John Ortberg tells an old story about a mother who walks in on her six-year-old son and finds him sobbing.
“What's the matter?” she asks.
”I've just figured out how to tie my shoes.”
“Well, honey, that's wonderful. You're growing up, but why are you crying?”
“Because,” he says, “now I'll have to do it every day for the rest of my life” (John Ortberg, Leadership, Vol. 14, no. 3; www. PreachingToday.com).
Sometimes, just the thought of tying your shoes every day can seem exhausting. The daily chores of life can wear you down. Your work can sap the joy out of life. But that’s not what God intended for your work. He designed it to be a fulfilling opportunity to glorify Him. He wants you to find joy in your labor.
So, how can you enjoy God-honoring, fulfilling work, no matter your profession? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 31, Exodus 31, where God invites skilled craftsmen to participate in building His tent, designed to bring Him glory.
Exodus 31:1-11 The LORD said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent, the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin and its stand, and the finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do” (ESV).
Notice, these men are not priests, not even from the priestly tribe of Levi. Bezalel is from the tribe of Judah, and Oholiab is from the tribe of Dan. You see, God wants to use skilled laborers, besides the priests, to bring Him glory in this world. That means you and you and you, no matter what your profession. God calls YOU to use your gifts and abilities to accomplish His glorious plan for this world.
Forty years ago (1984), Steve Bell began building cabinets in his garage. Those humble beginnings have grown over the decades into Bellmont Cabinet Co., an award-winning manufacturing company specializing in the minimalist “frameless” cabinet, of which Steve was one of the first pioneers.
But Steve has pioneered more than just cabinetry—he is redefining the workplace and what it means to be a working Christian. “Growing up, there was this sense that if you’re really called to faith, then you're going to go into ‘the real Christian work’ of full-time Christian service. Everything else was basically a compromise,” says Steve. His parents were disappointed that he didn't want to follow in his father's footsteps into pastoral ministry.
One day in college, he was reading RG LeTourneau's Mover of Men and Mountains. LeTourneau experienced success in his business, so he asked his pastor, “Do you think I should sell my business and become a missionary?”
The pastor said, “Bob, God needs businessmen as much as he needs pastors and teachers and missionaries.”
LeTourneau went on to become one of the great industrialists of the World War II era. Steve also realized that his desires for the business and manufacturing sector were a conviction from the Lord.
Steve said: “I think we've got generations of people growing up in the church who don't understand the importance of their work… God doesn't just love the cabinet maker; he loves good cabinets too. He actually loves the work that we do. I’ve got over 300 employees here that go out every day to make something that’s beautiful. And God loves beauty.”
Steve says, “This 200,000-square-foot facility with these 300 employees—this is my ministry… We want everybody that touches Bellmont to see Christ reflected in the way we do our business” (Brent Burdick, “Inside a Cabinet Maker’s Ministry,” Lausanne blog, Accessed 1/29/24; www.PreachingToday.com).
Whether you’re building tabernacles or tables, God wants your work to be a beautiful reflection of Christ. But in order for that you happen, you must…
WORK IN HIS POWER.
Labor in the strength He provides. Operate in His might, not your own.
In verse 2, God says, “I have filled Him with my Spirit, and I have filled Him with ability,” i.e., the skills to do the job. So to work in God’s power, energized for fulfilling work…
Do your work, 1st of all, in dependence upon God’s Holy Spirit. Do your work under the Spirit’s influence and control. Every day, just ask God to fill you with His Spirit so you can accomplish the task He’s called you to do.
Author Lillian Guild tells an amusing story of a time when she and her husband were driving along and happened to notice a late-model Cadillac with its hood up, parked at the side of the road. Its driver appeared somewhat perplexed and agitated.
Mrs. Guild and her husband pulled over to see if they could help. The stranded driver somewhat sheepishly explained that he had known when he left home that he was rather low on fuel, but he had been in a great hurry to get to an important business meeting, so he had not taken time to fill up his tank. The Cadillac needed nothing more than refueling. The Guilds happened to have a spare gallon of fuel with them, so they emptied it into the thirsty Cadillac, and told the other driver of a service station a few miles down the road. Thanking them profusely, he sped off.
Twelve miles or so later, they saw the same car, hood up, stranded at the side of the road. The same driver, even more agitated, was pathetically grateful when they pulled over again. You guessed it: he was in such a hurry for his business meeting that he had decided to skip the service station and press on in the dim hope that the gallon he had received would take him to his destination (D.A. Carson, Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Baker Academic. 2015, pp. 111-112; www. PreachingToday.com).
Trying to do your work without the Holy Spirit is like trying to drive your car without fuel. Don’t be in such a hurry to do the next thing that you forget to fuel up with God’s Holy Spirit. Just stop every once in a while, and ask God to fill you with His Spirit. Do your work in dependence upon God’s Holy Spirit, who will energize you to accomplish God’s will.
Then do your work with the abilities God has given you. Work in the area of your God-given strengths, not your weaknesses.
In verse 6, God said of Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the skilled craftsmen they oversaw, “I have given to all men ability…” God gives different people different abilities, different gifts, different skills, by which they can work to accomplish His plan in this world. So operate in the area of your ability to enjoy God-honoring, fulfilling work.
For example, don’t ask Jim Crosby to serve in the nursery, because both he and the children will be miserable. Instead, ask Jim to serve at the front door where he can greet people with his winsome personality and dry sense of humor.
Heather Havrilesky, in her book What if This Were Enough, writes about finding meaning even in the mundane tasks of everyday life. She writes:
Mozart’s father, Leopold, viewed his son’s musical talent as a miracle given by God. He believed that it was his job to help Mozart share his miracle with the world. In Mozart’s time, composers weren’t seen as an exalted class of humans… Musicians were exactly in the same position as other household servants—cooks, chambermaids, coachmen, and sentries. They existed for the comfort and well-being of their masters and mistresses. Leopold Mozart didn’t agree. He believed that his son should be displayed “to the glory of God,” as he put it.
Mozart… was often impulsive and he thought nothing of thwarting convention. He rarely had enough money and he died young. But when you listen to his music, it’s impossible not to believe that he was a joyful and deeply satisfied human being.
Then she encourages her readers not to prioritize accumulating wealth or social media likes and friends. Instead, she says, “Imagine being told that you have been given your talent by God, and you must honor God’s will by manifesting that talent in your creations” (Heather Havrilesky, What If This Were Enough? Doubleday, 2018, Page 209; www.PreachingToday.com).
Please, believe that whatever ability you have God gave to you as a special gift. Then use that ability for His glory, whether it’s teaching, whether it’s sewing, whether it’s making cabinets. Whatever ability God has given you, use it to reflect Christ in your world.
It’s the only way to enjoy fulfilling, God-honoring work. Operate in God’s power, depending on His Spirit and utilizing His gifts in your work. Work in God’s power. Then…
REST WITH GOD’S BLESSING.
Take a day off every week. Take a weekly break from your labor. Make it a special day to enjoy the special relationship you have with the Lord.
Exodus 31:12-13 And the LORD said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you (ESV).
That I the Lord set you apart for myself, that I the Lord consider you my special people.
Exodus 31:14-17 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed’” (ESV).
More literally, He stopped and let the cool wind blow in His face. It’s not that God got tired—He’s omnipotent!—No, God never gets tired. He just ceased from His labor to appreciate what He accomplished and to pronounce it “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
And that’s what God wants for every believer. He wants you to stop every week to appreciate Him and remember that He is “very good.” It’s like a cool wind blowing in your face after working in the hot sun all day. So rest with His blessing every week as a sign of the special relationship you have with Him.
Now, in the Old Testament context, that day was Saturday, the 7th day of the week. In the New Testament, that day became Sunday, the 1st day of the week, in celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It is very clear from the Scriptures that Jesus arose from the dead on the first day of the week. Matthew 28:1 says it was “after the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week.” Literally, it was “after the week at dawn on the first of the week.” After His resurrection, Jesus established a pattern of meeting with His disciples on the first day of the week on at least four different occasions (Matt. 28:9; Luke 24:18–34; John 20:19–23, 26). And the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the church for the very first time, was also a Sunday, the first day of the week (Acts 2:1; Lev. 23:15-16).
Now, when the believers in the first century began meeting together, they met every day in the temple courts and from house to house (Acts 2:46). But by the end of the book of Acts, we see them coming together to “break bread” on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7), as well as to take up their collections (1 Corinthians 16:2).
During that time, there was a controversy in the early church about the day of worship. Some Jewish believers in Jesus wanted to keep it on Saturday. Some Gentile believers in Jesus were worshipping on Sunday. And the Jewish believers were judging the Gentile believers, accusing them of violating God’s law and not being true believers.
Well, the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, makes it very clear when he writes to a Gentile church, “Let no one pass judgment on you…with regard to…a Sabbath” (Colossians 2:16). In other words, the specific day of worship and rest is NOT the important thing to God. The important thing is that we DO set aside regular times of worship and rest. As a pastor, Saturday’s and Sunday’s are busy days for me, so I have decided to set aside Monday’s as my “day of rest.” The specific day is not important, but the principle of regular, weekly times of rest is.
You say, “Phil, I don’t have time to take a whole day off every week. I’ve got too much to do. I can’t afford it.” Well, let me tell you: “You can’t afford NOT to.” If you want to gain real perspective for your life and work, and ultimately be more productive, you can’t afford NOT to take a day off every week.
I encourage you. Give it a try over the next few months and see if you don’t gain perspective as you pattern your life after God Himself. See if you don’t find true meaning to your existence as you focus on God, who created you and all that is.
For when you take a day off, you remember that God is the sovereign creator of all, not you! However, if you keep going and going and going without ever taking a break, you have no chance to stop and appreciate your work. You have no chance to put it all in perspective. But if you take the time to stop every once in a while, you can celebrate what God has accomplished through you and enjoy life a whole lot more.
Jim Cote, in his book, Man of Influence, talks about the time when he was seven or eight. At that time, his family lived next to a boarded-up school where he and his brothers and sisters took turns pushing the merry-go-round in the playground for their friends. They'd climb on and grab the rails, and they'd run alongside as fast as they could, pushing.
The bigger kids relished the thrill of hanging out beyond the platform to experience maximum Gs. The smaller ones were taught to quit crying by slowly working toward the center pole. The closer you got, the more stability you enjoyed.
“This is an important principle,” Jim Cote says. “The faster your life goes, the more focused you must be on your center if you're to survive and thrive.” And that center should be God, but we often neglect him.
Due to the exhilaration of our ride or sheer panic from its velocity, we hang on for dear life but never catch our breath. It's time we realign our activities around the security of that perfect center, drawing closer to Him. (Jim Cote, Man of Influence, IVP, 2001) You see…
Get away from your hectic life at the circumference every once in a while. Make a conscious effort to move toward your center on a weekly basis. Otherwise, you’ll lose all perspective and end up “flying off the handle” (so to speak), destroying your life and relationships in the process.
Barbara Brown Taylor says, “Some of us have made an idol of exhaustion. The only time we know we have done enough is when we are running on empty and when the ones we love most are the ones we see the least. When we lie down to sleep at night, we offer our full appointment calendars to God in lieu of prayer, believing that God—who is as busy as we are—will surely understand. (Barbara Brown Taylor, “Divine Subtraction,” The Christian Century, 11-3-99)
No! God is NOT as busy as most of us are. He set the pattern at creation—work six days, rest one. Besides, you and I are not in charge. The universe does NOT revolve around us. It revolves around God, our Creator. He is the one who put it all together and continues to hold it all together.
God is in charge here, so you really can take a break every once in a while. Believe it or not, your world will not fall apart if you stop working for a day. In fact, you’ll find your world coming together a whole lot better as you stop to acknowledge God’s sovereign control in your life every week.
That’s what Sabbath keeping is all about—periodic stops to acknowledge God’s sovereign control over His creation. He is in charge, not you or me. So take a day off every week. Stop working one day in seven. As a result, you’ll enjoy God-honoring, fulfilling work even more during the other six days.
In fact, according to The Wall Street Journal, recent studies suggest pushing yourself at 100% all the time actually has diminishing returns. They quote an exercise physiologist, who says, “Trying to run at top speed will actually lead to slower running times. Lifting heavy weights until you absolutely can’t anymore won’t spark more muscle gain than stopping a little sooner.”
The trick—the article says—is to try for 85%. Aiming for perfection often makes us feel awful, burns us out and backfires. Instead, count the fact that you hit eight out of 10 of your targets this quarter as a win. We don’t need to see our work, health, or hobbies as binary objectives, perfected or a total failure” (Rachel Feintzeig, “Try Hard, but Not That Hard. 85% Is the Magic Number for Productivity.” The Wall Street Journal, 9-10-23, www.PreachingToday.com).
I find it very interesting that working 6 days out of 7 is 85.7% of your week. So, taking one day off in seven was God’s original 85% rule.
If you want to enjoy God-honoring, fulfilling work, then work in His power, and rest with His blessing.
I close again with this benediction from Richard Halverson, former chaplain of the United States Senate:
Wherever you go, God is sending you.
Wherever you are, God has put you there.
God has a purpose in your being right where you are.
Christ, who indwells you by the power of his Spirit,
Wants to do something in and through you.
Believe this and go in his grace, his love, his power.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
