How To Get The Most Out Of Life

You see, we get over here into this comfort. We get over into settling for less than something but a lot of the commands of scripture are there so that you can stay in that zone. Why? Because God has good plans for you. God has plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Not to get something less. Not to move into the area of discomfort. As a matter of fact, one of those commands is found in the book of Nehemiah. Now, you may be familiar with the Ten Commandments. I’m actually going to use a couple of those a little bit later in the message today but let me give you another commandment. And this is a commandment just as—all the Ten Commandments are commandments. Notice what it says in the book of Nehemiah. The prophet, Nehemiah, says to the people of God, go celebrate and enjoy life. Isn’t that an interesting command? You say, finally, a commandment I could fulfill. Go, celebrate. You know what the better translation of that would be? Go have a party! Live life to the fullest! Well, how do you do that? Well, you’ve got to make some rediscoveries. You see, outside the garden, to go back to my metaphor from Genesis, when you’re outside the garden, you have to look a little harder to find the zone. When you’re in the garden, the zone is all around you. You can’t get away from it. But outside the garden, you’ve got to look a little harder to find it. Well, today, I want to challenge you to make three rediscoveries. And in just a minute, I’m going to come back and talk about these three rediscoveries that you have to make so that you can live your life in this zone of enjoyment that God has for you. Before we get to all that, will you bow your heads with me?

Father, we get so confused sometimes. And sometimes, we miss out on the good stuff that you have for us. And so today, as we talk about this idea of rediscovering what you created us to experience, how we can live our lives with pleasure and how we can live our lives with maximum enjoyment. God, it’s a new way of thinking for some of us. So open up our hearts, open up our minds. And help us to be the people that you created us to be. Now, as our worship team guides us in this time, may you just use these songs and use this focus on you to help us to learn from you. We pray, in Jesus name. Amen.

So God wants you life your life in this zone. He wants you to live your life in a place where you can have maximum enjoyment. In order to do that, there are these three rediscoveries that you need to make. They’re not new discoveries. They’re things that have been around. Adam and Eve actually experienced these in the garden but you and I have to rediscover those. Let’s talk about it. Here’s number one.

How do you get the most out of life? Number one, rediscover the meaning of work. You say, work? I thought we were talking about enjoyment. Well, God created you to work and God created you to get enjoyment out of work and this is such an important rediscovery for you to make because you’re gonna spend so much of your time at work. And you know, if we add it all up, most of us spend the majority of our lives at work and we’re doing this stuff. So how do we rediscover meaning in that? Well, this is the anecdote to boredom. You see, one of the reasons God created you to work is so that you would not get bored in this life. Humans are created to do. I know we talk about being human beings but another better word for that would be human doings. I mean, we have to be active. We have to do something in order to discover significance. This is the way God wired us. It’s this way in this life. It’s also this way in the next life. Now, I saw an article, a study actually in Tuesday’s USA Today--a little snapshot that caught my eye. They ask how Americans feel about work. Let’s see where you stand. Fifty-one percent of Americans said they only go to work so that they can impress their family or their friends because they want to give the impression that they’re doing well. I don’t know. Maybe you’ve got family and friends a long way—a long ways away and so being here in New York, it looks good to have a job here. Forty-one percent said they would never work again if they won the lottery. I say, you don’t know if you don’t play. Next is—we’re not proponents of the lottery. Okay? Just so you’re clear. Next, 37% said that they want to get out of their current job and start their own business. I meet people a lot of times who leave their current job, they start their own business, then they don’t like their new boss. But that’s a different issue. Twenty-seven percent said they’re only in their current job for the money. And 22% describe themselves as workaholics. I don’t know where you are along the way of this continuum with work but did you know that God created you to enjoy your work? God created you to discover significance through your work. I’m talking about all kinds of work. Not just the kind that’s limited to 9 to 5. Not just professional work. God wants you to enjoy your professional work. He also wants you to enjoy your avocation, if you will. He wants you to enjoy the work of being a parent. He wants you to enjoy the work of being an artist. He wants you to enjoy the whole spectrum of what it means to work in our day. And you know, every once in a while, you’ll get a glimpse of the type of significance God wants you to enjoy. For example, have you ever had one of those periods at work where you might say, I’m in the zone? I mean, things were going so well. Things were going so smooth. You felt like you were, you know, kicking on all cylinders in work? I had a day like this not too long ago. I mean, it started very early in the morning and I was a little groggy, you know, getting up way early. But man, the next thing I knew, it was 3:00 and then I turned around and then it’s 8:00 and I’m like, where did this day go? But there was just so much joy in that, so much enjoyment, so much satisfaction because I was living that. And you see, every once in a while, God will give us those little earthly moments so that we can experience what he wants us to experience on a full-time basis. Now, here at The Journey, I have the privilege of working with a great staff. You’ve obviously gotten to meet many of them and I enjoy working with a great staff at The Journey but the thing about our staff is there’s not that many of us and we have to work really hard because our church is growing and there’s a lot of stuff going and so it’s pretty normal for us to put in 70 to 85 hours a week and at that particular pace, obviously, sometimes, there’s difficulties, sometimes maybe you get on each other’s nerves or whatever. But in the midst of all of that, what I’ve noticed about our staff is there’s still this underlying enjoyment of what they do. And some of you say, well, I can certainly understand that because you guys work for a church. What you’re doing is very tangible. Well, that ma be true but let me give you this principal. You see, when God says he wants you to enjoy work, He doesn’t want you to change who you’re working with or He doesn’t want you to change where you work. Instead, He wants you to change who you’re working for. And so anybody can find enjoyment in their work regardless of their place of employment if they do their work for God and not for something less. And you see, some of us live to impress others. Some of us live to increase our salary or to get a pay raise or whatever. But God says that’s not the path to true enjoyment. True enjoyment in work is found when you do your work in a way that brings honor to God and you do your work to serve others and serve God through your work. Let me explain.