Sermon – Heaven – Work – Christian Memes

This morning, we will conclude our Heaven series in which we discussed who and what would be missing; that it a place prepared for us; a place of rest and worship. Today, we will talk a little more about work, (and we touched on that briefly during the message on Heavenly rest).
When you were growing up what did you want to be or do? … How about now – regardless of age – is there still anything you would like to be or do?
To achieve those things, we must work. A certain level of education and/or training is required. Time must be put in. Dedication. Sore muscles. Weary minds. Possibly blood, sweat, and tears.
What is the first thing recorded in the Bible? No, it isn’t the table of contents or copyright information or the dedication page. It is Genesis 1:1 which says, “In the beginning God created … “
There were six days of creation and one day of rest; but what happened next? What happened on day 8 or 9 or every day since? God didn’t just sit back after creating and do nothing. He is still sustaining, restoring, healing, ordaining … He is still working.
How do we know this, well – we have our lives – we have history – and we know what Jesus said in John 5:17 (NLT) … “My Father is always working, and so am I.”
“Work,” (for man at least) has been going on since the beginning. In Genesis 2, we are provided with some details about the Garden of Eden; and the first man and woman – Adam and Eve.
The LORD God placed Adam in the Garden to tend and watch over it. He created Eve to be a helper, perfect companion, and perfect counterpart.
From the beginning, man was created to work. Adam was a botanist and zoologist – he was to tend the Garden and he named the animals. Eve also did her part with the required tasks.
You can go back one chapter – Genesis 1 – and read that man was made in God’s image to reign over all the fish, birds, and animals; were blessed and told to be fruitful and multiply … (yippee!)
God gave mankind physical and mental work – both are needed for a better quality of life.
Work changed after Adam and Eve sinned. Pregnancy and childbirth would be painful. The ground would be cursed, making a living would be hard, thorns and thistles would grow, and man would have to work hard – and sweat – to be able to provide food for his family.
Work can be a burden with stress, pressure, harassment, discrimination, poor leaders, deadlines, and various “thorns and thistles” that we have to deal with; but in Heaven all things are new.
Revelation 22:3 tells us that the curse will be gone; that God’s throne and the Lamb will be there; and that His servants will worship and serve. With the curse gone, only good things remain. Sinful activities and those (occupations) helping people deal with its effects will be gone.
Revelation 21:24,26 says, “The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will ever the city in all their glory … And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city.”

I wish I had a passage that listed all Heavenly jobs, but that isn’t the point of a message like this. We will have work to do – we will serve God – but many things of this life may carry over; and what we do now impacts if we make it, our rewards, and what our responsibilities will be.

Matthew 25:14-30 contains the Parable of the Talents, in which a master is going away on a long trip and entrusts his wealth to three servants. They are given 5, 2, and 1 talents respectively and based on their own abilities. While the master is away, the servants are to enlarge the wealth.
- 1 Talent = 6,000 denarii … 1 denarius = 1 day’s pay … 6,000 denarii = 20 years of labor
The servants that were given the 5 and 2 talents, respectively, doubled what they were given; and were called ‘good and faithful;’ and were told they would have many more responsibilities.
- These responsibilities could be in this life and/or the next – so remain faithful!
The other servant did not put his master’s wealth to work and didn’t even invest it with the bank. In fact, he did more work on something unproductive – digging a hole – than it would have taken to write out a deposit slip.

That servant was called wicked and lazy and useless. What he had been entrusted with was taken away; and he was thrown into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- “poneros” bad – unsound – evil – afflictive – wrongful – impious – slothful – inactive
- “okneros” slow – slothful – indolent – idle – tedious – troublesome
- “achreios” useless – unprofitable – worthless – unmeritorious

We should be mindful of how we spend our time, talents, treasures, abilities, skills, and gifts. Are we using them to be fruitful for the kingdom or are we wasting them on things that won’t matter in the long run?

Granted, we all have different personalities, skill sets, spiritual gifts, and varying amounts of material resources and funds; but we should all be using what we have to grow the kingdom. We should be “working” for the LORD.

Colossians 3:23 (NLT) says, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

Remember the questions that were asked at the beginning of the message? Some of those occupations may exist and some may not – again, depending if they are associated with the curse.

We will continue to use our skills and gifts throughout eternity; perhaps for similar things or even for much greater ones. All of our talents, skills, abilities, gifts, which come from God will be used to do the work and will of God … everything will honor, glorify, and praise Him for all eternity.

While we wait eternity, we need to use what we have been given now to serve God and others; and to make sure we make it and our loved ones are given the opportunity to be saved as well.