Teach Them to Work Unto the Lord, Part 1

Sixty to eighty percent of a person’s waking hours on this planet is consumed with an activity called “work.” Now, that work can be at home, but it’s work. Now, think of that. If you’re not sleeping or eating, sixty to eighty percent of your waking hours your entire life, you’re doing this thing called “work.”

And so, I want to ask you to ponder three questions with me before we talk about what we want to pass on to those we love the most. And whether that’s who we are discipling or our men’s group, our women’s group, our kids, our grandkids – three questions to really think about when we begin to talk about this area of work.

Question number one is: How can you help those you love the most live above the daily grind? That’s how most people are living their lives. Can you imagine the gift it would be if you could pass something on where that would not be their experience?

Question number two is: Why are the majority of Americans dissatisfied with their jobs? And I would say probably maybe well beyond America. Most people go to their job, it’s a paycheck, I need the money, but I’m not waking up, there are not a lot of people going, Thank God it’s Monday. It’s Monday! I love it! Monday! Hoo-hoo! Right? Most people are saying, Thank God it’s Friday.

Question number three: How can the place where we spend the majority of our waking hours be transformed from drudgery to delight? Can you imagine being able to pass that on to people?

Now, I’m not saying that every moment of every day, as people are working, it’s just high-fiving each other in the halls or on the job site. But where they would sense a genuine, I can’t believe I get to do this. I was made to do this. I love to do this.

Now, there are pressures with any job, there are demands of any job, we feel overwhelmed at times. But where you could pass on some truth to those you love the most that they would, from this point, to the day they die, actually do what God designed them to do and it would produce a joy in them that is not reserved for the weekends, but would be what they do 24/7, what they look forward to, and it would produce a fruit and an impact in the lives of other people that they would go, Well, I can’t believe, you mean other people are positively impacted by me like this?

And here is the second core value, the transferrable concept, is: teach them to work unto the Lord. And so, to do this, I want to jump in and I want to go over a theology of work, because I don’t think we think very clearly or biblically about work.

And it might surprise you. It is not a necessary evil, it’s not bad, God instituted work before sin ever entered the world.

And so, what I want to do is talk about a theology of work and then I want to get real practical again and say, “How could you pass on this truth in a way to those that you love the most?”

First of all, then, work is a calling, not a job. That word calling is kind of interesting. You might hear someone say, “Well, what is your vocation?” The Latin word for vocation is calling. Years ago, a hundred years ago or more, when people talked about your vocation, it wasn’t what you do to make money. It was, “What have you been called by God to do?”

It was Martin Luther who said that a shoemaker making a shoe for the glory of God, using his skill, is just as holy as a pastor preaching a sermon. And he used that illustration with many trade jobs. But his point was: we all have a calling. God made us and gifted us differently and when you do that for the glory of God, it is just as holy as “spiritual activity.”

In our culture today, there tend to be two motives for a job or for work. And I will play this out. Let’s say you have a nephew or a friend or someone that you are discipling or one of your kids or a grandchild that is ready to go to college.

And they are trying to figure out what should they major in, right? This is really big. What should I major in? I feel like I’m…

Or, I’m either out of high school and they are, What should I do? Should I go to college or should I get a trade job? Or should I go into business with the family? What should I do?

And here is a parental response that we have learned from our culture. “Well, honey, I don’t know, but we just want you to be happy. It doesn’t really matter to me, I just want you to be happy in whatever you do. Because, see, life is really all about you. You see, we live in a narcissistic society and we want you to know that you are the center of the universe and the only thing that really matters, not how much money or you change your major seven times. Or if you figure out how to squeeze that four-year education into six, we just want you to have fun in that dorm room, to make lots of friends and grow up and be a wonderful, happy little… because that’s how life will be later. Everyone is just going to be coming at the doorstep of your life, trying to make your life work out for you.”

I want to tell you that the answer to the question, though very sincere and in earlier days, I have said it myself, saying to our kids, when they say, “What should I do with my life?” the answer, “I only want you to be happy,” is not biblical, is not smart, is not wise, and will not get them in a good direction.

The other extreme we have, and Christians are more sophisticated in how we communicate this, so on the one extreme it’s we want them to be happy. On the other extreme it’s like in the real roll-up-your-sleeves, pagan world, it’s, “Well, what pays best? Son, you have to make a living. You want to get ahead? Get a good education.”

Or, forget that, I’ll tell you, here’s where the job market is. Here’s where you can make money! And so, we have communicated that work is about either making a lot of money or really being happy. And I want to suggest that God would say it’s about a calling. Those people that you love the most: kids, disciples, best friends, grandkids, Bible study partners – God has a call of what they should do. And when they do what He made them to do, they will have incredible internal joy and incredible external impact.

And with that, then we have to begin to teach again that all work is sacred. All work is sacred. Jot down 1 Corinthians 10:31. He says, “Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God.” All work is sacred.

Everyone is made to do something different. And the issue is not this little pecking order of status and money. The issue is helping those you love the most discover: what did God make them to do?

And what we understand as we get older, we really care about what our kids do when we are in our thirties and forties. You get into your sixties and seventies, you don’t care what vocation your kids or grandkids have. You care that they love God, they have marriages they stay in, they really care for one another, and they still want to talk to you.

Right? It’s all about character. But you know how character grows is we need to make sure they do and we help them and coach them, not to fulfill our vicarious, “make me look good,” but we want to help them fulfill what God made them to do.

The third theology of work is that our work is to flow from God’s unique design and purpose for our lives. Purpose is they key word there.

The work I am called to do, that you are called to do, that those that you want to pass things on to are called to do, God has a unique design. Jot in your notes: Ephesians 2:10. God has a unique design.

Your job, we are going to learn a little bit later and we will talk about how, is to help them discover the unique design or purpose God has for their lives.

Now, Ephesians 2:8 and 9, many of you have memorized, right? “For by grace we are saved through faith. And that’s not of yourselves. It’s the gift of God, not as a result of works, lest any man should boast.”

Can I highly suggest that you go the next step and memorize verse 10? “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God ordained beforehand, from the foundations of the earth, that we should walk in them.”

We are not saved from our sin by our good works. We are saved by grace as we put our faith in the work of Christ on the cross. But we are saved for good works.

And we are His workmanship. That word workmanship – that word workmanship – we get our English word, poem. It’s the picture of craftsmanship, of a tapestry coming together. It’s a picture of a cabinetmaker doing his finest work, or a sculptor. You are His workmanship. But now you are created in Christ Jesus, unto a good work.

There is a good work that you are made for, you are gifted for, you are prepared for, you came out of this family for, you have the right height for, you have the right personality for, you have the right spiritual gift deposited in you for, you have some baggage and hurts and pains that you have had to overcome that will fit you for this good work.

God is going to use all things working together to fulfill you doing this good work He has prepared for you.

Well, guess what – that’s what He has for those we love.

Work is a calling, all work is sacred, and our work is to flow from our unique purpose.

We are to co-labor with God in this vocation. And you know what? Jot down, if you would, under this, I love Paul’s testimony. It’s 1 Corinthians 15:10. He really had this one down.

He says, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” He wasn’t trying to be anybody else. “I am what I am by the grace of God and His grace did not prove vain toward me, but I labored more than all of them.” There is responsibility. “Yet not I, but the grace of God in me.”

In other words, Paul understood that, “All my training under Gamaliel, all my baggage, even as a Pharisee, all my legalism, all the blindness I had, even my persecuting of the Church. You know what? God is lovingly redeeming, taking the worst of all my past, realigning it,” and many secular scholars think he was the brightest, really the brightest brain of his century.

“I am what I am by the grace of God.” That’s my dream for those I care about most. I want my kids to look in the mirror and say, You know what? Now, I’ve got a lot of struggles, but I am what I am by the grace of God. And His grace did not prove vain toward me.

The Old Testament roots are Genesis 2:15. You have that in your notes where you see this picture of God placing Adam in the garden and there is no sin and He says, “Look, I want you to cultivate.” Ooh. “I want you to rule. I want you to work. I want you to be a co-regent. I want you to be a co-creator. I want you to partner with Me. I am a Creator.”

You know what? Didn’t God do some work for six days and He got a lot done. So work is not a dirty word. He says, “I want you to get to experience, because you are made in My image. Look, here is this perfect environment. Now, you work. I want you to name things, I want you to build things, I want you to create things, I want you to dream things.”

That’s how we need to see work. It’s to express our creativity, to subdue, to rule, to develop, to make beautiful.

And the two pictures, biblical profiles are Adam that we have talked about, and again Paul. And if you don’t mind, I would love to read. I love the way Paul says this. It’s Acts 20, verse 24. And this is one of those modern translations. But I just love the way he says this. He says, “But my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus.” Isn’t that great? And then he understood his. “The work of telling others the good news about God’s wonderful kindness and love.”

Now, ultimately, if you’re called to be a plumber or a builder or a software engineer or a stay-at-home mom; if you’re called to be a professional athlete or an artist or a musician or a businessman or a business woman, then you will tell others about the love of God by actually how you do your work. And by what you say. But that calling is different. His was into full-time, vocational, he was an apostle.

The New Testament command is Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do,” now, let’s see, what do you think that would cover? Is this just “spiritual stuff?” “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”

This is revolutionary. Can you imagine what would happen if you were the president of a company and everyone who showed up said, “Hey, I really appreciate you. I know God put you in this place. I don’t work for you. I work for God. I’ll tell you what, I don’t leave early because I work for God. I do my best because I work for God."

Can you imagine the difference that would make? Do you see the impact that has? We are all, we want to change the culture and we have tried it in lots of different ways. You want to change the culture? Show up for work and work for God and be an awesome boss, an awesome supervisor, an awesome employee who loves people and does excellent, excellent work and I will tell you what, you’ll change your world and change your culture.

“Whatever you do, do it with all your heart, as unto the Lord.” A little application here and I want to ask you, it says, “I” and then in my notes I have, “Your name.” So, do not write, “I, Chip Ingram, commit to discover God’s calling for my life, so I can impact my world and beyond.” That will not work for your notes.

You would probably go with your name. Right? You tracking with me? Because if this isn’t happening, again, if it’s not happening in you, you won’t pass it on. You can take these notes and these concepts and you can get in a Bible study or you can go out for a Coke or a coffee with a son or a disciple, grandchild, and tell them this. And if it’s not in you, you won’t pass it on.

And I don’t care. You know what? Your work never ends. Don’t say, “Well, I’m retired.” Well, okay. From some vocation for a season, but if you’re breathing, you’re working! You’re doing things that are making, creating, modifying, developing, bringing beauty to life. And so you do that unto the Lord.

Now, let me give you four specific ways that are real practical and general, to develop this in those that you love, to pass it on. And then what I want to do is I want to take this very specifically in the second half of our time, about, How do you help those you love discover God’s calling for their lives? But before we do, let me give you four quick things that, especially for those of you that might have kids that are still at home, or you’re in those earlier years.

Number one, give them a lot of jobs growing up. We have too many parents working too hard, too long, that are very tired, with children in front of television sets and video games going, “Mom, when is supper ready?”

Your kids need to learn to cook and help out at eleven and twelve, everyone needs to be able to make their own bed by age five or six. Everyone needs to be able to handle and do their own laundry by the early-teen or pre-teen years. You want them to learn to work at an early age.

Second, feed them responsibility, responsibility, responsibility. And so, you give your kids or your disciples, that’s why even when you do small groups and when you do Bible studies, don’t fix everything. Don’t take care of everything.

Ask people to bring stuff, ask people to start leading, ask people to share something. All the time, feed those people you love the most responsibility, responsibility, responsibility. Feed them responsibility. Give them jobs, feed them responsibility.

Number three, require, I almost said demand because I really mean demand, demand excellence and develop a work ethic. We have just got into this, our little kids’ psyche, we don’t want them to feel bad. My kids will tell you, and maybe I was a little over the top.

I had one son that had a struggle in school. And he had the gift of sloppiness. And so he would do his homework and he would, I couldn’t even read it. And it was half-baked.

And so every night for almost two years, every night, not exaggerating, so maybe I missed a night. Not many. And I would look at it and I said, “Well, Eric, I can’t read this.” He said, “Well, Dad, it’s the best I can do.” I said, “Well, the best you can do, I guess, is not quite good enough, because that’s…” and then I would give him the little dad sermon and, “I really love you son. Now do it again.” “I’m in the fourth grade! That’s as good as I can write, I’m not a very good writer.”

“Hey, Eric, I’ve got bad news. You can cry as long as you want but when you start writing it again, it’ll get quicker, okay? So, I’ll be out here. When you get done, bring it out to me.”

“And that’s how you learn to clean out the garage, that’s not bad, now try it again. The reason the vacuum cleaner, you pick up the rug and you actually vacuum under the rug, okay?”

Now, I’m not talking about being perfectionistic, over the top, whacko. Although, my kids, at times, would say I had small moments of that. It was, If they don’t learn to work well and work with excellence and work to an audience of One, where do you think they are going to pick that up?

One of the greatest gifts I think I saw my wife and I give our children is they know how to think and they know how to work.

And the final thing I would say is, teach them, and I alluded to this, to work for an audience of One. And when they are young, like I told them, I said, “I understand no one can see behind here that’s really dirty and all the cobwebs and the spiders that are coming out of the corner and stuff, that is upsetting your mother. But the reason you clean here is because we are not doing this for me or for your mom. You do your best because this is your, work is an offering to God.” Do you see it?

This was really one of the core reformation principles. The priesthood of the believer was one. This other was, Living life before the face of God. All that we do, all that we are, as an offering.