Everything Matters!

Everything Matters!
Are you living a life of faith? A life of secularism? A life of politics? What if God cares about it all? What if everything matters to God? God created everything we know and see in the world. It does matter to Him! Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart as though you are serving the Lord.

With a country divided, the Republican risk and morality being redefined, it’s time to gather round the camp fire, get back to basics, and spark the revival that this country so desperately needs.
This is the American Camp Fire revival with Kirk  Cameron.
A really great thought today as I was reading through Doctor.
Marshall Foster’s book, uh, the the American covenant, the untold story.
And in it, there’s this chapter that talks about The fact that many of us split up the world and we split up our life into two different categories.
We kind of have this this spiritual category where we go to church and we pray and we we sing worship songs.
Uh, maybe we memorize scripture.
Maybe we even help the needy, and we can put that in a spiritual category.
And then we have this other category that is like the regular stuff, like the movies we watch or, uh, the work that we do.
Uh, we think of politics, we think of economics, we think of history class, we think of tool is sort of in the secular category that really, um, is not, uh, part of the spiritual category.
In fact, We we sometimes think that it doesn’t even really that god doesn’t apply to these secular categories.
And many of these secular arenas we think it’s not appropriate to bring faith into those secular places.
Right? You know, like, don’t don’t push your your faith on me.
Hey, this is this is this is this is work or this is politics and and sort of like, you know, they’re like oil and water.
Well, what if What if god actually made the world in such a way that he values
civil government just as much as he values our prayers.
What if he designed the world in such a way that economics and agriculture and Twitter and coffee, and the military, and music, and architecture, and ballet are just as important
to god as singing songs of praise.
I want to submit to you that god’s word paints a picture where there is something much bigger than just these two categories of the spiritual and the secular, the the faith part and the regular mainstream part.
God paints a picture where both of those things are in the of a much larger circle, and god owns it all.
God is in charge of all of it, and he values and cares about everything.
He cares about your kid’s school. He cares about what the president is doing. He cares about uh, corruption.
He cares about honesty. He cares about compassion. He cares about, uh, immigration. He cares about climate.
He cares about the poor. He cares about the rich and what they do with their resources.
He cares about everything because he made it all and he made us and gave us the minds to create like he creates we’re sort of, uh, creating because he is so creative and has given us creative abilities and and where to use those gifts and talents to point people to the great creator, to the great artist, to the servant
of all servants to the
great engineer of the universe so that people will give them thanks.
And we do those things to serve other people to make earth a little bit more like heaven.
But we have this weird idea that somehow faith life is separate from, uh, regular life.
And so I’m gonna just to point out a couple of things here that I that I thought were really great insights.
You know, there there are are some people like I used to be I used to be an atheist.
And I and I figured I had no need for god.
I I figured I didn’t have a soul.
I had no I had no thought of heaven or hell or an afterlife I I had no need for spiritual things when I was an atheist.
I think they I just thought they didn’t matter. In my life.
I could I could get along just fine without any any god.
And then there’s people who are so so religious Some people who are so spiritually minded that they neglect important things here on earth.
And they think, well, Everything on Earth here is temporary, and it’s it’s ultimately gonna crumble and perish and and burn, and it’s not gonna be here forever like like eternity, like heaven, And so
I’m gonna focus my attention there. And sometimes, sometimes no.
I know this is not all of us, but some of us sometimes neglect important things like education for our kids, or we just turn that over to other people thinking that they know better.
Sometimes we neglect civil government. Sometimes we neglect what’s going on
with our economy, which to determines much of the the livelihood and the lifestyle that people are able to live above or below the poverty line, or we can not be educated about medical issues, and we can wind up, uh, in trouble and not taking care of ourselves because we think that it doesn’t matter so much about nutrition, exercise, and health, and those things because the body’s ultimately gonna perish.
Or I’ve I’ve heard I’ve heard these these kinds of arguments,
but I think god cares about it all. I think our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
And and and it belongs to god, and
we should use it in service of him, that the education of our children is critically important because it’s shaping their hearts and their minds.
And these are gonna be future leaders or the future tyrants that will be running the place when we’re gone.
So what is it that that you put into your spiritual category.
Um, prayer, for sure, maybe going to church. What else?
You could probably listen to things, some bible study and and, uh, maybe your men’s group, your youth group, uh, other things that you do, and all
those things are valuable, super essential But then do you somehow feel unspiritual when you go to work and yours and and maybe are you a barista?
Are you serving coffee to people? Are you an architect? Drawing up plans for people’s homes or buildings.
Uh, are you an artist? Are you an athlete? Are you a senator?
Are are you are you the president or the CEO of a company?
Are you the president of a nation? Are you an engineer? Are you a musician?
Are you a poet? Are you a plumber? Are you a movie maker?
Are you an administrative assistant?
Listen, all of it is sacred in the eyes of God.
Your words bless people and your work blesses people.
Your words can honor god and our work can honor god and point people to god.
Remember, He’s the greatest artist of all. He’s the creator of the universe.
He paints with light and water on a canvas of air when he makes a sunrise and a sunset Remember, he’s the great physician.
He heals the sick and raises the dead.
So if you’re a doctor, Care for people in such a way that it points them to the great healer.
Who cares for their souls, not just their body, and make the world
a little bit more like heaven.
If you’re serving people as a waiter, as a waitress, That sacred work in the eyes of God.
Remember, Jesus said he was a servant. He didn’t come to be served, but to serve.
He said if you want to be great, learn to be the servant of all and do it with such an attitude of kindness and humility and grace.
Motivated by the way God has served you that it points them
to their father in heaven and they praise him in the given thanks and you make somebody’s day.
Because of the
way that you serve them. God is
the great engineer. He is the great musician.
God is he keeps accounts. If you’re a CPA, think about this.
I mean, god understands accounts and and he knows how to reconcile accounts and he knows how to cancel out our debt, bring
us out of the red and into the black. I’m I’m not trying to be uh, funny here.
I’m trying to point out that every gift and talent and insight that god has given to you and to me come from the great fountain of creativity and order and design and creativity and care and knowledge and insight.
And everything we do matters. Everything is spiritual.
And so that gives great dignity to your work. Are you a mom?
Are you a dad? There is great value in that.
There is you are you are you are your home is the workshop, and you are are you’re shaping the hearts and minds of the next generation of human beings that will go into the world.
There is I can’t think of anything more sacred and and wonderful than demonstrating the attributes of god, his kindness, his care, his love, his compassion, as you are a mom to
your kids, as you are a father to your children, raising young men, raising young women.
That’s all sacred work. That’s not secular stuff. That has eternal value in heaven.
I think of the guy who made this fire pit.
Had a great talk with him today as I went by his, uh, his little shop out in
the, out on on the corner of
the street, said, Ben, thank you for doing what you’re doing. I mean, look at this.
He made a fire pit that is so substantial that is so well made and so well built.
He’s proud of that. And we got into a conversation about god today.
We don’t we don’t share the the exact same under standing of faith, but we got into a conversation about god.
And you know what you know what got me thinking about using his fire pits is because of what he put here in the, uh, the panel.
It says, God bless America. And some of you are looking at this and and my fire pit is blessing you and my fire pit is pointing people
to the great god of heaven, and we’re asking him to bless our nation.
Making fire pits is sacred. If you’re a shoemaker, it’s sacred.
Let everything in fact, I wrote this I wrote this down on his business card.
Here this is a Bible verse.
And as a matter of fact, uh, my fireside some of you are wondering where I got this, you can actually you can get these online.
My fireside, here it is. Can you see that? My fireside dot com.
Look at this Bible verse I wrote on the back.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the lord.
Colossians three twenty three.
Whatever you do, whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart.
Do you clean pools?
Work at it with all of your heart as though you’re serving the lord.
What would happen How would your view of your work transform if you said I’m not doing this for this boss here.
I’m not doing this for
these customers. I’m doing what I do. I’m sacrificing for my children.
I’m doing it with all of my heart as though I am working for god himself.
That brings great dignity and purpose and meaning and value to everything that we do.
So let’s remember that as we sign off tonight. May the lord bless you and keep you?
May the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious on to you.
May the lord lift up his countenance upon you and upon your family?
Upon your words, and upon everything that you do so that it points people to our great god in heaven and brings heaven to earth for our neighbors.
God bless you.
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