God @ Work: Work As Purpose
God @ Work: Work As Purpose
Pastor Charlie Weir & Mari Beth Dodd
“Opportunity is missed by most folks because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work!” Thomas Edison
“Find a job you enjoy and you will never work a day in your life.” Mark Twain
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8 yet it stores it’s provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. 9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— 11 and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.
Proverbs 6:6-11
The discrepancy in all of these “identities” is the lack of consistency of seeing God is the originator of work – not companies, not ourselves and not even our altruistic ideas. As such, the only way to find true fulfilling purpose in our work is to find our identity in God first, and that identity is portable!
All of life hinges on our spiritual life because all life is sourced by God, all life emanates from God and all life finds purpose in His purposes.
• Genesis 2:2,3“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
• Genesis 2:15 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (develop & maintain).
We are God’s co-workers who further His purposes.
Work Purpose #1 Work Connects Us in a Creating Partnership with Our Father.
It doesn’t matter so much what we do for work but how we do it and who we do it for that connects us to our Father. Carrying His purposes into our work connects us to the Father.
Colossians 3:22-24 22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Work Purpose #2 Work Provides for My Family
There is a connection between hard work and provision.
Proverbs 14:23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Proverbs 21:5,6 The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. 6 A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.
Ecclesiastes 5:10 Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.
Work Purpose #3 Work Shapes Me into the Me God Intended
Your purpose has a greater shelf-life than your work-life.
Stop waiting for life to meet your expectations before you step into purpose
Colossians 3:23-24 (Message)
Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance
The follow me that I heard from the Lord wasn’t a vocational call, it was a life call.
Don’t try to satisfy God’s purpose for your life with YOUR dreams for your life.
Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
The work God wants to do in you and through you he will do wherever he has you.
God will work through who you are, not who you’re pretending to be
Me: God I don’t want to give my life to the marketplace
God: I never asked you to give your life to the marketplace. I’ve asked you to give it up for my people.
Your work is…
• A Godly partnership
• God-sourced provision
• God-shaping position