Lesson 1: God Gives Work

A. INTRODUCTION

1. Work, some people love it, others hate it, but most people need work to pay the bills.

2. Work, some can’t wait for the closing whistle, or they live for retirement, while others joyfully put in extra hours without extra pay because they love what they do.

3. The first person in the Bible to work is God. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Then, “God ended His work which He had done” (Gen. 2:2).

4. Because we are made in the image of God, why shouldn’t we work?

5. Look at your job – or work – as an acquired duty, because you are made in God’s image.

6. God has a plan for where you work, how you work, and what your job will accomplish in your life, as well as the lives of others.

7. You had no control over the choice of your parents, but you do have a choice over the quality of your work. “We are God’s fellow workers” (1 Cor. 3:9).

8. Your work expresses who you are, and the quality of your work reflects your character. So pray that God will lead you to a job where your talents can be used.

B. GOD GIVES US WORK FOR SEVERAL REASONS

1. So we can make a contribution to society in general and to our family specifically.

2. Work provides challenges, discipline, and growth.

3. Work molds us into better citizens, better members of our family and better servants of God.

4. Because of your Christian duty. If you are a Christian, you ought to work harder and better. “If it’s Christian, it ought to be better.” -Jerry Falwell Sr.

5. God uses work to make us do things we don’t want to do, and we grow in maturity.

6. Work shapes us into the finished sculpture that God wants us to become.

Charles “Tremendous” Jones said, “All you will be five years from now is a result of the people you meet and the books you read.”

7. Meeting people at work will grow your character.

8. It is better for God to give you work than to give you money. You will enjoy your possessions much more.

C. WORK IS GOD’S GIFT TO US

From the beginning, God intended to partner with us by working together with us in the lush paradise of the Garden of Eden. “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man who He had formed . . . to tend and keep it” (Gen. 2:8-15).

1. Through work we can serve people. “Serve one another” (Gal. 5:13).

2. Through work we meet our own needs. “If any will not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thess. 3:10).

3. Through work we meet our family’s needs. “If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1Tim. 5:8).

4. Through work we earn money to give to others. “Rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need” (Eph. 4:28).

D. SIN-TAINTED WORK

1. Man was separated from God because of his sin. As a result, he experienced fear, guilt, shame, and ultimately death. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

“Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:17-19).

2. Work existed before sin and before the curse. The curse did not create work; but made it more difficult and frustrating.

3. The curse was placed on the ground, not on work.

4. The result of man’s fall into sin: droughts, floods, devastating weather and devouring insects.

5. A much worse curse would be to have no work to do, i.e., inner city.

6. Another result of sin was that work became inherently imperfect.

7. We now work in settings (our culture) that are imperfect.

8. A certain frustration was introduced to earthly work. “Creation was subjected to frustration” (Rom. 8:20, ELT).

“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun” (Ecc. 2:11).