6/3/26 - 2149: 3 Simple Shifts to Transform Your Work

Jim: This is iWork4Him.

Martha: Where faith meets work and believers unleash their calling.

Jim: If I had 100 bucks for every time somebody told me that they should just quit their job so they can go into full-time ministry, I'd be at least a millionaire, maybe a 10 millionaire.

I can't tell you how many people express that when they work at church, that's full-time ministry, but when they work in the workplace, it's not. Today's show ends that misunderstanding once and for all, period, end of story. When you go to work, it's your mission field, your assigned place of ministry. Even if right now you don't recognize it is, we're gonna change all that for you today. Thanks for tuning in to iWork4Him.

You know what, Martha, for both of us, it was a high level of frustration for over 20 years where we felt like we needed to quit our jobs so we could go into full-time ministry. We were already in ministry, weren't we?

Martha: Yes, we were. We just didn't have really the vocabulary, Jim, to talk about it that way, and so we didn't really understand that what we were doing every day was ministry.

Jim: Why didn't we know that? What was the obstacle there?

Martha: Let me count the ways.

Jim: You can just offer one of the ways.

Martha: Okay. One of the ways was that we grew up in a church world that told us that going overseas was one of the main ways to minister- to be a missionary.

Jim: Jesus said we were to go, so we should go.

Martha: Yes. And in our world, a lot of that was missions, and missions was global. It wasn't even as much about your neighborhood and, it wasn't all the local stuff. It was going far away.

What do you think?

Jim: I just... We were taught that ministry was done by pastors and missionaries, and that if we wanted to be in ministry, that was the route we were gonna choose. The good news is that was not the truth. There's so much untruth in all that, but we're not gonna focus on the untruth. We're gonna focus on the truth today. The truth is, no matter where you are and no matter what your job is, you are surrounded with lost and hopeless people, which means you're on a mission field.

Martha: That's right.

Jim: And your mission field, your workplace, that's your assigned place of ministry. And we're gonna talk today about how do we shift from, "I'm just going to work, for crying out loud," to, "I'm going to my ministry place." Three steps to transform your life. That's what this show's all about today.

Martha: Okay. It sounded like you were taking a big breath for something more-

Jim: I was. I was taking a big breath for you to talk. We always have a lot of fun when it's just Martha and I on the show. We don't have to be really nice to a guest or something like that. No, we just go back and forth.

Martha: We have to be really nice to each other.

Jim: Oh, yeah, that part.

Martha: But I kinda feel like it's a little bit of people seeing this is our life. This is how we roll.

Jim: This is Jim and Martha.

Martha: So Jim, like you said in the intro, for the last 20 years, probably even more, we have heard so many people say what you said. They wish they could quit their job so they could go on, in some kind of full-time ministry. So where do you think that misconception really comes from?

Jim: I think it comes from the Great Commission, the English translation where it says, Jesus said, "Go ye therefore," we learned at King James, of course, "and teach - go to the nations and teach them what I've taught you." But what's really cool is in the last 40, 30 years, they've realized that the word wasn't go. It was, "As you go-" teach everybody what I've told you, and disciple them in my name. I'm paraphrasing. I don't have it memorized, sorry.

Martha: But the Great Commission is really about as you go. Not like a stopping point and go.

Jim: It's as you go. And I also think that it, it's been perpetuated from the pulpit that is a premier position in the kingdom. And also in the mission field, where that's not the truth. That's just one of the positions in the kingdom, that we are all positioned in the kingdom, and no position is a higher rank than any other rank. Jesus is king, the rest of us operate underneath of him. Please, just hear me. You do not need to quit your job to go into full-time Christian ministry. You just have to shift your thinking.

So how do we transform or shift our thinking, Martha, to recognize that our workplace is our assigned place of ministry? I think step one is you've gotta recognize that the gifts and talents and abilities that we've all been given by God, that they've been given to us to use them in our work, and our workplace becomes our assigned place of ministry. We just need to recognize, I think for us it was, we just need to recognize that God loves our work.

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: He doesn't just love pastors and missionaries. He loves all of us, and all of our work can be kingdom work.

Martha: It's like you said, God created each one of us with those abilities to do the work that we do, therefore, he loves that work. We often talk about it, when somebody complains about, "Oh, I don't like how my eyes are shaped," or whatever, you say did God make a mistake? No, he made you that way on purpose." He also made each one of us to like numbers or to like order or to like how to fix cars or-

Jim: And some of you even like calculus.

You could get healing for that.

Martha: All those things.

Jim: Yes.

Martha: God did that on purpose. Why? So that you could use those gifts, talents, and abilities for work that he designed you to be able to do.

Jim: And you could use those gifts, talents, and abilities in your assigned place of ministry so that you can be sent as an engineer, as a used car salesperson, as a lineman.

You could be sent as a lawn mowing person or a snow shoveler. You could be sent as a teacher or a government worker. You could be sent as a politician You, recognizing that God created you the way you are on purpose with a unique set of gifts, talents, and abilities, and that God loves your work, gives you the permission to go anywhere. Of course, we're not talking immoral businesses. Just pretend that's not part of this conversation, that no matter-

Martha: No, don't pretend ... it really is not part of this conversation.

Jim: Okay. And we're not endorsing that you could go into prostitution and do that for the glory of God. Okay, there, I've said it.

Martha: Good job.

Jim: Phew.

Martha: Okay.

Jim: It's just so awkward to say that. But no matter what the job is that you have, maybe you're flipping burgers at a local burger joint, which by the way, I really like burgers, that can be done, God did that on purpose. And guess what? No matter where people work, Martha, they're surrounded by lost and hopeless people that me to, need to meet Jesus, aren't they?

Martha: Yes, they are. And I was just thinking about the burger flipping concept that you just made, Jim. We want them to do it with excellence. God calls us to excellence because you don't want them to flip that burger on the ground and then pick it back up and put it back on the grill, right?

Jim: No, we don't.

Martha: So thank you for doing it with excellence.

Jim: That's right. And once we recognize that God loves our work, and that our workplace is exactly where God has placed us on purpose for a purpose, our mission field with lost and hopeless people, our assigned place in ministry, we need to do the whole Colossians 3:23 thing.

So the second step is learning to work for the Lord. Do your work heartily as to the Lord, for it is the Lord Christ whom you serve. That's the next step. First recognizing that I don't need to quit my job, God actually loves my work.

Then second, learn to work for the Lord. What does that look like, Martha?

Martha: Oh, that's a great question, 'cause for everybody it can look differently, but some of the things that I know to be true is that if we're working for the Lord, we're doing it from a biblical standard, we're using that as our guide, and then we can learn to do that by really learning what the scripture has to say about work.

Jim: We've incorporated something in this step, and this is what the Lord showed me 20 years ago. Oh my, we're getting old.

Martha: No, we're not.

Jim: You're right. You're not. You still look the same as you did 20 years ago. However-

Martha: But I'm older than you. How can I not be getting old?

Jim: You are a cougar. That is for sure. And for those of you that wanna know that story, that's a story-

Martha: For another time ...

Jim: that's another, that's back when we were doing Together on Tuesdays with Jim and Martha, we shared that story. Okay. We developed this thing called the iWork4Him Nation. That's what really helps you shift how you do your work so that you're learning to work for the Lord.

Martha, what is that iWork4Him Nation all about?

Martha: The, there's so many, so many ways to look at it, but when you look at the nation, one of the things that we say is to recognize... Oh, Jim, help me. You put me on the spot. I was thinking about other things.

Jim: Okay. All right. First thing you do in the iWork4Him Nation is start praying for the people that you work alongside each and every day, by name.

Martha: Yes.

Jim: So that you regularly are praying for those people, and when you pray for other people, it doesn't fix them.

Martha: What?

Jim: It fixes you.

Martha: Yes.

Jim: Because you start to see those people the way God sees those people. That's the first thing you do. Second, you start looking for ways to help people over and above what your job requires you to do. So you're looking for, hey, somebody needs help doing an extra project or whatever, and you just say, "Hey, I'll pitch in." It's after hours. "It's okay. I'll still help."

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: So you're looking for ways just to do things over and above what you're required to do, 'cause if all you do is what you're required to do, you are no better than Bob in accounting, okay? No offense to Bob, who's in accounting. All right. The third thing you do is you look for ways to befriend people outside of work. It's one thing to have a work friendship. It's another thing to have a real friendship that carries off into your kitchen, to your kitchen table, or to a local restaurant.

When you befriend people, when you befriend them outside of work, they get a chance to know the real you, the whole you, the rest of you. And that gives you an opportunity to share who you really are. The fourth step is to look for ways to pray with people when you notice they're having a rough day. When we work with people every day, we know what they're like every day. We know what their regular demeanor is. For me, if I'm not like this, there's a problem. When I walk in "Oh, bother," the whole Eeyore deal.

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: Something's wrong with Jim. Okay? So we recognize when people are having a rough day, and we say, "Hey, how you doing?" And they're gonna go, "I'm fine." And you're gonna go, "Really? Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional? No, really, how are you doing?" And then they share something with you. And then you go, "Thank you for sharing that." You shut up while they're saying this, by the way. And you say, "Thank you for sharing that." And then you say, "Hey, can I pray about that with you right now?"

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: But all along, as part of this iWork4Him nation, your work needs to be defined by excellence. You need to be the best, the brightest person in your position, in your company, in your organization. Maybe it's not a company, maybe it's an organization. Whether you're a government worker, a teacher a used car salesperson, and-

Martha: Or self-employed ...

Jim: self-employed, lots of those people listening, you need to be the best at what you do because your work is drawing attention to God.

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: All right, so the third step. So that's, you, first you need to recognize that God loves your work, that He didn't create you... there's not an accident that you love accounting, or that you love landscaping, or that you love to detail cars. That's not an accident. Recognize that God loves your work. Second of all, you need to learn to work for the Lord, have your work reflect who He is, and learn to love your neighbors at work. And the third thing, Martha, is what do we need to do? What have we seen?

Martha: We have covered thousands and thousands of stories over the last 13 years, and the most powerful thing that happens in the life of a believer is when they learn to listen to God about every part of their lives, including their work, which is really the concept, Jim, of learning to work with the Lord.

Jim: So first you're recognizing that God actually likes your work. Second, you're learning to work with God. Then you're learning to work... Excuse me. Then you're learn to work for God. Then you learn to work with God. And really, when you look at this is like the life of Moses. Because Moses, he knew he had a calling on his life and so he recognized that God loved his work. Moses was a government official. He worked in Pharaoh's household. And all of a sudden he thought he had to help God along, 'cause God wasn't really moving fast enough for him. So he, he was trying to work for the Lord when he killed that, killed the Egyptian guy. Then he learned to work for the Lord s- tending sheep for, 40 years.

Then he learned to work with God as he brought two million people out of Egypt, because if he wasn't listening to God, he wasn't working with God. And when, if you don't work with God but yet you're trying to work for God, you're gonna have a disaster. That's kinda like Joshua and the battle at Ai. Now he wasn't battling artificial intelligence but he was battling at AI, and he didn't ask the Lord what they should do that day. He had asked for the directions for Jericho, but in the next battle at AI, they didn't. They just assumed that whatever we should do, and they got trounced.

Martha: Trounced?

Jim: They did. Is that a good word?

Martha: Tell me about it.

Jim: They just got des- That's okay. We got slaughtered. All right.

Martha: Okay, let me say something about this, though 'cause we just had a conversation about this with our friends. We were talking about the whole concept between working for Him, God, because that is our name of our podcast, name of our ministry, and working with God, and I loved the analogy when we have a CEO of our business, our organization, we work for that person, right? They are the ultimate - the buck stops with them, so we work for them.

But you can do a job and work for a CEO and really not be sold on the company's mission and all of that. When you work with the CEO, you're trying to move forward. You're trying to help make that mission a goal that gets accomplished. And so instead of just checking boxes, you're actually on mission for that organization with the CEO.

And I love that difference because we need both. God can be our CEO, but we really need to work with Him to accomplish what He wants to accomplish, and to do that, we really do need to be in tune with what He's saying and ask for His direction.

Okay. So it's so difficult in our small minds to recognize that God has given us these skills to be executed in the marketplace so we can be a blessing to others, which is a kingdom principle. When we listen to Him, Jim, we have the opportunity to minister to the hearts of those that we work with that are lost and hopeless and need Jesus, don't we?

Jim: That's the beauty of it. If you just went to go work in a church, you're not gonna work with lost and hopeless people. You're gonna work with other church people working in a church. Mostly. You may find some people that don't know Jesus that are working in a church, too. The idea that God gave you skills, whatever those skills may be. I know there are people that are professional athletes. God definitely gave you those skills, didn't He? Those are, there's people out there that love geometry.

Martha: You're stuck on the math thing.

Jim: God bless you. I am stuck on the Calculus, geometry, trigonometry, all those things. He didn't make a mistake. He gave you those skills so that you could go to places where people are who don't know Him yet.

Martha: Yeah.

Jim: And we gotta remember that Jesus was God's divine rescue plan. Jesus went and paved the way so that we could have a relationship with God again, like Adam and Eve did before they screwed up the whole deal. We forgive you, Adam and Eve, and we look forward to one day meeting you. But you really did make a mess of things.

Martha: That's an interesting thought.

Jim: Yeah, we do need... We need to move along. All right. When we work with Him, we hear Him. We listen, we obey. It transforms everything we do from small projects over the weekend to big projects at work, and everywhere in between. From working on our marriage to working on our relationship with our kids and our grandkids. Martha?

Martha: Yes, most definitely. Listening to the voice of God, hearing what He has to say, directs every part of our life if we really let Him. I thought it was funny that you said small projects on the weekend and big projects at work, 'cause I feel like sometimes it's the other way around.

Jim: When I'm working on your project list, which is 72 pages long, that is... There's a lot of big projects there. Yeah. I did not get the garden wall built this last weekend while you were gone. Sorry about that.

Martha: You did a great job. Thank you for everything.

Jim: All right, so let's recap this then.

Martha: Okay. So we get the opportunity to recognize that our workplace is our mission field assigned to us as our place of ministry.

Jim: Then we need to learn and recognize that God loves our work.

Martha: Yes.

Jim: Then we need to learn to work for Him.

Martha: And finally, we need to learn to work with Him.

Jim: What else would you add?

Martha: I would add... I think that's plenty, Jim. Okay. I really think we're trying to keep it simple. It's three small ideas.

Jim: In 18 minutes or less. Okay. We encourage all - Martha and I encourage you to go to iwork4him.com. That's iwork, the number 4, him.com, and join the iWork4Him nation. Start learning to work for the Lord. First you just have to be willing to accept on this premise that we're speaking into you, that God loves your work. He has no desire for you to quit that job and go work in some ministry, because when you do, that means all those people around you are not gonna meet Jesus through you. Don't give up on them. Learn to work for the Lord, which will eventually help you learn to work with Him.

That's the three steps it takes to transform your workplace into a place of ministry, your assigned mission field. If you wanna know more, go to iwork4him.com/jointhenation.

Martha: It'll be in the show notes.

Jim: Everybody, it will be. But in case you're not listening to the show notes or you can't read the show notes and you wanna just go to the website, that's what it is. You're listening to iWork4Him with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers, and we've learned that our workplace, it's our mission field. But ultimately, iWork4Him.

Really, I work with Him. That's what we've gotten to. Thanks for listening.