Work (1) – Trapped

Happy October everybody! Do you love to receive good news? A couple of weeks ago I announced that we had some difficulties applying for our new building permit due to the Natomas Moratorium. We were asked by the city to do another appraisal in the hope of getting a higher value in order to fit our budget under the rule. So we did, and we waited, and we prayed. Here’s the good news – the new appraisal came back and our building value has increased by 30%! Here’s another great news, when asked the appraiser how much the new report was, he told me that God spoke to him to donate his service to us! Isn’t it amazing that when you do what you need to, God will do only what God can do? Ready for more good news? So on Tuesday morning I successfully handed in our permit application for the city to review! Would you say it with me, if our God is for us, who can be against us?

Today we are starting a new series called @work. Did you realize that many of us will spend half of our lives at work? Yet, research tells us that over 70 percent of us are dissatisfied with our jobs, feeling fearful and frustrated most of the time. So what should we do when we feel that way? Change job? Your experience and mine tells us that’s not the solution. The answer could be found when we have the proper perspective on work.

Moving Forward

Far from being a punishment or a curse, work is actually a blessing, first given to us by God in the Garden of Eden. And because work is a blessing, there is no such thing as a job without purpose. The purpose of your life at work is to show that God is at work in your life. What are one or two ways you can do that this week?

Discussion Questions

1. What was your first job? What one memory (good or bad) sticks out to you about that first job?

2. What is one thing you love about your current job? What is one thing that frustrates you?

3. Kevin mentions four main reasons we go to work: to pay the bills, to find our identities, to be successful, to find purpose/significance. Which of these most closely relates to your primary reason for going to work? Why?

4. Read Colossians 3:23. What do you think it means to work “as working for the Lord”? Share about a time when you felt like you were doing this.

5. What makes it difficult to truly work for God? What are some of the distractions and circumstances that keep us from honoring God with our work?

6. What is one thing you can do this week at work to more fully work for God?