You're listening to Mountain View Church Audio, Christ-centered teaching from the Wilderness City, Whitehorse, UConn. Here's this week's message. Welcome to Mountain View Church. My name is Caitlin, and I will be your host. We are so glad you decided to join us today. We would love to connect with you, if you're new or have not done so yet. If you're in-house, you can find a Connect card under the seat in front of you and drop it off at our welcome desk. For our online attendees, you can click the Connect link or text Connect to the number on the screen. Now let's listen to the Basecamp update for this week. Hi everyone, my name is Herbert, and I'm the children's pastor.
Today, the teaching segment for our campers will be focused on how to find the truth and how God helped us learn and see the truth that he is teaching us through the Bible. Today's story, we will see how Paul and Silas tried to teach people about the truth. Some people didn't want to hear what Paul and Silas were teaching and were mad at them. But others, like the people from Berea, after listening to Paul's teaching, searched in the Bible to find out that that was true. Campers, are you ready to find the truth? If so, join us this Sunday downstairs at Base Camp in one of our two gatherings at 9.30 or 11 a.m. And if you are not able to join us in person, be sure to ask your parents to download the lessons and activities from our website at mountainview.church.basecamp to learn together that if we ask God how to find the truth, he will help us find it. Thanks for listening, and I hope you have a great week.
Have you ever noticed that in Western culture, soon after finding out someone's name, we almost always ask, what do you do? Meaning, what work do you do? Or what's your job or career? The problem with this habit, it's cultural, but we as individuals are so much more than the work we do. And yet, we seem hardwired to focus an increased amount of attention on that component of our lives, our work. Monica Guzman, a writer for a prominent tech industry news site, explains why this common Western follow-up question of what do you do for work is so problematic.
She writes, it's understood as what do you do for a living and ranks paycheck activities above all others in the get to know you hierarchy. It assumes performance and stability when our economy and values pave choppier paths. It pins your identity to a job instead of pinning a job to your bigger evolving identity. Now, I think Guzman brings up some valid points, especially when she highlights the identity problem. We are so much more than the role we play at work or the responsibilities we perform in order to earn an income.
Attaching our identity to our career might seem reasonable as long as life and work are moving along without any major changes. And yet, the moment you get laid off or fired or your job becomes obsolete, you may experience a significant internal crisis. Depending on how long you've been working in that role and how connected your social circle is to the people you work with, losing a job can spiral into a deep sorrow. This situation can happen after retirement as well. If someone has attached their identity to their career over three or four decades of work, the adjustment can be extremely challenging.
Before retirement, they had been looking forward to a life of leisure and recreation. The retirement party is always a great time, and the first couple of weeks can be bliss for the recent retiree. But then, out of nowhere, their mental health can start to slide. Sometimes they cling to an addictive behavior with substances, food, or media, maybe scrolling Facebook or watching news cycle or sports, which they use to pacify their thoughts and emotions attached to their loss of career identity, that centering piece that was so important and now is gone. Although they never saw it coming, when they retired from what they did for work, they retired from who they were as a person. They didn't know it. So maybe you're wondering, how do we solve this career identity problem? We still need to work, and it's a good thing to have a job so that we can provide for ourselves and our families. It's a good thing to be a functioning member of society, which supports our local and national economy. And yet, the trap of placing our work as an identity marker is always looming.
Thankfully, God's concerned with our work. Today, you'll discover that God cares about the work you do, and he supports your decision to have a job and pursue a career. That being said, he also wants you to have a greater purpose in life within your chosen career path. Over the past few weeks, we've been walking through a series called Arrows, Living Toward the Target. We've asked you to envision your life like a well-crafted bow, uniquely designed by God, aiming for specific targets or purposes that God has laid out for us. God's targets for life aid in his gospel mission, but they also bring about a more fulfilling existence for us. So far, we've unpacked God's targets for your body, your money, and your family. As you may have already guessed, today we're exploring God's target for your work, including your career, your trade, and even your side hustle.
Today, we'll learn how to shift our mindset to bring God into our careers. Through God's Son, Jesus, we'll make sure that what we do never again becomes who we are. We'll discover that following Jesus is our greater calling, that by making Him our Lord and Master, we'll obtain an unshakable identity that lasts into eternity. Today, we'll be reading from Colossians 3, verse 22 to 4, verse 1. This scripture is found in a first century letter written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians living in the city of Colossae.
In the original context, Paul was speaking directly to bondservants who willingly and voluntarily became slaves or servants, typically because of their deep commitment to a master or because they were indebted to their master in some way. Although in modern times, this sounds completely odd, in the ancient world, it was not so uncommon for people to become bondservants in order to repay a debt or because they had such a strong loyalty to a particular household or master. Bondservants were people who had fully submitted themselves to the care and authority of a master. Often, this included their entire family with them to ensure that they had food, shelter, and clothing. Now, your automatic thought might be to dismiss Paul's instruction in this letter since we no longer have a bondservant system. But that would be a mistake. You see, the biblical principles behind Paul's instruction are very applicable to all work, even in our modern context. Whenever we accept a position in which we are paid to provide a service, we are making a choice to come under the authority of an employer. Even if you own your own business, you come under the authority of the government, and in some situations, under the authority of your clients who have hired you. So, with that context in mind, let's dive a little deeper into a couple of those verses that were just read.
First, Colossians 3.23. Paul writes, Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men. From this verse, we start to get a perspective that God's target for our work is found in our devotion to Christ, the Lord, focused on eternal rewards, and not in promotion of self, focused on earthly rewards. Simply stated, God's target for your work is devotion, not promotion. It should be noted that the phrase whatever you do means whatever work you put your hands to or your mind to in whatever capacity. Regardless of what payment or benefit you might receive, it should be viewed through the lens of working for the Lord Jesus. But maybe you're wondering, why? What's the point? Why should we look at the work we do with an eternal perspective? Does it really matter that much? Well, Paul outlines the reasons why in the very next verse.
Because we know that from the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward. Although we currently have earthly bodies and work in an earthly realm, we should always be cognizant of the eternal spiritual perspective. God has placed his son, Jesus Christ, as our Lord, King, and Master. Everything we do should be aimed at following him and honoring him. Just consider Paul's letter to the Christians living in the city of Rome. He wrote, for from him, Jesus, and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever.
Obtaining a shift in perspective is possible, but it starts with a choice to devote our lives to Jesus, including our careers. Only through him will we gain an everlasting understanding of the eternal reward that's worth striving for, which is far greater than our salaries or our status. Some of us will live longer and maybe long earthly lives. But even our long earthly lives is still just a tiny fraction of our existence when we compare it to the entirety of eternity. The reward that lasts is our inheritance through Jesus. We become sons and daughters of God and receive some of his blessings here on earth, but ultimately the eternal blessing is everlasting life in his kingdom in heaven. Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure how it's going to look or feel. I wish I could tell you, but I can't. But scripture indicates that when we're in heaven, God's approval of what we've done with our time and money here on earth will matter immensely to us.
We see this to be true when we consider the parable of the talents told by Jesus, where a master gave three of his servants different amounts of money to invest while he was away. The first two invested the money wisely and received praise from the master when he returned. The master said to each of them, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful. Enter into the joy of your master. However, the final servant did nothing with what he had. In fact, he buried the money in the ground until the master returned.
The master was furious that the servant hadn't invested what he had been given and said, you wicked and slothful servant, you ought to have invested my money. Take the talent from him and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. You see, on the other side of eternity, we'll care far more about our devotion to Christ than our promotion of self. We will want to hear those words from Jesus. Well done, good and faithful servant.
In that moment, looking back on our life, we won't care about our position or our pension. In heaven, we would tell our earthly selves to focus on the connection between Jesus and our work, and that a constant pursuit of promotion is a fleeting aspiration. This is why, in coming back to our core text, Paul adds the direct statement, you are serving the Lord Christ. If you have committed your life to Jesus Christ and you've declared that he is your Lord and master, then every day you go into work, regardless of your career or trade, you are working for Jesus. In that, work becomes worship toward and for Jesus. Now, let's come back to our Arrow series analogy, this bow picture that we've been working with throughout the series. As we've discussed over the past few weeks, when we make choices in life, they're not just mental, emotional, or physical decisions.
They have spiritual implications. Related to work, every day that you walk into work, whether into an office, a shop, a factory, or out into the field, you have made a choice. And that choice can be resembled with the drawing of a bowstring. Ready to fire. But what are you aiming at? Are you there for the money and career advancement? Maybe it's social. You like the people you work with. Maybe you work solely to care for your household expenses. Perhaps you really enjoy your job and you work for the fun of it. Really. Maybe it's because it's central to who you are as a person. What's your reason?
Ask yourself, what target am I aiming for when I walk into work? Then ask yourself, how fulfilling is that target? Remember that God's target for work is devotion. Try to shift your perspective and envision the bullseye of your work as serving Jesus and building a relationship with him. How would your workday change?
As we've already noted in this message, God is pleased to see us using our gifts and abilities to support ourselves and our families and be active members of society. These are all good things. But how much more fulfilling would each day be if we made that small shift every morning and we just said a little prayer, Jesus, this day is all for you. Remind me to use my work as worship today. Trade out any self-promotion for pure devotion toward you. And after that prayer, walk into work. Think about how God's Holy Spirit might impact you and shift the day's work if you started with that little prayer.
Your heart has shifted away from self in that moment and shifted away from this world. It's now centered on God's vision for your future and your career. At this point, you might be wondering, Jeremy, are you saying we should never seek out or accept a promotion? No, that is not what I'm saying. Advancing in one's career is a normal component of working life and has always been a component of the human existence, human experience. However, there is a difference between receiving a promotion or more benefits or a higher wage and being constantly centered on receiving the promotion or advancement. In the latter situation, there's a heart condition that needs to be addressed.
Which brings us back to verse 22 and our core text. We should obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Our obedience to our earthly masters or employers shouldn't be centered on who's noticing our work, whether it be our employer, other employees, or even our clients. we should work with sincere hearts, knowing that Jesus is the one we're truly working for. This mindset also addresses anyone who might be prone to laziness. For those who only work hard when someone's watching, you might know some of those. Maybe that's a struggle for you. I don't know. But working lazy or quiet quitting, either of those, they don't fit into God's model for work either. In Paul's second letter to the Thessalonian church, he wrote, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness.
In contrast, work that is filled with sincerity of heart and fear or reverence of the Lord is not self-centered. It can't be. Either on the side of constant promotion or on the side of laziness and underperforming. Working for Jesus means seeing him as the master who is sovereign over our employment. Again, we choose to work from our devotion to Christ. Now I want to pause here before I continue with the message. There's a caveat that should be noted at this point. Related in particular to Paul's instruction that whatever you do, obey your earthly masters. All scripture, including this one, needs to be taken within the context of scripture as a whole.
there's an assumption that your work won't be illegal or immoral if you can help it. If your current role or responsibility is something that is against what God outlines in scripture as beneficial to life and society, or at least neutral in its capacity, then you're going to struggle to work for Jesus in that role. There's going to be a conflict there. Allow me to give a couple examples. First, if you happen to be a street dealer selling prohibited substances, that's illegal. And in God's view, destructive to society. In that situation, if you happen to be in that, you need to find another job. Second,
It might be more complex depending on where you're at, but if you're an abortion doctor who takes the lives of unborn children, it might be legal in the country that you live in, but it's still immoral under God's view that life begins at conception. In that situation, if you happen to be in that, you should find a new job. Seek out a new career. It won't end well. So that caveat partly answers the second question that you might have. Are you saying I need to stay in the same job with the same employer forever? No, I'm not saying that either. We're not first century bond servants. We have lots of options. And considering that our master is Jesus, now that we figured that out, he goes with us wherever we go. And if we change employers or careers, he's still there. So that in mind, reflect on your current role and responsibilities.
Maybe you're in a slump related to your working career. Maybe you feel like you're in a dead-end job that's not challenging. Maybe you lack purpose or meaning in your work. Perhaps you're only staying for the wage or the benefits. Maybe you're scared to try something new.
In our context, living in a modern Western society, there's no hard rule that says we have to stay in the same position. In fact, God's plan for you might be to change employers or shift careers. I don't know. You need to seek out his will and his spirit's leading. Perhaps for you, this message is the catalyst that you've needed to trust Jesus for your next position. With the obvious note that it's wise to find another job before quitting the one you have. Just as an FYI. But maybe you're still unsure. Maybe you need something more to help you make the decision. Here's what you could do.
Book off a couple of days. Rent a cabin or a bed and breakfast to retreat alone or perhaps with your spouse if you're married. Turn off all the notifications for work and clubs and sports, etc. Even better, take a fast from media and leave your devices at home. Take those couple of days to pause, to rest, to pray, to walk, to fast, to listen. I promise you that God will show up and he will bring clarity to your next step or whether he might want you to stay for a while longer. I don't know, but you need to seek him out for that.
Clarity is extremely difficult in the mess and noise of everyday life. Isn't that true? On the other end of things, personal spiritual retreat was central to Jesus' walk with the Father, so it only makes sense that it should be central to our walk with Jesus. Now, as we close, I realize that maybe you're listening to this and you are completely new to Christianity. Maybe biblical principle is a whole new idea, a new concept for you. If you have never committed your life to Christ, this all might sound like nonsense. But...
Maybe your work is all that you've ever known as the marker for purpose and fulfillment. Which brings us back to our introduction. How in Western culture, the first thing we ask after finding out someone's name is, what do you do for work? Maybe for you, your career has become your identity. Without you even knowing it, without knowing what happened. If so, I'm telling you, God has a better plan for your life with a more fulfilling identity. Our identity is supposed to be centered on Jesus. Every human being, including you and me, is prone to self-gratification, self-satisfaction, self-promotion. Scripture refers to this problem as sin.
And sin separates us from a holy God. You see, he's righteous and awesome. We can't reach him because of our sin. Thankfully, God loved you, loved me, loved us. And he had a plan to remove our sin and our self-centered nature. He had a plan to provide a way to access him. He sent his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross, to take the punishment for our sin. Then three days later, God raised Jesus from the dead, giving him power over death. Soon after that, Jesus ascended to heaven to prepare a place for those who would place their trust in him.
When you give your life to Jesus, you not only receive the inheritance of eternal life in heaven, but as a son or daughter of God, you receive his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will open your eyes to biblical insight and understanding. He will help you shift your perspective from an earthly mindset to an eternal one. Then all of God's targets will be revealed to you, not just for your work, but every aspect of life, providing the meaning and purpose that you've been longing for, that every human being is longing for. So if you've been working your whole life and never found true fulfillment, this is your answer. If you've never experienced God's call, but you are ready right now, this is your moment to accept the invitation to follow Jesus. If you would like to pray and place your trust in Jesus today, follow along with me in this prayer. Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner who has been seeking identity in the wrong places. And I ask for your forgiveness. I believe Jesus Christ is your son and that my true identity can only be found in him.
I believe that he died for my sin and that you raised him to life. I want to trust him as my savior and follow him as Lord and master from this day forward. Guide my life and help me to do your will. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. If you prayed that prayer today, please drop a comment in the feed below or send us a message. We have a Bible to send you and we want to connect with you to help you through the next steps of your spiritual journey. We are here to walk with you if and when you need us. Before you go, as always,
Our thing here at Mountain View is to get you guys talking and get you guys praying. So here's what we got today. First, how will you shift in your perspective to hit God's target for your daily work? What steps will you take to focus on devotion instead of promotion? Let me repeat that question. How will you shift in your perspective to hit God's target for your daily work? What steps will you take this week to focus on devotion instead of promotion? Once you've thought about that, maybe added some comments below or talked with someone that you're with right now, spend some time in prayer. Pray for opportunities to embrace God's target at work that your devotion to Christ shines through. Pray for opportunities to embrace God's target at work that your devotion to Christ shines through.
Thank you again for being here. Mountain View Church, thank you for listening to this message. We have a couple more weeks of our Arrows series, but then Advent is coming. Yeah, which means Christmas is coming. And we have an amazing Advent series. You're gonna start to hear more information over the next few weeks. It's called The Wonder of Christmas. And we're gonna look at the wonder of Jesus' love and peace and hope and joy. And then on Christmas Eve, we are gonna look at the wonder of his birth. Amazing. The Wonder of Christmas, a huge Advent series that we're gonna unpack for you online or in-house. It's gonna be amazing. You're not gonna wanna miss it. Stay tuned.
If you prayed to receive Jesus today or would like to connect with our church community, visit mountainview.church and click the connect link. If this podcast and radio ministry has been a blessing to you, please consider partnering with us or making a tax-deductible donation at mountainview.church. Thanks for listening to Mountain View Church Audio. Join us next week for more Christ-centered teaching from the Wilderness City of Whitehorse UConn.