Men’s Fraternity

The title of our first teaching of the New Year is ‘Man and His Work’. Pastor Bob had done a quick review of the first third of our teaching dealing with man and his spouse. The next had to do with man and his children so we can be successful building a God centered marriage and family and today he led us in the foundation laying of man and his work.

It is interesting that he began with a statistic that in 27 years of pastoring his church, he had preached only one sermon about this topic. the challenge for most men is we don’t really understand why we work and the purpose of work from God’s point of view. If men gather together one of the first questions asked is, “What do you do for are living?” Men identify themselves with work while women identify with their children and home. Men spend about 65% of their time at work, 35% of the time with their families and only about 10% of the time relating to the church or active within it.

Today most men are still trying to find the right job for themselves so they may become fulfilled as men and provide for their families. Their struggles are how do we balance our lives so that we may be fulfilled in this life. This brings us to the ladder of motivation.

Many are motivated to work because they have to. Some just want to meet the needs of providing for their families so they are standing at the bottom rung of the work for the lone motivation of getting a paycheck. As we grow in our understanding, God births a desire for standard of living above just existing, but one of having a better life for our wives and kids than just existing and living selfishly. Passion for something more burns in our hearts and we become dissatisfied. This elevates us to the next rung on the ladder of work where our work has to give us meaning. What is it that I’m accomplishing? Does what I do really matter? These questions come up in our minds because we are looking at our works purpose but also how can it be helpful and provide s a service for others. We develop a philanthropic mindset of contributing to something greater than myself and my family; it’s now geared to giving money that we earn to social causes to aid those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

But even with accomplishing all this God’s ultimate plan or purpose for a man’s work is to advance His kingdom on earth so we may glorify God through our work and influence people spiritually to God’s greater purpose for them too! The scriptures  affirms just these elements for our work. Read 2Thes.3:10, 1Tim.5:8, Eccl.5:19, Eccl.2:24,1Pet.4:10, Eph.4:28,Prov.3:9, Col.3:23-24.

For men following the Lord Jesus Christ we need to lift our view higher pertaining to our work and that starts with taking an assessment of the gifts, talents, desires, and what we like to do. We need to be courage that if where we are working in a job that isn’t all that, then we need to begin to work towards the goal being successful at what we do. We also must develop a broader understanding of work and how God views it; after all the first thing He did with Adam in the garden was a job.

As part of our personal assessment we need to answer the question – what do we want from our work? The work we do must bring success and receive recognition for it. Let’s face it, everybody needs an atta boy. Our work must have the right fit and be paid fairly for what we do. And lastly it must allow for us to balance our home life with work while harmony is lived out in our work, family and community.

Work is not just work to God. It has a greater meaning and a higher purpose than just doing something. I would like to encourage you that you have the power to create just the right workplace that brings into it everything that God has intended for us and so much. Next month we will look at vision as it pertains to work. God bless you mighty men of God!