A Better Way: To Work | How Can I Find More Satisfaction at Work?

Welcome, welcome to Freedom Church.

Glad that you're here.

If I haven't met you yet, my name's Jason.

I get the privilege of being pastor here.

And uh this is week three.

Hey, can you bring my mic down just a little bit, Alejandro?

I got some reverb in my ear.

That's never fun.

Okay.

Oh, that's better.

You can hear me.

Okay.

My backup plan is the mic goes down.

My voice will carry if I have to.

I don't you you can hear me out there.

I got some volume.

Okay.

Okay, anyway.

All right.

I want to welcome you.

This is week three of our series.

We started.

I we're we're talking all about work.

What do we how to think about work, how to think about our our vocations, what we do.

Honestly, for for most of us, more than 50% of our waking hours in a given week.

I mean, we we devote so much of our life, so much of our effort.

I mean, when you're when you're a teenager, this is hopefully you're thinking about stuff like this, but you know, you're thinking like, what am I gonna do with my future?

And and then when you're when you're in your 20s, you're generally trying to like build something and learn something and figure out what you're gonna do.

You get in your 30s, and it's just like, what am I building?

What am I doing?

I'm building a career, building a business, building something.

I mean, so much of our life is is built around this idea of of work.

And so in the first week of this uh of this series, we just said, work is this.

Work is is using the spiritual gifts that God's giving you to make the invisible God visible.

That was one of the ways that we talked about work.

God's invisible, and then the way that we work has this way of making him visible to the to the world around us.

Last week, we talked all about this idea of calling and vocation and and how to think about work.

We talked about spiritual gifts and and again, just this idea of, you know, what do we do, you know, how do we how do we uh think about our jobs and what it means to be called, what it means to be assigned, uh, all that.

Today I want to think about a little bit different.

We we talked, it's God and us, and then it's then it's what about me in my work?

And today I'm gonna talk about something a little bit different.

I'm talking about this idea of satisfaction.

Like, what does it mean to be satisfied with work, satisfied with with life?

You know, there's a common phrase, I hear it a lot amongst Christians.

Christians like to use this phrase, it's just like, it's like just let go and let God.

That's good.

That's a that's a good bumper sticker right there.

Just this let go and let God.

It's just I feel inspired just saying.

I don't even, I can't even say it with a straight face.

I have to like change my voice when I say it to you.

It's like just let go and let God.

And listen, there's not that there's not some truth to that.

It's like there's definitely some seasons in my life where I'm like, you know what, this will be a good time to just kind of let go and let God, you know?

That makes sense.

Well, you know where that phrase comes from is out of this story.

You you probably heard the story of uh David and Goliath.

Sound familiar?

Yeah.

So that that that's where that phrase kind of comes from.

It's 1 Samuel 17.

Uh, look what it says.

It says, All those gathered here will know, this is David, that that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's.

This is where the idea comes from.

Let go, let God.

Like the battle is the is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands, right?

You know the whole story.

I don't have to recall the story.

You don't have to be a Christian, you know that story, right?

It's just like sling a stone, knock a giant down, whole armies, he's a boy, it's a giant.

You know the whole thing.

And the the idea is let go, let God.

The idea is the battle is is the Lord's.

And but here's the part of the story we don't really like, we don't like give enough credit to.

It's like, um, yeah, but God did have to give him the strength to be able to do what he did, but he also had to have the the courage, he had to have the the skill to sling that thing.

He had to, he actually had to know some things, right?

You think he wasn't scared?

You don't think he had some like the nerves that he were are you kidding me?

Yeah, that's that's what's so great about this story, right?

He in the face of that, like he does these things, and so yes, let go and let God, but God has a way of propelling people who are prepared, and he has a way of propelling people who like can have the courage to do great things.

That doesn't happen automatically.

God does incredible things, but he often does things in ordinary ways, and I and I think sometimes this is where a lot of us we're we're waiting for God sometimes to come in and do.

Listen, I'm all we believe God's a God of miracles.

We believe God can do the miraculous.

We just say he's the God of the breakthrough.

God has a way of breaking into your circumstances in ways you couldn't expect, but he's also the God who actually is deeply embedded in the ordinary parts of your life, and he does incredible things.

He does most of his work in the world through the ordinary things that you and I are doing.

Now, here's the tension, and this is the tension around work, this is the tension around life, this is the tension that we often feel, and it's this what will deeply satisfy me?

What what what is that?

Because because we we could talk about what God can do, what God does do, what God did do, how what God wants to do, but again, it's partnership, right?

It's not just all let go and let God.

Like God wants to partner with you, and so, but that's the tension.

Do I trust him or do I do I do something else?

What's gonna deeply satisfy me?

This there's a lot.

I'm gonna use my my my point here.

I've probably used this next point in more sermons than any other point.

It's like a recurring theme, but I always feel like it's it's worth saying, and it's this you were designed, like you need to know this.

You were designed.

That I know we hear maybe you hear this, you we don't even we don't grasp oftentimes the implications of this.

The the idea that you are designed means that there's things you are designed for.

That means that the tension of going, what's really gonna satisfy me and fulfill me, it means that that's not arbitrary and just based on what you think.

It's not based on your opinion, even.

It's act there's actually something that is made to satisfy you and to fulfill you.

It means that there are ways that are meant to satisfy you and fulfill you, and it doesn't matter what you think about that.

I mean, that sounds a little bit harsh, but it's the truth.

You are designed, you are designed.

The way to be most satisfied is to do things the Jesus way.

That's another bumper sticker right there.

It's a little long for a bumper sticker, maybe, but that's inspiring right there, you know.

The but right, the way to be designed, that sounds good.

So I was like, Yeah, that sounds good, you know.

Do things the Jesus way and be and be satisfied.

That's that's great, you know.

You know, the problem is, I'll tell you a story.

I'll tell you a story.

This is probably like 24, 25 years ago.

You know, and I was working at a I was working at a shoe store.

Anybody remember the just for feet?

Remember that?

Did anybody does anybody?

Yeah, there's one person, my friend 25 years ago, remembers that store.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

No, nobody.

Yeah, they're at a thank you.

My wife, thank you.

There we go.

Anybody else?

Nobody.

They're out of business.

That's why nobody remembers them.

But they had like a basketball court in the shoe store.

It was awesome, you know.

So when you were a teenager, it was like, this is a cool place to work, you know.

So and um, so I remember working at Just Rafe, and I and I had these, I had some co-workers that I still to this day have never forgotten about.

And there was this was at the time they were selling these Jordans.

You remember the Jordans that came in like the metal suitcase?

Remember these?

Somebody in here's got to remember that.

They were like 200, yeah, there we got a few hands that came up.

I don't remember Just Rafe, but I remember those Jordans.

$250 plus Jordans, they came in a metal suitcase.

It was like, whoa.

And so I a couple couple kids come into the store, and hey, we want to try some shoes on.

We're trying some some Jordans on.

So we're all on our guard.

You're like, hey man, that's like gold, you know.

What do you, you know, we're kind of scouting, you know, kind of looking more.

Okay, we'll bring him out, you know.

So we bring out the shoes, and it's actually not me, it's it's it's another guy that's helping him, a friend of mine at the work.

And so he's he's helping this guy, he's getting the shoes on, and he and he turns his back for just a second, and both of these kids grab these suitcases and they boom, they bolt out the door.

They like run, it's a long store.

So they're like running out the door.

And and and this guy, my co-worker, he he like takes it personal.

He's like, How dare you steal from me?

And so he starts taking off.

He's an athlete.

The guy was athletics.

He starts sprinting after him.

And you can see he's got his keys.

He's starting to, he's running and he's like flipping his keys around at the same time because he's got a metal shoehorn on his keychain, and he like flips that thing around like he's got a like a little like blade on him or something.

Boom, he's got in his hand.

These a car pulls up under the front door like it was his coordinated attack, okay?

So they boom, these kids jump into the door, the door is not even closed yet, and this guy jumps on the hood of the car, boom, and starts slashing their car up with his metal shoehorn.

That's intense.

Do you know why that guy was working at the shoe store?

Because he was putting himself through Bible college to be a missionary.

Can you imagine being at that guy's church?

You get born again every week there.

Get on your knees.

It's intense.

There's whole channels out there dedicated to people losing their ever-loving mind on the highway with what would Jesus do right across their chest.

The way to be most satisfied is to do it the Jesus way.

Yeah, that's those are disappointing stories, but they're funny because they're probably way more relatable than we'd care to admit.

Do it the Jesus way.

That that sounds good, but that's the tension, right?

Because I can know that, but I'm not really sure the Jesus way is actually going to deeply satisfy me, like jumping on the hood and slashing his car up.

I just feel fulfilled in that moment, right?

I just feel like I finally got what I wanted to do.

That's the tension.

What is actually going to satisfy me?

The truth is that the Jesus way of doing work is difficult.

It really is.

It's difficult.

It's it's not to say that doing it the American way is not difficult in the sense that you know you want to make something of your of yourself and build an empire and build an influence.

It's like that's that's not necessarily easy to do.

That's hard to do.

I'm just saying that the Jesus way is hard.

That's hard.

It's hard.

It's hard to actually say no to increase when you could say no to increase in your life.

I'm just saying, the Jesus, the Jesus way is is hard.

And in fact, I would even, and I'm a little biased because I'm a Jesus follower and I'm a pastor, but I would actually, I would actually say it's the hardest way.

It is.

I don't know I've I've heard over the years militant atheists sort of like make the case that we we we want to cling to our God because it's some sort of like crutch to make life easier.

And I want to go, hold on, are you talking about the God who laid down all of his power and his ability to get ahead in life and was willing to be scourged and put on a cross, died willingly, while everybody spat on him and lied about him, comes back from the dead and says, Oh, hey, by the way, you want to follow me?

Pick up your cross and die to yourself and do that every day.

Are we talking about the same God?

That's the hardest way.

The Jesus way is a difficult way, and but it's very different from the American way, especially when we're talking about doing work.

We talk about work because there's an American way of doing work.

I mean, the American way says that work is all about money, first of all.

It's all about money.

I mean, it's amazing what we will justify for the sake of the bottom line.

And we have ways of spiritualizing this too.

It's just like, but but this is this is this is the reality of the world we live in.

It's not even just the American way, by the way.

This is just the way it's always been.

Because we we think work is all about money.

This is why for a lot of us, we don't even actually feel like we're really working unless we have a paycheck.

It's amazing.

It's like, this is why we, you know, it's it's hard.

I talk to, you know, we can talk to maybe people who are, you know, um, I talk to folks who are retired and maybe taking on like a volunteer position, or I talk to like a stay-at-home parent, and it's like, and there's always like this like weird tension of like, I'm working, but am I really working?

And it's like, well, hold on a second.

See, we we here's one of the things that we confuse.

We confuse what the marketplace rewards with with what's actually valuable.

This is really important to understand.

Because for a lot of us, we don't just don't let this go in one ear and out the other because because for a lot of us, this is how we measure the value of what we do for a living.

We go, how much money am I making?

And and and your pushback right now, because I can hear it, I can hear you.

You don't know I can hear you, but I can hear you right now.

Here it is.

Well, if it wasn't that valuable, it wouldn't be rewarded to that degree.

And I would, and here's all inside you, that's because that's what the marketplace values.

See, what the marketplace values is not always the same thing.

In fact, it's rarely the same thing that God values.

It's not like sometimes it's not no, no, no, it's like rarely ever the same thing.

So we gotta understand this.

That this is actually a contributing factor as to how we think about work, what we think is valuable work.

There's I mean, not to mention, I mean, when we when we attach money as like the main thing for work, what's that say about those who are disabled in our community?

I mean, really?

What's that say about that?

It's like, oh, your work is it's good for your soul, I guess, but it's not actually meaningful to the community?

What are we saying to people?

What are we saying to people who are suffering and people who are dying?

What do we say in those moments when when we make when we think of work in a disordered way?

You go, well, those are extreme, those are extreme examples, Pastor.

It's like, come on, you know, those are anomalies.

Okay, yeah, what about the aging?

You think you think you're not aging, but one day you're gonna find out you that you have been the whole time.

What about them?

Right?

I'm just saying, like, we there's a gap in the way that we think about work, and when we're in the prime of our life and we're raising families, and we're we're we we feel like we have a future, and we feel like we have careers that we can build for and build to, and and we can it's it's one thing, it's like there's a gap in our thinking.

There's a gap here.

Again, the American way says that that that work is all about money.

This is a story out of Luke chapter 12.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

And listen, there's some stories that you can read in scripture, and when you read them, they just have like this like Bible flavor to them.

I don't know if you know what I mean by that.

Here's what I mean.

It's like you read it and you go, this was definitely written like in the this is a Bible story.

You're like, I need a pastor to tell me why this is actually relevant to my life.

Come on, I sometimes I need that too.

I'm just like, can somebody tell me why that's an important story?

It's like that's a Bible kind of story, but then there's some stories, it's just pretty straightforward.

It's like, okay, this is one of them.

This is Luke chapter 12, verse 18.

Luke 12:18

Jesus is telling this story about this rich man whose whose field, his crops, his farm is producing some great things for him.

And look what he says.

He says, Then he said, he's talking about the rich guy who owns the farm, and he's got a lot of things that are going well for him.

He says, Then that guy says, This is what I'll do.

I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.

And I'll say to myself, You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.

You've worked hard for all these years, you've done everything you can up to this point.

You've been a wise steward up to this point.

I may have added those last few lines.

You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.

Take life easy, eat, drink, be merry.

But God said to him, You fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you, then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?

This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God.

From from me to the back of the room, this should put all of us on our heels a little bit.

That should.

I just I just gave you a story about the American way.

I just gave you the story of what has probably motivated the majority of our thinking around how we make wise decisions about our life.

That's the story.

You know, there's a little bit of hyperbolic language in this because Jesus was the he says things like, if you want to love me, if you love me, then you gotta hate your mother and your father.

Right?

You've heard that story before.

Like Jesus has his way of saying things that are just like, Are you telling me I gotta hate my mother and father?

No, what he's saying is he's saying that your love for him should be so great that in comparison to your love for anybody else, it ought to look like hate.

That your allegiance and your loyalty to him ought to be so great that it looks like you're an enemy to everybody else.

Like that's what he's saying.

He's trying to paint this picture that boom drives the point home.

And see, is he opposed?

Is God you are we saying God's opposed to doing well?

Is God opposed to you preparing for your future?

Is God opposed to you leaving an inheritance for your children?

Is is God opposed?

No.

No, because he tells us those things in other parts of scripture.

Notice what he says at the very end.

He says, He says, this is what it is.

He's talking to those who store up things for themselves, but look at the last sign, but is not rich toward God.

And his point is this is like, yes, be blessed.

That's part of that's part of what we get as as Jesus followers.

To be blessed, to be a blessing.

That goes back to Abraham.

That's this is an ancient story we're a part of here.

Bless to bless others.

But are you are you blessing yourself far greater than you're blessing others?

That's what he's saying.

Are you rich toward God more than you're rich in other ways?

And these are these are factors that we have to take into account for.

And I think for all of us, we have to be honest with ourselves.

We ought to honestly take inventory of our resources and our time and our energy and where we're putting those things.

Are we indeed rich toward God?

See, for many of us, we've mistaken the reward for work with the purpose of work.

The reward of work for the purpose of work.

Yes, it's we're not sitting here going like money is bad.

No, we're just talking about having a profit-focused mindset versus a flourishing mindset toward the things that we put our hands to.

The people we're surrounded by, the the the businesses we're building, the careers we're advancing.

Like, are we profit-minded or are we flourishing minded?

And we said it last week.

The idea that every step of your life is gonna be up and to the right with your career, with your salaries, with all of that, is highly unlikely when you're following Jesus.

It's highly unlikely that those two things will go together.

Listen, listen to what I'm saying.

When the goal of work is ordered, ordered, well, that's a that's a sermon in itself, ordered.

Like in the right order, according to God's design.

When when the goal of work is ordered, it means I can actually live with deep satisfaction in my work right now.

You need to know that right now.

Look at this.

This is 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 9.

1 Thessalonians 4:9

Paul is writing this to this church, and this is what he says.

He says, Now about your love for one another.

We do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

And in fact, you do love all of God's family throughout Macedonia.

Now, one of the one of the one of the disservices of this verse in the NIV that I'm reading right now is that it breaks it all up into multiple sentences.

This is actually not in the original text.

This is all one sentence.

It's all written, there's no periods here.

This is all one sentence.

He's talking about loving other people, and he says, yet, he says, We urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more.

This is one of my favorite lines in the whole Bible, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.

You should mind your own business and work with your hands.

You know, you know what he's he's saying there.

This they live in it, this group of people live in an era of time where it's thought of that that like the most excellent work, like the best work, the most meaningful work was work that you did not do.

With your hands, right?

So he's actually confronting like a cultural norm.

Like somehow it's just like we're afraid to get our hands dirty because we think that's beneath us.

And he's reminding them, he's like, No, the world's got it wrong.

They still got it wrong.

Just okay, so you know that.

He says, No, work with your work with your hands just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

You know, we we read this and we go, and I love that line, make it your ambition to live a quiet life.

We think he's talking about work, be faithful at work, do good work, be work with your hands, be diligent.

Those are all great principles.

But I I but see, there were no periods in the original language when Paul was writing this.

Do you know what he's relating?

The quality of your work, your quiet ambitions of your life, your willingness to work with your hands.

He's not, he's not relating those to you being a good steward to take care of your family, even though that's an important thing.

He says, This is how you love other people.

That's what he just said.

He said, He said, I we love how you're loving other people.

Do so more and more by the way you work every day.

It's an amazing thing.

You know, here's here's what he's saying.

He's saying this is this is good.

You you can write this down.

People over paychecks.

That's what he's saying.

People over paychecks.

This is this is when it's people over paychecks, that's getting the reward of work and the purpose of work back in order.

We're getting those things back in order.

Work's an expression of our love for our neighbor.

You you you you realize that you don't have to get off of work, find an opportunity to go find somebody to talk about Jesus in order to start telling the world about Jesus.

You can do that.

Go into work.

Like the way you work.

That's an amazing thing.

The idea that the quality of my work, the diligence of my work, like the way I approach what I'm doing, like that's actually we said it throughout the series.

We make the invisible God visible.

God is a others-centered, he's not self-centered.

What would that look like at work?

For a lot of us, I think we have a narrow understanding of worship.

I think this is this is a contributing factor to this.

A narrow understanding of worship.

For many of us, we think of worship in terms of what we just did 30 minutes ago.

Right?

We think of it in terms of singing songs together, and that is worship.

That's a form, that's a form of corporate worship.

But worship is far wider, far bigger than we've given it credit for.

I mean, several hundred years ago, when you would go into a court of law, you know, we we always hear that language, like your honor, right?

When you talk to a judge, they used to say things like your worship.

That was actually one of the phrases they would use years ago.

Why?

Because the idea is like worship is what's getting my attention.

That's really what worship is.

Who or what is getting my attention, which means this it's like your work, the way you work, is worship.

I listen to what I'm saying.

I didn't say it can be worship, I said it is worship.

It is.

I hope you're worshiping the living God, but I'm just saying it's worship.

The way you live, what gets your attention, what motivates you.

You can do the right thing for the wrong reason, and then it makes it all right wrong, right?

And then that wouldn't be worship.

Like, what's the motivation?

What's the worship?

You know, part of part of living into your purpose is connecting your gift.

We talked last week.

It's like you got to know your gifts, right?

That's great.

Know your know your spiritual gifts.

That's uh, that's an important part.

Know the way that God made you.

And and there was a little bit of tension.

I didn't address it last week because I was gonna address it this week.

And one of them is like, I can I can discover my gifts, I can know what I'm what God's gifted me to do.

And it's like, okay, I'm ready to, I'm ready to live into that.

And then you're like, what am I supposed to do with this?

I gotta go, I gotta go back to work tomorrow morning.

Right?

I gotta go, I gotta go back to my normal life.

Thanks for telling me what I'm good at.

Now I'm just aware that I don't get to do what I would really like to do.

Thank you for very much.

Ah, now I'm aware of what I don't have opportunity to do, and that's the key.

See, the part of this is connecting your spiritual gifting with opportunity.

See, see, this is where with with opportunity.

See, for from for most of us, here's what that means.

It means this.

It means there's a timing to your next steps.

It means there's a timing to the way you're living your life and and walking your your your life out.

Which means this.

If your goal of your work is to is anything other than what God has designed, it means this.

It means you're probably gonna be no no no I'll rephrase that, rephrase that.

You're going to be unsatisfied until you get that job, until you make that much money, till you accomplish that thing, till you get the credit, till you get the recognition.

Like this is what this means.

Like there's a there's a timing to this, and and what I what I'm telling you is is that God actually God actually wants you to be satisfied in your work right now.

Not not not later, not next week, like right now.

And I and I'm telling you, even though some of you right now you hate your jobs, and you hate what the opportunity that is in front of you, and you've come to loathe it, and you've come to despise it, and you've got all these things, you probably do need to get a different job.

But I'm telling you right now, in the meantime, you can enjoy, you can be satisfied.

There is satisfaction, is there when you're ordered, when you're ordered.

Let's just cut to the chase.

You ready?

Because we like to spiritualize Christians, do we do this, right?

We're good, especially being Christian long enough, you start learning the language, you have this way of spiritualizing everything.

You're like, well, it's not really that, it's really more like the condition of my heart and the atmosphere that I'm experiencing and the inside of me.

And I just, I don't know, whatever language we come up with.

Or like, wow, that was really flowery.

I don't really know what you said, but it sounded pure.

Okay.

Let's cut to the chase.

It's money, it just is.

It's money.

That's what it is.

It's money.

We can we can say whatever we want, we can talk about our ego, we can talk about our accomplishments, we can talk about all this.

It's it's money.

That's the competing God.

Right there.

Just flat out.

For all of us, it always has been.

It always has been.

Here's how I'm gonna make a case for.

You ready?

When you serve God, money's a tool.

When you serve God, money's a tool, it's an effective tool.

When you serve money, you become the tool.

Oh, you think I'm kidding?

You think this is just some great little like language to put up here as a pastor?

God demands a sacrifice.

Did you know that?

He demands a sacrifice.

And the beautiful thing about the God of the Bible is he's the one that provided the sacrifice.

Gives you Jesus.

Gives us Jesus.

And he says, Oh no, no, no, you can't do this.

I'll do it.

I'll do it.

Then he goes, and he goes, here's how you respond.

Every day, now lay your life down as a living sacrifice for the benefit of everybody else around you.

That's the God of the Bible.

And when you serve God, he says, I'll put some money in your hand.

It'll be an effective tool for your life.

You serve money?

Oh, you don't think that's a God?

Because he demands a sacrifice too.

And he'll demand that you put your marriage on the line, he'll demand you put your relationship with your kids on the line.

He'll demand everything, he'll demand everything you enjoy in your life.

He'll demand you, you know, he'll demand that you sacrifice the things that would actually fulfill you and bring you joy.

God's a good God, and money is an effective tool when when you're serving God, but money is a ruthless God.

It's ruthless.

Look how Jesus says it in Matthew 6.

No one can serve two masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

You know what's funny?

When I talk to Christians, I never, I in my whole life, I have never encountered somebody who said, I know I want to be faithful to Jesus, but I'm just so tempted to serve the Hindu God today.

Said, no Christian ever.

I'm so tempted to serve the Buddhist God, the Islamic God, or any other God you could come up with.

I never heard anybody say that.

And this is what's so cunning about money is that it's got us convinced, it's got you convinced it's not a God.

And what's wild is that of all the gods that are there, Jesus doesn't address any of them.

He only addresses money.

He says the only competing God for your whole life, all your attention, all your motivation, all your effort, your entire heart's position and posture toward your neighbors, your families.

The only competing God is money.

Money.

Therefore, I tell you, don't worry.

Look what it leads to.

See, this is what it leads to.

This is how you know when there's something out of order.

Look what it look what it leads to.

When money becomes a God, when God is not ordered, look what it leads to.

Worry.

Worry about your life.

Eat what you're gonna eat and drink, your body, what you're wearing.

And Jesus is going, isn't life more than food and the body more than clothes?

You can't serve both God and money.

Okay, so let's bring it all home here.

How do I then experience?

How do we actually experience more satisfaction in our work?

How do we do that?

How do we, how do we move forward with this?

I'm gonna give you, I, you know, these are not my takeaways for you today, by the way, are not just like, they're not like quick fixes.

They're not, uh in fact, what I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you a new habit to live your life with.

This isn't just this is like I'm I'm I'm actually challenging you, challenging you today to rethink the habits of your life.

And so I'm gonna give you two habits that will actually reorient the way you think about work and your motivation for work.

It will change you.

And it may not change overnight, but you do this over a period of time, and I promise you, you will not be the same person.

Here's the first one.

And it's this habit of community, prioritizing community.

Um, you know, spiritual, we live in a kind of an era where all of our spiritual formation is like detached from the people and the places that we live.

It just is.

It's like, well, spiritual formation is who I'm listening to.

Like, spiritual formation is the book that I'm reading.

And by the way, I'm not saying that that's there's not spiritual formation there.

My life's been deeply formed by other people speaking into my life who don't live by me.

My life's been deeply formed by books that I've read.

And absolutely, I'm not I'm not dismissing that.

But see, when we reduce spiritual formation is just between me and whatever I decide to intake, we automatically detach spiritual formation from the way God actually designed it to work.

See, when our faith is just between us and God, because that's what we're saying.

Don't be surprised when work looks the same way.

Well, I'm just here because it's just me and God, and this that's I'll mind my business, you mind your business.

We just sort of leave it at that.

Community, community.

I remember I was, I remember this, I was 17 years old.

I remember I was 17 because I didn't get pulled over for the first time until I was 17.

So I was I was on my best behavior from 16 to 17, okay?

And and I don't want any judgment because I know how y'all drive too.

So I'm just saying, so 16 to 17, I was doing really good.

And then I don't know, like a light, like something's like a switch clicked at at 17.

I was like, I'm done.

I think I'm gonna be an idiot moving forward.

I don't know what happened at that age.

That's what happened.

And so 17.

And I remember driving through this neighborhood, it was the neighborhood we lived in at the time, and I would drive so fast in this neighborhood.

I'm talking like go to jail fast, like bad.

I'm driving, I was speeding through this neighborhood, all just focused on what I what I want to do, having fun, meeting up with somebody, got somewhere to be.

I'm just living my life.

17 years old.

I'm not thinking about anybody but myself.

Okay.

Fast forward a few years later, I'm working at a telephone company.

And I'm at this telephone company, I'm back.

Now I'm I'm back, I've moved all over the place, now I'm back in the same, same community and working at a telephone company.

And I show up to this job, this, this, this job.

I'm installing, I don't know, internet and phone service.

And and so show up to this house and and uh get out there and it's the same street that I used to live on.

Same street that I was driving, you know, 60 miles an hour down in the middle of a neighborhood.

And and and I and I'm in there, and it's a it's kind of a big job.

So it took me, I was there for at least two hours, you know, getting all this stuff installed.

And this family was there, the husband, the wife was there, their three kids.

And so I'm pretty much, I'm like, I'm kind of in their business, you know, I'm installing stuff all over their house.

And so start up a long conversation with them.

It was a great customer service experience.

We ended and we're like shaking hands.

It's like about new best friends, you know.

And I go outside, I'm about to leave, and I see this guy driving like a maniac down the road.

And in that moment, I'm like, what are you doing?

There's kids here.

This is Jill and Billy's house.

I love their kids like they're my own, you know.

We've known each other for two hours, but the relationship is deep.

And I'm like, how dare you drive down?

I'm ready to fight this guy.

How dare you?

45 miles an hour.

I know I was going 60, but 45 is ridiculous.

It's amazing.

It's amazing when you're relationally detached from people, how willing you are to drive 60 miles an hour down a road, but suddenly you know one family on that road and you're going, I'm offended that you're going over the speed limit at all.

Being relationally connected to people changes you.

It creates compassion inside of you.

Suddenly, it's not just I'm doing stuff so I can get a job done and make some money.

No, suddenly suddenly these are people to serve.

This is a community to to to enhance.

This is a these are people you hope enjoy the fruit of your labor, which by the way, is not just the money you made, it's the product you created.

I'm just telling you, being relational, live in community.

Here in just a few minutes at the end, I'm gonna tell you about this freedom series coming up, and this is gonna be church-wide, and we're gonna challenge you to get into groups, get into groups.

We do this all the time.

We've been doing it for five and a half years, get in groups, and a lot of you will, and but a lot of you won't.

And then you'll wonder why you don't have any community in your life and you're relationally disconnected from your community.

And I'm just telling you, stop it.

Like, get off that track, get into the better track, create a new habit.

You're gonna have opportunities, like make a predecision.

You know what?

I don't care how busy I get, I don't care how life is demanding it is, I don't care.

Money's not my God, the living God is.

I'm gonna do it his way, I'm gonna get in community.

Well, they're gonna meet up like 10 times, and I'm only gonna be able to make it to five of them.

Who cares?

Just start.

Live in community.

Here's the next one make a habit of generosity.

Make a habit of generosity.

Money wants to be the main thing.

We said it last week.

What do you remember what we said about serving?

You got great gifts, some of you are super gifted, you got amazing skills, abilities, you're smart.

And guess what?

You know what the temptation is?

To make that the center of your life.

In fact, that's how we leave.

I do this, and serving is a way to kind of remove your gift and your abilities out from the center of your life, put Jesus there, and start giving away the very gift that He actually gave you in the first place.

Money is the exact same way, it wants to be the main thing.

It wants to be the main thing.

So, how do you make money not the main thing?

Well, how about a practice of tithing?

That's the old testament, Pastor.

We're not supposed to tithe.

You know, I don't even care if it was.

Did you know that?

I don't care if it's not a command of God.

You know what?

I'm still gonna do it.

Do you know why?

Because it's what keeps money out of my heart and makes it a tool in my hand.

And it is the mechanism that God gave us to keep money well in its proper place.

Get your life ordered.

You can tell me all day long.

Well, money's not the main thing.

I'm keeping my life ordered, but I'm not tithing.

I'm gonna tell you right now.

Really?

How why can't you tithe?

You ought to ask yourself that.

Well, I just don't.

I know we uh remember, we're good.

We're good, Christians are good at this.

We find the language to justify this stuff.

It's amazing.

We're good at it.

I've done it, I've done that before.

We've all been there.

I'm just saying, you know, we too easily, you know what we do?

We're way too willing to do this.

We're way too willing to risk our spiritual formation and our spiritual health for some money.

It's amazing how willing we are to risk it.

We will take new opportunities, we'll take jobs, we'll take on more hours, we'll move to new cities, we'll do all kinds of stuff.

And we just assume that our spiritual formation, the health of our relationships is just going to kind of sort of follow right along.

We are way too willing to risk all of that for the sake of money.

When was the last time you actually risked some money for your spiritual formation?

I said risk it, not throw a little pennies here and there.

I said, when was the last time you actually risked some money for the sake of your spiritual formation, your spiritual health?

God's not against us having money, saving money, having a having a future that's financially secured.

He just says, but are you rich toward God?

That's his challenge.

Are you rich toward God?

This is the pathway to be satisfied at work today.

This is how you do it.

Create new habits.

Let's pray.

Jesus, we're grateful for you.

We need some help with this.

We need help with this.

I mean, I know for me personally, I've had so many seasons of my life where money is always competing to be in the in its improper place in my life.

And I've had to repeatedly come to you and repent and reorder and and create better habits.

And so I just think that's that's probably where a lot of us are at right now.

And so we I just think as collectively right now, I think this is a great moment.

If that's you, just turn your palms up right where you're at.

No, you're not, I'm not asking you to come down here, but I think if you're in this place where money has become the God, inadvertently, not intentional, but boy, it does get a lot of our worship, i.e., our attention.

If that's you, just turt your palms up right in your lap, right where you're at, and just tell them, Jesus, forgive me.

Forgive me for letting this competing God dethrone you in these areas of my life that I've overlooked.

Help me to reorder my motivation and my focus as I go to work tomorrow.

For some of you, as I go to work this afternoon.

Help me to help me to help me to see money for what it really is.

A gift from you, an effective tool that can be used for you, but not a good God.

And so I make you my God, you're my God.

And I choose to be motivated by my love for other people, my love for you.

Thank you.

If you've never committed your life to Jesus, you need to start there.

Again, we said it money demands a sacrifice.

Well, God does too, the living God, but he made the sacrifice, he gave the sacrifice, and his name was Jesus.

If you've never committed your life to Jesus, just make this prayer your own.

Just tell him, Jesus, I give you my life.

Thank you for saving me.

I'm committed to following you for the rest of my life.

You died for my sins, you rose again on the third day.

You walked this earth for about 40 days, and then you ascended to the right hand of the Father.

And I believe that.

And I'm committed to following you from this day forward.

Thank you for saving me.

It's in Jesus' name, we pray.

Come on, everybody said Amen.

Amen.

Come on, let's put our hands together.

Kell Jesus, thank you this morning.