From RBC Ministries' Discover The Word Series:

Improving Our Work Ethics
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What Motives You ?
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Working In A Way That's Commendable
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PURPOSE: To help Christian workers understand that there is significance in their labor.

Do you enjoy your work?

We sometimes think that other people have dream jobs and that work for them is a constant delight, but that is seldom the case.

Paderewski was one of the most diligent concert pianists about practicing. He once played before Queen Victoria. She said, "Mr. Paderewski, you are a genius." He replied, "That may well be, but before I was a genius, I was a drudge."
It’s not what we do, but the attitude with which we do it that can make a difference in our jobs.
In Ephesians 6:5-8, Paul gives Christians a new way to look at their jobs.

I. Your job is a calling.
Studs Terkel, in his book Working, reminds folks that most people find their jobs confining and stifling. He illustrates that with Nora Watson, an editor, who put her concern this way: "I think most of us are looking for a calling, not a job. Most of us, like the assembly line worker, have jobs that are too small for our spirit, jobs that are not big enough for people."
What is a calling?
A calling is a place in which we sense we are doing the will of God.
In the film Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell remarks, "When I run, I feel His pleasure."

II. Think of your job as service rendered to Jesus Christ.
Look again at Ephesians 6:5-8 and look at the attitude that comes when you are serving Jesus Christ on the job.
We do our work as sacred service with fear and trembling (with reverence and awe, with respect and trembling) (v.5). We fear and tremble before whom?
We do our work in sincerity of heart (v.5).
We do our work with integrity, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ (v.6).
What picture comes to mind when you think of "eye-service"? Paul coins this word.
We do it with goodwill, a good spirit (v.7).
We do it with goodness (v.8).
You do good for your employer, you do good for those who get your product, you do good for those around you by the way you work.

Working For A Boss Who's Always Around

From RBC Ministries' Discover The Word Series:

Working For A Boss Who's Always Around
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PURPOSE: To help listeners see the dignity in their work.

There was a factory in England where the workers pushed their wheelbarrows, except for one slow worker: he pulled his wheelbarrow. A visitor asked the foreman why this man was so different from the others. "Oh, him!? He hates the sight of the bloomin' thing!"

Do you think many people feel what that worker felt about his job?
What are the consequences of being in a job you hate?
It’s a tragedy when you spend the greater part of your life doing something you despise.
It affects your family, your attitude toward recreation, free time, etc.
What are some of the changes Christians can make as they look at their job?

I. If you can’t change your job, you can change your attitude.
Paul demonstrates this in Ephesians 6:5-8.
You can understand that your job is the will of God for you: ". . . doing the will of God from the heart."
What difference does that make?

II. Realize that on the job you serve Jesus Christ.
Look at what Paul writes to Christian slaves and masters.
Look at the way the workers and the owners are to think about what they do.
Whom are they serving?
What is the vision of God in this passage? Jesus Christ is your employer.
In the passage, what difference should it make if you know that when you’re doing your work, you’re really doing it for your Lord or Master, Jesus Christ?

III. Do you think the church has really underlined this truth for workers?
For example, if you think of a carpenter or plumber or housewife going to church, what do they hear about their Christian duty?
What should we have told these people?
If in the work we do, we fail to do it up to its own standard, the work becomes a living lie.

Your Attitude and Your Job

From RBC Ministries' Discover The Word Series:

Your Attitude and Your Job
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Investing Your Life
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Looking at Your Job From God's Perspective
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Viewing Your Job As A Service To God
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PURPOSE: To help people evaluate the kind of work they do.

Did you ever have a call to ministry?
Do you believe that what you’re doing today is really doing God’s will? Why?
What do you mean by saying "a call"?

I. Every Christian needs to consider God’s call in their lives.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to consider becoming a pastor or a missionary. It does mean that you need to think seriously about how you invest your life.
Paul wrote to slaves in the Roman Empire and said, "Your job is the will of God for you." It’s always important to ask two things about a biblical passage:
In what ways are we like the people Paul is addressing?
In what ways do we differ from the people Paul is addressing?
How does a worker today differ from a slave in the first century?

II. The choices of a slave were limited. Ours may be much more varied.
We have a responsibility to think about the work we do. Where we have a choice, we have a responsibility.
What is the responsibility we have?
How do you go about making the choice for a career or for new employment opportunities?
Is the amount of money you make a legitimate criterion?
Is it the only one?
What makes your job the will of God for you?

Your Work Is A Sacred Service To God

From RBC Ministries' Discover The Word
You Work Is A Sacred Service To God
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'Sacred Work' and 'Secular Work'
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PURPOSE: To help people realize that secular work is as significant to God as religious work.

Have you ever heard of the "bull’s-eye" theory of the will of God? Who would most religious people put in the center?
Basic to that whole concept is that we think of some occupations as being more central to God’s purposes than others.

I. People who have a bull’s-eye theory of the will of God might be upset by what Paul writes to slaves who lived in Ephesus (Ephesians 6:5-9).
Paul tells slaves that they are to do the will of God from the heart. When he talks about doing the will of God from the heart, what is it that he is referring to? Is it their work at the church?
He’s referring to their daily work. Does he imply that they were several points off-center?

II. The idea that only religious workers are in the center of God’s will was a heresy in the early church. It was called Docetism.
The heresy maintained that there was a distinct difference between the body and the spirit. They maintained that Christ was not a real human being who actually suffered and died on a cross, but who only seemed to do so. They could not believe that God would have anything to do with what is human. They denied the incarnation.
In wider terms, that led people to believe that God was concerned about the sacred, but not at all concerned about the secular. It was part of a Gnostic heresy.

III. The Church condemned the heresy.
The early church affirmed the incarnation of Jesus, that He really became a human being.
When you say that Jesus is human, what do you actually mean by that?
In affirming the incarnation of Jesus, they were saying that He is both human and divine.
In the wider realm, they were saying that there is not a difference between the sacred and the secular. There is not one realm in which we are more pleasing to God than in another realm. That is why Paul could say to slaves, "your job is the will of God for you."

What The Bible Has To Say About Work

From RBC Ministries's Discover The Word:
What The Bible Has To Say About Work
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IDEA: We can find significance in work if we realize that our jobs are the will of God for us.

TEXT: "Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him" (Ephesians 6:5-9).

PURPOSE: To help listeners feel the significance of their daily work.

We sometimes talk about "making a living." What is implied in that?
Is it possible to be glad you have a job but not see much significance in the job you have? For example, in a recession, people who get laid off are usually glad for any work they can get.

I. It is sometimes helpful to start with hard cases to establish principles.
Do you think it would be difficult to convince a physician or a nurse that their jobs are significant?
Do you think it would be more difficult to convince people flipping burgers in a fast food restaurant that their work is significant? Why?

II. When Paul talked about the significance of work for Christians, he made his strongest case when he wrote to slaves.
What do you know about slaves in the first century?
There were abut 60 million of them in the Roman Empire.
Roman citizens felt that work was beneath their dignity, so they turned most work over to slaves.
Slaves did all kinds of work: they served as teachers, scribes, physicians, manual laborers, farmers; they were also the garbage disposal system.
Slaves had no rights before the law. Aristotle referred to them as "living tools." He argued that a free man would not have a slave as a friend any more than he would make a friend out of a hammer or a saw.
The lot of the slave was not an easy one in the Roman society. Even though they did important work, they were still slaves.

III. Several times in the New Testament, Paul writes directly to slaves and gives them significance in their daily work.
Paul writes that "your job is the will of God for you."
When you think of the will of God, what does that mean?
If God had a missionary map in heaven, where do you think He would put the pins or markers? Why?
How does thinking about your job as "the will of God" give it significance?

How Can I Find Satisfaction in My Work ?

From RBC Ministries' Discovery Series How Can I Find Satisfaction In My Work? :

Is there any way that I can find significance in a job that seems to be going nowhere? What if I feel overworked and underappreciated? Do I care too much or not enough about my job? What does God think about my work? Does my job really matter to Him?

These are the kinds of issues that staff writer Kurt De Haan addresses in this booklet. As you read these pages, you will be encouraged by what the Bible has to say about work and your attitude toward it.