Survivor Of The Work Place Series

HOW TO SURVIVE THE WORK PLACE

How To Be A Survivor - Part 6

Titus 3:14 (GN), Ephesians 2:10 (LB)

Jeff Seaman

You will spend approximately forty percent of your life at work, your job—about 150,000 hours. Surveys show that about one-third of Americans say “I hate my job.” Other surveys show that nearly two-thirds of Americans are in the wrong job. Even many people who are successful at work really don’t feel very fulfilled by their work. They are making money, they have a lot of income, but they don’t really feel fulfilled by their work.

I am here to tell you this morning that God wants you to be a survivor, but more that a survivor, he wants you to be an over-comer, He wants you to be victorious and to thrive in the work place.

We’ve been looking at How To Be A Survivor. If you are going to have significance in the work place, you must see your work as God see it. Today, I want us to look at using your work as a ministry. YOU ARE IN THE GREATEST MISSION FIELD OF YOUR LIFE!

The Bible says in Titus 3:14 "Our people must learn to spend their time doing good, and providing for real needs. They should not live useless lives." When it says "our people", who’s it talking about? Christians. If you’re a believer, the way you approach your work should be totally different from the way everybody else approaches their work normally. For a Christian there are two purposes behind work. One, do good. That’s called ministry. Two, provide for real needs. That’s called productivity. God wants you to be productive in your work and He wants you to minister through your work. It says "they should not live useless lives."

When I think of useless, I think of the cartoon character Dilbert. This last year, one of the top ten best selling books in America was The Dilbert Principle, a collection of Dilbert cartoons. It’s about a guy who works in an office who is basically useless. The book contains wisdom on topics such as Humiliating Your Subordinates, Disparaging Your Co-Workers, Taking Credit For the Work of Others, Exaggerating Your Talents, Using the Computer to Look Busy, Using Sarcasm to Get Your Way.

What makes Dilbert cartoons so funny is that they really are the truth about a lot of work places. Many people in many work places are basically just marking time. They’re just watching the clock, waiting for the day to get over so they can go home. They don’t love their work, they don’t enjoy their work, they certainly don’t produce anything. They’re just marking time.

On the other hand, there’s another book called The Bible. The Bible says that in your work, God doesn’t want you to mark time, He wants you to mark lives. He wants you to make an impact with your lives. He wants you to influence people for good.

Eph. 2:10 "God gave us new lives from Christ, and long ago He planned that we should spend these lives in helping others." That’s called ministry. We are saved to serve. We are made for

ministry. No matter what kind of work you do -- sales, management, self﷓ employed, service industry, education industry, working in your home, working out of your home, whatever. The Bible says God wants you to use your work to help other people. That’s called ministry.

One of the most basic truths in the Bible is: I serve God by serving others.

HOW CAN MY WORK BE A MINISTRY?

Corinthians says, I Cor. 16:14 "Do all your work in love." That’s the key. The key to turning your work into a ministry is not what you do, it’s how you do it. Mother Teresa once said, It’s not the kind of work that you do, but how much love you put into it that matters." I Corinthians 13 tells us that "I may accomplish all kinds of things but if I don’t do it in love, it’s worthless." In God’s book it doesn’t count. God wants you to work in love. When you do your work with an attitude of love God says it turns just normal, menial work, regardless of what it is, into ministry.

How can I work in love? Three practical ways the Bible teaches. SOME SAY THAT THEY CAN’T SARE CHRIST THEY WONT LET YOU, WELL THERE IS NO LAW AGAINST LOVE!

1. The first has to do with the co-workers, clients, customers you work with or anybody you see on a regular basis in your work. ACCEPT PEOPLE UNCONDITIONALLY.

Every week you spend about forty hours side by side with all kinds of weird people with hurts and hang ups and all kinds of problems in their lives, habits that you don’t like. There are the obnoxious people you work with. There are the difficult people you work with. The prideful people, the immoral people, the angry people, the lazy people. All of these people you have to work with on a regular basis. We’re all of different sizes and shapes and different hang ups in our lives. How does God want me to react to those difficult people I work with?