Together we asked three questions:
1) What was your 1st job
2) What do you do for work now?
3) Why do you do it?

This question of motivation is key for us to find work meaningful, productive and enjoyable.  What you believe when asked ‘why do you work?’ is worth thinking about. If we don’t have a good answer to the ‘why do you work’ question, work doesn’t have much value in itself.  It isn’t inherently valuable.  This in turn makes work simply a means to an end. In other words, you don’t work because of the work itself.

Work will either be there to get me something.  (Idol of money or status)  We work for the money, status or security of work.  This can lead to worry, insecurity, lack of joy, restlessness, discontent, Loneliness, workaholic.

Or work will be there to get the church something (Idol of church ministry).  So work isn’t as important as church work and is there to simply let you evangelise non Christians, or to earn money for the church or a training ground for full time Christian work or church planting.  Mark Greene says “the impact of Christians effectively robbing their work of spiritual and ministry value is to produce a sense of guilt.  The working Christian comes home at the end of a fifty hour week and thinks “I haven’t done any evangelism. I haven’t done any ministry. I’m not serving God.  I must make time outside of work to do these things”…The result can simply be exhaustion and discouragement. Exhaustion because too much is being attempted, discouragement….because there is a sneaking suspicion that the thing we spend thirty, forty, fifty hours a week doing is of no intrinsic value to God”.

This is bound to lead to grumbling, cutting corners and a huge sense of . Whether it be the exhaustion one feels after a full on weekend of activities and late nights in “service of the church” or the despondency of thinking that 50% of your life is pointless, a misunderstanding of the value of work has devastating consequences.

Biblical View of Work:
One of the first things we learn about God (in Genesis 1-2) is that he is a working God and the reason he works is for nothing other than his own pleasure (the repeated phrase in chapter 1 is “and God saw that it was good”).  Not only was work for God’s pleasure but as we are created in God’s image - it was given to us for our pleasure too.  So the creation mandate given to Adam and Eve was to (Gen 1:28) “be fruitful…fill…subdue…rule…And again in Gen 2:15 man was put in the garden and told to work it and take care of creation”. 

Therefore work wasn’t something that came after the fall, it was part of the original creation and it was good and pleasurable and satisfying in and of itself. Just as God worked, filling and subduing creation, so we follow in his footsteps.  Work is of God and is from God and is acting like God.  Paradise would not be paradise without work, and mankind would not be mankind without work.  And if we skip ahead through time to the vision of the new heavens and new earth in Rev 21/22 we find God wants us to continue to work. 

However, shortly after this mandate is given to mankind –they chose to disobey it. Instead of a wonderful garden city being built, Adam and Eve threw it all away.  So devastating that it become known simply as ‘the fall’.  The consequences of choosing their own path (and not God’s) is that every single relationship was broken, world got messed up and all work became toil, difficult and pointless (Gen 3.17-19).  We asked each other how work has become difficult and problematic.

However it doesn’t mean that all work becomes toil and that no satisfaction can be found in work. There is punishment but also grace and redemption.  We believe Jesus resurrection unleashed incredible power to restore and redeem all that is broken with the world.
Relationship with God
Each other
And the world
The resurrection reaffirms the creation mandate to fill, subdue and work the earth and as we do this, we are not only being obedient to God but actually restoring God’s world.  We can be free from looking to work for significance and security because in Christ we have everything we need. He accepts us. He gives us significance because he loves us.  We can know real power to help us in times of suffering and trials at work. 

This means Christians really should make the best workers as their hope is so much greater than simply getting ahead or making money.  It doesn’t mean they are the best at what they do rather they give their best and work with integrity and honesty.

Summary:
Creation - work is very good
Fall - work becomes hard
Cross       -    work can be redeemed and made good
New creation - work is very good

Sure there’s a tension right now but there is also hope, power, and victory.  Work isn’t mans idea, it’s Gods.  God worked and still is working. He was deeply satisfied in his work and we can be too.
Work isn’t a distraction from the real work that needs doing.  Work has value but doesn’t give you value.  If you look for too much significance in work, you’ll come away empty handed (Ecc 2:10-11). 
Work is necessary, good and can be worship.  Ultimately your work can be redeemed and used by God as part of the redemption of the world.

Questions:
1) What was your first job?
2) What do you do as work now?
3) Why do you work?
4) Can you spot where you may have the wrong perpective about work?  do you wither look to work as a means of simply getting something or can you see it’s inherant value? 
5) Do you feel guilty about the level of hours you work at church?  discuss this together?
6) Do you work too hard in church ministry?
7) What are you struggles at work? 
8) Where do you feel compromised as a Christian?
9) Where can you bring a godly influence in your workplace?
10) What does witnessing look like at work?  Share some success stories?
11) Read 1 Thess 4:11-12.  Unpack what this means for you personally?
12) Read Col 3:23-24.  How can you remind yourself to have an eternal perspective at work?
13) Pray for each this week at work.
14) take a lunch hour to meditate on making work an act of worship.