God of Your Work (2)

Introduction

*Two godly men were very helpful in preparing this sermon. If you would like to study more about this I would direct you to the works of John Piper and J.D. Greear on this topic.

Most of you are not professional Christians. Most of you don’t work for a church or deal with Christians most days. You work in the world, in the marketplace.

I recently found an article by a Christian business woman who was the director of sales at a Fortune 500 company. She had a team of over 30 people adn oversees a significant amount of business. She had tremendous marketplaces success but she said she couldn’t help but ask, “Why here, Lord?” She was discouraged each week as it seemed like her profession was in conflict with advancing the kingdom of God. She told the story of her questioning how she was to reconcile what she did at work with the songs she sang on Sunday about keeping Jesus in the center of her life. She was looking for the God stuff amid emails and meetings. She said that one day, the Lord reminded her of Paul’s encouragement to the church in Corinth in I Corinthians 10:31.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

The woman from the previous story noted that she realized what the answer was. Whatever. Whether she was up to her elbows in ministry or dealing in the secular world of the marketplace, she was to do it all to the glory of God. Both places were her mission fields.

The Purpose of Our Work

Did you know, that several of the parables that Jesus told had a context of the workplace? In the book of Acts there are forty miracles recorded. Thirty-nine of them took place outside of a church setting. In the Bible, our worship of God is not contained inside the walls of the building the church meets in.

The Chief End of Man

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Colossians 3:22–24 ESV

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

God Owns Us

Abraham Kuyper said, there is “not one square inc of the entire cosmos over which Jesus does not emphatically declare, “mine.”

Proverbs 16:3 ESV

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

Romans 14:6–9 ESV

The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

How can you glorify God at work?

Dependence

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

John 15:5 ESV

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

YOUR SATISFACTION DOES NOT COME FROM YOUR WORK BUT FROM THE GOD OF YOUR WORK. DON’T MAKE YOUR JOB YOUR IDOL.

Integrity

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle illustration

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who worked in British government, once played a practical joke on 12 respected and well-known men in Great Britain. He sent out them each an anonymous telegram from inside the government that said, “Flee at once. All is discovered.” He checked back in 6 hours and all 12 were making plans to leave.

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Proverbs 11:1 ESV

A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.

False balance - fudging mileage, skimming time cards, calling in sick to play golf or go fishing, using office supplies for personal use...

Skill

Corporate shaping

Impact

Communication

Psalm 40:16 ESV

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!”

Love

Money

Thanks

Our working for the glory of God is what sets Christians apart from the rest of the world.

Forgiveness

- Madison Avenue illustration

- I recently read a story about a young college graduate who landed a job on Madison Avenue in one of the advertising world’s most prestigious firms. Shortly after she got there, she made a mistake that cost the company nearly $25,000. Madison Avenue is not a world defined by grace, and she expected to be fired by the end of the day. Her boss, however, went before his board of directors and convinced them to allow the blame for her mistake to fall on him instead. When this young woman heard what her boss had done, she came to him in tears. She asked him why, in that cutthroat atmosphere, he would choose to cut his own throat for her. He answered by sharing how Jesus had done a very similar thing for him, stepping in the way of the wrath that he deserved. Because of the great grace that Jesus had shown him, he wanted to display a similar mercy to others when he could.

Five Considerations or Modifiers that help us work “as for the Lord.”

Not done for eye service or as a man-pleaser

The opposite of eye service is sincerity

Fearing the Lord

Working heartily

Expecting a great reward from the Lord, even if you get nothing from man.

God doesn’t need our work.

Acts 17:25 ESV

nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

When we work this way, it’s not that we are providing something that God has need of… It’s that this will bring us the greatest joy when we work in this way.

It will show the world that God is our greatest treasure.

Conclusion

We have the ability to be the fragrance of Christ in both worlds.

2 Corinthians 2:15 ESV

For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,

God does not make mistakes. You are where you are for a reason. He has a plan for you. How are you going to walk through your place for His glory?

Wherever God sets your feed is a mission field to point those around you to Jesus to the glory of God.

Luther section from Greear

Martin Luther said, that our professions are like the “masks” God wears in caring for the world.

J.D. Greear says that to follow Jesus means that you think about your life the way he thought about his: as an offering to serve others.

2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Luke 14:12–14 ESV

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Live in such a way that people will ask about our motives for living like this…

Christ first.

What is the joy you possess? - that they don’t they ask.

How you respond to persecution with grace and forgiveness not revenge...

Maybe God made you good at a skill so you could take it to where He is not known - examples...