Tonight, so continuing our series on what is a man, I'm going to be talking about a man is a worker.
! A man is a worker.
This topic may be one of the more seen ones in our day.
It's so easy, frankly, to be a lazy man in today's world because a lot of things are just handed to us, which illuminates the need for hardworking men.
So, I'm going to be talking about that before I jump into everything I'm going to pray.
Okay?
Father, we thank you, Lord, for the ultimate work in your son Jesus.
We pray, Lord, that you would make us into men who are not mediocre workers, but hard workers.
Ultimately, for your king, your kingship, and your glory, Lord.
Would you transform us, Lord, and redeem our work so that it becomes a joy to us, even to where we can say our toil is our joy.
We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Okay, a man is a worker.
So, what's the problem?
I want to get into diagnosing the problem before we talk about the specifics of work and maybe even the ethic therein.
So, the problem in our day and age is that in a lot of ways, we are the most blessed.
We are the most...
We live in an age of enjoying the benefits of hardworking men.
We are reaping the benefits of a lot of other people's work.
And because of that, there's different struggles.
Okay?
When you live in an age that has been handed to you, or you have it made, we live in America.
If you look at every other country, America pretty much surpasses them all in many ways.
And that didn't come by just some, you know, people coming across the Atlantic, right?
It was that, but it was way more.
This was built.
It was worked for, right?
And so, we live in a very blessed nation and society.
And unfortunately, what's happened is, especially among the younger generation, but even you can see it in the older folks as well,
is there's this kind of taking for granted and almost like embracing all that's been handed to us as a deserved or as a right,
an entitlement to what other people have worked hard, even died for, to give us.
And this causes a myriad of problems.
Okay?
We live in a grossly homosexual day.
And what I mean by that is, I don't mean necessarily in the specific sexual aspect of homosexuality, but more so what Andrew Isker calls the, the, what does he call it?
Like the, the edict or the ethic of homosexuality or the essence of it, which is basically self-gratification.
Okay?
That fundamentally, to be homosexual is to glorify your own sexual desires above all, right?
That's, that's what the pride flag represents is this kind of hedonistic self-gratification.
Well, not only is that spirit alive in the sexual way, but it's, it's also the spirit of our age in the air that we breathe.
The self-glorifying, self-indulgent, even entitled, ethic.
Okay?
All built and handed to us by men who have died and worked hard to give us that.
We've squandered it.
We've basically squandered it.
Okay?
And so we live in an age of effeminate slackness, said John Milton, which I think is a key phrase because work, as I'm, as I'm going to talk about this, work is distinctly masculine.
Okay?
Um, women can work, obviously.
Women are workers and they should work, but there is something divine.
And we'll see this in, in the Bible that God blesses man to do work, um, in a very specific way.
And then he gives man a helper to do the man's work, to help them.
Basically, he gives the man a helper fit so that he can actually complete his God given task, which is to work.
Okay?
And so, when, when we think about our day and age, we have to realize there, there are many things against us, even in the air that we breathe.
How everyone relates to one another.
And, uh, right down to when we go home and we're alone and how we think.
Okay?
So, work is distinctly masculine.
A lot of people talk about, um, you know, if someone, a lot of people say, if they see a good worker, they say that guy has a good work ethic.
Okay?
Work ethic is a great word, but it's often, you know, kind of just, we just say it.
Ethic referring to morality, right?
Um, is a strong, uh, rich word.
Imagine if we changed it, though, if we said that guy has a good work morality.
That's another level.
You know, what, what's your work morals like?
Uh, what's your standards of work?
The right work and the, and the bad work.
Do you have standards?
Okay?
Uh, there's such thing as a work ethic.
And I think, ultimately, that God calls us to.
And so, all of our thoughts on work, work ethic, all these things need to be funneled through the Word of God.
And we see in Genesis, uh, 2, verse 15, that God says, the Lord God, uh, took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.
Other versions say cultivate it.
Cultivate it.
We're going to talk a lot about cultivating and how a man is distinctly called to cultivate.
The word cultivate means to bring up, um, it's a farming term.
It means to, like, uh, bring up crops and work the land and that sort of thing.
There's a lot of imagery in there, uh, that actually has to do with your, your personal life.
How you, how you relate to cultivating the various areas of your life.
And so, all of our thoughts about work ethic and how we understand that was fractured long ago in the Garden.
Okay.
When, when man was put in the Garden, God said he was put for two reasons.
To work it and to keep it.
Okay.
That's his divine task.
Work and keep.
Another, uh, word to understand keep, uh, can be translated to guard or protect.
Okay.
So right from the, from the get go, uh, you by God without sin, this is God's original intention
for man.
You are created as a, as a worker warrior.
Okay.
Work it, keep it, guard it, protect it, work it.
And we've lost the intention because of sin.
We've marred the ethic of work that God intended because of sin.
And, um, we see that in Genesis three verse six, uh, when the woman, uh, it says when the
woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that
the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
And she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate.
So what happens?
Um, we've reiterated and hearkened on this, this phrase, her husband who is with her over
and over in the, in the teachings, but I'm going to capitalize on it again.
Okay.
Uh, Adam was there and what was his divine job to work the garden and keep the garden.
And what did he do?
He didn't do his job.
He failed to do his job.
Okay.
God said, this is your job.
Work the garden, protect the garden.
Okay.
Now we have this serpent that comes in and deceives his wife right in front of him.
And, and, and he says nothing.
He's, he is even offered the fruit and he eats.
Okay.
So he didn't do his job.
And how, how did Adam fail to do his job?
Well, uh, the serpent didn't, uh, I think, uh, come in the front gate, you know, uh, and say
like, Hey guys, uh, why do you believe, why do you believe what God says?
Eat this fruit.
And they're like, okay.
You know, I think it was more than that.
And we see that even in a verse one, it says, now the serpent was more crafty than any other
beast of the field of the Lord God has made.
Okay.
So the serpent, uh, was stealthy.
He was sly about it.
There was something in Adam that wasn't, uh, he wasn't operating as God had told him to.
He didn't have his, uh, he wasn't on his toes, his head on a swivel, or maybe he did,
but there was something crafty about it that he ignored, right?
There was some passivity in there.
And so, um, we were not told like how the serpent got in and all the backstory leading up to that,
but it probably wasn't just, you know, it's like, Oh, the serpent's in here.
Weird.
Um, there was probably a lot more to it, but Adam failed to, to do his job.
Okay.
And so, um, men don't want to work because they've settled for lesser rewards and become, uh, they've become lazy in that settling, uh, for the mediocre.
Okay.
This is something in our day and age with everything handed to you with the rise of technology and ease of things, you know,
AI is really great at this.
I'm not saying AI is bad or anything like that, but man, doesn't it make life easier?
Uh, man, you know, when electricity was inventing, invented, like how everything changed, right?
The washing machines, the, the, the stoves, everything, right?
You can think of so many things and none of those things are bad in and of themself.
We just have to understand they made everything easier for us.
And we can, we can rest upon those things and, and slowly actually lose what God told us to do in our mind and not do it.
And so, um, God's original design distinctly masculine design was to work and protect.
Um, you know, if you talk to any older person, especially like grandparents above 80 years old, they'll tell you how it was, especially if they were a farmer or something back in the day, how they would work long hours and how we have it made.
And, you know, if you're young, you're probably going to be like me, be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure it was tough.
Like, like we get it.
And, uh, but we're so disconnected from the life of the aged and how things were and people who actually get what we don't understand, we, we brush off.
Okay.
That's another route is our pride.
Honestly, in this age has elevated ourself above people who sincerely have understood work ethic.
And, um, this includes so many things that we just don't have to do anymore.
Um, tasks like if you're a farmer, you know, plowing, harrowing, sewing, weeding, milking, foddering, repairing tools and fences, threshing, processing.
Uh, a lot of times women ran the dairy and the poultry and the vegetables and food preservation while the men took care of the heavy lifting and the animals, uh, all those things.
Uh, that's a full day's work and more, right?
Sometimes you work into the night and a lot of us don't have to do that.
A lot of us, a lot of us don't have to do those things and perspective is really important, right?
And, uh, not only that, but whatever you're called to do, let's say your life's not like that, right?
You don't have to like induce that kind of life to be a good worker, right?
You don't have to make yourself, uh, have a lot of things to put yourself under hard work so that you become a certain person.
You already actually have all those avenues before you.
All those avenues for hard work and for pouring yourself out so as to be a man, uh, uh, fulfilling what God originally intended.
All those things you can do now in your own life.
We're going to get to that as I, as I talk about it, but, um, it's, it's in each one of our lives that we're called to that work.
Where are you called in your specific life to take up the creation, uh, orders to, to work where you're not, to protect where you haven't been.
Okay.
And ultimately when God gives a command because of sin, we can't do it apart from his spirit.
So there's an element here that, that we have to have or we miss it all.
So man was made for work and man was made for war.
Um, a lot of times we can think of, uh, a man as a cultivator.
That word in Genesis two, uh, connected with keep it.
We can think of it as, um, you know, cultivate as a horticultural term.
We can think of a man with like pruning shears, just kind of trimming up his garden.
Maybe he's wearing his grandma's straw hat or something, you know?
Uh, but it's not like that.
Okay.
It's probably more like, uh, a man who needs to draw his machete, uh, by divine instruction and hack down the vines in his life that are constantly growing and trying to choke him out.
Choke out his, his family, choke out his church, choke out the other people around him.
We need to think of it that way because that's connected in, in what God said.
He said, work it and protect it.
Okay.
As if it's like this, this is what you're called to do.
And don't be, don't be so lax about it.
Right.
Where, where are you drawing your machete to the, to the vines that are growing?
Are you even aware of any vines, so to speak, in your own life?
These are good things to think about.
Um, a man, a man is a worker in this specific way where he's called to,
take up God's sword to the specific areas of his life.
How is your work?
A couple of questions.
Think about your own soul.
Think about your own life.
How is your work?
You can think about your physical job.
Do you work only at, at one pace?
Only doing the bare minimum?
Are you cutting corners?
Are you the guy who takes the longest lunches, who shows up late and is the first one to leave?
Uh, maybe you're not doing that, but maybe that's your mentality.
Like, just get me out of here as soon as possible.
Always watching the clock.
Not concerned about the actual task at hand.
And then eventually you actually screw up because you're really not concerned about what's before you.
Um, that, that can be actual work.
What about spiritually?
You know, some people have spiritual ADHD.
Where they never actually quite arrive.
Because really they don't really care.
They only care about what's interesting to them.
That's why many people don't read the Bible fully.
They just read the verse that gets them.
That's laziness.
And if, and if you don't, if you don't actually put to death your supposed ADHD, when in reality
it's self-inflicted distraction, then, uh, you might be, you might actually be found not
even knowing who your God is.
Okay.
God has called you to take up the sword of the spirit.
Which the, which the Bible says is the word of God.
Okay.
How much more if, if you don't even read the word of God, can you take up it as a sword?
Okay.
We need to know where we're actually being lazy.
And we have to be honest about that.
I've been in many situations in my life.
I feel like as I'm talking through this, I can see me in the, in the mixture.
And, um, but how much this, these type of words has helped me.
The teaching has helped me to realize and awaken me where I've been asleep.
Where are we asleep to these things?
To our own laziness?
Maybe even our own pride thinking we're a good worker.
You know, work, work isn't just being a good worker.
Isn't just working long hours.
Okay.
We, what we want to say is the guy who works 80 hours a week, man, that guy's a hard worker.
Not necessarily.
It's not the quantitative amount of time that makes you a good worker, right?
It's the quality.
How is the quality of your work?
Do you even have a barometer to assess what is good quality and what is bad quality?
Don't use the world standard on this.
Go to the word of God.
What does God say about work?
Ultimately, when we think about these things, work is distinctly masculine.
In the sense that work gives you dignity.
We know this because work was here before sin.
Some of you guys might need to hear that.
Because the truth is, a lot of the time we treat work as if it's a curse to us.
As if work itself is a curse.
Although the work or our toil was cursed by God, it was actually originally good.
Its intention was good.
And we'll talk more about that, of how the Bible actually says that God's gift to man is to enjoy his toil.
It's Ecclesiastes.
Do you believe that?
Or do you believe that your work is a consignment to oppression and you're always seeking an out to escape it?
God doesn't want you to do that.
God wants you to enjoy the thing that he has given you.
Even in a strange way, even the toil of it.
So how is your work?
Are you self-controlled?
There's a principle in scripture that if a man can't rule himself, then he isn't fit to rule others.
In the qualifications for an elder, it says, it doesn't say if a man can't rule himself.
That's already assumed.
It says if a man can't rule his household, then how can he be expected to rule God's church?
God's house, right?
If you can't rule yourself, if you're not disciplined in your own life, saying no to the things, saying no to sin, saying no to the things that maybe aren't necessarily sin, but keep you from what you ought to do, then how are you going to be able to rule others?
You know, if you can't govern yourself.
God in Christ Jesus wants us to say he wants to save us from this lack of self-rule.
He wants to give us the power by his spirit.
Ultimately, if he does that, it's really not us anymore.
It's the power of God living through us.
Right.
But the truth is, we have to understand the areas that we have fallen short.
So are you self-controlled?
Proverbs 16, verse 32 says, he who rules his spirit is better than he who takes his city.
Do you believe that?
He who rules his spirit.
How is your spirit?
Is it like all over the place, all the time?
I'd venture to say that most young men, especially my generation, and I've struggled with this majorly, struggle with being ruled by their feelings.
How every single day, you wake up, how do I feel today?
Good?
Bad?
Do I want to work?
Not really.
Oh, whatever.
And then you just kind of go to work and your work's kind of terrible.
But, you know, I clocked in.
I worked the full eight, you know.
You're just living by your feelings.
You're just, every single whim.
How you even think about God, your feelings just declare and preach to you.
God is this.
You're this.
You know, all these things come from the inside.
And the Proverbs says, he who rules his spirit is better than he who takes the city.
We've got to put to death our feelings and really know the actual truth.
How do you spend your time?
The lazy man wastes his time.
I heard this stat the other day.
I think it was Jordan Peterson.
He asked a crowd of people, you know, how many of you think, how many of you waste 10 hours a day?
He asked that to the crowd.
He said, raise your hand.
And he said, 10% raise their hand.
And that seems like small.
It's only 10%.
But I'm like, 10 hours?
That's like the whole day.
That's crazy.
Whatever.
And he's like, how many of you waste six?
And I think he said half the room.
Six hours a day.
It's like, what?
Yeah, that's hard to believe depending on who you are.
But if you ask a whole room and half of them say that, we've got a problem in society, you know?
Do we even know how to use our time?
He who rules his spirit is better than he who takes his city.
How much more our time?
Do you have vision for your time?
Do you have vision for your time that's not already allotted?
Meaning the time that you spend when you're not at work, right?
That time's allotted.
But all the other time, are you busy playing video games, watching movies, watching shows, watching porn?
So many guys, they call it a day, they get some DoorDash, they turn on Netflix to waste their night, and they finish it with porn.
It's despicable.
It's a complete waste of time.
But not only just that.
It's not that merely.
It's a lack of vision for the time.
It's just an embrace of no vision at all.
And the Bible says, without vision, the people perish.
How many of you believe that if you don't get vision, you're going to perish?
Maybe not in a physical way, but spiritually.
Even, like, I think there's been science backing, like, what things like porn does to your mind.
It wastes you away.
You're going to perish because of these things.
How do you spend your time?
1 Corinthians 9, verse 24 through 27 says,
Do you not know that in a race all the run is run, but only one receives the prize?
So run that you may obtain it.
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.
Then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
And one that never fades away.
That's a big vision.
A lot of people don't believe that.
So I do not run aimlessly.
I do not box as one beating the air.
But I discipline my body and keep it under control.
Lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.
They do it to receive a perishable wreath, Paul says.
But we, believers, an imperishable.
And one that never fades away.
That's a big vision.
A lot of people don't believe that.
They don't believe in imperishable things.
But if you are a believer, if you're a Christian, if you trust in Christ,
we don't fix our eyes on what we see, that which is perishable,
but that which is unseen, which the scripture says is eternal.
Okay?
These are real things.
And many people walk around their entire lives in unbelief about these things.
We need to wake up and inform ourselves, not only that God's created us to be a worker,
but that our work has bearings on eternity.
Okay?
Our work does not save us.
Being a good worker does not save you.
You can't work hard enough, enough hours, or even have the best quality of work to save you.
That's the thing, is that as a Christian, as someone who confesses Jesus Christ,
that which is not perishable but is eternal,
our work does not contribute at all to our salvation.
It's the finished work of Jesus, the finished work of another person.
So when we talk about work, this is the lens you have to have.
If you're trying to earn something through your work, if you're trying to gain someone's approval,
whether it's a parent or boss, you're going to be exhausted.
And your work will always never be enough.
Okay?
When I'm talking about work, I'm talking about a place, not that we work from to get acceptance,
or that we work for to get acceptance, but where we work from.
Every man who really knows that he's a son in Christ is going to be compelled to work hard.
Okay?
This is the basis by which we work.
Okay?
So, I think I was talking about how we spend our time, but we're going to move on from that.
So, are you self-controlled?
How do you spend your time?
Are you the guy that people want to work with, or the guy that no one wants to work with?
Okay?
Are you the guy that everyone is asking for to work with, or the guy who gets tossed to the side
because you're a horrible worker, maybe you always complain?
Complaining is the rule of the day in the workplace.
It's almost like if you want to become like a guy that fits in, just talk bad about your boss, complain, you know, whatever.
But this is, at the very least, sin, and it's not going to produce good workers.
Right?
It's not going to produce men who take responsibility.
If anything, it's going to cause division.
But are you that guy, though?
Are you that guy that wants to work hard?
Are you the guy that people respect in the workplace?
That people want to work alongside with?
Be that guy.
The lazy man isn't that guy.
Okay?
The lazy man is the man who doesn't even think that way.
Some of us need to be set free from how we think.
Okay?
Be the guy who people want to work with.
Be the linchpin.
The guy that somebody calls, you know, when they're in a pinch.
You know, the linchpin is the little pin that holds the tire under the axle.
If it's not there, that tire is going to soar away and it's a bad day.
Right?
Be the guy who...
Want to be that guy.
And go after it.
Okay.
Moving on.
I mentioned that we all have gardens of our life.
To use the Genesis term.
God put man in the garden to work and keep it.
To cultivate it.
So I just have three areas.
And then we'll get into the closing points.
Three areas or three gardens to work and keep.
Number one.
The household.
Okay?
If you're single, don't check out.
Okay?
This doesn't mean that this isn't for you.
Actually, I'd probably say it's more for you potentially.
Because if you're going to get a wife.
If you're going to get married and actually have a family and a household.
Where you live.
How you live now.
Determines that.
It affects that.
Okay?
You have a house right now.
You don't have a family yet.
Or a complete household.
But you have a house.
And how are you managing it?
Okay?
So, Andrew Isker writes in his book, The Bonifest Option.
He says, God designed men to love their wives and their children.
And to desire so intensely to have a wife and sons and daughters that he would kill and even die for them.
Generations of psychological and social conditioning has diverted the course of this great river of passion to flow instead to cheap consumer goods, vapid entertainment, and pornography.
Okay?
You live in a day and age that wants to take your passion for things like family.
Things like sacrificing for the brother next to you.
And take it all the way down to an individual level and say, you know what?
All that passion.
All that virility.
All that drive.
Why don't you exhaust it on cheap goods, vapid entertainment, and pornography?
That's the air you breathe right now.
Okay?
How do I know that?
Because, I mean, I don't even think I have to say.
You guys all know that.
That's the rule of the day, right?
Go home, entertainment.
Before you go to bed, pornography.
Cheap consumer goods.
You guys probably eat ramen noodles a lot.
Maybe Kraft mac and cheese.
I don't know.
Like, whatever.
But this is the air we breathe.
He also says, you were created not to be a bug in a hive, responding to the stimuli until
you expire.
You were created not to be a bug in a hive, but a free man conquering, subduing, and filling
unknown space.
The fake world you live in is constructed to subvert the impulse or redirect it.
You can conquer unknown virtual space in an open world video game or metaverse, but the
flesh and blood world is already owned, so don't bother.
That's the lie.
But this world is to be conquered.
And the means that God has given you to subdue the earth is the household.
He's saying that because, in a lot of ways, this society has made a strong effort to destroy
the household.
All the way down to the family unit, right?
And single men, it's important that you guys know that you're a part of that, whether for
good or for ill.
Even at the rate that you see people getting married older and older and less and less,
that's the effect.
There's less and less families.
There's less and less covenant.
And this is the rule of the day.
But it starts by combating that and working hard against it.
Remember, this is in the context of our work, right?
A man is a worker.
How are we doing with these gardens, working and keeping them in our household?
You know, it's so easy as a single person to throw the laundry in the corner, not do the
dishes, all these things.
But all those things matter, right?
All those things contribute to something.
And once you get married, if you don't address those things, someone else will address them
for you and let you know.
But they're a part of ruling your house.
And we have to work hard at them.
So the household.
This means raising yourself in wisdom.
It means seeking out wisdom.
It means being humble.
Meaning you have to actually seek wise counsel.
You can't just be your own dog.
That's pride.
That's hubris.
I'm my own dog.
You know, that's a gospel being preached right now.
You make your own destiny.
You be your own man.
There's some truth in that, right?
Like, men need to take responsibility.
They need to pick themselves up.
No one's going to do it for them.
But hubris says, I don't need other men.
I can be self-made without them, right?
That's foolishness.
You're a fool if you think that way.
And we need other men.
We need people older than us.
We need peers that are actually peers that are like competing against us.
You know?
Not that our friends can't be people that we're constantly just better than them.
You know?
We're like smug about it.
Like, that's stupid.
We need friends who actually will sharpen us and rub against us.
But we need friends who can see into our house too.
Friends who can see our household and say, hey, you really neglect this area.
You know?
You spend way too much money.
You're a big spender.
You don't save any money.
Your house is filthy.
You know?
I can't do that.
I don't see you guys' house.
But your friends do.
You know?
Your family does.
We gotta rule our house.
Second category.
Garden to work and keep.
The church.
Feels like most neglected amongst young people.
But we gotta care about what God cares for.
And ultimately what He died for.
There's a message that has gone forth that is a total lie.
And it's been the biggest bill of goods sold to the church.
It basically says, being a Christian just means believing in Jesus from your heart only.
Although that's a big part of it.
You have to believe in Jesus from your heart.
You can't get around it.
You must.
But that's not the only thing God calls us to.
Jesus calls us to work.
Okay?
He calls us to take up our cross.
And He calls us not to do it alone, but with the church.
With a group of believers all committed to that same thing.
That same teaching.
Matthew 28 verse 19 says,
Jesus says,
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.
And behold, I'm with you always.
Okay?
Jesus died and what does He say?
He says, go.
Are you going?
Do you even know what that means?
Are you making disciples?
You who profess to know Christ.
Do you have a plan for making disciples?
Or are you hoping it happens by osmosis?
You know?
Are you hoping some random person in the line asks you about Jesus?
And you're like, finally, Lord, thank you.
While ignoring what He says.
He says, go.
And make disciples of all nations.
Teaching them to observe all that I commanded.
Okay?
We have to do this not alone, but in the context of the church.
This is how we get a plan.
Okay?
Do you have a plan?
Do you know how to work hard as a man?
Are you working as a man hard after the things that God wants you to in this way?
What about the one another verses in the Bible?
There's way too many to cover right now.
But, love one another.
Serve one another.
Bear one another's burdens.
Submit to one another.
Build one another up.
Show hospitality to one another.
And et cetera.
There's more.
Do you guys have a plan for any of those?
Those are commands in Scripture.
Okay?
How's your work ethic with even things like loving one another?
Building one another up.
Showing hospitality.
Right?
Or are we so...
Have we so drunk the Kool-Aid that we are so isolated and we never see people?
We don't let people in our house and we don't want to go over there.
We just want the TV and the couch.
Okay?
We need to be saved.
So that's the church.
What about society?
Third garden of your life.
What about society?
Most men don't even think about society.
They just live in it.
Okay?
They're just a bug in the hive as Isker said.
But what about society?
Man can shape society.
Listen, a beaver can make a dam.
Right?
An animal can make something.
Make a shelter for himself.
But he can't build a skyscraper.
Or an iPhone.
Or he can't make a saxophone.
Let alone play it.
Okay?
God has constructed man in a unique way to be able to make things that have differed from
every creature of creation.
Okay?
He calls you to go into the world as a witness to society.
An unbelieving world.
A world that does not know God.
And to be a witness to them.
And to build something from nothing.
Jesus says in a peculiar phrase in Luke 19,
Occupy until I come.
Okay?
You can hear a little bit of the creation mandate in there, which says,
Fill the earth.
Alright?
God made man to defend his garden, his domain, and to do it with the people next to him.
Forming society and establishing influence.
A man that's a worker is in society.
Obviously, you guys' jobs are in society.
You play a part.
But how does your work affect that society?
Proverbs 22 says, 22 verse 19 says,
Do you see a man skillful in his work?
He shall stand before kings.
He shall not stand before obscure men.
This is a society verse.
Do you see a man that's skillful?
He's going to stand before rulers.
He's going to stand before kings.
His work will be a witness to him.
The Bible says to be fruitful and multiply.
And to fill the earth.
Fruitfulness implies growth.
Which means, as I'm saying all these things,
a lot of this can be like, you know, work harder.
Do better.
All these things.
Right?
Obviously, you know, that's the main goal.
That's what we're striving after.
It's harder work.
Maturity.
But God says to be fruitful.
And fruit, the very nature of fruit implies growth.
Okay?
It implies the need for watering.
And it implies that you don't have a ripe apple
before you have a little bud.
Right?
So, don't be unrealistic with growing.
Understand yourself.
Understand how God is shaping you.
Understand when you need water and sunlight, so to speak.
When you need the help of other men.
When you need the supplemental nature of all these other things.
Right?
You're not going to arrive all at once.
But you have to aim at it.
You have to strive after it.
Can't be absent.
Right?
So, who is the hard-working man?
Have you ever met him?
Have you ever met a man who's hard-working?
Who's like this?
Who's commendable?
Respectable?
Who's, uh...
Who's confident in his work, even though it's not perfect?
Who doesn't make excuses?
Who outworks everyone, it seems?
Not because he's like the greatest guy ever, but just because he's committed to something?
Have you ever met a man who's a finisher?
Who goes to bed tired?
Tired but satisfied?
You guys do that?
You guys ever go to bed tired?
Some of you go to bed tired just because you're like, man, it's a long day and I did nothing.
I'm tired.
That's not the kind of tiredness I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the satisfaction of a hard day's work.
Right?
Of spending yourself.
We gotta have categories in our mind for this.
Because they're masculine.
Because they're godly.
Right?
He never gives up.
He keeps working.
He perseveres.
Alright.
Got five minutes left.
I've got some closing points.
God wants you to be more of a hard worker than even you do.
God wants you to be more built into his image, his original design, than you do.
This glorified example of what you think is the ultimate thing, God wants that more from you than you want it from yourself.
Believe him.
Believe that in him is the only way to get that.
Go after him in that way.
Go after him not as bypassing all of his means and his ways.
You can't go to God without going through Jesus Christ, the only mediator.
God wants you to be more than you.
So if you're struggling with sin, if you're struggling with pornography or whatever it is, if you're wasting your life, you can't get on top of those things, on top of your sin, without Jesus.
You can't.
Jesus is the only way to the Father, the Bible says.
We have to repent of our sin.
Paul actually uses this phrase.
He says that he testifies of repentance towards God and faith in his Son.
He makes a little bit of a distinction that I read the other day and I thought was cool.
Because we need to be reconciled to our Father because we've sinned against him.
Okay?
Our sins are against God the Father.
But God the Father has provided in his Son a way that we can be cleansed.
But it's only through faith toward his Son that we can get that.
We must repent of our sins of laziness and neglecting God's design for us.
So my closing points are this.
What are we going to stop doing?
What are we going to start doing?
I was thinking and praying about this and I was trying to come up with some practicals and the start-stop method seemed to be the best approach.
So, number one, what are we going to stop doing?
Stop trying to be somebody.
Okay?
Stop wandering about in idolatry, looking at the next guy online, maybe the next actual man that's ever before you.
Stop trying to be that person.
You're your own person.
God made you distinct.
Stop trying to be somebody.
1 Thessalonians 4 says,
We want people to approve of us.
Just forget about it.
Okay?
If you're approved in God and Jesus Christ, you lack nothing.
Okay?
Stop trying to be somebody.
Not just for a week, not even for six months.
What about for years?
What about years of faithfulness?
Did that kill you?
I resolved a long time ago, or maybe not a long time ago, but to just live an unremarkably ordinary life and find enjoyment in it.
You know?
So I got rid of social media, stopped lusting for likes, you know?
And just started enjoying what was before me.
Limiting it to entertainment, enjoying God in the everyday rather than ignoring God.
I'm not perfect, but we need to do this, you know?
Guys need to stop thinking that they're going to make some great impact on the world.
You might, but maybe not in the way that you're pursuing.
Okay?
You know, who really knows who you are?
Stop making investments in your persona.
The people who are closest to you know your persona.
They know who you are.
Lean into that.
Lean into what they're saying.
Okay?
Stop trying to be somebody.
Number two, stop glorifying talent and giftedness.
And start glorifying hard work.
Okay?
I saw this quote that was painted on this gym.
It was like a personal training gym.
But I thought it was awesome.
It says,
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work.
So true.
You know, how many talented people do we never see because they're lazy?
They squander it.
All of us are that for some degree or another, you know?
But stop glorifying talent and giftedness.
Especially glorifying it above character.
How many people do we find out whether it's an actor or actress?
Whether it's a sports player or athlete who does these awesome things, wins the awards, and then we actually find out about their life.
And they're terrible people.
It taints their image, right?
It's like, man, I don't really want to watch this person anymore.
I don't really love them as much.
They abandon their family.
You know?
They cheated on their spouse.
You know, they live a life of sensuality.
You know?
It mars the image.
Stop glorifying the thing that we think makes someone good when it's devoid of their actual person.
Their actual content of their life.
Number three.
Stop surrounding yourself with fools.
Okay?
I was thinking about this one.
It's really important but hard to detect because you have to understand that fools attract each other.
Okay?
It's a hard reality because sometimes you're like, am I surrounded by a fool?
I don't know.
One of the best ways to figure that out, though, is not by asking yourself, am I surrounded by fools?
But more so, do I know anyone who is wise?
Okay?
Are they in my life?
Fools attract each other.
Don't protect yourself from your own weaknesses.
This is a motive for surrounding yourself with people like you if you're a fool.
Right?
If you waste your time and all these things is you really don't want to be called up.
You really don't want to be challenged.
So, I'm going to surround myself with people like me because they're not going to call me out because they're just like me.
So, I'll be able to stay here.
Right?
Well, that's cowardly and you still stay weak.
And you're protecting your weakness.
So, step out of your comfort zone.
Get around someone who's wise.
Do you know anyone who is wise?
Right?
Surround yourself with wise people.
1 Corinthians 15 says,
Do not be deceived.
Bad company ruins good morals.
Whoever walks with the wise is wise or becomes wise.
But a companion of fools will suffer harm.
Okay?
Stop doing those things.
What are we going to start doing?
Number one, start today.
I was thinking about this.
What do I mean by that?
Stop putting it off until tomorrow.
Okay?
A lot of people are just saying, I'll get it tomorrow.
I'll start tomorrow.
Don't even necessarily think to yourself, I need to get this grandiose plan.
Okay?
You're going to be paralyzed by the planning.
Just start with something small.
Okay?
Start with what's right in front of you.
Number two, find a big vision.
I just said, start with something small and I'm saying, get something big.
But you don't have to get a lot of big things.
You just have to get one.
Right?
You just got to get just a short few.
But it has to be bigger than you.
Start by getting wise people around you.
I already said that.
The church can't be neglected.
Okay?
It's indispensable.
And number four, start by coming to Christ.
We all need to become the hardworking man.
A lot of us are not the hardworking man and we know it in different ways.
A lot of us are hard workers in different areas.
But I'm not talking about the areas that you're good in.
Don't pride yourself on what you're good at.
Look at the areas that you are lazy.
If you're a hard worker at work, this hits me really hard.
If you go hard at work and then you come home,
how is your work ethic in your house?
Do you clock out, so to speak?
Or are you clocking back into your different job?
You know, one that really makes a dent.
You know?
One of my coworkers recently said,
did you know that I spend more time with you than you spend with your wife?
And I was like, I guess you're right.
I guess I'm with you eight hours a day and I'm with her less.
I'm like, but why are you telling me that?
I don't want to think of you that way.
You know?
But our work has a lot of barriers.
Like we're away at work most of the day.
Even more so what we do when we're not at work is so important.
Right?
It makes an impact on our family and all those things.
Lastly, the hard working man knows how to work from a place of rest.
This only comes through the gospel.
This only comes through Jesus.
Don't glorify not resting.
Don't glorify hustle above resting.
You need to rest in Jesus.
You need to rest physically.
That's a part of working hard is to prioritize rest.
Get vision for God.
Get vision for your wife.
Get vision for sex, for your kids, for church, for doctrine, for the loss, for your job, for finances, for budgeting, for your debt, for your time, for your talents, for your health, for education.
All these things, right?
It might seem overwhelming, but God will help you do what he's called you to do.
He's called you to do it.
He's made you a worker.
He's made you a worker warrior.
Amen?
Amen.