Chapell Grace at Work

Redeeming the Grind and the Glory of Your Job
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4335-7826-7
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 240 Seiten

A Biblical View of Work in Light of the Gospel  For many people, their job is merely 'the daily grind' needed to provide for family or pay the bills. Yet our work is a vital means for fulfilling God's purpose for our lives and displaying his grace to those around us. We bear God's image in our workplaces, experiencing his blessings and expressing his nature through our efforts, integrity, creativity, generosity, and excellence. No earthly chore is without the opportunity to observe his divine hand. No challenge in task or relationship is without opportunity to represent God's heart.  In this ebook, author and pastor Bryan Chapell shares this biblical perspective of vocation, explaining how God gives purpose to our work by making it an instrument of his grace to our own hearts, as well as a way of bringing his goodness and glory into our world. Chapell explains how we can worship God by our work, rising above drudgery, duty, or self-interest with the understanding that our jobs are unique callings for displaying God's character and care.  Our work is worship when we see the glory beyond the grind, the mission in the mundane, and the grace at work. - Ideal for Christians in the Workplace: Contains encouragement for those looking for purpose in their jobs  - Biblically Grounded: Chapell teaches how the gospel blesses attitudes and responsibilities relating to success, creativity, money, integrity, leadership, and even sin in the workplace  - Kingdom Minded: Explains vocation in light of the grace Christ provides to and through his people for blessing our world and bringing him glory 

Bryan Chapell is a bestselling author of many books, including Christ-Centered Preaching and Holiness by Grace. He is pastor emeritus of the historic Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois; president emeritus of Covenant Theological Seminary; and president of Unlimited Grace Media (unlimitedgrace.com), which broadcasts daily messages of gospel hope in many nations.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chapell, Bryan

Leseproben

1

Dignity

Author Steve Garber writes that most Christian people “spend their lives in the marketplaces of the world, hoping as they do that there is some honest connection between what they do and the work of God in the world. They yearn to see their vocations as integral, not incidental, to the missio Dei [the mission of God].”

Isn’t that what we all want to know at times? Does God have a mission for my work? Does God have any purpose for what I do? Am I just putting in the hours to fill up the bank account? Or is there some greater purpose in my work? Can I fulfill God’s mission at work?

Garber goes on to say, “Sorrowfully, most of the time the church teaches the opposite . . . that our vocations are incidental, on the sidelines of what God really cares about.”1 We assume that the spiritual priorities concentrated in preaching, witnessing, missionary endeavors, and worship activities are God’s main concern. So everything else is secondary or meant to serve these “really godly” purposes.

I recognize that there is the tendency among pastors, myself included, to see what is said in the Scriptures as applying primarily to the life of the church and not thinking carefully about what people are called to do the rest of the week. I need to remember over and over again that Sunday is for Monday, and that we are being called by God to do his work not just in worship but in the workplace.

An old word that may help us is vocation.

In our culture, we often use the word vocation virtually the same way that we use the word occupation. But it’s really quite different in the history of the church. Our vocation is our calling. The word vocation actually means “calling” and originates in what God has called us to do to fulfill his mission in our lives. That’s a different focus from our occupation, which is how we earn a living to fulfill our needs and desires.

As Christians we need to understand that our occupation actually has a vocation in it and that we are called to use our gifts and talents and resources for the extending of the kingdom of God. Only then will we begin to see that our jobs have a dignity we may never have understood. God intends to show aspects of his goodness and glory to others by the work we do during the week, as well as by the worship we offer on Sunday.

Garber challenges me when he continues writing, “When was the last time that architects and builders, teachers and librarians, doctors and nurses, artists and journalists, lawyers and judges were prayed for in your congregation? We need to keep praying for the Young Life staff people and for the Wycliffe Bible Translators, but we also need to pray for the butchers and the bakers, and the candlestick makers, too.”2 I would add that we need not only to pray for them but to equip them for their mission in all walks of life and corners of the world, wherever God calls them to display his purposes and priorities.

The Dignity of Work

Your work is your mission field, and because of that, there is a God-given dignity in what you do. How do I know that there is dignity in your work? Because that dignity is first revealed to us in Genesis 2:15: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

When we “work” something, we make it flourish. And when we “keep” it, we sustain it. We don’t waste it or abuse it. The Lord told Adam in his first job description, “I’m calling you to production and to conservation.” In other words, we are colaborers with God in his creation care. Production and conservation are part of what we are called to do in God’s world. That’s our job description. That’s our labor. That’s our mission too.

Good farming methods, pollution control, mining and land management, energy production and conservation—all modern concerns—are actually being addressed in these early pages of Genesis, where we are called to consider not only how to produce what we need but also to conserve so that God’s world itself is honored.

Label before Labor

One of the important observations in the first chapter of Genesis is that we get our label before we get our labor. In other words, before we are told what to do, we are told who we are in God’s eyes. Genesis 1:26–27 says the following:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

To be created in the image of God is to reflect his character and care, to be one who mirrors him. And here we are being told that even though our genders may vary, God’s fundamental intent for men and women does not vary: both have the responsibility before God of reflecting him in the world.

Of course, being God’s image and mirror doesn’t mean that we are God. When we talk about young people being the spitting image of their father, we’re not saying that they are the same as their father but that, when you see them, you’re reminded of their father. In the same way, when people observe our work in the world, they should be reminded of our Father, especially his character and care.

When the Bible says we have been created “in the image of God,” it is astonishing to realize that this label is given to no other aspect of God’s creation.

Reflect on that for a moment.

Think of the most amazing sunset you’ve ever seen, the grandeur of the oceans, and the majesty of the mountains. Think of the beautiful images from the Hubble telescope of exploding galaxies and of our own glorious Milky Way, and yet not one of those grand creations is identified as bearing the image of God.

As image bearers, we are actually given a dignity above everything in the universe. That is what the psalmist says in Psalm 8:3–5:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honor.

We are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” I know it may sound a little boastful, but we are awesome! We need to realize what God is saying to us: “You have the special privilege of being my image bearers in every place that you’re called, including your work.”

Our Value Is Not Based on What We Do

Genesis tells us that people were created in God’s image before he assigned them the task of working and keeping the garden. Why is this important? It is important because God is saying, “I’m not determining whether you’re an image bearer based upon what you accomplish.” The reason we value the unborn and the infirm is that they are still image bearers of God, regardless of what they do. What they have done or can do is not the basis of their value.

This notion that we get our label before we are assigned our labor is one of the Bible’s earliest explanations of the gospel. When you truly grasp the profound beauty of being valued by God before you have done work for God—treasured for who you are, not for what you have accomplished—then your life will never be the same. You begin to live in the freedom and power of knowing that God is for you not because of what you provide for him, but because of what he provides for you. God’s love and mercy are never based upon what you do but on his grace toward you.

God has been signaling that message from the beginning of the Bible so that our hearts are made ready to receive his grace and eager to reflect his glory. The care of God that culminates in the provision of Jesus Christ for those who could not earn or deserve his mercy radiates from the simple truth that we are given a loving label before we are assigned our life’s labor.

Because you are an image bearer, you have value and dignity before you’re ever given a job assignment. And whether you become the president of a large corporation or serve God as a custodian in a public school, your value and worth before God never change, since each career path is pursued by a divine image bearer with equal dignity in the Lord’s eyes.

How We Treat Ourselves and Others

Being created in God’s image has many applications for how we view ourselves. Self-hatred is ruled out. All the rejection we fear because of our sin, our backgrounds, our lack of performance, and our body image not being what we think it should be—these should also be ruled out. God is saying to us, “I want you to remember that you’re the spitting image of me.” As a result, I get to treat myself as one who bears the image of my heavenly Father.

The knowledge that all people are created in God’s image should impact how we treat others. Our tendency is to treat people the way they treat us. If we believe one of our coworkers has treated us unfairly, we’re tempted to retaliate. Or if our...