Working Before the Face of God

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Message: Work M3 September 21, 2008

Text: Psalm 139: 7-10; Col. 3: 22-24

Title: Working Before the Face of God

Big Idea: When we work “before the face of God” we will have a passion for quality, we will not idolize our work, and will love others through our work.

The other day, when my wife Sakiko was getting a shiatsu massage, the massage therapist asked her, “Who does your husband work for?” When my wife said, “He’s the pastor of Tenth Avenue Church.” The therapist said, “He works for God!”

People tend to assume that if you work for a church, or for some mission, you are working for God. Hopefully, those working in a church or in a mission are, in fact, working for God. Sometimes that’s not always clear!

In this series we have been affirming that regardless of what your line of work your work is, if that work is legitimate work, whether as a pastor, massage therapist, a student, mom or dad, an engineer, an artist, a plumber, a waiter or waitress, a custodian, you are, in fact, working for God.

A couple of weeks ago we talked about how when we work, we are co-creators with God. When we work, we are bringing to the world things that God intended for our earth. Last week I talked about how work is kind of playing field to get us done. God uses us to get work done and he uses work to get us done.

Today we are going to look at how all of our work, whether we are students or employed by an organization, whether we are paid or volunteers, is done coram deo, before the face of God.

David, in Psalm 139, asks us the question:

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

According to David, God is everywhere. In all that we do, God is present. God is not just here in a place of worship like this with people who gather explicitly to worship him, but God is everywhere.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to Colossians 3:22-24:

Paul says:

²² Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.

²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

A few years ago my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the Orsay Museum in Paris. In this painting, “The Angelus” by Millet, we see two peasants in the field praying. On the horizon we see a church steeple, apparently ringing the call for people to pray. If you look carefully at the sun’s rays, they do not fall on the steeple of the church, as you might expect, nor even on the couple as they pray, but they fall on the wheelbarrow and the pitchfork at the couple’s feet. What this painting seems to suggest is that God is present, not only in our church life and in our prayer life, but he is present in our work life, as well.

(It’s important to note that in Colossians 3 Paul is addressing all kinds of people living in all kinds of situations, including slaves. Paul here is not addressing whether slavery is legitimate or not. That’s not his point. The general thrust of Paul and Jesus’ writings actually would in time dismantle slavery in many places, but in this passage he’s not addressing whether slavery is legitimate; he’s simply addressing people in this letter who are slaves.)

Now slavery in the Roman Empire of Paul’s day was quite different from the slavery experienced here in North America 200 years ago. In Paul’s day about 1/3 of the people in the Roman Empire were salves. Slaves represented every profession. People voluntarily would sell themselves as slaves to better themselves economically, and then if things went well for slaves economically, they would buy their way out of slavery. So slavery in the Roman Empire is different from kind of slavery we might picture… but it was still hard. Slaves had few rights. They suffered in their work and yet Paul encourages them to work before the face of God.)

Now for many of us work is just plain hard… and if we find our selves abused or being crushed in our work, we have the freedom and likely a call to change our line of work…

But if we sense we are to remain in our jobs—even though there are aspects of our work that are hard and frustrating (every job has aspects are hard and frustrating at times—we live in a world affected by sin) Paul is calling us to see our work as coram deo, before the face of God.

What we do, we do coram deo, before the face of God. I believe that if we are really conscious of that, it will shape the way we do our work.

One of the ways it will change the way see work is that we will do our work with greater, passion, quality and integrity.

According to the Gallup polling group, 55 percent of employees have no enthusiasm for their work. One in five are so negative about their jobs that they poison the workplace to the point that their companies might be better off if they called in sick.

I really believe that would change for many of the 55% if they knew that their work was coram deo, before the face of God.

One of the implications of doing our work before the face of God is that we will do our work with quality and integrity. Jesus Christ, more than any other person on Earth, was conscious that he was doing his work before the face of his Father, before the face of God—coram deo.

As we know, and this is something that is affirmed both by people who follow Christ and those who don’t, Jesus was a master teacher….

We also know that from Justin Martyr, a well-known Christian scholar in the 2nd century, that Jesus Christ also did great work as a carpenter. Justin Martyr grew up over the hill from Galilee, where Jesus had spent most of his life and Martyr notes that the ploughs that were made by Jesus’ father Joseph and Jesus were still being widely used in his day. Jesus, as we would expect, in his work as a carpenter made ploughs and yokes that were built to last.

The Christian Shakers understood that their work was being done before the face of God, and this became their philosophy: “Make every product better that it’s ever been before. Make the parts you cannot see as well as the parts you can see. Use only the best of materials, even for the most everyday items. Give the same attention to the smallest detail as to the largest. Design every item you make to last forever.” “Each Shaker chair,” it was said, “was made fit for an angel to sit on.”

Part of the reason that Herman Miller Furniture a Fortune 1000 Company has developed some of the best office furniture in the world and part of the reason why it has been and has been ranked the 3^rd most innovative company and 3^rd most socially responsible company by the Fortune Magazine again identified Herman Miller as one of the best 100 companies to work for, is because its leaders across the decades from its founding in 1923 like CEO Max Depree, have recognized that their work is done before the face of God. Of course, not everyone who works at Herman Miller would be a Christian, but that value that they do their work before the face of God and not just for profit, but to serve human beings well, has affected the corporate culture of Herman Miller.

I know that from my own work experience, the knowledge that I do my work before the face of God has helped me to do better work than I would have otherwise have done.

As a boy of 10 I began delivering newspapers for the Vancouver Sun. When I was 13 years old, I became, what was called back then, a shack manager, the person who manages the other carriers from a local dispatch point. Part of the job involved my having to do the paper routes of kids who, for whatever reason, did not show up to do their papers. One day I remember a kid who didn’t show up for his paper route. He had a big route and it was pouring rain. So I had my paper bags full of papers and fastened with bungee cords on the rack that was attached to the handlebars of my bike, and rode out to this neighborhood that was on top of a hill. The rain was just pounding down, and I remember just taking all those newspapers and throwing them into the ditch, figuring, “Hey, people probably won’t miss a paper one day.”

I remember the Vancouver Sun calling me the next day and saying, “Hey! Someone reported there were 60 papers tossed into a ditch.” “I guess that was a bad call to toss the papers in the ditch… Sorry, I won’t do that again.”

When I committed my life to Christ a couple of years later, I slowly began to shift away from how I saw part-time jobs that I had growing up. My work performance started to improve, partly because I was simply maturing, but mostly because I was conscious of living and working before the face of God.

This was also true by the way in my school life. I went from being the student who, when the teacher stepped out of the class, would take my notes in front of the whole class and start shooting baskets into the trash—bottom of the class to being at the top… part of the growing, but a bigger change after giving my life to Christ, I was studying before the face of God.

When I have worked as a student stocking shelves at a drug store, when I worked as part of a large multi-national corporation in Tokyo, I also did those jobs with the sense that I was doing them before the face of God, in the same way that I am conscious that I doing my job before the face of God.

That knowledge motivates me to do better work with greater passion than I would otherwise. It means that I motivate with greater integrity than I would otherwise. Paul in Colossians 4 urges Masters to always do what is right for slaves for slaves since they too have a master in heaven. When I worked for a brief time as a columnist for a paper on Southern California, I resisted the temptation to exaggerate to add flourishes to the story that would make it more interesting, but were not factually true, knowing that I did my work Coram Deo before the face of God.

It doesn’t mean that my work is always great—in an objective way—I make all kind of mistakes, but it does mean that I work with great passion, quality, integrity than it would be otherwise. It is because I work coram deo, before the face of God, and that really motivates me.

Wayman: At this time I am going to invite Wayman Crosby, a member of this church, the leader of among other things our men’s ministry, to come and talk about what it has meant for him to work before the face of God.

I like work. I like to work hard and I like what work produces. I have always been like this. My father passed on a swimming pool business to me in my mid teens and I enjoyed the challenge and flexibility of being self employed. While other kids were working for 3 dollars an hour in retail or working evening hours in restaurants I had control over my schedule. I was able to make whatever money I needed by ramping up and taking a few more customers or getting my present customers to spend a little more on my service. Work served me well from an early age.

I kept this business all through high school and then University where I got a Commerce degree from UBC. A Business degree made sense, after all I had discovered I liked business. I am a goals kind of guy so I made goals and made them high. By 30 I set my eyes on my first million and went after it. While there is nothing wrong with setting high goals I was being challenged by what was driving me to make my goals. You see work is good but with success in any work comes temptations and I was finding my temptations. It is a temptation to really be serving yourself in work even while serving your customers. It is a temptation to find success and conclude that you are an important person. It is a temptation to like the things that success in work can produce materially and most of us like stuff – nice cars, nice houses, nice clothes. None of them bad in themselves, unless they get too important.

I think back to a time when I was working in Real Estate development and commuting primarily to the States. My business was strong and going well but as a family we were struggling. One of my kids had some real struggles where he needed his Dad. Somewhat fearfully because work was good, I made a very major career move so that I could stay home more with my family. By the worlds standards it was a crazy move and financially it cost me a lot for a long time but I felt at the time that I had to put my career on the altar for the sake of my family. The stakes were high and there was no guarantee for my family but in this instance I felt moved to put my work on the altar and offer it up before God. It was hard at the time but looking back now it was the right decision!

On another occasion I felt that the things that work can buy were getting a little too important for not only me but for my family as well. We went on a selling spree. We sold our house, luxury cars, vacation homes at Whistler and Kelowna – you see (we) wanted to rid ourselves of everything that might stand in the way of our relationship with God. We wanted to be open handed with God. It was not an easy transition as we had started to build our identities around our stuff.

Through the years regardless of the ups and downs of business a daily time with the Lord has been a very important place for me to check my heart with the Lord. I am blessed to have a disciplined temperament and so I use that to make sure that I check in daily with God. My wife laughs at me because I sit in my underwear on a cushion in our room with my Bible in my lap. You see I have to be careful to strip myself of the things that make me too comfortable and come before the Lord pretty naked because that’s what He sees anyhow. He gently guards my heart in our times together so that I can go into the world and offer up my daily work to God without totally falling into the temptations that work can produce.

I long that when I meet Him face to face He will say “well done Wayman, my good and faithful servant you have done well with what I have given you.” That’s what drives me – that’s what I truly long for!!

Penny: And now I am going to invite Penny Crosby who is married to Wayman and also a member of this church and the lead teacher of Community Bible Study that meets on Wednesday mornings here, to talk about what it means for her to do her work before the face of God.

Wayman and I just celebrated 28 years of marriage yesterday. How well I remember in the early years of marriage going to social business functions with my successful entrepreneur husband. I was terrified that anyone would ask me “what I do.” Stay at home moms were not valued in those days and especially in those settings and so trying to find an answer to that question, that somehow made me feel important, was next to impossible. So now all these years later Ken asks me to talk about “my work” and I am finally delighted to answer that question, even in front of all of you. I have finally figured out that the audience that matters the most to me is God.

Being a stay at home mom – my work was certainly not about how much money I made or the prestige that the position gave me or the amount of time off I could get and if we attached it to any of those things perhaps it didn’t even qualify as “work” at all. In fact do any of the things I have done qualify as work?

As a mom I cleaned bottoms and noses, counseled when I was given the chance, planned more meals than I would ever want to count, talked to teachers, and principals and sports coaches and parents. I loved it and hated it, I got tired, exhilarated, bored, challenged, overwhelmed and sometimes my only hope was that maybe God had called me to this and that I was joining Him in His work. I long to hear from Him that He is pleased with the work I have done. If the rating of how well I and other parents was based on how well our kids were doing then it would be a job that we could pass, fail, get an A or an Incomplete, all in the same day.

I have led a ladies Bible study for more than ten years now and am often asked how I can commit so many hours of my time and my energies. I get no financial pay for about 15 hours a week, at times I can be tempted to get tired of some of the organizational details that do not come easily to me but my motive there is my love for the scriptures and my love for people. Hearing how a child in our class invited Jesus into her heart on the way home from Bible Study one day and then became the local little evangelist to her 3 year old friends is quite amazing. Each day the mom would have a new convert in the back seat of her car. Watching women show up year after year and slowly see the way that God is making a difference in their lives makes all the hard work incredibly worthwhile. One young mom decided that if the God of the Old Testament could really handle all these difficult messed up families in the Bible then maybe she could trust God with her family. As a result of this growing trust her family decided not to abort a child that they had not planned for. We now look at this child and cant imagine life without her. Preparing each week for Bible study and especially looking after the details is not always easy but when you hear these sort of stories there is no question that it is worthwhile.

For many years we had students living in our home with our family – usually three at a time. Friends and associates thought it a crazy thing to do but what an incredible blessing it has been to our family and also to the students. I remember one young man who came to live with us when his own family life was very difficult and a bit of a mess. All we did was love this big guy and now years later he tells me that we saved him from making some really lousy choices at a key time in his life. I didn’t think we had anything special to offer him but apparently just being loved and given space to grow up was just what he needed. So again my “work” with the students consisted of cleaning, cooking meals, and being available should any of them decide that now was the time for a heart to heart. It was hard work and not always fun and seemingly important but I did feel God’s pleasure as I served!

I now run a Bed and Breakfast in Vancouver - so while people now pay me big bucks to stay in my place, I still do the same old stuff. I clean toilets, I make meals, I wait for opportunities to connect with the people in my home. Many may see this as drudgery and hard work, which it can be, but I like to focus my attention differently. I have had the same housekeeper for many years and I believe that she is having a slow and genuine introduction to Jesus. There is no pretense in my connection with Mary – she sees me as I am, the good and the bad and if Jesus really makes any difference in my life, she will see that. The other day she told me that if the Jesus I seemed to be serious about was for real then she wanted to know Him. I and my family are the ones God has chosen to reveal Himself to her and to all we come in contact with. WOW! What a privilege – what a responsibility!

So on one hand – I clean, I make meals, I make beds and more beds and I talk to people but on the other hand – I am an ambassador for the King of all Kings. I introduce people to the love of God by serving them – I have always worked out of my home so what you see is what you get with me. I am so far from perfect that it scares me some days but I am honored that God still chooses me, to care for and to feed, His chosen people.

That’s what I do…

Penny work as a mom, Bible study teacher, and a host to students and B & B guests in her home done before the face of God gives her a place to show God’s love to people.

If we do our work before the face of God, we will work with quality and passion and integrity. We will also not idolize our work. We will use our work as a context to love others.

Earlier in the message, I noted according to a Gallup study 55 percent of employees have no enthusiasm for their work…

Billions of dollars are spent each year by companies, trying to motivate their workers through motivational seminars and the like. It turns out that these have almost no long term impact on a worker’s motivation.

Spencer Johnson, author of Who Moved My Cheese? states he "believes research may one day reveal that the only long-lasting motivation for employees who bring it to work in the form of God, spirituality, or something else that causes them to 'rise to a higher purpose.

Perhaps the most powerful, long-term motivator for work is the knowledge that we do what we do coram deo, before the face of God…

Kids say, “Look at me! Look at me!” when they are playing or doing something that they want an adult to notice, but we all also have a need to see that what we do matters to someone. Whether we are young or old, whether our work is explicitly Christian, or not, whether it is paid or volunteer, we can know that our work matters to the most important person in the universe because we do our work coram deo, before the face of God.

That knowledge can fill us with passion for quality and integrity in our work. It can help prevent us from idolizing our work. It can encourage us to love other people in our work context. If really know who we’re working for--our worldly-work can become sacred.