Lesson 8: How to Make Much of Christ From 8 to 5

Jesus Says: "I don't ask that you [God] take them out of the world but you keep them from evil."

The temptation through reading this book is to begin to get a picture that unless we are all pastors or missionaries or involved specifically in a form of ministry we are wasting our lives. But the Bible makes it clear that this is not the case. God's will is for his people to be scattered like light and salt among the whole range of secular vocations.

"The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
whether he eats little or much,
but the abundance of a rich man
permits him no sleep." Ecc. 5:12

"Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive." Titus 2: 9-10

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life,
to mind your own business and to work with your hands,
just as we told you. For even when we were with you,
we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

"We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat." 2 Thessalonians 3: 10-12

My fingers that I type with, my hands that I hold with, my legs that I run with, my eyes that I see with, my mind that I think with; these are all parts of a body that was created. What does it mean to "create"? 1. To cause to exist 2. To give rise to; produce 3. To invest with an office or title 4. To produce through artistic or imaginative effort.

God "created" us and the world. He caused us into existence, He produced and gave rise to our bodies, He invested us by placing us in dominion over His creation, and out of His great imagination and creativity we have being. Work was not meant to be something dreaded...we were created in God's image to be creative, to maintain, and to cause things to exist just as He has!

So as we may find ourselves in various secular locations or with other responsibilities, how do we do what Piper has been reminding us to do (Living to make much of Christ) especially if we do not have the ability to speak freely about the Lord while we are at work?

1. Fellowship with God throughout the day
2. Industry- (even the beavers and bees make amazing things and can not verbalize their praise to the Lord... How are we different than them?)
3. Adorning the doctrine of God
4. Earning
5. Giving

We need to recognize that God's design for us is to work. He has designed us to create and to be His image bearers. Being an image bearer of the Lord is more than just standing in a display case, it's bringing to life the image that God has created us for! We may not be called to specific mission work to an un-reached people group, but we are able to be God's hands and feet by removing stumbling blocks for our co-workers by working hard! We can have joy in what we do as we focus on the benefit our product or service brings to society!

Making much of Christ from 8 to 5 is all about living life abundantly. It is recognizing the gifts and talents we have and bringing glory to the Lord by working at these things with all our hearts.

An encouraging song :)

A 'Weightless' God?- Lesson 7- "Living to Prove He is More Precious than Life"

Leading Question to start us out:

1. "If someone who did not know that you were a Christian observed the way you spend your money, the kind of clothes you wear, the way you spend your free time, and how you raised your family, would they notice a significant difference between you and the world? What differences would they notice?"

I still remember clearly the day I was sitting on my dorm bed at college and deeply affected by this verse in Matthew, "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means; "I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners."

Seriously, that hit me SO hard. It is not the healthy. In light of where God has you right now, would you consider yourself 'healthy'? or 'sick'? Are you in need of His mercy or are you sacrificing worthless items to walk a path of deeper 'righteousness'?

We are clearly called as followers of Jesus to be holy: 1 Peter 1:15-16 "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." [cross reference is Lev. 11:44,45] And so walking in a deeper righteousness is essential, however at the same time we are called to "live according to God in regard to the spirit." (1 Pet. 4:6) As he continues to speak about this, he says, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."

We do this all in the power and strength that God provides us through His Spirit, and it is not contingent upon what the people we serve look like, smell like, what they say, or where they came from.

Christ's call was one to compassion, one that stores up treasures in heaven, and one that receives the kingdom of God by making much of Christ rather than making much of one's self. [Mk 10:21; Lk 6:20,24; Lk 18:25]

2. Take a look at those verses in brackets above and underline the theme of each verse. Consider how you are seeking to obey these texts in your life

In chapter 7 living to prove he is more precious than life, Piper reminds followers of Jesus that magnifying Christ through generosity and mercy is more satisfying than selfishness. The question which is uses to probe our consciences is this; 'Is Christ our "all satisfying treasure"?' This question reminds us of John 4 where Christ is talking with the Samaritan woman at the well. The Jews and Samaritan's were at odds with each other because the Samaritans were Jews that had inter-married with the Gentiles (which was against Jewish law) and so when Jesus opened his mouth and directly addressed the woman, she was incredibly shocked. Not only was this experience odd because of the culture surrounding it, but what seems to even me as being odd is Jesus offering her water living water that will satisfy her in such a way that all other things are not needed. Maybe I have been disillusioned in ways, but I do find it difficult to think that all I EVER need is just Jesus.
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Christ is to be our all-satisfying treasure. Piper challenges Christ followers to live lives of faith-filled risk and challenges us to use our money and our lifestyles to impact the kingdom of God. If this is not the case, it could very well be that we have created a "weightless God."
"It is one of the defining marks of Our time that God is now weightless. He has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life." (Piper, 121)

Will the things of our life point to a God who is all powerful? Do our clothes or our lifestyles, how we spend our evenings magnify Christ? Do they point to Christ as the treasure of our lives?
These are questions to think on, and things we will be discussing next week at study.