Trusting God in a Hostile Work Environment (Darrin Patrick)

well your job is the place that God is using to provide for your needs but your job is also the place that God is using to develop your character what if you saw your job not mainly as the place that God is working through you but mainly as the place that God is working in you what if your faith could actually thrive in a hostile environment that you call your job well those are the questions and that is the theme that I believe this text is speaking to now in the Bible there's times where we can go straight from the text right right to our lives one of the verses that I love and it's the first verse that I taught my children to memorize and it's a verse that I constantly go back to is proverbs 3:5 which says trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding and and that that verse is just like Bible life right you can get right into it but this verse specifically verse 18 we can't just go right from the text to our lives we have to go to our brains and we have to go back and look at some cultural backgrounds because our translation says servants in verse 18 but other translations say slaves and so we get into a sticky area especially with the history that we have in our nation and so what people do is they like oh there's another one right there's another example of Christianity being socially and morally regressive see they endorse slavery well let's take a second in the first century the way servanthood or slavery was done was radically different than the way it was done in our nation in our nation it's what's called chattel slavery meaning people kidnapped against their will brought to our country to do labor American slavery was race-based it was lifelong and it was forced yeah there was no option the problem is when you start doing the history what you learn is several of the founders of our country who in all in all appearances were Christians owned slaves as well as several great Christian theologians so in fact some people that say you're using the Bible to justify horrible things it's true it's just true because our forefathers did it some of the the men that we stand on the shoulders of theologically did it they used these verses to justify the horrible institution of slavery but they did it against what the Bible teaches clearly men and women created in the image of God Genesis one says they did it in an obvious contradiction to their own documents the Declaration of Independence for instance every person is endowed every person endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights and they did it against first Timothy 1:10 that says do not kidnap people and put them into slavery don't do that so so they did it because they didn't understand the difference between first-century servanthood and American slavery in the first century all races were slaves and all races had slaves sometimes you would have set slaves of the same race slaves owned slaves so meaning you had people working for you when you you yourselves were working in a situation of slavery how did all this happen well what would happen is people and we've talked about this and this is documented history not just Christian history when the when people would get sick or old or babies were not wanted they would just put them out to die in the streets in the first century in the greco-roman world Christians would adopt these people well they had no social standing they had no way to provide for themselves and so they would become servants in the home another thing would happen is people would go into debt they were they were just poor and they couldn't pay off their debt there was no way there was no welfare system that and and and and really the option was like you know go to prison but that really wasn't they didn't have prisons like that so what would you do you would work off your debt and so this is what Peter is speaking I'm similar why would he just condemn it well if he condemns it you're gonna hurt the poor because there's no other way from the new or come if he condemns it you're gonna hurt the orphans because there was no way to care for them there were three classes of people during this time there were the those who had full rights of citizens they were Roman citizens they were just like that freedoms that we would enjoy much in the same way there were freed men people who had been slaves but it had worked off their debt which is almost always the way that worked and they had some restricted rights and then there were servants who really didn't have many rights and these were the people mainly working in the homes doing you know nannying cooking things of that nature and this is the these are the people that Peter is speaking to but but but get a bigger picture because what Peter's doing he's challenging all of us to think of ourselves in our jobs as a first-century servants so I don't care how like important you are and how many titles you have and how many people report to you Peter saying listen think of yourself in the condition of a servant as a servant in the first century there was absolute authority over your life okay you you could not you couldn't quit right you had to pay your debt as a worker there's relative authority over your life unless I always tell people they gripe to me about their job I just hit like quit if it's so bad oh I can't do that yeah you can yes you can relative Authority however you're gonna spend more time at your job many of you than you do with your own family you're gonna you're gonna spend more mind time does that communicate mind space thinking about strategizing planning for your job then you do your own family and we can argue about the merits of that and and and and but if you have a demanding job in this economy that's your reality so here's the reality you are a person under Authority you're a person under Authority let's remind ourselves what authority as we we talked about this last week here's what authority is it's the people and institutions that God puts in place to do three things teach protect and correct us okay so primarily this is a definition mate for government made for parents even made for church leaders but there is application to your job because if you see and we're gonna get there if you see God has put me in this situation in order to teach me some stuff and may even even protect me from some stuff like some of your like one day I'm gonna have this job in one day I want to do this guess what maybe God has you where you are now to protect that vision that if you were thrown into your dream scenario it would crush you maybe you're not ready for it yet maybe God's got some stuff to do in you to get you there right so I think this definition is relevant Authority now this is a text primarily for those who are in just under unjust authority this is the text for people who are not in a great in work environment some of you are in a great work environment it's and got you know let's be thankful for that but guess what ain't gonna last right I mean did you know that right you know that your one new boss one shift in Direction one market adjustment one downsizing move away from it going really bad really fast so you may not be there now you will be there some at some point in your career unless you're a purple unicorn right and it just all works out all the time for you some of you though you're in a tough situation now like now now you have a bad boss or professor you have a toxic environment you you dread every day getting up and going to work and when you're in situations like this you have many temptations I mentioned 3:1 laziness you can basically go this thing is so bad III my boss is such an idiot this thing is so toxic I'm just gonna pull I'm not gonna I'm gonna do as least as possible or you can just get super bitter you can just go I'm gonna do my job and smile on the outside but on the inside you know I'm gonna be totally angry and bitter and I'll hide it the best I can right some of you like the folks in our text are tempted to retaliate so you're tempted to kind of be like covertly kind of working against your boss your supervisor the vision of your company you are using your words and your influence and manipulating behind the scenes trying to this is the temptation of the folks that Peter is writing to so what do you do what are you doing these situations what are you doing it's tough well it's easy for me right it will be tough so or your friend it's tough for your friends so no I just didn't apply to me it's all good right use this for your friend what do you do well you submit to work Authority that's what Peter is saying in verse 18 you submit to work Authority verse 18 let's read it again servants be subject or submissive to your masters with all respect not only to the good and gentle but also why do you say this Bible also to the unjust why is I mean if you are not offended at the Bible you're not reading the Bible people it is just man say it's just so so what does it look like well we talked about this last week and we were talking about the government submit as a military word cement is to acknowledge your rank and act accordingly so you submit to Authority and and and any ties respect to it so respect is another way that he was talking with the government and verse 17 about honoring it's the same thing so you submit when you honor you honor three things you honor the person you honor the position and you honor the vision all right so so this can get intertwined and one of the three can be true and three the three can be bad it's all over the map I remember one of my bosses William love this guy believed in this vision thought you know he was in the right position but now I know I back then I was super judgmental because I'm in my 20s and I thought I knew everything I know that's not true it true for any of our 20 year olds but when I was 20 I thought I knew everything so I was looking at William who by the way now I'm Williams age back when I was 20 right so I'm looking at William who is going through a midlife crisis I mean I've google it night and I'm like yep yep yep he was so I was like he was checked out man he was checked out we and I was a new employee and I was trying to learn and grow and be developed and he was because he was wrestling with just who he was and I was so young I didn't even know all this lingo and language and but I just thought man this guy's going through a hard time he's made in the image of God God's obviously used him he's gifted I'm gonna honor him as a person and that's all I could do because I didn't really respect his vision he'd kind of lost it I didn't really even Dov questioned his position why did why did these people have him in this position if he's but I just went to the print so that's all I had so that's what I did another boss I had Rick great guy in way over his head super engaged not going through a midlife crisis awesome vision awesome I mean a know awesome guy but his position he he was just in over his head and so I had to super work to go all right man God put him here got interested in with this I'm gonna honor this position because wherever you're tempted to dishonor that's where you need to honor right so you really got to work at that and the low-hanging fruit for me with him was all right God's put him here another one of my bosses great guy I totally saw the position is right I didn't agree with the vision of where this thing was going right and so I had to work really hard and work through okay is this because it's the wrong vision or it's just not the vision I see right now so you have to work through this there's no easy answers but this is what it means to respect and and if you have a lack of respect and you can't honor the person and you have a lack of trust in the company and and you you really can't honor the position why they put in there why do they fire it and why aren't they dealing with if you have a lack of alignment with the vision and you are in a place where you either have to work through that or quit because you cannot continue to not honor right so how do you submit you know in a hard environment you you you absolutely have to honor person position and vision you also have to work hard you also have to work hard one of the things that I that I don't know I you get older and you just get you just like those young people right get out of my get off my yard like you get all old and crotchety and and I'm really tempted you know I'm really tempted to think oh my gosh you know I'm getting old and but there is a reality there just is a reality when you're younger you are super idealistic and and you there is an entitlement piece that's just true of all human beings especially when you're younger and I want you to hear this millennial I hate the word I hate generational theory but it's so hip and cool let me just say it so I could be hip and cool right Millennials hear me please II ask these nine ten whatever your hand finds to do do it with all your might for in the realm of the Dead where you're going there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom work hard my dad was the hardest guy a hardest-working man I've ever met to this day and not even close dropped out of school in tenth grade never went back and just made a business for himself and and so promised dad dad was an angry worker anybody have angry dad worker like deal going like so you would kind of wanted to be around your dad and then he's like teaching you words that sailors don't know like and and I just was like yeah Daniel its Kenobi over here and I was always like he was a construction guy building houses like I'd be throwing dirt clods and you know working on my changeup or whatever when I was a kid and but but eventually the bug got me right and I really got to know I was kind of a slacker growing a throat I was fired from my first three jobs because I'm so lazy and but eventually I got it and I started working hard and then we start the church right and we can't afford employees I was by vocational I used to lay carpet and and like ceramic tile that was my job and then we were work to plant the church and so we'd have money but we had volunteers and at that time and actually all the time in a church you need volunteers to really step up and use their gifts in the church you just can't get all the work that God has for a local church done by paying people paying staff we had this one volunteer her name was Chrissy she was awesome and here's what she did because at that time man I got my head down I got a young family but the church is in my mind right it's more than it's really on out but we're just trying to make this happen we just started I was overwhelmed I was freaked out and I had this girl Chrissy he was like super volunteer and she was serving and what that did for me hear me if you're in a situation that you feel like the boss is just not hearing you or like she worked and served and it gave her credibility to speak into some of the mic in my chaos my nonsense my sin as the boss she because she was so faithful and because she worked so hard I would say Chrissy what do you see what do you see in my life what are you seeing that what do you think we need to do and she was able to she was so gentle and so smart about she was able to say well what if we did this and how about this and Darren when you say that and people cry that's probably not a good thing like just little things right but so your work listen your work earns you in a sense the right to speak into the environment and the culture you're in like and so don't just don't just go underground with that don't just go well I just signed little little peon I can't speak no your work will give you room to make some changes in the environment that you're in and and and and that is the way to respond to a hostile work environment you submit right you honor and you work hard now another way you must do this according to the text is you must be focused this is the power right on the ultimate boss like some of our problem is we think our boss is our boss we think our professors our professor and we got a capital B boss we got a capital P professor this is what he's talking about in verse 19 says this is a gracious thing when and I want to focus on this phrase mindful of God one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly Peter is challenging his readers to deal with suffering by having a god word focus in their current state of dissatisfaction when you get frustrated in your job your temptation is to just go horizontal and gripe and moan to everybody around you start like sending resumes out right you know and and and what Peter's saying is would you stop would you stop that and what ends ask this question not what's my boss doing what's my next opportunity new question god what are you doing mindful of God present with God inviting God in to your difficult situation he's the ultimate boss here's the problem this is so hard to do because our work if you notice is diabolical in its pursue to be our main identity you notice this about your job it absolutely demands and requires that you comply and say my job is Who I am what I do is Who I am which is why the first question when you meet somebody new is what what do you do right and you're in some situation and people are like I I can't believe I go in I like I go I go to a restaurant and I meet three people and I come out with 12 business cards I don't know how this works because everybody's got like three jobs now this is what is that it's that we it's it's and and it can be it's easy to be critical you start doing the math though you know something like 90 thousand hours you'll spend at your job and your lifetime use it becomes and and it's especially hard when you're suffering in your job to not make it your identity but what Peter's saying is you have to refuse it and I say that I use that word you have to refuse it it's going to come and say do this you have to say no I'm not gonna do it I will not let my job define me no matter how good it is no matter how bad it is no matter how hard it gets I'm not going to do it now there's a reason why I advise for our our identity and it is because the Bible ties human creation right next to human production you go back to Genesis 2 God creates Adam what does he do Adam hang out and let's just I want you to spend the next thousand years just looking at stars and telling me about how awesome I am now Adam get in that garden and go to work son get in that garden and cultivate cultivate take what's there take the raw materials of the earth and make it better is that not what work is right that's what that's the essence of work taking what's there making it better Adam was built to to improve the world to take the goods of the world and improve them by the way that's our call - it's called the cultural mandate we're called to you know be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth the idea is this doesn't mean we abuse creation it means that we rule over God's creation with God's authority to bring about God's purposes what if you could see your job that way and so and it's sometimes it's hard to make that connection but that what you're doing either because of the development that's happening to you or the product that your company is selling or the vision that it has are the people that your work I'm actually taking what's there and I'm making it better doing work and being a human being are intrinsically connected this is why you must work you cannot not work you may not be getting paid for your work in fact Seth Godin has a very interesting dichotomy here he says there's a difference between your job and your work your job is what you're paid to do your work is what you were made to do and sometimes those coalesce and intersect and sometimes they don't but you have to work if that's part of your job awesome sometimes it's gotta be outside of your job but but this demand make your job your identity you are what you do that voice will never be quieted it's always real probably the best example that I've seen in media is that old school movie that was on before most of you were born Chariots of Fire remember it to athletes and the British Empire competing at the Olympics Eric Liddell Harold Abraham's both running races and and Liddell is is his sister Jenny he's gonna go be a missionary in China he's a Christian and his sister Janie is like you should not run you should just focus on mission work and he's like you know what God made me fast and when I run say with me if you know I feel his pleasure and so so but but he's like God made me for China so I'm going to China but right now I'm gonna run Abraham's was here was a here was his classic phrase he ran the hundred-yard dash he said I have 10 seconds to justify my existence I'm never content and I don't think I ever will be why because his running was his identity Liddell was like oh I'll run we'll see what happens I'm gonna go to China I might die ok totally different deal and this is why one enjoys their work the others defined by it this is your temptation can you enjoy your work can you be mindful of God can you realize God has you are for a purpose can you submit can you honor can you actually experience God or are you gonna be better driven always frustrated always at you know looking for the next opportunity these are our options and I love what Peter's doing because he's essentially saying what I want you to do is I want you to step back I want you to step back from your suffering I want you to step back from your work and I want you to see God and you know what you can do that too and and and you should do that I mean only just about only every day in just about every hour where you take two minutes and just go okay wait what would what would happen if you could just do that alright guy you're here you're in this help me you're here you're in this help me you're here you're in this that may have to say it three times you're here you're in this help me what did you do that once an hour this whole next week during your job what would happen right well I tell you what would happen you would actually embrace your calling to suffer at work instead of resenting it instead of fighting against it instead of being bitter at God about it you would actually embrace it look in verse 21 verse 21 man for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you may follow in his steps your job is never going to satisfy you ultimately but if you will look at your job as a way to suffer for the gospel something amazing could happen if you would look at your job not is the apex of your happiness and not as the place that you escape from you know but no wait a minute I'm going to suffer I'm going really to act like Jesus that's what he's saying act like Jesus I'm going to act like Jesus well how did Jesus act well let's keep reading verse 22 he Jesus committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth when he was reviled he did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly Peter is not saying that if you're in an unjust situation that you should not use the full measure of the law because we know in other places and then with Paul and Peter in the New Testament but there's you know Paul makes an appeal to the law when he was doing his life was in danger so doesn't mean you're just a doormat and if illegal things are going but but in the he's talking about the Spirit and our attitude in this whole thing and he's saying I want you to act like Jesus now here's and you remember these this was when I was a youth pastor did anybody have these bracelets anybody that old you might that old WWJD what what what they'll say to you what would Jesus do and our church was the church that attracted a bunch of people who weren't Christians and so our teenagers said that stands for we want Jack Daniels but it's actually what would Jesus do what would Jesus do it's a great question and we always think we always think like moral issues we always think like but how would Jesus suffer today who would he suffer for what would it look like to go to work with that mentality that I'm here to suffer for Jesus that's part of what it means to act like Jude what did Jesus do he didn't slander the most unjust ask all the time well how could God you know got let this atrocity how could this happen and there's some hard questions that have hard answers but listen the most unjust atrocious inhumane unrighteous ungodly act in the history of the world is when the son of God the innocent son of God was put on a cross that's the worst thing that's ever happened in humanity and he didn't retaliate and he didn't slander and he entrusted himself to he who judges righteously that's what it means to act like Jesus he followed the chain of command I mean he so that's heavy let me give you the other side act like Jesus but also act like a sinner act like a sinner look in verse 24 he himself bore our sins in his body on a tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed for you were straying like sheep but have now returned to the Shepherd and overseers of your souls now this is a whole thing about the atonement and we'll spend more time on it a little bit later in in Peter but at the end of the day in context I think what he's saying is will you please in your situation where you are under Authority will you please not be the holier-than-thou girl would you please not be that I do know wrong guy would you please understand that the biggest issue at your work is you the biggest problem in your company is you that it's that it's your sin that's causing most of the dysfunction in your life would you please realize that you need to be saved more than your company would you please realize that that that your sins a bigger deal than your bosses maybe not in the dynamic of the company but would you please be more concerned about your stuff than everybody else's because then when you are then you come at other people's weaknesses and sufferings with a desire to act like Jesus what did Jesus do he took responsibility and accountability for things that weren't his fault he sacrificed first he forgave most right I think that's what Peter's doing our jobs friends are this are this like constant reminder that there's more to life our jobs are this constant reminder that we need to repent of our own sin our jobs are this constant exposure to our own rebellion and if we're always blaming if we're always talking smack if we're always like at the water cooler or at the happy hour always like like that's just not gonna honor God and it's not gonna make you happy it's gonna keep you stirred up and on the on you're on the edge all the time and I know there's office politics and I know there's situations but man I'm saying Christians ought to be different I'm not saying it I think Peter is saying that so let me let me close with three three questions I'd like you to consider asking yourself first is pretty simple do you see your job as a gift I mean do you see that do you realize that if you're an up early mobile professional they'll use a professional you're in the top 1% of the whole world in income I mean you're making 40 $50,000 top 1% of the whole world we have this thing so skewed in our heads because we compare ourselves to like millionaires rest of the world living on a dollar a day a couple billion of them right do you see your job as a gift and a kind of a harder question where are you not if where are you dishonouring Authority in your space at work where is it is it is it around like not seeing people made in the image of God so that's the only way we can slander discredit retaliate if we if we go there less than human that's the only way this works are you just honoring the position that somebody has I ought to have that position what if God wanted you to have that position you would have that position well I'm working to you know get promoted keep working until then honor right and then the last one the last one how can you serve you got you guys every Christian chicken here we go to chick-fil-a I'd never been to chick-fil-a until like two years ago until they had one over by my house not a big fast-food guy and I just went in there and I'd heard about it and I know I heard some of this I was like wow you ever been there not the food's okay it's the people and how they're trained and their whole deal is how can I serve you what can I do what if that was your attitude what if you went in not like like you know I got space on my head here for a crown you might want to crown me today King what if you went in with a towel on your arm ready to wash feet like what would happen to your heart what would happen to your environment that's this invitation from this text let's pray and ask God to help it be real in our lives Lord thank you thank you that you know what we need thank you that you know where we need to be thank you that you know our bosses our supervisors our companies thank you that you know our struggle some of us need better paying jobs God some of us are stuck and Lord you know so Lord would you just give us hope that you are not finished with us that that we have good work to do but help us to be mindful that the work you're doing in us is more important than the work that you're doing through us so helpless Lord as we try to submit help us as we try to see past our boss to the ultimate boss help us Lord to suffer well so that when people look at us they say wow that man that woman that that reminds me of what I've heard about Jesus and so Lord we trust you to do that friends let's let this sit with us for a minute I know there's probably names faces popping up in your head there's longings in your heart there's desires about doing what kind of that job work distinctive thing some of us are stuck in jobs and we really want to be about our work so just hey pour that out to the Lord right now just pray say Lord you know my heart you know what I feel like I'm called to do and and ask him to provide and ask him to to give opportunities and and ask him to show up let's be mindful of him as we think about our jobs let's do that now

Channel: thejourneystl

Views: 32,035

Rating: 4.681356 out of 5

Keywords: 2016_03_06_Intersection_DP_wk9

Id: wL6xI4RVja4

Length: 39min 54sec (2394 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 14 2016