Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] My name's Andrew. It's a real privilege to be part of this congregation, this part of God's body in Exeter.
[00:00:12] It's fun. I didn't realize the youth was staying in. That's cool. I was a youth when I first started at this church.
[00:00:17] Diana Mrs. Bastone invited me along when I was, I don't know, 15, 14, 15. And I've been a youth in this church. I've done my A levels, extra college in this church. I've got my first job while I was in this church.
[00:00:31] I've headed up and got into university in this church, started my first business in this church, came back, got married in this church, sold my first business in this church.
[00:00:47] We've got friends, lifelong friends in this place. In fact, I'm getting a couple of texts from them right now. I've got a few friends who are texting me saying, andrew, go give it. I've got others saying, I didn't turn up here this morning to listen to you talk. So thanks, Dave, I appreciate that.
[00:01:04] But I am excited for what we're talking about today. Thank God it's Monday. Can you turn to the person next to you and say, tomorrow I'm going to say, we've got to go better than this. Come on, turn to your neighbor and say it again. Tomorrow I'm going to say, thank God it's Monday.
[00:01:23] I don't know, you might know that phrase, tgif. Thank God it's Friday. Well, today we're going to be talking about the fun of Monday, the adventure of Monday, the call of Monday, the mission of Monday.
[00:01:35] I truly, wholeheartedly believe that we have a God, we have a God we serve, a God who turns the Monday of our lives, the mundane, into the miraculous, turns the miraculous into the mission field. And we're going to be talking about those things today. And I want to be in a place where every Monday I wake up not facing a mundane day, but expectant for his miraculous.
[00:02:00] Yeah, any of us want that same. We don't want boring Mondays. We want Mondays that have purpose, Mondays that have mission Mondays that we can wake up and genuinely not in some hyped up inspirational high five each other, do a silly dance, but a real deep, joy filled sense of thank God it is Monday.
[00:02:20] So today we're going to be opening the Word. We're going to be looking at a few aspects of our working week. And I'm really aware today there's people here who love their jobs, there's people who hate their jobs, there's People here who don't have a job. There's people here who've retired and no longer need a job.
[00:02:38] And so I pray that what we speak about today, in every one of those situations, there's something that God is saying to you. So don't feel missed out. Just some of the references are perhaps to the workplace and employment. If that's not the season you're in right now.
[00:02:53] I love the fact that all across this room we've got testimonies of how God empowers us, who gives us strength, changes our chaos for his peace. He takes our not enough and gives us more than enough.
[00:03:09] He takes our frailty and he gives us strength.
[00:03:15] Let's have a few examples in this place. How does God empower us?
[00:03:20] There we go, Roger. Worship. God empowers us in worship. Prayer. Thank you. God empowers us in prayer.
[00:03:28] Carpentry.
[00:03:30] Thanks, Graham.
[00:03:33] We're going to get practical today. Okay. Do you believe that?
[00:03:37] I do.
[00:03:40] He empowers us in everything we do. We're going to be talking about the empowerment of God for technical gifts, intellectual gifts, behavioral gifts. God cares about your everyday. You know that Graham might have shouted out, carpentry, woodwork, that's his profession. But it was, it was actually our Savior's profession as well, wasn't it? I think it's interesting how we gloss over that first couple of decades of his life so easily and stop. And if we stop and think about it, an apprentice in those days would have probably been working 12 hours a day minimum, sunrise to sunset, 6am in that area of the world, till 6pm at night when the sun started to dim. Maybe a little bit of time off because it's very hot in the midday sun. 10 or 11 hours a day. An apprentice would work extremely hard.
[00:04:30] Jesus life would have been growing up learning to lathe and learning to join. But also not just the craftsmanship of woodwork and carpentry. He'd have grown up learning to collect supplies, learning how to chase bad debt, learning how to run a profit loss account, learning how to negotiate with suppliers.
[00:04:52] That would have been his day to day life.
[00:04:56] And God cares about all of those things as well.
[00:05:02] I truly believe that as we invite God into our mundane, he'll transform it into an extraordinary adventure. So wherever you are on that journey today, let's just pray. Father, as we open your word, we ask that you take hold of what we sometimes see as mundane.
[00:05:25] Instead of leaving you at church on Sunday, we want to invite you into our Mondays. So speak to us today in Jesus name all God's people said Amen. Right, ready to dive in?
[00:05:40] Good. Some people are still like shaking off the rain from when they came in this morning. I so appreciate, I love seeing people walk in and having battled to get to church, but a whole bunch of students who came in just at the very beginning who were like drowned rats. So good job. Grab a quilt if there's one near you if you need it. Come on, give them a clap. They've walked the whole way from campus. It was wet. It was wet. Right, let's start off by opening, opening the word. Let's quickly go to Luke 5. Do we have that on screen?
[00:06:08] This is a story and Simon, or Simon Peter as he is known, is this fisherman. And we've often seen this story.
[00:06:16] And if we just go back into that time, the Sea of Galilee, they would have gone and fished at night, not because it was their preference, but because it was a necessity. It would be cooler and therefore the fish would come to the surface and the fish would not be seeing the nets as easily, therefore it was easier to catch them. But it would be really cold and damp at night. Even though it's hot during the day, it would be damp. And this was a real physical toil, what they were doing. These boats were somewhere between seven and 10 meters long, four to six people in each boat, mostly powered by oar, some with a small sail. This was back breaking work. If there's a bit of wind or it's a bit choppy, they would have to maneuver the boats into the right places. Every one of the nets they'd be dropping was a three point net. It would weigh many, many pounds. And then it would get soaking wet. They'd be dropping it, seeing what came in, pulling it back up, getting anything out of it that shouldn't be there, collecting the fish, then remending anything because they were dragnets, remending anything that got caught on the bottom.
[00:07:13] Time after time after time through the night, teamwork was needed. You'd have calluses all over their hands, their muscles would have been aching. And at the end of this long night of toil, Jesus rocks up and gives them some advice. And can you imagine if I was in this world and someone who's not in my business, not in my profession, came up with some fun advice, I'd be minded to completely ignore them. And yet Simon Peter laid down his professional judgment and allowed this lowly carpenter to say to him, why don't you go out again, master? We've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything, but because you say so, I will let down the nets.
[00:07:54] And in this moment, in this moment, we see their humility invite God into their situation.
[00:08:04] We see God meet them in the mundane.
[00:08:07] And that obedience in the mundane turned into a miracle as their nets were so full they were breaking and they had to gather their colleagues to help.
[00:08:16] And then, as a result of this story, we see Simon Peter then step into mission. This miracle in the mundane then became the trigger point for him to step out and live a life of mission and become a fisherman of men, not just a fisher of fish.
[00:08:37] We started off there with a few people shouting out how God empowers us.
[00:08:44] Yes, for the things we do here, for helping each other, for compassion, for love, for prayer, for worship, but also for the practical things.
[00:08:57] God cares as much about Monday as He does about Sunday.
[00:09:01] He cares as much about your Monday, your Monday tasks as he does about your Sunday.
[00:09:10] We're going to quickly look at three ways that God empowers us. I've mentioned them already, but he empowers us practically and technically. He empowers us in our mind intellectually, and he empowers us in our behaviors behaviorally. And I believe we need to ask God for every one of those three in our lives. Let's quickly turn to Exodus 31. I've got it up on the screen. And this is a favorite scripture of mine. Because I'm a practical person. I'm not going to be one who's going to have a deep theological argument with you because I'll lose very, very quickly. I'm a pragmatist, and I love the practical application of what we see here. These are people who have been called to build the tabernacle, the temple. And we see this awesome phrase here. I've chosen Bezalel, son of Yuri. I filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, all of those things we can shout amen to. They sound normal in church, right? And all kinds of skills to make artistic designs, for work in gold and silver and bronze, to cut and to set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of crafts.
[00:10:19] God cares about your Monday.
[00:10:22] I remember the first time that I practically experienced this.
[00:10:26] Before university. I got a scholarship. They were paying for my university degree from one of the top four consulting firms in the uk. I went up to London. I was this little country bumpkin, trusting that I wouldn't be laughed out of the room. That's how I felt anyway. I remember being in Canary Wharf in one of those big Towers, in those big skyscrapers, on a consulting team, on an audit team.
[00:10:51] And my job on this massive team, about 30 or 40 of us, my job was to do the bank reconciliations for one of the largest media companies in the world. I had no idea what I was doing.
[00:11:04] Currencies were flying in and out all over the place.
[00:11:07] I was 17 and a half. I didn't have a deep accounting background. They'd given us two weeks of training and thrown us out into the marketplace. Everyone else had, I'm sure, much more complicated jobs. But I was sitting there looking around this massive boardroom, and I'd been given a laptop, a bunch of sheets, and I was asked to calculate and tick off all of these reconciliations. Millions of pounds. And I remember picking myself up and thinking, I don't know what to do here.
[00:11:34] And I went down the corridor, sat in a cubicle, in a toilet, and said, God, you got to help me.
[00:11:42] You've got to help me.
[00:11:45] We see in scripture that phrase, and the Holy Spirit teaches us all things. Sometimes I think we've got to be bold to take him at his word.
[00:11:55] If Bezalel, son of Yuri, can be empowered for setting of stones and woodwork and being a craftsman when it comes to gold, then, hey, he can help me sort out this bank reconciliation.
[00:12:08] Sitting there praying, God, I don't know how to do this, but as I walk back into that room, just bring my brain clarity of what's going to happen here.
[00:12:16] Bring to my memory what they taught me. And if they didn't teach it to me, then drop it into me right now as I go back into that room, that when I sit down and open that file, I'll know what to do.
[00:12:28] I'm sure many of us have had that kind of experience, but I want to encourage all of us to bring God into our day today.
[00:12:37] He's got practical gifts for us, the empowerment for the practical.
[00:12:43] He's also got intellectual gifts. Now, I use that word kind of a little bit cautiously because I am not an intellectual. There's many in this room. Sometimes I meet the PhD students in our room, and I just have to kind of shy away, try and talk to them about the football, because then I find out they're doing a PhD in something extremely complicated. But God gives us intellectual gifts. I remember university praying this and praying this. Who's a student or in education? Just raise your hands. How many people are in education right now? Look at that. Loads of you. Awesome. I love this. I remember being in your shoes.
[00:13:21] And this is for all of our lives. It's not just when we're in education, not just when we're studying, but we see this scripture in Daniel 1:17. To these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning.
[00:13:36] And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.
[00:13:42] What a great scripture to pray over ourselves as we go into our Monday for studying.
[00:13:49] Can you imagine that God deposited in them understanding of literature and learning? How cool is that?
[00:13:58] I remember university getting to the point now. I didn't waste my university years in my first year. I can remember making a commitment with the person that became my first company co founder to only sleep four hours a night so we could do our studies and then go and work on our business. We were starting. We weren't out partying every night. We were spending time working. I was in the Christian Union there. I felt I was depositing my time into the right places. And so therefore I felt this could be a prayer. I could pray. God, as I'm coming to this exam, there's 25 topics to revise for. Just show me the five.
[00:14:31] Just show me the five, right. Anyone else prayed that? Not just me. No one else is going to be as honest as I am. Good. Yes. Pray it.
[00:14:43] God gives us gifts.
[00:14:46] He wants you to win. He's on your side.
[00:14:50] Trust him. Trust him. Commit to him what you're doing and trust for his intellectual empowerment to guide you in the right place. If you're in your PhD research and something's not quite working, take it to him in prayer. What's that unlock?
[00:15:05] He can see around corners that you can't. If there's a problem at your workplace and all the clever people are bashing their heads together trying to work out what to do, it doesn't matter what situation you're in, you might be the cleaner in that workplace. Trust God for wisdom in all kinds of learning and knowledge and literature that you can walk into that place and carry something that comes from the throne room of heaven, not just carries from the mop room. Hey. Walk into that place with confidence because he's given you gifts.
[00:15:34] Thirdly, and now we get much more into the home territory of church, he gives us behavioral gifts. We call these the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22.
[00:15:44] The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance or patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
[00:15:56] Every one of these are pretty essential in our 9 to 5.
[00:16:00] If it's your working week and your Monday to Friday, I have the privilege of hiring people and the responsibility of graduating them on if it doesn't work out. And these gifts make a difference, right? If you can show up with joy, if you can show up with patience, that makes a big difference.
[00:16:19] It's not just about the technical, it's not just about the intellectual. It's how you behave, how you carry yourself.
[00:16:26] He's given you gifts.
[00:16:31] I could tell you of hundreds of times where projects are going wrong, money's running out, businesses are about to fold, and the response has to be faithfulness, gentleness, love, joy, peace, peace that passes all understanding that's able to carry on standing, carry on talking, carry on meeting, carry on selling, carry on building, even when the situation says you shouldn't.
[00:17:06] If we really believed this, what would we do differently? So I was preparing for this, I was challenging myself, do I really believe this? And if I do, what would I do differently?
[00:17:18] And the first thing that comes to my mind, and I say this with care because it might not be the brain space you entered this church building with this morning, but I believe we would dream bigger.
[00:17:37] I believe we would push for more. I believe we would have a confidence on the inside of us that he that's on the inside of us can give us stuff to help those that are around us.
[00:17:50] There was a wonderful Ghanaian gentleman in our congregation about eight years ago, no, 10 years ago, called Yao, Yao Empare. I still WhatsApp with him now and again.
[00:18:00] He came over doing a master's degree at the University of Exeter. And he was really instrumental in our prayer life in our church. When he prayed, everything stopped.
[00:18:12] And he used to tell me about how their church in Accra in Ghana, their youth group, they would gather their youth around and he was one of them.
[00:18:20] When he was 15, 16, they would gather the youth group around and pray. God, may this youth group over the next five or 10 years, may there be the leaders in the judiciary, the leaders in government, the leaders in business, the leaders in medicine, rise them up from this youth group.
[00:18:42] Bold, daring prayers.
[00:18:46] Not just may they get by, may they escape the problems of this world, may they suffer through, but no, may they have influence in society. And now you roll forwards 15 years and guess what, guess what.
[00:19:00] That same youth group, they're spread across the country and many other countries, but in that country they are in those places of authority, able to do good, able to speak truth, able to give benefit, able to open doors.
[00:19:19] The God who was able to part that sea is able to open doors in your career, is able to open doors in Your workplace dream bigger. I believe we would dream bigger.
[00:19:36] I was really challenged.
[00:19:39] I was really challenged as I was preparing this, going back to Matthew 25. And if you've been in church for a while, you'll know this scripture. It's the parable of the talents.
[00:19:48] God gave talents.
[00:19:52] And then he.
[00:19:53] We see in the parable, the Master gave talents, and then he went away. And when he came back, he asked what they'd done with what he'd given them.
[00:20:01] And there's some really cutting phrases that are used here.
[00:20:07] The servant with one talent, out of fear, buries it and returns, and it returns untouched. And the Master rebukes him for his lack of initiative and faithfulness, calling him a wicked and lazy servant. Now, I know this isn't just talking about your workplace talents here. I'm very aware there's a wider metaphor that's playing out here. But the truth, the principle here is that God has given you stuff.
[00:20:30] And we cannot let ourselves be bound by fear, by anxiety, by doubt, by unbelief, by laziness to not use what he's deposited in us. Because there's an imperative on that gift to us that we use it and return it back to him and his kingdom two times, fivefold, tenfold.
[00:20:52] I find this convicting. Am I lacking initiative?
[00:20:57] Am I lacking risk taking for what God has placed in my hands?
[00:21:02] Am I constrained by comfort?
[00:21:05] Am I constrained by laziness?
[00:21:07] Am I constrained by fear, like the chap who got given one talent and out of fear buried it?
[00:21:19] There are people here, I believe, where the gift God has given you, it's currently operating in one situation. But there is a situation, a context of higher leverage for the gift that God has given you. Might be a different workplace, might be a different industry. Might be you take the thing you're doing in a job and turn it into a business. I don't know what it is, but I believe there's people here who are operating in a gift God's given to you. And your job is just to dream bigger about what he's placed inside of you and see it operate in a place of higher consequence.
[00:21:51] That's probably not a word for everyone here, but I believe it's for a couple of people in this room even. Just as I was preparing this morning, Mike pinged me because Mary Embleton, I don't know if she's here this morning she dropped Mike a message saying she had a dream last night and woke up.
[00:22:15] And she said, the Lord particularly wants to minister to those who have Lost their voice, their agency and their authority, or they've given it away. And he wants to restore confidence.
[00:22:26] And also inventors to step out as entrepreneurs and action their ideas.
[00:22:32] I don't know who that's for today.
[00:22:35] That's the dream she woke up with this morning.
[00:22:39] The same God who parted those seas can open doors for you.
[00:22:46] So we'd dream bigger.
[00:22:50] I think also we would stay rooted and grounded in peace. If we really believe this stuff, we'd recognize that what we're doing for our working life is something that can be done in obedience to him and that we're answerable to him. And he's got us covered. And he sees tomorrow, he sees the future. And therefore we don't have to be shaken and turned and discombobulated by every bit of economic news, by every change in the political environment, by every time your workplace goes through a reduction in force, whatever the situation might be. But we'd be in peace knowing who's got us.
[00:23:27] For those here today who are not in your preferred employment or you're looking for a job or something's just not right, it's hard. There's a thorn in your flesh at that workplace.
[00:23:38] We've got to stay in peace. If we really believe this, we're answering to a higher power. We've got to stay in joy.
[00:23:52] Des, who many of you know in this church, she often says to me, andrew, we've got to behave during the week as if we believed what we sing on Sunday.
[00:24:04] Sunday's lyrics have got to become Monday's living. Sunday's lyrics have got to become Monday's living. What we take into Monday has got to be more than just a whoops or a maybe or I'm tired. We've all been here singing some great lyrics. This morning.
[00:24:21] We sing songs like Waymaker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper. That is who you are. Just take a moment, close your eyes, and think about a situation that you are going into this week.
[00:24:40] You've got to make that Sunday lyric your Monday living.
[00:24:45] It's particularly apt given the weather today, but we sometimes sing Rain came, wind Blew, but my house was built on you. Maybe that's your song tomorrow.
[00:24:59] Maybe there's stuff going on that is shaking you to the very core, but you can walk into it singing rain came, wind blew.
[00:25:09] We're singing out scripture. One of our prayers in the worship team so often is that we'd be able to put the word of God on this congregation, on our lips, so that whatever we face this week, the response is his word. That comes out in those lyrics. Maybe it's not a song. Maybe you just need to walk into tomorrow and say, oh, blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, doesn't stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is on the law of the Lord, and on that law he meditates day and night.
[00:25:41] Maybe there's some people you're taking advice from right now, opinion from, and there's some discomfort or disquiet, and you know that you've got to cut off that because actually you're listening to mockers. You're in that group who are just criticizing and backbiting because if you can step out of that, that scripture we Reid says, you'll be like a tree planted by streams of water, yield its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever. Whatever he does prospers.
[00:26:18] I believe we would dream bigger. I believe we would stay in peace.
[00:26:23] And I believe that we would see purpose all around us.
[00:26:29] Whether you are working right now just to make ends meet, just to provide for your dependents, whether you're working right now to learn you're an apprentice or a trainee, whether you're working because it's the only thing that got given to you, whether you're working because you want to help other people or you want to give, or you're just obeying God, you're building skill, whatever it might be.
[00:26:51] Mondays do not have to feel empty when you realize that God is full, filling them with his purpose.
[00:26:57] We get to walk into the playground, into the boardroom, into the shop floor. We get to walk into wherever you're going to be walking this week and see with eyes of purpose, hear with ears of purpose. It's not just a job, it's not just a workplace, it's not just a university course. It's not just a school day.
[00:27:19] I believe when we come into agreement with what God's word says about his gifts to us, that we see purpose.
[00:27:31] Your work, your work, the things you do, the work of your hand. It becomes worship, becomes worship when you do it to his glory. I think it's so interesting, as Mike said last week, that Adam was called to tend the garden even before the fall.
[00:27:47] Our work carries such purpose, it can carry so much fun. We'll come back to the word fun in the end. I like fun.
[00:27:53] We see in Colossians 3, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.
[00:28:05] I believe there Are people here who you already are and God is calling you to be an increasing pastor in your workplace. I don't mean wearing a badge, I don't mean wearing a dog collar.
[00:28:17] I don't mean holding prayer meetings every lunchtime, but being seen by your colleagues and being seen by those around you as the person to go to when there's a problem.
[00:28:26] I know there's people in this church that already are seen as that there's purpose in how you take yourself into your workplace, of how you behave in your classroom.
[00:28:38] That people will see that you're a man or woman of peace, a man or woman of wisdom.
[00:28:44] And you might never have the title, but you will be a pastor in that workplace.
[00:28:51] We see purpose around us in terms of mission and opportunities to speak to those around us. I loved having a conversation. I won't name him because I didn't ask his permission, but I had a conversation with one of our congregation members a few weeks ago and I said, what can I pray for your workplace this week? And the first thing he said immediately was more opportunities to share God's love.
[00:29:11] Immediate response.
[00:29:14] That's what happens when our mundane, the mundane of our lives, the mundane turns into something where we're believing for miracles. And as a result of those miracles, we see that as our mission.
[00:29:27] I want to be part of a church who don't come and gather on Sundays to sing some nice songs and then disseminate into wherever we came from across Devon and get back to our work and come again to remind ourselves that he is Lord again next Sunday.
[00:29:41] But who carry purpose, who carry a dreaming that's bigger.
[00:29:51] There's a few ways we can really practically bring God into our workplace. Bring him into our study, bring him into the volunteer work that we do.
[00:30:01] The first one is the daily conversation of faith filled prayer.
[00:30:07] Now my wife Liana, she was singing on stage today.
[00:30:12] She doesn't know that much about my work. I travel a bunch. It's a different industry than she's been in. We talk about it, but you know, we just live with the different contexts work wise. But there is a daily conversation between us, text conversation between us if I'm traveling, or verbal conversation if we're here. Of what are we trusting for today, what's the meeting, what's the opportunity, what's the hardship, what's the difficult conversation that we just need to give over to him. I encourage you to weave those faith filled prayers into your week.
[00:30:48] So often, to my shame, I've been in the situation where you try everything Else in the natural. You try chatting with chatgpt to work out a way of having the difficult conversation. You try researching, you try chatting to someone else. And you haven't just stopped and prayed. I haven't just stopped and said, God, this is a difficult conversation. I invite you into it. Help me, give me wisdom. I believe that we bring faith filled prayer into our working week.
[00:31:14] I believe that for those of us in this place who are earning, you're in the workplace, that this is part of an adventure of giving.
[00:31:22] Mike just brought that scripture today about us being joyful in our giving. I've got to be honest, like in Britain, we're not very good at talking about getting or giving, are we? It's two of those things that we don't like talking about at all. But this joy of a giving adventure is genuinely one of the most fun things in my life.
[00:31:47] You get to put God first, you establish his primacy in what you do. We see in that scripture in Malachi 3, bring the first into the storehouse, that might be food in the house. You get to give into things that are around you. You get to go on this adventure with God because he says, test me now in this. We have to be really careful over that. Right? I think the problem with going too far in that prosperity gospel is not that it promises too much, but it promises too little. We're not asking for a pound in and a pound back. We're asking God that he would be lord of our lives and that there'll be peace that passes, understanding, a joy that is absolutely undefeatable in our lives, opportunity that we can walk into.
[00:32:29] Start that. If that isn't a journey you've started, I really encourage you. Just start it. Start saying, God, I'm just going to try this, I want to walk on this journey with you. There are people all across this building who have got testimony after testimony after testimony of being in that faith filled adventure, of joyful giving of every week or every month, making that payment, making that gift, choosing where, father, take what you've given us and use it for your glory.
[00:33:00] We get so many blessings about being in a country like this when it comes to church. And one of them is that gift aid. We have these envelopes. We don't often talk about this, but we have these envelopes where if you fill them out, if you give £100, then the charity gets an extra 25 from the government based on the tax you're paying. If you're a basic rate taxpayer, if you're a higher Rate taxpayer, you get another 25 back in your tax return at the end of the year. There's all these benefits that are sideline benefits. But the principle is one of establishing your life, your work on the rock.
[00:33:37] Not seeing yourself as provider and then coming on Sunday and singing that he's our Jehovah Jireh. Not seeing your boss or your workplace. Is that where you get your salary from?
[00:33:49] I believe also we'd be diligent workers.
[00:33:58] We'd go above and beyond would be those who are there early, who stay late, those who are looking for the being the solution, who want to help our bosses serve our customers with a smile.
[00:34:08] There's some amazing volunteers in this church who are retired and they work like absolute troopers. I know there's some people here who Monday will wake up and be thinking about refugee support or pastoral work or other ways of reaching out to their neighborhoods, using every breath that God's given them. Even though they could just be on the golf course relaxing.
[00:34:29] Take that as a challenge if you're studying or if you're at work.
[00:34:34] Let's not just believe God for some gifts.
[00:34:39] He calls us to be diligent. Ecclesiastes says, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
[00:34:47] So I believe practically we can live lives of faith filled prayer. We can be adventurous givers and we can be diligent workers.
[00:34:56] Fundamentally, I want to challenge all of us.
[00:35:02] Are we leaving God at church or are we inviting him into our Monday?
[00:35:10] Maybe the worship team can come up. We want to have a little bit of time for people to pray and respond.
[00:35:23] I believe that the same God who rested on his seventh day is ready to give you power and strength for the first day of your working week.
[00:35:42] I believe that we have a congregation here who's not just going to sit, sing nice lyrics, but walk into our workplaces brimming with purpose, brimming with a desire for the miraculous, brimming with a burden for mission.
[00:36:08] Who's seen the movie Chariots of Fire?
[00:36:12] One of my favorite movies.
[00:36:17] For those who don't know, it's about Eric Liddell. If you've not seen it, I'm not sure which streaming service it's on, but I encourage you, go and watch it tonight.
[00:36:26] He was a missionary to China, but he was also a athlete, a world beating athlete. And there's this phrase in that movie where he turns to his younger sister Jenny and says, I know God made me for purpose. He made me for mission, but he also made me fast.
[00:36:48] And when I run I feel his pleasure.
[00:36:54] That sends goosebumps up my neck every time I hear that phrase. I believe that God wants you to have fun at work. There's stuff that he's deposited in people across this building which you haven't yet turned turned into a faith filled adventure. It's become mundane. And yet what God wants is for you to work that thing. He wants you to be diligent with that thing, to return many talent fold of that thing and to have fun doing it.
[00:37:19] I'm so blessed that my Monday is fun. I really enjoy my job.
[00:37:29] God made me fun fast. It might be God made me a good accountant. And when I reconcile that double entry, then I feel his pleasure.
[00:37:41] Accountancy geek jokes. 1% of the congregation who are nodding along saying, I love it. I love it when it ticks to zero.
[00:37:52] God made me a great teacher. And when I see kids come alive with new knowledge, I feel his pleasure.
[00:38:02] God made me a GP who can diagnose things.
[00:38:08] And when I see people recover, I feel his pleasure.
[00:38:16] God made me a policeman.
[00:38:18] And when I see the neighborhoods in which I serve suffer no more crime.
[00:38:26] I see and I feel his pleasure.
[00:38:41] Ecclesiastes 3:22 says so I saw that there is nothing better for a person person than to enjoy their work because that is their lot.
[00:39:00] We're going to sing that song again. Jesus, be the center as we do it.
[00:39:08] Let's sing it with meaning.
[00:39:11] Why don't we stand to our feet?
[00:39:15] I would love anybody in this place. If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life. And some of the things I'm talking about here seem a bit whack, but you'd like to respond and say, hey, I'd love to make that decision. Then as we sing that song, just come down to the front.
[00:39:30] Mike and a few other people here would love to pray with you.
[00:39:34] But also, let's have some real poignant responses. Beyond that, if you're in a situation right now where stuff is messy at work, you're not enjoying it, you need something different. Maybe you're not employed, but you want to be.
[00:39:53] Come down the front, there'll be some people here and we'd love to pray with you.
[00:40:00] And referring back to that word that Mary brought, I believe there are some people here where you've lost your voice and there's a divine confidence that you can walk out of this place with. And if that's you, come down the front. If there's something on the inside of you that you know is a new innovation or a business or an invention or something that can come out the. The ability to turn something zero into, into one, to make that first iteration of something. Then come down the front. Let's pray for you. God cares about this stuff.
[00:40:43] I remember being prayed for in this church by somebody who said, andrew, you've become the junior partner, and now God wants you to speak with the authority of a senior partner in your workplace. Nothing changed. Title wise, nothing changed in my work, but it was a caution and it was an encouragement to walk back into the same situations but speak with a new confidence that wasn't based on, you know, anything changing naturally, but a confidence of saying, okay, okay, I'm going to take that challenge and I'm going to speak with seniority into these situations.
[00:41:26] So if that's you, you want to make that first decision or come back to him. If you're in a tough, challenging situation concerning your employment or if there's something more that you know God's got for you, there's something bigger, there's something that, as I'm speaking, is stirring inside of you. Then come down the front too. Let's say that song, and as we do come and gather, we'll sing it through. People will be to pray with you, and then I'll love to pray to end the service. Is that okay?
[00:41:56] Awesome. Let's make this a holy moment. Don't switch off, don't turn off. If you're not responding to any of that, sing the song and look at your tomorrow. Look at your week with eyes of purpose.
