I realize that we are all in different stages of life as far as our callings and vocations. Some of us are early in our career, some in the middle, while others are toward the end of their careers and some are retired. What I want to encourage you with today is that no matter what you do, or who you do it for, to do it all to the best of your ability for the glory of God. In 1 Corinthians 10:31, the Apostle Paul writes “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”. In Colossians 3:23, he writes “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” Don’t miss this. He said “Whatever you do”. He doesn’t care if you are a CEO, sweep the floors at the airport, are a stay at home mom, a farmer, are retired or in a nursing home. In all of these situations it is “Whatever you do”.
I’ll use my mother in law as an example, because she’s one of my heroes. She suffered mightily with terrible pain for the forty-one years that I knew her. On top of that, she was widowed for the last 5 ½ years. But she regularly painted and created beautiful greeting cards for the encouragement of others. She also made dozens of blankets out of donated fabric to be used at a local pregnancy center.
Whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

I know that many of you are in difficult situations at work. I was talking to someone recently who couldn’t wait to retire because the situation in their workplace was so bad it was hard for them to live their faith at work. I know that they are not alone, and I wanted to encourage you in your work, whatever that may be with these 20 quotes from the book The Gospel at Work: How Working for King Jesus Gives Purpose and Meaning to Our Jobs by Greg Gilbert and Sebastian Traeger.

1. No matter what you do, your job has inherent purpose and meaning because you are doing it ultimately for the King. Who you work for is more important than what you do.
2. You work for Jesus. That fact is the most important thing you can know and remember about your work.
3. When glorifying Jesus is our primary motivation, our work — regardless of what that work is in its particulars — becomes an act of worship.
4. Our work is not something we do in addition to our growth as a follower of Christ. Our work, here and now, is an expression of our Christian faith.
5. Being a Christian in the workplace means the truth of the gospel should work itself out in every detail of your life, including your job.
6. No matter what you do for a living, you are working for something different than what the non-Christians around you are working for.
7. Ultimately you are in your job so you learn to love God and other people better. This is your new assignment.
8. Serve and love your coworkers unexpectedly and unashamedly, because that is how Jesus has served and loved you.
9. In doing your work for Jesus, you have the greatest intrinsic motivator you could ever have — the power of your desire to please him because of all he has done for you.
10. Even if nobody notices you are working hard, he notices, and that means your work for him has eternal significance.
11. We should approach our jobs as if we are working for the King, and when we do, we experience a new freedom to work with joy and diligence, neither idolizing our jobs nor being idle in them.
12. Diligent, sincere, good work is to be motivated by our love for Jesus.
13. We work to glorify Jesus, no matter what we do. The Bible could not be clearer about this. And one of the ways we glorify Jesus is by our providing for our needs and then having enough left over to provide for the needs of others.
14. No matter what you do or how much you like your job (or don’t like it), the most important thing is to do your work in faith — faith in God and in his plan for you and for this world.
15. So, remember that no matter what you do, whether you’re a private, a cook, a lieutenant, a latrine cleaner, a trench digger, or a tank commander, it is the King himself who has deployed you to that job. It’s his call. You don’t deserve to be in his army in the first place. You deserve to be crushed by it. Wherever he’s decided to deploy you, trust him and serve him well. It isn’t what you’re doing that really matters. . . It’s who you’re doing it for.
16. Once you realize you work for Jesus and your first responsibility is to follow him, then you realize your job isn’t just about you anymore. Your job becomes an arena in which to worship and bring honor to God.
17. The King deploys us as he wills. He puts us where we will serve his purposes best.
18. It comes down to calling. What has God called you to do? In other words, what has he given you desire and ability and opportunity to do?
19. You work for the King. No matter your company or compensation, you work for King Jesus.
20. What makes you a success is being able to stand before King Jesus one day and say, “Lord, where you deployed me, I served well. I gave it my all.