Abound In The Work Of The Lord

Take your Bibles, if you will, and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, a great chapter on the resurrection of Jesus. Join me now as we ask God to work in our hearts through His Word today. Father, we are here because we love you. We're here because of what Jesus has accomplished. We're here, Father, because we want to hear from you and to understand what you have for us.

Lord, as we stand in this pivotal part of this year, we'd ask that you give us insight. Give us insight into your word. Give us insight into our hearts. Help us to change as we hear your word and seek to obey it. Grant us that, we pray in the name of Jesus, our Savior. Amen.

This week, at least for most people, will be a time of reflection. We stand at the threshold of a new year. For most, that means looking at the year that's passed and looking to the year to come. and we'll look at the past year normally, most likely, with regret, and we'll look into the new, wondering how we'll be different. What's going to be different this year?

How are we going to change? What will it be like? Is it going to be any different than last year? We just wonder those things. Well, God throws light on our quandary and tells you what you should aim for. He tells you what you should do.

He tells you this in light of the most defining event in human history. He tells you this in the light of the most defining event in your life as a Christian, and that is the resurrection of Jesus. That resurrection has incredible implications for everything that we do. In fact, it's the very center, it's the very core of our faith. It's the very core of everything that we do.

And we find that in 1 Corinthians 15 and I going to read just verses 50 through 58 At the end of his discourse at the end of his dissertation if you will on the importance of the resurrection of Jesus for the life of believers. So I'm going to pick it up in verse 50 and read it to the end of the chapter. Verse 50, I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. therefore my beloved brothers be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain as you look to the past you might ask was any of the effort that I expended worth it as you look to the future you might ask will any of my efforts be worth it?

Is it going to be worth it? Well, here the apostle moves from doctrine to directive, from what you should believe to what you should think and do. And God says in this verse, verse 58, three things, three things that you need to carry into the new year, three things that you need to be thinking, three things that you ought to be doing. Here's what he says.

Stand firm, abound in the work of the Lord, and never give up. Those are the three things that we need to walk away with today and say this is what should characterize this coming year Stand firm abound in the work of the Lord and never give up First thing he says is, stand firm. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. The pressure's on.

The pressure is on. the Corinthian believers were in a pressure cooker of competing beliefs. And the enlightened and popular view that had infiltrated the church was this. It is quite impossible and even undesirable to believe that a mortal body will ever be raised from the dead. Resurrection is just plain unsophisticated and repugnant to their minds.

And you remember how the Apostle Paul responded. He said, if you believe that the resurrection of a mortal body is impossible, then you also have to say this, it is impossible then for Jesus to have been raised from the dead. And if Jesus has not been resurrected, then you have no hope of salvation. You should be pitied because life now becomes meaningless.

You suffer for nothing. Anyone who has already died has perished and is gone forever. And lastly, lastly, you are still condemned and under the wrath of God for your sin. All that is true if you do not believe in the resurrection. What were they to believe? Now, you're in the same pressure cooker of belief.

So your co-worker says to you one day, let me get this straight. you believe that this guy named Jesus was raised from the dead after he died. And you say, yep, that's what I believe. And he says, that is just absolutely impossible. In a scientific age like we live in, how could you possibly believe that anybody has been raised from the dead? It's impossible.

And look, even if it did happen, let's just say it did happen. I may not have an explanation for it, but someday we may come up with an explanation for it. And besides that what difference could it possibly make Well here the thing that you need to remember If Jesus was raised from the dead then it means that the payment he made for sin was accepted by God God raised him from the dead to say to those who accused him of blasphemy, no, you were wrong and he was right.

It also shows that all the things that Jesus claimed about himself must be true, that he is Savior, that he is the Son of God, that he is the judge of all men, and that everyone must obey his commandments and be judged on the basis of those. That's all true if he's been raised from the dead. And your friend says, look, that thinking is so unscientific, it's so unsophisticated, it is uneducated and simple.

You are a simpleton. Do you really want to keep believing fairy tales or do you want to face reality? How do you respond to that? The Apostle Paul says you must stand firm. You must remain steadfast and immovable and fixed on the faith of the gospel. You've got to be fixed on the gospel.

Do not abandon your trust in the one who's been raised from the dead. Don't let anyone move you away from the hope of the resurrection, no matter how unsophisticated, no matter how uneducated, no matter how unenlightened you may appear to everyone around you. Never abandon the gospel. Never abandon what God says and has said in Christ. Now how is that possible?

That's where the therefore comes in. Therefore, be steadfast in removal. What does that mean? It says because Jesus has been raised from the dead. Because death has no victory. Death has not won.

Death does not have the last word. If death is victorious, then life becomes meaningless. Because no matter no matter what you accomplish in life, no matter what you do, okay, you turn to dust. Now I want you to, you got to chew on that a little bit. If Jesus hasn't been raised from the dead, then why even think about what you're going to do next year?

It's all meaningless. this anyway. You may not even finish out the year. Who knows what's going to happen to you. Right? You may be 20 and you've not accomplished much. Well, what you have accomplished isn't worth a thing if everything just ends in death.

It's all meaningless. It's just meaningless. Right? If death wins, then what? He said it earlier. If death wins in the end, if death is just it, if that's just the end of everything, well then, Live for today.

Live like a beast. Eat, drink, and be merry. Because there's nothing worth doing if it all ends in death. Right? Hey, if you can get by without going to work, and you can party all the time, do it. Get all the gusto you can.

You've got one life to live. There's nothing more. At the end, it's just death. You turn to dust. So live it up. Right?

And, you know, I would even challenge people who say, we need to do good for people in this world. And these are people who don't necessarily believe in the resurrection of Jesus. They don't believe in God. And I say, why would you even want to do that? What good does it do? Well, it helps people.

So what? You end up in dust and so do they. What's the big deal? It's meaningless, right? You might as well eat, drink, and be merry. If death has the last word, then we're to be pitied above all people because we're suffering for following the teachings of a teacher who's dead.

Why should I follow those teachings when these other teachings over here might make life a little bit better? But you know what? It'll relieve me of the suffering. You see, you can remain steadfast. Jesus has won the victory. He has defeated death.

So at the very start, stand firm in the gospel. if you don't stand firm in the gospel all your efforts in the new year are meaningless if you don't stand firm there's no meaning why even worry about the new year but see if jesus is raised from the dead there is meaning in what you do there is meaning second thing he says is abound always abounding in the work of the Lord now what does that mean always abounding in the work of the Lord now listen carefully it does not mean you not doing enough do more that not what abounding means I hope that good news to you It good news to me Frankly some of us can do what others can do because we're two-cylinder people in an eight-cylinder world. Okay? All right.

Do any of you know what an A-deer is, a John Deere Model A? Maybe you don't know. Phil does? Okay. It was a John Deere built in the, I think in the 40s. The guy I worked with had an A Deere and we used it on the farm.

It's a two-cylinder thing and it just putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt. That's how it sounds. All right? You compare that to a John Deere, what, 8620, four-wheel drive. You can drive over the top of a car and not even feel it. Right?

Compared to that thing, those hinge things. Some of us are A-deers and some of us are 8620s. I happen to be, I think, an A-deer. I'm a two-cylinder guy in an eight-cylinder world, okay? By the way, A-deers only had two cylinders. And, you know, what you can do is you can get to comparing yourself to people around you and saying, I'm not abounding in the work of the Lord.

And that's not what he's talking about. I can look at Steve. We took a church of 400. Now they have a seminary and a ministry for men and a residential ministry for women and the church is almost on the campus of Purdue University. They've had an incredible impact on that town, right? This is the guy who used to babysit my kids, right?

And just got all bent out of shape because he got peanut butter in their hair when he was struggling to get to a Greek exam on time. I look at Jim who pastored a church in San Diego. In fact, he pastored the church we prayed about this morning. just had this incredibly influential counseling center. Now he's a professor at a seminary that is not friendly to biblical counseling, and he's turning the whole program around.

I think about Keith, who presented a paper at the Evangelical Theological Society last year, right? That's getting to the top, right? And then, of course, there's my friend John. He's had an impact on thousands of students, has an international reputation. you start comparing yourself to other people you get pretty discouraged because that what we think abounding is doing more That not what he saying All right To all of us who are two people he not saying become an eight tractor He's saying this.

Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 8. God's not calling on you necessarily to do more. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Look at verse 7. This is the same word that's used. This is the same word translated a little bit differently here in verse 7, but it's the word abound.

But as you note, excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, in all our love for you. See that you excel in this act of grace also. You're already excelling. You're already giving it your whole heart. It means to excel in the work of the Lord, to give yourself fully to the work that the Lord has given you. It doesn't mean necessarily doing more.

It means to give yourself fully to the work of the Lord. You don't work for the Lord in a half-hearted manner, but you do your best. That's what he's telling you to do. That's what he's telling you to do. Now, how do you do that? How do you excel?

Anybody here ever hear of Joe Burrow? Yeah, some of you don't. I just said his name. That's the first time you've heard it. He won the Heisman Trophy this year. He's the guy who's quarterbacking for LSU.

He's a phenomenal, phenomenal athlete. Do you think he got to be the quarterback of the number one team in the nation, which will soon be determined? Maybe. Right now they're considered the number one in the nation. He's leading that as their quarterback. How did he get that far?

Right? He got that far because he excels at it. How does he excel? He gives himself fully to the game. He gives himself fully to the game. It's something that he pays attention to.

He's diligent. My guess is he works hard at every practice. And I wouldn't doubt one bit that when the rest of the team has gone home, he's still throwing the ball. He's still working at it. He persevered. He shows up at every practice.

I can't imagine that he's ever missed a practice. He kept at it. even when I think it going to kill him he keeps at it he listens and he learns from his coaches all right he listens and he learns from his coaches All those things are involved in excelling It takes effort certainly And you give yourself to it. You persevere. You listen. You learn. You work at it hard.

And he says here, you diligently pursue this. Pursue your best what? Always, always excelling in the work of the Lord. Not just when everyone else is watching. You don't excel. You don't give yourself fully to it.

Only when people are watching. You don't do it when you feel like it. You don't just do it when people applaud you and tell you you're doing a wonderful job. You do it when people aren't applauding. You pursue it even when you don't feel like it. You go after it.

And not when everybody's watching. and not just when people are nice to you, right? And they're nice to you because of all your hard work. No, you work hard even if people aren't nice to you. And you don't just keep at it until things start going, ah, they're just not going as good. You keep at it. You just stay with it.

But what exactly is the work of the Lord? What exactly is the work of the Lord? Okay? You say, well, pastor, that's easy. You're doing it right now. Really?

So none of this applies to you. Well, yeah, I mean, you know, if I'm a deacon or an elder or a Sunday school teacher or something like that, then that's what he's telling me. And I would say to you, no, you'd be wrong. It's much more than that. It is much more than that. You know, when Jesus appeared and when he was raised from the dead, he was declared to be Lord.

What does that mean? Lord, Master, King, Boss, all of those things. Lord of your life. He is the ruler of all. He's not just the ruler of things that go on in the church. He is the ruler of everything, of all.

And as a believer, you not only submit to him as Savior, you submit to him as Lord, as King, as Boss, as Master, which means Jesus now rules every part of your life. And here was the radical thing that the gospel message brought to light. It's simply this. Because Jesus is Lord, He elevates every part of your life. He elevates every part of your life. All the mundane, normal, everyday things become something entirely different.

Because Jesus is Lord of that. Right? So now, it becomes a way, a means of serving Jesus. Do you understand what that means? it means everything you do is under the lordship of jesus and everything you do is a means of serving him so i'm looking at all of you right now and i'm i'm looking at every one of you okay and i'm tempted to start picking on you and saying i won't say your name right but whatever it is you do you go to honda that's serving the lord you work at New Path that's serving the Lord right you teach you're a nurse right you're a landscaper you're an IT guy all of those belong to Jesus all of those are ways you serve Christ Colossians chapter 3 verse 17 and whatever you do in word or deed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Do you see that? Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to God the Father through him. Listen, this is something that we have to get a handle on. Because Jesus is resurrected, he's Lord of all. If he's Lord of all, he's Lord of everything in your life.

That means everything you do is done in submission to him. He's elevated everything in life. for the believer to be a means of serving Christ. The work of the Lord is everything you do. Because everything you do, you do in submission to Christ. From shepherding God's flock, to parenting, to teaching Sunday school, to being a spouse, to your everyday monotonous job.

It all belongs to Jesus. So you always do the work of the Lord. You're always doing this for Jesus. You know I think there a whole sermon series in that Alright No one is doing anything that doesn belong to the Lord My father who was a pastor, I can still, and I may be misremembering this, it seems to me we were standing in the backyard, I don't know why.

And he was saying this to me, and we grew up, we grew up in a church that was primarily composed of dairy farmers. Okay? Just about way more than half the congregation were dairy farmers, which meant they were up at five every morning milking and they were milking every night at five. Which meant, by the way, which meant when I grew up Sunday school didn't start until ten o'clock in the morning.

Worship was at eleven and we had an eight o'clock evening service. Okay? Because we had to work around the milking schedules. I remember my dad saying to me, and my brother, he said, look, you may think that serving the Lord means being a pastor like your dad. He does not mean that. It means you serve the Lord with whatever you do.

Don't ever be ashamed. Don't ever be ashamed of working with your hands. Don't ever be ashamed of hard labor, because you do that to the Lord. all these guys, all these families in our congregation who are milking cows, they're milking cows for the Lord. Everything you do is for the Lord Jesus, if he's Lord of your life. That elevates everything. And the work of the Lord, whatever it is, your mundane job, whether it's preaching, Honda, teaching, running a business, whatever it is he says it's labor always abounding in the work or the labor of the lord it's exhausting the word means exertion that brings about a state of weariness when you do everything for jesus and his glory it can get weary it can get weary which brings us to the last important piece of the puzzle never give up you notice the last thing that he says this is so important how is it that we can be immovable?

How is it that we abound in the work of the Lord, we excel in it, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain Now I not going to tell you which but Grandpa and Grandma Pasma have nicknamed one of their grandsons Never Give Up. Because he doesn't give up. I remember one time, some of the kids were staying overnight. I don't know, for some reason, we had a couple of mattresses stacked about that high. and that little guy was going to determine to get on top of that and he ran at that bed and he hit it and bounced off on the floor and he ran at it and bounced off and he ran at it and bounced off he kept at it and at it and at it until finally he was on top he never gives up because he knows something if I keep doing this most likely I'll accomplish it now what do you know that keeps you going in this strenuous labor for the Lord.

As you look at the new year and you're saying, I want to serve the Lord, one of the things you have to say is, the only way I'm going to keep at it, the only way I'm going to keep going is what? It's not in vain. No matter what you do, no matter what your labor is in the Lord, no matter what it is in the Lord, it's not in vain. And someone says, yes, but what about when my labor for the Lord proves unsuccessful?

What if it doesn't prove successful? You've worked hard at your marriage, and your spouse leaves you. Was that in vain? Was that in vain? What if you work hard at raising your children, and then you lose your oldest to the world when he attends college? Was all that time that you spent in vain?

Was it in vain? In vain? what about the pastor that I've just spent time with who's devoted 10 years to preaching the word and shepherding the flock and he wants to do it in the way that the Bible says and the congregation now wants to get rid of him I spent some time with him on the phone did he waste those 10 years are those wasted you know what God says no none of those are wasted if it's done in the lord none are wasted i think about those of you who work for new path you work in extraordinarily difficult circumstances with extraordinarily difficult people and you may lose three out of four of them Is that in vain Not a bit Not a bit Not if you do it for the Lord Look at Isaiah. All right.

You know, I'm so glad the Lord did not call me to the ministry in the way he called Isaiah. And here's why. Here's why. This is Isaiah's commission to preach. now we all are very familiar with the first part of isaiah right where he says in the year the king is i died i saw the lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple above him stood the seraphim each had six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and the one called to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke and I said he's confronted now with the holiness of God and what does he say I'm okay no he says woe is me woe is me for I am lost for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.

He sees the holiness of God and he crumples into a pile and says, man, I am so dirty. Then one of the seraphims flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar and he touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for. Okay, God says, I'm gonna take care of your sin.

Now comes his commission. Now listen carefully. This is why I say I'm glad the Lord didn't call me this way. Here's what he says. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And Isaiah jumps up and he says, Here am I.

Send me. I'll go. I'll serve you. I'll preach for you. Who'll do it? And now look what God says to him.

And he said, Go and say this to the people. Keep on hearing but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed. So I'm going to send you to preach. And you know what you're preaching?

It's going to harden people's hearts. They don't want to listen to me anymore. There's a great commission to preach, right? And this is what Isaiah says in response. He says, how long, O Lord? How long do you want me to do this?

And he says, until cities lie waste without inhabitant and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump.

How's that? I'll preach. I'll do it, Lord. He says, good. I'm sending you to a people so that when you preach, it will make their ears dull. They won't hear.

And he responds, how long? Until I've destroyed them. Wow. Now let me ask you. Was Isaiah's preaching a waste? It didn't seem to accomplish anything.

At least no success as we would call it. Did he waste his time? The answer is no. Why? Because he did it for God. He did it for God.

God assures you that if you serve the Lord Jesus none of your efforts are wasted when you do things consciously for the glory of Christ you work hard at your job so that people will look at you and say what makes the difference you're going to work hard you're going to be different you're going to be what God calls you to be you'll be a disciple of Jesus on the job. None of it is a waste then. Not a bit.

How can you be sure of that? Let me give you three reasons why you can be sure your work is not in vain. Look at Hebrews 6.10. And there's many, many more. I'm just going to give you three. Hebrews 6.10.

Hebrews 6 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do Do you see what he says there? You serve the saints. You love people. You know what that means? It means you're loving God. You're loving God by loving people, by serving people.

And he says God's not unjust. He won't forget anything that you do. So in other words, you love and you serve people, and God will notice, even if nobody else does. God's not unjust. He'll see every single thing that you do for his people, and he'll remember that. See?

All right? Matthew 25. This is one of my favorite parables. It's the parable of the servants. You remember, it's a parable of the talents that the master gives to his servants and goes away. He gives one five talents, he gives one three talents, he gives one one talent.

The one talent guy just buries his. The three talent guy invests the money and doubles it. The five talent guy doubles his. So when the master comes back, he says, okay, give me my money. the two give one gives them ten the other gives them six right you get it and here's what he says to them what's fascinating about this is is that he says to them um okay verse 21 he's talking to the five talent guy and now gives him five more his master said to him well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful over little. I will set you over much. Enter the joy of your master. And he went to the guy with the two talents. I'm sorry, two talents. And he said, Master, you delivered to me two talents.

Here I've made two talents more. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of the Lord. He also into the joy of your master.

Now let me ask you, What's the difference between the guy who gave him five more and the guy who gave him two more? They both have the exact same commendation. He doesn pat the guy on the back and say wow I gave you five and you give me five more That phenomenal You get employee of the month Right Then the other guy only had two gives him two He doesn say hey that all right Good job.

Good job. He says the same thing to both of them. What's the key? What's the key? Well done, good and what? Faithful servant.

They were faithful. The last one with only one says, well, I knew that you were a hard master, which is the dumbest thing to say to your master. And so I buried it because I was afraid. And he says, you lazy, wicked servant. Right? The other two.

So here's the bottom line. What is God's standard of success? What is God's standard of success? One thing. It's not the amount. It's not that you become an eight-cylinder one as opposed to a two-cylinder guy.

The thing is, were you faithful in what I gave you to do? That's it. Were you faithful? That's it. That's it. That's success in God's eyes, faithfulness.

So there's two reasons there. There's two. Here's the third. You should know it by now. Jesus. here was a man who was so famous one of the gospel writers tells the disease had almost been disappeared from the land he had literally what thousands of people hanging on his words what happened to him he died alone he died alone right He did everything right.

He never did anything wrong. And what happened for his faithfulness? He dies alone. Nobody, even his closest associates, are gone. He dies alone. But then what happens?

He's raised from the dead. Now that's exactly what God is saying to you. you serve me it may look like failure it may look like failure to everybody else but you faithful to me and I not unjust I seen it You be vindicated just like my son was It won't be in vain. At the end of it all, you'll be vindicated, just like Jesus. So God says, never give up. So as you look into this new year, here's what you need to be thinking, right?

Stand firm. If you don't believe in the resurrection, if you're moved from the hope of the gospel, it's all meaningless. Therefore, stand firm in the hope of the resurrection. Stand firm in the gospel, and you will be able to see things in the new year that you've never seen before. Number two, abound in the work of the Lord. Excel at it.

Give yourself to it. Into the work of the Lord. That is, everything that you do, Give yourself fully to it, from parenting to work to whatever you do as a ministry at church. And all of it, give yourself. It's for the Lord. And it will not be in vain.

So never give up. Never give up. And listen, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, if you're faithful, the Lord will vindicate you. That's how we need to enter this year. immovable, abounding, never giving up. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that it gives us hope.

Thank you that because of Jesus, we have hope in everything that we do, that nothing is wasted. If we do it for you, Lord, then we can count, then we know that it's not in vain. So help us to abound in the Lord as we're immovable in the hope of the gospel. And God, give us perseverance, we pray, for the glory of the name of our Lord. Father, in this new year, help us to think strictly in terms of the glory of Jesus.

Not in terms of personal success. Not in terms of making a reputation for ourselves. Not in any of those things. But proving faithful to Jesus for His glory. help us to think and to move and to act in those ways so that the name of Christ will be exalted God help us to apply that in the work of the Lord this coming year. In Jesus' name, Amen.