Dalton First United Methodist Church Podcast
God's Work, God's Way, God's Results - Blake Fine
Ever considered how your work is a reflection of your faith in God? But have you ever thought about praying for a sense of purpose in your job? Let's explore how our work can be a way to live out God's purpose and mission in the world. It's not just about earning a paycheck, but about representing God's love and grace. Even when the job isn't enjoyable, remember, prayer has the power to guide us towards seeing our work as a gift. Be ready to change your perspective, and start seeing work in a brand new light.
Ever considered how your work is a reflection of your faith in God? But have you ever thought about praying for a sense of purpose in your job? Let's explore how our work can be a way to live out God's purpose and mission in the world. It's not just about earning a paycheck, but about representing God's love and grace. Even when the job isn't enjoyable, remember, prayer has the power to guide us towards seeing our work as a gift. Be ready to change your perspective, and start seeing work in a brand new light.
You are listening to the Dalton First United Methodist Church podcast. To learn more about Dalton First United Methodist Church, visit us online at DaltonFUMCcom. Alright, so I'm gonna begin with a question that's gonna take some of you all way back, alright. So the question is this can you remember your first job, the first job that you ever had? Think for a moment. Maybe you didn't want that job. Maybe you're excited about the job, but think about that first job. And this morning, the reason I asked that question is we're gonna look for a little bit at the idea of work and how we should view our work, and maybe how God views our work and how that ought to impact how we view our work. So I'll talk to you a little bit about the first job that I had.
Speaker 1:So I didn't get my first job until I was out of high school. I graduated high school in 2013 and then the summer after that, I began working at the Chick-fil-A off of Exit 101 in Cordill, georgia, and this Chick-fil-A was not even a year old yet when I began working there, and so everyone loved Chick-fil-A, because if you've ever been to Cordill, there's not much there, and so getting a Chick-fil-A was like getting Disneyland in Cordill. So it was a good thing. But with that it was always busy and if you ever travel to the beach you pass right by Exit 101. So we would get a lot of spring breakers. We would get like there would be moments where we'd be working and there would be like buses pull into the parking lot and it was always a grand time working at the Chick-fil-A on Fridays and Saturdays. And I remember when I first got this job I was pretty excited about it because at the time, you know, my mom needed a little help with paying for some things. It was about time for me to start paying for my own gas and paying for some of the things that I wanted, and so I was kind of glad to get the job. And that's how it started right out.
Speaker 1:You know, when you get your first job you're excited, but then you start actually having to work and you start going there all the time and you're doing things Right, and so I remember working there and at the beginning they had me in the front of house, right. So if you know Chick-fil-A, you got your people out front and then you have your people in the kitchen and over time they eventually they sent me to the back of the kitchen. So I don't know what that was about or why they did that, but eventually I was in the kitchen and that's when, like, you really had to work. You know, when you work in the front, you know the saying was if you're leaning, you need to be cleaning, right, if you're hanging out, you need to be cleaning. And that was really the extent of the work that you did out there, other than getting people their food and things like that. But working in the kitchen is a whole different story, and so it got really tough for me just work wise when I would start picking up shifts where I would work in the mornings, and so that's what my shift usually or ended up being. So I would work the 530 to 2 or the 530 to 4 on my days where I didn't have class, and some days when I did have class I'd get off at 4 and then I'd go to class at like 5 or 6 in the evening time. And I remember there would be mornings where we would have people sitting in the drive-thru waiting for us to open.
Speaker 1:And I grew to hate Chick-fil-A I will say I grew, I did not enjoy it very long so there would be also these moments where I'd be working the the breakfast line by myself and I had a lady behind me. Her name was Chiquita and she did the biscuits. So she made biscuits every morning, and what you did not want to happen she was my manager for the the morning shift. I did not want her to have to come help me, because if she had to come help me there was gonna be a heck to pay, to say the least, and so I didn't want to get her away from making biscuits because then that would put us behind. But there were some mornings where she had to come help me, and you know those cold sweats you get when you're like, no, you need to be doing better at something than what you are. That's how I felt a lot of those mornings, and over time I grew really, really frustrated working there, and I'll share one more little moment or story that I had from my time at Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 1:So one of the ways I would get out of like being at the store is if they would come in the back and they say, hey, does anybody want to be the cow? And I'd be like, yeah, I'll be the cow, all right. So but the thing is, if you don't notice already, I'm not a very big person, so the the male cow is fit for normal sized humans. So I couldn't fit in that. I'd be like, just give me the girl cow. And actually I have a picture of me as y'all can't really see, but I'm the girl cow. What this is is, in Cordill was the Cougar walk on Friday nights, and you know they love to do their marketing things like that, and that's me as the the girl cow. I was on the sidelines throwing footballs into the stadiums and things like that.
Speaker 1:But that was my first job. I worked at Chick-fil-A and it had its ups and downs, but I will say I grew to not like it that much and and so we all maybe have those jobs or maybe you're in that job where maybe you get eventually tired of going to work and my mindset about how I approach work probably wasn't the best right. I would ask the question like does this matter? Like I'm only getting paid eight bucks an hour. This is not like I'm sweating like crazy there. There would be moments where I'd be like man. Should I just call in? Today I got I got a little headache. I think that's enough to call in right, and so naturally, like I would reflect this attitude right when I would go to work.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I would reflect this already kind of like not super positive attitude. There are a few different ways that I would do that, and the first one is when you think of that first job, like you're excited and you're grateful for it. Well, over time I was not very grateful for it, even though it was a blessing for me at that time in my life. There would be moments where, like Chiquita would come and get on to me, I'd get aggravated, I'd be real aggravated and she had to write to get on to me because I wouldn't do my job.
Speaker 1:I'd be aggravated, and the worst one I think that that we can get in any part of life or any work that we're doing, is apathy, to be apathetic, to just be like this doesn't matter, this isn't important, this is just working at Chick-fil-A on exit 101 and little Cordial, georgia, right, and so that was my first job and and that's how I viewed work at times and and there have been other moments where I've had other jobs that maybe I didn't enjoy that much and I had the same kind of attitude and the question that we should think on is how do I currently view my work, as we're on Labor Day weekend and where I know some of y'all like tomorrow, you're like man, I'm glad I don't have to go to work tomorrow. Right, we're gonna talk a little bit about, maybe when you go back, maybe, how we can view it, and I think there's two statements of truth in relation to that question that we should think on, and the first one is this how we view and think about our work directly reflects our trust of God. How we view and think about our work directly reflects our trust of God. We can hate our jobs or dislike our jobs or just not simply work, and it reflects a poor attitude of this possible gift that we've been given. That if we trust God and we say that God places us in the seats that we're in or God is guiding our steps, would that not be the same, and even the job that maybe we don't enjoy, or the days in which we don't want to go to our work or the work that we're doing that when we view and think about our job in a certain way, it reflects how we trust our God and where he's leading us and where he's guiding us and it's not only like a negative thing but maybe like you don't rest, like with your work right, like you work, work, work, work, work, you go, go, go. And maybe like that also reflects your trust of God, where you are a control freak and you feel like you've got to be always working, you've always got to be going, and that desire of control can become God's. We can become God's of our own life and our job, and so how we think and and view our work reflects it reflects the people, our trust of God. We can feel as though are like I've mentioned with my job at Chick-fil-A, that our jobs do not matter and our work like in a manner that's lazy. And when I think about Jesus, that man was not lazy you. He walked everywhere he was going, he had a purpose, he had a mission.
Speaker 1:I remember when I was at Chick-fil-A that Mary Beth McNeil was the owner and one time I was just kind of like haphazardly doing things. She came up to me and she said, blake, how you think Jesus walked? I was like I don't know. And she was like with a purpose, you need to be doing stuff with a purpose. And so how we work and how we view our work reflects our trust of God. Each attitude here. It reflects a trust of our own value, of our jobs, rather than a value based upon our gratefulness for what God has given us.
Speaker 1:And so I said there's two statements of truth that go with that. The second one is this how we view and think about our work has a direct impact on how we carry ourselves as we do our work. I think that's one of the most important ones. That was, christians and as followers of Jesus, we're called to be these separated people that we're called to like live boldly. We're called to be set apart. We're called to reflect Jesus. We're called to live a life that looks differently and how we view and think about our work Like at the time, you know, I would tell people I'm a Christian, but I would come in and be like apathetic and just kind of like whatever about it. But Jesus calls us to be different.
Speaker 1:Ephesians 6-7,. It says this work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people, which that's hard, because sometimes the people that we work with we don't necessarily enjoy being around them. But what we're called to do is work with this enthusiasm, a calling to be set apart, is this calling to be different? Proverbs 15-13,. It says this a happy heart makes the face cheerful. A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. These two statements of truth, they kind of like, give us this like new way of thinking about things. How we view and think about our work directly reflects how we trust God, and rather we trust that God has placed us in the position that we're in for a reason. And also, if we have that trust of God, we then live that out, we show people grace, we show people love and we live and work in a manner that's like people should say man, those Christians work hard because they have a reason behind why they're working, why they're doing what they're doing.
Speaker 1:There's an author and a pastor named John Mark Comer, and he has a quote about work that is really good. It says this our job is to make the invisible God visible, to mirror and mimic what he is like to the world. We can glorify God by doing our work in such a way that we make the invisible God visible by what we do and how we do it. And so our work matters, even if you're the Chick-fil-A cow Like our work matters. What we're called to do matters. How we live our lives matter as we're doing our work.
Speaker 1:So the question is this the how. How are we able to have a differing view on our work? How do we shift our mindset on those days where we are just not feeling it? Ideally, we should ask the question of how does God view my work? And maybe how can I change my viewpoint on work. And this morning I just wanna go over five simple thoughts and ideas on how God views our work and look at some scripture in our worship guide. We have an outline in the back that you can fill in those blanks, but I just wanna work through these very quickly as we go into Labor Day and then we go back to work. Maybe we can put these things into practice, and this is for myself as well.
Speaker 1:And the first one is this labor is not punishment, it's God's choice. Labor is not punishment, it's God's choice. It was by and it was through work that we see God in action and Genesis 1. The very first time in the scriptures that we see God doing something. He's working, he's working. Our scripture reading this morning was God created and God was moving and God separated and God called and God made and God gathered and God placed and God blessed and God worked. And that word worked is a word, it's ad-ovah, and we'll get to that in a little bit. And this is how I know that God was working.
Speaker 1:In Genesis 2, we see that God rests by the seventh day. God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day he rested from all his work. I'll tell you, some of the best naps that I ever had was after I worked the Frey machine at Chick-fil-A for several hours. Right when you're working, we know that God was working because he was resting after he worked. And so labor is not this punishment, it's something that we're given. It's God's choice, it's his design that if we are made in the image of God and we've been made like God, we are called to reflect God and we do that in our work. So the first idea I want you to think about this morning is on those Monday mornings when it feels like you don't want to go to work and it's like punishment. It was God's choice to allow us to work. And the second idea is this Labor is not accidental, it is God's design. This is kind of similar. In that way, labor is not accidental. It's in God's design.
Speaker 1:From the initial moments of God and his dealing with humanity in Eden we see a design of work. We see work given to humanity In Genesis 2, 15,. It says this the Lord God took the man and he put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it. To work it and to take care of it. This is God's directive and design, so that we see in the first point, where God is giving us creation and he's created us and we reflect that in that work and he worked. He also gives this to Adam. By this in creation, we're given three opportunities in our work and you can kind of write little notes if you want to by these.
Speaker 1:But the first one is dignity. We're given this opportunity to be proud of our work because of what we believe about Jesus and how we do our work and we can have a dignifying way that we do our work. Adam was called to take care of the garden and to have dignity in that. The second is we're called to have a responsibility in our work. Right, you know, he's given him the garden to work and to take care of it. It wasn't just something that was gonna happen, but Adam has given that.
Speaker 1:And the last one is accomplishment To accomplish great work because God has assigned us to it. That goes back to that idea of like how we view our work or reflect how we trust our God, that if we really believe we're called to be where we are at because God has placed us there, then we'll want to have dignity, we'll want to have responsibility and we'll want to accomplish great things, not because we're looking at ourselves or pointing ourselves, but we can say I do my work and I do the things that I'm called to do because I've been given this seat by God and I'm not doing this for self, but I'm doing this because this is by God's design and so we've been called to do this work. Labor is not punishment. It's God's choice. Labor is not accidental. It is God's design. And the third is this God does not view my work as insignificant. God does not view my work as insignificant. I serve other people and their needs. I serve other people and their needs.
Speaker 1:There were a lot of moments where I've worked jobs where I felt like my work was insignificant. The second job, one of the other jobs. I had the second job actually in college. I worked at Dugs Deli in Rome, georgia. I don't know if you've ever been there. They've got great sandwiches, so if you haven't been, but my first like little bit working there, I was the dish boy. I worked in the back and they would bring the dishes back and I would wash the dishes right. And there were many moments where I was like this does not feel like I'm very important at all, I'm just the guy in the back washing dishes and my hands would get pruney, I would be covered in dish water and it was just not a great time, a lot of the times.
Speaker 1:And as I began to like kind of think about my work and think about what I was called to do in my life, like I began to, this was when I began to kind of shift like how I do my work, because if you're doing a hard job like that, you have to have some kind of particular mindset about it or it's gonna be miserable. And this is when I began to kind of think about like what has God called me to do, even as I am like the dish boy, and so God does not view our work as insignificant. We serve other people and their needs, and I was really serving the restaurant because if we don't got clean dishes, it don't run right. And so for you maybe you have a job where you do not feel significant at all. You don't feel important. You are serving other people and their needs. You're doing something that is helping somebody and if you're not, there are people there in that place that are an opportunity for you to love on. Right.
Speaker 1:Our workplace, for many of us, is where we spend more time than anywhere else, right, whether you hate it or not, when we view our work as insignificant, we miss the opportunity of what it is. Think about it. When we see it as insignificant, we miss the opportunity of what it is An opportunity to reflect what we see in Jesus, someone who lived with purpose, someone who loved the outcast, somebody who was there for those that needed grace and love and mercy. Maybe there's people at your workplace that they don't have a lot of friends or they don't have a lot of people that are there for them. That is that opportunity to love on them. We get to reflect his grace and love to those that we are working alongside. And so when we view our work as insignificant, it becomes this obligation. And what if we did not view our work as an obligation but as an opportunity? Right, being able to follow Jesus in all moments of life allows obligation to become opportunities, even in the work that sometimes maybe we don't enjoy.
Speaker 1:First Corinthians, 3.9. That says this we are God's fellow workers. We are God's fellow workers. We're working alongside God in this world, as it was his design, as it's not a punishment, as he worked and as he gave responsibility in the garden to show us work. We have also been called to do the same, and so, even if you view your work as insignificant, god does not. There is an opportunity in it to serve other people and their needs. And fourth idea this morning is I must seek to practice a godly work style.
Speaker 1:Second Timothy 2.15. It says this do your best to win God's approval as a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed and who teaches only the true message. So I mentioned that word earlier out of all. So it says here in second Timothy it talks about this idea of like do your best to win God's approval as a worker. And the way that we do that. Again, it goes back to this continual attitude that we have.
Speaker 1:What you see throughout the scriptures, is this word out of all right in the Old Testament, and it's a word for work, but it's also a word for worship, and it's used interchangeably all the time, because, in the mindset of those that they were writing the scriptures, the view of work was also this view of worship, because they were one and the same that the work that is given is also an opportunity to worship, because, viewing God as the one who gives us our work, and so, as we are working, we are called to do this out of all. We're called to work and we're called to worship. We do not just come to church and worship, and we do not just worship in Christian settings, but, as we are doing all things, we are called to worship. Joshua 24.15 it says but as for me and my household, we will out of all, we will serve, we will work and we will do things with the Lord. That verse, it brings us so much purpose because that is what we are called to do. We are called to live out this out of all, and so I must seek to practice a godly work style, and that goes back to that dignity, it goes back to that responsibility. It goes back to that accomplishment that as we are doing our work, we are reminded of that word.
Speaker 1:I hope that maybe this week that you, maybe you'd write that word down. It's A-D-O-V-A-H. And it's this idea that we are working but we are also worshiping, right, that we are participating in worship as we work and as we are seeking to live out this godly work style. That is how we do it. We don't view work as just work, but it's a, it's a view and a way to do it as worship. And the last kind of idea this morning, point five, is when I do God's work, god's way, I can trust him for his results.
Speaker 1:A great passage that reflects this is Colossians 3, 23 through 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 is the Lord Christ you are serving. And this I want to think for a moment on this idea really quickly of there's two sides of work, and I mentioned that earlier and a lot of times. Maybe it's a negative side of how we view our work and maybe we don't enjoy it, but then there's also the side where maybe we enjoy our work, but we enjoy our work a little too much and that we think that it gives us our purpose and that we, we are like in control of it and we're putting in ours and we're trying to climb the ladder and we're trying to do everything that we can to gain, gain, gain, gain, gain. And in that you are also reflecting how much you trust God, because if you feel like you have to work and work and work and gain and gain and gain, whose power are you doing that in your own? You're doing it for yourself. And so when we do God's work, god's way, we can trust him for the results and that gives us room for rest, right moments. That as we're doing our work, that we can find trust and rest. The greatest form of trust is allowing ourselves to rest aside from our work. That our work isn't everything and that our work allows us to rest. That when we do it with all our hearts, as we're working for the Lord, not for others, we can trust that God will take care of it.
Speaker 1:There's a great quote by a scholar is a Jewish scholar, abraham Hushal, and he wrote a book called the Sabbath, and he talks about rest. The Sabbath is a reminder of the two worlds this world and the world to come, the example it is an example of both worlds for the Sabbath, for rest is joy, holiness and rest. Joy is part of this world, holiness and rest or something of the world to come. And so when we have this opportunity to rest from our work, we have an opportunity to participate on earth as it is in heaven, and get this rest. And so, no matter what place you're at on the spectrum of how you view your work, maybe you don't enjoy it, or maybe you enjoy it to the point of where you are just obsessed with it there is this calling for us to trust God with our work, to a point where we can do it with purpose, but not purpose that get like makes us feel like we have to like gain something. And we can also find rest in our work, trusting that we don't have to be in control.
Speaker 1:And so, as we close this morning, I just have a few questions of like maybe application or you to think on as we move into Labor Day and as you rest tomorrow, maybe think about these things. Right, how do you view your work? This is an ultimate kind of question we're thinking about this morning how do you view your work? What do you think of it? Maybe you want to jot that down, I don't know. There are times when I like I mentioned when I was working I did not enjoy it.
Speaker 1:In what ways can you approach your work differently? I think there's five ideas we talked about this morning. Maybe give a framework of that, like how can maybe we view our work differently? Do you see your work as about all being one and the same as worship of God? Do you see that? Do you see your work as Avodah? And I want to leave you with this, this passage, this is a the great Shema and it's a calling to hear what God is saying in the scriptures and as we think about our work in this passage, I think that it can guide us that, no matter where we're at in our work, that it can guide us and what we're called to be as followers of Jesus and worshipers of God.
Speaker 1:Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5 Hero, israel, the Lord, our God, is one. You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. If you can apply that and hear that to your work. You can't go wrong. If you can apply those words, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength to your work. You cannot go wrong.
Speaker 1:And so, this morning, how do you view your work?
Speaker 1:What do you think of it? How you do your work, right, where, whatever you're doing, wherever you're at. So let's pray this morning as we think on that. Your God, thank you for your love and your mercy. I just pray that we would view our work as something that you've given us as a gift to Steward and a gift to live out your purpose and the mission that you've given us as followers of Jesus, to show your love and your Grace to the world. I pray that we would truly trust when you're guiding us, god, and even in those moments where maybe our jobs are not enjoyable, but that we would, we'd lean into that.
Speaker 1:Thank you for this morning. Thank you for an opportunity to gather together to worship and to hear from what you have to teach us. That's in Jesus name. I pray amen. Thank you for listening to the Dalton first United Methodist Church podcast. If today's sermon resonated with you, we encourage you to share it with someone who might benefit from the message. Join us for worship and stay connected at Dalton fumccom. God bless and see you next week.