Intro:
Have you ever had a case of the Mondays? (Robert Frost Quote)
Work is part of the blessing, not part of the curse
Go ahead – get it out…
Genesis 1:28
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Genesis 2:5
When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth [2] and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth [3] and there was no man to work the ground,
So if work is part of the blessing than why are Mondays so bad?
• Work is often tied to our identity.
• Work is often mistaken as our purpose.
• The fruits of our work is often thought of as our legacy.
But the Bible tells us differently…
I want you to repeat after me….
What I do, is not who I am
Identity
1. I am a Child of God
John 1:12
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
2. A father/mother, sister/brother or child
1 Corinthians 4:15
Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
Story: My First Big Story as a Journalist – “Just because someone calls you green doesn’t mean you are green”
It enables you to overcome criticism, hostile work environment and negative co-workers.
Contentment / Satisfaction comes from knowing who you are.
What I do, is not what I am meant to be
Purpose
1. Love and be loved by God
2. Love and be loved by others
Matthew22:37
Jesus replied: " ’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[2] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’[3] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Story: “Fellowship of the ring” – Finding purpose in a common mission
It enables you to go to even the worst job in the world and perform it with a song!
“I owe, I owe so off to work I go…whistle while you work”
Happiness / Joy come from knowing your true purpose in life.
What I do, is not who I will be remembered as
Legacy (Success)
How much you loved
No one ever says on there death bed “I wish I would have spent more time at the office”
How much you where loved by others
How will you be remembered when you die?
So many people loved Father Mychal Judge, recalled Duffy, because he "treated everyone like family." At funerals, he never just opened the book and started praying for people. He made it really personal. "Countless people told me that on birthdays, anniversaries, dates of sobriety- whatever- they would get a little note from him. He must have kept a huge calendar! In everyone’s lives, whatever was significant, he’d write them a little note about it or give them a telephone call. Everyone considered him family."
Duffy remembers that, outside Father Mychal’s funeral, where the overflow crowd had watched and listened via closed-circuit TV and loudspeakers, one of the homeless street people said, "That priest didn’t hide in the sanctuary; he brought the sanctuary out to us."
Mychal Judge held no distinction between himself and the people, Duffy recalled. "Even though initially a person might approach him as pastor, chaplain, whatever, within 30 seconds all of those titles just fell down and he was just a friend. He wasn’t afraid gently to mention God’s presence."
“Mankind should have been my business”
The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of the night, that the Ward would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance.
"Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the phantom, "not to know, that ages of incessant labour, by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!"
"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
It held up its chain at arm’s length, as if that were the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it heavily upon the ground again.
"At this time of the rolling year," the spectre said, "I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!"
Do you believe the Bible?
Deuteronomy 28:13
The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
Genesis 12:2
"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
Proverbs 13:21-22
But the (24) righteous will be rewarded with prosperity.
22
A good man (25) leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,
And the (26) wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
More Than Conquerors
Romans 8
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[10] who[11] have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."[12] 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[13] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This week when you feel down I want you to just remember on thing:
I am a child of God, loved by my Father in Heaven and destined to leave a legacy of love that will change the world.
Today I am more than a conquer!
