Answering the Call - Why Your Work Matters to God, Part 2

Let me ask you a question. What's your favorite day of the week? Well, if you said Friday TGIF, you wouldn't be alone.

It seems like so many people are working for the weekend that there doesn't seem to be that much joy or satisfaction in the actual work itself. You know, if you're thankful for the paycheck, but you're just tired and bored of the job, God has a word for you today. Stay with me. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international discipleship ministry featuring the daily Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. Well, in just a minute, Chip will finish his message, Why Your Work Matters to God, from our series, Answering the Call. But before Chip begins, if you missed any part of this series, you can catch up anytime at livingontheedge.org or via the Chip Ingram app.

Okay, here now is Chip with part two of his talk. Work as they call it. It's not a job. It's not something, TGIF, I hate that. I don't think God, I think God, you know what? TGIM, TGIT, TGIW, TGITH, TGIF, TGISAT, TGISUN. That's life.

That's what I want. I'm going to thank God for every day of every moment. And what's Moses say? The very last Psalm he writes, he's buried a couple million people. He's seen the sea part. He's seen the cloud by day and the fire by night. He's gone and met the face of God 40 days and 40 nights without water, without food.

He's been held in the cleft of the rock. And what's he say? The very last words of the very last Psalm in Psalm 90. Oh God, he says first give us wisdom that we might present our days rightly to you.

And then he says what? Establish the work of our hands. Make significant, the mundane, everyday stuff where we get our hands dirty and where life is answering emails and voicemails and changing diapers and cutting grass.

And writing out invoices and paying them. Establish the work of our hands. Work is a calling and therefore all work is sacred. Colossians 3 23 and 24. All work is sacred and whatever you do, he says, do it heartily as unto the Lord, not unto men.

Why? Verse 24, knowing that from the Lord you will receive a reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. What would happen? I mean you talk about bang our view of work. What would happen if you actually as you get up and go out to work and sit in your car and your CEO and boss became Jesus 24-7? What if you turned in reports that you were going to turn into Jesus? What if you filled out expense accounts and you turned them into Jesus? What if how your company was run, you would say, chairman of the board of directors who sees everything, knows everything, both that which is visible and motives of the heart?

How do you think this is going? Wow. I mean everything from framing houses to putting in plumbing to creating software to cutting deals to international travel. What a difference it would make if we understood work is a calling and all work is sacred. The word means holy. Cleaning the garage can be sacred. Everything you do of every moment of every day can be and is called to be an act of worship in a fallen world. But most of us unconsciously have bought into, at least if not at the conscious level, it's just a necessary evil. Get this done.

It doesn't have anything. We compartmentalize. This is work. This is family. This is God. This is money.

This is future. And we put it all and somehow don't realize it's a hole. Whatever you do, I'm not sure but I think that includes everything. Whatever you do, do it heartily. I mean with enthusiasm, with sincerity as an act of worship unto the Lord. Notice then our work is to flow from God's unique design and purpose for our lives. It's not about what quote you think will make you happy and it's not about how much money it can make or not make.

Because what we know is we all choose things and have chosen things we thought would make us happy only to find it didn't and there's lots of people that are making lots of money that would trade it for a meaningful life. Ephesians 2 10, I love this passage. For we are his workmanship. Circle the word workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Our work should flow. The ideal, God's heart, God's purpose is it should flow from the unique design, the unique contribution. You are his workmanship.

The word can be used in Greek for a poem. It was used for a tapestry. It was used for a work of art that was uniquely created. You are God's masterpiece if you will, uniquely created with just a set of hues and colors. You are designed to do a certain thing that he preordained before the foundations of the earth that you should walk in them these good deeds, these good things. So instead of, you know, Sunday is when I'm holy and maybe in the mornings I meet with God and then maybe I go back to church one other time.

The reformers talked about living before the face of God. Life is a living sacrifice. Your work is your primary area of ministry.

Have you ever thought of it that way? What you do unto the Lord. But you discover what to do by discovering what did God make me to do. That's a different question than quote what I think will make me happy or quote what will help me make the most money. I work with a lady that is the most phenomenal assistant I've ever seen.

But she has this world view and she'll say something like well this, this, this. I'm just a secretary. I'm just a secretary. Her dad was a very, very, very powerful man and went through sort of some difficult times and to him money and success and power. So these were people up here and she went to school and got her nursing degree and had problems and had fractures in her feet from walking the halls and she couldn't do it so I guess I'm back to being a secretary.

I said now let me get this straight. You've organized my whole life when you talk from the custodian to a million dollar giver to vice presidents that I'm working with, every single one of them knows my heart, gets the right information, gets cared for. You organize things. You know the end result and you cause everything in this entire office, me and everyone in this building to do our work in alignment that honors God.

Now I've got news for you. I like to teach the Bible. I'm administratively challenged like you cannot believe. My wife's sanctification is off the charts simply by living with me. She goes, you know what Chip, I guess if there's extremes over here, there's extremes over here. She said you don't even understand what it takes to run a house.

You just don't get it. And part of my learning to love my wife is figuring that out and doing stuff that I have no idea why it means I love you to her but I thought hey, she says it means I love you. I'm going to learn how to do it. But my point is often the thing that you're most gifted at you can't see because it doesn't even seem like anything because you were made to do it. When I opened the Bible, I mean early on, I was a Christian less than a year.

I remember opening the Bible at a parachurch training program and I didn't have any training but I opened the Bible and we were supposed to study it a little bit and just the key words kind of came off the text. I made a little bit of an outline. You could give me a passage and put 5,000 people in an arena and give me 15 minutes. God would give me a good message for them. Now part of that would be because I've studied a lot but all I can tell you is I can't believe I get paid for what I do.

To open the Bible and study it and get resources and then think about where people's needs are and then I sit quietly and I pray. Like you, I don't always get the flash cards. There's been times where one of the most amazing series I ever did, I put my feet up on the desk and thought, God, what do people really need to hear? Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. He just gave me the outline I wrote on the back of an envelope.

It became a five part series. Now I'm not going to tell you it's all like that and there's parts that are real challenging. That's gift, people. That's just sheer gift. God just deposited that in me like he's deposited something in you. But in the church we make those kind of people. I didn't ask for that.

And it brings a lot of hassles too, by the way. I didn't ask for that. He just deposited in me because that's his unique design for me before the foundations of the earth. I'm his workmanship that I should walk in them. But I grew up thinking, you know what, man, I need to be a professional baseball player. My dad was a great athlete. So, you know, man, I'm playing shortstop and third base and playing summer leagues. My scholarship was in basketball, but I was better in baseball. And I had this time in the middle of college where I got scouted by the Phillies and I had potential over here.

And the real success and significance was going to be a great athlete. And I liked baseball, but God was working on my life. I had to say, hmm, I don't know if I could have ever done it or not.

I could have given a lot of money to missions now that I see what they're being paid these days. But my point is, your heart can get wrapped up around what parents or people or teachers or everyone else thinks you ought and should do that down deep in your heart you don't like to do. You're not made to do. There's a lot of people, you live your whole life as a prisoner thinking someday, some way, if I were free, I would do this. Hey, start doing it now, okay?

Wake up call, you're going to die. I got final authority on this one. All work is sacred. All work is a calling. All work done whatever. You know what, you don't have to be famous.

It doesn't matter if anyone in the world thinks it's a great thing. But if there is incredible joy and gift and pleasure and blessing in you doing something, figure out what that is and spend your life doing it. And as you do it, then you've got to figure out a way to pay the bills in the process. But that is a totally different approach than how we view work in our day. The world says you are what you do. Work is your identity.

I love this. God says, do what you are. Work is a stewardship. What freedom? He wants you to do what you are. Well, what are the implications? First, our work is to be done with excellence.

We just looked at the passage in Colossians 3. I learned this from a bricklayer who discipled me. His name is Dave Marshall. And after I got through with school, I taught and coached basketball. And in the summers I would work with Dave. And Dave was a bricklayer. He did foundations and a lot of chimneys and a few brick houses.

And it was the hardest work I've ever done in my life. And he had this thing he thought, you know, it's too much hassle. He had one of those automatic things to mix the mud. He said, oh, we spend more time cleaning the thing out, so let's just do it by hand. Well, I'm the mud mixer.

I didn't think it was a great idea. So all summer I'd take these tongs of bricks and hadite block and put them on all, you know, and you climb up to one platform and then the scaffolding and scaffolding. And then, you know, and he was fast, so I'm mixing the mud more. I'm mixing the mud.

My back's killing me. And we get this all, I mean, we have this foundation up about, oh, three or four hadite blocks, almost all three quarters all the way around. Dave says, grab that thing. I grab it. He gets this level and this, I could never learn to use all the machines he did, whether it was right on and, you know, and I hold this thing down and I'll never forget.

He looked at it, looked at it like this, and then I'll still remember the picture of those work boots. Boom, boom, boom. I'm going, Dave, what are you doing?

What are you doing? He goes, it's out of square. I said, like, how much?

He said, well, you know, it's out more than, you know, a fraction or, you know, I can give it less than an inch, but it's over an inch or so out. And I said, well, does that violate some state code? No. Is the house going to fall down?

No. I said, then what in the heck are you doing, man? Do you realize how much we've worked and time and money and, you know, my great spiritual maturity just oozing out.

And I'll never forget. He just walked over and, I mean, he just kicked down the walls. He said, Chip, I don't work for the people I'm building this house for. I build every house, every foundation, every chimney for God. That means it's excellent.

This foundation is not worthy to be built for Jesus Christ. I messed up, so now we're going to do it right. That's so stuck with me when my kids clean their room. When they clean the garage.

In my house, you vacuum underneath the rugs. Because I don't care who else sees it. I wanted them to learn early on. We don't do our work for people. We don't do our work to get strokes. Now, do we all fall into that?

Yeah, we do our work. The first implication is the greatest workers in the world ought to be believers. People ought to flat line up and say, are you a Christian? I want to hire you.

Are you a Christian? I want to hire you. And the fact of the matter is we're blowing it. Our greatest testimony is not what comes out of our mouth and big Bibles on our desk and inviting people to church. Our greatest testimony is fellow employees and bosses going, I don't know where you came from, but I'd take a dozen of you tomorrow. You know, my experience is anymore.

I'm buying something from someone and there's a fish on the cart. I'm suspect. I've been burned by more people who say they're believers, and maybe they are, and they've got a faulty view of work. Do you see the impact we would make? Number one, with excellence. Second, our work is an extension of our worship and obedience. Ephesians 6, 5 through 8. And so you don't do it just with excellence, but your work becomes an opportunity where you ascribe the word worship, you ascribe worth to God, and you obey God because he says, I want you to do your work in this way with this kind of attitude.

And by the way, toward unreasonable bosses. He's not writing to Christian slaves saying, here's how you treat your Christian brothers and high five one another on the job, why everybody, all the other slaves are getting beat to a pulp. He says to them, this is how you respond to ungodly taskmasters, and this is how you win their heart. It's an act of worship and it's an act of obedience. Third, our work is our primary ministry opportunity to display God's work in us, reveal his character, model his compassion and concern for our fellow workers, and share his offer of salvation.

I came across a very interesting quote. Many of Christianity's spokespersons have washed out morally or are in the later years of their ministry. For several years now, you've heard us say that the average layman or woman will be the one to carry the burden. As media evangelists have taken their dive, more attention has been drawn to you, the average Christian. You live and work next to people who are not likely to darken the door of a church. It may never occur to these people that Christianity has any real answers to the dilemmas, unless they see something of the abundant life expressed in you daily at work. There is a movement of marketplace ministry. Many experts say, if in fact we're going to turn the corner and any good in terms of revival or massive things happening, it will likely happen through the movement of marketplace ministry, where Christians say, my work is my primary ministry.

See, it's not just I work and get this over with so I have some time to love people, love my family, and have a little money to give to missions or give to the church. It's not even my work is a platform, I do it, it's a necessary evil, but it's a platform so I can tell people I'm a Christian and model something, and then I can get some money to free some time to give to the church and to help missionaries. And it is my work is my ministry. I'm a full-time Christian. I have a message that I did at the church in California, and I deputized everyone. I had them all stand up. And I said, you know what, I'm a full-time Christian, right? I get paid to do this.

This is right. Okay, now what would happen if all of you, thousands of people at the time, if all of you keep bringing your friends and you funnel them all to me, and they lined up, and it was my job to do all the spiritual needs, how well do you think we're going to do in reaching this town of about 250,000 people? And they said, not very good. I said, well, what if everything I know, every week we come together, and instead of trying to entertain you or simply inspire you, what if I instructed and trained you so you could learn to share Christ like I do, you could answer questions like I do, you could do hospital visits like I do, you could do basic counseling like I do, and I'll equip you, and thousands of people going out into 250,000 people, then what do you think will happen? And I was like, wow, man, we could change this whole community. I said, okay, great, everybody stand up. I are the spiritual sheriff, and I now demake you deputized. You are full-time Christian workers in the body of Christ.

And I was kind of messing with them. And then I turned to 1 Peter, and I said, I didn't do that, it was already true. You are a royal priesthood. God called you as much as He called me to fulfill the Great Commission.

And you have a vineyard or a place, and I have a vineyard or a place. And your neighborhood and your job site is your primary vineyard to fulfill the work of God, not your church building. Church building is like a football huddle. You call the plays, you have a little training camp, you get people equipped, but I tell you what, you don't gain any yardage by and large in the church meeting. It's when the church is scattered that we make our impact. The church meeting is a time to strengthen the saints, to teach and train and develop and encourage so that there's a full-time Christian worker deputized where you work and the place where you live. You will show people more of Christ by how you live your life, how you treat fellow workers, your attitude and the quality of your work than anything you'll ever do in your entire life because 60 to 80 percent of your waking hours are where?

Right there. Four, work is by nature intrinsically good and has dignity. Christ worked as a carpenter. I could kind of go off on this. If you would have met Jesus or if Jesus would come back, pull up in a pickup truck, dirty hands after framing a house, you and I have been conditioned to have a certain perspective of that man and you would have a lower estimation of the Son of God in a beat-up pickup truck with dirty hands and a couple splinters and an apron that has his hammer and his equipment because we have been so seduced by which kinds of work are more valuable and which kinds are not.

And it's a totally unbiblical view. And some of our kids are great with their hands and some of us have made them go to college and get into jobs they hate because somehow our social standing and what people would think of us don't mesh with their either manual, artistic, or musical ability. I remember my son was going to go into full-time music and I've taught this my whole life, okay? He said, Dad, I'm dropping out of college. What?

Dad, I'm dropping out. What? You said, follow your dream. Who did I hear that from?

I was just kidding all those people. Son, you've got to have a real job. You know? And I prayed about it, got convicted, and I said, Son, I want to support you now.

You know, the rules are the rules. As long as you're in school, I'm helping doing this. You're a real man now and this is what you want to do. So we came up with a little agreement and he drove a muffin truck 5 in the morning for I don't know how many months and traveled all around the country in this little van and played music in all these churches out in the middle of nowhere and worked at it and worked at it and worked at it and worked at it. And eventually he came back and said, You know, I don't think I'll ever use this, but I need to open some doors. And, you know, he went over to a college. I'm not sure he went to class much, but he's a pretty smart kid.

He's like his mom, so I think he took the test and, you know, probably got C's or something and just got through it so he could do it. And now he writes music full-time and leads worship full-time and went through about a 10-year journey where he did what God made him to do. And I came this close to tell him, Son, you know, you've got to have a real job. Musicians can't make a living.

And some of you have artists and musicians, and they're great with their hands. I've got a pastor friend, both of his kids, I mean, the kid could just look at an engine and it would go back together. And he just looked at his dad and he goes, I hate school. Dad, I hate school.

And so he went two years to Phoenix and he can fix any motorcycle under the sun. Isn't that an okay thing? I mean, it's easy to say that, but that's what the Bible teaches. Fifth, God's work is the primary means of financially providing for his children, his church, and those in need. You know, you have the first Timothy passage that we provide for our household. It's obvious that we're to give financially from what we earn to those who spiritually meet our needs. And then in Ephesians 4.28, it talks about, hey, if you've been stealing, your life changed, don't steal any longer, but now work with your hands so that you can give to those that are in need. So work is a part, it's not evil, it's how God is going to provide for you, your family, the church, and other people in need. Six, work is not a means to significance, but to service and fulfilling our calling. You think I've kind of hammered that one enough?

I think so. Jot in your notes, if you will, however, John 6.27. John 6.27. And put a circle around that and make a note to yourself, meditate on this, especially for fellow workaholics. Workaholism is basically demanding that my work demonstrate that I have this performance orientation, that I'm a somebody and I'm significant, and when I work, people love me. When I work, I'm worthwhile. And so I work and work and work and work.

I've been there, done that, and actually still struggle with it. John 6.27 says, Do not work for the food that perishes, but work for the food that doesn't perish, doing my work unto the Lord. Luke 9.25 is a parallel passage that says, So what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? And you can work and work and work and work and be super, super successful and come up dead empty. Work was never intended to be a means to significance, but to service and to fulfill the calling that God's given us. Finally, work has lasting and eternal significance as we work in the millennium, Isaiah 65, and receive eternal rewards for how we work. And this is just one of those that I just want to say, this is kind of one of those wild passages, and I just wanted to go like, Isaiah 65, this is, you know, that thousand-year millennium.

Did you ever think, I think sometimes we think that, you know, the afterlife, of course that is before, you know, the Lord returns and sets up a new heaven, a new earth, but I think we get this idea that, like, eternity or heaven is going to be like sipping iced tea and floating on clouds, you know, and maybe being able to walk through walls. You're going to work. You're going to work. It's going to be a new heaven and a new earth, and you're going to work and you're going to do stuff, but the curse is gone, and you're going to be creative and you're going to build and you're going to subdue, and it's going to be exciting. In fact, in that thousand-year reign, just read this afternoon Isaiah 65, 21 to 25, you shall build, you'll plant, you won't labor in vain.

That sounds like work, doesn't it? Well, if it's so bad, if it's so evil, and it's going to be a thousand-year perfect environment, why would God have work? Because the work happens before the fall. Work changes through the fall, and then after things are the way they need to be, work continues because God is a worker. He's called us to co-work with Him. The fall has changed work, but work now, when everything is offered unto the Lord as an act of worship and service, is your primary ministry.

Here's my plea. Buy back the 100,000 hours, or if it's a little bit late for 100,000, buy back the 60 to 80% of your waking hours and refuse to make it, I'm just going to get this done, even in the mundane things, and refuse to make it, I'm a somebody because of what I accomplish, and make work a stewardship and discover what you're called to do and offer it to God with excellence and say, Lord, this is my worship of you. I was made to do this for your honor and glory, and don't forget this one, and my joy. My joy.

This is not like a sentence to jail. This was like a key to fulfillment. Chip will be right back with his application for this message, Why Your Work Matters to God, a series answering the call. Are you looking for a job, starting a new career, or just desperate for a fresh perspective on your current employment? Through this 8-part series, Chip unpacks what the Bible has to say about this idea of work and reveals why God intended it to be more than just what we do for a living. Stay with us as we discover how to find genuine enjoyment and fulfillment in our work and bring praise to God through it. To get more plugged in with this series and for our many resources, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. That's LivingOnTheEdge.org. Well, Chip's with me in studio now to share a quick word before we go any further in today's program. Chip?

Thanks, Dave. Have you ever met another Christian and wondered, why aren't I as spiritual as he or she is? Or why doesn't she have more compassion? Or doesn't he feel compelled to be more generous?

You know, we as Christians can really get stuck on the comparison trap. To some of us, he gave gifts to speak. To others, he gave gifts to serve. To some, we love the big picture and thinking great ideas and making big things happen.

To others, it's out of the limelight to really help people that are in great need. However he wired you, he has a purpose and a plan that fits perfectly for you. Do you know what it is? Well, here at Living on the Edge, we've created a brand new resource called The Real You. It's an online questionnaire designed to provide insight into how God wired you. This is more than spiritual gift test. You'll identify the patterns in which you think, what motivates you, and why teams need someone just like you.

It'll take about 20 minutes to complete, and it won't cost you a thing. Then based on your responses, The Real You will offer suggestions about how you can practically live out God's purpose for your life, whether that's at home, in the office, at church, or in your community. As a Living on the Edge partner, we want you to be the first to access this resource. Head over to therealyou.org to learn more. That's therealyou.org.

Most Christians don't know how to leverage their God-given wiring and experiences for the kingdom. We want to change that. Thanks, Chip. As you can tell, we are really excited about this new resource. We hope The Real You will help you discover who you are and how God made you to think, act, and live. And as Chip said, you can sign up for this free assessment by going to therealyou.org. Or if it's easier, text REAL to 74141. That's the word REAL, R-E-A-L, to 74141.

App listeners, tap Special Offers. Well, here again is Chip to share a few final thoughts. As we wrap up today's program, what we're really talking about in many respects is our attitude toward work. We have been brainwashed to think that it's evil or just a necessity or it's just about earning some money and it doesn't really matter what you do. And nothing, nothing could be further from the truth. Work is a calling.

It's not evil. And that means we do it with excellence. We don't do it just for the pay. We don't do it for a raise.

We don't do it to impress other people. But we do it with excellence because God has entrusted me with this work to do. And we do it to an audience of one, and you say, the Lord Jesus is my CEO.

I may have a good supervisor or a not-so-good supervisor, but I'm not working for him or her. I want to say that everything I bring today, all that I do today, and whether that's staying at home and diapering a baby, chasing kids, going to the store and feeling like this is never going to end or whether it's sitting in a corner office and making billion-dollar decisions about what's going to happen with the big tech company, do you know that God does not see those two jobs, those two roles any differently? It's what he's called different people in different seasons to do. What he looks at is, are you doing it with excellence and are you doing it unto me? Second, it's a ministry.

It's a ministry that when you do what God's made you to do, it's an offering to him. And whether that's making big decisions or whether you feel like it's a small decision about which school your kid should go to or whether you should volunteer in this class or what God wants you to do with regard to making the workplace a really positive environment, do you understand that who you rub shoulders with that people will see Christ in you more at your job site, at your construction site, in the cubicle next to you, who goes out for lunch, who happens to bring coffee and bagels to the rest of the team, who forgives people and models what it looks like to be an excellent, godly, loving worker, do you understand that may be the greatest evangelism that ever occurs in your life and through your life. So just let me encourage you to pause and say that, you know what, maybe my job isn't something to get through. Maybe my job is where God has placed me for this season to make a big difference and to do everything I'm called to do at this job as an offering to the living God.

I'll tell you what, try that a couple times this week. I mean, just write down on a little card my attitude today. I do my work in excellence for the Lord Jesus and this is my ministry. And read that over and just see what God does in you and then through you this week.

It might really surprise you. Great challenge, Chip, thanks. Well, just before we close, I want to thank each of you who's making this program possible through your generous giving. 100% of your gifts are going directly to the ministry to help Christians really live like Christians.

Now, if you found this teaching helpful, but you're not yet on the team, would you consider doing that today? To send a gift, go to livingontheedge.org or text donate to 74141. It's that easy, text donate to 74141 or visit livingontheedge.org. App listeners, just tap donate. And let me thank you in advance for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well, for everyone here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge. We'll see you next time.