I want to share my thoughts on today's Sabbath school lesson dated Thursday, December 10, 2020 entitled Work and Stewardship. And in the lesson we're told to read, Clasius the 9 verse 10 and 1 Corinthians 10, 31. So I'm going to read those right now. What's over thy hand find us to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor wisdom, and the grave with our goist.
And 1 Corinthians 10, 31, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Well, what I get out of that is that everything that we do should be done with purpose and energy. And as we do that, this will enable us to put our best effort forward, our best effort into the work that we're doing. And it's a balanced and encouraging message that Solomon gives us because he says to do it with our might, he doesn't say do it with all your might, which could be extreme and could be endurrous depending on what we're doing.
But simply to do it with our might, our strength, and that would include our mind, body, and spirit. Along with doing our work or whatever we do with purpose and energy, we should do it to the glory of God. Doing something to the glory of God means to do it in the way that God would do it. Attention to detail, thorough, complete, nothing missing so that when somebody sees it or hears it, they would say, that's well done, that's good.
It also means that we do things with appreciation toward God for the talents and gifts that he's endowed us with. We would be joyful, calm, encouraging as we work and complete all of our life's duties. That way we could influence others to consider God and the love that he has for them. That's a Christian life, and that's the best life that we could choose to live.
I found that to be the case in my life. There is no other life that I could choose that would be better than this. It's the misunderstanding of God and what he requires that caused many to shun God. On the other hand, when a person claims to be a Christian and has a cold and selfish spirit, they're going to drive people away.
They're not going to influence people to choose a Christian life. Jesus said it like this, he that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me, scatherers abroad, Matthew 1230. To put that in today's language, it would be simply like this, if we are not drawing or influencing people to choose to serve Jesus, we are by default driving them away from him. And I don't know about you, but that's not how I want to live.
I want to be able to encourage people to live a life that is good and meaningful. Well, the prayer for today would be like this, Father in Heaven, please forgive us for the times that we haven't lived right. Please work in our lives, though we may learn to love you and others as ourselves. We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.
Will you have a great day and make sure that everything that you do, you do it with your might and your strength? God bless you. The Sabbath school lesson today is dated Friday, December 11, 2020. Further thoughts in the subject this week has been the Christian in his work.
Suggested reading is Ephesians 6, 5 through 8, and there are other verses, but we're just going to focus on Ephesians for now. Servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. With good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. Whether he be bond or free.
And that is a really good reading. I think that's a wonderful way to work and not to be caught up in the game where you go to work and you do as little as you possibly can and try to get away with as much as you can. And whenever your boss shows up, you work really well and hard and have a smiling face, you know, that this is not good. But what we're told here is to do the opposite of that.
And I'm just going to translate those verses into what I think it would read like today. Employees do what your supervisor or manager tells you. Do it as though you were doing it to Christ himself, as though he were your employer. Not doing things to look good or to please people, but as workers for Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.
In other words, all your work should be done with your heart into it and join the work, doing it the best that you possibly can in order to make Jesus happy and not for those that you actually work for. And know this, that every good thing that you do, every act of goodness and kindness and the way that you do the work with joy, with your heart into it, the Lord will bless your efforts and take care of you, no matter what you do, no matter the situation that you're in. So that's truly a blessing to be able to live like that and to have that mindset. And that mindset can only come from God because we're naturally selfish.
We don't want to work like that. We want to get the most that we can out of everything that we put our hand to for ourselves and give the least amount of possible as we can to those that we work for. This is normally how we start out our life. And then as we grow, we mature and that changes, but Jesus came here and he did that from the get-go.
He was a worker for his father in heaven. And we read in Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 to 9. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it out robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
That is truly something that we are not accustomed to doing, not that type of obedience. We generally will obey because we have to. But Jesus did this willingly. And what we're getting out of today's Sabbath school lesson is to do that, to do our work willingly as though we're working for God himself and for Jesus, not for the man or woman that is actually our employer.
They will receive the benefits of our work, our pleasant attitude, our creative ways of working, and our encouragement to them and other employees that we may have. This will be a blessing to them. And as we do this, we will be an influence for good to those we work with and work for. And this is exactly what God would have us to do, because as we do that, we will let our light so shine, that men will see our good works, and we will glorify our Father and Heaven, which will attract them to him.
And ultimately, this will be our work of salvation. We may not speak a word, but we can work in such a way that we will draw people to our loving God. Let's pray. Father and Heaven, Lord, we thank you for blessing us with another beautiful day.
We thank you for the privilege that we have of knowing that when we work for you, we can be an influence for good. We pray and ask that you would use us today to that end. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. In Sabbath School lesson today is dated Friday, December 11, 2020.
Further thoughts in the subject this week has been the Christian in his work. Suggested reading is Ephesians 6, 5 through 8, and there are other verses, but we're just going to focus on Ephesians for now. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling. In singleness of your heart as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.
With goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men. Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man do is the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And that is a really good reading. I think that's a wonderful way to work and not to be caught up in the game where you go to work and you do as little as you possibly can and try to get away with as much as you can.
And whenever your boss shows up you work really well and hard and have a smiling face, you know, that this is not good. But what we're told here is to do the opposite of that. And I'm just going to translate those verses into what I think it would read like today. Employees do what your supervisor or manager tells you.
Do it as though you were doing it to Christ himself, as though he were your employer. Not doing things to look good or to please people, but as workers for Christ. Doing the will of God from the heart. In other words, all your work should be done with your heart into it and join the work, doing it the best that you possibly can in order to make Jesus happy and not for those that you actually work for.
And notice that every good thing that you do, every act of goodness and kindness and the way that you do the work with joy with your heart into it, the Lord will bless your efforts and take care of you no matter what you do, no matter the situation that you're in. So that's truly a blessing to be able to live like that and to have that mindset. And that mindset can only come from God because we're naturally selfish. We don't want to work like that.
We want to get the most that we can out of everything that we put our hand to for ourselves and give the least amount of possible as we can to those that we work for. This is normally how we start out our life and then as we grow we mature and that changes. But Jesus came here and he did that from the get go. He was a worker for his father in heaven.
And we read in Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 to 9. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in a likeness of man. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That is truly something that we are not accustomed to doing, not that type of obedience.
We generally will obey because we have to, but Jesus did this willingly. And what we're getting out of today's Sabbath school lesson is to do that, to do our work willingly as though we're working for God himself. And for Jesus, not for the man or woman that is actually our employer. They will receive the benefits of our work, our pleasant attitude, our creative ways of working, and our encouragement to them and other employees that we may have.
This will be a blessing to them. And as we do this, we will be an influence for good to those we work with and work for. And this is exactly what God would have us to do because as we do that, we will let our light so shine, that men will see our good works, and we will glorify our Father in Heaven, which will attract them to him. And ultimately, this will be our work of salvation.
We may not speak a word, but we can work in such a way that we will draw people to our loving God. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, Lord, we thank you for blessing us with another beautiful day. We thank you for the privilege that we have of knowing that when we work for you, we can be an influence for good.
We pray and ask that you would use us today to that end. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Take care.
Happy.