Made for Monday - wk 1 - Worship

Made for Monday

Livestream!

Raise your hand if you are exited to go back to work tomorrow! When I was in college I had several jobs, but the one I disliked the most was working at the school in the computer lab. When I first started I was excited about it. My major was in computer science, so I was always excited to work with computers. They called it the computer lab to sound cool, but it was more of a library of computers. I knew it would get boring sometimes, but that would be okay because I could catch up on homework if I needed to. Another thing that was nice was being able to ride my bicycle to work, since I just lived a few blocks away.

My job in the computer lab was to sit and babysit these 40 or so computers, make sure everyone who was there was a student, make sure nobody was going to inappropriate websites, and then kick everyone out and lock the doors at midnight. I quickly learned that this job was beyond boring. Every day was like a Monday there. I could always tell when certain professors were testing because the lab would be packed. People would always come in right at midnight even though we were about to close. This was especially no fun the night before my own 7:30 a.m. test. Especially if it was on a Monday morning.

Monday’s get a bad rap. You get the weekend to have fun, relax, and make your own plans. The weekend always goes by too fast, then Monday crashes the party. All the work you put off on Friday is waiting on your desk on Monday. The internet is swimming with Monday memes.

Here is one that I thought accurately describes many people’s Monday morning. If you feel like this on Monday’s, you are definitely not alone. I have a few facts for you about Monday.

Productivity at work has been found to be at its all-time low on Mondays. People are up to 30% less productive and often only manage 3.5 hours of work throughout the day. Coincidentally, this also happens to be the day of the week when most people do their online shopping.

In 2011, a study showed that the average person moans for 34 minutes on a Monday, compared to 22 minutes on other days.

Even if you maintain a steady weight, Monday is the day of the week you will weigh the most.

On a Monday, almost 50% of employees are late to work.

Many people are more stressed at work on Mondays.

People feel less attractive on a Monday.

If Monday is tough for you, be aware that in 2024 there will be an a total of 53 Mondays in the year.

These last two are pretty sad and unfortunate facts to swallow. “Heart attack day” also takes place on Monday’s when there is a 20% increase of heart attacks.

Monday is commonly considered “suicide day,” being the day of the week where the most people take their own lives.

Science Journalist and expensive coffee drinker, Dr. Alex Berezow, summarized his research by stating,

“The highest number of suicides occurs on Monday, which makes intuitive sense, since Mondays suck.”

Dr. Alex Berezow, American Coucil on Science and Health

Clearly, Monday is universally regarded as a horrible day. Today we are starting a new series based on a study by Christ’s Church of the Valley called “Made for Mondays.” If you are someone who lies down on Sunday nights dreading Monday, my hope is that this series will transform the way you view your work. That you would realize that you don’t have to dread Monday because God has made you for Monday.

Maybe you don’t dread Monday. Maybe it is a different day. That’s okay, this series is for you too. This series is for you if you love Monday. If you love your job and enjoy going to work, but you feel like there is a gap between where you are and where you want to be at work. Even if you don’t have a job that you clock in and out of, this series is for you. It is about more than Mondays, it is about the work that God has called you to do.

If you are taking notes, lets start with our first thought for today. If I asked you what you were made for, how would you answer. What did God make you for? The weekend? That’s where I find all of the fun and happiness. I don’t live to work, I work to live. I live on the weekends! But today I want to challenge all of us to realize that…

1. God made you for MONDAY.

Think about the very first Monday. The very first first day of the week. The very first sentence in your bible says...

Genesis 1:1 (NLT)

1 In the beginning God created…

On the very first day, God performed all the jobs. Think about some of the jobs He did when He created. He was the project manager, an architect, a designer, an artist. He dreamed up this entire planet and everything in it. He was an engineer, a builder, the first scientist, a zoologist, a horticulturalist, a musician, a poet, a leader, a manager, and a shepherd. God went to work, and He did it with excellence!

Can you imagine what everything would be like if God went to work the same way we do sometimes? If He showed up cranky and half asleep? That thought makes me glad He didn’t! The first page of the bible would probably read very different. It might say...

“Then God said, ‘I’m putting in a request for light. Let there be light!’ and it took too long, so He moved on to the next thing. Then God said, ‘While we wait on this light, let’s do something with this water.’”

When He makes it to the land, what if He decided it would be too much work to do all the deserts, forests, waterfalls, and mountains? So He says, “I’m just going to make everything look like North Texas.” Now, that’s not a shot at North Texas, but can you imagine the whole world looking like North Texas?

“I’m don’t feel like making all those stars, I think half will do. Who’s gonna notice?” What if God made it to the end of each work day and said, “That’ll do. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough. I’ve come up with this huge list of wildlife and it would be really cool, but it will save some time if I shorten the list.”

Imagine if God had decided to just create one bird, one bug, one fish, and one animal. Like a pigeon, a spider, a catfish, and, as if He already had a head start from the fish, a cat. He finishes the cat and it immediately catches and eats the pigeon so God says, “Well I’ve had enough for one day. I’m clocking out! TGIF, Thank Me it’s Friday! And, would ya look at that, it’s happy hour!”

Aren’t you so glad that God didn’t do that! The world would look like a Picasso painting. I am so glad that God put so much effort into creating something amazing. And of all the various creations, wonderfully amazing landscapes, and impossible to fathom stars and galaxies in the sky, the pinnacle of His creation was when He created you.

Genesis 1:26 (NLT)

26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us...”

When God created you and me, He created us to be just like and to exhibit traits of Him. In His likeness. To create with excellence, integrity, and excitement. To go above and beyond. God gathered up this pile of dust and shaped it into His own likeness and then He breathed into the man’s nostrils, bringing Him to life. After bringing the man to life, what is the very first thing God did with the man?

In Genesis 2:15, scripture says that “God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to enjoy an all-inclusive resort.” Does it not say that? We may not believe it, but that is often how we think. Maybe God didn’t put him in a resort, but it was at least a time-share. Right?

We talk about Eden being paradise so that means it’s perfect! Adam and Eve didn’t WORK! That would be crazy. They sat around the pool all day, naked and unashamed, enjoying the sun and watching the mist stir up from the waterfall into the clear water. Animals were bringing them drinks and food. Nobody was fanning them with peacock feathers because actual peacocks were fanning them and protecting them from getting too much sun. They got to stay up as late as they wanted and sleep in as long as possible. There’s no work in paradise! Right?

Listen to this, because it is absolutely insane. Before sin was ever even a thing, the very first thing that God did with man in paradise was this…

Genesis 2:15 (NIV)

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

God designed this inside of us. That we would work and it would be a good thing. Adam and Eve were in paradise. God’s perfect world always included work. How could that be? Isn’t work a curse? If you think work is a curse, it is because you have been conditioned to think that. The enemy wants to turn everything God loves upside down and trick you into believing lies. Work is not a curse. If you are taking notes, thought number two…

2. God designed work as a GIFT.

Work is a gift and a blessing. Everything God creates is a good thing and He created work to be a good thing too. Let’s look at the Hebrew word that is translated as work for a second. The word is “abad” (avad) and it means…

ABAD - work, accomplish, do

This is the word that is used all throughout Old Testament scripture when God put people to work. It is even the word that is used to describe how God does His work. This word is also translated another way. Fifty-two times it is translated as worship, worshipped, worshipping…

ABAD - worship, worshipped, worshipping

One for every week of the year. How crazy is it that this word is translated as both work and worship? Here is what that means. It means that…

WORK and WORSHIP are not separate ideas.

Just to be clear, this doesn’t mean that we should worship work. That we should become work-aholic’s and work all of the time. It means that our work should be an act of worship. If you are taking notes, write that down...

Your work is designed to be an act of WORSHIP.

For many people, this way of thinking will require a complete transformation in the way we think. You’ve probably heard, “I work for the weekends!” What we should be saying is that God created the weekend for rest so that I could have the energy to work the way He designed me to. To do the work He created me to do.

Why doesn’t it feel like a gift? If I am made for Mondays, and work is a gift from God as He always designed it, why does going to work feel so frustrating? Why does my idea of what I want work to be feel so far separated from reality? I want my work to be fulfilling, joyful, and life-giving, but it is just hard, exhausting, and frustrating. The answer is in the next chapter of Genesis.

What happened in chapter 3 of Genesis? Sin entered the world. Sin has consequences. What were the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin?

Genesis 3:16 (NLT)

16 Then he said to the woman, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth...”

Think about this first part for just a second. How many would say that giving birth is easy? It’s closer to being a nightmare, right? Now raise your hand if you would say that having children is a curse. No, children are a blessing. It is a blessing to have children that you can love and take care of. Let’s keep reading...

Genesis 3:17–18 (NLT)

17 … the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. 18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you…

Notice, it is the ground that was cursed. Not the work. Work was never cursed, the ground was. Work is a blessing, but the environment in which we work will be our struggle. The environment where we work will produce thorns and thistles that will poke and scratch and irritate. How many of you would agree that you have encountered thorns and thistles at work? No naming any names.

We all have thorns and thistles where we work. That is why there is no perfect job. Every job has thorns and thistles, but it isn’t the work that is cursed. It is the environment. It is the ground that is cursed. This is a really big thing to wrap your head around. We looked at two verses here and you could combine the ideas to help understand the concept. Write this down...

WORK isn’t a curse any more than CHILDREN are.

It isn’t the work, it’s the ground, the environment in which we work, that is cursed. We’ve all been told, “If you find a job you love, you will never work another day in your life.” Unfortunately that isn’t true. It isn’t even biblical. Every single work environment, no matter how much you love it, is going to be hard at times.

There are studies that show that even in the best jobs that people LOVE, when you break it down there is only about 60% of the job that they love and 40% that they don’t like about it. There is not a job where our idea of perfect meets reality. There will always be a gap between our idea of what work should be and the reality of what it is. We need to accept that truth and change the way we view that gap. If you are taking notes, our third thought is…

3. Monday’s gap can be overcome with a new Monday WORLDVIEW.

In other words, change the way you think about your work. Change the way you view Monday. If you are taking notes, here are a few ideas you can implement to change the way you see Mondays. The first one is something that you’ve probably heard before…

The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Every time I’ve heard this one, it is from people saying that the grass IS greener on the other side. People who are bemoaning their situation. Do you know when the grass is greener? The truth is, the grass that is greener is the one that is getting watered and fertilized. The grass is greener where the person tending to it is working the ground. It’s greener where the person who takes care of it has a different attitude about their work.

If I am always thinking that everything would be better if I got the promotion, got the better office, or had a different job, the grass will never be greener. The only way for the grass to be greener is to change my attitude about my work. Until I realize that, I will always be moving from job to job waiting for the perfect job that doesn’t exist.

On the flip side, there are jobs and environments that are so toxic that you really do need to think about leaving. It’s not a “grass is greener” situation, it’s more of a “there is no grass here whatsoever” situation. When you think about your situation, the first thing you should realize is that you have two options.

Change your ATTITUDE or change your JOB.

You may be in a super toxic situation where you decide that you have to make that change, but the vast majority of the time you are in control of your attitude when you show up at work. If you are facing this decision, a simple question you could ask yourself is whether or not you would face the same situation if you went somewhere else.

Paul encouraged the Philippians to pay attention to their attitudes because it would make a huge difference in people’s lives. The kind of difference that shines light in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people.

Philippians 2:14–16 NLT

14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. 16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.

Paul was sharing his work ethic with them. The work is a blessing to the worker and the bystanders. To be a light and a breath of fresh air, Christians should have the best attitude of anyone wherever they are at.

The problem isn’t always about attitude though. One reason people don’t feel like they can make a difference where they are at is because the job doesn’t give them that opportunity. It isn’t spiritual enough, it’s too mundane, it’s too meaningless. How is answering phones, typing on a computer, plowing a field ever going to impact someone else’s life in a meaningful way? How can God use me in a meaningful way?

God WORKING THROUGH YOU doesn’t depend on what JOB YOU WORK AT.

Think about that and let it sink in for a minute. What God does through you does not depend on where you work. It’s easy to forget that many of the people God used in the bible did not work at a church. Here are a few examples…

Isaac developed real estate; Jacob was a rancher; Joseph was a government official; Moses spent 40 years as a sheep herder; Esther won a beauty contest and went into government service; Mary was a stay at home mom; Paul was a tent maker; Jesus spent 85% of His life as a carpenter.

God can use you wherever you are at. You don’t have to give a speech to a group of people in a church for God to use you. In fact, I would argue that that is the least effective and least personal way to reach out to people and show them the love of Christ. For years I struggled with that thought until I finally realized something that God had been trying to show me. Rather than me trying to figure out where He was sending me, He wanted me to be available when He called. Some days that was with coworkers that didn’t even go to church. Some days it was to fill a need at a church.

Maybe God isn’t calling you to quit your job and go to some obscure country where people don’t even speak your language so that you can muddle through the Roman road with a translator. Instead, God could be calling you to be the pastor at your current work place. Speaking life and light to the people around you. Encouraging someone who is down. Loving someone who feels alone. Viewing your job with purpose as the place where God has you to share your faith.

Can you imagine what your work would be like if you changed the way you thought about the paperwork, the livestock, the labor, or whatever it is you do all day. Imagine how much your work would change if instead of seeing the thorns and thistles, you saw the people. The people you could share Christ’s love with. How can your work be transformed to the point where you see it as worship to God?

I like to leave you with a verse to think about as we dismiss. I love what Paul said to the Corinthians in regard to the work they do for God…

1 Corinthians 15:58 NLT

58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.