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. 

9-16-12 Sermon

To listen to Sunday's sermon, click here.

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. 

9-9-12 Sermon

Today's sermon was shared by Luke Billman, missionary to Brazil with Shores of Grace Ministries. You can hear it here. There is no manuscript. If you want further information on Shores of Grace, click here. To support Luke and his family or learn more about them, click here.