Work as Worship, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Worshipful work seeks to advance Jesus' mission where it can. Worshipful work seeks to advance Jesus' mission where it can because the Great Commission is the last marching order that Jesus gave to us. So work done by disciples of Jesus is always done with a view toward the Great Commission. Welcome to a new week of Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. I'm Molly Vitovich. Okay, have you ever woken up, especially on Mondays like today, and wondered why you go to work every day? Do you just bide your time until the weekend so that you can stay home again? Is it just to earn a paycheck to get the next promotion? Or is there a higher purpose for your work? Today Pastor J.D. explains how God wants us to think about our careers and challenges us to view them through the lens of the gospel. Let's jump right into today's message titled Work as Worship. Believe it or not, the Bible actually has a lot to say about our work. In fact, in Genesis 2, at the very first mention of work in the Bible, the Hebrew word that God used for work is the word abad, which shares the same root word as worship. So in other words, Adam was to worship God in the garden, not just by reading his Bible and praying and staying away from a few bad apples.

He was to worship God by doing the things in the garden that God had put him there to do. Surely it is not coincidental that of all the the parables that Jesus told, the majority of them take place in the workplace. And of the miracles that the apostles do in the book of Acts, 39 out of 40 of them take place outside of the church. What these things are showing you is that the God of the Bible is as concerned with displaying his power outside of the church as he is displaying it inside the church. So I want to suggest to you five ways that you can worship God while you work.

In Genesis 2 is where I'm going to be first and then Colossians 3. Number one, worshipful work fulfills God's purposes in creation. Work that is worship fulfills God's purposes in creation. In Genesis 2 15, God placed Adam in the garden of Eden with the assignment to work the ground and to keep it.

This was before the curse. So this work was not a punishment that God gave to man after he'd sinned. It wasn't like the original plan for man was that he would sit around in the garden, eat bon bons and have you know angels massage his feet. And then after he sinned then he you know it's like God's like now you got to get a job.

No, this is part of the original creation. The word that God used for work literally means in Hebrew to prepare or to develop. You see there are some of you who in your work feel this almost divine satisfaction.

Maybe you're not even a Christian and you're not even sure what to call it. But you just know that there is something when you are working where you feel like you're doing what you're born to do. The word vocation comes from the Latin word voca which means to call. Calling is not something that just applies to those of us who were in ministry.

Calling is something of vocation is what God put into you and he didn't all make you like me thank God. He made you good at what he did because you are the mask that he wears to serve the world and to create through you. Number two worshipful work pursues the highest standards of excellence. Worshipful work pursues the highest standards of excellence. If we do our work unto God then that means we do it excellently listen to this for God regardless of the reward we get from it regardless from the recognition. Paul says this Colossians 3 23 whatever you do 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 because you he says first and foremost you're serving the Lord Christ.

You have a higher boss he says than your employer you work for a greater reward than recognition or salary. Number three worshipful work reflects the highest standards of ethics. The idea of of a lack of integrity in the workplace that's nothing new but work that worships God will conform to the highest standards of ethics because that work seeks to demonstrate and to reflect the justice and the integrity of the God that we work for. Business ethics really matter to the believer because our work is done first and foremost unto God and our ethical practices reflect on God. So God says this in Proverbs 11 1 listen to this a false balance is an abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his delight. A false balance for us means fudging a mileage report.

It means padding a business expense. Those things God says are an abomination to him. Abomination that's a varsity word. It's only used a handful of times in the Old Testament and you would not like the other things that God calls an abomination. Number four worshipful work makes blessing others its bottom line. To follow Jesus means that you think about your life the way that Jesus thought about his and the thing that characterized Jesus life was leveraging his position of strength and power not to build his own kingdom but to serve others. So Paul would say 2 Corinthians 8 9 a verse I quote to you all the time Paul says remember the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich though he had a position of power though he was influential though he had was massive promotions were in his future right though he was rich for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty would become rich and Paul the implication is that's how you ought to think about your life God has made you rich in various places you may be rich in money you might be rich in talent might be rich in position he says take those things and leverage them to bless others and serve others the way that Jesus leveraged his to serve you you know we talk about calling for a businessman I think the clearest parable that I could give you um that Jesus told because a lot of the the the parables almost make you know that they're good for people that are going like to the mission field and deserving ministry and that kind of thing here's one that I think is classic for a business person I've given it to you before but let me walk you through it real quick I'm Jesus Jesus is at a party and he looks around the party the party is thrown by a rich man and there's a bunch of other rich people there you know Jesus wasn't rich but you know he could raise the dead and walk on water and so that got him in and to places like rich people parties and so um Jesus looks around at all these rich people and he turns to his disciples and he says when you throw a party don't do this don't invite a bunch of other rich people who can pay you back instead you to your party ought to invite the poor the lame the blind people without jobs people that can never pay you back in this life and then you'll be rewarded in the resurrection of the just now to get the scandalous nature of what Jesus is saying you got to realize listen that business parties in those in those days were how business was done what Jesus is counseling here is economic suicide because what happened is as if I'm a rich man I invite all my rich friends and they all get to get to know each other right and then they can do business together but then kind of the payoff is my rich friend that I invited to my party to get to know my friends now invites me to his party to get to know his circle of friends and then I do business with all of them that's how business got done what Jesus is telling them to do is economic suicide listen he is not giving you rules for how you put together your birthday list he is commanding you to think about your life through a certain filter and that is listen if your life or a party if your life think of it in the metaphor of a party if your life or a party who would you be throwing your party for the party of your job who's it thrown for are you throwing your party for those who can benefit you back so that your life is about building this kingdom or have you leveraged your party to give it away for people who may never be able to pay you back in this life because Jesus said that's what it means to follow me you said well what does that actually look like in business well it'll start with just your attitude in your attitude you'll have this sense that I'm serving other people and that's going to give you a certain joy it's going to give you a certain spirit that you serve with it's going to look like it's a joy to do what you do for other people because you're doing it as a way of washing their feet and you get to be like Jesus in that it very likely might mean that you begin to look for places within your job that you can extend the grace and the mercy and the beauty of the gospel for those of you who own businesses it means that you think about more than merely personal profit in your bottom line and you start to ask questions like this I know we might make a profit from this but is it genuinely helpful to people I know that I can make money for example if you're a medical professional you might say I know we can make money off this I know it's legal but is it genuinely helpful to people because there's a lot of things in that field that you know can make money that aren't really in the patient's best interest or you start to ask questions like how can I use this business not just to enrich myself how do I use it to bless other people now I'm not trying to listen hear this I'm not trying to draw the economy between making money and blessing others there is a silly little notion out it's kind of popular among especially people that are you know kind of young and into like oh well business is bad profits bad that's just not right it's not even biblical a good business actually blesses the community I was reading this article that was showing how there are several good businesses that have been the greatest anti-poverty campaigns in the world a whole lot more effective than NGOs non-government non-government organizations that are just giving away charity the good business kind of makes the water in the harbor rise so that all the boats rise so I'm not drawing a dichotomy there but I'm just saying that if you are in business and you are in control of the business you think not just about personal profits but you think about blessing everybody involved for example certain kinds of development might be good for a few people it might be profitable but it might be profitable but they're harmful for the majority of people to think through the lens of the gospel would mean also that you give away a lot of the personal profits that you make from business why second Corinthians 8 9 because you remember the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ though he was rich for my sake became poor so you start to say yes God has given me a lot of money through this I'm not going to use that to increase my standard of living I'm going to use it to increase my standard of giving because I want to do what Jesus did and he gave me this large amount of money so that I could leverage it not to build my own kingdom but to build his now before I go on to our last one and then I got a quick word of warning for you let me point something out all right many people wonder how to be an effective witness for Jesus in the workplace I'm telling you just doing these four things are going to set you apart and create all kinds of venues for you to share Christ Peter said this first Peter 3 15 in your hearts honor Christ the Lord is holy always being prepared to make a defense to anybody who asks you for a reason for the hope that's in you Peter's context that he's writing into first Peter is a lot like ours a hostile environment toward the gospel so you can't go in with your Jesus bracelet and you know and just tell everybody you know hey come at lunch I'm gonna preach it he knew you couldn't do that so what he said is in your heart honor Christ the Lord is holy which means do everything for him like I've been explaining to you and what's going to happen are people are going to come up to you and they're going to say I got to know why you do what you do you ought to live conduct your business in such a way that it makes people ask questions I don't get it why do you have such joy in the way that you serve why is it that you work so excellently even when the boss rewards somebody else for what you did why is it that you forgive why don't you hold grudges why don't you talk about people why do you leverage what you have why do you give away so much money what tell me about this hope that is inside you here's a question for you that are in business when is the last time somebody came up to you at your work and asked you that question because Peter thinks that it should be happening almost all the time you get that you ought to be living in such a way that people see there has got to be a hope motivating them that I cannot understand and I cannot see and I gotta know what it is otherwise you wouldn't have such joy you wouldn't have such a forgiveness and you wouldn't be so generous are you living in such a way that people are asking that question well that leads me to number five and I say lastly but I got a word of warning after this because I know it ticks you off when I say in conclusion and then do that twice so here's your word I'm giving you two conclusions conclusion a all right worshipful work seeks to advance Jesus' mission where it can worshipful work seeks to advance Jesus' mission where it can because the great commission is the last marching order that Jesus gave to us so work done by disciples of Jesus is always done with a view toward the great commission I believe that the next wave of missions international missions is going to happen on the wings of business you see most listen to this most of the countries in the world that are in greatest need of a gospel witness are also those in greatest need of business development if it's fascinating if you lay a map of world evangelization over top of a map of world poverty you will find that the areas that are least evangelized and also least developed are nearly identical you know what that means it means that you business people have an extraordinary opportunity that guys like me do not have we call it the 1040 window that name really comes from you know the fact that it's the 10th parallel and the 40th parallel and it's where most of the lost people who've never heard about Jesus in the world live right window implies it's kind of hard to get into and that's you know a good description because it is hard to get into but for you business people it's not a window it's a door because they are giving you an invitation saying please bring your profitable business into here help empower our people and you know what you can carry the gospel with you as you go and I want to help you understand those of you that are in positions for you to actually do something like this I want to help you understand how your life can count for the great commission maybe you ever think about this maybe God made you good at that skill so you could take it take him to places where he is not known and here's the question what if God made you good at that skill to open up a whole nation to the gospel and he gave you an inheritance that was greater than a bonus at the end of the year he gave you an eternal kingdom not every Christian I realize is going to be led to perform their business in an unreached people group but I just want you to ask the question because see I've told you this when I was in college I had the wrong view of the how God called people I was like okay God I'm going to go into law and and God if you want me to do something in my life for you then just let me know I mean I was expecting it to be like you know the the writing in the sky or the virgin Mary appearing in the foam of my caramel macchiato with a little message you know do this and it just never happened and then I learned something about the will of God that absolutely changed how I looked at life and it should change how you look at life and that is you should not be waiting around on Jesus to tell you that he wants you to leverage your life for the great commission he already did that that call was in the original call to follow Jesus that's not a secondary call that's the first call he said follow me and I will make you a fisher of men which means that it is your responsibility to ask the question how your life can best be leveraged for the purpose of the great commission the question is no longer if you're called to be a part of the great commission the question is simply where and how are the most effective places so quit asking Jesus questions that he's already answered and you start saying Jesus guide me in showing me where I'm supposed to leverage my skill for the purposes of your kingdom here's the way we say it to our college graduates whatever you do do it well for the glory of God do it somewhere strategic for the mission of God whatever you do not all of you are called to be pastors or be like me thank God right you're called in a vocation whatever you do Dennis lawyer do it well for the glory of God do it somewhere strategic why is it that the major factors behind where we get jobs or where we make the most money where we want to live or where our family is I'm just going to throw out to you that those probably aren't the kingdom's biggest priorities I'm not saying they can't be considered at all I'm just saying why don't you make the main priorities where you can be involved in the mission of God why not choose the city you pursue employment in based on where you can be effective for the mission it might be right here in Raleigh Durham this is one of the most strategic cities in the world in my opinion for reaching people because of just the way the city makeup is so it might be right here praise God but you just need to ask that question do what you do well for the glory of God do it somewhere strategic for the mission of God that is a missional vision I think all of us should adopt and even one more thing for you business people do you see a man proverbs 22 29 do you see a man skillful in his work he will stand before kings he will not stand before obscure men in other words do your work well do your work well and then you will stand before the lost kings of the world and when you do you tell them about the Jesus that gave you the ability to do what you do now here's my word of warning word of warning is this worship God not your work work that is worship worships God not its work you see when Adam and Eve fell listen to this our relationship to work fundamentally changed what God had given us to be something that we enjoyed to be something that brought him glory and to be something that served other people became instead for us our primary source of identity and idolatry you see that now this is fascinating in Adam and Eve's descendants Adam and Eve had two sons Cain and Abel Cain killed Abel Seth kind of replaced Abel Cain was the ungodly line Abel Seth was the godly line in Genesis 4 you see their descendants and you see the most subtle fascinating distinction when it lists out the descendants of Cain it lists out all their jobs it says these guys were good with with with farms and these guys were good at building cities and these guys were good with music it just right what was happening listen is they were becoming defined by their work that culminates in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel when the descendants of Cain have built this massive tower the Tower of Babel as a declaration about how awesome they are what God gave them their work to be something that they were supposed to do for the benefit of humans to say look at how awesome God is instead became something that they used to say look how awesome we are in contrast to that are the descendants of Seth listen who were not defined by their work in Genesis 4 look at it they were defined instead as Genesis 4 25 those who began to call upon the name of the Lord the point is not of course that worshipers of God don't work or that they work less the point is that worshipers of God are not primarily defined by their work instead they are defined by the name of the Lord whom they worship because of the fall many of us worship our work and that we make it our identity all right it's like the second question we ask people what's your name what do you do many of us are defined I know many people who are defined by the fact that they don't have to work anymore I'm independently wealthy I don't have to work I'm awesome right we define ourselves by our work or our relationship to work work is our primary source of security which is why you are so paranoid about losing your job it's why you're so discouraged about not having gotten ahead farther it's why the thought of next it's just why why it's because it's displaced God is your primary source of security in your identity let me tell you this do not worship your work work is a terrible master God is a much better master God is a much better God God will do much more in giving you an identity because you are a son or a daughter of the king regardless of your position he is also a much better security giver than work ever could be because what he says he was this listen I'm the one who took care of your primary problem which was not a lack of education it was not a lack of talent and it was not a lack of money your primary problem is that you were cursed and dead in your sin and I loved you so much I came and I took that penalty into myself and I gave you new life and don't you think that if I took care of your primary problem I'm going to take care of your day-to-day needs also God is a much better God than work is so give your soul to God and then work right and not give your soul to work and then occasionally serve God here's how we say it when Jesus is your life you can actually enjoy the rest of your life when Jesus is your security and your identity and you don't look to work for that then you start to enjoy work but when work is your identity and your security then it becomes toilsome then it becomes something that causes you a great deal of fear summit listen I do not want us to ignore this part of your lives because just time wise it's the major part of your life it's where you spend 85% of your week work matters to God and God matters to your work the idol of what we do for a living is a powerful one but there is so much freedom in giving our soul to God so that we simply enjoy what we do instead of finding our security in it you're listening to summit life with pastor jd greer and a message from our series titled god and the rest of the week if you missed any part of this study you can listen free of charge at jdgrier.com well i think it's safe to say we'll all be happy to see the year 2020 in our rearview mirror soon right but we're not finished with these uncertain times are we jd yeah that's um that's quite an understatement in fact i was really looking forward to 2020 for a number of reasons and i know that that uncertainty yeah there's no guarantee of when it's going to end and for some of us the there was uncertainty in our life before lockdown and covid and uh and all these things that took place um you know i think in god's providence he had me write a book called searching for christmas in which i really just explore what was really behind the promises that god gave about the birth of this baby you know people kind of instinctively know that there's something more to christmas than cute little major scenes and candy canes and christmas trees we don't always know what it is right there sometimes it's a meaning a longing for meaning or a longing for fulfillment family love hope this book searching for christmas shows you how through the birth of the messiah god gave to a people in a time of uncertainty messiah that he called wonderful counselor mighty god everlasting father and prince of peace and these names there are no more relevant names to us in a time of uncertainty than those four names of the messiah i would love to be able to give not just one but a couple copies of this book to you one for you but also ones you could give away to somebody else that needs that encouragement during this time so go to jdgrier.com and you can find out all that information and if one extra copy isn't enough you have the option of getting five or ten copies for a special donation amount when you request the book at jdgrier.com you know the most unlikely birth in human history the birth at the heart of the first christmas was a sign from god that he is real and that he really gets involved with us here on earth because he really cares we're all searching for something to hold on to call 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can sign up and request the book online at jdgrier.com i'm molly vidovich be sure to join us again next time when we're looking at a topic that is relevant to all of us busyness learn how the gospel transforms our schedules when you listen tuesday to summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries you