Title: A Disciple Who's Ready for Monday Seeks the Good of the City, Working Diligently for the Flourishing of All
Scripture: Colossians 3:23-24
Speaker: Bill Gorman, BillG@ChristCommunityKC.org


>> If you want to take Jesus seriously, you have to take your work seriously.

“Most African-Americans find the letter’s insistence on the “right behavior” of slaves to be at the least problematic if not blatantly insensitive to the plight of any human being is owned by others. Though Paul’s church was grounded in its own time and situation, he insists on the power of God’s new arrangement. In God’s new arrangement masters were exhorted not only to show justice to their slaves is also to demonstrate the recognition of equality with them. Through the church of which Christ is the head, the situation exists in which social stratification begins to crumble along its hardened edges.” —Lloyd A. Lewis, “Colossians” in True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary

“...Paul’s comments here still apply to all employees and employers, not only in businesses but also in homes and on farms.” — Sanyu Iralu, “Colossians” in South Asia Bible Commentary

>> Your work is seen
- What will change tomorrow if you actually believe God sees you?

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

“It’s very easy for folks who have a lot of power to gravitate to Genesis 1 and 2 and the affirmation of the goodness of work. In some ways that can become a proof text to what they already believed about their work. But sometimes the message they need to hear—those in more powerful positions—is that their work can be a means of idolatry, injury, and injustice if not stewarded well.” —Jim Mullins in “God of the Second Shift,” Christianity Today

>> Your work will be rewarded
- What will change tomorrow if you actually believe God rewards you?

There is actually a BIG difference between passion and purpose. Passion is “do what you love,” whereas purpose is “do what contributes.” Passion asks, what can the world give to you (a hedonistic inclination). Purpose asks, what can you give to the world (an other-orientation).