Wise Choices in Career, Money and Life : Stewardship Lessons from Proverbs

Our focus is making wise choices in career, money, and life, and we’re back in the book of Proverbs. And so I hope this will be an encouragement to you. We’ll primarily be in chapter six, but we’ll be looking at other Proverbs throughout the book of Proverbs. So let’s read Proverbs 22, verse 29, and then Proverbs 27, verses 23 and 24. Verse 29, do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings. They will not serve before officials of low rank. And then Proverbs 27, verses 23 and 24, be sure you know the condition of your flocks. Give careful attention to your herds, for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we’re so thankful for the book of Proverbs. Thank you, Lord, that as you set us free to live the new life, we can live with purpose, with intention. Lord, we can live to glorify you and to honor you in every area of our life. And I pray this morning, Lord, that you would give new revelation to some individual, to a family, to a household. Give us new revelation, Lord, of how we can use our gifts, our talents for you, how we can use our career and our vocation to honor you and to glorify you. Work in our lives, Lord. Work in this church. Lord, help us not to see our spiritual life disengage from our daily life. But Lord, you want to be a part of every area of our life. We give you the glory in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. We don’t always like to receive a word of warning. But the truth is, Proverbs is a book of warnings. It’s a book of, hey, be cautious. Proverbs is a book of warnings and wisdom. I think sometimes it feels like the warning siren that goes off every Wednesday in Columbia. You’ve heard it before. It sounds annoying. It makes the dog bark. And then no life-threatening storm comes our way. Now, I know that’s not always true, but it’s kind of how I’ve felt where I live because we have one of those sirens literally in the green space right next to our house. And if you were at home in the afternoon on Wednesday when they test it, and we used to have a dog in the backyard, and the dog would just start howling and barking. And so it just was an unpleasant experience. And so warnings such as stoplights or caution signs, without a doubt, they can become so commonplace in our lives that we barely even notice them. But they serve a really important role in our lives. Warnings, if heeded, can save you from disaster. And the warnings we read about in Proverbs and the wisdom we have in Proverbs, that’s their purpose. In fact, I remember when I was a younger minister, I read a book by Josh McDowell, and it was entitled Right from Wrong. And in that book, he said something that really impressed me, that every time God says no, there’s two bigger yeses. Every time God says thou shall not, like in the Ten Commandments, he’s really trying to provide something better for you, or he’s trying to protect you from something that is going to harm your life. And so the world might be telling you, and the culture of the world might say, oh, you really need this, or you need to live that way, or you need to do this. This is going to help you so much. But the end of that leads not to life, it leads to death. That’s what the Bible says. But God’s word, when it comes to us with a warning, is trying to protect us, trying to provide something better. It’s those two bigger yeses that can keep you walking with the Lord. And that’s one thing I’ve learned as I’ve gone through this challenge with Pastor Ellis since February 1, and then our last weigh-in was Friday. You know what? It is really difficult to say no to certain foods when you don’t have a bigger yes. In fact, I felt just fine at 239 pounds. I really, I mean, I did, I didn’t feel really that uncomfortable. But now when I try to do push-ups, man, I can really get some push-ups in. Trying to psych Pastor Ellis out right from the beginning. I’m just trying to encourage him. But when you don’t have a bigger yes in your life, a yes that says, I want to honor God, I want my life to be significant, I want to do something that God would smile at, then it’s, when you don’t have that in your life, it’s really hard to say no to, yeah, I just want to sit around on a Friday night and just drink and take it easy. And before you know it, that drinking is running your life. Or the smoking the weed is just all you want to do. When you don’t have a bigger yes, it’s really hard to say no to things. That’s definitely a takeaway. But as that yes started growing over the last many months in my life, you know, it got to be very easy to eat salad without ranch dressing on it. You just put a little more salt and pepper on there, it tastes the same. Okay, I’m not being very convincing. But the point is, God gives us warnings in Scripture and wisdom in Scripture because he’s trying to protect us and he’s trying to provide something better for us. And we need to allow, through the Word of God and the Spirit of God, a bigger yes to start thumping in our heart. And if we can get that bigger yes of, God, I want to live a life that glorifies you and honors you in every area of my life, then you’re going to have the discipline to be able to say no to those things that are trying to destroy your life. Amen? I believe that. It works. This morning we’re talking about making wise choices in career, money, and life. And so we’re going to pick up in chapter 6, verses 1-5. The first truth that we see here is, each one of us, if we want to honor God and glorify God in our lives, we need to choose stewardship over surety. This comes from Proverbs 6, verses 1-5, we’ll look at all the verses, but let me just read verses 1-2. My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have shaken hands and pledged for a stranger, you have been trapped by what you said and snared by the words of your mouth. And then the next few verses talk about how the person that has pledged for someone else, in other words, they haven’t just gone into debt for themselves, they’ve gone into debt for a friend. They’ve gone into debt for a business partner. And that’s usually how that happens, right? We care for that other person, or they’re a friend, or they’re a son, or they’re a daughter, or they’re a close business partner. We’ve done business before, and now they need some help, and so we’re going to cosign, that’s what surety is, we’re going to cosign, we’re going to put our name on the loan so they can buy that car, or they can take that big loan out. And the Bible says, watch out! Be careful! In fact, if you continue reading there in verses three to five, there’s quite a bit of urgency. Here’s what the father is advising to the son, verse three, so do this, my son, to free yourself since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands. Go to the point of exhaustion and give your neighbor no rest. Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. Free yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. And so the Bible here is giving us a warning that we have to be careful with the promises and the pledges that we make, especially in the area of finance. Now I think about, well, why would I do that? Why would someone do that? Usually it’s because I’m wanting to help someone, right? I’m wanting to be kind to someone, and yet even in areas where we’re trying to love someone, we’re trying to help someone, we’re trying to support someone, maybe it’s a son or daughter, we want to see them start a business, we still, the Bible tells us we have to use wisdom. That’s why here at the church, we have a benevolence team, we have benevolence funds, but you know, that doesn’t mean that we just start handing out money. We try to use wisdom. We have protocols, we have policies we follow. There’s a process that you go through to get practical financial help, but let me just say, we love helping people. If you have a need and you’re a part of this church family, we want to help you. And if you know someone in the church that has a need, please talk with one of the board members, talk with one of the pastors. We love blessing people, but when we do that, we try to use wisdom. And so why would I co-sign on a loan for someone? Well, it’s probably because I had a good heart. I wanted to help them, and yet the Bible here gives us wisdom that places a limitation on what we might do in this area of financial stewardship. So verses 1 through 5 gives us this warning, this caution against surety. But if we don’t use our money or we don’t sign our name to other people’s loans, well, how are we supposed to use our money? And so I want to talk to us just about a few principles of stewardship, not surety. What should we do with our finances? Number one, we should honor God with our wealth, Proverbs chapter 3. Number two, we should give attention to our finances, and that’s Proverbs 27. We already read it. I love that proverb that talks about give attention to your herds. Now not all of us have cattle or sheep anymore, although if you are in the cattle business, it’s a very good time to be in the cattle business. Prices are up. And I guess that’s because I overheard last night at the dinner conversation, that’s because the amount of cattle in America right now is down, so there’s less cows, which means the prices are up. And Proverbs 27 is, whether you have herds or not, what that proverb is teaching us is that you won’t do well in your finances by just ignoring them. Whether you’re talking about your personal finances or your business, someone has to pay attention to the finances. Someone has to be intentional about what’s going on with your money. And so we honor God with our wealth or our finances. We give attention to our finances, Proverbs 27. Proverbs also teaches us to give freely, to live generously, and to leave an inheritance for your family. So remember, money is just a tool. Money is a tool that God gives us to bless other people around us. So whether we’re blessing a friend or a family member or we’re leaving an inheritance for a child, all of that is so we can honor God with our finances. Fourth, we seek righteousness and wisdom rather than riches. There are some really good Proverbs that teach us that the one who runs after getting wealthy quick is going to end up miserable. And of course, the New Testament teaches that as well, that the love of money is the root of all evil. Money is not the root of all evil. Come on. But when your heart is wrapped up in, all that matters to me is I’ve got to get wealthy. I’ve got to get wealthy. I’ve got to have that big house. I’ve got to have that bigger boat. Preaching to myself now, come on. You know, I’ve got to have this and I’ve got to have that, and you’re so wrapped up in material things. That doesn’t honor God, and it will harm you. And so Proverbs teaches us that when we seek righteousness and wisdom rather than riches and wealth, that’s when we’re blessed and we reap benefit after benefit and we’re able to honor God with whatever resource He’s put into our life. Proverbs 21, verse 10 also teaches, live frugally. Wow, if you want to honor God with your riches, with your wealth, with your herds, with your wheat fields, whatever it is you have as a resource in your life, Proverbs 21, verse 10 reminds us to live frugally. And so let me just unpack that for a second. We can’t come to the altar and say, Lord Jesus, please deliver me from my financial problems. And then we go out and just spend erratically. I mean, you can do that. But I believe the answer to that prayer is the Holy Spirit’s going to start speaking to you about your spending. Come on, am I stepping on somebody’s toes this morning? You see, God wants you to honor Him with your finances. God wants you to honor Him and glorify Him. First Corinthians 10, 31, whether you eat, drink, or whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Colossians 3, 17, same teaching. It’s all throughout the scripture. We don’t just honor God when we come to church. We don’t just honor God when we open up our Bible. We honor God in every area of our life, no matter what we’re doing in our career, in our vocation, with our finances, the decisions we make, how we treat other people. And here in verses one through five, it is be very careful the financial promises that you make to help other people because it could destroy you. The second truth we see about career wisdom and money comes from verses six and following. Choose work over laziness. Choose work over laziness. Look with me just at verses six through eight. Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provision in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? Verse nine, when will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. You see, Proverbs is clear. In general, remember Proverbs is not filled with promises. Proverbs is filled with little wise sayings. What the book of Proverbs is teaching us is that in general, this is how the world works. In general, this is how you can walk wisely or walk foolishly. What Proverbs tells us in the area of work is that if you want to be poor, just be lazy, lay around and don’t ever do anything. Poverty will come to you like a thief in the night. If you want to do well in life, if you want to have resources so that you can provide for your family and be a blessing to people around you and to be a part of the kingdom of God and bless God and honor him, then you got to go to work. You got to go to work. I brought a special piece of paper here this morning because a few years ago I wrote up what I called a theology of work and vocation. I want to share just a few main points from this. The first point is we are created for work. You and I have been created for work. When God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, specifically Adam, the word there is cultivate, but Adam was placed in the garden, Genesis 2.15, to work or to serve, to cultivate the garden. It’s a part of who you are. You are created to be creative. God is a creator. God is creative. And so you are created to work. You’re created to invent. You’re created to make this world a better place. In fact, I believe as a part of this theology of work, as I’ve traced it through the Bible, when you make the world a better place, you are honoring God. You’re honoring God. There’s a wonderful book by Wayne Grudem. He’s a theologian, Christian theologian, Wayne Grudem, and he wrote a book called Business for the Glory of God. He unpacks a lot of these business terms like profit and productivity. His message is that yes, business can be used for evil, but as Christians who are redeemed by the Lord, we’re free to live for Christ. We can use our business. We can use business in general and the relationships that we have in business partnerships and business transactions. If we do it in a way that honors God, God gets the glory and the world gets the benefit. Think about your area of work and what you’re doing. God wants to use you to be a blessing to people around you, to maybe create something, to be productive. I believe that Christians, we should be the hardest working people with the best attitudes on the team. Am I there every Monday morning? No. I have my days. I have my moments when I maybe don’t show up for work bright-eyed and ready to go. I’m not preaching this this morning to try to get you down, but I am trying to give you a bigger yes. I’m trying to encourage you this morning that work is not just the way you pay your bills. Work and your calling, your vocation, and the gifts and the skills that you have in your life, that’s the way you glorify God in your life. We’re created to work. We’re created to create and be productive. Secondly, work is good. We know that from the Genesis account. Third, we also know that work is cursed. Remember Genesis chapter 3? So if you’ve ever experienced difficulty in work, lost your job, been let go, had a difficult boss, co-workers who won’t do their part of the work and you end up doing it for them, if you’ve ever experienced difficulty in work, we know that comes right out of the fall in Genesis chapter 3. But in the midst of work being good and then work being cursed, the curse, actually the difficulty of work, is what points us back to God and helps us to rely on God. This is difficult, but I know you’ve called me to be a producer. You’ve called me to be productive. You’ve called me to be an inventor, to provide for my family, and to glorify you in my work. So Lord, I’m looking to you to help me in the difficulty of life and the difficulty of work. Well, there’s so much more I could say about work. Work next to sleep is probably where we spend most of our time, right? And so I hope this morning, here’s what I’m trying to sort of disenfranchise us of. I hope this morning you don’t have the idea that the only time you’re spiritual is when you come to church or you’re in a Bible study or a prayer meeting. Yes, those are wonderful times when we connect with God and connect with other people. But we need to also be Christians who are spiritual and focused on God when we’re working. And when we’re out being on that work team, and trust me, they know, you don’t have to say anything, they know very quickly whether you’re a Christian or not. They know in how you work. Because the Bible teaches us to work as we’re working unto the Lord. Billy Graham wrote a book on work, and he gives five points in his book that the Bible teaches about work. Number one, work is a gift from God. Number two, those who are able to work should work. Number three, work like God is your boss. On my line of work, that’s easy, because he is. But the reality is, he’s really your boss in your line of work. Whether you’re a businessman or woman, whether you’re working and you don’t feel like you have anything to do with the leadership and you’ve got a lot of bosses, or you’re the boss of the whole organization, if you’re a believer, if you’re a follower of Jesus, you’re working for Jesus, not just for that company. And so Billy Graham says, work like God is your boss. Billy Graham also says, take time to rest. Take time to rest. You know, work is good, but rest is also good. And one of the things we are challenged with in our generation is resting well. Because when we rest well, we’re actually able to change the chemistry in our bodies so that we’re able to slow down. And we’re able to experience that emotional refreshing. I can tell you, as a pastor, there’s times when I come in to start writing a sermon, or I’m working on a Sunday school lesson, and I mean nothing’s flowing. I mean, there is nothing there. And I know in that moment, I’m going to waste my time if I sit there for the next hour. So I get up and I go for a walk. Or I spend a little time in prayer. Or now that my diet’s over, I’m going to open up a Dr. Pepper and just relax a little bit. Jenny’s going to stay on me about this diet, I’m telling you. But we’ve got to get good at resting well. So if you’re taking time to physically rest, and somehow you’re still feeling exhausted, I want to ask you to begin using Scripture to help you rest emotionally and spiritually. So it’s not just enough to say, yeah, I didn’t go to work that day. And so I guess I rested. But are you really experiencing inner rest in your emotions and your spirit? There’s been some times in my life when, yes, I was resting, but I was still anxious. I was still fearful. I was still so stressed out that all the hormones and stuff in my body were very elevated. And I would still go through experiences where I was just exhausted all the time. If that’s happening to you, you need to look into the Word of God, get a few Scriptures that can help you actually rest well. For me, one years ago was simply Joshua 1, verse 6, Joshua 1, verse 9, where Moses, or this was after, I believe, Moses had died. But the Word of the Lord comes to Joshua, and it just says, be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. It’s like three times. And there was an episode in my life where I actually had to memorize that and say that to myself internally many times. You’re strong and courageous. You’re strong and courageous. You’re strong and courageous. And that’s biblical, friends, because the Bible tells us that even King David, the Bible says, and David encouraged himself in the Lord. And so if you’re resting physically, wonderful. But make sure you’re getting the emotional and spiritual rest that you need and that you’re actually resting well so that when you get up, because I know when I’m rested, when I’m rested and it’s time to write a sermon, or I’m rested and it’s time to go minister at the hospital, man, I’m ready to go. I got thoughts coming out everywhere. I’m ready to write. And I can tell a huge difference when I’m actually emotionally and spiritually rested versus when I’m emotionally and spiritually exhausted. So Billy Graham reminds us that God rested, and rest is really important. So we’ve got to work, work, work, yes. But we’ve also got to rest. And then his fifth truth was just put God first when you plan for your old age. There’s really, you know, the world celebrates retirement, but there really is no full retirement in the kingdom of God, right? Your time schedule might change, but you’re always serving the Lord. You’re always looking for ways to honor God in your life. And I just want to take a minute to give a shout out to so many of you who model that so well. Our deacons, deacon spouses, ministry leaders, many of you who really, you could just kick back and say, hey, I did the whole church thing for like 40 years. I was always helping. I’m just going to head out to the golf course and go to the lake every weekend now. And I am so thankful for you. So thankful that you’re willing to say, no, no, no, there’s no retirement with the Lord. I’m going to keep getting in there, building up the kingdom, serving in the church. That’s what I want to do over the next many years of my life. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So choose work over laziness. I didn’t even get to talk about my favorite word, sluggard. We read it. But for many years, when we would read Proverbs at the dinner table, man, when the kids were younger, we could get into a real hoot fest at the dinner table. Yes. When we’d start calling each other, we’d read that and then before long, somebody would say, you old sluggard. And we’d start laughing at each other. And it’s just kind of a funny word. But it’s really just a word that means a person who just wants to lay around. They don’t really want to do anything or go anywhere or make anything happen. They just kind of want to lay around. And the Bible says, no, don’t live that way. Consider the ant. The ant is a person that during the summer is preparing for the cold weather. And so we want to be a person who is working and getting ready and preparing for what God has for our lives. A third truth we see about career and business and finances is we should choose our friends who are wise and Proverbs here uses this word scoundrel. We don’t want to have scoundrels as friends. Let’s look at verses 12 through 15. And here in my verse, scoundrel is actually troublemaker and villain. So verse 12, a troublemaker and a villain who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks maliciously with his eyes, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers, who plots evil with deceit in his heart. He always stirs up conflict. Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant. He will suddenly be destroyed without remedy. And this goes back a little bit to surety. We’ve got to be very careful when it comes to work, who we work with. We’ve got to be very careful. And that doesn’t mean you’re always going to have the best boss in the world. I don’t mean that. But certainly in business, when we get into partnerships, we need to be very careful who we’re in partnership with. We don’t want to be in partnership with unwise people who are really scoundrels. They’re troublemakers. They’re villains. And that those words are connected to being rebellious and to being evil. Verse 14, who plots evil with deceit in his heart. In other words, they’re actually trying to harm people. If you’re a salesman, I know we’ve probably got many salesmen or you’ve you’ve in your career, you’ve been salesman. One of the ways that over the years of my life, when I had different opportunities to be involved in things, believe it or not, one time in my life, I almost became an insurance salesman. I didn’t praise God. The Lord had other plans. And I as I would pray about, okay, could I do this? It was always back to, well, will this honor God and help people? Will this honor God and help people? And I just want to encourage you out there, if you’re providing a service or a product and it honors God and it helps people, go for it with all your might. Because that’s a good business to be involved in. Now if it’s a business that harms people, you need to get out of that business. If it’s a business that doesn’t honor God, you need to get out of that business. That’s not what God has for you. God’s got something better for you. You see, the scoundrel is the kind of person that they don’t care what they sell you. They don’t care what happens to you at the end of the business deal. They’re not thinking about that at all. They’ve got deceit in their heart. They’ve got corruption and evil in their heart. And so they’re fine if you get harmed. They just want to gain for themselves. And Proverbs is telling us, we don’t want to have partnerships with those kinds of people. We don’t want to do business with scoundrels. A fourth truth that we see about career wisdom and money in the book of Proverbs is we need to choose integrity over riches. I already mentioned this, that God wants us to have a heart for his righteousness and his glory more than we have a heart for wealth or riches or resources. See money is just a tool. It’s just a resource in our hands to honor God. So I love Proverbs 11 verse 1, a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. Now we don’t use necessarily weights, but if you can imagine being in a market back in the day, in ancient days, maybe they were in a marketplace and you’d buy a little flower and it wouldn’t come in a prepackaged flower sack, but they had to measure it out, right? Well, if I wanted to trick you or defraud you, what would I do? I would have some special weights that I use for you when you come along and it would, it would affect how much flower I was giving you. That’s what the scripture is talking about. But friends, we all know about scams. We know all about fraudsters. It is everywhere in our culture today and it shouldn’t surprise us with the evil in our world today, but it does surprise us, doesn’t it? I mean, I’m always surprised when I hear of another scam and another fraud, I’m like, how do these people have time to do this? I mean, they’re sitting in computer cafes all over the world just trying to scam some American out of $300, but to them that $300 is probably a lot of money. But Proverbs is teaching us as followers of Christ, we need to choose integrity in our work life, in our career, in our business dealings, we need to choose integrity over riches. You see, God smiles on the person who’s more concerned about honoring God and being integrous than, oh, I’ve got to just make a lot of money on this next deal. God wants us to care about being honest and being just. A fifth truth this morning about career and money, and I love Proverbs 22 verse 29, we already read it, but we need to choose to develop our skills. Proverbs 22 verse 29, do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings, he will not serve before obscure men. If you go back into Exodus chapter 35, when we read about the building of the tabernacle, there were two men, I’m not even sure I can say their names right, but it was Bezalel and Oholiab, not names that you’re naming your children these days. But these guys, Exodus 35 tells us, had gifts and talents and skill to build the tabernacled furniture. And so both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 10, Peter encourages believers to utilize their gifts as good stewards when they help other people. So Old Testament, New Testament, the entire Bible, we have this idea that God has given you gifts, he’s given you talents, he’s given you abilities, and he wants you to develop those. Think about that. See, most of the time we see someone playing on the piano, and we think, oh, it would just be so great to play the piano like that, until you start asking, well, how many hours have you trained? How many? Oh, that violinist, wow, she can play, so wouldn’t it be wonderful if Pastor Tom could play the violin? Well guess what? Pastor Tom would have to take some time out of his schedule, and I would have to train and practice, and I would have to develop that gift. The parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25 verse 14 through 30 is really one of the best biblical stories that Jesus gave us that helps us understand that God is looking at you and I today, and he is saying, I’ve given you gifts, I’ve given you talents. Every one of us has a gift or a talent, and in fact, there’s a, I think it’s a proverb or maybe in Ecclesiastes, it teaches us, the Bible says, your gift will make a way for you. And so it’s this idea that God has given you a talent, he’s given you a gift, and if you read the parable of the talent in Matthew 25 verse 14, everybody has different levels, like one person gets five talents, another two, another one, so we’re all different, but every one of us, we have something that God has given us that we can go to work with, we can develop those skills, those gifts. In fact, I believe that’s when a gift becomes a skill, is when you’ve intentionally taken time to develop and to train and to work on that until, like, you’re an expert, like, you’ve gotten really, really good at laying carpet, like, you’ve gotten really, really good at teaching students or whatever it is, because you worked on it. Maybe you had a gift, but that gift had to be developed. We’re really excited here at the church that sometime, I don’t know that we have a date yet, but sometime in 2026, we’re going to have a dirty job Sunday, and I hope that kind of catches you off guard a little bit, it’s kind of a funny name, but what’s the name of that guy? Mike Rowe. Mike Rowe. Have you ever seen Mike Rowe? Well, here’s what we believe in our church, if you have a job that somebody else doesn’t want to do, maybe you’re a plumber, you mow grass, you move earth for a living, and maybe somebody else either doesn’t want to do it or doesn’t know how to do it, we want to honor you, because we believe in you, we believe in the work that you’re doing, we believe it’s ordained of the Lord, that you can be gifted and skilled, so we’re going to have a dirty job Sunday, and we’re going to try to invite business people and workers, maybe they work for the city of Columbia, maybe they work on the light poles, there’s so many, we’re going to start brainstorming how can we reach out to people who are doing jobs that nobody else wants to do, they’re just hard workers, and they’re gifted, and they’re skilled at what they do. We believe God wants to build you up in what you’re doing, and that’s what Proverbs 22, verse 29 says, when a man or a woman becomes skilled with their gifts, they’re going to do important things. They’re going to do important things. I’ve known friends who can walk through Columbia and say, yeah, I designed that building right there. I’ve got a friend who works for Emory Sapp and Sons, and I used to love to talk to him about the bridges in Missouri, because he used to be very involved in building all the bridges, and he knew how to build bridges, and how deep you had to go into the river to make that bridge safe and secure. And so I want to encourage us this morning, your work is not insignificant. Whether you’re working from home, or you work for a big organization, or a small organization, you’re self-employed, whatever you do for work, that is a way that you can glorify God and develop your skills, and God will use it. God will use it in your life. I want to invite the worship team to come. I want to encourage us this morning to consider every area of our life as an opportunity to glorify God. Making wise choices in your career, in your money, and your life honors God. It helps others, and will present more opportunities to serve God and God’s purposes in your life. Here’s what I really believe. If you’re walking with Jesus, Jesus has set you free, and anything’s possible in Jesus. If you’re walking with Jesus, and he’s set you free, and he’s given you a new life, you can become that doctor that invents something and saves babies, or helps the human eye get healed. If you’re walking with Jesus, and you’ve been set free from a life of no purpose and a life of wandering, God wants to give you a bigger yes. He’s got something for you to do, and he hasn’t called you to walk in drugs and alcohol. He’s called you to something higher. He’s got a purpose for your life, and he can use your hands and your feet and your mind to glorify him. That’s the heart of this message this morning. Even for those of us who are either in retirement or you’re nearing retirement, God’s not done with you. God’s not done with you. God’s got ways, because honestly, as you get to that age, you’ve got some skills. You’ve got some expertise. You could mentor others. You could be a blessing to somebody else. You could be some young person who’s coming along, trying to learn how to be an expert, trying to learn how to be skilled and gifted. So it’s never too late to say, Lord, what can I do with my gifts? What can I do with the skills that I have? My heart this morning for this message has really been twofold. One, to just give you a bigger yes in the area of your life that takes up most of your life, which is your work. Lord, give us that bigger yes. I want to glorify you and honor you, Lord. But I don’t want to just pay my bills. I want to do something significant for the Lord with my gifts and my talents and my abilities. And we’re all different. We’re all different. But did you notice in the parable of the talents that the master, Jesus, expected the same thing from the five-talent person, the two-talent person, and the one-talent person? We don’t all have the same talents, but Jesus wants all of us to invest them in the kingdom. Will you stand with me this morning, and we’re going to pray. And before I lead us in prayer, I just want to invite many of you to just begin to step out and say, Lord, I want you to bless my work, and I want you to be honored through my work. Would you just begin to step out? Maybe for you, that’s your school right now. You’re in school. And you’re saying, Lord, I need help in my schooling because I wanted to honor you, and I want it to be a blessing to you, and I want your blessing and your favor in my life. So would you step out? You’re in school. You’re considering changing jobs. You’re looking for a job. You’re frustrated with your finances, and you’re saying, Lord, I want to live differently in the area of my finances. I want to see your favor and your blessing in my finances. Just begin to step out and say, Lord, I want to honor you. I don’t want to walk in foolishness. I want to walk in wisdom. I want to honor you in my life. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, thank you, Lord God, that you care about church life. You care about home life. You care about work life. Lord, thank you, Jesus, that you get the glory in every area of our life when we use our gifts and our talents for you, when we develop our skills, when we choose wise friends, when we make decisions to be hardworking and creative. Lord, I pray this morning that you would just begin to release over this church an anointing of work, an anointing of vocation, an anointing of blessing, an anointing of favor in the area of work and finances in our life. Lord, just release that anointing over this church, and Lord, we pray with these at the altar this morning that you would give wisdom, that you would give direction, that you would give blessing over work life and over finances, O God. Lord, we’re not asking just so we would be blessed, but we want to be a blessing to other people around us, Lord God. We want to bless our household. We want to bless our children. We want to bless our grandchildren. We want to be a blessing in this community, Lord God. Lord, release an anointing of business, business sense, business smarts, business wisdom, O God, in our church. We pray for business owners this morning, Lord, in our church, that you would bless them and anoint them to make this world a better place as they walk with you in the kingdom of God. Thank you, Lord. Lord Jesus, be glorified in the way we work and where we work and how we work. Be glorified, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord God. Thank you, Jesus. Hi, I’m Pastor Tom Ragsdell. I’m Pastor Ellis Benus, and we’re from Columbia First Assembly. We are a church that’s on mission with Jesus. Our vision is simple. We want to make Jesus famous in your heart and in our community. Absolutely. Thank you so much for connecting with us online. We would also love to connect with you in person. We are located at 1100 North 7th Street, right in the heart of Columbia, Missouri, right across the street from Hickman High School. So if you’re in the central Missouri area and you’re looking for a home church, come hang out with us. If you’re just connecting online and you’re nowhere near us, then please connect with us in the comments. If you have a prayer request, if you have a question, if you’re wondering anything about the Lord or Christianity, please let us know, and we would be happy to engage with you in the comments. We believe God’s doing something special in our church, and we want you to be a part of it. We’re a multi-generational church. We have people from all different backgrounds. We’re a church of the Word. We’re a church of the Spirit. We believe Jesus can transform your life. That’s why we’re on mission with Him, and we want to help you know God. We want to help you grow in God, and we want to share hope in our community. So connect with us, and we want to connect with you. Awesome. Have a wonderful and a blessed day.