GROWING SPIRITUALLY AT WORK
Your Work Matters to God
Part 3
09-30-12 Sermon
This morning I am going to
continue our series about how your work really does matter to God. And today I want to specifically talk
about growing spiritually at work.
Not only does God want you to be a witness for him at work, he wants to
use your work situation to enable you to grow spiritually.
First of all if you’re a Christ
follower and you’ve been walking with Jesus for a while and you understand
about the reality of God wanting to be involved in your life 24/7, then
hopefully this will be a reminder to you that He hasn’t stopped that
involvement. You’ll be encouraged
today.
You may be among those here
today who would say, Yeah, I’m doing this thing and I’m walking
with Jesus but I make a lot of mistakes still too. I want to be spiritual but I don’t really see myself as
spiritual enough. I don’t really
see myself as involved enough. I’m
going to get involved in a ministry.
I’m going to! As soon as I
get better at this thing! I’m
going to follow the Lord as soon as things are a little more cleaned up in my
life.
Let me tell you something: Neither you nor the church have that
kind of time. You’re going to have
to get involved in obeying God before you’re all cleaned up and ready to
go. You just don’t have that kind
of time. You will spend
approximately forty percent of your life at work. How depressing is that! About 150,000 hours you’re going to spend on the job. God wants to use those hours to your
benefit. He wants to leverage your
work in order to produce spiritual growth in your life and mine.
The idea of carrying your faith
into the workplace and allowing God to work in you and through you on the job
is one of those things where you can sort of put up a wall and say, Wait a second! I really have a lot more work to do in my spirituality
outside the job before I take it on the job. I’m not ready to go public with this thing. As soon as I go public with it I’m
going to blow it on the job and say or do something and people are going to go,
“What? a ‘Christian’?” Or they’re
going to hit that hot button of Hypocrite. I know me and I’ll fail at this. But, the good news is God uses
imperfect people to accomplish His perfect will. You’re imperfect – God can use you.
The question is do I allow God
access, that kind of the back stage access of my heart on the job? That’s a scary proposition giving God that
kind of green light. The last
thing we want is to kind of set ourselves up to have our coworkers judging us
on our spirituality. Or worse yet,
be viewed as some sort of completely out of touch Christian nerd.
It may be true that many of your
co-workers don’t take seriously the idea of going to church or being a
Christian. The media hasn’t really
helped us a whole lot in this. There’s really nothing in between when it comes to
Christianity. So to go public
means to be pigeonholed. To be put
in some sort of category by people that you really do respect, who you want to
think well of you-- that can be a difficult thing.
There’s also another group. This other group says going public with
my faith, letting God use me on the job, having Him work in me and through me
in that environment-- Some of you might
go, I would but I’m shy. So you think you have the “I'm Shy”
hall pass. “But God, I’m shy! I don’t have to do anything because I’m
shy.” Whatever! There is no hall pass for shyness.
Romans 8:29 “From the very beginning God decided those who came to Him should
become like His Son.” God’s
goal for my life and yours is that we would be transformed into the image of
Jesus Christ. So what’s my job
have to do with that? How is God
going to use my job? Why is my job
so important?
Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do work at it with all your
heart as working for the Lord and not for people.” So whether you’re a secretary or a
salesman, a stay at home mom or a CEO, you and your work matter to God. Whatever you do matters to God. And He wants to use that time at work and
leverage it for spiritual growth in your life. It’s all of your life that He’s interested in. Forty percent of your life spent on the
job? Certainly He’s not going to
let that not be used. It’s a huge
chunk of life. God wants to work
in us and through us to grow us spiritually.
Three ways He can get that done.
1. God uses pressure to
change my trajectory.
He uses pressure to change my
direction, my focus. Then once He
does that He begins to reset our priorities as well. Stress and pressure can really be an indicator that my
priorities are out of order. If
I’m feeling stressed it means that I’ve probably taken on some responsibilities
I shouldn’t have taken on. When
I’m feeling under pressure it means that I’ve stepped forward and accepted
responsibilities that are none of my business. And people who do that, they get ticked at everybody else
for not helping them out enough to take care of the responsibilities that they
have accepted that they never should have. They’re saying, “I’m co-dependent. Join me!”
No! Don’t take them on in the first place. Ephesians 5 “Live life with a due sense of responsibility.” Having said that, some of you may have
this sense of responsibility on steroids.
You want to be responsible for everything. If something’s not getting done it’s falling on you and
you’re worried about it. Have any
of you come from a long line of worriers.
Any of you professional worriers?
Or your parents? You grew
up with one? By sitting here
worrying about stuff is accomplishing a great deal… of nothing.
On the other side of that we
also don’t take responsibility for the stuff that should have been ours in the
first place. We are a nation that
says it’s not my fault. We want to blame everybody else. It was the government or my parents or
my spouse’s problem, the kids, the boss, the co-worker. These are all the reasons I react the
way I do. It’s somebody else’s
responsibility. Somebody else’s
fault.
As a Christ follower you work
for God and you and your work are absolutely vital. This week He wants to use some of the pressure that you face
in order to adjust some priorities.
Maybe give you a more balanced view of your responsibility instead of
trying to carry the responsibility of the world. How do you get started on that? How do you get started on this whole idea of making a
difference, being available, changing this trajectory of life so I can a have
an impact on my job? Not only in
me but around me as well.
Sometimes the single greatest
impact on evangelism is an apology.
So often we could make real inroads into people’s lives if we would just
say I’m sorry. Instead of preaching an exegetical
dissertation from the book of Romans.
Sometimes we just need to understand that an apology can be a very
powerful thing.
1 John 1 “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you. God is light and in Him is no darkness
at all. If we claim to have
fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness we lie and do not live by the truth. If we claim to be without sin we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Walking in light.
We’re saying, “Ok God, 24/7! This is who I am. I really am not that great in being a
Christian. I want to get better at
it. But I have a lot of room to
grow.” That’s a freeing thing
to say.
If any of you have thought “I’m
just not that spiritual. I fail
and I’m just not that great a Christian.” Here’s what I want you to know: You’re right. You pretty much not good at this,
ok? What you have to understand is
that’s a great place to come to.
It’s freeing. Then you can
say, “Ok God, You’ve wired me in this
way. I don’t feel all that
spiritual. But I do want to know
You more.” You know what the
“want to” is? I want to know you more. It’s called faith. You’re looking
for faith to be some other thing.
The want to is faith. Now you just act on it. It doesn’t mean you have to feel
anything. You act. You have all the spirituality you need. Don’t sell yourself short. God’s working in you. Be willing to say this is who I am. That is walking in the light.
That’s dangerous, by the
way. When you’re walking in the
light and say, Ok God, what are we doing
next? It’s an amazing thing
that begins to happen. Your life
is transformed and you begin a new adventure with God.
A second way that God will help
you grow spiritually at work is…
2. God uses people to
change my heart
God uses people in order to work
an amazing change in my heart. The
very thing that you don’t want to have happen is the very thing God wants to
do. He wants our lives to be
integrated. He wants us to be the
same person wherever we find ourselves.
The very thing that God wants to use to get that done is relationships. He wants to use the relationships in
your life – the good ones and the difficult ones - in order to work this
amazing change of heart.
Is there anybody you don’t like
on your job? In every work place
there are some very peculiar people.
Think about it. Think about
your job. Any peculiar
people? If you can’t think of them
it’s probably you. God wants to
use these people in order to increase your capacity for love. He wants to use some very difficult
people sometimes and there’s quite a process for that to happen.
Romans 12 “If it’s possible as far as it depends on you live at peace with
everyone.” Aren’t you glad it
says “if it’s possible”? Thank
God! Frankly there are some people
it’s just impossible to get along with.
They will not let it happen.
They will not ever stop griping.
They’re not going to change apart from the grace of God. They’re whiners. The Bible says, “as far as it depends
on you.” If it’s possible. God is developing greater capacity of
love in me.
You know what? “It’s not all about you.” Part of spiritual growth is a healthy awareness of
others. Part of growing
spiritually is understanding that it’s not about you. And it’s having an awareness of the people around you, an
ability to see below that disagreeable surface for the reason for the behavior
that is so annoying to you at that moment or so hurtful. I grow when I’m open for that kingdom business. That’s part of that walking in the
light.
What you’re saying is, I’m
walking in this light with God.
Somebody does something and my first response is I want to react because
of the impact of what they just did on me, because it’s all about me. Instead of taking a step further back
and saying, “Ok God, what’s going on here?”-- Walk in the light. The light is an amazing perspective
giver. We get to see below the
surface. God wants to empower us
and let us in on what He’s up to.
He wants to use these people in our lives. Are you open for that kind of kingdom business? You’re going to have to put off your
reactions to people’s lame behavior.
How do you do that?
Romans 12 says “Live in harmony with each other. Don’t try to act important but enjoy
the company of ordinary people.
Don’t think you know it all.
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Do things in such a way that people can see that you’re
honorable.”
A young man went to Eugene Bible
College in Oregon. This guy’s name
was Wayne. He relates a story
about showing up the first day at the Bible College. He’d been a Christian for just three months when he decided
he was going to go to Bible College and he was going to preach the word. He went to the Bible college and gets there
and he’s pretty excited about it.
He shows up for his first class.
The professor says, “Turn to Jeremiah,” and he turns round looking for
Jeremiah. Who is he? Then finally someone in the class goes,
“Hey stupid! It’s in the Bible!” So he’s stumbling through. Someone else goes, “Idiot! You only have the New Testament. Jeremiah’s in the Old Testament!” So he gets done with that first class
and is thinking, “I ought to get in my car and get out of here. I shouldn’t be here.”
He went ahead to his next
class. He got there and he’s
obviously feeling a little more comfortable as he gets involved in some of the
conversation. He can see by some
of the reactions that he’s probably going to say the right stuff. At the end of the class the professor
asked everybody to write a couple of paragraphs about themselves. He did. When he got back to this class he got his paper back. There was a note on the bottom that
said, “Thank you for being in my class, Wayne. Your insight and contribution was so refreshing in our
discussion times. Your obvious
zeal for Christ inspires us all. I
look with great anticipation for how God will use you for His purpose.” Then he put on the bottom “The kingdom
of God awaits you.” He said he
must have read it a hundred times that night.
We tend to maximize the negative
voices in our lives. And we tend
to minimize the positive. We hear
the negative voices screaming. We
need to learn how to deal with that.
Sometimes we think that’s the way it is and that’s the way you have to
live. You don’t. You can learn to deal with this.
You need to get a lid for your
heart. Sometimes people say things
and you just let it right into your heart. You let it straight into your emotions. You need to learn how to close that
lid. You need to learn how to open
and close the lid of your heart and not let everything in so deeply that
shouldn’t be there.
A third way that God will help
you grow spiritually at work is…
3. God uses pain to change
my character.
We all have our unique set of
problems in our unique jobs.
There’s a resulting pain from those problems, those trials, those
difficulties. God wants to use
those to help build our character.
That does not mean He authored the problems, trials and pain. It simply means He’s willing to use
those. He will leverage those
things for our spiritual growth.
Romans 5 says “We can rejoice too when we run into
problems and trials. They help us
learn to endure and endurance develops strength of character and helps us to
trust God more each time.” God
is far more interested in your character than in your comfort. God is far more interested in
perfecting you than pampering you.
I don’t really like either of those statements. I’m very committed to my comfort and my
pampering. But every time I pursue
that and it runs counter to God’s purposes in my life I find that my best
efforts do not satisfy. When I let
Him do this transforming work in my heart it’s amazing but I actually end up
where I wanted to be all along.
Fulfilled. I was just
pursuing it in a way that could never get it done. The goal is that we be transformed and become more like
Jesus.
An elderly man asked a boy to go
with him into the woods to cut down some hickory trees to make ax handles. They soon came to several young hickory
trees. The boy said, These trees would make good ax handles. Let’s cut them down.
The old man said, These trees in the lowlands have been
protected from the storms which rage higher up. Let’s go higher up where the trees have been rocked back and
forth by fierce winds. Those trees
have been hardened by the storms and they will make much stronger ax handles.
Those who have been exposed to
trials and temptations, who have been rocked back and forth by the storms of
life are made stronger. We can be
more than conquerors through him who loved us. God uses pain to change our character.
God can even use the temptations
that you face to do that. All of
us face various temptations but there’s a whole new set of them that are unique
to work. You have a whole
different group of temptations that show up there. 1 Corinthians 10 says “Remember
the temptations that come into your life are no different than what others
experience. God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from
becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted He will show you a
way out so you won’t give into it.”
The temptations are common.
We all face the same kinds of temptation. The solutions are also common as well. You go to Jesus. You ask Him to fill you with His Holy
Spirit, give you the power to make the right choice. Temptations are resistible. And this scripture says God will give you a way out. There is a way that God will make that
even when I blow it the last chapter is not written. As long as I do something – walk in the light.
Here is a definition for
maturity : Christian maturity is when:
I'm a quicker repent-er than I used to be. That’s Christian maturity. Because if maturity means you won’t sin, then we have to
become awesome actors. Because you
and I will continue to sin.
Fortunately God is in the business of forgiveness. He can even use my failures to build my
character.
The bible says: “I am sure that God who began the good work
within you will continue His work until it is finally finished on that day when
Christ Jesus comes back again.” The
most important thing that you’re going to bring from your job this week is not
your paycheck. It’s your
character. God has begun a work in
you. He’s committed to completing
that work. He wants to continue
that. He wants that backstage
pass. Would you give Him the full
access pass? It will conclude that
forty percent on your job this week.
I challenge you to say, “Ok God,
lights on, windows open. I'm
walking in the light. I want to be
a quicker repent-er than I used to be.
I want to give You access to change me. In every way You want.”
If you’ll do that, I have
some exciting news for you. The
kingdom of God is at hand for you.
The kingdom of God is at hand! It starts Monday morning. What will you do with it?
Prayer: Lord
Jesus, I thank You today that You are absolutely committed to my
transformation. I thank You today
that You love me so much that You’re willing to even use the pressures and the
people and even the pain that I bring on myself to transform me. Thank You so much that You’re willing
to stop at nothing so that we can be together. I pray for my friends today Lord who have not made that
commitment to You yet, who have not stepped over that line of faith. I pray Lord God that they would risk
opening up to Your love. I pray
Lord that You’d help them. I pray
Lord that they would take a step towards You today in their heart. I thank You for all that You have
planned for us. We give You full
access. We do so in Jesus’
name. Amen.
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