Worship 24x7 at Work

We discussed in our lest lesson that worship is more than what we do within the walls of our congregation. In every aspect of our lives, we worship God in our conduct, in our attitudes, in our service to Him in all places and all times. This carries over to our workplace. The way we conduct ourselves at work reflects who we are as Christians, and there should be no separation between the standards we hold ourselves to at church and our expectations of ourselves at work.

We set an example when we are working. The ethics and morality we follow, the language we use, the way we treat those we work with, the attitudes we demonstrate – these show God and others our true commitment to our Christian walk. Does our conduct at work demonstrate our faith and values, or do we contradict our spiritual lives with our work lives?

Christians at Church and Work

In Matthew 15:8-9, Jesus calls one whose words and actions do not match a hypocrite. I John 1:6 warns that we are lying to ourselves if we think we follow Him while not living by His word. If we are worshipping God in word on Sunday, but the deeds of our lives do not back that worship up, then that worship in in vain.

Romans 12:14-21 outlines some principles we should be following: not giving into temptation, living peaceably with others, never repaying evil with evil. God does not grant us exemptions on expectations simply because we are in the pursuit of money. We spend a great deal of time at work. It is where we have the most connections and opportunities, and it is where we should be working the hardest to let our light shine.

Living Thankfully at Work

We often offer thanks for our jobs and our material blessings. We pray for His continual provisions for us and our families. If we are not living the way we should at work, however, we are praying in vain. Ephesians 6:5-8 tells us we should be good employees not to please man, but to please God. Colossians 3:22-25 says much the same, reminding us that our true reward comes from God and not from man. I Timothy 6:1-2 and Titus 2:9-10 encourages us to conduct ourselves humbly and ethically in the workplace.

We need to work as if we are working for God. Our work ethic should be unspotted. We should deal honestly with those we come into contact with at work. We should never leave an opening for someone to say about us: “They did that? I thought they were a Christian.” This means we avoid griping and moaning. We avoid taking advantage of our position. We should be respectful to our managers and supervisors, and we should be honestly earning the wages we’re given.

I Peter 2:18-21 teaches the difficult lesson that we are to work as well for difficult employers as we would for a good manager. What credit is it to us if we work well for someone easy to work with? Our character really comes out when things get tough. If we are in a position of authority, however, Ephesians 6:9 tells us we should be as humble as if we were in a position of subjection. We are to be respectful, fair, and kind toward those who work under us.

Worship At Work

When we work as God would have us, living the trust we have for God in our lives, then we will set an example to people we may not even know are looking up to us. Our conduct can glorify God in a setting where there is much to lead us astray – pressures to socialize in ungodly ways, to fall into ungodly joking and conversations, to get caught up into office dramas, to skim a little extra for ourselves. If we keep Him first, worshipping Him even in the workplace, then we can keep ourselves above those influences.

What matters to you at work? Do your actions and attitudes reflect God? Work with respect and good will for your superiors. Demonstrate integrity. Offer good service to employers both good and bad. Remember your ultimate master is in Heaven, and it is Him we seek to please. Treat those under your authority with kindness and respect. Treat coworkers, employers, and employees the way you want them to treat you. Let your conduct at work be worship to our Heavenly Father, the final authority and master in our lives.

lesson by Mark RItter

Worship 24x7

For many of us, worship consists of what we do when we come together once or twice a week. We have this worship broken down into five formal acts – singing, praying, teaching, communion, and contribution. This is not all worship is, however. Worship is something that should be happening outside the walls of your congregation. We have to understand more about worship if we are going to live worshipfully in all aspects of our lives.

Worship from the Heart

The Greek word for worship literally means to prostrate one’s self, to bow down. The English root is “worth-ship.” It is something we do, not because we are commanded or because we get something out of it, but rather we worship because God is worthy of that worship. True worship will indeed build us up as we draw closer to God, but our worship centers on Him first and foremost. He wants us to worship Him as well as have a desire to worship Him.

We know John 4:24, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Jesus says this in context of one questioning Him about the proper place of worship. Jesus says the proper place to worship is from within. In Mark 12:28-31, Jesus says the greatest of the commandments is to love God with all of our heart, soul, and strength. It is a love we carry with us everywhere and at all times. It is not constrained to a specific time and location.

Worship in Our Lives

Amos 5:21-24 outlines God condemning acts of worship that are following the prescribed pattern. They were doing what was commanded, so why was God not pleased? Isaiah 1:11-17 repeats this condemnation, telling the people that their lives did not match their worship. They came together and went through the steps of worship while living in a way that invalidated their worship. Today, we can be guilty of the same if our lives do not lift God up in worshipful living.

Real worship is a life devoted to our God. Without that form of worship coming daily from us, our assembled worship means little. Hebrews 13:15-16 says,

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Our lives should be sacrifices of praise; doing good to others, giving of ourselves for the sake of others, defending and helping those in need, living prayerfully – all of these things constitute worship. It is a surrendering of our lives to God in all places and at all times.

Romans 12:1-2:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

To live sacrificially, we have to remove the world from our hearts while we live that life among the world. We are transformed, putting our former selves to death, worshipping God from a well that comes from within. Hebrews 12:1-2 calls on us to lay aside the weights of this world in our lives, and verses 12-15 then instruct us to strengthen those around us, to live peacefully, to live morally, to lift the fallen. This is the acceptable worship spoken of in verse 28.

Examples of Worshipful Living

David exemplifies worshipful living in Psalm 51, calling on God for forgiveness. He not only asks to be forgiven, but David asks God to make his life pure and a life of praise. He knows sacrifices and offerings are not enough, and David calls a humble and softened heart the true sacrifice God desires. Back in Mark 12, the scribe who asked Jesus about worship understand this, and Jesus commends him, saying the scribe is near to the kingdom.

Philippians 1:19-20 records Paul saying that Christ will be honored in him in life or death, and verse 27 encourages us to make our lives worthy of the gospel. Chapter 4:18 calls the generosity of the church in Philippi a sacrifice acceptable before God. Ephesians 5:1-2 uses these same terms to describe walking in love, and Paul goes on to describes what such a life looks like – free of immorality, free of covetousness, free of deceit. He calls on us to walk as children of light, to walk with care and wisdom, using our time wisely and forever giving thanks to God and living humbly before Him and others.

lesson by Dawson Guyer

Keeping It Real: Scientific Truth

Science is a great topic – studying our world, our universe, the animals and environment around us, the things that make up our world and keep it a habitable place. It is nothing new, though, that science is sometimes used and manipulated to lead people to specific conclusions that may not always be true. Regardless of your ideological leanings, we can see evidence of people using science and misrepresenting science to push a political cause or agenda, so how should we view this fascinating field as believers in Christ?

The Bible and Science

The Bible and science are not incompatible, but we should never try to make our Bibles into scientific textbooks. Some aspects of it are, in fact, scientifically improbable and impossible to prove. We take these things on faith. Take the age of Earth, for example. The Bible merely says God did it; the Word doesn’t go out of its way to conclusively state exactly how long ago it happened, so is it the best use our our time and efforts to debate such things?

In Job 38:11, God asks Job what he knows of the process of Creation. God points out that Job doesn’t understand, but He doesn’t go out of His way to explain every one of these details about which He questions Job. The Bible is not concerned with being a scientific proof text. Instead, it is concerned with the spiritual truths by which we should live.

John 17:17 records Jesus praying that His followers be sanctified in truth, and He qualifies this, saying, “Thy word is truth.” II Peter 1:3 goes on to say that God’s word gives all we need for godly living in the truth of His word. The specifics of the Bible may not satiate our curiosity regarding this physical world – that is the scope of science. Instead, our Bibles tell us the details of how we must live to be like Him. That is the truth in which we are sanctified.

The Role of Faith

Hebrews 11 begins with a passage we see as a definition of faith – we believe things the Bible says despite the intangible nature of those things. This is not blind adherence, but I Thessalonians 5:19-22 tells us to test our faith and to hold fast to what is good.

In this, we feel we have to get into Christian evidences, again trying to fit science into faith – fitting a field based on skepticism around the trust involved with faith. It doesn’t fit, and we have to live with the fact that there will always be some who will not believe those evidences. Even during His life, Jesus could not convince all who saw and heard Him, even amidst the miracles they saw. Instead, godly living should be where we put our strongest efforts.

John 20:24-29 illustrates faith versus skepticism. Jesus blesses those who believe in Him despite never seeing Him. Likewise, will we believe in the Bible? Will we live by faith? Science is not bad. Through it, we can see God’s love in the world and universe He made, and believing in His role does not necessarily mean you are uneducated or uninformed. The Bible’s truth should guide every aspect of our lives, and we follow that truth in faith – trusting in the unseen hand of a Creator who loves us and wants us to spend eternity with Him.

lesson by Ben Lanius

Keeping It Real: Inner Beauty

What is real beauty? In the grocery checkout line, we have those magazines like Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Vogue where we see an idealized and artificial version of beauty. Then, on the other hand, we have those publications that try to tear down that beauty with terrible pictures and ugly stories. When it comes to God’s reality of beauty, His word deals little with outer appearances, but I Timothy 2:8-10 does talk about modest dress. In this, though, Paul is telling us to clothe ourselves in good deeds and not be distracted by our outer appearances.

I Peter 3:1-5 instructs us to have inner beauty more than outward. Our inward self should be our focus, not the attention we can draw toward ourselves with our clothes. Yes, Christ is supposed to be reflected in the way we dress – let’s not diminish that – but that is not the attention we are supposed to be seeking. We get very preoccupied with our clothes, especially in the context of worship, but we cannot let dress distract us from the true focus of our lives. God wants humble submission and does not want us to have unreasonably high attitudes of ourselves. In Leviticus 16:23-24, when the high priest entered the Holy Place, he physically clothed himself humbly, and our hearts should be so clothed in God’s service.

Clothed in Christ

Galatians 3:26-29 tells us we are clothed in Christ when we are baptized into Him. Romans 13:11-14 tells us to put aside the deeds of darkness and to clothe ourselves in Jesus Christ and the armor of light. Ephesians 4:20-24 tells us to shed our old selves and to clothe ourselves in newness, and Colossians 3 then points out specifics – ridding ourselves of anger, wrath, slander, and obscenity while putting on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. When we are clothed in Christ, we are one. We are all wearing the same thing no matter what we have on outside.

Again, Galatians 3:26-29 reinforces that we put on the garments of Christ when we are baptized into Him. That is when we change from our clothes of sin into the garments of righteousness. Once we have those clothes, we cannot let them go out of style. We cannot become embarrassed by them. It is not a garment we take out and put away as it’s convenient. The beauty of Jesus is who we are at all times. That inward beauty should always be evident.

Christ Seen in Us

When we are clothed in Christ, then the way we treat our outer appearance and our conduct will naturally fall into line. If we are honest with ourselves, we know when we are presenting ourselves appropriately or inappropriately. It comes down to what you really want. Do you want to conform to the standards of the world, or will you conform to His standard? When other people see us, do they see Jesus?

We need to evaluate ourselves. Can others see Christ in me in how I act, in what I do, in how I present myself? Am I clothed in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, or have I hidden Jesus in the back of my moral closet? The beauty of the world can be enticing, but our focus needs to be on our internal purity and our internal beauty. Where the magazines covers continue to show us the idealized beauty of the world, we should instead let others see the beauty of Jesus in us each and every day.

lesson by Ben Lanius