INTRODUCTION TO COLOSSIANSGospel Centered Marketplace:A Neglected Way To Glorify God

The Foundation of Work

• “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He create them.”

• Working with God: cultivate, keep, subdue, rule.

• Working without God: cursed ground, toil, thorns, thistles, sweat, death.

How Often Have You Heard This?

• “Work pulls me away from the really important things in life”

• I’d serve God more if I didn’t have to work so much”

• When I retire, then I’ll really be able to do ministry”

But Have You Ever Heard This…?

• “How can my life glorify God?”– Go into business!

• “I really want to serve God with my life!”– Go into business!

• “I love God so much I couldn’t help but go into business!”

• “When I serve a customer I feel His pleasure!”

• What good is a faith that has no connection with most of my waking hours of life?– apathetic Christians…..impotent church

• What good is a faith that impacts how I view the reality of work and the reality of God?

It changes everything!

Working From The Right Foundation

“Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.”

Written notes, lists, goals

Calendar, time

Values and mission statements

Principles

GOD

GOODADVICE

GOOD NEWS !

“Our word career comes from two ancient French roots for ‘cart’ and ‘circle’. The word picture is of an individual pushing a cart endlessly in a circle: the treadmill of life. Calling is not treadmill living. Calling is a picture of linear movement. It is both summoning, a coming to, and then a commissioning, being sent on an errand. The picture here is not the circular, never ending rat race, but the outward-pointing arrow of meaningful direction. The difference between career and calling is the difference between mission and activity. Calling is being released to be exactly who I am supposed to be, to do precisely what I a supposed to do for God, an assignment with eternal worth.”

~“Life @ Work”

Addington and Graves

A career is what I am paid to do.A calling is what I am made to do.

Working From The Right Foundation

“Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.”

“Sine cera”………..without wax

Letting Good Things Run Wild!

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men; knowing that from the Lord you will receive their reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.”

“Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.”

I once asked an Indonesian Christian why the country had become so predominantly Muslim. She said that when the Western Christians came, primarily from Holland, they built missionary compounds and missionary churches and expected the Indonesian people to come to them. The Muslims, on the other hand, came as traders, farmers, merchants, and businesspeople and simply lived among the natives. Today, Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation. I wonder how different it could have been?