Harbor Church - Mid City

Mid-City, 6/21/09 

Last week we talked about what it means to develop a vision for your work that reflects God’s vision for your work and part of that is the way you think uniquely about your work as a follower of Jesus.  This week we’re going to close out our series on faith & work by adding the other 2 dimensions to developing God’s vision for your work.  Having God’s vision for your work means that (1) you are a person of integrity at work  (2) you do your work with excellence & 

(1)  You are a person of integrity at work

Now in our story Joseph is placed in the ultimate no-win situation at work.  He has worked his way out of the mailroom and he is now in charge of everything.  Just when he gets to the top, his bosses wife starts hitting on him.   Think about his predicament.  This is your worst nightmare at work.  If he doesn’t have sex with her, she can ruin him by making up lies about him and defaming him, which she ultimately does.  If he does have sex with her, she can ruin him as well because at any point if things start to go sour in this adulterous relationship, then she can spin it however she pleases to her husband and he is toast.  So, either way, this has the potential of ruining him.  So Joseph has a choice:  He can either put himself in her hands or in God’s hands, come what may.   

The answer is in V9, “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”  See there is the critical point.  Joseph recognizes that by having sex with his bosses wife, he wouldn’t just be sinning against his boss—Potiphar, but he would be sinning against God.  Translation:  Joseph understands that, ultimately, he works for God.  He is his representative—remember, he is bearing God’s image.  So to do something that is inconsistent with God’s will is to sin against God.  

And so Joseph is in a position where his bosses wife is asking him to do something that will violate his ultimate boss of bosses will.  And here is where, as a Christian, you know that you must take your stand:  when someone at work ask you to do something that violates God’s will, then you side with the boss of bosses and place yourself in His hands, come what may.  And that is exactly what Joseph does and he gets fired and thrown in jail on trumped up charges by his bosses wife. 

Now this happens all the time in our world.  Each one of you are faced with decisions like Joseph faced.  Let me give you some examples.  

Flash of Genius is inspired by the true story of Dr. Robert Kearns who, after creating the intermittent windshield wiper, Kearns pitches his idea to General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. All three companies turn him down, only to steal his idea and add them to all their automobiles. 07:27 – 00:08:32

At this point in the film, Dr. Kearns has not yet invented his famous windshield wiper. He is currently working as a mechanical engineering professor at Wayne State University. As the scene begins, Dr. Kearns is writing the word "ethics" on a chalkboard. His students enter the classroom. He turns, and says, "Morning, everybody! I want to welcome you all to the first day of the quarter for Applied Electrical Engineering. My name is Dr. Robert Kearns, and I'd like to start by talking to you about ethics."

"I can't think of a job or a career where the understanding of ethics is more important than engineering," Dr. Kearns continues. "Who designed the artificial aortic heart valve? An engineer did that. Who designed the gas chambers at Auschwitz? An engineer did that, too. One man was responsible for helping save tens of thousands of lives. Another man helped kill millions."

"Now, I don't know what any of you are going to end up doing in your lives," Dr. Kearns says, "but I can guarantee you that there will come a day when you have a decision to make. And it won't be as easy as deciding between a heart valve and a gas chamber." 

That is the rub, isn’t it.  We’re faced with thousands of small decisions that are somewhere in between the gas chamber and a heart valve.  See, going back to our first sermon in this series, Dr. Kearns is acknowledging that each one of you will be creating culture in your jobs.  There will be some jobs that you just know that you can’t do b/c you are being asked to produce a product that is inconsistent with the boss of bosses intentions for His world.  And for you to do so would mean that you would lack integrity.

But don’t think that having integrity at work is limited to how you relate to your boss.  Josheph said in v9 that to sin against his boss was ultimately to sin against God, but the application isn’t limited to your boss—it applies to your colleagues and even customers as well.  Some of you are starting to think about interactions with colleagues and customers and your sinking a little lower in your chair—I can see you.  Don’t worry—we’ll be having a special time of confession afterwards, behind the curtain here.

Abraham Lincoln provides a gives us a good example of this.  On one occasion, finding late at night, when he counted over his cash, that he had taken a few cents from a customer more than was due, he closed the store, and walked a long distance to make good the deficiency.

At another time, discovering on the scales in the morning a weight with which he had weighed out a package of tea for a woman the night before, he saw that he had given her too little for her money. He weighed out what was due, and carried it to her, much to the surprise of the woman, who had not known that she was short in the amount of her purchase.

These stories are part of the reason Lincoln earned the nickname       “Honest Abe.” Now I don’t know Lincoln’s motivations for doing so, but this is what it means to be a person of integrity in the marketplace.  But he is giving us a great example of God’s vision for us at work—that our integrity is to shine like the sun, we’re to treat our colleagues, our customers, and our boss as we treat God b/c to wrong them in any way is to wrong God. 

See, ultimately, this should mean that as a follower of Jesus you are the very best employee  Why?  B/c your boss doesn’t have to be present for you to do the right thing b/c you aren’t just doing it to please him or collect a paycheck, but you are actually accountable to a higher boss.   

This means that even when your boss isn’t looking, he should be like Potiphar is in v4—he is relaxed with you in charge.  He can go away on vacation and he knows that you won’t be taking off early or coming in late.  You aren’t going to be skimming the profits behind his back.  Or reading your Bible while you are on the clock and should be working.  For instance, people will tell me from time-to-time they are really getting serious about God and I say, “Great.”  Then they tell me that they are even taking their Bible to work and reading it during work.  And I cringe.  See to do so is to wrong your boss and to sin against God.  Interesting that you can sin against God by reading your Bible, but that is the case if you are doing so on your bosses time.  Now on lunch breaks or time that is yours—that is another story. 

TRANS:  So developing God’s vision for work means you are a person of integrity, but it doesn’t simply involve being a person of integrity, but it also involves actually doing your work with excellence. 

(2)  Do your work with Excellence

Consider Joseph.  In the case of both Potiphar, the prison warden and then ultimately with Pharaoh, they acknowledge that Joseph is prospering their business and they promote him from the mailroom to the head honcho.  Now you don’t get promotions and move up through the ranks like Joseph does without doing excellent work. Then look at v6.  It says that “Potiphar did not concern himself with anything” with Joseph in charge.”  The picture I get of Potiphar is of him taking a really deep breath, exhaling and then going to play golf, or whatever it was that he did back in the day to relax.  Why?  B/c his estate is in great hands. He knows that he has a guy in charge who knows what he is doing and who is seeking the prosperity of his business enterprise through doing excellent work. 

What Joseph is doing is really just living out Col. 3:23, which says, “Whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord, for it is the Lord your God you are serving.”  See Joseph knew who his ultimate boss was.  He was serving God by serving Potiphar, the warden, and Pharoah.  He was an image-bearer, and whatever he did, he did with excellence. 

This is so critical.  That means for followers of Jesus, shoddy work simply isn’t an option.  Steven Garber told the story of “The Christian Plumber” and used it when he was here, and I think it bears repeating.  I am going to tell my own version of it.  This is the story of a woman who called a plumber because her pipes were leaking.  The woman was not a Christian and the first plumber that she called to her house professed to be a Christian, which she didn’t know until he came in and said, “Mam, I am a Christian Plumber and I like to pray for everyone that I work for.”  She was a bit taken aback, but who refuses prayer.  So he prayed for her.  Then he said, ‘What can I help you with.”  She said, “My pipes are broken and clogged up.”  “Mam, well, here is what you need to know about that.  More than just your pipes are broken—your life is broken too and all clogged up,    You know the Bible calls it sin.  Yep, just like all the filth that is clogging up your pipes, you have all sorts of filth in your life as well that is clogging up your relationship with God.  This is why your life seems broken and clogged up if you will.”   

Now at this point, the woman is backpedaling.  She is trying to remember the number she dialed, “Did I somehow mistakenly dial the 700 club?  “Sir, I didn’t call a preacher.  I called a plumber.  Are you going to fix my pipes or not.”  Oh, yes mam, but I am trying to help you see that you have a much bigger problem that just the pipes.  But you know, I’ll get to work here, but before I do, can I just go over a few verses with you.”  She points to the clogged up drain in the shower.  “Fix the pipes.”  And so he starts to fix the pipes, all the while praying and reciting Bible verses.  He finishes the work and says, “Well, that should do.  And hands her a bill and a track.”  She pays the bill, slams the door, and is quite happy he is gone.  Then she goes to take a shower, turns the water on and within 1 minute she is standing in a pool of backed-up water.” 

Furious, she calls another plumber.  And before she hires him, she says, “Are you a Christian Plumber?”  He says, “Well, I am a Christian, and yes mam I also a plumber.  Why”  “Well, I had a bad experience with Christian plumbers.”  He said, “Well, mam, no one has ever complained about my work before, and, quite honestly, very few people even know I am a Christian that I do work for.”  “Reluctantly, she agrees to hire another Christian plumber.  He comes out, never mentions Jesus, fixes the pipes, and leaves.   

See in one case you have an evangelist masquerading as a plumber.  He just uses his work of plumbing as a way to get paid to do evangelism because, well, in his mind, that is the spiritual work and plumbing is just secular work.  But think about the problems with this.  First, the undercover evangelist is sinning against his boss/woman b/c he is not doing the work he is employed to do and he is wronging this woman by agreeing to do a job that he either couldn’t do or didn’t do.  Not to mention the serious harm of completely turning this woman off to “Christianity.”  so, ultimately, he is sinning against God.  In fact, he is hindering the mission of his earthly boss who has employed him to fix pipes. So he lacks integrity & excellence.  This is why, in this case, the plumber who never mentions Jesus, but does excellent work, is actually more in line with our calling to bear God’s image and do his work with excellence as Joseph did than the self-professed “Christian Plumber.” 

Francis Schaeffer makes this point as well in his book Addicted to Mediocrity.  If you won’t listen to me, listen to Schaeffer.  Imagine you wished to build a home and for one reason or another you seek out for yourself a “Christian builder.”  I’m not sure what you would mean by a “Christian builder.”  Are the bricks he uses Christian?  Does he have Bible verses scribbled on them?  Perhaps he employs seminary students at slave wages.  But for whatever reason you have decided he is a “Christian builder,” you employ him, hoping to get a decently constructed house as a result.

You move into your house some months or years later and on the first night of your occupancy, as the rain pours down, torrents of water come through the roof, the refrigerator falls into the basement, the stairs collapse as your wife climbs them, your children receive electric shocks in the shower.  You pick up the phone and (if it is still working) call your “Christian builder” and have very strong words with him.

If all he could offer to console you for having completely ripped you off in the construction of your home were some spiritual platitudes,… quoting a few Bible verses for comfort, telling you that “you were being tested, this is really good for you and you should give thanks in all things,” you would be furious.

You see, the mediocrity and platitudes would no longer fit the bill…we would not accept mediocrity in some real area that we accept daily in the insults of the so-called Christian arts and media, Christian thinking,” and beyond.  See, my friends, Joseph wasn’t a “Christian CEO of Potiphar’s house, nor was he a Christian warden, nor was he a Christian government official under Pharoah.  Rather, he was Potiphar’s CEO, a warden, and a government official who did his work with such excellence & integrity that each of these men recognized something special in him.   

If you are like me, you feel the tension of wanting to be like Joseph—a man or woman or integrity who works with excellence, but yet you struggle mightily to do so.  Your work product is far less than what you intend for it to be at times; you find yourself compromising your integrity in your working relationships.  Well, my friends, thankfully, the goal isn’t to be like Joseph, but rather to be in relationship with the one to whom Joseph was a mere pointer to, b/c He changes everything.

See another Joseph came named Jesus Christ whose integrity was unprecedented.  Never before had any man gone the distance—gone his entire life without wronging a colleague, a customer, a boss, or even a friend.  Never before had any man done their work with such excellence that it was considered perfectly righteous.

And then this man went to the cross, and on the cross, he paid the price for our lack of integrity and for our shoddy work.  But it gets even better.  See the cross wasn’t the end.  3 days later, the stone was rolled back, and this man, this God-man named Jesus was resurrected, and he took up residence in all of those who put their faith in Him, giving you and I a new power, His power, to live lives of integrity. 

See b/c He Won, we Win.  B/c He won, we Win.  My friends, Jesus wins, always.  He takes up residence inside and begins to transform the most character-less and integrity-less people into sons and daughters of God that reflect his character and his integrity.  He gives people without a work ethic a new work ethic serving a new boss that will lead to a new work product of excellence b/c that is what He is about.