What do you do to unwind? To relax in a busy day? What kinds of leisure do you enjoy? How do you like to play? I like to play the piano. Some people enjoy crosswords or Sudoku – I enjoy the mental puzzles of doing complicated things with computers. I watch television, especially science fiction. When I was a lot younger I used to play sport, my rather strange sport of lacrosse and a bit of squash or badminton. For years I have settled for long walks by the sea or in the woods. And to help us play, we have a spaniel! How do you like to play?
We are thinking about “God every day as we work, rest and play.” Of all the sermons in this series, this may be the most important. “God and play.” How do our recreation and our leisure fit in with God’s plan for our lives?
Play is good! Leisure is important. Recreation is vital – it literally “re-creates” us. Play is part of God’s plan for human beings and part of His plan for heaven.
Isaiah 11 7The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Play is good. But it has been said that too many people today worship their work, work at their play and play at their worship. We live in the Age of Entertainment. Many people are working shorter hours than our forefathers. We have appliances to take care of most of the household chores which used to be done by hand and vehicles to transport us anywhere we want to go while our forefathers only walked everywhere. Most people have more leisure time to relax and enjoy themselves and more money to spend on their leisure than most could have dreamed of a century ago or even when I was growing up. Entertainment is no longer something people do with family and friends and in the village. Entertainment is a multi-billion pound industry. Yet I suspect you will never have heard a single sermon on “God and Play” before. Just what difference should following Jesus make to our leisure and our recreation as Christians?
Colossians 3:17 reminds us, 17 Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
We should be able to offer every aspect of our lives as thanksgiving to God. We should be able to do everything we do “In Jesus’s Name”, in the way Jesus would have done it. And that includes our play. There are very few Bible verses which speak about “play” but this morning I want to point us to a number of important principles which apply to the whole of our lives, and particularly to our play. Let’s begin by thinking about
RECREATION AND COMMUNITY
The prophet Zechariah gives us a beautiful picture of heaven.
Zechariah 8 3 This is what the LORD says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain.”
4 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age. 5 The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”
Boys and girls will be playing together in the streets of heaven! And us older ones will enjoy watching them. This reminds us that an essential element of play and recreation has always been community. Play has always been a shared experience. But patterns of life have changed in recent years. The word “play” has gained new meanings but lost old ones.
Play has become passive. We find the word “play” in the Bible nearly 19 times in the sense of people playing musical instruments, making music. Until the spread of the gramophone music was always live, people playing or singing while others were entertained by the live performance. Nowadays when most people “play” music they just press a button on their laptop or phone or mp3 player and listen to recorded music as performed by professionals. A century ago most people “played” sport. Football or cricket or tennis were sports people took part in, while their family friends might have watched. Now we have spectator sports – most people watch rather than play, and usually watch in the comfort of their own homes on television rather than live. So nowadays most people have become merely consumers of music and sport rather than participants in it. We are accustomed to being entertained by professionals rather than entertaining each other. Play has become passive rather than active and some children are growing up not knowing how to entertain themselves or each other. Some children really don’t know how to “play” together.
Play has become individual, not communal. When the word “entertain” appears in the Bible it is referring to showing hospitality. In human society, entertaining was a shared activity. But the rise of radio and television and the internet and mobile smartphones means that now we don’t need to be with other people to be entertained. Video games and virtual reality encourage people to retreat into their own individual worlds of fantasy and imagination. Instead of sharing in play with other people, it is too easy to entertain ourselves alone.
The National Association of Head Teachers’ conference last week reported that “computers and smartphones have become “a digital dummy” used by parents to pacify their children.” “Children are coming to school tired because they have stayed up late watching TV or playing on electronic devices like computers and PlayStations in their rooms.” Entertainment has become individual, not communal.
God within Himself is community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And human beings are designed for community – to have relationships with other people. We are not designed to hide away in our own individual worlds all the time. Play is good – but patterns of play which encourage us always to be passive rather than active and always to be alone rather than in community can be harmful both to our humanity and to our spirituality.
RECREATION AND TEMPTATION
Play is a good thing. Leisure and recreation are very good for our wellbeing. But as Christians we need to bear in mind that some forms of play can be damaging, either in themselves or because they can lead us into temptation.
The Bible has many warnings against falling into sin.
Ephesians 5 3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
God calls us to keep ourselves pure and holy. There are at least four obvious areas where play and recreation can lead people into temptation.
Violence. We should beware of television or films or video games where violence is presented as entertaining. I can’t remember where I heard the statistic that the average viewer witnesses a thousand deaths on television every year.. I think that is an underestimate. But the dangers are obvious in drip-feeding people and especially children them so that they become desensitised to violence.
Sex. We must recognize the same dangers of the portrayal of sex in the media and especially through the internet, drawing people away from God’s standards of purity and faithfulness to worship the false gods of lust. We would all be shocked if we watched the kinds of pop videos or read the kinds of comics most teenagers read.
Gambling is another area of risk when so much play is built around games of chance. I’m not thinking so much about a good natured game of monopoly or bridge. But poker or roulette can lead to bankruptcy. We must be careful not to bring up our children to rely on “luck” or “chance” or “fate”. Some people start with the excitement of online gaming and end up ruining their lives. This is an important area and I will preach on the dangers of gambling in an evening service in a few weeks time.
Doorways to the occult. So many films and television programmes are based on aspects of the occult. When we lived in Borehamwood the area was filled with demonic activity, which was partly the legacy of all the horror films produced there between 1960 and 1980. Films and books and games may seem harmless in themselves but can lead youngsters especially to experiment with tarot cards or Ouija boards or séances and open themselves to demonic attack. I still haven’t made up my mind about just how dangerous the Harry Potter films and books are. But anybody who dabbles in real magic or spells is asking for trouble. Not all “play” is innocent – it can be deadly dangerous!
Violence. Sex. Gambling. The occult. Just four areas where entertainment can lead people into temptation. 1 Peter 2:16 says, “Be holy, for I am Holy.”
We must make sure that we do not allow the world around to squeeze us into its own mould or drag it down to its level. In particular we should not ignore the pervasive effects of television and the internet. The broadcaster Sir David Frost once said something very significant. “Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you would never allow into your home.” If a stranger came into our house and insisted on talking about half the things we hear on television, we would politely but firmly invite them to leave. If a stranger walked into our homes and showed us, and even more showed our children, graphic images of violence or sexual behaviour or unwholesome activities of all kinds, we would throw that stranger out. Yet we allow the television to stay on. Most people treat their televisions a bit like some people treat a pet cat – you pay it attention when you want to and ignore it for the rest of the time. Perhaps we should treat our television more like a pet crocodile! Handle carefully, keep at arm’s length and always stay vigilant in case it strikes out and delivers a fatal bite.
And the dangers of television are only multiplied in the dangers the internet brings not just to our door, but into every room in the house and with smartphones now, potentially to every waking moment wherever we are.
Philippians 4 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
We need to make sure that our leisure and our recreation builds us up and does not drag us down!
RECREATION AND STEWARDSHIP
Play is good! At the same time, all of us are accountable to God for how we have lived and how we have taken care of all that He has entrusted to us. How much does our play cost us?
Cost in money. Some kinds of recreation are inexpensive. Some are very expensive! Keeping up with the latest consoles, games or smartphones is expensive. Following a team to their away matches or following a band to all their gigs is expensive. God has made us stewards of the resources He has given us. We have to think about just how much we spend “playing.” I am sure that God wants us to enjoy life. But if we are spending more on our recreation and entertainment than we are giving to God’s work, something may not be right. If we are spending more on our “play” than some people in England have to live on, we may need to think again. We must be good stewards.
Cost in time. God does not expect us to work every hour of every day. We need our sleep. We need our one day in seven of rest and spiritual refreshment. We all need play, recreation and leisure. They are good for us – they refresh us and restore us. But not everybody needs as much “play” as the entertainment industry would like us to believe. Many people spend huge amounts of time being entertained by the television, or by computer games. But what we think of as “our” time belongs to God just as much as what we like to call “our” money belongs to God. Play is good. Recreation is good. Leisure is good. They are vital for our physical health and our mental health and our spiritual wellbeing. But when the television or the computer squeezes out time with family and friends, something is wrong. When television or computer squeeze out prayer and Bible study and worship and fellowship something is very wrong. Until the 1960s in Britain Sunday evening church services were universally better attended than morning services. Just one thing changed that pattern forever. The 26 weeks of the Forsythe Saga competing with evening services. And the television won. If our play gets in the way of our worship, we are only playing at following Jesus.
More than half a century ago A.W.Tozer warned Christians about the dangers of “that great god entertainment”. In these days the greatest challenge to religion is not heresy or atheism but entertainment. The media challenges the church not on the grounds of truth but on the grounds of enjoyment and excitement. People can sit glued to the television for hours watching Inspector Morse or Pirates of the Caribbean or a football match or a snooker match. But 25 minutes for a sermon or a quarter of an hour in prayer and Bible reading is too much to ask. It is so easy to fill our lives with trivia, which can even lead us into temptation, rather than fill our lives with Christian things.
God and play. Recreation and community. Recreation and temptation. Recreation and stewardship. Being a Christian is not just a hobby. Our Christian faith is not just a pastime or a recreation. Following Jesus is not just a different kind of playing which has to compete with all the other varieties of leisure on offer. Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Jesus is Sovereign – Jesus is the boss. And Jesus deserves and demands to be Lord of our work, AND of our rest, AND of our play.

We are thinking about “God every day in our work rest and play.” We have thought about God and work, about Christian witness in the workplace and how we can offer every aspect of work as expressions of worship to God as we serve God and not men. It is no surprise to find the word “work” more than 500 times in the Bible. But you may be interested to learn that the Bible speaks of rest and resting more than 370 times. And the very first mention of resting is of God Himself resting!
Genesis 2: 2 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 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Seeing the title “God and Rest” you may have wondered what I was going to talk about. Perhaps you just planned to spend 20 minutes or so in practical “rest” yourself. In fact we are going to think about “Sabbath Rest”. Nearly fifty of the places in the Bible which talk about rest are talking about the Sabbath. The root of the word Sabbath means to cease or desist, and therefore to rest. For the people of God “resting” is particularly expressed in keeping one day in seven special and different as a way of honouring God. It is a part of God’s plan for the whole of humanity. We are created and designed to work for six days and rest on the seventh. But keeping that seventh day special is also something we can do as Christians to honour God and keep our lives centred on Him. And that is vital if we want to glorify God seven days out of seven. So in thinking about God and Rest we are going to consider that pattern of rest which God invites us to enjoy by making one day a week different and special. Firstly, the Sabbath Day is a way of
CELEBRATING CREATION
In a world which is trying so hard to forget God, God gave the Sabbath as a way for us to remember our Creator. God gave it to Moses and to the Israelites as the fourth of the ten commandments.
Exodus 20 8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
A day of rest
A day not spent in the usual activities of the week. Not doing a job to earn money. Not doing housework or chores. It is unusual to find that kind of different day even among Christians today. But a hundred years ago, even fifty years ago, most Christians would not have worked on Sunday. Many wouldn’t have played games, some wouldn’t have even cooked their meal on a Sunday. They wouldn’t have travelled by car or bus except to go to church. So much of our patterns of life changed when Sunday trading laws were changed. So much of what Sunday as a day of rest used to be has been lost, for the whole nation and especially for Christians.
A day for the family
So many people are too busy for family and neighbours and community today. God’s plan is for us to have one day a week when we give priority to relationships – to people. To Jews the Sabbath is very much a family day. As Christians we need to demonstrate the importance of family and friendships and community to a world which is becoming ever more isolated, individualistic, impersonal and self-centred.
Part of God’s plan for all creation
Making one day in seven a day of rest is God’s pattern for health and well-being for all human beings. It is God’s pattern for healthy family life and healthy communities for all people everywhere – whether they choose to worship God or not. And it really works. When I was a student, and when I was working as a teacher, and then when I went to Bible College, I made it a point of principle never to do any work on Sundays. That often meant rearranging work and missing out on fun things I would have liked to do on Friday evenings and Saturdays to fit everything in. But I never worked on Sundays – and that pattern was a real blessing to me!
CELEBRATING SALVATION
The Day of Rest has a special meaning for believers, God’s redeemed people. In Deuteronomy the Ten Commandments are listed a second time. They are all the same, except the fourth, where the reason given for keeping the Sabbath Day special is different.
Deuteronomy 5 12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
This time the commandment is not in order to remember God the Creator, but to remember the God the Redeemer. To celebrate the Exodus. For the Jews that mean giving priority to Temple or synagogue, to worship and prayers and teaching. So they had their laws restricting the kinds of work you were allowed to do on the Sabbath. “Works of necessity” and “works of mercy” – but nothing else. By making space for God in their busy lives, by what they did and what they would not do, God’s chosen people would honour God and recognise His importance.
As Christians we are not bound by the dos and don’ts of the Jewish Law. But the principle is the same. We can show that God is the most important part of our lives by making Him our number one priority. And if God isn’t the most important part of our Sunday for even one day a week, we can’t pretend that He is Lord of our the rest of our lives.
Many things changed when Christ died and rose again from the dead, and those included the significance of the one day in seven. Because one day in sever which had been set apart to celebrate Creation and to celebrate the Exodus became one day in seven when Christians celebrated the resurrection of Jesus.
Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people
1 Corinthians 16 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
From these and other places we learn that well before the end of the first century Christians had stopped celebrating the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week and had begun celebrating the Lord’s Day on the first day of the week, the day Jesus rose from the dead. But don’t forget that until the fourth century the first day of the week was the first working day. So Christians would meet for worship early in the morning or late in the evening of a working day and still do a full day’s work. Church was a priority for those early Christians even when they had jobs to go to. They made time for worship and prayer and teaching. Between keeping the Lord’s day as a day of rest and keeping it as a day for drawing close to God, the first Christians’ priority was spending time with God and with each other.
So the Sabbath Day became the Lord’s Day celebrating Creation and Salvation. But it is also a way of
CELEBRATING HEAVEN
We read in Hebrews about the promised “Sabbath Rest” of the people of God.
Hebrews 4 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.
God’s rest on the seventh day of creation and our resting one day in seven are symbols of the eternal rest promised to every believer.
Exodus 33 14 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Time and again God promises His people rest in His presence. The rest which comes when we draw close to God. It was Augustine of Hippo who said, “Our hearts find no rest until they find their rest in you.”
Revelation 14 13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”
Here is the happy certainty of heaven for all who believe in Jesus. However hard life may be, whatever trials and persecution we may face, God has promised a day of rest.
Revelation 20: 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
God promises his people His rest. And our day of rest each week, our one day in seven with all the joys of worship and fellowship and family life, is meant to give us a glimpse and a foretaste of heaven. If our day of rest doesn’t give us a picture of heaven, we’re doing it wrong!
So how can we “Keep Sunday Special” in practice?
Try to make one day a week special: no work earning money, no housework, no homework;
Keep one day for relaxation: time to unwind, to enjoy hobbies;
Keep one day for the family: hospitality, visiting relatives;
Above all, make worship and fellowship a priority. Make some time for prayer and reading. I know some Christians don’t have a choice about going to work on Sunday, but some have more choice than they think! And if for Christians who do have to do their jobs on Sundays, remember those early Christians who gathered for worship and fellowship before or after their full day’s work because they wanted to celebrate “the Lord’s Day”.
The fourth commandment is the only one of the ten not specifically repeated in the New Testament. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t still apply. But we wouldn’t be keeping Sunday special just to obey a commandment anyway. Christians celebrate the Lord’s Day to show God how much we love Him.
Ezekiel 20 10 Therefore I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the desert. 11 I gave them my decrees and made known to them my laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. 12 Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy.
18 I said to their children in the desert, “Do not follow the statutes of your fathers or keep their laws or defile yourselves with their idols. 19 I am the LORD your God; follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 20 Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.”

God invites His children to make one day in seven special as a sign between Him and us. By keeping The Lord’s Day we celebrate creation, we celebrate salvation and we celebrate heaven. We show God that we love Him. And when we do that, the blessings that follow are enormous!

This is our God, The Servant King, He calls us now To follow Him,
To bring our lives As a daily offering Of worship to The Servant King.

Romans 12:1 ¶ So then, my brothers, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.

What does it mean in practice to bring our lives as a daily offering of worship to the Servant King? How can we turn all of our work into worship – an offering of service to God? What we are talking about today applies to every kind of work. Paid work. Voluntary work. House work. Church work. How can we become living sacrifices in the workplace. Living sacrifices at home. Living sacrifices in Church.

The song goes, “whistle while you work.” God calls us, not to “whistle while you work” but to “worship while you work” !! Here are 10 way to “worship while we work!”

1. Make sure you are doing what God wants you to do
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good deeds he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

The good deeds God has lined up for every one of us to do are not just our Christian activities – but ALL our activities! God has made you according to a specific design. He has given you personality, talents, abilities, and interests which can be used in your life’s work. God has crafted you in a very unique and personal way and this means that you are fit to do certain tasks. There exist “right” jobs for all of us, paid jobs, jobs serving the community, jobs at home – jobs which match the way God has designed us and the needs of the tasks. All of those are the “good deeds” God has lined up ready for us to do.

God has a plan for each of our lives. Each of us has a calling. He has uniquely designed each of us up for particulars kind of work. So the starting point for worshipping God in our work is to make sure that the work we are doing is what God wants us to do. The right kind of work. In the right place at the right time. Whether it is paid work, or Christian service we need to seek God’s guidance over the work we are going to do. And continue to seek His guidance to make sure that he still wants us doing that specific work, with those people, in that particular place.

If you are really finding it impossible to worship God in your daily work, in your workplace, in church, in the home, perhaps you have not yet found your calling. Maybe you are not actually where God wants you to be. Maybe you actually know where God really wants you to be, but have been too afraid to pursue it. Some people opt for the cash rather than the calling! In your paid work, in your voluntary service, in your Christian work, make sure you are doing what God wants you to do.

2. Be living sacrifices – offering ourselves to God in worship
God calls us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices Monday to Friday, not just Sundays! In our place of work and not just at church. It is not the activity but the attitude of the heart, which makes something worship. We can worship God in whatever we do and whenever we do it, if we offer that activity to God and do it FOR God.

HYMN “New every morning is the love” by John Keble
If on our daily course our mind be set to hallow all we find
New treasures still, of countless price, God will provide of sacrifice.
The trivial round, the common task, will furnish all we ought to ask;
Room to deny ourselves, a road that brings us nearer God.

It is not the activity – but the attitude of the heart – an attitude of offering ourselves to God, sacrificing ourselves in order to please Him.

3. Do it working as for the Lord and not for men
Col 3: 22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favour, 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 men, …24 … It is the Lord Christ you are serving. For Christ is the real Master you serve.

We aren’t serving God only when we are doing “Christian work” or “church work”. As Christians we are serving God WHATEVER we are doing, paid or unpaid. WHATEVER you do, it is the Lord Christ you are serving.

The work of a Beethoven, and the work of a charwoman, become spiritual on precisely the same condition, that of being offered to God, of being done humbly “as to the Lord.”
C. S. Lewis

You may have heart about some of the unseen works of art which have been found in great cathedrals which craftsmen created on the backs of sculptures and paintings. They were hidden from where people can see – as offerings of worship for God’s eyes only.
“Throw your soul into the work as if your one employer were the Lord!”

God is never satisfied with a halfhearted effort. Young Harry worked for a Christian shoemaker. His job was to prepare the leather for soles. He had to cut a piece of cowhide to size, soak it in water, and then pound it with a flat-headed hammer until it was hard and dry. Harry always wished he could avoid this very tiring process.
He often went to another shoeshop nearby to watch their competitor at work. This man didn’t pound the leather after it came from the water. Instead, he immediately nailed it onto the shoe he was making. One day Harry approached this man and asked, “Are the soles really just as good when you put them on wet as if they were pounded?” With a wink and a cynical smile the man replied, “No, but they come back much quicker this way!”
Young Harry hurried back to his boss and suggested that perhaps they were wasting their time by drying out the leather so carefully. His employer read Colossians 3:23 to him, “working for the Lord and not for men,” Then he said, I do not make shoes just for the money. I’m doing it for the glory of God. If at the judgment seat of Christ I should have to view every shoe I’ve ever made, I don’t want to hear the Lord say, ‘That was a poor job. You didn’t do your best.’ I want to see His smile and hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!’” Working as for the Lord and not for men.

4. Do it all to the glory of God
1 Cor 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Martin Luther wrote, “The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays—not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”

“Too many people stop looking for work once they get a job.”
Again we say, if we want to glorify God, only our best is good enough for Him.

A few weeks ago: Eccles 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men

“It is our best work that God wants, not the dregs of our exhaustion. God prefers quality to quantity.” George Macdonald (1824–1905)

5. Let your light shine
Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

We talked last week about witness in the workplace – living the gospel and preaching the gospel. Of course we are paid to work, not to preach! We are there to do our job as best we can. But when people see our good works they will not be able to give glory to God if they don’t even know we are Christians. That’s why it is important that we do try to link up with other Christians at our place of work. We must find ways of letting others at work know that we are Christians and ways to actually talk about Jesus. We MUST be prepared to step out in faith and push boundaries and take risks in talking about Jesus.

6. In the name of Jesus In “the Jesus way”, as representing Him!
Col 3:17 Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
We should do everything in Jesus’s name. As representing Jesus. So God calls us to do our work as Jesus Himself would do it. So God calls us to show the character of Jesus as we work. Working “the Jesus way”. “What would Jesus do?” The Fruit of Spirit doesn’t always grow easily in the workplace. Love joy peace patience kindness goodness patience gentleness self-control!
I believe that Jesus was a VERY good carpenter! But more than that, Jesus always cared about people. People matter more than “getting the job done”.

7. Work as an act of thanksgiving and praise
This does not mean that we have to sing hymns or songs all the time while we are working. Although if the job allows that – why not? But it does mean that we work, not because we have to, but because we want to express our praise to God for who He is and our gratitude to God for all He has done for us.

FILL THOU MY LIFE, O Lord my God, In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim Thy being and Thy ways.
Not for the lip of praise alone, Nor e’en the praising heart
I ask, but for a life made up Of praise in every part:
Praise in the common things of life, Its goings out and in;
Praise in each duty and each deed, However small and mean.
So shall no part of day or night From sacredness be free;
But all my life, in every step, Be fellowship with Thee.

8. Praying for our work – praying the ordinary and practising the presence of God
Our jobs are not a hindrance to prayer but an opportunity for prayer. We can sometimes pray while we work. We should always pray about our work and for our work. But we can also pray through our work. Our work can become prayer – prayer in action.

God calls us to “pray without ceasing.” This time last year we thought about prayer through the teachings of Richard Foster. Let me remind you of two aspects of prayer which are very relevant to prayer at work.

We talked last year about “praying the ordinary”. We need to get rid once and for all of the idea that God is only interested in the “religious” “Christian” and “church” bits of our lives. We can’t shut God in a box! There is NO division between “the spiritual” and “the secular”. God is involved in EVERY aspect of our daily lives. We need to learn to trust God in EVERY area of our lives.
We need to recognise the sanctity of the ordinary, the holiness of all created things. All work is holy work. Our homes are just as holy as our church. All places are sacred places! We are Christians WHEREVER we are. So WHEREVER we are is Holy Ground!
We need to learn to pray the ordinary. To turn the ordinary experiences of life into prayer; to see God in the ordinary experiences of life; to pray throughout the ordinary experiences of life.

“Every action performed in the sight of God, because it is the will of God, and in the manner that God wills, is a prayer,” “Everything that one turns in the direction of God is a prayer.”

That is the theme of the little book by Brother Lawrence which I have talked about before, “Practising the Presence of God.” Brother Lawrence encourages us to make every part of our everyday lives a subject for prayer. But more than that, he challenges us to engage in continuous conversation with God in prayer, whatever we are doing. Here are some of Brother Lawrence’s inspiring words.

We should strive for `a habitual sense of God’s presence’ – `to be always with God’
To be with God, there is no need to be in church. We may make an oratory of our heart wherein to retire from time to time to converse with him in meekness, humility, and love. You need not cry very loud. He is nearer to us than we think.

Our biggest mistake is to think that a time of prayer is different from any other time. It is all one. The time of business does not differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees.

We can do little things for God: I turn the cake that is frying on the pan, for love of him …. Do everything for the love of God. Make use of all the tasks one’s lot in life demands to show him that love, and to maintain his presence within by the communion of our heart with his.

The depths of our spirituality does not depend upon changing the things we do, but in doing for God what we ordinarily do for ourselves. A little lifting of the heart suffices; a little remembrance of God, one act of inward worship, are prayers which however short are acceptable to God.

Something to try this week: Praying the ordinary: Practising the presence of God
9. Pray without ceasing – breath prayers
Another very helpful suggestion I have spoken about before is to use what Richard Foster calls “breath prayers.” These are specific short prayers which we can say in a single breath. Whenever we want to bring God to mind during the day and acknowledge His presence with us, we breathe this prayer. Whenever we want to dedicate a particular activity to God, we breathe this prayer. Whenever we want to ask for God’s grace and help and draw God into a particular situation, we breathe this prayer. It is a form of prayer which helps bring God into every part of our lives as we use it many many times through the day. First thing in the morning. Last thing at night. When we move from one activity to another. As we go to greet someone.

There are many excellent breath prayers. “Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” Last year I suggested the first line of the prayer of St. Francis, “Lord, Make me a channel of your peace.” While you are doing work, you might like to try, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done”” Or God might lead you to a different “breath prayer” that is personal to you. I do recommend breath prayers. Why not try, starting today? Practise today and then use your breath prayer at work tomorrow?

Breath prayers are just one way of praying without ceasing. I should of course also mention speaking in tongues as a private prayer language. The gift of tongues is a another valuable way of communing with God in the busyness of life – even at work.

10. Giving the glory back to God
I could talk here about our tithes and offerings – giving back to God the rewards of our labours. Our wages belong to Him who gives us the talents and the strength to earn them. But one final even more important way of worshipping God in our work is to give Him the glory. A prayer of thanksgiving when things go well. And a public acknowledgement that our success is all by God’s grace. “I am a Christian and I know I couldn’t have done that job without God’s help. Give God the glory!

I’ve got a joke for you this morning. Well it’s not really a joke. At least it doesn’t make me laugh. But let’s see what you think.
Question: When is a Christian not a Christian?
Answer: When he’s at work. Boom! Boom!

Witness at work – the challenge of standing up and being counted for Christ in the workplace. We thought last week about God at work – WHY we should work and HOW we should work as Christians. We found some good Biblical motives for working: because God has created us to work and wants us to rejoice in our work, because work is the contribution we owe to the world, because we are serving God whatever work we do, and because our work is a way we can glorify God as a witness to the world. We saw that it pleases God for us to do our work with all our might and with all our heart, but not by becoming workaholics or worshipping the work instead of worshipping God. And I reminded is that in God’s eyes, people are very precious and people matter more that “getting the job done”.

This morning I want to go on to focus on just one aspect of work – witness at work. This is an area where so many Christians seem to struggle that it definitely deserves at least one sermon. Unlike last time, this week is not so much concerned with work in church or in the home but specifically with paid work or voluntary work out in the world and our witness in the workplace. How can we stand up and be counted as Christians in our daily work?

I wouldn’t claim to know the details of the challenges you each face day by day in the work that you do. But I do have some idea about what workplaces can be like. I’ve been a student for 6 years full time and 2 years part time and a schoolteacher for 5 years. I’ve also worked as a supply teacher in a variety of schools. I’ve sold books in a bookshop, slaved in kitchens and as a cleaner and as a caretaker, “temped” in offices, mended computers, and even on odd occasions played music, all for money! In those different settings I have had the privilege of seeing a number of friends come to Christian faith. And then I have also listened carefully as many, many people over the years have told me the stories of the joys and the struggles they have as Christians in their places of work. So I am not totally clueless about what it can cost to stand up as a Christian in the workplace.

I’ll come to some practical suggestions later on, but first let’s ask a fundamental question. Why do so many Christians find it so difficult to witness for Christ in the workplace? What are the challenges to faith at work? Why is “daring to go public” about our faith so much of a problem?
DARING TO GO PUBLIC

The most important problem in witness at work is, I believe, one giant false assumption. It is the false assumption which almost everybody makes that religion just doesn’t belong in the workplace. The assumption that faith and work don’t mix. The assumption that when we go into work we are obliged, by society, by our employers, by our colleagues, we are obliged to leave our Christianity at the door.

Christians can make this false assumption that religion and work belong to separate worlds. Some Christians have the mistaken idea that some things in the world are sacred, some things belong to God, and everything else in the world is secular, everything else has nothing to do with God. That division between sacred and secular is not biblical, it’s not theological, it’s nonsense! The whole world belongs to God, and everything in it. The almighty omnipresent God is as present with us and as close to us in the workplace as He is in church – although we may find it harder in some places and easier in other places to recognise God’s presence. There is no sacred-secular divide! But we’ll talk much more about that next week.

The sad truth is that it is not only Christians who feel that religion and work don’t mix. Everybody else makes that same false assumption too – and that can lead them to put all kinds of pressures on Christians in the workplace. Here’s how it works. Over the last two centuries, for all kinds of reasons, the world we live in has become two worlds. There is the public world every human being shares in. The world of commerce and politics and business and news. And then there is the private world, or should I say, the millions of private worlds we each retreat into when we go home and lock our doors and live in our own fortresses. The private world of our family and our hobbies and our entertainments.

What everybody wrongly assumes is that these two worlds, the public world of business and commerce and our private worlds of family and hobbies, should not be allowed to mix. In particular, they assume that when we come to work we should leave our family problems and our entertainments at home. The reasoning here is quite simple. The public world is the same for everyone. It is concerned with things we all agree about, or things like politics where debate and disagreement will lead us to the consensus we need to carry on as a civilised society. The public world is concerned with “facts.” Out in the public world we should only be concerned with things which everybody shares and agrees about.

On the other hand, everybody’s private world is different. Our family life is nobody’s business but our own. Our hobbies are personal and individual. Where different people have different tastes and different opinions, there is more and more pressure to keep those opinions strictly in our own private worlds. Not in the public world where differences can lead to inequality and argument.

Now you can already guess where the vast majority of people feel that religion fits into this picture. Where does our faith fit in? Well, they say, Christianity belongs in our private world of family and hobbies. There is no place for Christian faith in the public world of business and commerce and work, they say!

We live in a multicultural multifaith society. There are many different religions in Britain nowadays. Christianity is just one option among many and we shouldn’t be forcing our opinions on others, so people say. We have no right to insist we’ve got it right and everybody else is wrong. So we must keep our religion boxed up in our private lives and not bring our religion into the public world of the workplace! That’s what the world around tells us in so many ways, more and more strongly. This is the false god of political correctness running wild.

God says different. Our faith is not just a matter of opinion but of fact! The gospel is eternal truth, a matter of life and death. The Living God cannot be kept shut up in a box! Almighty God is Creator of heaven and earth, all things visible and invisible! Jesus Christ
is Lord of all! Almighty God cannot be relegated to the private worlds of people who choose to believe. God is infinitely more important than business. Infinitely more important than commerce. Infinitely more important than politics. God is God of the public world. God is the ultimate indisputable fact! Jesus Christ is Lord of ALL – not just of those who choose to bow the knee to Him now.

But this is why “daring to go public” for Christ is so hard. Bringing Christ into your workplace means bringing your faith out of your “private” world and into the “public world”. It means going against this totally false assumption that religion is just a private matter for individuals. Speaking up for Christ in the public world of work is a challenge to everybody else that everybody else is wrong to shut God out of their lives.

So the challenge of witness at work is much bigger than simply the challenge of admitting to people at work that you are a Christian. Witness in the workplace is much more radical and subversive than that! Witness at work is about telling and showing the whole world that there are more important things in life than work, and that the most important reality of all in the universe is not work, or money, or success, but Jesus Christ! “Daring to go public” by bringing Christ into the workplace is a declaration that Jesus is more important than your work, more important than your boss, more important than your colleagues mistaken beliefs. As indeed Jesus Christ is more important. He is King of Kings, Lord of Lords. If Jesus Christ is not Lord of your work life, he is not truly your Lord!

Last year during the Olympic Games countless people people left work early or gathered in pubs to watch the events. If sport can break into the public world of work that much, surely the gospel of Jesus Christ has a right to be heard in the workplace! Jesus Christ really is more important than playing games!

LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE
Once we accept that God belongs in the workplace, then the problem of how to witness at work is not really any different from how to witness for Christ anywhere else. How do we witness at work? The same ways as we witness everywhere else!

Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

What does it mean to be the light of the world in the workplace?

(a) LIVE THE GOSPEL

Things that everybody expects in work – hard work, integrity
“I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” Jerome K. Jerome

Things that not everybody gives – go the extra mile, no gossiping or backbiting, do your own work but also be ready to help others.

True friendship – you may well spend more hours a week with workmates and colleagues than you do with your family. Your friendship is a vital witness for Christ.

Something that you won’t always find – compassion in the workplace. True Christian love. Charity. The command “love your neighbour” does NOT have exceptions. It does not say, “love your neighbour, except at work”, It does not say “love your neighbour except when you are busy and stressed”. It does not say, “Love your neighbour except when the neighbour is that person at work that nobody can stand”. It does not say, “love your neighbour except when that neighbour is your boss who is on your back and getting at you for no reason.”

Witness at work is not just about finding ways of talking about Jesus at work. It is about doing your work in such a way that everybody asks – why do you work like that, and then you answer, “Because I am a Christian”. But it is not enough to wait for people to get round to asking about your faith. We must let our light shine in our words as well as by our actions.

(b) PREACH THE GOSPEL

Acts 5:42 gives us a glimpse of evangelism in the Early Church.
Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 5:42)

They never stopped! Too many Christians never get round to starting! We wait and pray and pray and wait for the perfect opening to talk about Christ – and it never comes! So we need to step out in faith! Take a few risks! Christians should ALWAYS be pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable as they share the gospel. Early church was persecuted – they were commanded to shut up and they just went on preaching!
Acts 5: 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.” 29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!
Christians in some former communist countries lost their jobs just for being known as Christians. In some places Muslims or Hindus lose their jobs, and even their homes and families, for converting to Christianity. So don’t dare to say that we are obliged to remain silent about our faith in the workplace. We don’t have the right to stay silent about Christ.
Mark 8:35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? … 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

If it is considered impolite to share your faith at work – be impolite! The eternal destiny of your colleagues hangs on whether you are prepared to be bold and take risks. Push the boundaries! If you aren’t prepared to take risks – they are doomed without Christ! What if you are worried about “not fitting in”? Then be willing not to fit in! But what if your bosses reprimand you for speaking about Jesus? What if your promotion prospects are affected? What if you risk losing your job for speaking up about Christ? Tertullian wrote, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”. They don’t throw Christians to the lions any more. But colleagues who haven’t received Christ as their saviour are still doomed to a lost eternity! Perhaps the church in Britain needs some workplace martyrs!!
Matt 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

I used to teach some RE lessons in the very challenging local secondary school in Borehamwood. As far as the head of RE knew, she was the only Christian on the staff. When there was a flu epidemic and they were desperately short of teachers I also did some supply teaching chemistry for them and got to know the chemistry teachers. You can imagine how surprised I was when we went to visit my old flatmate at his church in Watford one Sunday a few weeks later to discover that the Head of Chemistry not only attended but was an active member of that church.

At the absolute minimum, all your colleagues and workmates should know that you are a Christian! They may not know or understand what your faith means to you – but they need to know that you have a faith! Being a Christian is NOT some dark secret which you are obliged to keep hidden from everybody. Being a Christian should be THE MOST IMPORTANT thing in your life. Your relationship with Christ is what determines the person you are now and what determines your eternal destiny. For every Christian, Jesus Christ should be the most important person in your life. You talk to your colleagues about your families and their families, your hobbies and their hobbies, your holidays and their holidays. How much more should you talk to them about your Lord and Saviour Jesus Push the boundaries! Take some risks! Because Jesus is worth it!

TEN PRACTICAL STEPS

OUTSIDE WORK
1. Pray about your witness at work
2. Get others praying for your witness at work – Home Group / Prayer Triplet
3. Find out if there are any experienced or successful Christians in your line of work? Can you benefit from their experience?
4. Has anything been written by a Christian about your line of work?
5. See what resources there are on the internet to help you in your situation.

AT WORK
6. Try to link up with other Christians who do the same job as you
7. Try to link up with other Christians at your place of work
8. Find ways of letting others at work know that you are a Christian – badges, postcards, Christian calendar, Christian book on desk or in locker, talking about church (barn dance, Andy’s induction, camping weekend), talking about Jesus, run an Alpha course
9. Take your minister to work with you one day!!!
10. Step out in faith – take risks!

God’s word the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ really is the only way of salvation for a lost world. We show a lack of love for our colleagues and workmates when we stay silent. The loving action must always be to speak, to shout, to warn, to persuade, to pray so that our friends do not drift on to a lost eternity. The people who showed love while the Titanic was sinking weren’t ones who kept everyone amused by playing more music and handing out more drinks. They were the ones who handed out the lifebelts and pointed the way to the lifeboats,. So “dare to go public!” Live the gospel but also preach the gospel. Push boundaries. Take risks.

If you have a job let YOUR light shine in your workplace this week!

Two women who hadn’t seen each other in years met in a supermarket one day. One asked, “Tell me, Delia, how is your son George?”
“He’s getting along fine,” Delia replied. “He’s a poet. He just received his master’s degree in literature from the university.”
“And what about Mary?”
“She’s just as smart as George. She graduated from college with a degree in modern art.”
“Wonderful. And how is little Freddy? What is he doing?”
“Well,” Delia said, “You know Freddy. Freddy is still Freddy. He wouldn’t go to college — he became a plumber instead. If it wasn’t for him, we’d all be starving!”

Over the next few weeks we are going to see what the Bible says about work. By work I mean any kind of work. Paid work. Unpaid work. Voluntary Work. Church work. Housework. This series of sermons will be for everybody. For Breadwinners who go out and work to earn money. For Homemakers who work just as hard providing for the family. For those who have retired from paid work and keep just as busy doing all kinds of things which are still work! For those people who work primarily with their hands and those people who work mostly with their brains. If it’s any kind of work – that’s what we are talking about.

In later weeks we’ll be talking about witness at work and work as worship. And since there’s more to life than work we’ll think about rest and play as well. But we’ll begin today by answering two important questions. What does the Bible have to say 1) about WHY we work, and 2) about HOW we should do the work we do?

WHY DO WE WORK???

What are our motives for working? For some people, the reason they do work is primarily to provide for themselves and their family. Others work to earn enough to enable them to do what they consider to be their real work which is work for God. The reason some people work is so that they can support the church. Others work as a means to material prosperity. Some people do ordinary jobs just to fill in time until God calls them Christian service. Some people do their work because they realise that God created them to do that! Why do we work? Our work will be transformed when our motives are right!
FIVE POOR MOTIVES for doing work
To provide for my family
You’ve probably seen the bumper sticker, “I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.”
You might also remember what the Bible says about our responsibilities to care for our family:
1 Tim 5:8 If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
If the only reason that will motivate somebody to work is the need to “make a living”, then that is sad. That is the bare minimum motivation for lazy people, not a worthy motive for God-inspired people. There are much better motivations than that!
To bring financial prosperity – working to have
Some people work not just to survive, but to gain wealth and possessions. I am NOT saying it is wrong to be rich – to have money and possessions. But Jesus gave solemn warnings about the risks associated with riches.
Mark 10:25 It is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”
There’s a deep trap for us all here – if we are working just for the money and the possessions then they will becomes the focus of our lives, not God!!
Heb 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have
To advance my career and bring me status
There is nothing wrong with being successful at work. Daniel, Joseph, Esther, Lydia, even the apostle Paul were all very successful in their chosen fields. Before the three years of his public ministry Jesus spent probably 15 years as a self-employed tradesman and craftsman. Jesus was a carpenter. That is how Nazareth knew him: “the carpenter”.
There is nothing wrong with having a successful career.
“All men want to succeed. Some want to succeed so badly they are even willing to work for it.”
But often the pressure to succeed comes from other people = bosses, workmates or colleagues. This seems to me to be a particular pressure in the business world. The danger is not only that if success and status are the driving forces in our lives, God can get squeezed out. There are also much better reasons for working than just for success and status.
To support me so that I can do the important things in life – church etc –
This sounds like a good idea – but it completely misunderstands and undervalues our daily calling. Work is not there as “tentmaking” to support us financially while we do our “ministry” in our “spare time”. The distinction we sometimes make between “secular work” and “sacred work” does NOT come from in the Bible. All work is the same in God’s eyes. There is no such difference between “the Lord’s work” and the kinds of work we all do when we aren’t at church or with other Christians.

Nobody’s “day job” is less important than “what they do in the church”. Nobody employed in full time Christian work would ever EVER believe that what we are privileged to do day by day is more important to God than all the other jobs that members of the church are doing day in day out.

To provide for the church-
Work is NOT there to provide God with money that he would otherwise be short of!! Of course it is a good thing to be able to earn money and give lots of it to the church and to needy causes, but if that is ever our motivation for working then we have missed the point!
There are five reasons which motivate some people in the work they do, and particularly in their paid jobs. I suggest that these are POOR motives for work. Let me give you instead five GOOD motives for doing work, and most of these apply just as directly to unpaid work as to paid work, and just as much to what we do in the church as to what we do for the rest of the week.
FIVE GOOD MOTIVES for doing work – 5 pure and worthwhile reasons for working
God works and we are created in His image to do the same
God created human beings to be in his image and to be his co-workers. Adam and Eve were taking care of the garden of Eden BEFORE the fall. Work is not some evil that entered the world because Adam and Eve messed everything up! Because God is a Creator, we his creatures are made to be creative. Humans were created to work!

Work is not a curse, it is a blessing from God who calls man to rule the earth and transform it so that the divine work of creation may continue with man’s intelligence and effort. Pope John Paul II (1920– )
A man should rejoice in his own works
Eccles 3: 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil- this is the gift of God.
Eccles 5:19 Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work- this is a gift of God.

God wants us to find satisfaction and be happy in our work.

“Work is not primarily a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or should be, the full expression of the worker’s faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God.” Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957)
Work is our minimum contribution to community and society
Work with your own hands 2 Thess 3: 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” 11 We hear that some among you are idle. … 12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.
There was a sign in a shop window which read: NO HELP WANTED. As two men passed by, one said to the other, “You should apply—you’d be great for that job!”
I said that motives like working to provide for the family and to become rich were poor motives. There is a measure of selfishness in those motivations. But it is a good thing to work because we recognise that we owe it to the world we live in. There is no such thing as a free lunch. We owe it to the world and to God to do work to provide for our needs.
And we mustn’t make the mistake of measuring the importance of the work by how much a person gets paid for it! Homemakers work hard providing for their families. And if a breadwinner is unable to do paid work, perhaps if they just can’t find employment, they can always contribute to family and community and society by doing voluntary work. Society would collapse overnight if volunteers stopped doing all they do for other people. And so of course would the church and its activities.

Incidentally, retirement is not a reason for stopping doing work either. One aspect of retirement from paid work is that it gives us an opportunity to do all kinds of work which we may have wanted to do but our paid jobs didn’t give us as much time for. Different kinds of work, creative work, work in the church perhaps!
Do it as to the Lord and not as to men
Col 3: 22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favour, 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 men, …24 … It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

We aren’t serving God only when we are doing “Christian work or church work”. As Christians we are serving God WHATEVER we are doing, paid or unpaid. WHATEVER you do, it is the Lord Christ you are serving – so we must work wholeheartedly as for the Lord in everything we do!

Romans 12:1¶ So then, my brothers, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to
you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.
God calls us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices Monday to Friday, not just Sundays!
We will think more about this when we talk about work as worship.
Seek first the Kingdom of God, and its righteousness
God calls us to seek His kingdom and to bring glory to Him whatever we are doing.
1 Cor 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. The world around is watching us to see the difference Jesus makes to our lives. And for Christians in employment, our colleagues and neighbours and friends see much more between 9 and 5 over 5 days a week than they see in occasional hours outside work.
We will think more about this when we talk about witness at work.

So there we have five GOOD reasons motivating us in any work we do any time any place anywhere! That’s WHY we should work. But our second question is,
HOW SHOULD WE WORK???

Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
Someone once said, “Hard work never killed anyone, but why take the chance?” Somebody else said, “Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.”
The Book of Proverbs has lots to say about the importance of hard work and contains 19 warnings against laziness! We just read Colossians 3:23
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men

So the Bible says we should work hard! With all our might. With all our heart. But you busy overworked people don’t need me to tell you to work harder! The problem in today’s world, and especially if I dare say it here in suburbia, is that people so often misinterpret what it means to work with all your might and all your heart. Many people (Christians and not Christians alike) work TOO hard. People can so easily become workaholics – work can become their god! The challenge we face is to work the way God wants us to, without falling into the traps the world sets.

TEN RULES NOT TO FOLLOW AT WORK

1. Never say No to a request — always say YES.
2. Your job comes first; personal considerations are secondary.
3. Accept all invitations to meetings, dinners, committees, etc.
4. Go to the office evenings, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
5. Golf, tennis or other hobbies are a waste of time.
6. It is a poor policy to take all the holiday time you are entitled to.
7. Never delegate responsibility to others; carry the whole load at all times.
8. Do not eat a restful, relaxing meal — always schedule a meeting over the dinner hour.
9. If your work calls for travelling — work all day and drive all night to so you can arrive early for your appointment for the next morning.
10. Take the briefcase home on the evenings when you do not go to the office. This provides an opportunity to review completely all the troubles and worries of the day.

WE NEED TO KEEP WORK IN ITS PROPER PLACE!!! Too many people live by these 10 rules which should be how NOT to work! It is possible to work with all our might and with all our heart without letting work become our God, without becoming workaholics. We all need to find God’s balance for our lives.

In that balance, there is one more thing we need to remember when we are seeking to work with all our might and all our heart, and here we in the prosperous capitalist First World have lessons to learn from the Third World.
PEOPLE matter more than “getting the job done”
We Westerners we always want to pack lots of events into our busy schedules. Time drives us along, often much too fast for our own good. By comparison in the Third World time moves slowly, sometimes for good reason and sometimes for no reason at all. Their culture is simply NOT time-oriented.

In the third world it is the events themselves which really matter, the meetings, the discussions, the meals. The events dictate the timetable, not the timetable the events! Each event is allowed to take as long as it needs – sometimes a whole day for just one meeting. So they always have space to welcome visitors, whether they had been invited or are expected or not.
So often in the western world, and in London and the business world even more than other parts of Britain, we put work before relationships. If relationships get in the way of “getting the job done” we limit the relationships – simple examples: “no personal phone calls during office hours”, or, “spend time with the customers who are going to spend most, not gossiping with your own family or friends.”

But in Africa, family and friendships and relationships matter more than “getting the work done”. We can learn a lot from that attitude to time and timetables. Too often our western priorities are biased towards speed rather than towards people. When we are in a hurry to get things done it is easy to hurt people unintentionally. We need to remember that our relationships will last into eternity, so we should devote more time and energy to developing relationships even if that means we give less time to “getting things done”. In everything we do we need to work harder at building relationships and even if that means less energy for “achieving results.”

So, WHY should we work? What should be our motives for work? And HOW should we work? Sometimes we think we are glorifying God and fulfilling his will for our lives when we get immersed in our work. We feel that we are working with all our might and all our heart. But sometimes that means we have just fallen into the worldly ways of the workaholic. Or sometimes we have forgotten that people matter more than “getting the job done”. What will it mean for each of us this time tomorrow to do our work with all our might and all our heart? How can we all “seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness” in our places of work?

Let me finish with a story which I hope will make you think. I read the story a famous architect told about an incident which had a profound influence on the rest of his life. When he was a young boy, he went walking across a snow-covered field with his very serious determined single-minded uncle. As the two of them reached the far end of the field, his uncle stopped him. He pointed out his own tracks in the snow, straight and true, and then the young boy’s tracks meandering all over the field.
“Notice how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence, to the cattle, to the woods, and back again,” his uncle said. “And see how my tracks aim directly to my goal. There is an important lesson in that.”
Years later this world-famous architect explained how this experience had shaped his philosophy in life. “I decided there and then NOT to miss out on the most interesting things in life, like my uncle always had.”