Why Your Work Matters to God

Dorothy Sayers wrote this: “Work is to be seen not as a necessary drudgery to be undergone for the purpose of making money, but as a way of life in which the nature of man should find his proper exercise and delight, and so fulfill itself to the glory of God.  It should, in fact, be thought of as a creative activity undertaken for the love of the work itself.  And man, made in God’s image, should make things as God makes things” – how does He make them? – “for the sake of doing well a thing worth well doing.”

And now, in your notes, it says “A Theology of Work.”  I’m going to take a run at something.  Theo means God; -ology is “the study of.”  We’re going to do a study, from God’s perspective, of how He views work.

And I want to challenge you to, in your mind, one of those whiteboards, erase what you think about work right now, and say, “God, I would like You to write on the whiteboard of my mind, and then my soul, and then into my heart, how You see work.”

Because if you see work the way God sees work, it’ll change everything.  It’ll change 60 to 80 percent of the waking hours that you have.  And you’ll learn that God created work not as a punishment, but to allow you to be a co-creator, and express your unique calling and blessing.

Now, we’re going to learn, there is – it’s in a fallen world, and it’s difficult.  I’m not saying that it’s going to be easy.  But I’m going to say it can be greatly meaningful.  So, with that, let’s do a little study together.

First is, God is a Worker – Genesis 2:2-3.  Notice in your notes: “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.  Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because … He rested from all His work which [He] had created and [He had] made.”

Have you ever thought of God as a Worker?  Have you ever thought that God has a job?  God has a career.  And His career is to speak into existence all that there is, and He is working right now!  The Scripture says He upholds all thing – what? – by the word of His power.

Jesus has a job.  Do you know what Jesus is doing right now?  He’s praying for you, 24/7.  How’s it work?  I have no idea.  But He’s at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for you.

The Holy Spirit – third Person of the Godhead – He has a job.  What’s His job?  His job is to manifest the presence and the power of Christ, in the life, inside of believers, to give you grace, to impart all that you need to create, actually, the want-to, and the ability to, allow Christ to live His life through you.

And the Holy Spirit has a job description for those who are not yet in Christ.  What’s He do?  He convicts the world of sin, and righteousness, and judgment.  The Spirit of God has a job; He’s working!  So, work must not be bad.

The second observation in our theology of work is, God created people to be His coworkers.  Look at Genesis 2:15: “Then the Lord God took the man … put him [in] the Garden of Eden to [tend] it and [to] keep it.”  God made the world, and when He made the world – remember what He said?  “It is good.”  And then, God made mankind, Adam and Eve, and then He said, “It is very good.”

And then, God invites us to be coworkers – we’re made in His image – to do that which is good, that which is creative, that which brings life.  There’s a garden, but it required someone to work the Garden, in a perfect environment. From the beginning, God designed a garden that would be dependent upon a steward.  In that design, He created a job for Adam, before He created Adam himself.  Why do you think God would do this?  Adam’s and Eve’s assignments were to take the earth’s raw materials and begin nurturing, organizing, and shaping them into something useful, a creative task intended to give each of them purpose and pleasure.

“If we understand that God delighted in His creative work, and that He created human beings to share in His image and likeness, then we realize that work was a marvelous gift from God.”  Is that how you see it?  When you think of work, you think, Wow, what a marvelous gift from God!  Or do you look at work, go, Oh, man, get this done.  Get this over with?

Then we realize that it is reasonable to believe, indeed, that work was given before the Fall to meet the human need for purpose, creative expression, and that it is a need that goes far deeper than mere self-preservation.  The desire to work, then, was ignited by a divine spark that drew both Adam and Eve into creative activities.  Nothing else they could do would reflect the image of their Creator more than this for which they are called to do, each and every day, and that is to work.

And so, what I want you to get is, God is a Worker.  We are created to co-create, and work with, Him.

And then, notice, work after the Fall – Genesis 3:17-19, in your notes.  We notice that this is where there’s a shift, there’s a turn, and it gets pretty ugly.  After Adam and Eve have sinned, sin enters the world, and the sin impacted human mankind, but it also impacted creation.

The work will not be cursed – be careful with that.  The ground is cursed.  The work is still to be a co-creator with God.  The work is to have meaning, and purpose, and creativity.  But now, instead of it being all delight, and being downhill, it will always be uphill.  But you’re still made in the image of God.  Now it’s going to be in an environment of hostility and war.

Look at what the text says: “Then to Adam [God] said, ‘Because you have [heeded] the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree [of] which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat [of] it”; cursed is the ground’” – why? – “‘for your sake.  In [your] toil’” – or “work” – “‘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 [the] bread, till you return to the ground, [for out of] it you were taken; for dust [you are], and to dust you [will] return.’”

What’s happened is, work didn’t get cursed.  The ground got cursed.  And it produces – what? – frustration.

Now, by the way, this was a gift of grace.  Did you notice that little phrase?  It was “cursed for your sake.”  I don’t know about you, but I know every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights, so how does this gift of cursing the ground – where’s grace in that one?

Every single day, when we get up, and work is hard – and relationships are hard.  What’s the scientific word for it?  Entropy?  Everything is winding down.

I don’t mow my yard, and then it starts looking better every day, right? I don’t know about you, but every single day, I get uglier and uglier, and older and older, not better and better, right?  That’s why you’ve got to work out, and cream, and vitamins, and no matter what you do, it happens anyway.  But since the Fall, that’s life!

You know what that tells you?  It tells you something’s wrong.  It reminds you, every single day, relationships are hard.  Work is hard.  It’s frustrating.  It’s uphill.  It’s doable, but the Curse was given to remind mankind that this is not how it was ever intended to be.

And when do most of us turn to God, with all of our hearts, all of our souls, all of our minds, and seek Him and say, “Oh, Lord, I need You”?  Is it when everything is going great – the family relationships are wonderful, the money is pouring in, peace like a river, everything’s wonderful?  Everything’s so good that you say, “I think I’ll just – You know, I usually only pray for an hour or two.  I think I’ll pray for 10 or 12.”  I’m teasing.

You run to God, and I run to God, when pain hits, and you’re frustrated, and you don’t have answers, and when relationships break apart, and when biopsy reports come back positive, and when jobs are lost, and when retirement that you worked for, for years and years and years, drops out of sight, when the stock market drops 500 or a thousand points, when you find out that the company that you work for, and the money that you put it in – is gone, when you find out one of your kids is on drugs, when your mate of 21 or 32 years leaves a note on the refrigerator door that says, “You know what?  It’s been nice, but I don’t love you anymore,” and they’re gone. It’s in our pain, and frustration, and disappointment that we recognize, I can’t make it.  I’m not God.  I have needs.  Please help me.

The ground is cursed to provide an ongoing frustration and difficulty of doing life in your own power, where we all – What was the temptation?  “If you eat of this, you will be like God.”  The cursing of the ground is to remind you, and to remind me, you ain’t like God, at all.  You are not self-sufficient.  You are not in control.  You are not the center of the universe.  And the pain and the difficulty of a fallen world drive us back to say, “God, I need Your mercy.  I need Your forgiveness.”  And so, one of the consequences of the Fall, with regard to work, is, the ground is cursed, and our lives are frustrated.

Our response to this, in my experience, is one of two extremes.  Imagine, if you will, this idea of work, and I want you to imagine, way over here is an extreme, and then all the way over here…  And on the top of the line it says “W-O-R-K.”

And people’s responses, after the Fall, to work, is – one extreme on the far left is that work is a necessary evil.  We’ve touched on that.  In other words, work, Genesis 3, the Fall…  Unconsciously, work is bad, work is cursed.  God’s judgment is on work, instead of the ground.  It’s a necessary evil.  Find something.  Make enough money.  Get those things taken care of so you can really live.  Just get it out of the way.

So that you can have meaningful relationships, serve God, love people, care for kids and grandkids.  And you just bite your lower lip and say, “Work is a royal, royal pain, but I guess it’s because of the Fall, and I’ll just get through it.”

The other extreme, in response to the Fall, over here, is that, I will find my significance, and I will rule my world, and I will win, and work is what will make me significant.  And I’ll show you.  I’ll work harder.  I’ll work longer.  I will build bigger.  I will build better.  My life is my work.  My identity is my work –

When’s the last time, guys, you met another guy, “Hey, how you doing?”  “Well, pretty good, how are you?  So, how are the kids doing?”  “Um, how are you feeling inside?”  Is that where we go, men?  What’s one of the top two questions – you don’t know someone; we don’t know exactly what to talk about.  “Hi, how are you doing?  What do you do for a living?”  Right?  Where do we go, immediately?  Our work becomes our identity.

And then, we create an entire pecking order, right?  So, if you have a job where your hands don’t get dirty, you’re way up here, and if you have a job that creates a lot of zeros around your name, at the end of it, then you’re way up here.  Or if you have a job – even if it’s not that much money, if there are a lot of letters after your name – you know, PhD, or Th-something, or Ed-something, or MS, or MBA – well, that’s something.  And then, we have the pecking order.  But if you have a job where your hands get dirty, or you do certain things that we decide – then you’re not as significant.

So, our work becomes the value and estimation of our significance.  And every little boy, and every little girl, grows up in a world where, by and large, that’s true.

And I want to suggest that both of those extremes are unbiblical. All that goes back to a perverted, unbiblical view of work after the Fall.  God is a Worker.  It is good.  God called us to co-create, to build, to make, to shape, to subdue.  And so, it is a good thing.  But the Fall has introduced that it is going to be hard, it is going to be difficult, and that produces frustration for us, and a tendency to think it’s a necessary evil, or it’s the answer.

Fourth, work under the Lordship of Christ. Colossians 3:17… The apostle Paul says, “[In] whatever you do in word or deed” – that covers about everything – “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God through God the Father.”  So, he says here, “Wait a second, in whatever you do, in word or deed – working, talking, speaking – do it unto –  You take it, it’s sanctified, and you do it as an act of worship and service unto God.”

Many of you, maybe, have read the little booklet about Brother Lawrence, and Practicing the Presence of God.  And he was a monk, probably 400 years ago or so.  And his job, in the monastery, was to do the dishes.  And he began to write how he would offer each dish to God.  And in every moment of the day, he would pray, and honor God, and take his life as, literally, a living moment-by-moment sacrifice.

And if you’ve never read that book, that book was a little turning point.  I’d been a Christian maybe a couple of years, and so I would get up, and I would pray, and I’d read my Bible – because I was with a group where that was really important, and I’m glad.  It really helped me.

And I’d maybe memorize a verse, and then once a week I’d go to a Bible study.  And I would pray, and then I would click off, and then I’d just go do through my day.  And I could go all day and not think about God, and then, oh, before I go to bed – click­ - “Hi, God, I’m back.”  Like He went somewhere ...  And I’d pray, because you’re supposed to do that, and then I’d go to bed.

And I read that little book, and I realized I was missing about 23 and a half hours of the day.  God was with me at basketball practice, and God was with me when I walked from class to class.  And I could talk to Him anywhere, any time.

And I could be in a test, and not remember something, and say, “Lord, could You bring this back to my memory?  I’d like to do the very best I can.  I want to do my schoolwork unto You.  I don’t want to impress my teachers.  My grades are not the indication of my value, or my worth.  Lord, every moment of every day of everything, I’d like to learn how to practice Your presence.” And this is what he’s talking about here, that it changes work.  It sanctifies work.

I met a couple from a Lutheran background, and they said, “Well, we’ve been big on this for a long time.”  And Luther actually made this great statement about, if a woman is just scraping a pan, or changing a diaper, and doing it as unto the Lord, it’s just as holy as the Pope giving a speech.  It kind of got him in a little trouble in his day.

But I would rephrase it: A young mom, driving kids to school, cleaning the house, and creating an environment that is nurturing and loving, is as important to God, done unto the Lord, and will receive the same kind of reward, as any pastor, any missionary, preaching God’s Word in the most difficult places of the world.  Because when you do what you’re called to do, and when you do your work unto the Lord, it is sanctified.  It’s set apart.

And see, we, unconsciously, are always comparing ourselves with other people.  I’ve got news for you.  You know what?  This is not a party line.  God doesn’t call and get half a dozen people on the wire and say, “Hey, here’s what I’m thinking about all of you, and in about 10 years I’m going to check up and find out who’s doing best.  And then, I’m going to rank you – one, two, three, four.”

He has my number.  He’s got your number.  He has a reason to call me.  He’s got a different reason to call you.  He made me different than He made you.  He gave you a different background, different parents, different intellect, different personality, different spiritual gifts, than me, and everybody else in this room.

So, His call, and success, is, you doing what He made you and called you to do, and when you do that unto the Lord, whether it appears grandiose and outward, or whether it’s quiet and behind the scenes, then you are working unto the Lord, and it has eternal value. Think of that.
Your work is your primary area of ministry.  Have you ever thought of it that way?  What you do unto the Lord … But you discover what to do by discovering, What did God make me to do?  That’s a different question than “what I think will make me happy,” or “what will help me make the most money.”

In the last session, we’re going to talk about, if I’m His workmanship, how could I figure out, how could I discern, how He’s uniquely made me, so my life and energy – Instead of being like 75 percent of Americans, I want to be one of those people that, I get up, I can’t believe I get paid for what I do.  I lose track of time when I do it.  It seems to come easy to me, and I don’t understand it, because…  And there’s fruit; other people get blessed by it.

Often, the thing that you’re most gifted at, you can’t see, because it doesn’t even seem like anything because you were made to do it.

But, your heart can get wrapped up around what parents, or people, or teachers, or everyone else, thinks you ought and should do, but down deep in your heart you don’t like to do, you’re not made to do!  There are a lot of people, you live your whole life as a prisoner, thinking, Some day, some way…  If I were free, I would do this!  Hey, start doing it now!  Wakeup call: You’re going to die!  I’ve got final authority on this one!

All work is sacred.  All work is a calling.  All work done, whatever – You know what?  You don’t have to be famous!  It doesn’t matter if anyone in the world thinks it’s a great thing, but if there is incredible joy, and gift, and pleasure, and blessing in you doing something… Figure out what that is, and spend your life doing it.  And as you do it, then you’ve got to figure out a way to pay the bills in the process.  But that is a totally different approach in how we view work in our day.

The world says you are what you do; work is your identity.  I love this.  God says do what you are; work is a stewardship.  What freedom.  He wants you to do what you are.

Well, what are the implications?  We’re going to develop this in the next couple of sessions, but implications of a biblical view of work …

First, our work is to be done with excellence. Colossians 3.  I learned this from a bricklayer who discipled me.  His name’s Dave Marshall.

And after I got through with school, I taught, and coached basketball, and in the summers, I would work with Dave.  And Dave was a bricklayer; he did foundations, and a lot of chimneys, and a few brick houses.  And it was the hardest work I’ve ever done in my life. He had this thing – one of those automatic things to mix the mud - and he said, “Oh, we’d spend more time cleaning the thing out, so let’s just do it by hand.”  Well, I’m the mud mixer.  I didn’t think it was a great idea.

So, all summer I’d take these tongs of bricks, and haydite block, and put them on all – and you climb up to the one platform, and then the scaffolding, and scaffolding.  And he was fast, so I’m mixing the mud, mixing the mud; my back’s killing me.  And we have this foundation up, about, oh, three or four haydite blocks, three quarters, all the way around. And Dave says, “Grab that thing.”  I grab it, and he gets this level, and some sort – I could never learn to use all the machines he did, whether it was right on, and…  And I’d hold this thing down …

And I’ll never forget, he looked at it, he looked at it like this…  And then, I still remember the picture of those work boots – Boom!  Boom!  Boom!  I’m going, “Dave, what are you doing?  What are you doing?”  He goes, “It was out of square.”  I said, “How much?”  He said, “Well, it’s out more than a fraction.  I can give it less than an inch, but it’s over an inch or so out.”  And I said, “Well, does that violate some state code?”  “No.”  “Is the house going to fall down?”  “No.”  I said, “Well, then, what in the heck are you doing, man?  Do you realize how much we’ve worked, and time, and money, and…?”  My great spiritual maturity just oozing out…

And I’ll never forget, and he just walked over, and he just kicked down the walls, said, “Chip, I don’t work for the people I’m building this house for.  I build every house, every foundation, every chimney, for God.  That means it’s excellent.  This foundation is not worthy to be built for Jesus Christ.  I messed up.  So, now we’re going to do it right.”

The first implication is, the greatest workers in the world ought to be believers.  People ought to flat line up and say, “Are you a Christian?  I want to hire you.”  “Are you a Christian?  I want to hire you.”  And the fact of the matter is, we’re blowing it.

Our greatest testimony is not what comes out of our mouths, and big Bibles on our desks, and inviting people to church.  Our greatest testimony is fellow employees and bosses going, “I don’t know where you came from, but I’d take a dozen of you tomorrow.”

But do you see the impact we would make?  Number one, with excellence …

Second, our work is an extension of our worship and obedience. Ephesians 6:5-8…  We’re going to spend an entire session on this, and so I’m not going to develop it at this time, but it talks about slaves doing their work in a certain way, and masters taking care of their slaves in a certain way, and doing it as obedience as unto the Lord.

And so, you don’t do it just with excellence, but your work becomes an opportunity, where you ascribe – the word worship – you ascribe worth to God, and you obey God, because He says, “I want you to do your work in this way, with this kind of attitude” – and, by the way, toward unreasonable bosses.

He’s not writing to Christian slaves saying, “Here’s how you treat your Christian brothers, and high-five one another on the job, while all the other slaves are getting beat to a pulp.”  He says to them, “This is how you respond to ungodly taskmasters, and this is how you win their hearts.”  It’s an act of worship, and it’s an act of obedience.

Third, our work is our primary ministry opportunity to display God’s work in us, reveal His character, model His compassion and concern for our fellow workers, and share His offer of salvation.

I came across a very interesting quote, many of Christianity’s spokespersons have washed out morally, or are in the later years of their ministry.  Who will carry the burden when we no longer have Billy Graham?”

And here’s the answer: “For several years now, you’ve heard us say that the average layman – or woman – will be the one to carry the burden.  As media evangelists have taken their dive, more attention has been drawn to you, the average Christian.  You live and work next to people who are not likely to darken the door of a church.  It may never occur to these people that Christianity has any real answers to their dilemmas, unless they see something of the abundant life expressed in you, daily, at work.”

There is a movement of marketplace ministry.  Many experts say if, in fact, we’re going to turn the corner and do any good, in terms of revival, or massive things happening, it will likely happen through the movement of marketplace ministry, where Christians say, “My work is my primary ministry.”

See it’s not just, “I work and get this over with, so I have some time to love people, love my family, and have a little money to give to missions or give to the Church.”  It’s not even, “My work is a platform.  I do it, it’s a necessary evil, but it’s a platform so I can tell people I’m a Christian, and model something, and then I can get some money to free some time to give to the Church, and to help missionaries, and …”  It is, “My work is my ministry. I’m a full-time Christian.”

You are a royal priesthood.  God called you, as much as He called me, to fulfill the Great Commission.  And you have a vineyard, or a place, and I have a vineyard, or a place.  And your neighborhood and your jobsite are your primary vineyard to fulfill the work of God, not your church building.”

The church building is like a football huddle.  You call the plays, you have a little training camp.  You get people equipped.

But I’ll tell you what, you don’t gain any yardage, by and large, in the church meeting.  It’s when the Church is scattered that we make our impact.  The church meeting is a time to strengthen the saints to teach, and train, and develop, and encourage, so that there’s a full-time Christian worker deputized where you work, and the place where you live.

You will show people more of Christ by how you live your life, how you treat fellow workers, your attitude, and the quality of your work, than anything you’ll ever do in your entire life.  Because 60 to 80 percent of your waking hours are – where?  Right there.

Four, work is, by nature, intrinsically good, and has dignity.  Christ worked as a carpenter.  I could go off on this…

When I went over here, and talked about white-collar, and degrees, and…  If you would have met Jesus, or if Jesus would come back, He’d pull up in a pickup truck, dirty hands, after framing a house, you and I have been conditioned to have a certain perspective of that Man.  And you would have a lower estimation of the Son of God, in a beat-up pickup truck, with dirty hands, and a couple of splinters, and an apron that has His hammer, and His equipment, because we have been so seduced by which kinds of work are more valuable, and which kinds are not.  And there’s a totally unbiblical view.

And some of our kids are great with their hands, and some of us have made them go to college, and get into jobs they hate, because, somehow, our social standing, and what people would think of us, don’t mesh with their either manual, artistic, or musical abilities.

I remember, my son was going to go into fulltime music – and I’ve taught this my whole life.  He said, “Dad, I’m dropping out of college.”  “What?!”  “Dad, I’m dropping out.”  “What?!”  “You said, ‘Follow your dream.’”  “Who did I hear that from?  I was just kidding to all those people.  Son, you’ve got to have a real job.”

And I prayed about it, God convicted, and I said, “Son, I want to support you.  Now, the rules are the rules.  As long as you’re in school, I’m helping doing this.  You’re a real man now, and this is what you want to do, so …”

And we came up with a little agreement, and he drove a muffin truck, 5:00 in the morning, for I don’t know how many months, and traveled all around the country in this little van, and played music in all these churches, out in the middle of nowhere, and worked at it, and worked at it, and worked at it, and worked it.

And eventually he came back and said, “You know, I don’t think I’ll ever use this, but I need to open some doors,” and he went over to a college. And just got through it so he could do it.

And now he writes music, full time, and leads worship, full time, and went through about a 10-year journey where he did what God made him to do.  And I came this close to telling him, “Son, you’ve got to have a real job.  Musicians can’t make a living.”

And some of you have artists, and musicians, and they’re great with their hands. Isn’t that an okay thing?  I mean, it’s easy to say that, but that’s what the Bible teaches.

Fifth, God’s work is the primary means of financially providing for His children, His Church, and those in need.  You know, you have the 1 Timothy passage – we provide for our household.  It’s obvious that we’re to give financially, from what we earn, to those who spiritually meet our needs.  And then, in Ephesians 4:28, it talks about, hey, if you’ve been stealing, change your life; don’t steal any longer.  But now, work with your hands so that you can give to those that are in need.  So, work is a part – it’s not evil.  It’s how God is going to provide for you, your family, the Church, and other people in need.

Sixth, work is not a means to significance, but to service and fulfilling our calling.  You think God’s hammered that one enough?  I think so.

Jot in your notes, if you will, however, John 6:27, and make a note to yourself, “Meditate on this,” especially for fellow workaholics. Workaholism is, basically, demanding that my work demonstrate that I have this performance orientation, that I’m a “somebody,” and I’m significant, and when I work, people love me. When I work, I’m worthwhile.  And so, I work and work and work and work.  I’ve been there, done that, and actually still struggle with it.

John 6:27 says, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but work for the food that doesn’t perish, doing My work unto the Lord.”  Luke 9:25 is a parallel passage that says, “So what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”

And you can work and work and work and work, and be super, super successful, and come up dead empty.  Work was never intended to be a means to significance, but to service, and to fulfill the calling that God’s given us.

Finally, work has lasting and eternal significance, as we work in the millennium – Isaiah 65 – and receive eternal rewards for how we work.  And this is just one of those that I just want to say, this is one of those wild passages, and I just wanted to go like…  Isaiah 65 – this is that thousand-year millennium.

I think, sometimes, we think that the afterlife – of course, that is before the Lord returns, and sets up a new heaven and new earth, but I think we get this idea that eternity, or heaven, is going to be like sipping iced tea, and floating on clouds, and maybe being able to walk through walls.

You’re going to work!  You’re going to work.  It’s going to be a new heaven, and a new earth, and you’re going to work, and you’re going to do stuff.  But the curse is gone!  And you’re going to be creative, and you’re going to build, and you’re going to subdue, and it’s going to be exciting.

In fact, in that thousand-year reign – just read, this afternoon, Isaiah 65:21 and 25.  You shall build.  You’ll plant.  You won’t labor in vain.  That sounds like work, doesn’t it?

Well, if it’s so bad, if it’s so evil, and it’s going to be a thousand-year, perfect environment, why would God have work?  Because work happened before the Fall, work changed through the Fall, and then after things are the way they need to be, work continues, because God is a Worker.  He’s called us to co-work with Him.  The Fall has changed work, but work, now, when everything is offered unto the Lord, as an act of worship and service, is your primary ministry.

And here’s my plea: Buy back the 100,000 hours – or if it’s a little bit late for 100,000, buy back the 60 to 80 percent of your waking hours, and refuse to make it, I’m just going to get this done, even in the mundane things, and refuse to make it, I’m a “somebody” because of what I accomplish, and make work a stewardship, and discover what you’re called to do, and offer it to God, with excellence, and say, “Lord, this is my worship of You.  I was made to do this for Your honor and glory” – and don’t forget this one – “and my joy.”  My joy...

This is not like a sentence to jail. This one’s like a key to fulfillment.