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00:01 Work like you’re working for God because you are. Who gives us work? God.Psalm 90:17.
00:10 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands upon us. Ye, the work of our hands establish thou it. Ecclesiastes 5:19.
00:34 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth hath given him power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor. This is the gift of God. You think you went to school, worked hard, got the job because of something you did? God surely laughs at this.
00:43 God is the one that gives us work. He gave us life. He gave us our talents.
00:49 He ordained a plan for us. He worked to call us to him. He gave us air to breathe, strength to move, nourishment, rest at night, transportation to work, etc, etc.
00:58 You didn’t just do all this. It didn’t just happen because of your skills or abilities, as in something you deserve credit for. God gave us everything.
01:09 And we should work hard knowing our work has come from God. For what? To glorify him. So the idea here is that oftentimes people want to accept praise or, you know, accept some kind of credit when we really can’t.
01:29 I mean, think about it. You know, what are the odds that you would have all these things that you need for your job to be successful if it weren’t for God? He’s the one that did it.
01:40 He’s the one that gave you that car to drive to work or that ride to get to work, or he gave you the inspiration to go to school to get that certification that you now use for work.
01:54 Whatever it is, God is behind it all. Remember, every good and perfect gift comes from above. It comes from the Father of Lights.
02:00 It comes from God. He gave us everything. He gives us work.
02:04 So number one here, we should be loving in our work. 1 Corinthians 16: 14, let all your things be done with charity. Charity is in love, sacrificial love.
02:17 So we should be loving. Let all our things, even that at work, be done with sacrificial love, with charity. Colossians 3:17, and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord, Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
02:35 So whatsoever we do, including work, we should do it all in the name of who? The Lord Jesus, giving thanks to who? God and the Father by him. So we should always pray in Jesus’ name.
02:51 We should always thank God for giving us what we’ve got, and we should be doing things in love, and we should be working like we’re working for Jesus.
03:02 We should be working like Jesus would work. We should be in that love mentality, that sacrificial giving mentality, going instead of saying, what can I get out of this today?
03:16 Or boy, are they lucky to have me here today? Instead of going like that, going to the job saying, what can I give today? How can I love on someone today? How can I be a blessing today?
03:24 How can I live my life out here on the job that when someone looks at me, they don’t see me, they see the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Colossians 3:23-24, and whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.
03:51 So, we should work heartily. We should be loving in our work. We should be excited and enthusiastic in our work.
04:01 We should be about the effort. We should be giving maximum effort. If we’re sluggish or if we’re evil spirited at work, what does that say to God that we think we deserve better?
04:15 If we go in and we just, as they say, phone it in or just give it a half effort, what we’re really saying is, God, we’re not pleased with this blessing you gave us, with this opportunity to earn for ourselves and provide for our families.
04:30 No, we just want to do something else. I mean, how would that really make the Lord feel after he had lined this up for you, gave this to you, he blessed you with it, even if it’s hard and even if it’s challenging and even if it’s not the perfect job in general,
04:46 he gave it to you and his reasons and his understanding is so much greater than ours. By the way, if you go to work and you’re sluggish or evil spirited, what does that say to others about our God? It’s not a good testimony.
05:00 If you’ve ever been around a Christian that was angry all the time, bitter, that was just in a foul mood all the time, that was negative, what does that say to you?
05:14 It says, wow, if that’s who a Christian’s like, I don’t want to be around Christians or I don’t want to be a Christian. It’s not a good testimony. It’s not a good reflection of God.
05:23 And so we have to be really happy and loving and enthusiastic because we can control our attitude on the job because that’s our reasonable service to the Lord.
05:36 And that points back to God that he’s given us peace in the midst of a place that may or may not be very good, right? That’s our job and that deals with what?
05:48 That deals with our mind, it deals with our thoughts and where we’re putting our mind and where we’re putting our thoughts. And when we put our mind and our thoughts on the things of God through preaching, through scripture, through prayer, this all kind of takes care of itself
06:01 because we become so in love with God, we spend so much time with God, we give the scriptures, we’re humbled, we’re thirsty, we’re loving the Lord and we’re fellowshipping with him that it just spills out at the workplace and we’re just happy to be there.
06:14 We’re happy to serve and we’re, you know, happy, happy, happy. We’ve got the joy in our heart of the Lord. That’s how we need to be in the workplace.
06:23 We should be fervent in our attitude at work, eager to do a good job, taking pride in our work, doing our very best no matter the job title, pay level, personal acknowledgement we get, etc.
06:36 When we work, we shouldn’t work to make our boss happy, though we should obey and honor our leaders as the Bible calls us to, but we should work to make God happy. Think about it.
06:49 God’s got very high standards and when we work to make God happy, naturally we will perform well enough for the boss to be pleased. Think about it.
07:00 God, the creator of the law, God, all-knowing perfect God, knows every excuse, has heard everyone in the book, knows your thoughts, knows how many hairs are on your head.
07:12 You’re not going to pass any kind of sly move on the Lord. So if you’re just all out saying, I’m going to please the Lord, the Lord knows every minute, every second of my day, every thought that I’ve got and I’m just going to serve him, I’m going to please him, I’m going to do my best on this job, then your boss is going to say, wow, that’s a really good worker.
07:30 That’s somebody I want to keep around.
07:33 That’s a great team member. You know, it’s just natural and you can think, I’ve seen many Christians that have been very successful in their careers because they embodied this trait, because they didn’t work for their boss, they worked for the Lord.
07:45 And we’ll get into a little bit more about the workplace in the mission sense, in the Christian work sense a little bit later, but just suffice to say, if God’s your boss, then your secular, regular work boss will be very pleased with your job.
08:01 And hopefully God will be pleased too. We also know that God loves us. And we know from Romans 8:28, that he has a great plan for us, for our good.
08:15 So we should love our work and do it with passion for we know it’s good for us. So, you know, Romans 8:28 tells us that everything in our lives is good for those that are called according to his purpose for those that love God.
08:32 So if you love God and you’re called his purpose, you’re doing, you’re working for the Lord, you’re serving him and you’re living for him, you know, it’s for your good that this job is there.
08:43 You may not understand that. I may not understand that. But we know it’s for our good, even in situations where it may not appear to be, maybe you’ve got a bad boss.
08:52 Maybe you got an immoral boss. Well, God gave you that boss and we should never use our boss as an excuse to not work hard or to dishonor the company. Because in the end, we’d be dishonoring God.
09:05 God gave us people in our lives for a reason to show us something. Maybe it’s for us to be a reflection of Christ to them. Maybe it’s a witness to them.
09:19 Maybe it’s a test on us on how we are to work our patience and our faith deeper. But whatever it is, we’re called to be obedient to our leaders. And we’re called to love the Lord and serve the Lord.
09:35 And we can do those things side by side. We don’t have to get all self-righteous and walk out of the job because our boss isn’t nice or isn’t moral or isn’t up to snuff with our Christian standards. God put us there for a reason.
09:54 And we need to remember that and serve the Lord and do our work heartily, whatever God has called us to do. God also encourages us to work together. Ecclesiastes 4:19, two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor.
10:12 We are to work together and get along. We can accomplish so much more when working together. So much of work today is collaborative, emails and instant messaging, text messages.
10:21 The list could go on and on. Don’t try to hog the job or not share, try to take credit when things go well. Work as a team, be joyful and loving to those around you and be the bigger person when things get testy.
10:36 God is watching. God put us there and God fully expects us to do his will and sin not. So we need to work together.
10:42 We’re encouraged to work together. We can get so much more done when we work together. God wants us to know there’s fruit to be had in doing work.
10:54 Ecclesiastes 3:12-13. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice and to do good in his life and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God. Here we’re told God wants us to enjoy the fruit of our labor.
11:14 This is why if you’ve ever worked really hard at something and it’s worked out, it feels really good. God wants us to know there is a reward for working hard. You know, you can think back to a time, something that you worked really hard on.
11:33 Maybe it took years. Maybe it took days. Maybe it just took a really long day or even an hour.
11:40 Whatever it was, there’s something about working really hard and you get that feeling. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s a good feeling. It’s a feeling of accomplishment.
11:49 It’s a feeling of confidence. It’s a feeling of doing something with yourself. It’s a good feeling and people that work, I think they thrive off of that feeling for the most part.
12:01 I believe God placed that there to show us that it is good to work hard and that it is good to enjoy the fruit of your labor, to have a nice meal, to be able to get that special thing every once in a while that you’ve been saving up for.
12:19 I believe God wants to bless us in that regard, you know, to have that relationship, that healthy relationship with work where we are able to work hard for something and then obtain it and see that was the fruit of our labor.
12:33 What is God not like? I don’t believe that God likes get-rich-quick schemes.
12:42 Proverbs 13:11, wealth gotten by vanity shall diminish, but he that gathereth by labor shall increase. Again, God wants us to work hard for our earnings, not try to get it in some vain way and laugh at those that do work hard. Think about God’s character.
13:02 Is it in his character to reward the sluggard and the con artist? Of course not, but so much of the world today is like that. So much of the world today is, hey, look, you work four hours a week and then sit on the beach and just have a, you know, a drink and hang out and stare at the sunset. No, that’s not what God has called us to do.
13:28 That’s not how God built us. That’s not how we’re made. If you look at people that are out of work for long periods of time, a lot of times they develop symptoms of depression and anxiety.
13:38 And the reason is not because they’re just bored or because they’re at home. The reason is because they’re not working. They’re lacking the confidence that work brings and the purpose and all these things that they’re involved in work.
13:53 Work is important. And so here we’re taught, don’t try to get rich quick because when you try to get rich quick, what you’re really doing is you’re trying to circumvent God’s rules for our life, the way God made us.
14:04 Now, I know some people literally cannot work disabled and so forth, or people are in school or, I mean, there’s all, you know, you’ve got kids at home and you take care of the kids.
14:17 Heck, that is a lot of work. I promise you that. I’ve got a couple of young ones.
14:21 So, you know, I don’t know what work is to you, but the main point I’m trying to make is, you know, don’t bother with the get rich quick scheme.
14:37 And they’re out there and they’re everywhere and they prey on this desire, this sinful desire, this greed, you know, this gluttony, this idea that you can just get it all and you don’t have to work for it. And how great would that be? Surprise, you’re going to have to work for it.
14:53 And that’s how God wants it. And those that got caught in that trap and that snare of trying to get rich quick oftentimes end up just poorer and worse off for even trying. Another scripture I really like is in the book of Luke.
15:08 And this has helped me before when I was, as a freelancer, I was working on my rate, hourly rate and so forth. And I read this, it says, what to make an honest, work to make an honest wage, earn your living, honor your God in the process,
15:30 Luke 3:14, and the soldiers likewise demanded of him. So their soldiers are talking to Jesus saying, what shall we do? And Jesus responds to the soldiers.
15:43 He said unto them, do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely and be content with your wages. So here it’s saying, you know, don’t, don’t be violent with people. Don’t set them up.
15:52 Don’t accuse them. Basically use your power in the wrong way and be content with your wages. Don’t, don’t be corrupt.
15:58 You know, don’t, don’t try to get more than I’ve given you essentially, because God is the provider of all of this. And so I think it’s very helpful, you know, be content with what you’re making,
16:11 you know so much of people’s disappointment in the workplace comes from this very issue and they feel like they don’t make them enough or they feel like they need to make more if they just had more or whatever it is.
16:24 Look, friend, if you don’t have the Lord Jesus Christ, you don’t have true rich riches.
16:32 And if you have the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re already rich beyond imagination and you’ve got all the best things already. So you’re, you’ve got an inheritance. You’re an heir to the throne of God and you have the greatest friend you’ll ever have.
16:45 So that’s true riches. And I like Luke, Luke 3:14, be content with your wages. That’s good stuff.
16:51 And next don’t let work become your idol. So much of culture today is about work equaling the sum of who these people are. Their minds are focused on work, pleasing those they work with the status that work brings on and on and on.
17:09 They let work become their, their idol. In fact, I think this one issue is why work gets such a bad rap among Christians. And when I say Christians, I mean like, you know, uh, Christians in the ministry or, uh, Christians that are looking, um, at, at people that work a lot in a bad light.
17:28 Uh, it’s, it, it comes to being seen as, um, you know, are you of God or are you not because you are replacing God with a false God. And, uh, it’s really sad when we work, uh, to the point of trying to gain status and reputation. Like I mentioned, salary.
17:48 And when we become obsessed with work, while we’re talking about his work and all we’re thinking about his work, guess what you’ve created for yourself, an idol you’ve replaced, uh, the big G God, our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, our father, you’ve replaced that with your idol.
18:06 And that becomes a witness and a testimony that’s compromised. Look, people are smart when you tell them you love God and you’re a Christian and they see all you care about.
18:20 And all you ever do is work. They’re going to sniff out who your true God is. This isn’t complicated.
18:26 And it’s hard in the sense that work wants to become your idol. The devil’s hoping you’ll make work your idol. And if you just may work your idol, then maybe that’ll get you out of church or, you know, again, it’ll hurt your testimony.
18:43 You lose credibility and all of a sudden works your idol. And that’s not good for you as a Christian. It’s not good for your Christian walk.
18:50 It’s not good for your own mental health. It’s not good for you. Um, as always, this is 100% true with the word of God, anything we’re commanded to do.
19:02 And the Bible commands us not to have any false gods, not to have any idols. Our God is a jealous God. Anything we’re commanded to do in the Bible is not just, uh, for God’s glory, but it’s for our own good.
19:12 It’s what’s best for us. This is God’s prescription for our life. This is like our marching orders from the one that created us.
19:22 We can trust the one that designed us to tell us how to live. Uh, and so we don’t want to make work our idol and all too often that’s what happens. And that becomes our, our God.
19:40 And so I want you to think about what you get excited about, because oftentimes you spend so much time at work, you end up getting excited about work and you end up just looking at God like, well, that’s church, something I’ve got to do.
19:51 Or it’s the law as I go through all of these rituals, but do you get excited about God? Are you, are you passionate about God? Like you’re passionate about work. And if you’re not, then you need to take a minute and reassess your priorities.
20:10 Don’t say God first. Don’t say, I love the Lord above all else. And then all you’re showing is that you love Acme Corporation more than God.
20:20 Because I promise you on the day of judgment, on the day you die, Acme Corporation is going to do nothing for you. You will be with the Lord. The body of the, the Bible says to be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord.
20:39 We will face the Lord and we want to be in fellowship with him. We don’t want to appear as a hypocrite. As Job famously put in the book of Job, we want to face the Lord in truth and honesty and look in and be able to say to him, father, God, you were first in my life down here.
21:01 And you’re first in my life up here. And I can prove it. You’ve seen it.
21:06 You know me. And that’s why we never want to make work our idol or anything else. And I won’t spend too much time on this, but also the culture at work.
21:14 Maybe there’s a culture of work that is much different than our Christian culture. And then you allow that to seep in and pull you away and pull you into more worldly things and away from the things of God. And we certainly don’t want that.
21:30 So keep our priorities straight here for our sake and for the glory of God, the glory of God, the glory of God.