9-23-12 Sermon Part 2 of Your Work Matters to God

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MY MINISTRY IN THE MARKETPLACE

Your Work Matters To God

Part 2

09-23-12 Sermon

Speaking before the annual meeting of the National Alliance of Business, Ronald Reagan said, ”I heard of a guy who had been unemployed for a long time, and a few days ago he found a job at a china warehouse.  He’d only worked there a couple of days when he smashed a large oriental vase.  The boss told him in no uncertain terms that the cost would be deducted from his wages every week until the vase was paid for.  And the guy asked, “How much did it cost?”   The boss told him $300.  And the guy cheered and said, “At last, I’ve found steady work!”

Will Rogers predicted World War I wouldn’t last very long because his brother-in-law joined the Army, and he never held a job for over two weeks.

We are in Part 2 of this series called “Your Work Matters to God.”  When people talk about their jobs it seems there are some familiar messages.  “People in my office are always complaining...  It’s a negative environment…  My boss is a slave driver….” 

Some time ago, many hives of bees were brought from a cold climate to the tropical island of Barbados.  Right away the bees went to work, gathering honey for the winter which their instinct taught them to expect.  The winter didn’t come, however, and the bees became lazy.  They stopped gathering honey.  They spent their time flying around and stinging people.  Trouble is usually produced by people who don’t produce anything else.  Maybe you work with some folks like that. 

A lot of times people wish they could work in an all Christian environment.  Having worked in a Christian environment for years, let me tell you that people are people.  Christian people can be negative.  Christian people can be complaining.  Christian people can be jealous.  Christian people can stab you in the back.  Christian people are like other people.  So, instead of you wishing you worked in an all Christian environment, change the environment that God has put you in.  No matter where you are.  Bottom of the ladder. Middle management.  High level.  It doesn’t matter.  Quit complaining, quit wishing that you were working in a Christian setting.  Instead change your culture. 

Maybe God has got you there for a ministry to change your culture that would ultimately honor God.  When I hear Christians tell me they wished they worked with a bunch of Christians what I think to myself is they don’t really understand what it means to serve the Lord.  You can serve the Lord full time in your work.  You don’t have to quit the marketplace.  And Christians shouldn’t quit the marketplace.  You don’t have to quit the marketplace to work full time in ministry.  God wants your work to be full time ministry.  He wants you to learn how to use your work as a ministry.

Colossians 3 “Work hard and cheerfully at all you do, just as though you were working for the Lord and not merely for your masters.  Remember it is the Lord who is going to pay you.  He’s the one you’re really working for.”  Put a star by that last sentence.  It blows up that calling in sick thing.  He’s the one you’re really working for.  Off to the side write down the word “perspective.”  If you get your mental arms around that passage it really is a shift for us in the marketplace.  I talked about this last week-- working isn’t just for money and success.  God is the one you’re really working for. 

If we start there then the big idea is that God is who I’m really working for.  That means I’ve got to figure out how I can work for God in the marketplace, in the work setting that He has given me. 

How can I work for God?  I can serve God by serving others. 

That’s what this message is all about.  It’s a message on how do you serve other people.  The challenge today is to serve.  Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 25 “Anything you’ve done for one of My brothers here however humble, however small, however little, you’ve done for Me.”  Jesus says when we serve others ultimately we’re serving God.  We serve God by serving others.  The Bible is very clear about that.  When you serve somebody in the marketplace, you’re serving God. 

Not -- if I serve them I’ll make them more productive and that’ll make me look better and make me more money.  Or if I work under somebody, I serve them with the motive that maybe I’ll climb the corporate ladder.  No.  You serve them with the motive to serve them.  When you serve them you serve God.

Why serving makes sense.  Let’s look at some of the benefits.  You want to know why serving makes sense in God’s eyes? 

1.  It makes life meaningful. 

God wired you and I and created us to serve.  He created us for a ministry.  He says spend your life in helping others.  When you serve, something happens to you. 

When you serve somebody else it’s like God opens up this window of your soul and He puts His favor in it and says, “That’s why I’ve created you.  That’s what I created you for.  That’s why you feel joy.  That’s why there’s this deeper sense of happiness.  That’s why you want to connect and communicate with other people.  That’s how I created you.”  You’re never going to be more like Jesus than when you serve.  It gives your life meaning.

Titus 3 “Have our people learn to give their time in doing good and provide for real needs and not live useless lives.”  Nobody wants to live a useless life.  You can waste your life, you can spend your life, or you can invest your life.  The Bible says you want to live life to its fullest?  You want a life fulfilled?  Then invest your life in serving others. 

I believe one of the reasons why we live in a world where so many people are dissatisfied with life, so many people are bored in their life, is because they just live for themselves.  In the marketplace it’s all about me.  It’s all about getting success.  It’s all about increasing my value and my wages so I can have more stuff for me.  Ultimately they’re unhappy and bored people.  If you want to live an exciting life you serve. 

If you’re not serving, you’re living a boring life.  You can pretend all you want.  You can pretend it’s a great life but if you’re not serving others there’s no excitement.  There’s no meaning there.  God created you to serve.  Why serve?  It gives your life meaning.

Why serving makes sense...

2.  It makes me like Christ. 

Serving proves that I’m a Christian.  When I serve with the motive to honor God it proves that I’m a follower of Christ.  In today’s world it is difficult to prove things. 

But as a Christian it proves that I’m follower of Christ when I’m serving.  If I serve in a marketplace long enough people are going to say, What is up with you?  Why do you do that?  What is different about you?  This is very important – a little bit of an aside here.  Most of the people, most of us here want to grow spiritually.  That’s why we’re here.  That’s why we come to church.  We want to change.  We want to grow spiritually, we want to be more like Christ. 

The New Testament teaches that almost all spiritual growth happens in the context of community – when you’re connected with other people.  You want to grow spiritually, it’s about your life touching other aspects of other people’s lives and serving them. 

Here’s a great passage to memorize: Philippians 2 “Look out for each other’s interests, not just for your own.  The attitude you should have is the one Jesus Christ had.”  What was the attitude of Jesus Christ?  This is a mind blower right here.  Jesus said in Matthew 20, “I did not come to be served but to serve.  ”

Time out.  Let’s think about this one.  Jesus – God in the flesh – comes to earth and says “I didn’t come to be served.  I came to serve.”  That is so different from our culture today.  In our culture when you’ve arrived then you get to be served.  Paul says– “Look out for each other’s interests, not just for your own.”  That’s the attitude of Christ.  Let me ask this.  Does that come naturally to you?  Does that attitude of looking out for other people come naturally to you?  For most of us who live with other people the answer is no.  That’s not a natural thing that I wake up in the morning and go, “Who am I going to serve today?”  It just doesn’t happen. 

We don’t naturally think about other people’s interests.  We think about our own. 

Why serving makes sense: it makes my life meaningful, it makes me like Christ….and

3.  It will be rewarded in eternity.

This is hard for us to understand today because very few people aside from Mother Teresa are ever rewarded for their service.  Most people in the world we live in don’t get rewarded for their service.  But God said you’re going to be rewarded.  Matthew 25 “Well done good and faithful servant.  You’ve been faithful with the few things.  I will put you in charge of many things.  Come and share your master’s happiness.”  On the bottom of the page write to the side three words.  As you look at this verse, this is a verse that indicates that what we do here on earth in our short little amount of time – 80 to 100 years that we maybe get to live – will be rewarded in eternity.

There’s three types of rewards.  Write down three words.  There’s the reward of affirmation.  That’s the “well done.”  Can you imagine how exciting it will be when you get to heaven and God says to you, “Well done!  Welcome!  Well done!”  If He says to me “Well done, Frank!”  I just know my nature.  I’m going to look over my shoulder to see if there’s other Frank’s around.  Well done, Frank.  Based on how you and I live our life, Well done! 

Imagine the God of the universe.  The God that was, the God that is, the God that will be recognizes everything about my life, saw into every motive, every action, everything I ever did and based on that life here on earth and he says “Well done.” 

That’s affirmation.  Affirmation of a life well lived will be affirmation of a life of service.  Serving others.  You serve God by serving others.  Write to the side “promotion.”  “I will put you in charge of many things.”  You’re going to get promoted.  You’ve been faithful in a little, I’m going to give you much.  We talked about this last week.  I’m not going to spend much time on it.  The Bible teaches that our work is a test.  God is going to, in eternity, give us work.  You’ve been faithful in little, I’m going to give you much. 

Think about this.  If God is testing us based on how we work, some of you get stressed out of your minds for your annual review.  Imagine a life review.  If He’s going to test us on our work, that’s a lot of opportunities for testing.  Think about how much time you spend at work.  You spend more time at work than you do at church.  You spend more time at work than you do with others.  Some spend more time at work than they do with their family.  So if you’re not serving God at work where do you get the opportunity to live out your faith?  How you handle your responsibility here determines your reward and responsibility in eternity. 

There’s a third part to this reward.  It says “Come and share your master’s happiness.”  That is the celebration.  There will be reward of celebration.  Affirmation – promotion – celebration.

The celebration is let’s get the party started.  Folks this life that we live is just a short life.  Let’s get the party started.  Let’s celebrate.  Let’s have a good time!  There’s going to be celebration in heaven.  Today, in the market place what are you living for?  Who are you working for?  Does it matter?  Does it count?  Jesus says you want to be great in eternity?  Then serve here.  John 12:26, “My Father will honor those who serve Me.”  God the Father honors those who serve. 

God rewards us based on how we live.  How you live doesn’t get you into heaven.  Faith gets you into heaven.  Trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice for you on the cross gets you into heaven.  But there is some reward tied into that.  That’ll be part of God’s celebration for us. 

Let’s go practical.  This week in the market place.  How can I have a ministry at work, with the people I work with whether they’re Christians or non-Christians?  How basically can I be a minister?  If God is watching how I work, how can I be a minister at work? 

Let me give you some actions to put into play this week. 

1.  Accept others unconditionally. 

If you want to be a minister, you accept people.  Can you think of names of people that you work with who are difficult to accept?  Yeah!  A lot of people are difficult to accept. 

You’ve got people at work that you find difficult to accept.  Everyone needs acceptance.  I know what some of you are thinking.  “Why should I accept people who say stupid things and do hurtful things to me and to others?”  If you’re a Christian that’s exactly why you need to show acceptance.  Just because they do foolish things is no reason to withdraw acceptance from them.  Everybody needs acceptance.  Why?  Because we’re all broken.  We’ve all messed up.  We’re all filled with weaknesses and sins and inadequacies.  We’ve all got issues.

But here’s what we do.  We all are broken.  Yet we treat other people like they’re supposed to be perfect.  Have you ever noticed the hypocrisy in this at all?  It’s like how we drive.  Bad drivers tick you off.  But have you ever been a bad driver?  Absolutely. 

That same picture that we see everyday on the highway is what’s happening in the marketplace.  We have our own issues and faults and problems.  Yet we expect everybody else to be different.  Nobody’s perfect.  If you expect perfection from people you’re going to be totally frustrated all the time.  As a matter of fact I’d say that you can’t minister to people if you can’t accept them. 

The Bible tells us if you’re a follower of Christ in Romans 15, “Accept one another just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God.”  Look at the result.  It’s not to make them feel good, it’s not to make you feel good.  It’s to bring praise to God.  That’s why you accept them.  And by the way, don’t confuse acceptance with approval.  You can accept people without approving of their behavior or their lifestyle.  You can love people without agreeing with their life or behavior.  Jesus did this all the time.  As a matter of fact because of who Jesus was seen talking to – prostitutes, troublemakers, tax collectors, sinners.  What was Jesus called?  A friend to sinners.  He accepted people without approving of the things that they had done wrong. 

Some of you may be saying, You don’t know the people that I work with.  How many of you work with odd people?  With difficult people?  The key is this –when people are hurtful and they say dumb things and they’re mean, the key is looking past their behavior and into their heart.  What we typically do in the marketplace is we just focus on everybody’s behavior.  What we don’t realize is that people who are hurting on the inside, they will hurt and attack people on the outside.  We all get hung up on the behavior.  It’s not really the behavior.  People are so broken on the inside.  Don’t hate them.  Feel sad for them.  They’re hurting on the inside.  Have compassion.  Turn your anger into compassion. 

Everybody is crying out for acceptance.  The people in your office or in the marketplace that are the least deserving, they’re the most obnoxious people, those are the ones who need your acceptance the very most.  If you want to be a minister at work, you accept others unconditionally. 

2.  To have a ministry at work you encourage others continually. 

You minister to people when you encourage them.  Here’s some things you can know about encouragement.  Everybody needs it.  Everybody’s hurting somewhere.  Everybody in your world could use a lift, some encouragement.  I’ve never met anybody in my whole life who’s said, “Don’t encourage me.”  I’ve had it up to here with all the encouragement.  The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5 “Encourage one another and build one another up.”  Christians!  If you’re a follower of Christ of all the people in the world we should be the ones who have the reputation to be encouragers at work. 

Let me ask you.  Are you an encourager or a discourager?  Do you compliment or do you criticize?  Our world is so full of critics and cynics.  Jesus said to the followers of Him, be different.  The world lives that way.  Be different.  Don’t be a critic.  Don’t be a cynic.  Be different.  Build people up. 

Ephesians 4:29 “Speak only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen.”  Can you imagine trying to live that one out?  Maybe we need to write that on a 3x5 card and keep that in front of us.  Only saying things that are going to build people up according to their needs.  What do they need?  They need to be appreciated. 

People who brag a lot, you tend to think “They don’t need encouragement.  They’ve got so much going.”  No.  That’s why they’re bragging.  People who brag.  People who namedrop.  People who tell you how wonderful they are.  They are weak and broken people desperate for validation.  Since nobody’s validating their life they’re going to try to validate it in front of you.  They’re the ones who need encouragement the most. 

I’d say to you this week try to put this action into play.  In the marketplace where God has put me, who can I encourage?  How can I do it?  When I say encourage, most of us think of superficial talk.  I’m not talking about superficial.  A lot of times you watch what you say because you think you’re being encouraging but you’re really not. 

Think through what you say to people.  Words have great power behind them.  The power to build up or the power to damage and wound.  The power to heal or to the power to hurt.  Some of you are living examples of that.  Words from your parents or from friends growing up may have  damaged and wounded you and you’re still living in the result of that wounding.  But words also have the power to build people up and to minister to them. 

How many of you could use encouragement from people you work with?  We all need it. 

We minister at work when we encourage others continually and

3.  We minister when we forgive others freely. 

When people hurt you and they will, you offer forgiveness.  People in our world don’t typically respond with forgiveness.  When people hurt us we just kind of bottle it up and we act moody or we do different things.  When you forgive them you will minister to them.  There’s a couple ways forgiveness works.  You say, “I forgive you,” and you ask for forgiveness when you have hurt other people.  You ask for forgiveness and you offer forgiveness.  Our world typically doesn’t do either one of those. 

Colossians 3 “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”  Underline that.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Look at the first part “Bear with each other.”  What does that mean – bear with each other.  That’s one of those phrases that seems weird and churchy.  What is this?  It means be patient with them.  When you’re patient with people.  Here’s what I see in the context of the marketplace.  You minimize mistakes.  You don’t have to make a big deal out of mistakes.  Everybody makes mistakes.  Is the world going to come to an end because of this?  Just move on.  That’s what it means to bear with one another.  That’s being patient with on another. 

What’s your motive for that?  You forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Why do Christians forgive?  Because we’ll never have to forgive anyone as much as Jesus Christ has forgiven us.  Forgiveness is so rare in this world that when you forgive someone it’s like this shining light comes on.  If you were to read the most famous sermon of Jesus in Matthew 5 what He says is “You are different.  You’re to be a light in the world.  Like a light set on a mountaintop for all to see.”  When you forgive somebody that light comes on and people are going, That’s different. 

Some of you have watched American Idol.  Remember a larger woman who made it to Hollywood.  After she made it to Hollywood for the initial tryouts, as she was walking out the door, Simon, one of the judges said, “Looks like this year we’re going to need a larger stage.”  Fox played that for everybody to see and hear.  It was a fun little sound bite for the world.  It crushed Mandesa.  When Mandesa gets to Hollywood as she comes out to sing, she says, “Before I sing, Simon I just want to let you know that what you said hurt me very, very bad.  But I want to also let you know that I forgive you.  And the reason I forgive you is because I have been forgiven.”  It so moved this guy.  You could tell in his eyes and his response as he got up from around the counter and gave her a hug.  The whole world is seeing this thing on forgiveness.  It wasn’t just great tv.  It was great theology.  It was faith in practice that this young woman said, I forgive you because I’ve been forgiven. 

How to have a ministry at work?  You accept others unconditionally, you encourage others continually, you forgive others freely and you…

4.  Help others willingly

This is the essence of servanthood – willingly.  We don’t want to naturally. We need God to change us.

Being a Christian is a journey.  It’s not this overnight sensation.  It’s a journey.  I’m not there yet.  You’re not there yet.  God, would you change me from being unwilling to willing? 

Proverbs 3 says, “Whenever you possibly can, do good to those who need it.  Never tell your neighbor to wait until tomorrow if you can help him now.”  Circle “help him now.”  The Bible teaches that offering practical assistance to people at work --when you’re ministering to them, you’re serving God.  When you help others even if you feel like it’s in vain, God sees your heart.  It changes your character. 

1 Corinthians 15:58 “Now my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord’s work.  For you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”  Nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless! 

At a crossroads in France stood a life-size statue of Jesus with arms outstretched to the passers-by.  A look of inviting tenderness and compassion shone from his face.  His eyes seems to say, Come to me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  One day, during World War I, a fierce battle raged near the statue.  Its outstretched arms and hands were blown away by the exploding shells.  Later, someone inscribed these words on the pedestal of that statue:  Christ has no hands but your hands.

When you help someone at work, you are being Jesus to them.  Tomorrow in the marketplace.  You’re helping somebody out on a project and you think, “Nothing I do for the Lord is ever useless.”  You’re helping somebody figure out this software program.  You’ve already showed them five times before and they’re asking for help again.  You think, “Nothing I do for the Lord is ever useless.”  You’re taking a shift for somebody else so they can be with their family and you have this space and margin in your schedule to do it.  You think, “Nothing I do for the Lord is ever useless.”  You stay after work to help somebody out and you even do menial tasks that you think are below you and you think, “Nothing I do for the Lord is ever useless.” 

Don’t procrastinate.  When you see people in need, help them out.  The problem is we get so wrapped up in ourselves we don’t see the needs of other people.  If you want to be more like Jesus Christ you’re never more like Jesus Christ than when you serve.

This week, the people in the marketplace, see them as your church.  You’re the minister at that church.  You don’t need to be passing out gospel tracts.  You don’t need to be leading a bible study there.  You don’t need to be spending your employer’s time watching Christian videos on You Tube.  When you go to your job you don’t need to go into your job carrying a big Bible and wearing a robe with a collar – “Hello, brethren.  I was at church and was told I was a minister in the marketplace.”  If you do that don’t tell them you came from Forest Grove!  But when you go in to work know that there are hurting people all around you and the people that you work with need to be accepted, encouraged, forgiven and helped. 

When you do, then you earn the right to be heard about this wonderful God who has so changed your life that you want to accept and encourage and forgive and help.  God came to earth and died on the cross so that those of us who were broken and sinful could be connected with God and have a personal relationship with Him.  In that personal relationship we would receive His power to do the things that don’t come naturally to us.  When you do these things you earn the right to tell about that kind of relationship that you have found with God. 

The closing challenge is I want you to go back to work this week with a new job description – serve.  And a new title – minister. As you walk in the doors of your work remind yourself, “I’m a minister of Jesus Christ in the marketplace today.  I can minister by accepting and encouraging and forgiving and helping.” 

Prayer:

       As we pray and as you get still and maybe close your eyes, I want you to think about your workplace.  Ask God to bring to your heart a name, a face, a situation that needs acceptance, encouragement, forgiveness or help.  If there is a name, a face or situation that comes up would you trust that that is God’s Spirit bringing that to you and not be disobedient to that this week?   Would you obey Him and offer acceptance, encouragement, forgiveness or help with that name or that face or that situation?  That’s how God communicates to His followers, through His Spirit.  You know that you can only minister to those people if you have God’s love in your life. 

If you haven’t asked Jesus Christ to put His Spirit into your life you can do so now.  Just say, Jesus come into my life.  As best as I know how I ask You to be the head of my life, the leader of my life, the CEO of my life.  Take over.  I need Your power to do these things we talked about today. 

God, we don’t want to be the same people as we leave here this morning as we were when we came in.  Thankfully because of Your word and through the power of Your Spirit, we don’t have to be.  Will You give us the courage and the strength to be the people that You want us to be.  Thank You for the jobs You have given us.  Would You help us to see people the way You see them.  And to be a light in that world.  We can’t do it on our own.  We need Your help and we pray for that in the name of Jesus.  Amen.