Why do we work?
Presider Cathy:
Merciful God, we come together again to your temple to be embraced by your love and mercy. Lord, we are going to start a series of studies and reflections on your teaching on work, so that we may bear good witnesses for your glory in our daily work. We pray that you will send us your Spirit and fill our hearts with your Spirit. With your Spirit in us, please also help us see ourselves as you see us; help us see our neighbors as you see them; help us see our friends as you see them; help us see our enemies who are also created in your image. Lord, facing this world of wars, battles, murders, killers and disasters, we pray that you will help us understand that your will is to heal and bless, and that nothing stands in your way of receiving your gift of holiness and healing. Remove the expectations and pride in us so that we may come to you and open ourselves to all the possibilities you have dreamed for us. Lord, we also pray for each of us here, for the worship service, for the choir, and for anyone who come today to you for any mysterious reasons. We pray that we do not boast all more gladly of our own selves and of our own strength, but we will gladly boast our weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in us. Teach us be confident, even in our weakness, in our sorrow, in our shortcomings, and in our imperfectness. Knowing that even in the middle of all these, you are with us, and your power remains with us. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
Good morning,
Romans 8:28-39 We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who had been called according to His purpose. If God is for us, who can be against us. Christ Jesus who died, who is raised to life at the right hand of God, is also interceding for us.
That means Jesus is praying for you. Jesus is praying for Daniel. Jesus is praying for me. Wow, Jesus is praying for us. He is interceding. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sward? No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors. Conqueror is a winner. We are winners. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. For I am convinced neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. You know sometimes, when the battle is long and hard, we can feel like giving up. And this week I have been so encouraged by the passage in Romans 8. We are more than conquerors; we are winners through Christ Jesus, our Lord. So we are going to try to teach you a new song that is based on this passage, Romans 8. So for a few seconds, I am going to become a singing teacher. Just to teach you the first verse. It does have a lot of words, but the words are from the Bible. And they are good and they will help us when we face our battles the week.
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, as we pray, and as we read His Word, and as we pray His Word back to him: “God, your Word says my God shall satisfy all my needs through Christ Jesus. As we pray the Word back, we become more than conquerors. So strength will arise as we wait upon the Lord,
Father, God, we thank you for sending Jesus. We thank you that we are more than conquerors; we are winners through Christ Jesus, our Lord. We praise you Lord, you are so worthy to be praised. Thank you for everything you are doing for us, will do for us, have done for us. Through Jesus, Amen.
Serving for today, we are going to have a series of reflections and studies mainly on the theme of work, and Christians and citizens of this world. And we are going to do it in pairs, so we have one speaker reflecting on the Scriptures and then we will have another one bearing good witnesses and telling us how, what and why they do it.
Sermon:
Why do we work? Gloria
Good morning, everyone. Could you please join me in a short prayer.
Dear heavenly Father, thank you so much for inviting us to be a part of today’s service. Lord, thank you for making us your children. Thank you for sending us your Word deliverers. Lord, I want to lift up today’s preacher into your hands. Hope you will strengthen me, and you will deliver your truly Word for each of us here. And may your Word be glorified, and may your name be glorified. You know some of us here.We may have some sorrows. We may have some chains, but hope you may comfort us through your words, release us, and give us a light to know how we should act in the daily life. And hope your Holy Spirit can come to this service right now. Hope your Holy Spirit can lead us into your Word, and can lead us only to glory yourself. Hope you will be our center in our service. Hope your name be exalted by our worship. We pray in your name. Amen.
First, I want to ask you to think about a question for a moment: Why do you work? Hope you will think about this, why do you work? I think some of you here have already started work in different jobs. So why do you work? There are many people in this world working very hard, but for the wrong reasons. I have listed four reasons why most people work so hard in this world.
Number one is money. Many people work very hard for they want to make a lot of money, to be rich or to live a better life. They think if they have enough money, they can do everything they want, they can buy everything they need, and they can go everywhere they want. Money means power for them. They feel their life will be more comfortable if they have more money. Do you think you work because you want to make a lot of money, and you want to make your life more comfortable?
Number two is identity. Many people work very hard to get a better job, to get a better position in a company. In their perspective, some jobs are more important than others. For example, if you are a senior manager, you will feel you are more important than someone who is a cleaner. You will think if your job is important, then you are important. You feel your job represents your identity.
Reason number three is respect. If you have a successful job, where success is defined by worldly standard, you will be respected by many people, and also you will respect yourself. Like if you are the manager of iPhone (Apple, Inc.). We know many people are very proud of using iPhone 4s. Can you imagine if you are the manager of iPhone, you have a high position in making iPhone, you will be very proud of your job. But if you are sweeping streets or cleaning buildings, maybe you will be ashamed to tell others what kind of job you have. You may think others will look down on you if you tell them your job.
Reason number 4 is power. You think if you are in the high position, you will possess more power, you will control many things and many people, and you can control your personal situation as well. You can order someone to go there, go here, and do this, do that. When you do this, when you control some people’s life, you will feel very self-comforted.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we have those reasons to work hard in this world, work itself is just a means to an end. So basically, for those reasons, we just work for ourselves or for our own benefits. Our will of work is very different from what we see in creation. So let’s see what God’s will of work, what’s the true meaning of work according to the Bible, why do we work?
Reason number one is He works. From reading Scripture Genesis 1:26-28, we know, God had already been working before we started to work. In Genesis 1, God created all the things in this universe. He created all the things in 6 days. Everyday, at the end of the day, what did God say? Did God say, “oh, I am glad it’s over. It’s quitting time, yeah! ” “I can’t wait for Friday.” Did God say this? No. What did God say after the work at the end of the day? He looked at His work and said:” It’s good.” Why? Because of money, respect, identity, comfort, power, control, nicer clothes, bigger house, bigger cars? No. Because He felt that work itself was a good thing, work itself was deeply satisfying. So on the sixth day, when everything was complete, God looked at the work which He had made and said, “It’s very good. It’s very very good.” Deep satisfaction from work itself. So in God’s will, work itself is a good thing, work itself is good in God’s eyes.
As we just read, we are created in God’s image. So we know we are God’s image bearers. So He works and we work. Because He works, we should work. God made us for work. We work because we are created in God’s image and through work, we can reflect God and His character. The Bible teaches us that God has always been at work, and when Jesus came to the world, Jesus said to the heavenly Father, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.”(John 5:17) And the Bible also teaches us that the Holy Spirit is at work within us to do His will, to do God’s will. So this is why we work, because God works, we work.
Reason number two is He calls. You know, dear brothers and sisters, work is also a calling from God. God calls us to work. Work is a special gift from our God and it is our privilege to be a part of God’s work. Can you imagine your identity in God’s eyes? This is the calling from God.
God said it very directly, “Let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the living creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:27)
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.( Genesis 2: 15)
Look at here in our reading Scripture, who took the man to the Garden of Eden? God! Who gave this man the responsibility to take care of it? Who took the man into the work place? God! So you know why I want you to answer this question. We should remember who took us into the work place? It’s our God. Our God is our real boss at work.
So we turn to the reason number three – He is honored. I am working for His glory. I can find joy through work. As I just said, our God is our real boss at work. So we should understand and remember this point. Our God is in control in every situation; our God is sovereign over all things. We were designed to work, so we can take pleasure from work. We are God’s children, we are God’s stewards. Work is our God’s original plan for all the human beings. So we are God’s stewards. Our God is our real boss. We are not others’ stewards; we are God’s stewards. God is our boss, so we should work for God.
Colossian 3: 23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, because our God is our boss at work. How can we work for Him? The only answer is to give all the glory and honor to God through work. Our God works as we just see in the creation and He enjoys work. We can find joy in work when we do it for our God. God does not need us to work for Him. We should know this. God likes nothing. He has everything. He calls us to work not because He needs our work. He does not need our work to satisfy Himself. He invites us to join Him with work for our sake. He invites us to join Him with work because we need to work, because it is He who gives us an opportunity to be a part of reflecting His character and ,Himself in our work. It is not because He needs us, but because God wants us to be a part of His work. This is an opportunity for you and me. So we should enjoy work and we love work. We do this for God’s glory and we can find joy from our work.
But some people may think: I do not like my job, how can I enjoy it? My job is not suitable for me, how can I glorify God through my work? My job is so simple and so boring, how can I find joy from my work? And also these people may say, if I have the job I really love, if I have a job that suits my talents and my gifts very much, if I have a job that is very interesting, I will try my best to work hard. I will try my best to bring God glory. I will work with all of my heart. I will work for God. I will work with all of my passion.
But dear brothers and sisters, let us think about where did Apostle Paul work when he wrote the Book of Philippians? In his office? No! Where was he? In the jail. When he wrote the book of Philippians, he was in jail! How did he feel when he we in jail? Angry? Sad? Fearful? Hopeless? Or Joyful? The Bible told us he was full of joy and also he could encourage others. He could encourage the believers in Philippians “Rejoices in the Lord always”! I will say it again, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) Why? Because Paul knew he worked for God. No matter what circumstance he was in, he was able to glorify God’s name. He was able to find joy in his work. Do you think Paul liked the jail? I do not think so. Absolutely not. He did not like being jailed. Why could Paul find joy in his work even when the circumstances were so bad? Because he did not think about himself. In his eyes, he himself was not important. To Paul, God had the ultimate importance. He only cared about God in his life. He only lived for God in his life. Dear brothers and sisters, do you think your work place is worse than jail? Even in jail, Paul could spread gospel to others. How about us? If we can have a heart to serve God, no matter what kind of job we have, we will bring God glory. We can honor God regardless of our situation.
So I want to have a quiz. Let us go over the three reasons why the Bible says we work. Can you answer me? Number one reason is He works. Number two is He calls. Number three is He is honored. I really hope you can remember this. Why we work? He works, He calls and He is honored. He is the center at our work place.
So dear brothers and sisters, I want you to think about tomorrow when you go to work.Maybe you need to make some phone calls, maybe you need to connect with some people, and maybe you need to teach some students>Whatever it is, think about how can you do it for God’s glory? How can you work for God? How can you apply the teaching that God is working so we work? God is calling us to work so we work. God is honored in our work, so we work for Him. We should remember it is all about Him. It is not about us, it is not about ourselves, and it is not about our own benefits. It is not because of money, power, control or identity, or respect. It is only because of Him, the Lord in the universe. The Lord is our all in all.
So dear brothers and sisters, today and the following two weeks we will focus on how to work for God and how to go from seeing work as a burden to be avoided to minimizing our working hard for wrong reasons. Our working for God and experiencing the joy we see in Genesis 1.
And now I would like to invite Gary to come up and share how he applies working for God in his work. Gary has more than thirteen years of experience in his working and he has a consulting business here in Beijing and has been living in Beijing since 2004. Since moving in Beijing in 2006, Gary and his wife Lisa have been a part of our English fellowship. Now we welcome Gary.
Gary
I do not know about you, but I wish she’d go for another twenty minutes. Really good thoughts. How do those apply to our life? I am going to talk a little bit about that. But first I would like to thank pastor Wu and Jessica for the opportunity to share in our home church. Gloria mentioned that my wife Lisa is here, our older son, Ben is also attending church here. Hope you know Lisa from talk time. Some of you might know Ben. It is a real privilege to be here.