Never Enough | Week 3

The big idea

Work is a gift when it's done for the giver — that is, when we work for God rather than for ourselves.

Work fills half our waking life, and it was never meant to be either something to escape or the thing that defines us. When we offer our work to God as worship rather than demanding it give us identity or avoiding it altogether, we get to experience it as the gift He designed it to be.

Point 1 of 6

Pastor Hunter shares his story of working weeks at a Walmart hot food counter on paper time slips, never getting entered into the system, and never getting paid a cent for fifty hours of work. He connects that feeling of wasted effort to King Solomon's reflection in Ecclesiastes on a life poured into work and achievement, using the Hebrew word 'hevel' (vapor, fog, absurd) to describe how work can feel when it's chased for the wrong reasons.

Point 2 of 6

Pastor Hunter names the default view that work is something to be endured until retirement, vacation, or the weekend. He points back to Genesis, where God gave Adam work to do in the perfect Garden of Eden before the fall, showing that humans were created to work, and that Scripture actually calls laziness foolishness and sin.

Point 3 of 6

He tells his own story as a young married youth pastor who slowly gave more and more hours to work because he felt successful and competent there, at the cost of time with his wife and family. He warns that making work an idol is a horrible god because it always demands more, and offers the test: if you lost the ability to work tomorrow, would you still love and respect yourself the same way?

Point 4 of 6

Working through Ecclesiastes 2:24, Pastor Hunter compares work to a good meal you go out to actually enjoy, not ration. He explains that God can give a dream job, but the ability to find satisfaction in it is a separate gift God gives, not something we manufacture ourselves.

Point 5 of 6

He tells the story of breading chicken at Chick-fil-A as a teenager until he hated it, then years later cooking the exact same recipe at home for his wife and loving it — the work didn't change, but who he was doing it for did. He ties this to Paul's words to the Colossians about working for the Lord rather than people, and to a craftsmanship quote about a Christian shoemaker glorifying God by making good shoes, not by decorating them with Bible verses.

Point 6 of 6

Pastor Hunter recalls being frustrated serving coffee at Rock Point's coffee shop while waiting for a youth ministry position to open, until his dad told him he needed to glorify God exactly where he was. He shifted his mindset from serving coffee to serving Jesus one cup at a time, and realized he was already surrounded by the high schoolers he wanted to minister to.

Take it into your week

Pastor Hunter's charge is to stop treating work as something to escape or something to worship, and instead offer it to God as worship.