Faith & Work Series: The Value of Vocational Work

Faith & Work Series:  The Value of Vocational Work

9-1-13

Today, I want to talk about work in itself. 

I want to help you to see the value and purpose in your vocational (secular) work. 

I want to help you see God’s presence in your work life, and gradually be transformed into holy people even while at work. 

I want to help you avoid inherent frustrations in the secular world, and instead to see how work can be a source of spiritual growth and even joy—how we can see and keep God in our daily work, and how we can protect us from sinful compulsions. 

In the animated movie “The Incredibles,” Mr. Incredible, Bob, has just been sued and has been given a not-so-extiting job in an insurance office.  Clearly from the look of his face, he has been reduced from a life of great purpose, to a life of utter boredom.  He once had a grand purpose, and now he sees no purpose in what he does

Many of us feel this way.  So let’s talk about “Work” and remember some
Scriptural Truths About Work:

1. God Worked when he made creation

Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning, God Made the Heaven’s and the Earth.

Genesis 2:2 - By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

God himself worked and it was good.  David even spoke about this in the Psalms.

Psalm 102:25 - In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

God Started the work on the Earth, and God intended for the work to continue:

Genesis 2:4 - This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens-- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground

2:15 - The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

It was not just all leisure.  In fact, God knew man’s task could be difficult—that he needed help. 

Genesis 2:18 - The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Obviously work didn’t end after the Fall:

Genesis 3:23 - So the LORD God banished him (man) from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

Man was Made to Work

Often people feel that the perfect world is ‘no work.’  They believe were created for leisure—that having to work to earn a living is a part of the fall.  It is not true.  Rather, the repercussions of sin, is that our work would be more difficult at times.  Man “working” is for what we were intended (“work” is in scripture 371 times).

We were NOT meant to be lazy. 

Proverbs 21:25 NIV - The sluggard's craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work.

Don’t think that you are living Godly if you are not doing some “work” in your life.  This does NOT mean that if you can’t find a job, that you are sinning.  This DOES mean that God has called you and I to something right now—whether we are to paid for it or not.

Work was Meant to be a delight and Joy

God intended for us to have satisfaction even in our vocational work.

Deuteronomy 16:15 NIV - For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.

We sometimes have false ideas about work, about how our work goal should NOT be about self-fulfillment, promotion, or enrichment.  I one time asked an older co-worker if he liked the travel in his work.  His response was:  “Do you ever like your work?”  I was stunned by his response, but I wanted to say “Yes…I do believe we can enjoy our work!

Yes, as we will talk about, our life should be about honoring God and being involved in his work.  And yet honoring God includes ‘blooming’ where we are.  It includes enjoying the work of our hands.

Often we don’t enjoy our work because:

o   Our relationship with God isn’t right.

o   Our relationship with people around us isn’t right.

o   More rarely, but sometimes it is because God is calling us to something else. God sometimes gives us a Holy Discontent.

But God will always honor your current work, if you do it for Him.  Even if you hate it, He will bless it if you give it to Him….(which is our next point).

God Values and Honors the Work of our Hands

God repeatedly referred to honoring the work of his people in the OT.  This is especially true when they were living as the Lord would have them.

Deuteronomy 28:12 NIV - The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.

God was not talking about any grand work.  He was talking about simply reaping the harvest.  And this is NOT even the spiritual harvest—He is talking about physical crops.  Similarly, God honors simply your efforts to feed / provide for your family!  God will bless our work when we honor him in our thoughts and actions, both privately and publically.

God Makes our Work Valuable

It is God who makes our work valuable.

Psalm 90:17 NIV - May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us-- yes, establish the work of our hands.

Proverbs 12:14 NIV- From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him.

When our work is just and honoring to God, He will bring eternal value to the work of our hands.  We will see reward in what we do, and experience the “favor” of the Lord.

The FOCUS of our work Matters:

God does not just Honor ALL work—some work is evil.

Deuteronomy 27:15 NIV - "Cursed is the man who carves an image or casts an idol--a thing detestable to the LORD, the work of the craftsman's hands--and sets it up in secret." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"

Micah 5:13 NIV - I will destroy your carved images and your sacred stones from among you; you will no longer bow down to the work of your hands.

It is possible for us to do “great things” and yet be doing something detestable to God.  We may directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, build “idols” today in our work.  Probably few of us really have to worry that the work we do is morally detestable to God, though there are those who have left work, such as in abortion clinics or even as simple as management of companies, that realize that the work they do is against the moral principles God gives us in scripture.  What are some “idols” that we could build in our work?

Finally, (though it seems obvious, it is good for some to remember),

God does NOT Call all people to Vocational Ministry

1 Thessalonians 4:11 NIV - Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you.

Often people are made to feel like non-ministry work is a lower existence, or has lower kingdom value.  But What we do to earn a living, less to do with building God’s Kingdom, as much as the way we live it. 

Remember that though not everyone is called to “paid vocational ministry, all people are ministers of God, called to ministry—called to build His kingdom!