Friday, January 22, 2010
Your Work Matters to God, Part 10 of 45
IDEA: Significance in our work does not come from seeing it as a place to do evangelism.
PURPOSE: To show inadequate ways of building a bridge between our faith and work.
Imagine a conversation between two business people:
NORMAN: George, you and I have been attending church together for a couple of years, and I've never found out what you do.
GEORGE: Well, Norm, I guess you'd say my work in life is to be an evangelist. I want to tell people about Jesus Christ.
NORMAN: Oh, I didn't know you were in religious work. Somehow or other, I thought you worked for some company down in the city.
GEORGE: Oh, yeah, I do work for Marconi and Sons. They hired me to be a salesman. That's what I do to make a living. But my real job is to talk to everyone in my industry about Jesus Christ. You might say, I work to exist, but I live to evangelize.
NORMAN: Boy, I admire your commitment. I don't think I've ever thought of work that way.
GEORGE: I think that's what every Christian should be about. I want to give myself to what is eternal. Marconi and Sons is in the wholesale food business. I don't want to give my life to selling fish or meat or milk or cheese. I want to give my life to what lasts. Christ is what really matters. Your job isn't what's important. It's whether or not on your job you tell people about Jesus Christ.
NORMAN: So you see yourself as a kind of missionary. Is that it?
GEORGE: Yes, Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the gospel. My world is the wholesale food business. It's my mission field. Why give yourself to something that really doesn't last much longer than fish?
I. What exactly is George saying about the relationship of his faith and his work?
He values evangelism. He sees the need to tell people about Jesus Christ. Is he wrong?
His work has value only because it is a platform for evangelism. Is that the only reason to work?
He minimizes the value of his work because it will not last for eternity. He believes that since his work selling food isn't something that will last, it doesn't have value in itself.
How valid is what George is saying?
II. George has confused duration with value. If something won't last for eternity, then it really doesn't matter much at all.
Something that is passing may have eternal significance because it is done for the glory of God. The apostle Paul, writing in his first letter to the Corinthians, 10:31, says, "Whether you EAT or DRINK or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
III. Evangelism is well worth doing. Your lifestyle and the way you do your work are also important as a witness for Jesus Christ.
Your work as well as your words should be for the glory of God:
"Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive" (Titus 2:9-10).
There is a witness by the way you do your work as well as a witness on your work.
"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one of you for whatever good you do, whether you are slave or free" (Ephesians 6:5-8).
You are to work when not being watched as well as when you're being watched. What these were doing was some extension of God's work.
So our work itself has value when we do it with the desire to please and glorify God.
