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♪Music playing♪
JOE HENRIQUES: I'm sure you remember the wicked
witch from Snow White days who said to the mirror,
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of
them all?"
Well, I'd like to change the question.
What's the greatest of them all?
Well, what am I talking about?
I'm talking about work, worship, and sleep.
Why is that so important?
Well, because we're all involved in each one to
some measure, and because God says things about each
one.
Now, if we want to live a life that's pleasing to
the lord in every respect, then we need to give
attention to what the Lord says about each one of
these.
So let's look at that.
Let's look at work first.
In the beginning chapter of Genesis, we know one
thing for sure about God.
He's a worker.
Talk about project management.
Talk about strategic thinking.
And because Adam was made in the image of God, it
makes sense that God said to Adam, Hey, Adam, I want
you to work, too.
I want you to take care of this part of my creation,
this jurisdiction here that I've given to you.
They call it the Creation Mandate.
And so that's what Adam did.
And, by the way, that's exactly what God is saying
to you.
Now, you may not think that your work is all that
exciting, but it should be.
Let's imagine that tonight, you had a dream.
Okay?
And Jesus appeared to and he said, Hey, look.
Tomorrow, I'm going to go to work with you, and
we're going to problem solve together, and we're
going to talk about the issues of the day there at
work.
Now, you tell me what would that day be like for
you.
It would be an extraordinary day.
And God wants you to look at work that way.
You're a co-worker with Him over a jurisdiction
that is given to you to manage it well.
Well, you know, in Genesis 1, we find something
that's pretty surprising because it says that God
rested on the seventh day.
Now, we all know that God doesn't need to rest,
right?
So why did he do that?
He ceased from his labors as an example for us.
As a matter of fact, he told his people, I want
you to stop working on a day that he called the
Sabbath.
Now, the word "Sabbath" means cessation so stop,
you know, working on that day.
But then, he includes other things.
He says, On that day, I want you to spend time
worshiping me.
I want you to renew yourself.
Now, you know, all of the Ten Commandments are
repeated in the New Testament except for one.
Guess which one that is, to keep the Sabbath day,
to keep it holy because now, every day is a day of
worship.
However, the principle still holds.
The Lord wants you to take a day so that you can
spend more time worshiping Him than you would in
other days.
You need that time to spend with the Lord's
people so that you could be energized and
spiritually renewed.
So you have your work, but then, you have your day of
rest and worship.
Now let's talk about sleep.
Okay?
Now, millions of people choose not to sleep as
they should.
It's not a good deal.
Psalm 127 says that the Lord gives his beloved
sleep.
Now, if you're choosing not to sleep just to get
more work done, I'd like to suggest to you that
you're just not trusting the Lord very much because
that scripture can be translated this way.
He gives to his beloved while he's sleeping so in
other words, God is working on your behalf,
even while you're dozing away.
Now, we know that there are times in life where,
you know, you just can't sleep.
It's an emergency.
You've got to finish the project.
We understand that.
But remember.
Trust the Lord while you're sleeping because
he's working on your behalf during that time.
That's how much he loves you.
So we want to live a life that's pleasing to the
Lord so I ask the question again.
Which of these is the greatest?
Well, that's like asking the question which is the
greatest, your body, soul, or spirit.
They all go together and so does work, worship, and
sleep.
May God help you to please him fully as you do each
one according to His will.
Let's pray together.
Our Father, we want to thank you with all of our
hearts that you have given us work to do to manage a
certain part of your creation.
Help us to do that well.
Help us, Lord, to be disciplined so that we
have a day of rest where we worship you in a
special way with your people.
And then, Lord, thank you so much for the blessing
of sleep, and we pray that you would help us to sleep
as we should.
Help us to renew ourselves.
And thank you so much that you are working on our
behalf, even as we are sleeping.
We can trust you.
Thank you for hearing us and answering us.
In your name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
