How to Love the Job You Hate

There we go. Yeah. How's everybody doing today? Right. Yeah.

There was like really cool music behind that if you were here weeks before. ProPresenter has a mind of its own sometimes. We deal with it on a weekly basis. And those of you who are online, thanks for being with us today. I know we've had some internet issues here lately and you weren't able to be with us last week, but we're so glad that you're with us this week.

We thank you so much for being with us. And if you are new with us, fill out one of those connection cards, digital connection cards at saltchurch.org slash card. We would love to connect with you and everybody else here today. All of you who are new with us, your guests, we are so thankful that you're here with us.

We've been praying for you. And if you wouldn't mind taking one of these blue cards as well and filling them out for us. And I promise you, we won't harass you or anything. We just want to send you something, let you know we care. We care about you and we're praying for you and we're praying for you and we in the ministries we have to offer you going forward.

So this is the week before a special event that we're calling. This is actually our first annual Fall Family Fun Day. Fall Family Fun Day will be next week. And here's what I want to encourage you to do. Okay, guys?

Are y'all with me? Is everybody awake today? Okay, okay, good, good, good, good, good. Okay, it was really silent here for just a second. And that was great worship.

I thought y'all would be awesome. Maybe it's because that last song literally got you on your knees. I get that. That's awesome. But I want to encourage you to take some of these cards.

We're going to give you some cards as you're going out today. Next week's going to be really, really, really fun. It's going to be an opportunity to invite new people to church. Okay? People that probably were hesitant to come to church with you.

Next week will be a good week to bring them to church. We'll have something for the kids. We'll have a pumpkin patch. They're going to paint. I hear they're going to paint pumpkins, things like that.

We're going to have an ice cream sundae bar. There's a few other games. The creative team. I've been getting pictures of what the creative team is doing for next week. It's going to be really fun.

Just all kinds of things that are happening next week. Also, we're going to start a new series called Stranger Stories. Stranger Stories. Are y'all familiar with Stranger Things? Nobody's familiar with Stranger Things in here, because y'all are super holy, y'all don't watch horror movies, okay?

I get that, but it's a very popular series on Netflix, and we're taking that opportunity to not... It's not going to be about the movie, it's going to be about the stories that are behind the scenes, the things that are happening that the Bible tell us about. So we're going to deal with what the battle behind the scenes are, okay? And it's going to be an amazing start to a series. I think people are going to really, really enjoy this series that I've been preparing over the last few months.

So invite somebody next week. I'm putting you to the test. And those of you who weren't able to make it, our regulars, I'm putting you to the test too. Come on and bring some people to church next week. It's going to be really, really incredible.

Let me mention a few things, or kind of like a sort of a mini little thing, before I get started with our final message on stress out. Number one, we're having child dedications next week as well. I left that out. So if you have... Yeah, somebody clapped for that.

Thank you, thank you. So if you have children, this is a great day, family day to do that, you know, a child dedication. So make sure you can fill it out right here on this blue card that you can have your child dedicated to the Lord. It's a beautiful thing, you know, where some people believe in baptizing their children. We believe that baptism is reserved for adulthood.

And we give the parents an opportunity to raise their children into the Lord. So it's just a great thing. We anoint them and bless them and ask for God's protection over them. But we're entering into a season. What we've noticed as a church is that during the season, we get a lot of new people in.

Going through October, November, and even Christmas, things happen really fast, right? And this is really a great time to talk about kind of the different types of people that come into our congregation here. In fact, we're all moving towards discipleship. And the purpose of our church is to bring people one step closer to becoming like Christ. That's wherever we are.

So Mark 8 says it like this. Then he called the crowds to come to him along with his disciples and said, Whoever wants to be my disciples must design themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

So I want to talk about the crowd. He called the crowds to him and called them to be followers of him. And there's four different groups of people that come into the doors today. First of all, we have the crowd. This is the come and see group.

I agree. They're not, or you're not, maybe you're in this crowd, you're not a part of the church yet, and that's okay. You're just coming, you're tasting, you're seeing, we're not expecting anything from you, and I like to even pride our church in creating an environment where anybody can come in, anybody can come in the door. Maybe you haven't had an experience with Jesus, maybe you haven't had an experience with church, it's okay. We want to create, with this environment, we want this to be a safe place for anybody, no matter where they are, to come in the doors, sit in the seats, and not expect anything from us as far as, you know, making them do anything, right?

We just want them to be here. In fact, we may even have agnostics or atheists come in the door. In fact, a few years ago I had a guy come up to me and says, you know what, I don't know about this Jesus thing. In fact, I'm agnostic, but I love being here, and that's what we want to do. We want to make sure that people are comfortable wherever they are.

After all, we don't want to be a church full of church people, okay? We don't want to be that. I'm the only one that thought that was funny, okay? Church for church people. Some of you are probably offended by that, but that's okay.

But, so here's what I would say. I encourage you who have friends that are not in church, bring them to church. Bring them in. One of the greatest ways for someone to connect with God is in a church environment. It happens more, at least in an American environment, it happens more in church than anywhere else.

So, give them the opportunity by inviting them to church next week to be a part of that. But we're trying to move people from that to the next stage, and that's the congregation. That's the come and join crowd, okay? Some of you have been here for a while. You've been in the crowd.

You've been kicking the tires for a while, trying to figure it out. But now, it's time to take the next step, the come and join. And before you join a church, we want you to join Jesus, okay? We want to make sure that you have a relationship with Jesus. So, I ask you to join Jesus, but Jesus talks over and over again in Scripture about a family.

You need a family. You need to join a church. Now, it doesn't necessarily have to be our church. I encourage you to take the next step and join our church. We don't use membership here.

We call it partnership. So, you can come to lunch with Leon, find out ways you can get involved, what it really means to be a part of that. But it talks about being a part of a family. So, I encourage you. I'm not even telling you to be a part of our family.

Maybe there's another local expression of faith that you enjoy more, but I ask you to take that next step. Don't stop at the crowd. And then the third point I want to make is there's the committed. You go from the crowd to the congregation, and then there's the... The come and grow crowd, okay?

We don't want to stay where we are. In fact, finding Christ is just the beginning, it's not the end. Salvation is just the beginning, not the end. That's where we need to make intentional relationships within our faith. We need to make intentional relationships within our church.

That's why we provide small groups, what we call salt groups. That's why we have people that are connecting outside the church, and even within the church and serve teams, because we are able to be together. We're able to grow together. You need to make intentional relationships. Back when I was young, it was called Sunday school.

You know, you went early to Sunday school at 9 o'clock in the morning, and then you had, you know, 10.30, you had church, and you made those really solid connections. But we have them all the time here. So we have them all during the week. So I would encourage you to take the next step.

And then we have the core. Here we have the core. That's the come and serve crowd, okay? Come and serve. And we're really inviting you to this, because we need people to help us take the next step, to the next level.

A few months ago, I really, it was really laid on my heart for God to just, for me to share what God had put on my heart, that we are intentionally going for 1,000. We want to reach 1,000 souls for Jesus Christ. And we need people to come and serve. We need a core. We need to build our core.

And the more solid our core is, and this is where God wants to take you on that journey. Wherever you are, we're leading you through that process where you're taking the next step in our church, taking the next step for Jesus to grow more like Him. We're becoming more like Him. We're not just believers. We're becomers.

We go from believers to becomers. And again, I say that we have child dedication next week, but here's another step you need to take, and that's baptism. Baptism is a big part of the faith. And October 23rd, we are going to have a baptism here, and I would invite you to take the next step. In fact, Acts 2.

41 says those who accepted His message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. So they were big in the New Testament, baptizing people all the time. And they didn't wait for a 12-week course to be baptized. They were baptizing people right away. What does baptism mean?

Because some of you are like, do I need to be baptized to be saved? No, salvation and baptism are separate. But here's why we are baptized. Because, number one, I have decided to set the example to follow Jesus. Before people, I make a public declaration, and I set the example, and I demonstrate my life change.

I'm demonstrating that it's not just private, it's public, and I decide to make that commitment publicly. I want to show you what I want to show you. Make it publicly. And some people are like, you know, my faith is private. I don't, you know, that's between me and God.

But that's not true because Scripture tells us that if you acknowledge me before people, I will acknowledge you before my Father. So, baptism is a way from taking what's happened personally inside of you and make an open declaration celebrating with the body of Christ. It's like a party, right? And we invite you to do that. So, if you haven't been baptized, I would encourage you to get baptized.

Right there on the card, you can check off, I'd like to be baptized. Right there on your blue card. If you're online, you can do that through our online connection card as well. And we would love to get you baptized. We would love to celebrate with you.

So, that's happened October 23rd. So, all that out of the way, let's end our series, Stress Out. Stress Out. The American Psychological Association shows us that there are some main things that stress us out in life. We've been going through a lot of those things during this series.

We've hit on some of those. And perhaps that's helped you. Perhaps it hasn't. But I'm hoping and praying that this series is really helping people overcome their stress. And last week, we talked about money because that's like the number one stressor.

In fact, the number two stressor in divorces. And this week is number two on the list with the American Psychological Association for stress. And that's job-related stress. That's work. How many of you have been stressed at work?

Yes. Understatement, right? Stefan, being a fireman. Right? Just a little bit.

Stress at work. And it's not just those who have a nine-to-five job. It's those even that work at home. Maybe we have some stay-at-home moms. You're stressed taking care of the kids.

You're stressed getting them prepared for school. Whatever it might be, there's work-related stress. In fact, Solomon, many years ago, wrote this in Ecclesiastes. He said, So I hated life because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. And all of it is meaningless and chasing after the wind.

Maybe for some of you, your work is just mundane and dry. And you feel like you're just making a living and that's it. And you're finding no hope. Maybe you're having problems with the people you work with. Maybe you're having a problem with your boss.

Have you ever felt like killing the person you work with at times? I mean, let's just be honest, right? I mean, the truth is, though, we don't really have an option to work. A lot of response on that one. Okay, good.

But the truth is, we don't have an option, do we? The Bible says. The Bible says, we work, we eat. You know, we have to work to eat, and we don't have an option for it, so we want to overcome stress, and the Bible gives us some stress. But before that, let me just show you some statistics here.

A study was done a few years ago, and it said this, 80% of workers feel stressed on their jobs. So 80% of people feel stressed. 25 have felt like screaming and shouting because of the job stress. So 1 out of 4 has just gone nuts, right? 10% are concerned about an individual at work they fear can become violent.

So 1 out of 10 people are concerned about the people they work with. 14% felt like striking a coworker in the past year. So that's why a lot of you responded that way, right? 18% experienced some sort of threat or verbal intimidation in the past year. So work can be very stressful.

It can be very overwhelming. There can be a lot of pressure on you. Maybe you're behind the eight ball. Maybe you're behind the schedule that you're supposed to be meeting those goals. Maybe your boss is just on you, and you don't get along, but you have to work.

Well, there can be pressure, and there will be pressure, but there can be peace in it as well. And that's what I want to show you today because Jesus doesn't promise us that he would take us away from the pressure. But just because we become Christians doesn't mean we go to our job, and we're happy and jolly, and everything works out, right? Jesus said there would be hardship, there would be trouble, but take heart, I have overcome all of this. So he teaches us principles that we can take with us, and he promises to give us peace in the storm when we walk with Jesus.

Colossians, starting there, if you're with me and you open up your Bible app, you can follow the notes with us today. It says this, Since then you have been raised with Christ, so set your hearts on the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. And set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. Now, let's just stop there for a second. You need to start your day.

Here's a good principle. Start your day by setting your mind and setting your heart on Jesus Christ. Setting your mind, changing your perspective. My heart and my mind are going to be set on things that are beyond my circumstances, are beyond my work life. And you know, and you do that, and I promise you, you will walk into work that day.

You will walk into a situation, and with the right perspective, you'll be able to handle your situations a lot better. And that will be good enough for that day. So you need to do it every day. Just like you wake up in the morning to put your clothes on, you need to put on Christ. In fact, going on in Colossians 12, it says, Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself.

Once again, the next step is to to say we are going to take a step by step by step by step, to show that step by step by step by step by step by step by step by step by step. So, there it is. Clothe yourself just like you clothe yourself in the morning before you get out the door. Clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Right?

Wow. You need to put it on every day, every morning. And then it says this, Bear with each other and forgive one another. And if any of you has grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave. Hey, listen, you want peace?

Forgive. You want real peace? Regardless whether that person forgave you? Forgive them. Let it go.

You will experience peace when you learn to forgive. Because when you hold on to bitterness, and you hold on to hurt, and you don't let it go, it eats you up inside. There's no peace. There's actually war happening inside of you. And you need to let it go.

Let's practice forgiveness. Then it goes on to say, and overall, these virtues put on love. Right? Because love, you can't do any of this without love. So, first of all, we need to start off by putting on love, which binds us all together in perfect unity.

So, we can have peace if we change our perspective and change our thoughts before we even enter into our high-pressure work situation. So, really quickly, I want to give you three things, three quick points today. I didn't have six or seven points today, so y'all can go to lunch a little earlier. So, I'm going to give you three points, and that's the max usually anyway, right? I mean, that's what a preacher is supposed to do.

So, first of all, we need to discover our real purpose and make a difference with it. Discover your real purpose and make a difference with your life. And, at least weekly, I would say this, at least weekly, you need to do something beyond just making a paycheck and going through the motions. You need to do something that's meaningful, because you were created to do something meaningful. The reason you're not experiencing happiness is probably because you're not doing something beyond yourself.

You're not doing something that you were really created to do, or you haven't found out what you were created to be or do. So, the happiest people aren't the ones that have the best spouses. The happiest people aren't the people that have the most money. The happiest people aren't even the people that have the best jobs in the world, if you're thinking that your job is the reason. The happiest people are doing something with their life that's truly meaningful.

They're going beyond yourself. It's your calling, okay? Everybody has a calling, okay? It's not just a pastor. It's not just an office in a church.

All of you have a calling. And you were called to do something in God's economy. And it's not just to grow the kingdom of God, which that's the main purpose, is just to finish what Christ started and to usher in His second coming. We want to do that, but it's also for you. You need this.

You need to be going beyond yourself. You need to be working outside of just making money, making a living, having a retirement, because you were not just meant to live and die. You were meant for something much more. Change your perspective. Change your thought.

Look to heavenly things. God has made you in a way to make a difference in this world. You were designed. You are not just a person that's just here. You were made by God through Christ for a purpose.

And that purpose and that identity can only be found in Christ Jesus. I say it like this. A career gives you something to live on. A calling gives you something to live for. That's why we live because we have a purpose.

We have a design. If we don't live with a purpose, we will experience dryness in our seasons and in our life. In fact, Paul himself had a secular job. We see that in Acts 20. And he had a purpose too.

His perspective was so much bigger than just living and dying. And here's what he says. And I use the message paraphrase because you'll see in a minute, it's kind of cool how he puts this in place. He says, But there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem.

So he was working with the Gentiles. He was working in these areas. And he felt compelled to go to Jerusalem. And I'm completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. So he has no clue what's going to happen.

When you go into work, you have no clue what's going to happen, right? I mean, anything could happen that day. Anything could happen on that sales job when you're out. Or anything can happen in your small business when you're going and doing. Anything can happen.

We have no clue what's going to happen. But he says this, I do know that it won't be any picnic, okay? It won't be pleasant because the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started because he had a different perspective.

And the job the Master Jesus gave me is letting everyone I meet know all about the incredible, extravagant generosity of God. He kept his eyes fixed on Jesus. And he realized that his task was not his job, just making a nine-to-five living. There was much more. It was to complete the task that Jesus Christ had given him and to tell everybody about the good news.

Jesus Christ... Your job is not just, which leads me to my next point, your job is not just the place you work. My vocation is my ministry location, number two. My vocation is my ministry location. Where you work is your ministry location.

I'll tell you what, when you combine your calling and your work together, there's something powerful about that. Like, you're meant to do something more than just punching in numbers. You're there for an internal purpose. Something far beyond just balancing the accounts, or making sure that people receive their product, or running, or operating, or managing, or running that business, or whatever it is that you make a living doing. It's more than just making that next sale.

It's more than that. There's an eternal purpose. You're connecting with people on a daily basis. And here in Scripture, we see Paul was not just an apostle, he was a tent maker. He made really good tents.

If you want a tent, come to Paul's tent making shop, right? Come to his tent making tent, okay? He sets up his tent, he's got tents, and it's the best tents in town. You can go to Paul and get your tent. And here's what he said.

After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, and there he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. These were major church leaders at the time, by the way. Because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. So Paul went to see them, and because he was a tent maker, okay? He was a tent maker.

He was just a regular guy working as they were. They were tent makers as well. So somehow they connected, right? That's pretty cool. He stayed and worked with them.

And every Sabbath, he reasoned in the synagogue trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. So the real reason he was there was bigger than just being a tent maker. Now, Paul later in Scripture even mentions that, you know, I chose to do this job so that I could do more for Jesus Christ. So this Scripture isn't necessarily saying that everybody in ministry must work a second job, right? That's not what he's saying at all because he even approved the apostles, the rest of the apostles, the church taking care of them.

So that's okay. Let's not take this to its logical conclusion. I've heard people say, I don't believe that pastors and preachers and ministry people should be paid. They should just be doing it, and they should just be, you know, working another job and using all their extra time to do that, and that's what the Lord really wants. No, no.

Paul X's that out altogether because people were saying that. He said, I choose to be a tent maker. I choose to do this because I want to offer more of an opportunity for me to share the gospel in different ways. I don't want to take from the church. And that's...

All right. All right, and that's true. Let's 3 Peter 13. Church did help him at times, by the way. I mean, when he was on his missionary journeys, they supported him, they helped him.

The church was always a part of Paul's mission. But Paul chose to be a tent-maker, but he used tent-making to connect with people. And he connected with Aquila and Priscilla, who ended up being apostles themselves in the church. They helped lead the church. So he saw every place as an opportunity, everywhere he was as an opportunity.

And your job can be a place where you bring life and you bring breath into people. So if you live day-to-day in your job environment with deadness, guess what? As a follower of Christ, you breathe life into people. You carry the Holy Spirit in you. You can walk into a place and lift somebody up.

Amen? You can lift your place up. I don't hear anybody in the house today. What's going on, guys? Does this scare you to go in?

Look, you need to go in, into a place. You know what? There's something special about bringing donuts into the office, right? It's like, everybody's this Monday morning. Everybody's dragging.

Everything's going, Oh, I've got to get on with my wig. I don't want to be here. And then donuts come in. Donuts? Did somebody say donuts?

Everybody's coming out of their office. They're lit up, smiling, grabbing coffee, having donuts, or talking, chatting, laughing. There's something beautiful about that, right? Maybe that's you bringing those donuts in or bringing that encouragement into a place that otherwise would be dead. Instead, you bring life into the workplace, and your best ministry is your nine to five.

And they might see, when you do that, the good work, and they would glorify the Father. And that's the purpose of doing these things. It's not just to say, Oh, he's a good guy. He's a humble guy. He lifts people up.

He does this and that. No. The purpose of that is so that they can see Jesus and perhaps find him. Our purpose is to glorify God in all that we do. And I promise you, if you begin to work in your vocation as your ministry location, in your vocation as your ministry location, you will find that stress ceases to be.

Because you have a perspective beyond just your boss, just your lead, and just your authority. Okay? Which leads me to my third and last point. We work for God and not for people. Okay?

You work for God, not for people. I'm working for God. I'm not here to please people, but I'm here to please God. And, at the end, End of the day, for me as a pastor, I'm going to have to stand before God. I'm not going to stand before any of you.

And the way I act or react or the way I live and the way I do and the way I minister and the way I follow Christ, it really is about pleasing, pleasing God. And I care too much, and I hope you feel the same way, I care too much about the kingdom of God to worry about people's opinions. Because I will tell you, I get a lot of opinions, in fact. So the way we respond, how do we respond in our work environment? With excellence, obviously we want to be excellent.

And with integrity, taking every opportunity to show that Christ is in us and we work for Christ, right? In fact, just to give you an example, how you respond, you can either respond with love, you can put on love, or you can respond with disgust and anger and frustration or whatever it is. And that's going to bring stress on you. But I had an email come in just the other day, and it was a very disrespectful email. It was a hateful email, it was pointing fingers, it was talking about people.

And I could have responded to that email, and I could have said, you are absolutely wrong. We did this, we did this, we did this, we did this. I've got the data to prove it, I've got the backup to prove it. We've done everything we possibly can for you, and how dare you talk about our church that way. We have good people here, and you don't need to leave our people alone, right?

I wanted so badly to do that, but I would have been responding in anger. I would have been responding, hey, you know, I got hit. So, what does Jesus say? Well, turn, if they hit you on this cheek, turn this cheek, you know, let them hit you. But I responded in love.

I told her that, you know, it's so wonderful that you had an opportunity to come to our church. I am so sorry that you felt like you were not paid attention to, and you felt like we didn't provide what you needed. There are a lot of wonderful churches out there, and I hope you can find a church that will meet all of your needs, and we're praying for you. And if you need anything, just let us know. But I apologize, and maybe this isn't the best place for you, but there's lots of opportunity to receive what you need to receive.

And I just responded with so much love. And, you know, people can't respond back to those things, right? If you just say you love them, it's a whole different story. I had a guy who was a mentor of mine in the school when I was working on my graduate degree in seminary, and he was just a happy, jolly guy. And the band can come on up, by the way.

This is my last point. And they're trying to figure out when to come up because I keep going here. Y'all just come on up. And he shared a story with me because he was just a really great pastor, and he planted a lot of churches, grew a lot of churches. It was really amazing, his ministry.

Just everybody loved him, but he also had people that didn't like him, too, and he shared a few stories about that, and he was standing at the door one day after church, and just shaking hands, and kissing babies, hugging people, things like that, and there's this grumpy man, every week he comes in, and everything's negative, you know, have you ever met anybody like that that's just negative all the time? You could say something positive, and they just, all right, that's not going to work, that's not right, no, it's not, and he just, every week he'd go in, you know, be there at church, you know, just frowning at the pastor, you think you're doing something wrong, you know, because he's staring at you, but it was just the way he was, he was just a grumpy dude, and he said as he was standing at the door, he decided he was going to do something different, because every week he would come by, and he was just grumpy, grumpy, grumpy, grumpy, and he came up with his grumpy attitude, and the pastor just grabbed him like that, he says, I love you, and kissed him right on his bald forehead, and the guy just got all red, started smiling, started giggling, he changed that guy's pattern just at that point, right? We can affect people's lives just by the way we respond, by the way we live, by the way we do things. In fact, Colossians says, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord. Work at it, don't just let it go by, just don't just do enough to get by, right?

Do it with all your heart, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. So that's why we do it with excellence. And let me just say this, today is the day that you need to do it well.

Don't put your emotions in tomorrow. Look, our stress comes from tomorrow, right? We're worried about tomorrow. But all you have is today. And you're not even promised tomorrow.

And whether it's family, whether it's others, whether it's a work, or whatever it is, you have to stand before God today. Whatever you do, you stand before God today. You don't stand before God tomorrow, because Martin's not here yet. You stand right now in this very moment. So don't long your emotions to tomorrow, to a place where you aren't yet.

In fact, I want to say it like this. Today I am going to live as if this is the day that will be remembered. That will be remembered. Let me share one more story with you. I had a boss, one of my first jobs out of college.

Amazing man. He was actually a part of... Me coming back to Christ and then finding my calling in ministry. Godly man loved the Lord and he came in his office, man I'm telling you, the place felt like the Holy Spirit was there when he walked in his room. He had worship music playing.

He had pictures on the wall and all these things, you know, this Bible on the edge. He would never say a word about it. It just was there. It wasn't like he was Bible-thumping or proselytizing or telling people they're going to hell, they need to get saved. It wasn't anything.

He just loved people and you knew that the Holy Spirit and God was all over him just by him being there. He'd walk into the office and you'd just feel better, right? It was just powerful. And one day somebody reported him to HR for forcing his religion on them. And he was in the HR office with his boss.

And again, listen guys, we need to respect our authority. Okay, this scripture isn't saying I work for God and not for you, you know, we're not doing that. We're not doing that. But he was in that office with his boss and with the HR director. And they mentioned this and he was just, okay, wow, you know.

And then he started questioning them. He said, have I done something wrong? Have, you know, is playing music on the radio wrong when I'm in my office? No, no, no, that's not wrong. There's no policy against that.

Is, you know, taking my breaks and my time to open my Bible and do my devotion, is that wrong? No, no, no, it's not wrong. Is it okay if I'm not, you know, if I'm in my office just praying or is it okay that I can smile and be happy and love people and practice humility and all those things? He said, no, absolutely. They could not find anything he had done wrong.

They could not pin anything down. It's just somebody was convicted because they walked in the presence of the Holy Spirit that was in this man. But the shocking thing and the bold thing that he said afterwards, and most people probably wouldn't say this, is he looked at them and he said, look, you can write me up. You can, you can even fire me. And he looked at his boss.

He says, but you're not my boss. Jesus Christ is my boss. That's my boss. And I live for him. I'm not here to proselytize.

I'm not here to do any of that stuff. I'm here to live for Christ. Christ. That's what I'm talking about, guys. That's how you live stress-free in your work environment, knowing that you're calling, even when you're called into HR.

And the enemy cannot lay hands on you because you are anointed by Christ, even if you lose. If you lose your job, you are still taken care of because you've got a Heavenly Father that loves you and has a purpose and a calling for your life. You can reduce stress by refocusing your heart and your mind on the things of eternity. Not of this world, but the things. Let's do that.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you are the light of life, that your word is powerful and pure. And it sharpens us, it cuts us, Lord. It's a sharp sword. But it's also practical and life-giving and hopeful, Lord.

And I pray, God, in the power of your Holy Spirit that you are changing hearts and changing lives today. With all heads bowed and all eyes closed, I want to offer an opportunity. Maybe you're somebody here today that doesn't know the Lord. Maybe you feel far from Him. Maybe you know Him, but not know Him in the way that you need to know Him.

Can I tell you, He's there available for you. He's there to be the peace that walks through the oppression that you may be facing in your life. He's there. It's not religion. It's not about doing the right things.

Stop trying to do the right things. He says, I'm here where you are right now. And if you come into a relationship with me, I will walk with you and I'll give you peace and I'll give you hope and I'll give you a new life. Father, if that's you today, if you would just say this prayer with me and you would believe it in your heart, confess it with your mouth. In fact, I would invite everybody just to pray along with me.

Father, I believe that you are the Son of God and you died on the cross for my sin. Come into my heart. Come into my life. Make me a new creation today. I walk with you from this day forward in the name of Jesus.