Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:01 — 4.1MB)
PROGRAM D-7722
Tell me the truth: Were you delighted to go to work today? Or were you thinking, “Whoa, it’s only Tuesday; four more days until the weekend”?
Why do we find this fairly universal attitude toward work? Everyone seems to live for the weekends. Well, the title of my series this week is “Thank God It’s Monday!” because if you’re a Christ-follower and have been set free from sin and its curse by faith in him, then you can—and should— have a totally different view of your work. You should be able to honestly say, “Thank God it’s Monday!”
I mentioned that God gave Adam work to do in the Garden of Eden, and until sin entered the picture, work was something to be enjoyed, something fulfilling, something meaningful. Everything God created was good, so work was good. The original workplace was pleasant, a place of fellowship with others and with God, a place of cooperation and obedience. Adam’s job was to take care of the garden—or farm—and that was a sacred assignment from God, not some secular job he had to do to earn a living.
But once sin entered, that original plan was corrupted. And from that point on work became drudgery. Do you wonder why your workplace seems so miserable sometimes, or why relationships are so strained where you work, or why it’s so difficult to get motivated on your job? It’s because work of every sort has suffered the “thorns and thistles” of the curse as found in Genesis 3.
In our corrupted workplaces, people reject God and almost any other authority placed over them. There is often little cooperation and lots of jealousy. Seems like everybody is out for number one with little regard for the welfare of others. The workplace is ruled by human nature and that is a sinful nature.
And here you and I are, born-again believers in Jesus Christ, forced to go out into that corrupted workplace five days a week and be abused and mistreated and have to work our fingers to the bone and no one appreciates us! If only we could be set free from this sin-corrupted work environment—right?
Wrong! Jesus came to redeem us from the curse of sin, but he purposely left us in this world. We now have the amazing opportunity to demonstrate what work is really supposed to be like—yes, even in the midst of that corrupted workplace! Wow! What a privilege you have to show your world how God intended work to be. Do you do that? Would you like to?
