Turning the Rat Race into a Pilgrimage

Sermon OverviewScripture Passage: Ephesians 6:5-8As Christians, we have the chance to put joy, zest, and dignity into the most mundane jobs. God can turn our Monday mornings into a thing of beauty and joy. There are three principles to draw from Ephesians 6:5-8 as we begin turning the rat race into a pilgrimage.One, we need to see our jobs as an opportunity and be grateful.There are three wrong ways to look at work: a necessary evil, a cruel master, or a god itself. But when we see our work for what it truly is, a gift from God, we will begin to feel grateful.Two, we need to see our jobs as a responsibility and be helpful.When we work, we join a partnership with God, even in the secular workforce. We can draw parallels from Jeremiah 29, where God instructs Israel, captives of Babylon, to get into the work world and seek the welfare of Babylon. (See v. 4.) Your job is a part of a greater plan; we must be helpful to others.Three, we need to see our jobs as a ministry and be faithful. Our jobs are our greatest ministry opportunity. We serve God full-time wherever we work no matter how mundane the job might be. Ephesians 6:6-7 says to approach our work, “not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.”Adrian Rogers says, “We’ve been saved out of the world, sent back into the world to witness to the world, and that’s the only business in the world we have until we’re taken out of the world when Jesus comes. We’re in this world, but not of this world. And Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘You are the light of the world’.”Apply it to your lifeUnderstanding that we are not called to a rat race, but a pilgrimage, there are four things to remember when you go to work tomorrow:1. Don’t brag; do away with self-righteousness. Your light is to glow, not to glare.2. Don't nag; no one has ever been talked down into a relationship with Jesus.3. Don’t lag; carry your part of the load… in fact, work harder than anybody else.4. Don’t sag; uphold your Christian faith in the workplace.