Your Job: A Springboard for the Most Important Work

Introduction

You have a job. You are a nurse, an engineer, a future doctor, a lawyer, an IT professional, a teacher. That is a grace, and you should give thanks to God for it. In some countries, people study, rewrite their resume, and search for months without a single offer coming their way. If you have a paycheck at the end of the pay period, that is not nothing: it is a blessing.

But if you stop at the paycheck, you miss the point entirely. Pastor Celestin YAO reminded everyone of this during the service dedicated to trades and professions at ICC Montreal: your job is not the destination, it is a springboard. Even before your parents dreamed for you, God had prepared another work, a greater one, which your job is meant to serve. Do not leave this world having succeeded in your career while reaping nothing for eternity.

Sermon Outline

1. Work is not a curse, it is a blessing

In the beginning, God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden before the fall, with a clear mission: to cultivate the garden and to keep it. Work was there from day one. It is not a consequence of sin, it is the Creator's gift to his creature made in his image.

Proverbs celebrates this reality. "The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor" (Proverbs 12:24). In other words, whoever does not work ends up doing what others do not want to do. Verse 27 goes further: "Whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth." Pastor Celestin YAO used this image from rural life: when you have not gone hunting, you have no meat to put in your sauce. You add plenty of pepper to give it flavor, but the pot stays empty. The lazy man does not eat what he has not worked for.

Even after the fall, God did not take work away: he only added the sweat. That tells us work remains good. And Moses reminds us of this in Deuteronomy 28:12: "May the Lord bless the work of your hands." May that be your portion.

2. The difference between your job and the most important work

The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10: "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

The Greek word translated "workmanship" is poiema: you are a work crafted with precision, unique. The word for "good works" is ergon: a concrete work that God prepared before you were even born. That means something both simple and overwhelming: there exists for you a work that is greater than your job.

Your job can change. You can give ten, fifteen, twenty years to a company and find yourself, at the slightest difficulty, holding a curt letter forcing you to look elsewhere. But the work for which God raised you up is like a letter of credence attached to your life. Strive not to return to the Creator without having accomplished it.

3. The seal of the most important work

The head of our government, Jesus Christ, laid out the job description of those who belong to his kingdom. In Luke 4:18, he opens the scroll of Isaiah and declares: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed." Then he adds: "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled."

There is the seal. Whatever your title, your rank, your diploma, the most important work is this: proclaiming good news, healing brokenhearted people, setting people free, giving sight, and letting the oppressed go free. This also happens at your workplace. Wherever you are employed, you are a missionary. Cry out to God to grant you the grace to accomplish this work in the midst of your job.

A coworker one day opens up their heart to you: they have a problem. Do not miss the opportunity, it is God sending you. Another one is blinded in the decisions they make, telling you about a life falling apart here and there. May God grant you the grace to open their eyes.

4. Your job as a springboard: biblical examples

Peter, Andrew, James, and John (Luke 5:1-11). These four men were partners in fishing. One night, they tried everything and caught nothing. Exhausted, they were washing their nets, ready to go home. Jesus comes near, gets into Simon Peter's boat, asks him to put out a little from the shore, and teaches the crowd from there. Peter's boat becomes Jesus' platform. From Peter's point of view, this is the boat of frustration: "I worked all night for nothing, and now they are taking my time and my tool to teach others."

But Jesus never immobilizes a life without filling it. After the teaching, he tells Peter: "Put out into the deep and let down your nets." The catch is so great that the nets begin to break, the partners have to come help, and both boats start to sink. Because Peter put his boat and his time at Jesus' disposal, Jesus put his miracles at the disposal of Peter and his partners. May your boat also become the place of a miraculous catch.

Levi, also called Matthew (Mark 2:13-15; Matthew 9:9-13). A tax collector, a trade despised even by his own Jewish brothers. Jesus passes by and says to him, "Follow me." Levi gets up, follows him, and invites him to his home. Around the table are many tax collectors and sinners. Why? Because Levi had influence in his line of work. He spread the word: "This man does not despise us, come and listen to him." Jesus would never have approached these people one by one. Levi's trade brought them together.

Zacchaeus in Jericho (Luke 19). Chief of the tax collectors. Why did he want so badly to see Jesus, to the point of climbing a sycamore tree? Because news had circulated through his professional network: "At Levi's house, Jesus came to eat. He does not reject us." Testimony travels through trade networks.

Luke, the beloved physician (Colossians 4:14; Acts; the Gospel of Luke). The only non-Jewish author of the New Testament, born in Antioch, a companion of the apostle Paul. Paul never told him to abandon medicine. On the contrary, his physician's eye gives his Gospel a particular attention to the sick, the marginalized, women, and rejected people. It is even Luke who inspires Paul's advice to Timothy: "Use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments" (1 Timothy 5:23). Your trade shapes the way you look at the Gospel; keep it and put it at the service of the Kingdom.

Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:1-3). Paul arrives in Corinth. He meets a Jewish couple driven out of Rome by the edict of Emperor Claudius. "He stayed with them and worked, for they were tentmakers by trade." The same trade, the same language, the same experience. Out of this professional friendship was born a missionary team that served in Corinth, in Ephesus, and all the way to Rome.

5. Group together by trade to reach your ethnos

The Greek word translated "nations" in "Go and make disciples of all nations" is ethnos: a community of people who speak the same language. IT professionals speak a language that Pastor Celestin YAO himself admits he does not understand. Doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, each has its own language, its codes, its places, its conferences, its network.

The heart cry of this sermon is this: stop fighting alone in your field when there are other Christians around you. Get organized. Let nurses gather to pray and ask themselves: "How do we win Montreal for Christ within our trade?" Let engineers do the same. Let teachers do the same. Create events adapted to your language, invite your coworkers, let the grace of God be visible on you. Two who join together can put ten thousand to flight (Deuteronomy 32:30). Together, you can reach entire spheres.

Key Takeaways

• Your job is a grace from God, and you should give thanks for it, but it is not the purpose of your life.
• Ephesians 2:10: God prepared works for you before you were born. That work will never change, even if your job changes.
• The seal of the most important work is that of Luke 4:18: good news, healing, liberation, opened eyes.
• Jesus almost never calls idle people: he calls people in the middle of their activity (fishermen, a tax collector, a physician, tentmakers).
• Grouping together by trade is not optional, it is the strategy God has prepared to reach every ethnos of the city.

Personal Application

• Do I see my workplace as a mere paycheck, or as the mission field God has entrusted to me?
• Which coworker recently opened their heart to me without my seizing the opportunity to point them to Christ?
• Do I regularly pray, by name, for the people in my office, my department, my worksite?
• Is there, in my church or in my city, a group of Christians from my trade? If not, have I thought about starting one?
• The challenge given at the end of the service: this week, say "good Monday" to five people and ask them what they do for work. Who will I approach?

Scriptures Cited

• Genesis 2:15 - God places Adam to cultivate and keep the garden.
• Proverbs 12:24 - The hand of the diligent will rule.
• Proverbs 12:27 - The diligent man will get precious wealth.
• Deuteronomy 28:12 - May the Lord bless the work of your hands.
• Ephesians 2:10 - We are his workmanship, created for good works prepared beforehand.
• Luke 4:18 - Proclaim good news, heal, set free.
• Luke 5:1-11 - The miraculous catch and the calling of the four fishermen.
• Mark 2:13-15 - Jesus calls Levi the tax collector.
• Matthew 9:9-13 - Matthew invites his coworkers to his home.
• Luke 19:1-10 - Zacchaeus, chief of the tax collectors in Jericho.
• Acts 18:1-3 - Paul, Aquila, and Priscilla, tentmakers in Corinth.
• Colossians 4:14 - Luke, the beloved physician.

FAQ

What is the difference between my job and the most important work Ephesians 2:10 talks about?

Your job provides you with income, social status, a place in society. It is a grace from God, and you should give thanks for it. The most important work is the good works that Ephesians 2:10 calls ergon: they were prepared even before you were born. Your job can change, you could be let go tomorrow morning, but that work is attached to your life. Do not leave this world without having accomplished it.

How can my work become a springboard for mission?

By seeing yourself as a missionary right where God has placed you. Your trade gives you a language your pastor does not even speak, a network he does not have, credibility with coworkers who will never set foot in a church. Pray for them, invite them when the occasion arises, and above all, gather with other Christians in your trade to reach that ethnos together. The miraculous catch required Peter's partners; yours will require your own.

Has work been a curse since Adam's fall?

No. God placed Adam in the garden to cultivate and keep it before the fall (Genesis 2:15). Work was already there. After the fall, what was added was toil, sweat, hardship (Genesis 3:17-19). But work itself remains a blessing, and Proverbs never stops celebrating its value. The curse never canceled out the original blessing.