God @ Work - Why Work?

Today we’re beginning a new series on your work. “God @ Work.” 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. (radio - have a nice day - I cant I’m headed to work) 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. It’s the most likely time people commit suicide in the world. Why? Because they can’t face another week at work.

Toby Keith has a song that goes like this, “Yeah, the big boss man he likes to crack that whip. I ain’t nothing but a number on his time card slip. I give him forty hours and a piece of my soul and he puts me at the bottom of his totem pole.
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 six motivations for work. Two of them are financial and four of them are spiritual. Today we’re going to look at all six of 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. The first reason we work is the most
obvious one.

1. It’s out of necessity.

I work to meet my needs. That’s why I work. So it’s 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. The fact is today there’s a lot of people who don’t have any motivation to work. They don’t want to. They’re lazy. They expect other people to take care of them. They feel that the government should support them. Wherever there’s freedom there’s going to be freeloaders.

God has few things to say about that. but we’ll just look at 1 example.

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 wasn’t a parasite. He was self-sufficient. He was like the song, “He worked hard for his money.” 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. The second level is Prosperity.
This is when I'm not working out of necessity, just because I want to stay alive. But I'm working out of prosperity and that is I want to succeed financially. This is a legitimate motivation for work. It’s just not the most important one. The second reason is prosperity. I want to make some money. I want to develop wealth.

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 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) and He’s saying when you are getting wealth it’s ok as long as there’s certain perimeters. So God says as you become prosperous and that by the way, includes everyone in this room. Because by the world’s standard you are prosperous. The poorest person in America is wealthy to the rest of the world. If you have any change in your pocket you are wealthier than 95% of the people in the world. They don't walk around with money in their pocket.

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 either heaven or hell. Some of those parables are actually about investments. Jesus praises the servants who get a good return on their investments. He said good job. You doubled your money, you tripled your money, you did a good job. So it was ok to make investments and triple investments. He says you’re a good servant. Well done.

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. It’s called the book of Proverbs. Proverbs has tons of advice, literally 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.”

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.” Proverbs 13:4
All of these verses are just a few examples of verses that are in Proverbs. Here’s my suggestion. This series, “God @ Work,” it’s going to be one month long. It just so happens that the book of Proverbs is 31 chapters long. So here’s what I want you to do, here’s your homework. I want you to read one chapter of Proverbs every day during the next month. While we go through this series on God’s purposes for your work I want you to read one chapter a day and you’ll get through the book of Proverbs by the end of the month. I want you to take a highlighter or a pen, get a modern translation of the Bible – New Living Translation, the Message paraphrase – and I want you to highlight each day the verses that speak to you about your work and your money. You’re going to be amazed about how much you learn in the next thirty-one days. Just highlight the verses that speak to you. “I could use this at work,” or “I could use this in managing my money.” Highlight it!

Proverbs 13:4 “Lazy people want much but get little. But those who work hard will prosper and be satisfied.” God wants you to prosper at work. And God wants you to be satisfied at work. I do too. I want you to be prosperous and I want you to be fulfilled. I'm going to give you a two-day seminar in about thirty seconds. There are five things God wants you to do with your prosperity. Five things God wants you to do with what He blesses you with. If you do these five things He will bless you with more. God is seeing if we are trustworthy.

1. Make money honestly. God says I'm not going to bless it if you’re out there ripping people off, selling an inferior product, you’re cheating people. Make money honestly.

2. The second thing He says if you want My blessing in your life, tithe it regularly. That means I give the first part of it back to God. Why do I give it back to God? I give the first ten percent back to God. Why? First I'm grateful for what He’s given me. If it wasn’t for Him I wouldn’t have anything. Second, it’s my priority in the present. You’re first. You get the first part. And third, it’s faith about the future. I trust You to bless me in the future.

So I make it honestly and I tithe it regularly.

3. Save it faithfully. The Bible has a lot to say about savings and investments. You will be amazed as you read through Proverbs what you learn about saving and investing your money.

4. Spend it wisely. That means you have to have some kind of budget. You’re not just doing impulse buying. So you have a plan. You spend it wisely.

5. Share it generously. God is watching to see how you do all five of these things to see, Can He trust you with more. Are you faithful with what you’ve got?
Proverbs 13:11
“Wealth from get rich quick schemes quickly disappears... [That means easy come, easy go. You make it quickly you can loose it real quickly. So He says it’s easy come, easy go. Wealth from get rich quick schemes quickly disappears.] …But wealth from hard work grows.” 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

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 are wired to be musicians. Some are great with numbers. We’re wired to be accountants. Some of us are great at taking complex things and making them simple. We’re wired to be teachers.

Here at FOCUS* we call this your shape. If you’ve been around for any length of time you’ve heard that term. Discovering your Design. These principles apply to work, Discovering your shape for work.

So what is shape? It’s actually an acrostic. Shape.

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 effect 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. They’re in it for the money because they want to the bigger house or they want the boat or the bigger boat. Or they want the second house.

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.
The truth is there is honor and dignity that results from legitimate work. There is no work that is undignified…unless you’re going to be like a hit man or something else like that. We’re not talking about that. But legitimate work is not undignified.
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.
I’ll never forget my first job.” - mowing lawns - It helped build self-respect and self-esteem in me. There is dignity in work itself.

The most important thing is this, find work that expresses you. Find work that expresses your shape. If you’re great at closing in business that’s your gift, then be a closer. If you’re great at teaching and you love it and that’s what gets you up in the morning. You can stay in there all day and teach, then be a teacher. If you’re great with numbers, then be an accountant. Be a stockbroker. Do what it is you’re shaped to do. Fulfilling your shape is far more important than making money. It’s the higher motivation.

The fourth reason for work is…

4. Maturity

What I mean by that is I work to develop my character. Work is a school for character development. God is far more interested in what you are than what you do. Think about it like this: you’re not taking your career to heaven but you are taking your character. 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? How is it changing you?

The number one way that God grows your character is through your family, through your marriage. Marriage is the school in learning to be unselfish. Have you figured that one out? You can’t stay selfish in a marriage and hold it together. You have to learn a thing called compromise and if you have kids you really have to learn compromise. You can’t just get your way all the time any more. Marriage, the goal isn’t just to make you happy. It’s to make you holy, which in the long run is going to make you happy. Happiness is not always getting your way. Happiness is learning to be mature.

The second way that God builds your character right after marriage and family is your work. He uses 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. If he later, 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.

Remember work is God’s idea. He thought it up. There was work in the Garden of Eden to do. There was work in paradise. It wasn’t just leisure. There were things to do.
In fact in Genesis 2:15 here’s the first job “God put the man in the Garden of Eden to care for it and work it.” Contrary to popular legend the oldest profession is landscaping. It’s gardening. It’s not something else you may have thought. But the first job was take care of the garden.

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.
The fifth reason for work is…

5. Credibility

Why do I need credibility at work? It’s to impact 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. Maybe the people at your work would be more open to the good news of Jesus, be open to become a Christian if you just be quiet about it. Stop being vocal about it and just live it out. Then they’d say, What’s different about this person? What is it? What is it about them? 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.
People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

ex. of pepsi
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. Your co-workers, if they know you follow Christ, they know what motivates you to do what it is you do. You walk the walk and you talk the talk because of what Christ has done in your life. They need to know that your motivation and the reason you do what you do is because of what you believe. 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?
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…

Necessity and prosperity are the financial motivations. Then we have identity and maturity and credibility as spiritual motivations. Now we come to the highest motivation for work…

6. Generosity.

We’ve had identity, maturity, credibility, now generosity. What does that mean? It means I work to give to others. 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.

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.
Because 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 everybody else. We just don't understand how blessed, how prosperous we really are as Americans.
So God is going to hold you more accountable for your job and what you do with what you’ve been given – your time, your money, your freedom, than other people around the world because you are an American. You got blessed in a way that you had nothing to do with it. It was simply God’s grace.

Proverbs 12:20 says this “Those who work for good will find happiness.” If you want to be happy? Use your time, your money, your energy, your effort, use it for good. And for God. Not for selfish reasons. Use it for good. And it says those who work for good will be happy.

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.

Have you had the wrong idea about work? There is so much more to God’s purpose for your work. Are you ready to step up to a higher level?