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WHY WORK?
Your Work Matters To God
Part 1
09-16-12 Sermon
Today we’re beginning a new
series on your work called “Your Work Matters to God.” In your lifetime you’re going to spend
about 150,000 hours at work.
That’s forty percent of your life.
The odds are you’re not going to enjoy it. A recent survey across America discovered that two thirds of
American workers said, “I really don’t
like my job.” In fact a lot of
people flat out say, “I hate my job!” I don’t know if you know this or not
but Monday morning between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. is the number one time people
commit suicide. Why? Because they can’t face another week at
work.
A lot of people feel like
nobodies at work. Yet work
dominates our lives. It defines
our lives. It determines where we live,
who we’re going to have as friends, what we do with our lives, how we spend our
time. So today as we start this
series I want to begin with this question: Why? Why work? Why
go to work?
That’s not exactly a new
question. It was asked over three
thousand years ago by the wisest man who ever lived. His name was Solomon.
In the book of Ecclesiastes he says this “What do people really get for all their hard work?” In other words what am I really
getting? You spend your life
working and laboring. What do you
have to show for it? Especially
here in America where the government will pay you for not working. If you can pick up welfare checks why
not just stay in bed and cash the checks.
Why? Why work?
You may say, “I work because I have bills to pay. I owe, I owe, so it’s off to work I
go.” You say, “I'm working so I can retire.” Think about that idea. Isn’t it kind of dumb to spend your
entire life doing something you don’t want to do so that at the end you don’t
have to do it? Is that really the way I want to spend my life? There’s got to be a better reason than
I’m just here to pay my bills or I just want to retire.
There is! In fact the Bible gives us seven
motivations for work. Two of them
are financial and five of them are spiritual. Today we’re going to look those motivations. We’re going to start with the lowest
one, the least important and work our way up to the highest level of motivation
which is the seventh level of motivation.
The first reason we work is
the most obvious one.
1. Necessity: to meet my needs
That’s one reason why I
work. It’s a necessity. This is the most obvious. It’s the basic reason why we work. We work to stay alive. Proverbs 12:11 says “The one who stays on the job has food on
the table.” Proverbs 16:26 “Appetite is an incentive to work.” I agree with that, how about
you? Hunger makes you work all the
harder.
This is just the basic
level. It’s the survival
level. It’s the lowest motivation
for why it is that we work.
God says if you can work then you’re supposed to
work. Not only that but God also
says we’re supposed to provide for our families. We’re not supposed to rely on others to take care of our
families.
1 Timothy 5:8 “If anyone does not provide for his
relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and
is worse than an unbeliever.” Those
are some pretty strong words. If I
don’t take care of my own family, if I don't meet my own family’s needs then
I'm worse than an unbeliever. And
one of the ways that God tests our faith is by providing for our family.
2 Thessalonians 3:10 “Whoever doesn’t want to work shouldn’t be
allowed to eat.”
Notice it says who doesn’t want to work. It doesn’t say if a person can’t work. That’s
important. There are people with legitimate
needs. People who are handicapped
or disabled. People who cannot
work. The bible verse is talking
about people who are lazy who just decided I'm
just not going to work.
There’s no free lunch.
There’s no loaves for loafers.
The point is this, if we can work God expects us to work.
The apostle Paul set a
wonderful example for us. 2
Thessalonians 3:7-8 “We were not idle
when we were with you. On the
contrary we worked night and day laboring and toiling so that we would not be a
burden to any of you.” No one
could accuse Paul of being a freeloader.
He didn’t depend on handouts from other people. So the most basic motivation for work
is out of necessity.
Let’s take a look at the next
level.
2.
Prosperity: to succeed financially.
This is when I'm not working
out of necessity, just because I want to stay alive. But I'm working for prosperity, that is I want to succeed
financially. I want to make some
money. I want to develop wealth. This
is a legitimate motivation for work.
It’s just not the
most important one.
You need to realize that God
is not opposed to wealth. He’s
not. Some of the wealthiest people
in the Bible were the most godly people.
Some of the heroes in the Bible were extremely wealthy. Abraham was a very wealthy man. Job was the wealthiest man in the world
during his day. So was
Solomon. Solomon was the
wealthiest man in the world during his day. David was wealthy.
Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy.
Lydia was wealthy. So being
wealthy and being close to God are not necessarily contradictory.
What God is interested in is how you get it (in other words do you
get it honestly), how you spend it
(do you spend it wisely), how you share
it (do you share it generously).
Jesus talked a lot about
wealth. Over half of the parables
that Jesus told are actually about money.
Jesus talked more about money than He did about either heaven or
hell. Some of those parables are
actually about investments. Jesus
praises the servants who get a good return on their investments.
The Bible is literally filled
with advice and principles on both work and succeeding at work, succeeding in
your business and making money and saving money and investing money. In fact there’s one particular book in
the Bible that has a lot about money and about work-- the book of
Proverbs. Proverbs has tons of
advice, about work and about money.
Here are a few…
Proverbs
21 “Steady plodding brings
prosperity. Hasty speculation [that
means the lottery] brings poverty.”
“Put your investments in many different places because
you never know what kind of disasters you’re going to have in this world.” Isn’t
that good advice? Don’t put all
your eggs in one basket. Where do
you think that phrase came from?
It came from the Bible.
Three thousand years before Warren Buffet, God’s saying spread your
investments out. Don’t put them
all in one place.
Proverbs
23 “Get the facts at any price.” A lot of people lose both their
work and their money because they don't have the facts.
Proverbs
27 “Watch your business interest
closely. Know the state of your
flocks and herds.” That’s the
principle of accounting. That’s a
budget. A budget is telling your
money where you want it to go rather than wondering where it went.
Proverbs
16:3 “Commit your work to the Lord and
then it will succeed.” You
want to be a success at work? The
Bible says commit your work to the Lord.
“Lazy people want much but get little but those who
work hard will prosper and be satisfied.”
So this is the second
motivation for work. First,
necessity. I want to stay
alive. I want to be able to
eat. Second, for prosperity. That’s the motivation of wealth. There’s no problem with that. It’s just not the most important.
Now we’re going to move up to
a little higher level of motivation for work.
The third reason for work is…
3.
Identity; to express my SHAPE
I work to express my God
given shape. God has wired all of us uniquely to do
something different on this planet.
We’re all wired different so that everything can get done. Some of you are wired to be
musicians. Some of us are great
with numbers. They’re wired to be
accountants. Some of us are great
at taking complex things and making them simple. They’re wired to be teachers.
So what is shape? It’s actually an acrostic. S.h.a.p.e.
S – Spiritual
gifts. Those are the things when
you become a believer that God gives you, that He wants you to use in ministry
and for Him.
H – Heart. What are you passionate about, what
gets you up in the morning? What’s
your drive?
A – Abilities. Your God given talents. The skills that you’ve developed over
the years that you can share with others.
P – your
Personality. You are unique. There is no one else like you. God wants to use your personality to affect
other people’s lives for the good.
E –
Experiences. All of us have
experiences in our lives that we can use to help other people.
So how do you know if you’re
working in your shape? There’s two questions that you can ask
yourself, and you may want to write these down, to know if you’re working and where
your working is going to fit your shape.
1. Are you successful at
what you’re doing? That’s the
first question to know if you’re working in your shape.
2. Are you satisfied in
what you’re doing?
If you can answer yes to both
of those questions – yes I m successful at what I'm doing and yes I am
satisfied then there’s a really good chance that you’re in your shape at work.
Galatians 6:4 “Be sure to do what you should, for then you
will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well, and you
won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.” Doing the work that you’re shaped for gives you
dignity. There’s legitimate honor
and pride in doing a job that’s well done. We’re all shaped different ways. We’re all shaped to serve God and we all have different
shapes for work. There’s been
studies and research done that’s proved that the happiest people in their jobs
are doing something they believe is: one,
worthwhile; two, meaningful to them,
and three, it’s larger than they are.
One of the reasons that a lot
of people hate their job and they’re miserable every Monday morning doesn’t
have to do with their co-workers but it’s because they’re in a job that doesn’t
fit their shape. They’re in a job
for all the wrong reasons.
Making money is almost the
bottom of the barrel of motivation.
The higher motivation is identity.
Doing something that you love.
Some people think that the
goal of life is just to do nothing.
But Proverbs 12:27 says, “A lazy
life is an empty life, but “early to rise” gets the job done.” The fact is that we get a lot of
our identity from our work. After
you meet someone for the first time and you introduce yourself what is
typically the next question you ask?
What do you do? What do you do for a living? It’s a great question because it gives
us a good picture, a snapshot of who they are. It’s not the totality of who they are and where they
work. But it does give us a
glimpse, an insight into who this person might be.
Proverbs 12:14 says, “Well done work has its own reward.” The fact is that God has built in
certain emotional rewards in each of us that only comes from work. The self respect and self esteem that
we get from doing a job well done, the feeling of knowing the accomplishments
we’ve done when we gave it our best shot.
The most important thing is
this, find work that expresses you. Find work that expresses your shape. Fulfilling your shape
is far more important than making money.
It’s the higher motivation.
The fourth reason for work
is…
4. Maturity:
to develop my character.
Work is a school for
character development. God is far
more interested in what you are than
what you do. You’re not taking your career to heaven
but you are taking your character.
So God is more interested in what you are. We’re human beings not
human doings. A lot of things you could do in life but what God’s more
interested in is what you’re becoming while you do it. So the fourth purpose of work at a much
higher level than simply necessity or prosperity is maturity. What is it doing to you? What is it changing you into?
God builds your character through
your job as a testing ground.
A good example of this is
Joseph. Joseph was a guy in the
Bible who had this dream of being a great leader and everything in his life
went wrong. He was sold into
slavery. After forty years, if
he’d made his resume it’d be this.
“I was betrayed by my brothers, I
was sold into slavery, I was the housekeeper in a house, I was a slave, then I
was an assistant in a prison. By
the way, I was a prisoner while I was there.” Not a very good resume for being a leader of a major
country. What was going on? Had God forgotten the dream? No, the Bible says this in Psalm 105 “Until the time came to fulfill His word the
Lord tested Joseph's character.”
God has a dream for your
life. But before that dream comes
true or if it even does come true, God’s going to test your character to see if
you can handle it. If you don’t pass
the test the dream isn’t going to happen.
Because God is more interested in your character. As I said, He’s more interested in what
you’re becoming than what you’re doing.
The Bible says this in
Colossians 1 “Live the kind of life that
honors and pleases the Lord in every way.
You will produce fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of
God.” God says I want you to
grow through your work.
A few character qualities you
might develop while you’re at work.
Could any of you ever have the opportunity this week at work to work on
patience? How about
flexibility? How about
cheerfulness? This is hard in some
offices. Being cheerful. I could go on down the list –
forgiveness, fairness, persistence.
The list could go on and on.
You can work on integrity at work.
You can work on humility at work.
You can work on dependability, on loyalty, contentment, honesty, on and
on. That boss or that co-worker
that you just can’t stand-- God is trying to teach you some things through that
boss.
Here’s the point. While
you’re working on your job, God is working on you. What God is doing in you is more important than what you’re doing. God is
working on you while you’re working on the job. That means when you’re considering a new job you ought to
ask yourself not just, How much will I
make? But you should ask
yourself with every new job, What will I
become? What will I become if
I take this job? That’s the
important part – your character.
The most important thing you bring home from work every day is not your
paycheck. It’s you. It’s what you’re becoming. It’s what that job is turning you into.
The fifth reason for work is…
5. Credibility: To Witness
to others
Why do I need credibility at
work? It’s to witness to
others. Our work is our
witness. It demonstrates what we
believe. It’s a testimony. It’s our testimony.
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 says “Take care of your own business, and do your
own work… if you do, then people who are not believers will respect you.” This is the fifth motivation in the
Bible. It’s an example to
unbelievers. It’s a
testimony. It’s the fact that
actions speak louder than words and God wants audiovisual Christians. Just live it out. Here’s the key – this is so important
to reaching people who don’t know Christ-- Before
your co-workers want to know that the Bible is credible, they want to know if you
are. They want to know if
you’re credible. Whether you like
it or not, or whether I like it, we’re being watched. Especially if they know we’re Christians.
They want to see that you’re
the real deal. There are so many
fakes out there. There are so many
things that are vying for their attention and saying, this is where you can
find help. They want to know the
real deal. They want to know that
you and I are who we say we are.
Your witness has to be backed up by your work. If you’re slacking on the job, if you’re having a bad
attitude, if you’re constantly showing up late, or leaving early, if you’re
playing solitaire on your computer instead of working, or stealing paper
clips. Whatever it is you’re doing
that’s making your witness ineffective, stop! Because God wants us to be a light in the dark places of
people’s lives.
Matthew 5:16 says “Your light must shine before people so they
will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.” Circle ‘your light must shine” and
then circle the word “they.”
What’s this verse talking about?
What is the light? You
are. You’re the light. You’re the testimony. You walk the walk and you talk the talk
because of what Christ has done in your life. Why? It’s
because of the next part.
“… so they will see the good things you do and praise
your Father in heaven.” They are the people around you. They’re your co-workers. They’re your kids. They’re your family members. And they see the reason you do what you
do is because of what you believe.
And because of that, you can bring people to Christ. Just by your actions. Because then they want to know what is
it that’s different about you? You’ve
earned the right to be heard because of your lifestyle.
Colossians 3:17 says “Whatever you do or say, let it be as a
representative of the Lord Jesus.” So here’s the million dollar question
this morning. Is your workplace a
better place, a happier place because people know that you’re a believer? If you’re a CEO or manager or if you
have anyone else that’s underneath you, are they better? Are they happier because of you being a
believer?
There are Christians all the
time who think that their next step in maturity is to leave their secular job
and go into the ministry. Why
would you do that? God has placed
you there. There are people there
that He wants you to reach that no one else can reach but you. Your workplace is the most strategic
place for you to share the good news.
Because God has got people there for you. You say, “But you don’t
know where I work. The language
that they use!” You can put up
with some foul language. You’ve
probably heard worse language in movies.
God has got you in your workplace for a reason. That reason is to reach the people
around you.
Let’s look at the next level…
6.
Generosity: to give to others.
We’ve had identity, maturity,
credibility, now generosity. What
does that mean? It means I work to
give to others. You may have never
ever thought of this one or the last one that we’re going to look at
today. But they’re the two highest
motivations and the Bible talks a lot about them. That I actually work not for my benefit but I work in order
to give to others. The Bible says
this in Ephesians 4 “We must work doing
something useful with our own hands that we may have something to share with
those in need.” At this level
of work I'm not working for necessity any more. I'm not working for prosperity any more. I'm working to help other people for
their benefit. I like the Message
paraphrase of this verse “Get an honest
job so you can help others who can’t work.”
God says I want you to learn
to be generous. A lot of people
think they’re generous but they’re not.
A lot of people when it comes to giving they stop at nothing! In fact, the only thing they’re
generous with is their criticism.
And they’re quite generous with that. But it is a good question, Why should I keep working once I have enough. Really, that’s a good question to
ask. Why should I keep on working if I’ve got enough?
Very few people have ever
considered the fact that maybe God would have you keep working so that you
could help other people in need.
So you could use that money for kingdom purposes. So you could use that to further God’s
agenda in the world.
If you want to be a leader
then you’re going to have to set the example. Andrew Carnegie used to say, “Do your givin’ while you’re
livin’ then you’ll be knowin’ where it’s goin’.” Don’t say I'm going to give it all away when I die. No. Give it away now and enjoy watching it being used. That’s where the joy comes from. If you want to be a leader you’re going
to have to set the example. This
is higher level of work.
Paul was a great example in
this area. Acts 20 he says this “I’ve been a constant example of how you can
help the poor by working hard, and then remembering the words of the Lord Jesus
‘ it is more blessed to give than to receive’.” In other words there’s more happiness in giving than in
receiving.
The only antidote to
materialism is giving. You may say
that you’re not materialistic but the only antidote for materialism is
giving. Materialism is getting. Every time I give it breaks the grip of materialism in my life. It’s just not that important. Every time I give my heart grows
bigger. Every time I give I become
more like Jesus Christ who was the most generous person in the world.
The Bible says this in Luke
12 “Much is required from those to whom
much is given.” And you know
who that includes? You. Because you by very nature of living in
America are one to whom much is given.
The poorest of the poor in America are richer than most other people in
the world. We just don't
understand how blessed, how prosperous we really are as Americans. I have been in other places around the
world and I have seen it.
Now we come to the highest
motivation for work. Yeah, you can
work for necessity, in other words to say alive. You can work for prosperity, to get rich. Those are legitimate motivations. But they are so low on the totem
pole. God says, Work for identity,
express your Shape. Work for maturity, to grow in
character. Work for credibility,
as a platform to share God’s love.
Work for generosity, to give to others. But the ultimate highest motivation is…
7. Eternity:
to prepare for heaven.
To work in light of
eternity. I work to prepare for
heaven. It’s more than just here
and now. It doesn’t really matter what
I'm doing. It’s what I'm doing to
prepare for heaven.
The Bible says in 1
Corinthians 9 “Athletes work hard to win
a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last
forever.” To me it’s honestly
a little sad that people will spend eight hours a day working to get to the
Olympics. Ten years of practice to
get to the Olympics to win a medal that a month later nobody’s going to
remember. Nobody is going to
remember it. You could work for
trophies on this planet. But given
enough time all of your trophies are going to be trashed. The next generation after you aren’t
going to care one bit about your trophies. They’re going to toss them.
So don’t live in light of
worldly rewards. It says we live
for a crown that will last forever.
Life is preparation for eternity.
What you do is not nearly as
important as why you do it – God’s looking at your heart, your motivation. And who you’re doing it for – you’re
doing it for yourself or you’re doing it for God. And how you do it – your attitude of excellence and
faithfulness and all those character qualities. How much you grow through it and who you’re helping when you
do it. Those are all far more
important. The Bible says this in
Luke 16 “While you’re here on earth God
is testing your faithfulness watching to see what job He’s going to reward you
with in eternity. Whoever can be
trusted with very little can be trusted with much. If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth,
that’s your prosperity here on earth, who’s going to trust you with true riches
[in eternity] forever. If you have not been trustworthy with
someone else’s property [everything you have here on earth God just loans
it, you get to use it during your lifetime and then you pass it back] if you are not trustworthy with somebody
else’s property who will give you your own in eternity.” God is saying I'm testing your
faithfulness to determine what rewards and responsibilities you’re going to get
in heaven.
Let me make this very
clear. There’s nothing you can do
on this planet that’s going to earn your way into heaven. You only get into heaven by trusting in
God’s grace. You can’t work for it
or earn it but once you’re in heaven
the Bible says that the rewards and the roles and the responsibilities that you
are given for eternity are going to be directly related to how you worked here
on this earth. How faithful you
were in the work God gave you.
He’s looking at your heart and He’s very, very clear about it. There’s a number of parables that talk
about this.
Did you know that one day
you’re going to have a job performance evaluation of a lifetime. God is going to evaluate all the work
that you’ve done in your life. Not
for getting into heaven. That’s
only by trusting in Christ. But
for determining your rewards and your responsibilities in heaven for
eternity.
“There’s going to come
a time of testing at the judgment day to see what kind of work each builder has
done. [We’re all building a
life here on earth.] Everyone’s work will be put through the
fire to see whether or not it keeps its value. If the work survives the fire that person will receive a
reward [in eternity]. But if the work is burned up the
builder will suffer great loss.
The builder themselves will be saved, but like someone escaping a fire.”
Have you had the wrong idea
about work? Maybe you saw it as a
necessary evil. Or maybe you’ve
only seen your work in financial terms.
It’s a necessity or it’s for prosperity. I want to get rich.
Yeah, those are legitimate reasons to work. But they are at the very bottom of the totem pole. There is so much more to God’s purpose
for your work. Are you ready to
step up to a higher level?
Prayer: Would you pray this prayer in your
heart? Dear God, I realize that
while I'm at work You’re working on me.
Forgive me for taking the opportunity, the privilege to work for granted. Please use my job to develop my
character. I want to express what
You made me to be. I want You to
use my job for Your good and Your glory.
Use my job to serve You by serving others. I want to use my job to share the good news with
others. I want to use my job to
give to others. And I want to use
my job to prepare for serving Your purposes in eternity. I realize that You put me in my current
job to be Your representative to those particular people. So Jesus, I ask You to use me on my job
and bless me through my job so I can be a blessing to others. I want to be faithful to You. In your name I pray. Amen.
