Proverbs - Wisdom for work

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Thanks so much, Duane. Keep your Bible open. We'll be in the Proverbs this morning. We'll be jumping around a bit as we seek to unpack God's wisdom for our living as His disciples. It's our series that we've been in for the last few weeks and just by a way of recap we have learned along the way that the beginning of wisdom is a healthy fear of the Lord. And we've defined that fear as a profound reverence and awe towards God coupled with a healthy awareness of the danger brought about by our sin. As we've been unpacking these Proverbs over the last few weeks, we've seen that there's two voices, and we heard them in that reading there, two voices that cry out to us from the Proverbs. One is the voice of wisdom. It often takes the shape of a father giving wisdom to his son or a lady giving wisdom to all who would hear and receive it. And then we've got the voice of folly or foolishness which seeks to call us away from the good path that God desires us to walk. That's what we've been journeying through so far. This morning we're going to unpack God's wisdom for us in regards to work. So keep your Bible there. We'll be putting the references on the screen. We might jump through a little bit fast if you're taking notes. Don't worry about that too much. All of the slides will be available on the website during the week sometime. They go up there regularly. So you'll be able to get the notes and download them if you want them to go through it at a bit of a slower pace. If you need them before they go up on the web, just contact me or contact the office and we can get you a copy of that sooner. Cool. We're going to talk about work today. It's interesting that the average Aussie works around probably 40 to 45 hours a week, they say. Roughly 48 weeks of the year. The average working life for most Australians is around about 45 years. Although our government has been pushing that number out further and further in recent years. Some people work a bit more. Some people work a bit less. But on average, a large percentage of us are going to work over 100,000 hours in our lifetimes. These hours will go up considerably. If you add in all the time, we might spend studying to get a job. The hours we spend at school or university. The hours we spend when we do get the job commuting to and from work. Or maybe all the extra hours of emails and phone calls we might take at home or after hours when we're not meant to be working. The bottom line is work is a significant part of our lives. In fact, many of us spend more time at work than we do at church. And all church related activities combined. Those in the workforce probably spend more time with our colleagues than we do with our brothers and sisters in the faith. Some of us spend more time, more of our waking time at work than we might even spend waking with our own family. Work is a huge part of our lives. And because of that, it's important we have a proper theology of work. As disciples of Jesus, we want to understand what God's word says about our work and how we should go about it. We want to be careful to obey all that He's commanded us to do. And this includes how we think and how we act in regards to our work. When I mentioned that this week's topic was going to be on work, I wonder what images or thoughts that stirred up for you. Was there ideas or questions that it raised in your mind? How do you view this whole subject of work? How do you feel about your own job or the work that God has given you to do, the work that earns you an income? My guess is like most of the world, and sure even a fair number of Christians, we would say in response to this question that work seems like a necessary evil. It's something that we would all rather not do. Those of us that have a Christian worldview, we often might think of work as a necessary evil in a fallen world because we understand that work is something we have to do to eat, something we have to do to have a house or a car to provide for our family. Work is this unfortunate act of life. Much rather we would not work, many of us. We'd much rather live for the weekends or the holidays, and for many Aussies that's the dream, to stop work, to retire maybe sooner rather than later. People want to retire early and travel the world, play with their kids or their grandkids and do anything else other than sit at the screen and do the work, be stuck there for 40 hours a week. I'd be not surprised to discover this morning as we unpack these proverbs that the picture the Bible paints for us is not that work is a necessary evil, but rather that work is a good gift from God to be stewarded for his glory. That's the clear picture that we'll find in the proverbs and in the scriptures that we're going to unpack this morning. Maybe you hear me say that and you think, well Dave, you don't know my work, you don't know my job, you're not there in the office, you don't know my colleagues or my employer. Dave, on any given day, my work doesn't feel like a good gift from God. Most days it can feel like anything but a good gift from God. And if that's you this morning, I just urge you just to keep an open mind as we open God's word, because I assure you I haven't gone crazy. It's here in the text. Work is a good gift. It's a precious gift from the Lord and there are many places in the Bible that we can see this. And one of the key areas we'll see that is in the proverbs this morning. There's lots that the proverbs have to say about work. Before we get stuck into the proverbs, real quick, we just need to have a look at a theology of work in general, because it starts before we get to the proverbs. Even the most pro-work among us these days will think at different times, even if we're for work and we understand what the Bible says about it being a gift, there will still be days where it feels like a curse. And it's on those days, those of us that know the Bible, we know the story of God and of creation. We might think about that Genesis 3 account of the fall and the consequence for our sin. In Genesis 3, 17 to 19, God said to Adam, because you listen to your wife and ate the fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat from it. Cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil, you'll eat food from it all the days of your life. It'll produce thorns and thistles for you. You'll eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you'll eat your food until you return to the ground. Since from it, you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return. Often we think about that. We think about this curse, this consequence of our sin and this fallen world that we live in on those days when work feels rough. But we've got to remember that Genesis 3 is not the whole story. Work actually started before the fall, not after it. And so we need to go back even further to get a clear theology of work. We read that in Genesis 2, verse 5, that God looked at the creation in that outline of his creating work. And in Genesis 2, 5, we can see that God surveys what he's done in forming and shaping the world. And he saw that there was no one to work the ground. And so Genesis 2 tells us that he created humans. He placed them in the garden to work it, to tend it, to take care of it. We see that in verse 15 of chapter 2. Nowhere in the creation account does it say that God placed them in the garden to rest and to vacation and to do nothing. We often might have that image in our mind of Adam and Eve just kind of lounging around the river and the animals bringing them food and they just having a grand old holiday there in the garden. But that's not the true picture. Genesis tells us that they were given work to do. And it was in fact a joy. Humans who were made in God's image were included in his transforming work of creation. They were allowed to join in bringing order and stewarding the world that God had made. Right there in the beginning, Genesis 2, Adam and Eve didn't just cultivate that garden primarily for subsistence for the food that they were to eat. That would have been one aspect of the work that they did in the garden. But at this point in history, that wasn't the primary reason. Adam's work was primarily an act of worship. Work was one of the ways that humans were made to glorify God. And so I think in light of that, we can define work biblically in this way. Work is primarily a good gift from God to be stewarded unto his glory. That might probably not be the way most of us think about work, but it is the way the Bible tells us that work was given to us. It is a good gift, primarily as a way to worship and enjoy our relationship with God. We see that evidence in the early accounts of Genesis. Genesis 1, 27 and 28, as God created mankind in his image. He created them male and female. He blessed them and he said to them, be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish and the sea and the birds and the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. You see the stewardship that they were given there over all that God had made. They were to exercise dominion over God's creation, to transform the created order, to showcase the glory and beauty of the God who called and created them. And where to continue in that, to keep caring for this world as stewards in the way as we worship God. This was God's plan for mankind. Every part of our lives would be lived and all the work that we would do in every aspect of our lives would be to give honor and glory to God. It meant our marriages, our families, our individual worship, our corporate worship, all of life is to worship God. You know the story, the humans blew it, we disobeyed God and that's where we find ourselves this morning in this fallen world with that tension of the consequence of sin and the difficulty that work is no longer a joy all the time. It can often be a struggle. And so how do we think rightly or wisely about our work? Well, Proverbs is going to help us with that. Remember those two voices, the foolish voice of folly and the wise voice of wisdom. We're going to start by looking at the foolish view of work. Firstly, we see that a foolish view of work sees work as an opportunity for idleness. There's a whispered lie of the fool. There's a whispered lie of folly that speaks to us and says, work is part of the curse. Work is bad. And because it's bad, you should aim to do as little as humanly possible. Friends, it's a false view. It's a wrong view. We saw earlier in Genesis that God created us to work. If we don't work or if we do as little as possible, then we're actually setting ourselves against the grain that God has woven into the fabric of creation, woven into the fabric of our lives. We're designed to work. If we don't work, it brings problems such as poverty into our life, into our family's life. If we don't work, we find ways to fill our time with unprofitable areas that usually lead us away from God and into dissatisfaction. There's some Proverbs that underscore that foolishness for us. Dwayne read from Proverbs 12 earlier. Proverbs 12, 24, work hard and become a leader. Be lazy and become a slave. Or in Proverbs 13, 4, lazy people want much but get little. Those who work hard will prosper. Proverbs 14, 23 says work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty. You get the picture there, don't you? Proverbs 21, verses 25 to 26. The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him. Sluggard's just someone that's lazy, someone that doesn't want to work. The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him because his hands refuse to work. All day long, he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing. There's a difference. There's a contrast there between the foolish and the wise. Proverbs 26, verses 13 to 16. The sluggard says there's a lion in the road. There's a lion in the streets. As the door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. It wears him out to bring it to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. We see the foolishness there of those who choose not to work or to do the bare minimum. The lazy, the sluggard, the slacker, we get all of those ideas there. As you read the Proverbs, you can find those people referred to time and time. Again, we've only just scratched the surface with a few there this morning. The sluggard, the lazy one, can come up with all sorts of excuses for why they're justified in rolling over and staying in bed, why they can't muster up the energy to work. They're so tired, they can't even lift their hand to their mouth. They can't possibly work. The Proverbs says in their own eyes, the slacker thinks that they're wiser than actually seven people who really are wise. Proverbs 28-19 says that a hard worker has plenty of food, but a person who chases fantasies ends in poverty. This foolish view of work as an opportunity for arduousness is a fantasy. It's a chasing after a fantasy that ends up in poverty. It's not the path to wisdom, it's the path to ruin. Interesting is still a path that people choose today. You might have heard of the TikTok trends such as lazy girl jobs, quiet quitting or chill job ideas. It seems popular among millennials and Gen Z. A couple of years ago, off the back of COVID, it was initially put forward as a good thing, as a reaction and response to hustle culture and to overwork. It was put forward to try and combat a desire to find a healthy work-life balance. It started maybe as a good thing, and yet a quick look at some of these trends show that supporters of the movement, even today, they proudly post about chilling at home, working on their laptops while watching Netflix and scrolling through their socials. They want to be paid a great wage for an easy job that they can do, and then only do the bare minimum. It's no wonder that many businesses are seeking to roll back the amount of time employees can work from home, given the rise of this sort of attitude in the workforce. I was surprised to read an Aussie survey about a new trend called quiet vacationing, and this survey suggested that 45% of full-time office workers in Australia have already or would consider doing this. They've already done it or would consider doing this, working remotely from a holiday destination without telling their employer. Quiet vacationing. 45% of Aussies have either done it or consider doing that. It seems crazy, right? But remember, the proverb says the sluggards' ways seem wise to their own eyes. Wiser than even seven wise people. They can make all kinds of excuses not to work to do as little as possible. Just to be clear, proverbs is not talking to those folk who have legitimate reasons why they're unable to work. They truly are because of health reasons, age, physical limitations, other reasons. There are reasons why, legitimate reasons why people cannot work. The proverbs about the sluggard, the lazy, the idle, these are not directed to those people. If you can't work for legitimate reasons, then the proverbs is not warning you against this laziness here. Likewise, I don't think it's talking to those who can't work because they're busy caring for family members, thinking of stay-at-home mums or single mums and dads. I think they've got the hardest job in the world. It's a God-honoring area of labor. Proverbs is not talking about those people here. It's talking about those able-bodied men and women who just don't want to do anything or really just try and do the bare minimum. The warning is for those who could work but just don't. Those who'd rather stay at home and collect whatever welfare they can get and rely on the generosity of their local church or charity to support them instead. Friends, we can't honor God in our idleness. That's the first lesson we've really got to learn. Second Thessalonians 6 to 12. This is Paul writing to the church. He says, Dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Stay away from all believers who live idle lives and don't follow the tradition they received from us. You know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you. We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. Even while we were with you, we gave you this command. Those unwilling to work will not get to eat. And yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people's business. We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and to work to earn their own living. It's pretty clear. The Bible says if you can work, work, provide for your family. Don't use charity of others as a means for laziness. God's word says that this is for our good because it's what we were created for. It's a way that we can worship God. Kids, students, there's some in the room this morning. You might be too young to have a part-time job yet. Maybe you're concentrating on your studies and you don't have a job yet. Don't switch off. Listen up. This is helpful for you in the future when you do have a job. But not only that, as students now, your job is to learn and prepare for the future. And so the work God has assigned to you right now is your studies. How you work at school, how you listen, how you apply yourself to your education is part of your worship to God. Don't listen to that foolish voice that would tempt you to cruise through school, to not try hard, to just do the bare minimum to get by. Don't listen to the foolish voice that says, write out your time. It'll be over soon. Just because you're young, it doesn't mean you can't honor God in the way in which you work as a student. That's really important for those who are young. Friends, we're not designed to find satisfaction in idleness. That's, I guess, the big point here. We want to beware the lie that says idleness is a good thing. Before we move on, just a quick word to those who can't work vocationally anymore, whether that's through illness, age, some other reason. I'd encourage you guys, even if you can't work vocationally. Maybe there's an area you can serve. Maybe there's an area or something that you can invest your time in that helps you so that you're not completely idle all the time. It's good for our souls. It's good for us. We're designed to work. Maybe you can make meals for someone or invite a family round for coffee after church on Sunday. Feel free to contact us in the office if you want some ideas on how you might be able to steward your time. You might be able to be writing letters of encouragement to someone or you might be willing to make a phone call to pray with someone and need some care and support. Maybe you like driving and you've got a lot of free time in a vehicle. You might consider helping folk who can't drive or need transport to get to an appointment or to get to church or a discipleship group from time to time. Maybe you could volunteer some time on a roster or a ministry team or help on our mowing team if you like mowing. There's all sorts of ways that we can use our time that is productive, that glorifies God and fulfills our mandate to work. Whatever you do when you're done with your vocational life, don't just retire from life and give in to idleness. That's not going to be helpful for you. You still have time left to glorify God and worship him with your time. The second foolish view of work is that work is an opportunity for idolatry and I guess this is kind of the counter to the other one. Idleness makes a God out of rest. Seeing work as an opportunity for idolatry makes a God out of work itself. It makes too much of work. There's a danger there in work becoming an idol or something that we worship, whether that's for a sense of prestige or self-worth that our work gives us or because of the wealth it provides. It can easily be a trap for us that we fall into and we make too much of our work. Our jobs often fill a deep ingrained need that we have to be recognized, to feel significant. If you think about it, your occupation is probably one of the defining or key aspects that you would share with somebody when you meet them for the first time. It's often one of the first three things that you might say about yourself or be asked about yourself when you meet somebody new. We often give our name where we come from and what we do, where we work. For many of us, work can shape and form our identity and if we allow it to shape and form it too much, if it becomes an idol, we can really struggle when we lose our job or when we can no longer work because we lose that sense of false identity that would allow our work to give us. We do like to be thought of as having a purpose to have a role, something that we can contribute to the world. We do like it when people need us. When we turn up each day at work, because there's clients that need us, we like to think that people would want our professional opinion. There's all sorts of reasons why we can fall into this trap of making too much of work because of what work gives us and what work does for us. It's interesting chatting to young people today about their dreams for work. I got to fill in for Dylan at Youth on Friday night and a great number of young people aspire to do something that's going to earn them a lot of money or make them famous or important. Kids want to be a famous YouTuber or a Tik Toker as an influencer. That wasn't even an option when we were growing up and yet something that many young people aspire to today, it just underscores the way in which our worldly culture values wealth and importance. Proverbs cautions us to not seek wealth and fame in our work because it can easily become idolatry. As Christians, as disciples of Jesus, we're not to find our validation or our worth in our work or our wealth. We're to find our validation in one thing, whether we're in Christ or not. We're to find our satisfaction in life by who we are in Him, who God has made us to be. We're to find our satisfaction in Christ. Look at some of the warnings in the Proverbs of making work our idol and chasing after work for the wrong thing. Trust in money and down you go, Proverbs 11, 28, but the godly flourish like leaves in the spring. Proverbs 20, 21, an inheritance obtained too early in life is not a blessing in the end. Proverbs 28, 22, greedy people try and get rich quick but don't realize they're headed for poverty. I like this one, Proverbs 23, 4 to 5. Don't wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit. In the blink of an eye, wealth disappears for it will sprout wings and fly away like an eagle. We hear the warning there, don't we? Came across some interesting stats from some HR surveys that were conducted recently across Australian places. Apparently only 55% of Aussie workers are happy in their current job. 55% are happy. That means 45% are currently dissatisfied with the work that they do. Two in three employees in Australia have plans to find new jobs this year, 2025. That's 67% that are either looking already for a new job or are planning to find a new job this year. They're looking for something with better pay or better benefits, something that deals with that dissatisfaction that they're feeling. The average length of time Aussies stay in a job is around 3.3 years. We change jobs every three to four years and yet amidst all of that we see this growing trend across Australian workplaces that a significant portion of our workers don't take all of their allotted annual leave. It just accumulates. They don't take their rest. Apparently there's over 20% of employees across Australia that have got more than four weeks of annual leave accrued and when they ask those employees about the reasons for not taking the leave they say well heavy workloads, financial concerns, fear of falling behind in their job is a big reason why people don't take their holidays. A significant portion of respondents stated they were regularly working on their days off because of the advantages of technology, mobile phones and computers in our pocket. Many people have access to their work all day and some people were saying they checked their emails and messages even hourly on days that they're not working. Fair Work Australia is trying to address some of that by introducing a right to disconnect rule for employees. Trying to let them know that they don't have to respond to unreasonable requests after hours. It's a problem in Australia. It's fascinating I think that people on the one hand are saying they're dissatisfied with work they're looking for the next best thing and yet at the same time they're working so much they're not taking holidays. Just fuels their dissatisfaction. They keep looking for that perfect job that gives them all the things that they want and they're never going to find it because work is hard. It's a struggle, it's toil. Ecclesiastes 510 says that those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness. Work is a really poor God friends. It's not worth making an idol out of. It tempts us to trust in ourselves and our resources instead of God. It makes us despise the poor rather than care for them. If we're doing well in work, if we're doing well in our finances and life, we can be proud and we can think well I've pulled myself up by my hard work, maybe they should too and our generosity goes out the window. Making too much of work makes us use our talents and our resources for ourselves and not for the kingdom. Jesus said in Matthew 6 24 we can't serve two masters. We'll hate one and love the other or we'll be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Jesus says it's a foolish way to work trying to gain the world and yet losing everything. You're familiar with the parable Jesus told in Luke 12 where he talks about being on guard against every kind of greed. Talks about a rich man who had a farm and it was doing well. He said to himself where am I going to put all these crops? It's been a bumper year. I know what I'll do. I'll pull down the barns. I'll build bigger ones and then I'll have enough. I'll be able to sit back eat drink and be merry and Jesus in this parable said God said to him you fool you'll die this very night then who gets everything you worked for. Yes a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God. I think that's the problem with this foolish view of work. It makes us see this good gift as an ultimate thing rather than seeing the giver of that gift our God and relationship with him as being ultimate. If I'm honest this is probably the area that I have to fight against really hard. Maybe you're in that category too. We can be so keen for the work that God has given us to do that it becomes our object of focus and devotion and it can take the place of the God who gave us that work in the first place. Don't let your work for God crowd out your worship and enjoyment of God. That's what we need to know here. So those two wrong perspectives of work viewing it as an opportunity for idleness making a God out of rest or viewing it as an opportunity for idolatry making too much out of work. We're going to move very quickly just with the words of wisdom. The right way to view work. Number one an opportunity for wages. It's a good gift of God's provision. One of the reasons God gave us work is so that we can survive. It's how we put food on the table. It's how we look after our family. Work is the means by which we're able to bless others in generosity and share with those in need. Work is a gift of God. His provision of wages and I say wages opposed to wealth because I think we need to keep that in good perspective. Proverbs 30 verses 7 to 9 helps us to see that. A God I beg two favors from you. Let me have them before I die. First help me to never tell a lie. Second give me neither poverty nor riches. Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. In the other translations it says feed me with the food that I need. You get the idea there. If I grow rich I might deny you and say who is the Lord but if I'm too poor I might steal and thus insult your holy name. Give me just what I need. Neither poverty nor riches. Keep that gift in perspective. The gift of wages is a good thing and we see that in proverb after proverb. Proverbs 13 verse 4 we read that earlier. Lazy people want much but get little but those who work hard will prosper. God gives you your wage. Proverbs 28 19 a hard worker has plenty of food but a person who chases fantasies ends up in poverty. Proverbs 27 18 as workers who tend to fig tree are allowed to eat the fruit so workers who protect their employers interests will be rewarded. We see the pattern there. Work is an opportunity for wages. It's a good gift from God. We should see it that way. Secondly white wisdom for work it shows us that work is an opportunity for worship and we unpack that a little bit already in the beginning. That's the primary reason of work prior to the fall and that hasn't lost its effect now even this side of the curse. Work is still a reason so that we might worship. We see that in the Proverbs. We also see it in 1 Timothy 5 8. This is quite a challenging statement. Paul says those who won't care for their relatives especially those in their own household have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers. It's giving instructions to the church about how to care for relatives and how to worship God in the way in which we live. Work is a big part of how we're able to care for those in our household. It's an act of worship done well. More important than what we do for work is how we work because it's an opportunity to worship God. I think too many of us have this sacred secular divide. We need to be aware of that type of thinking. The thinking that Sunday is sacred. It's for worship and Monday is secular. It's for work. Too many of us think that the job of a pastor or a missionary is sacred but the job of a teacher or an electrician is secular. Wisdom says that's not true friends. This is not what the Bible says. The Bible says Adam worked as an act of worship and so do we. So it doesn't matter what we do. Ephesians 6 verses 5 to 8 slaves obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. Try to please them all the time not just when they're watching you. As slaves of Christ do the will of God with all your heart. Work with enthusiasm as though you are working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do whether we are slaves or free. That same idea is repeated in Colossians 3 22 to 24. You could look that up during the week. Remember the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward. The master that you're serving is Christ. Friends you might think you worked for a boss at your employment but if you're a believer, if you're a disciple of Jesus you actually work for the boss. You serve the Lord. You serve Christ. And so that means whatever your job is that he's gifted to you. You do it as though you're doing it unto him. When you seek to be the best admin assistant you can be, the best carpenter, plumber, electrician, the best bus driver you can be. When you strive to be the best nurse or child care worker, teacher, when you strive to be the best school student or university student you can be all of those things and it could be worship. It could be just as much an act of worship as giving or singing or praying or fellowshiping. Doing a good job at work is just as much an act of worship as any of those things because remember all of life is worship. And when we have that view in mind as work as worship it changes the way that we work. Proverbs 14.31 says those who oppress the poor insult their maker but helping the poor honors him. Well Proverbs 22.29, do you see truly competent workers? They'll serve kings rather than working for ordinary people. If we do quality work in a way that seeks to worship God people will recognize that. It's counter-cultural. It's different to the way the world works and it will point to Jesus. It'll honor God and that's how we ought to live as disciples of Jesus. We need to have that right view of work. We need to carry out the mandate God has given us to work. We're going to have to give an account of our work to God. And so we want to worship him in the way in which we work. Tomorrow when you get in your car and you go to work don't think about it as that necessary evil of a fallen world. See it rather as an act of worship to God. View it for what it is, a good gift to provide for your family, a way to worship God and show the world that you follow Jesus. That you work for Christ and not for money. When you serve the Lord and not idols, when you realize work is not something to fight against, it's going to transform your Monday to Friday. It's going to bring worship into your workplace and it prepares us for eternity because we're going to work in eternity. It's not just a big holiday. We get work to do and the joy is back in the work. If you've got time during the week read Isaiah 65 verses 17 to 23. It's a wonderful picture of work in the new creation and the joy that we'll have in that work is a good gift. It's a blessing. It's a way to show our love for God as we seek to work as wise and obedient disciples of Jesus. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for work. We know right now because of the curse of sin work is hard. It's a toil. It's a struggle. Help us Lord to have the right view of work. Help us to hear your voice of wisdom, which says that work is a good gift from you, our Heavenly Father. A means by which you provide for our daily needs and a way in which we can worship and glorify you and point others to Jesus. Help us Lord to guard our hearts from the voice of folly that whispers lies to us and tempts us to make too little of our work by making so much out of rest or making too much out of work and making it an idol and seeing the work that you've given us to do as ultimate and greater than our relationship with you. Help us to remember Lord that we ultimately serve you the living God, not just our boss, not just our bank accounts. Help us to glorify you in all that we do as we seek to live as wise disciples of Jesus and as we wait for his return. In his name we pray. Amen.