Work

[0:00] how's that how's that all right good to be in the house of God right good to be saved it's uh I mean you know I don't know about you but I would rather I'd like to see it rain in the night when I'm asleep but you know I'm very thankful for the rain and I was thinking about it a little earlier that you know wow this is a good time to get a good rain so amen can anybody guess what I'm preaching on tonight anybody guess huh no what's that yeah right that's part of it probably but no I'm what song did I request all right okay so really what I'm gonna do right now is I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm just gonna I'm gonna um try round two you know I thought about why we were singing that song work for the night is coming when no man can work I thought I thought man I don't even really need to preach I just if I was thinking about it enough I just have an altar call right there but uh you know that didn't happen so that's okay so I'm gonna give you round two all right I'm gonna give it a shot um my uh my text is Ephesians chapter two Ephesians chapter two verse eight now I'm not gonna turn to a whole lot of them I know you're familiar with some of them but uh we are we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works uh which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them right so you know yeah you you get the point right away I mean I don't there's not a whole lot more to say we're created in Christ Jesus under good works you know I can only give you you know when I'm when I'm when I preach uh you know and I'm very thankful to the Lord but all I can really give you is what I get you know I mean I could I could pull out a sermon or something but I really don't like doing that and I may have done that a couple times but it's um I like fresh oil and this is what's been on my heart for probably I don't know a month plus maybe maybe a month and a half but um so I want to remind you about the last message to the church and the first message to Adam and the first thing God did and the list just goes on and I got to thinking well maybe I just need to make those two points but um so I just want to remind you about the last message to the to the last church you know what it is right right what what's the what's the deal about the last church is you need to be zealous therefore and repent of what your work problem your works problem you know what the first message of Adam was keep and trust the garden work it's a work and there you know what the first thing God did was right in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth you know what he said that was he said that was a work yeah so work is a good thing it's it's we need to be at work and that the work of the Lord of course that should be understood and um that work is a lot physical but it's also a lot spiritual in our end right I don't know I got a definition of the uh I almost went off there how to get back for that for that uh that iPhone you got to use the iPhone that makes you look up to date right so you know you got to kind of you kind of be up at the times like that but a work it says activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result so when you work you're working for something that makes sense that that's just the way it is and and so we work we work there's got to be some kind of something for that you know that there's got to be something there uh okay and you know so we mentioned that it's physical and it's uh but but we're talking about more spiritual you know case in point prayer you know just invite you in on that if you

[4:00] don't understand the work of prayer it's uh it's a spiritual work not necessarily a physical work you know there may be some physical involved but very little this is this is on the other side so when it talks about working uh and putting forth effort and uh you know but but it's it didn't mention anything about spiritual i want mental yeah i get that but no we're talking about the spiritual you know the bible says um it talks about uh of what sort it is your work and that's what i want to talk about what sort is it you know when you go before the judgment one did i say judgment i don't even like using that in that passage because that passage doesn't mention the word judgment and i get it you know i'm not i'm not having a problem with judgment but i want you to think today about reward reward for your labor there's a reward for your labor and god wants you to know that god wants to give you a reward you know as much as we understand and we haven't you know we don't preach the austere god we preach a loving god that wants to bless you but no matter how much we do that we i guess naturally as an as an old nature uh view god as an austere god that expects you you know gonna put the hammer down it's not the way it is it's not the way it is so uh we're talking about work and uh oh we're working oh we're working all right you ever hear you ever hear somebody say you know man i'm exhausted i mean working so hard anybody ever heard that how many did it today right i mean i get it um you know you've heard um boy it's been a long day how about this how about how about you know somebody says how's the day busy busy busy that's my that's mine you know my wife kind of mocks me on that you know busy busy busy i mean some of my days they go by so fast and when i'm done when i'm done with it it's like whoo sometimes i look at my planner and and i get everything checked off at the end of the day i go i did it i did it i got through a page of my planner in one day whoo so you know i i get it you know but work is a good thing and um but what work what work are we doing what work are we doing is it our career that we're spending all this time working at is it uh is it is for some i mean i meet them all the time i i know these guys and maybe it's a hobby and they work at their hobby wow they they got they got the hobby thing down but how about the work of the lord and not just the work of the lord you can turn over to revelation chapter three we're going to go there but of what sort it is man i i just think you know there's probably going to be a lot of people and i'm probably one of them but you're going to be disappointed in heaven when you find out how much how much of it actually just burned up because the sort wasn't right the sort wasn't right so i want to i want to talk a little bit about um working and and and and then i want to add working for reward you know that's what we do everything it's about everything you work at you work for reward give me some examples what do you do what kind of work uh what kind of work do you physically do for reward you work a job and you hope to get paid at the end of the week right uh how about this work for reward you kids you kids go to school and you learn and hopefully when you get older you get a decent job it's kind of the idea you know if you don't go to school and you're stupid and you don't know

[8:05] anything then who's gonna want to hire you you know you can't add you can't spell you can't read you can't write you probably not i don't know i don't even know what jobs are out there for that homeless job i don't know i don't know so the work thing you know working is core in life and working for reward is core i don't know i don't know where it came from you know it's just a natural thing it god started with it god's gonna end with it but working is just it's it's in you it's it's could i say it's it's natural could i say that work so working you know obviously that's a god thing it isn't work working and working for reward definitely is an evolution that's not where it came from it came from it came from the lord and uh you know adam is told right away law first mention adam's told right away to be working you dress and keep that garden now you know i mean you might not be a gardener i dabble with it and i like it i like the flowers i like the stuff that that it produces you know when i do gardening i'm doing it for reward right i'm i want to get uh i want to get some bell peppers i want to get the jalapeno i want to i plant a flower i want to see the thing i got some orchids i was asking my daughter why do i still have these things they don't do anything i've had it for years now they haven't bloomed you know i got them bloomed once and it's like and i've moved them to the back room why throw them out i don't know how to do that to get them things to do anything i want to see the flower i don't want to just see the leave and i'm kind of keep it alive you know do i water today do i not water today i'm working for reward matthew chapter 16 verse 27 it talks about it talks about uh god is going to reward every man according to his works right now that's a that's a double-edged sword you get you get rewarded according to your works good and bad right there's there's reward for working and some of it's good and bad you know the law of sowing and reaping right oh you get a reward it may not be the one you're looking for but you get a reward i just want to remind you tonight about the work and um and the rewards you know i'm gonna get a little ahead of myself but i want to make a point that in in revelation chapter 3 god didn't say you weren't working right when he's talking to the church he didn't he didn't tell him you weren't working said your problem is with those works it's not that you're not working so how does one get someone to want to work for the reward how do you get somebody to do that man we're bible believers and some of you some of you know this a lot better than some others you know younger in the lord i get it you know this is new to you but some of us man we've been doing this for years what sort is it still you know you think you think if we really if we really had to figure it out we'd be just crazy on fire when you think about being at the reward room and what could happen there you think you think we'd just be sideways about it but god says you're not don't kid yourself

[12:09] some things that help you be successful you know and i understand you know to get somebody to want the reward you almost got it they almost got to love it you ever hear anybody say i love my job anybody ever heard that right i try not to say that because the bible says love not the world neither the things that are in the world right if any man love the world you know the rest of the story but i probably used to say that until somebody called me on it one time and i'm not even gonna do that again gotta give you gotta get that thing fixed you know but but i like what i do and uh you know if you're gonna be successful at something you pretty much have to love it learn it and live it and that you know i like i don't love it but in my career i i'm i'm in construction do do i will metaphor man it's just it's just like in my veins i mean it's just i i don't know i just do it but it's the same thing in christianity i used to tell people that you know it'd be uh we'd be talking and i and i'd be saying stuff like yeah this is you know this is not what this is not really what i do you know i just this is what i do on the side and a guy would ask me wait man what do you do for real money i said no it isn't that at all it isn't money i'm i serve the lord and i just work this career because i have to you know i gotta put food on the table but so you need to uh you need to work and your work has to be right what sort is it and you're working you're working for reward you're working for reward so not only do you get to love it and do it you get rewarded for it how good is that man somebody give me a little little holy glass hey all right so working for reward that's that's what we that's what we're talking about now now if you're lazy and not a worker if you're lazy and you're not a worker you had something go wrong up here because i think i already covered it god started with it told man about it he's gonna end with it and it's just in us working so it's kind of like it's kind of like you know these people that can't figure out their identity right something went wrong up there something just went wrong it's like somebody uh you know you know you have a drive in you for a god it's it's across the board across the world you go to any other uh uh civilization and you could you you would get the understanding everybody's driving toward a god okay we don't want to see we don't want to admit that because sometimes we don't want to admit that oh no not me this man i'm talking about i'm talking about somebody who's lost or really bad in shape of christianity but their god is themself everybody's going for that god everybody's going for one and we're supposed to be going for the almighty and these people that you know not me you know i'm uh i'm uh i'm uh you know i'm uh i'm uh i'm uh yeah you need to look in the mirror so you know you're not a one-off if you're if you're lazy which i hope you and nobody here is like that you're lazy and you uh not a worker you're you're not a one-off you're not a one-off in this in this and it being in you and natural so i'll tell you what you do you get in front of the mirror and you talk to the mirror and you go are you working are you a worker you talk to yourself you know the bible says in proverbs

[16:10] you know this is the mirror mirror on the wall thing and in proverbs chapter 27 verse 19 i'm not going to turn there but it talks about uh in water face answer the face so the heart of man the man your heart answers to you i remember that was the last thing i did as a lost man one of the last things i did in the lost man was i was in front of the mirror going you can't do right you're in big trouble you're not going to make it you've messed up and i was right and then uh but but i guess i i had a enough sense you know i believe in all the holy spirit all that good stuff and i wasn't saved at the time but but i got that offer to go down to a a boy's home and they tricked me of course and but i but i went you know there was no motorcycles and horseback riding and all the good stuff but there was a bob-wired fence there hey you know uh so i i but the point is i went you know the point is it was a it didn't matter what they said you know as much as good as they tried to make it look i was willing to leave that stuff i was doing to try to get this thing better and man did it get better man i got in on something that there was you talk about better i tell people i tell people man when i got saved the whole thing got saved i've never been the same since man was it good and i don't even know where i'm at anymore no i'm gonna get so revelation 3 that was my introduction does anybody know uh what the subject is ah so that was that's good that's good the introduction was probably okay then you know you get through a 10 minute or invitation uh 10 minute uh introduction and nobody knows what you're talking about man you might as well just close to close it up and go to the house all right so turn in your bible to revelation chapter 3 just for a few minutes revelation chapter 3 so the point is working and the point is uh what sort is it what sort is that work oh you're working that's not that's not what i'm talking about you're working but what is this work you know i talk to young people you know uh trying to think if this was diverse or not okay ephesians 2 10 works for we are his workmanship i'm talking to y'all right here how you doing we are his working workmanship created in christ jesus under good works you know when the works start salvation you said i got saved when i was two yeah and it was on when you were two you said how does that work that makes no sense obey watch this one obey your parents in the lord for this is right doesn't it say it's the first commandment with promise man if anybody could get reward for their work it's you guys he promises long life but that'll that that'll be i don't even know if there's another one like that with promise like that you get in on a command that if you obey there's promise in there man you you don't think god's going to reward that heavily i don't know i gotta think he's going to so you know so here in revelation chapter 3 out of all the things that god wants to give to the last church out of all the things he's going to tell the last church and talk to the last church about that about and you know revelation chapter 2 and 3 and he says a lot in there but out of all the things he talks to the church about he talks about their works every one of them not just one not just two

[20:16] churches all seven churches all seven churches he addresses their works it's the work working i mean one could you know one could disagree with me and say it's about the angel or it's about the attribute of god but in each church there but it's about the work it's about the work revelation chapter 3 and hopefully you're familiar with this passage you've heard me say before i believe this is one of the most important passages for the church today that's just where i stand i mean i don't know everybody's got their own thing and that's all that's fine that's just my my uh my uh uh opinion so revelation chapter 3 and let's just kind of go through here in case you're really not that familiar with it i would ask you this this is this how you can tell how familiar you are with this passage to the last church if i was to go up put this up here and i had fill in the blanks you think you could do it i think i could do it think you could do it yeah probably so that you know some of us believe we could do that if you don't think you could do that and i'm not talking about the trick bag i'm not talking about uh you know trying to um uh you know make it to where it's hard i'm talking about easy if you don't think you could do that you might you just might or to spend a little more time right there forget the prophecy idea forget about the things that are deep in revelation this is real simple for us this is real simple for us so revelation chapter uh three here we start verse 14 unto the angel of the church of the laodiceans right these things say the amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the creation of god you can write down hebrews chapter 1 verse 2 if you'd like but when i'm going through there i like to find those verses that um prove that jesus christ is the creator all right i know thy works that's how he starts out with the churches that thou art neither cold nor hot now remember what he says here he says i know your works you're working you're working we're talking to people that are working we're not we're not talking to the people that aren't working i know i know uh thy works um that thou art neither cold nor hot i would thou would cold the hot you already see the problem is it's not that you're not working the problem is the works it's it's what's going on there so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot did i finish that wrong i know that works that thou art neither cold i would thou were cold or hot so then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot i will spew thee out of my mouth because because thou sayest i am rich and increase with goods and have need of nothing i'm gonna stop right there real quick but he says this he says the reason i'm telling you and the reason this is going on is because you say this you say it not i not me because thou sayest i am rich and increase with goods and have need of nothing is that anybody here it's me i'll be the first one you say that we're rich over here if you don't think you're rich right now go talk to the homeless people and forget about them they're rich too you ever watch the documentary on the homeless making 50 60 grand a year standing on the corner of the signs and people still give them money now what i'm talking about over there across the ocean where the bellies are swollen can't get food that that's what their struggle is every day is just to find enough food to eat that's not us we're rich are you increased with goods i can't get everything in my house

[24:21] you i'm embarrassed you come to my house i got stuff out front you know you go to the side of the house that nice concrete patio boy there's stuff out there go in the back ah there's more stuff all right i'm done telling myself rich increase with goods brother mark i don't need anything i don't need anything in the physical world yeah you you ever get the um you ever get the what are we getting for christmas and you draw a blank right right and then you're trying to come up with some some gadget or you know i mean you know we we got enough sense now yeah everybody knows gift card gift cards are safe but you understand what i'm saying okay so let's continue on this passage here because i'm hoping that we got this taken care of part and then he says he goes because thou sayest i am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing here we go you ready and no it's not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked now i think i think we kind of kind of agreed on the first part we got through the first part together i don't know about the second part i don't know who wants to step in there and and and tangle with the second part this is what god says god says i know your work you're working he says you're neither cold nor hot i want you cold or hot now some people like cold and hot stuff me you know i like the room temperature water he probably doesn't you know anybody here like cold water boom boom but i said some cold water anybody like cold milk right they like it cold you like your car i remember a guy telling me i want my coffee piping hot i'm like whoa how do you even drink it i don't want that i kind of regret tasting the first sip in the morning making sure my coffee's right because i know it's hot so hot but not god that's kind of a bad kind of thinking god says so god says i know your works and i want you cold and hot but the problem is is uh you're not to look warm to look warm and then he goes on and he says i would that you were cold or hot and uh because you're not i'm gonna spew you out of my mouth so you know i ask people how many times you think god did that to us you know you read this passage all the time it ain't a one and done you know it ends with uh open the behold i stand at the door and knock right it isn't a one and done because you've slammed the door closed and opened it five thousand times probably so i don't know if there's many times he can spew you out of his mouth in that in that respect but but he says he says you say this you say that you're rich increased with good and have need of nothing but he said you don't know this but no it's not this do you know it tonight no we don't because god said you don't you give them to you and that's what the passage says that make sense to you yeah i'm making sense right that's what the passage says so he goes on in the passage and he says um uh well because thou sayest i am rich and increased with good and have need of nothing so i've told you this about your works because it's because you say this and you don't know no it's not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked man that's pretty rough that's rough man if i really thought that and believe that i don't think i could be up here tonight

[28:24] that's rough that's rough so he goes on he goes so i'm going to counsel you how good is that after he gets done with you he's going to tell you hey but i'm going to tell you to fix it woohoo this is good this is good is it good well you would say it's good but don't say it just yet because if you ain't partaking of it then it's probably really not good right that's like the that's like the person you you you tell them you tell them something you know you've heard that you've heard the illustration you tell somebody hey man your house is on fire and they go yeah i got it i know and you burn to death that's just dumb so god gives you counsel here and he says he says i counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire and i'm not going to go into all these things i'm wrapping it up but i'm just going to tell you this read it and find out what this is god says i counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire remember what that remember what it says which all my gold tried in the fire first corinthians chapter 3 says he's going to try every man's work right hey what you want when you get up there there's there's gold silver precious stones there's wood hay stubble right it's not just a gold thing but you don't want it to be wood hay and stubble right because what happens to the wood hay and stubble i don't even know why it's there mark i can't even figure out why it's even there you know why i think it's there it's just a thought i had i was just pondering and saying why would it even be there let's just deal with the gold and this is all you get done but it's almost like it's almost like no no no no no i'm gonna let it all get up here you're not gonna blame me for anything this is all about you right now of what sort it was this is all about you let's bring your works in here and then it goes to the bing boom boom whatever it does that was your life don't blame you ain't blaming me for anything this is what you chose this is how you chose to do it this is of what sort it actually was remember i told that last church i told them about uh your works weren't cold or hot that was your problem they were lukewarm that's that wood hay and stubble that's called boom he says i keep that's obvious right because he wants you cold or hot he's telling you how to get there and it has to do with the gold right you get it so he goes i i counsel you to buy me gold gold remember it's tried in the fire already this gold is gonna be good up there this gold that goes through that thing you mark it down when that ounce goes through there it's coming out an ounce that's good stuff that's already been tried buy of him gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and we know white white raiment easy for you to say um what's the verse revelation 19 18 it talks about it's the righteousness of the saints so it has to do with righteous living and and he says i counsel thee to buy of me a gold tried and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness do not appear now some of you have read this passage me we've read it a bunch of times i guarantee you if you knew of something that you had to do tonight or else sometime tomorrow you would be naked i bet you'd be finding out what that was you think right i mean me i'd be finding out i don't it's the last thing i want you know just sometime tomorrow boom you're gonna be naked in the street no no no no no no no what is that thing i need to do tonight but when god says it

[32:25] and he says that the shame of your nakedness do not appear that means somebody's nakedness is gonna appear anybody here well of course not right that's what he would say of course not me john it's probably gonna be somebody here and it's probably gonna be more than one this is our passage he says you can be clothed but you don't want your you don't want your nakedness to appear i'll tell you that right now i don't want it to appear first corinthians chapter 3 and i'm gonna wrap this thing up but first corinthians chapter 3 talks about you're also gonna go through the fire you're gonna be saved yet so is by fire i don't know if it has to do with a a a a fireproof suit or what you know the white raiment as you go in there with with filthy rags uh you know because you your works weren't hot or cold and all of a sudden you pass through that thing and boom i don't know i don't know it's gonna appear somewhere it's gonna appear somewhere and he goes uh um and anoint thine eyes with eye salves that thou mayest see yeah you do well to search to search that thing out and find out what some of that is and then he says um as many as i love so he gets through this whole thing and he says you know what i get it it was really hard on you but i love you right and that's what's good about the lord is he loves us and he says as many as i love i rebuke and chase and he just got done ripping our heart off and he says i get it was tough but i love you many as i love i rebuke and chase be zealous therefore and repent here's another part of the fix you're not gonna fix it without some zeal and you're not gonna fix it without some repentance but i want to end with this right here behold i stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door i will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me he gets done just letting you have it tells you i get it it's tough i love you that's why i rebuke you and chase you be zealous therefore and repent and by the way i'd like to come in and just have a little fellowship so what i want to encourage you tonight is take some time out and talk to the lord about it just take some time out in your next prayer session or whatever and maybe you ought to read the passage and then talk to the lord about it and then the next day if you didn't really get anywhere go ahead and give another round of it and the next day go ahead and do it again but the next day go ahead and go back to it next day do it again i'm just saying it may it may just have to keep going until finally we we come to that place we go i got a message i titled for one of these and it had to do with coming clean you know it's not about me it's about you and the lord and about us and the lord work you're working just i want to check out those works all right let's pray father thank you tonight for thy word and putting some of this on my heart god i'm of all people part of this passage and i know we've been talking about it for a while god help us tonight in jesus name amen pastor walski i like