“On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.” – Psalm 62:7
Are you going to heaven?
This is a helpful question because the answer reveals what we are trusting in for our salvation. Many people answer,
“I hope so,” or
“I think so, I’m a pretty good person.”
These answers are common but unfortunate. They demonstrate that the person is looking to their works, the good they do and the bad they avoid, for their assurance. There’s no assurance of salvation in that. In fact, if we think we can earn eternal life, we can be sure we won’t.
I hope your answer is,
“Yes, by the grace of God!”
This answer looks solely to God through the work of Jesus Christ. We’re saved by God’s love and Jesus’ work, not ours. You don’t need to “hope” it’s true or think about how good or bad you are. That’s irrelevant because salvation is only by grace through faith apart from our works.
So, are you going to heaven? “Yes, by the grace of God!!”
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for saving me by Your grace. If it depended on my works, I would have no hope. When doubt enters my mind, remind me of Your promise and remind me that my salvation rests on You alone.
Faith Lutheran Church in Wesley Chapel, FL Sermon for February 9, 2020 Pastor Kurt Steinbrueck
Series Overview:
This is the second week of the sermon series, “Jesus in Our Lives.” This series takes a practical look at how having Jesus in our lives changes our lives. How does Jesus change our perspectives, attitudes, and actions?
The series will look at Jesus in four contexts of our lives:
Home
Work
School (both parents and students)
and Neighborhoods.
Today’s message focused on Jesus in Our Workplace.
How does believing in Jesus change our perspective, attitude, and behavior at work?
Click the above link to watch the message. This week was a dinner service at Faith. So, the message was more of a conversion.
Below are some sermon notes:
Sermon Text:
Ephesians 6:5-9 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
Work is a blessing.
The Bible doesn’t distinguish between church work and secular work. All work is a calling from God in which we serve others to bring glory to God’s name.
Understanding our work is a calling from God and we are serving Him in that work changes our perspective of our job. It gives us purpose and mission. We can deal with less-than-pleasant bosses, co-workers, and customers because we are doing it for Jesus.
This also affects our behavior which means we may act differently than others. How?
We work hard and go the extra mile. (Sidenote: We work hard, but find a good balance between work, family, and health)
We are honest, even when it’s hard.
We take a stand against things at work that are contrary to God’s Word. For example, if our sales manager tells us to lie about a product to sell more. We refuse.
We know that God is bigger than our job. He is with us when we work and, if we lose our job, He will carry us through that situation as well.
We treat all people with respect and dignity, trying to help them, not stomping over them for our benefit. This includes, especially, those who are in lower positions.
All these behaviors shine the light of Jesus.
We also look for opportunities to tell others about Jesus, but we do so carefully (considering our current cultural environment) and without compromising our work.
In all these things, we give thanks to God for the blessing of work, His provision through our job, and our opportunity to serve others in His name.