You’d never live in a house that didn’t have an architect but many people live in an un-architected life. In this sermon based in the book of Proverbs, Pastor Mark teaches on the importance of recognizing seasons and how to plan and organize a life you and your family can enjoy.
As we are winding down our study of Proverbs, it might interest you to know that most of the people reading these daily devotions read them on their way to work or at work. So, I thought some Proverbs for Christian workers would be fitting:
1. Be honest in your business dealings
Proverbs 11:1 – The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight.
2. Seek to do the best job you can
Proverbs 22:29 – Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men.
3. Maintain a good work ethic
Proverbs 12:24 – Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.
4. Know the difference between negotiating and scheming
Proverbs 20:13 – “It’s no good, it’s no good!” says the buyer; then off he goes and boasts about his purchase.
5. Honor those in authority over you
Proverbs 27:18 – He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who looks after his master will be honored.
6. Make results instead of excuses
Proverbs 22:13 – The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!” or “I will be murdered in the streets!”
7. Don’t trade short term pleasure for long term pain
Proverbs 20:17 – Food gained by fraud tastes sweet to a man, but he ends up with a mouth full of gravel.
Which of these speaks most loudly to you? Why?
Sadly, one common conversation pastors have is with people who have a job they are working, but really wish they could instead have a ministry job where they served the Lord. The truth is, pretty much every job can be your ministry job where you serve the Lord. Not only does the world need preachers, it also needs an honest mechanic and a competent plumber. Today, we will learn the final two ways you can worship at work.
4. Your work is part of your worship. Jesus Christ spent roughly 90 percent of His earthly life (roughly 30 years) working a regular job. As a kid, he would have had chores to do. And, when old enough, he worked at his dad’s carpentry business. Then, Jesus Christ spent the remaining 10 percent of His earthly life (roughly three years) working in ministry as a preacher, healer, and leader. Jesus Christ walked perfectly in the Father’s will for His life. He glorified God perfectly and equally when he did his chores as a kid, swung a hammer as a young man, and raised the dead as a grown man.
What is true of Jesus Christ is true for you. Martin Luther rightly says, “Your work is a very sacred matter. God delights in it, and through it He wants to bestow His blessings on you. This praise of work should be inscribed on all tools, on the forehead and faces that sweat from toiling.”
5. Work is not sacred and secular, but workers are sacred and secular. Sometimes Christians wrongly conclude that some jobs are secular, and some jobs are sacred. The truth is that the Lordship of Jesus Christ extends over all creation and all vocation. This explains why the Bible honors a wide variety of jobs including carpentry, tent making, fishing, medicine, teaching, farming, politics, metal work, music, investing, labor, construction, law, consulting, cooking, architecture, athletics, entertainment, banking, military, real estate, clothing, mothering, sales, etc.
Therefore, the issue is not whether the work is sacred unto the Lord, or secular and not unto the Lord. Instead, the question is whether the worker is sacred or secular. Colossians 3:23-24 explains it this way, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
Are you working your job believing that it is ultimately the Lord Jesus you are serving and not your boss or client?
If you work 40 to 50 hours a week and work 50 weeks a year for 40 years, you will spend between 80,000 and 100,000 hours working. For the Christian, the Bible gives five ways to worship God through your work, which we will learn today and tomorrow.
Since God works, work is godly. To be godly means to follow God and His example. In Genesis 2:2, we read, “on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done”. God had a seven-day week, with six days of work and one day of rest. To be godly is to work hard and rest hard like God.
Work is now cursed. God created our first father Adam and gave him work to do before sin entered the world. Once sin entered the world, a curse came into effect that now makes work toilsome (Genesis 3:16, 3:17-19). Subsequently, our work is never done as something is always breaking in our broken world. If not checked, this can lead to burnout and workaholism seeking to defeat the curse.
We should work from our rest. The problem for most modern workers is that they start with work as their first priority, and then only take a day off or vacation if there is time left over. In a fallen world, it is impossible to be all caught up. So, God has architected life to give us breaks before we break. This includes a day off each week to Sabbath (Exodus 31:15). This also includes starting each day with rest. In the opening few pages of Genesis, we read that God counts a day as evening and morning. To this day, devout Jewish people consider a day to begin at sundown and not sun-up. Why does this matter? Because, in the ancient world devoid of electricity, when the sun went down, you went home to rest. Problems happen when we do not rest first and then work from a healthy place made possible by rest.
How is your work ethic? How is your Sabbath rest? What changes need to be made so that your work and rest rhythms are godly and healthy?
If the average person works for at least 80-100,000 hours of their lives, it’s important for the believer to figure out how their Christian faith works in the workplace whether that workplace is the marketplace, a family business, a ministry, or the home. In this sermon from the book of Proverbs, Pastor Mark uses Patrick Lencioni’s idea of “The Ideal Team Player” as a framework to teach on how to worship at work.
Being in community and among God’s people is important for our spiritual and relational growth. In this week’s Ask Pastor Mark, he answers the question of how to stay connected and go to church while working on Sundays.
Have a question you’d like Pastor Mark to answer? Email [email protected].
Are you sick of all the negative news, religious rules, and social cause screaming conflicts? This world officially has enough bad news. God has good news for you to give you hope, help, and healing. In this sermon, God will speak to you about your life and His plan to replace human speculation with His revelation, human religion with His redemption, and transform your job into a calling so that your life story can be rewritten to be part of God’s good news story to the world.
This week’s question is from this month’s exclusive Marriage Content: “Pray together, play together, and lay together so you can stay together!” With busy schedules, how do you make sure to find time to connect with your spouse?
Watch Pastor Mark and Grace team up to explain the difference between Shoulder to Shoulder relationships, Back to Back relationships, and Face to Face relationships.
What’s the next step if you are walking with Jesus, but your spouse is walking away from Jesus?
And if you have a question you’d like answered, email it to [email protected] today!
How do you discover God’s will for your life? Jesus first disciples had jobs they worked and a life course they had plotted. All of that changed, however, when Jesus came along and asked them to follow Him. The same is true for Jesus’ followers today. By understanding who Jesus is and what life in relationship with Him looks like, you too can begin to uncover God’s will for your life and walk with Jesus.
How do we really come to understand ourselves? That question, perhaps more than any other, dominates our thinking as we use personality tests and other tools to discover the mystery that is me. There is a man named John the Baptizer whom Jesus called the greatest man who has ever lived. People tried to figure out who John was, and he said that the only way to really understand oneself is to first understand Jesus. In that day, like ours, many people were making the mistake of looking at themselves too much and looking at Jesus too little. If you want to understand who you are, the first thing you need to understand is who Jesus is.
Providing for your family is your responsibility as a parent. So if a job comes up that pays well, you take it. Right?
But what if it means you’re away from home and on the road a lot?
Watch as Pastor Mark and Grace discuss the pressures of providing – and how you can make the best decision for your family.
Do you have a question you’d like answered? Send it to [email protected] today!