed it in the hearts of his people. That's one reason why it's a good thing that we come to this theme of work. Second good reason for us to look at the theme of work as we come to it in the Bible today is that this is Father's Day. And most dads spend most of their time engaged in some kind of work.

And the question is, what does the Bible have to say about that? What place does your working life have in the purpose and the plan of God? And there are some very wonderful and important things that the Bible has to teach us about that and we find them right here in this letter of Thessalonians as we've come to it this morning. Let me give a kind of broad introduction simply by saying this, that there are probably two common errors that are made in the way that many people think about work. The first is what we might call the secularized view, which is that work is simply a means of getting money, that you go to work in order to be able to support yourself and your family.

And indeed that is a worthy thing to do, but the question is, is that all that it is? Every week there are folks buying lottery tickets. And in their minds is this thought, if I win the lottery, I don't need to work anymore. And so what they're thinking is that the only purpose of work is to get money and if I had money, I wouldn't need to work. Now, is that all that work is or does it have some intrinsic value within itself? Is it something more? We're going to see that it certainly is. Then there's a second error that some folks fall into and I I've called that the spiritualized view.

And that is the one that you hear sometimes among some Christians that work is wonderful because it's a great opportunity to share the gospel. And of course, that is true. We are salt and light in the world. But do you really think that God sits as it were yawning, bored in heaven while you're cutting checks and doing deals and teaching kids and serving customers or whatever it is and that only when you engage in a conversation about the gospel, does a little red light go on in heaven and God kind of comes as it were to attention and and says, oh, he's done something useful today.

That's excellent. I mean, really. Does God care about the work that you do? Now, the problem with this secular misunderstanding and with the spiritualized misunderstanding is that they both see work merely as a means to an end, the secular end being money, the spiritual end being evangelism. But neither have really grasped the biblical principle that work has intrinsic value and worth that God dignifies it and that it is part of his great blessing and purpose for our lives. Remember that the gift of work came before the fall in the Bible, not after. So I want us to grasp a biblical view of work.

I want to paint a couple of things from the broad picture in the Bible first and then to focus in on Thessalonians. Let's begin with the broad before we focus in. Your work reflects the image of God and that gives it great dignity. Now, the first thing that we learn about God in the Bible is that he is a worker. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And here's something very wonderful. The Bible says that he did this in two ways. It's described in two ways. The Psalms say that the earth is the work of his hands.

And Genesis and in other places of the Bible tells us that the world was created by the word of his mouth. So by the work of his hands, he dignifies forever all manual labor. And by the word of his mouth, he dignifies forever what we call in our culture professional work. Whatever your work is, work that is given by God within this created order is a wonderful reflection of his own image. It is part of the stamp of being made in the image of God. It has therefore inherent dignity and value. It is a gift from the Lord.

Now, not only is your work a reflection of the image of God, but secondly, big picture, your work fulfills a calling from God. It fulfills a calling from God. Now, again going right back to the beginning of the Bible, remember that God planted a garden and then he put Adam in charge of it, giving him responsibility for cultivating what God had made. And right from the beginning, you see this very wonderful principle in the Bible that God intends that there should be a partnership between him and us in regards to his creative work and we'll see in the Bible also in relation to the work of the gospel as well.

I love the story of the old gardener who had worked for years cultivating a beautiful garden. And one day, his pastor visited. And this man has great joy in showing his pastor all of the flowers and the shrubs and naming them all and the pastor was very very taken with this, lifted in his spirit and began to speak about the glory of God. And he said, isn't it wonderful that God makes all these things grow and the beauty and diversity of their color and so forth. And the old man was beginning to get a little bit irked by the fact that God was getting all the credit for the garden that he had worked on so many years.

And so he said to the pastor, well now, I just want you to know, this garden wasn't up to much when God had it all to himself. Now, there's a very profound point in that. God could have made self-sustaining gardens, but he didn't. His creative purpose, you see, was not just that we should be observers of his work, but participants in it. That's the key principle and we learn it right from the creation. He ordered the world in this way and he created you and me in this way so that we should not simply be observers, but participants in his work.

So he plants a garden and he places it under the care of a gardener. He creates a human life and what does he do? He places the life of that child in the arms of a mother. He sends his son into the world so that there should be a gospel. What does he do? He trusts that gospel to his church so that we may bring it to the world because we are not to be observers only of the work of God, but we are to be participants in it. Which is why Paul says so wonderfully in the New Testament, we are God's fellow workers.

And that applies not only in terms of the ministry that we have in the church. What a marvelous privilege that is to be fellow workers with God in ministry. But it is also true of whatever work God has assigned to you in the created order. So you see, how does God protect us through policemen and through firemen? Thank God for their calling and their participation in the works of God. Think about it. God provides for our education how through teachers and professors. God provides for our health how through nurses and doctors. God provides for our food how through farmers and all those folks who work in grocery stores.

God provides for our homes how through builders and electricians and through plumbers and guys who do drywall. Thank God for these guys. God provides for our pleasure and for our joy through folks who work in the parks department, recreation, sports, the arts, music and travel agents, participants in the work of God, not observers only, but partners, God's fellow workers. Now, you can extend the list, but you get the point. Once you see that what you have been called by God to do within the created order as well as the work of the church, that the whole of your life is a participation in the work of God and an advancing of his purpose, it will lift your whole perspective as you drive in the car to your workplace, as you go about your daily responsibilities, whether they be paid or whether they be unpaid.

This is the work that God has given me to do.

Steve Hiller: What a helpful thought as we pass today's message for just a moment. You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called the Urgency of Willing Work. It's part of our series on the Book of 1st Thessalonians called Living Like There's No Tomorrow. And if you ever miss a program in the series, come and listen online at openthebible.org. You can also listen for free through the Open the Bible app, which you'll find at your app store. It's a great way to listen to Pastor Colin's teaching on the go. So again, find the app at your app store or come to openthebible.org.

Back to the message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Choose your work carefully. In reflecting on this a lot, we've been talking about it in our home. How do you choose your work? How do you discern what it is God wants you to do? Well, look at your gifts. You see, God has made you good at some things. And that wasn't by accident. You talk about it comes to me naturally. What you mean is that God enabled you to do that. And he didn't give gifts at random. He enabled you to do what you can do well. So so watch that, observe that and follow that.

Keep an eye on capacity. There's an important principle here. Jesus told a story about a king who gave equal amounts of money to 10 servants. And then they invested the money and when the king came back, he gave responsibility according to the capacity that each of them had demonstrated. So one had gained 100% return and the king gave him charge over 10 cities. Another had gained 50% return and the king gave him charge over five cities. Why the difference? Because they've both been faithful while they had demonstrated different capacities. And the right work for you will stretch your capacity and you will grow by pursuing it, but it will match the capacity that God has given to you, that he has trusted to you and therefore that he calls you to use.

There there is a fit that comes in working life that is part of the matching of God's creation in you and his providence, his purpose for your life. And then there's the whole issue of joy. That which delights the heart and it's worth keeping an eye on that. You know, it came up in our our home just this week. I have my son's permission to relate it, but I've enjoyed some great conversations over these last weeks as Colin has with our younger boy David about what he should be pursuing in life. He's just a freshman at college.

He's good at math and he's decided to major in economics. And I asked one of the business guys in the church, you know, what should I do to encourage a freshman at college who is becoming interested in economics? And he said to me, get him the Wall Street Journal and tell him to read it every day for three years. So we had a chat and I I said, you know, do you want to do this and I'll subscribe to the Wall Street Journal if you want to read it. So we did. And it came for the first time this week into our house.

And I came home about 10:30 one evening this last week and found David here buried in the newspaper. And he kind of popped his head over the newspaper and he said, Dad, I love this. I love this. And you know, we had a great conversation because to me that was another indication that he was following the right track. There's something within the heart that responds to this and God has put it there. These things aren't by accident. So your work is a is a wonderful thing and part of God's purpose for your life. It is a reflection of his image.

It's a calling and a pursuit of his purpose. So choose it carefully and watch in relation to gifts and capacity and also in relation to the joys of your heart and pursue it under the blessing of God. Now, I want us to focus in more clearly at this point on 1st Thessalonians because beyond these general principles about work that we derive from the Bible, there is some wonderful specific teaching about working life here in this passage. We've seen that your work reflects the image of God. We've seen that your work fulfills a calling from God.

And I want us to see from Thessalonians that your work expresses the love of God. I have to say that this was something that came to me fresh this week because I wrestled with this passage. I had never noticed before the strong connection that Paul makes between work and love. I mean, would you put these two naturally together, love and work? Well, I want you to notice in 1st Thessalonians chapter four and verse nine and 10, that's exactly what happens. Verse nine, about brotherly love, we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

Then verse 11, he goes on to say, work with your hands so that you will not be dependent on anybody. You put these two together and the flow of thought is very clear that it is an expression of love that I provide for myself and those who are trusted to me and that that should be part of my Christian goal and my ambition. My work therefore is an expression of love. Now, if that was all it was, we might pass over the point. But once you notice it, you'll find it's everywhere in Thessalonians. Look back to chapter one and verse three.

Chapter one and verse three. And Paul's describing here the first effects of the gospel when it came powerfully to these people. And he says, we continually remember before our God and Father, your work produced by faith and what your labor prompted by love. See, love is born in the heart of a Christian believer and what comes out of that love is what? Hard work, labor. Work and love. Or look at chapter two and verses eight and nine and you see it in in Paul's own example. Verse eight, we loved you. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share not only the gospel, but our lives as well.

And what flows out of that? Verse nine, surely you remember, brothers, our toil and our hardship. We worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone. Or if you look at chapter five and verse 13, you'll see it again. He's talking about those who work hard among you. Chapter five and verse 13, hold them in the highest regard in love. There's love again because of what? Their work. Their work. So Paul is joining together two things that are not always close in our minds and in our hearts. It came to me with fresh power to see this that God's calling to work is an expression in the life of a Christian believer of the love that he places within our hearts.

I want to try and apply that this morning in in three particular ways, how work and love fit together. That's the key point here. Here's the first. Love works for the good of others. Now, if you want to get a snapshot of Bible teaching about how to do well in your job, you can't do better than 1st Thessalonians chapter four and verse 11 and 12. Paul describes here a working style that will enable you to have the respect, that's the word he uses, of your colleagues in the workplace and will ensure normally that you are able to hold and retain and succeed in a job so that you will be able to provide for yourself and for others and not become dependent on others.

So that's the whole point of what he is saying here in this verse. If you are not to be dependent on others, then you need to be able to be successful in the work that God has given you to do. And he's going to describe precisely what that looks like. Three things very clearly in this verse. Look at it right there in the Bible. Make it verse 11, your ambition to lead a quiet life. And you'll notice from verse 12, he's talking about your ordinary daily life. He's talking here about the workplace. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, work quietly.

Steve Hiller: Some helpful insights today from God's word as we take a look at work. You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and today's message the Urgency of Willing Work is from a larger series in the Book of 1st Thessalonians called Living Like There's No Tomorrow. You know, a lot of Christians feel like they've lost the passion and drive for their Christian life. And if that's where you're at, this series can help. In the book of 1st Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul reminds us of the urgency of living for Christ. To get a copy of this series for yourself, Living Like There's No Tomorrow, call us at 1 877 open 365 or you'll find ordering information online at openthebible.org.

Well, Open the Bible is listener supported. It's your generosity that allows us to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching whether you listen on the radio, online, through the app or any other way you've connected with this ministry. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of Tim Keller's book called What Is Wrong With the World? And Colin, what's one thing that you'd like people to take away from this book?

Colin Smith: Well, there are so many things. I find it to be compelling and a marvelous read and a really easy read. But you've asked me for one thing. I think I'd go for the chapter that Keller has written on true repentance. It's marvelous. It's pure gold. He says that he became a believer in 1970 and for some time made little or no progress in his Christian life that he wasn't really seeing the change that he thought. And and he comes to the startling conclusion. After a period of time, he concluded the problem was, I didn't know how to repent.

And so he gets into what it really means to repent. It is so foundational. You think that everyone knows what this is, but actually that's not the case. And he gets into speaking about how we need to see our sin, how we need to confess our sin, how we need to mourn our sin and then how we need to hate our sin and how real change follows genuine repentance. And he makes the point that it's pretty challenging stuff. If there's not significant change happening in your life, perhaps the root cause is that you've not really understood what it means to actually repent.

So here's a book that tells us what sin is, how it operates in the life of a person and what we can do about it. It leads us to God's marvelous grace, which of course is found as we draw near to him in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in repentance. So I think it'll be really helpful, really practical and commend it to everyone to read.

Steve Hiller: Well, I look forward to reading that chapter myself, but we'd love to send you a copy of this book, What Is Wrong With the World? as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. Give online at openthebible.org or over the phone when you call 1 877 673 6365. Again, that's openthebible.org or 1 877 open 365. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.

Colin Smith: This program is a listener supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: This is Pastor Colin and I love the story of the thief on the cross because it's the best story we have to help people understand grace. You know, many people have the idea that if a person was to get into heaven, they'd get there by living a good enough life. Well, the thief on the cross hadn't lived a good life and he wasn't in a position to start living a good life either. But Jesus said to him, today you will be with me in paradise. Well, if the thief could get into heaven, so can everyone you know and will ever meet.

Heaven How I Got Here is a compelling 60-minute film in which Steven Baldwin portrays the thief on the cross in a one-person play. We've seen God use this film to help many trust in Jesus as the thief did. So who is there in your life who needs to understand grace? For more information or to watch this film for free, visit openthebible.org/heaven. That's openthebible.org/heaven.