Take This Job And...Love It II, Keys To Satisfaction

For you this morning, so read along as I Encourage you now to focus on God's Word Ecclesiastes 5 verse 18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink and to find satisfaction In his toilsome labor, it's a blessing it's good. It's proper I want you to participate with me in the next few moments and the first ever North Way National job satisfaction survey Are you ready to answer these questions? Get ready If you're not a participant, you won't really know if you need to hear this message All right. Here we go. First question Paula you ready? That's it. You're not you're ready Nancy's ready Here's the first question which day of the week is your favorite work day. All right. I Hope you know next Do you anticipate going to work? Most days do you look forward to it? Now don't answer out loud. Okay, just write it down number three Do you come home with anxiety or tension on many occasions no wives allowed to respond here This is for each individual person next question Are you bored with your work do you see literal note little or no lasting value little or no progress? In other words, are you in a rut? I wish you could see eyes and heads moving right now next Do you struggle to see the relevance of the Word of God to your job? And finally? Do you think about changing your job regularly? Occasionally or never I could have added a lot more that would have just absolutely melted you down But these six questions kind of capture what I think are some of the issues I want to address today Based on that. I just don't want to ask you to put your hand up But based on that how many of you would say? Fridays is definitely my favorite day at work. I Come home all the time with anxiety or tension. I've been in a rut for 15 years You may very well find yourself today bearing witness to a lot of these questions and even if a few of them are true of You I think this morning's message may have some very Peculiar relevance to your situation. Now. This may not be a very spiritual topic to some people I I would imagine at this service particularly there are going to be some who are saying Why don't we get on with the more important things, you know, like sin? there are gonna be some people here today who are going to be Challenged because they're afraid that if they really face this question and they're honest with themselves They're not going to know what to do with it How am I going to respond if I'm not satisfied and there are going to be those who feel like well, yeah That's really true, but it's too late for me Having done this message one time. I already know that that's going to be a response amidst some of you who are a little bit older But most of us here today Number one believe that God does care about everything that concerns us number two that there are ways That God has given to increase our job satisfaction and thirdly that you're never too old to change one wonderful thing I want you to know today is that God has designed for us a multitude of different options when it comes to work and virtually a limitless sequence or series of decisions that lead to jobs that No matter how you look at them are capable of providing for you satisfaction as we said last week God desires for your job to be a place where you discover the sense of accomplishment a sense of confidence And a place of building character and those things make for job satisfaction There are people who found that job satisfaction in the strangest of places. Do you know right here today? There are people who are very satisfied being junior high teachers there are some who love to design and Write computer programs and it just gets them going There are some here who like to design and create hairstyles. There's some here who love to go Behind the teller's window and meet people and count money There are people here today who just love to cook so much that they cook 8 10 12 hours a day and love it There are people here today who love to type love to do graphics. I Mean you can think of almost an infinite number of jobs that people find satisfaction And let me say this when people are satisfied in their jobs, you know what happens it spills over Into the rest of their lives into their families their marriages and even their relationship with God On the other side of the coin if you are not satisfied with your job It's very likely that spills over into your marriage and your family and even your relationship to God as well and that's why I want to deal with this subject because then so many people feel like well, it's sort of up to me whether or not This job thing is going to work And I have to say to you There are some keys there are some things you can look at it from God's Word and I'm going to enumerate them for you that Will help you to discover how you can grow in your job satisfaction Because I believe God cares about that for every one of us here today Now, let me say is sort of a bit of a disclaimer I can't do this in 30 minutes in a way that I would say does justice You know, there are seminars and books and tapes and there are men in our congregation whose full-time vocation Is helping people find a job that they can love Priority to one of our own ministries is an exciting place where hundreds and hundreds of people have found Some of these keys to work effectively. Here's the first one Be convinced that you your job matters to God that God cares about your work It's astounding how many people think that God just checks out when it comes to your job It's sort of an extension of that classic Secular and sacred dichotomy. It's it's like God cares about church. He cares about the Bible. He cares about worship He cares about sick people But he doesn't necessarily care About the everyday kinds of things that you and I deal with Now listen, don't believe that Don't believe that for a moment don't believe that somehow God just Cranked you up and threw you into the world and said now get out there and do the best you can and you know There aren't any scriptures that say God helps those who help themselves Okay, this is such a prevalent attitude in America that God is you know, he's not interested in the marketplace I hear people say a job is just something we do to provide to compete or survive or you know Maybe occupy ourselves when we need to dear ones. I Even had someone say to me. Well, you said a few weeks ago that everything's gonna get burned up So there you know, they thought they were gonna get me all So what did it all matter? I mean, there's not going to be any jobs in eternity. I beg to differ with you You think you're just gonna sit and you know, strum some heart for eternity No, you're gonna be productive. I really believe that Hold this. Let me let me just Give you another phrase here, right? Jesus said this John 5 17 write it down if you're taking notes Speaking to his disciples. He said that my father is always at his work to this very day and I too am working now. That's the Son of God speaking The father is working to this very day Jesus is working Dear ones if God is working The Son of God is working as we look last week creation is an extension of his work of his expression of who he is then it's apparent that God thinks work is important and How is God working you may ask? Well one thing he's doing he's providing for this creation How many of you know that part of God's work is to sustain life now? This may not be a revelation to you, but it sure got me thinking Do you know something if there was no food and no shelter, there'd be no salvations You understand what I'm saying? If you don't think providing food and shelter and necessities is important, then people wouldn't live long enough to be saved So there are important things except what how does that affect me? Well what you do contributes? to people surviving And that literally is part of the work and concern of God So if God is working and you're created in his image now, I know this is a little bit of rational thinking we're doing here Let's try to stay together. If God is working you're created in his image and You're working and if work is good for God then is work good for you Yes, it is. It's intrinsically a value It does matter to God and it does mean something through work we literally Contribute to God's work when we're working effectively at our jobs. We are serving people We are Meeting the needs of our family and of our loved ones and ourselves We're earning money that we can help to contribute in some ways to relieve suffering and those kinds of things and listen when you're working In the right spirit. You're literally expressing your love to God as I'm going to show you a Little bit later on in this message So the first key to job satisfaction is to believe that God really cares about your work and that he desires for you to enjoy it Otherwise it is meaningless Otherwise it is just sort of filling up time until you die That's a ridiculous thought that many of us believe that but I've discovered I was talking to one man. Who's a developer Congregation he was telling me how much he enjoyed he was kind of sorting through the guilt of all this Does this really matter and he was saying I really love to go out and find a piece of property To lay it all out to develop homes that families buy and enjoy I'm providing work for you know 30 people or 25 or 30 people as we do these things and in the end I receive a good return on my investment And he said somehow I enjoy all this. Do you think God is pleased and I said, I really believe he is Because he's contributing to the well-being of people Now once you believe God is involved and that leads you to the second and very very important key to job satisfaction and that is this Discover Be conscious of your motivated abilities, you know Scripture teaches that every single one of us is Tremendously unique Psalm 139. I hope you've read this recently. It's such a profound song, but it says this I praise you Lord because I am fearfully and wonderfully made Now, I know sometimes you look up in the morning and you relate to the fearfully part, but you're also wonderfully made Charlie Beck said something last night as he gave a little testimony the director of priority to he said, you know the most common characteristic About us is our looks And he's right, you know our personalities and the drives and all that is just so it's such a unique combination You know, it's it's a common fact that I'm sure you're all aware of it's snowflakes though they look alike or what Oh, everyone is different And if God cares that much to make snowflakes different How much more does he care about you and your uniqueness part of that uniqueness or your motivated abilities your gifts your interests? Your aptitudes and if you're like me as a parent, I began to see my kids started showing those things early on. I Saw that One of my kids wanted to have friends over all the time Another one was really kind of content just to play by themselves. Did you find that with your kids each one's a little bit different? You know, every kid has this thing that just kind of comes out of them. Some of them like sports And if we're wise parents, we don't feel like every kid has to like sports some kids like music Some kids love to just read, you know, they just keep reading some kids love to do science projects some like art But every kid begins to develop these things and if they are encouraged not pushed but just encouraged to experiment I think the job of a parent is just to expose Let kids try if they're encouraged along the way these natural God-given Abilities and interests and aptitudes begin to emerge into a pattern that you can identify and if you're really a wise parent You'll be able to direct your child into a career path a vocational direction that will manifest those things Now when I was growing up My mother and dad did this very thing. They noticed at an early age that I like to blow things up and I Mean I did I like this is the thing to make no explosions. So they bought me chemistry sets They heard this already last night and they affirmed this. Okay, so That you know I used to put stuff together and see how long it would take to explode and They took me down to Buell planetarium and plugged me into their program down there to you know Get into the rocket making business. I mean I have some horror stories of Explosions over the sky in our house and those kinds of things and eventually, you know They that ended up that I went on to college and got a degree in chemistry Now I can see something. What are you doing up here? What does this have to do with being in ministry? I don't know. I'm working on that But let me say this Along the way my mom happened to take a picture which she showed me about six months ago of a little backyard wedding scene And there was this Little kids like five four or five six years old made five or six There's a little girl one of these little and a little flower girl dressed with some weeds a Little guy next to her, you know, like standing with a shirt I'm looking real nervous and somebody was standing up on a rock and had this book open And he was obviously doing the ceremony and guess who it was. Yeah so Something was there back when I was six But one of the major keys of job satisfaction is for each worker to wind up in a position in life In the marketplace that is consistent with these God-given interests aptitudes and abilities God's placed them there And if you don't draw on them, then you are from the start working against the very nature that God put into you Some people here today, for example are a salesman Now if you're a good salesman I'm willing to bet that if you got into a time machine and rolled the clock back So when you were a child, it's very likely that you'd like to be with other kids, you know You'd like to interact You like competition you like winning You know, you like to sort of be moving from one thing to another and closing things together it doesn't make any sense for that person to get in the time machine and move it ahead and step out and and walk into some kind of a you know a Position as a bookkeeper in the back room of a plumbing company or something. All right That person needs to interact Likewise a person who loves to keep books and you know loves details and those kind of things It's real nervous if you send them out there in the front lines of sales That's because God created us uniquely in that way when you work in a way that's expressing your natural abilities, do you know that what you're really doing is just Giving expression to who you are and I'll say this when you find that discover it you become very very good at it whether it's a mechanic a salesman a Public speaker when you find that niche and express it. Well, you become very good at it. I was touched by the testimony In the wonderful movie chariots of fire. Maybe you saw that There was a moment there when when Eric little sister was saying well, why aren't you gonna go to the mission field? Why aren't you gonna be in the ministry? You're gonna run in the Olympics Rather than do those higher callings and he said that very moment as she asked the question. He said this Jenny he said when I run I Feel God's pleasure When I run I feel God's pleasure When I'm doing what I was created fashioned to do I feel God's pleasure What would happen if you were working in a job? When you did that job you felt God's pleasure Well, the only way I know that can happen is when you discover what he put into you and you give expression to it Isn't just in the ministry. It's in various fields that are out There are many people here in our church that are discovering the importance of that, you know One person I talked to you last week when I was preparing this was Jan I said Jan what did you do when you were a little girl? Now most kids take a doll and they just pet it, you know and hold it one Jan if the case you don't know is pretty much responsible for all coordinating all this that happens up here you know all the dramas and the lights and the Orchestras, I mean she has lots of helpers, but she's responsible to see that it gets done Well when she was a little girl, you know what she did She got all of her dolls and set them all up, you know I put lights on them and made him dance around and had it all coordinated. It was in there when she was a little kid now she's just Just expressing what was that's the key if you don't know that motivated ability Then it's likely you're gonna kind of well try this and try that if you're a young person. This is important to you I urge you as young people to really discover that and develop it. But let me say a word to employers today One of the greatest things that you can do for your company and for your workers is to help them Find their motivated abilities and Move Right along the track that God has created them Operate in I've discovered that if you don't do that It's likely you're always going to be dealing with different tensions and frictions and so on because people want To find that place where they're naturally overflowing There may be different jobs within one said ability, you know, most people change careers four times But if they're wise it's just moving within the realm of that motivated ability So it's a very important thing If you don't know what to do try priority to or try it's a beginning point our network ministry which uses some of these principles But look into it folks. Don't miss it. Number three This is a tough one be committed to developing healthy relationships in the marketplace Frankly I think this can be the most difficult part of the process because whereas you can control things about yourself. You can't Necessarily control things about another person Your feelings toward your superiors and your co-workers and your subordinates are going to have an enormous impact On whether or not you enjoy your job. I Had a job in Southern California when I was in school. I Was a part-time salesman in a clothing store, and I like the work really it's kind of fun and You know the pay was fair the hours were flexible and that kind of thing but right alongside of me was a man whose full-time job was selling clothes and he worked on Commission and I work, you know, and You can get the scene going in your mind. What happened was when I was doing well He was perceiving as losing Income and all that kind of stuff and he didn't like me being there And I used to go in there and it was you know, it's just immediate wall of tension I know some of you can relate to this where you just you know that you're not wanted there And I didn't know what to do about that and boy you got these or I just didn't want the job After a while and one day one morning. I went to work and I walked in and I said, where's this guy? His boss my boss said he quit He's gone Well, I'll tell you what I lit up. You know, this is tremendous. I found out the next day I really liked going to work again. It was a great experience But how many know that is usually not what happens Usually they say I'm going to be here to you die, you know something like that And it's important that we maybe have some kind of a strategy to work out Positive relationships in the marketplace and before I share it I look out here and I see some of you in Construction and some of you who do you know work with pretty rough people and what I'm going to share is going to sound like a real You know pipe dream to you. You're gonna say, you know, you're you must be from another planet I think this is gonna work. Let me submit it to you because it's something that Jesus said to do and When Jesus talks we ought to listen Here's what he said. He said when you have a conflict with somebody when you have a struggle Matthew 18 tells us Go to that person You go one-on-one in private not in front of all the other workers, but go to them and say can we talk? We can we talk because I've got a real problem and I discovered that though that is one of the most difficult things to do It's amazing how an attempt at heart-to-heart communication. You don't have to call it that but that's what it is It's amazing how that breaks down walls and even if the person laughs You can't fully gauge the impact on their lives When you approach them with some dignity and value and say because I want this to work. I've got to tell you Now I know you can think of my boss would just laugh and tell me to get the out of there and those kind of Things don't count on that, you know Bosses are people if a person has any value at all on human labor They're gonna want to try to see things worked out. What happens is we usually kind of collapse in Let me say it again. If your job is a place of misery if you hate going there, it spills over It affects your family it affects your kids your marriage and it even affects your relationship with the Lord Have you ever gotten up and said I don't want to have a quiet time today Because I got to quit this quiet time in 30 minutes and go back into that Jungle or whatever it is for you So I want to say why don't you risk it a little bit then if there's conflict? Why don't you take a step of courage? I mean it takes courage to go in to say to someone I got to talk this through Is it risky it sure is risky could it blow up in your face that could But I'm here to submit to you this morning that God cares so much about your job and your satisfaction and your fulfillment That it's worth the risk It's not right for you to go through the whole 30 or 40 years of your working life and be miserable that's not what God intended and if you allow that to happen, it's only because You weren't willing to take a risk along the way now if this personal approach fails, let me encourage you to do something else Take another person Jesus said take another one and appeal to them Don't go in demanding your rights and you know, but go in and appeal to them in a spirit of reconciliation You're saying well, you mean I should go into my boss with someone else and say that Remember, you're not going in and accusing you're going in saying I'd like to work this out Keep it in prayer. Give it some time. God will work if you trust it. I Have seen this happen If nothing does happen and it just gets worse and worse and worse. Let me suggest this Maybe that's God's way of saying it's time to make a change To look somewhere else, you know, we've been Going through a move here at North Way for the last several weeks. It's been pretty complicated. I mean, it's you know, take your worst nightmare garage Situation, you know where you can't even get your car in the garage I multiply that times 1500 people and that's what we try to do here is to move up to those offices and you know A lot of the staff is like, oh man, this is really and I discovered that we you know We have some things that we have to work out And the best way to do that to say well, hey this happened I don't understand it and when we're willing to do that, I found nine times out of ten that the whole problem can be solved But when we hold on to things those conflicts can continue to rage and become debilitating And dear ones no matter what job you're doing you could be in your motivated ability You can know God cares about you But if those relationships are bad that job can be a place that you really don't want to be part of All right, fourthly and finally We need to develop a proper attitude Develop a proper attitude Toward your work now if you're working in a place where your motivated abilities are being used and you know that God cares and your Relationships are healthy. This should be easy, but I want to read to you Colossians chapter 3 Verses 23 and 24 from the Living Bible listen to this Work hard and cheerfully at all you do Just as though you were working for the Lord and not merely for your masters Remembering that it is the Lord Christ Who's going to pay you? Giving you your full portion of all he owns. He is the one you are really working for You see if you know Christ personally you need to see that he is ultimately your boss Now this is not good news for some of us But it should be We see because you see when you're working in a right spirit You're opening yourself to a great blessing from Jesus himself The ultimately he is the one that is providing for you And so therefore you should have a commitment to excellence a commitment to quality You know, don't just get out there and drive your truck But drive your truck to the glory of God demonstrating a Difference in the way you treat other drivers Don't just build a house But build a house to the glory of God showing excellence and quality in detail Don't just teach a class but prepare and deliver excellent lessons That help children to discover how much God loves them Don't just consult for a client but give the most excellent presentation possible communicate In your own way the excellence of Christ Because you belong to him when you view your work as an opportunity to give glory to God Then that truck cab or that home site or that classroom or that office literally becomes Where you're worshiping because what you're doing is in effect an act of worship. I hope this doesn't go right over your heads I know it's a radical thought to think that PPG is a temple. They look like one That's about it or whatever your workplace may be But you see the important thing is that God is the one that you're serving and if you're serving him in a right spirit How many of you know that that can transform what you're doing there? So resolve that you're gonna go in there I'm gonna work cheerfully as it says here and work hard and work with excellence the best of my ability so that God could be glorified And I want to just submit to you if every one of us would do that tomorrow We'd go back into the workplace We'd have a positive attitude and say Lord. I'm gonna do this to your glory I want you to know something every one of your job sites would be changed And I just wonder what would happen if we all did it Tremendous are you satisfied in your job? Let's put Ecclesiastes back up there. Would you please Paula Nancy? The Lord just says to us That it's good and proper for a man to eat and drink and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor if you can be convinced that your work matters to God and conscious that He's given you motivated abilities that are designed for you to be Satisfied and fulfilled if you can be committed to building healthy relationships, and if you can be extremely Sensitive to your attitude careful to develop it you can be a satisfied worker If that sounds like an awful lot let me end with this I Know as I did this message my staff. I'm sure would verify this I Was very exposed I was feeling like you know I'm sure they're members of my own staff here That aren't enjoying this level of job satisfaction that God intends And I began to pray in about the middle of the week when this message was starting to really take shape and say Lord then What's going to happen? And what the Lord reminded me of was this I'd like to show myself to those who are weak And if you'll admit that it's difficult for you To build healthy relationships, or it's difficult for you to have a positive attitude that it's weakness to you To really believe that God cares about your job if you'll just acknowledge that God said in your weakness I'll begin to show my strength in your weakness My strength will be made perfect, and I believe We're all going to be more satisfied workers Let's stand shall I? Lord, I don't come today And none of us really do Having this all figured out, but we acknowledge freely today Lord that we want to be satisfied and no fulfillment in our jobs And I pray Jesus that Where we would admit weakness and failure and difficulty and struggle that we'd open even right now Even the most mature of us that we'd open to your grace to touch us To be conscious of our gifts to be committed to developing healthy relationships a proper attitude Help us Touch us in Jesus Stay Blackie sings this song Preparing to conclude today I'm going to ask you to just consider where you're working and what you're doing Where you need to see? God's strength made perfect in your weakness. You can be seen I can do Christ gives me strength, but sometimes I wonder Yet in my weakness His strength is perfect when our strength is gone He'll carry us when we can't carry on Raised in his power the weak become strong His strength is perfect We can only know See His strength in us begin When ours comes to end He is His strength Our strength He'll carry us Carry Raised in his power We His strength is Perfect Carry His strength is perfect Raised in his power The weak Become strong Become strong His strength is perfect His strength is perfect You believe that I don't want anyone to leave today thinking that jesus hasn't changed The ruts too deep to ever crawl out of you know, that song also relates Because it's a scriptural song It relates to our relationship with god This may be and i'm sure they're here today that feel like you know, i've kind of been on the back burner with god When we leave today there our elders will be right up against the wall on both sides of the auditorium here To receive you and pray with you if you need some strength in your life if you're finding it Your weakness has begun to just be a pattern or you're just defeated or maybe you don't even know that You know god the way you want to Take a step Take a step say would you pray with me? I just I need to get strength in my life once That's why the elders are here. That's why this church Ordains elders and sets them apart because we believe that god uses them to tell them father. I ask in the name of jesus that whatever Weakness we have found over these last days or Even months and years of our lives We'd exchange them now for you not only in our jobs lord, but even in our Relationship with you and with others that we love Thank you for that Very promise of your word that in our very weakest moments When we acknowledge it That's when we open to your power And I thank you for that. That's good news, isn't it? Where you feel weakest he's going to be strong. Let's go ahead and honor the lord now with our morning tithes and offerings.