work

Being Jesus on the Job

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” – Proverbs 27:17 Did you ever watch the show “The Office?” Although it ended in 2013, it became one of the most successful shows in American television history. I believe it’s because of one simple thing: It portrayed the types of relationships that all of us wish we had at work. It’s easy to fantasize about a perfect workplace and think that if you only worked for Google or maybe for Apple, things would be great. Magically, you would have fun on the job and you would be innovating all day long. You would have meaningful relationships with coworkers that would just spontaneously develop. However, I want you to know that there is no magic formula specific to these environments that makes this possible. The reality is that good working relationships can happen anywhere, and they might just start with you.

April 24, 2022 1 Comment

Work is a Privilege

“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” – John 6:27 Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Within every language there is a philosophy.” This is something that I think really makes sense with regard to the Hebrew language, which expresses over and over again that God loves our work. As we apply ourselves with all our heart and do our daily tasks as though they have eternal value, something changes in the Lord’s great plan! In Jewish culture, going to work was just as worshipful as raising your hands in a church service or reading the Bible. How different this is from our segregated American view that says our job is what we do Monday through Friday. Worship is what we do on

April 3, 2022 No Comments

Excuses Don’t Cultivate Excellence

“Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’ Now Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let’s go out to the field.’ While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.” – Genesis 4:6-8 Yesterday we looked at the story of Cain and Abel and how we can learn what it means to give God our best and not our leftovers. Today, I want to talk about one more thing from their story that can help us to excel in our work — don’t make excuses. Interestingly, after God rejected Cain’s sacrifice, he gave him a chance to do better — to

March 31, 2022 No Comments

Lessons from Cain and Abel

“Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering…” – Genesis 4:2-4 Many of you are familiar with the story of Cain and Abel. In addition to teaching us some things about our hearts, I believe this account teaches us some important lessons about our attitudes towards our work. As you may recall, Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd of some sort — those were their jobs. Cain brought a portion of his groves and trees before the Lord as an offering and Abel brought the fatted portions of his flock. While we don’t know the exact details, the Bible says that

March 30, 2022 No Comments

Heavenly Assignments

“In his defense Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.’” – John 5:17 As we talked about yesterday, non-work is not ideal, but our culture is bent towards thinking that leisure is King. We have come to believe that Heaven is a place where we sit around eternally and eat from a buffet, float on clouds, and fly. However, the truth is that there will be work for us to do there, too, but it will be the best kind of work. In the next life, we will have meaningful, life-giving assignments, the type that we were meant to experience before the fall. In short, it will be avodah. There are probably many of us who think seriously about the afterlife and at one time or another feared that it might be boring. The good news is

March 29, 2022 No Comments

You Are Made to Work!

“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” – Genesis 1:28 We talked a few days ago about how the norm in our society seems to be to worship the idea of doing nothing. We are always rushing to get through the next project or the next day of work, or the next class so we can reach a place of simply being idle. However, the truth is that we were made to do things and when we do, we find our greatest satisfaction! Did you know that part of the blessing of the Garden of Eden was the work that God gave Adam and Eve to do? As opposed to being drudgery, they were designed

March 28, 2022 2 Comments

Give it all to God

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” – 2 Corinthians 10:31 When I think about my life before going into ministry and the job that I loved the most versus the one I hated, it’s interesting how pay and prestige had absolutely nothing to do with my level of satisfaction! When I was a 17 year-old young man, I was employed as a handyman on my Dad’s ranch. I worked for a guy named Tim and he would coach me and teach me how to do things like build staircases and make master keys (because he was a locksmith). Even though I was only getting paid minimum wage and had to be up every day at the crack of dawn, the work that I did there was totally fulfilling and exciting to me. I contrast that with the job

March 27, 2022 No Comments

We Have Many Purposes

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” – 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV) Here is a phrase that I believe you can never hear enough — you were created with a purpose! In fact, you were created with many purposes. Time and time again, I have seen people frustrated and robbed of joy because they feel like they haven’t found their one true purpose in life. However, I want to affirm to you today that you don’t have a singular calling, you have many different callings, and each one is important in a different season. In fact, you were designed to go from purpose to purpose, or as the Bible says, from glory to glory. There is no “perfect” end; each one of

March 26, 2022 3 Comments

God Loves the Work of Your Hands

“Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:10b-12 Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus had already lived 30 out of His 33 years before He went into vocational ministry? The Messiah spent the first part of His life as what the Bible calls a technoy, or a builder or maker. Though we’ve traditionally thought of His trade as that of carpenter, and He probably did work with wood, He may also have worked with stone and metal. Regardless of the specific job description, we know that Jesus obediently and patiently

March 25, 2022 No Comments

Three Attitudes About Work

“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. You are serving the Lord, Christ.” – Colossians 3:23-24 Yesterday, we introduced the concept of avodah, or the fact that our work is both worship and service. Today, I want to give you three common attitudes that our society holds about work that get “turned on their head” when we begin to let Jesus infiltrate our thinking about our jobs! First of all (and we alluded to this one yesterday), there is the person who just lives for work to be over. We see this play out frequently, maybe even amongst our friends and family, when someone exists only for the weekend or for their next vacation, and they feel a sense of dread every time Sunday afternoon rolls around. Why? Because their next

March 24, 2022 No Comments

Being Jesus on the Job

Work is a Privilege

Excuses Don’t Cultivate Excellence

Lessons from Cain and Abel

Heavenly Assignments

You Are Made to Work!

Give it all to God

We Have Many Purposes

God Loves the Work of Your Hands

Three Attitudes About Work

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