How do you feel about the work you do? Do you consider your work a blessing or a curse? Do you feel called by God to do your work, or do you consider it a simple earthly necessity to put food on the table?
Why do you work? Consider your motivations…
- To make money and provide for your family…
- To maximize profits for your company…
- To please your boss or your board or your shareholders…
- To build a positive reputation for yourself or your company…
- To model a good work ethic for your kids and employees…
- To fulfill a deep internal desire to do something with your life…
- To utilize your gifts, abilities and experiences…
- To honor and glorify God…
- To serve people…
For the next four Sundays we are going to reflect on WORK. Does “secular” work matter? Does God care what you do from 9-5 Monday through Friday? Or is He only concerned with what you do at church, for church or on a missions trip?
Here is a summary of what we will cover in this sermon mini-series:
- The Gift of Work (7/19) – All work (that isn’t sinful in itself) is a gift from God to you. Work was a part of the original creation and will be part of our eternal experience, so work is not a curse or consequence of sin. Work is a blessing. It is a gift from God and when we work, we reflect His image as the Creator and Cultivator of this wonderful world. Work is also a gift of God through you to others. When we work, we provide food, shelter, assistance and enrichment to the people on this planet. We are the “masks” of God, His hands and feet, to care for His world.
- The Struggle of Work (7/26) – While work is not a result of the Fall, it is very much affected by the Fall. Thorns and thistles – both literal and metaphorical – are part of our experience in this sinful, broken world. Work is difficult. But as followers of Jesus we have resources to overcome these challenges as Jesus gives us help to do the work, hope in His finished work and happiness beyond our work.
- The Call to Work (8/2) – We need to recover the idea of vocation. Work is not just something we do to fill time and put food on the table. All believers are called by God and uniquely equipped to serve through our work. It is not just pastors and missionaries who please God with their work. All work can glorify God. How do you know you are doing the right kind of work? Calling is the convergence of three indicators: your Gifts, your Passions and your opportunity to Serve. Think of this as your G.P.S., as the Lord leads you to honor Him as you serve others.
- The Gift of Rest (8/9) – You don’t have to work for very long before you realize there are limits to what you can accomplish. God always finished His work (PTL!). But our work is never really done. Our need for sleep is a daily reminder that we have to stop at some point. And the Biblical command to “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy,” is a specific exhortation to set aside a day every week for worship, fellowship and REST. Rest is a necessity, it is a command and it is a promise. For the believer, eternity will be our time of rest. But for now, we come to Jesus – who is our rest – and labor with Him, knowing that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
Helpful Resources on Work – Here are some of the key sources I consulted in putting this series together.
- Tim Keller – Why Work Matters – audio message; video – 1) Your work matters to God; 2) God matters to your work. Arguably the seminal book on work right now is Keller’s Every Good Endeavor – an excellent summary of Biblical and historical teaching on work.
- Jordan Raynor – Called to Create – Yes, the young man who grew up at Oakwood, son of Tom and Lynette – wrote an excellent book on innovation and calling. Filled with inspiring stories of real Christians who followed God’s call to create and to use their work to serve others, Jordan brings to life a clear exhortation to not only work for the glory of God but to maximize your kingdom contribution by discovering your unique vocation. Check out this three day Bible reading plan for an intro to a Biblical theology of work.
- Made to Flourish – this organization has a special place in my heart as it grew out of the Kern Family Foundation, the kingdom minded family that invested in hundreds of full tuition seminary scholarships, including mine. The heart of the Kern family was to reinvest what God gave them to promote flourishing in the U.S. as Christians rediscover their call to work for the glory of God and the good of our fellow man.
- Theology of Work Project – Launched from MTF, this project has developed excellent resources on work from God’s perspective, including this three day Bible reading plan.
Above all, know this: your work matters. White collar, blue collar, in the office or at home – God sees all the work we do and it pleases Him when we do it for His glory and the good of our fellow man. Come along on this four week overview of what the Bible teaches us about work! Start right here in Ephesians 6.
“Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.”
Ephesians 6:5-9