We can spend a whole year preparing for a short-term mission trip.  But how much time have you spent preparing for your workplace mission field?  We need to prepare our openness to God’s leading as we work.  All day long, decisions need to be made.  You will also be presented with opportunities for conversations.  How often do you stop before you make that decision and say, “God, what do you want me to do here?” How often do you stop before talking with someone and say, " God, what do you want me to say here?” Too often at work, we are so busy checking things off our to-do list that we miss the opportunities to involve God in our daily work.  Prepare yourself today to be directed by God in all that you decide and in all your conversations. 

We can spend a whole year preparing for a short-term mission trip.  But how much time have you spent preparing for your workplace mission field?  We need to prepare our strength daily.  I'm not sure who said it first, but whoever said it was right.  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Exercise isn't a bad idea either.  If you never get to eat a decent breakfast and never get a chance to exercise, how can your strength be prepared for your workplace ministry?  We need to be ready to battle the enemy who wants to keep the lost souls of our workplace neighbors entrapped in eternal damnation.  We need to be at the top of our game every day.  We must eat right, grow strong, and keep our face to the Son and our feet on the rock.  Are you at your full strength today? 

We can spend a whole year preparing for a short-term mission trip.  But how much time have you spent preparing for your workplace mission field?  We need to prepare our souls daily as we get ready for work.  What does that mean?  So often, our souls have been hurt and damaged by the people we work with and the people we live with.  Preparing our souls means forgiving those who have sinned against us.  Remember, forgiving isn't for them it's for you.  If you don't forgive others, your soul will never be prepared for your workplace mission field.  Do you have people at work that you need to forgive?  If our souls are not prepared through forgiving others who have hurt us, we will not be able to prepare others for the soul repairing that Jesus can do for them.  Is your soul prepared today? 

We can spend a whole year preparing for a short-term mission trip.  How much time have you spent preparing for your workplace mission field?  We need to prepare our minds daily as we get ready for work.  What does that mean?  Spending time in God's word, prayer, journaling, and just plain quiet time.  If we jump out of bed, get ready for work, and take off down the driveway, our minds will be filled with furious thoughts about everything we want to accomplish in the day.  If we prepare our minds, we will focus on the people we work with and how we need to love on them and pray for them.  If you don't prepare your mind, your workplace mission field is in danger today.  If you do prepare your mind, those people you work with, they're in danger of meeting Jesus. 

We can spend a whole year preparing for a short-term mission trip.  But how much time have you spent preparing for your workplace mission field?  We need to prepare our hearts daily as we get ready for work.  What does that mean?  It means confessing our sins to our heavenly Father before our day starts.  Confessing just means agreeing with God for what He already knows about our attitudes and actions.  So often we carry negative attitudes and actions towards those we work with because of frustrations at our jobs.  Our hearts need to be prepared with love for those in our workplaces.  Whether that be our bosses, our vendors, our customers, or fellow employees, our hearts need to be ready to hear the voice of God and respond lovingly to those around us.  Have you prepared your heart for today? 

I have never worked a manufacturing line.  But I know this.  If people don’t do their jobs at the manufacturing plants, then many items we count on wouldn’t be made.  If you feel like you're just a manufacturing worker and want to quit your job to go into full-time ministry.  Don’t!  That's a disaster.  Your job is so critical to the lives of thousands of people, perhaps millions.  God has gifted you uniquely to be able to build things, fix things, and package things.  Without manufacturing, we'd still be in the dark ages.  Every day as a worker in a manufacturing environment, you have the unique ability to touch the lives of everyone around you and impact the lives of people you'll never meet.  Please stay at your job and keep making a difference.  Imagine a world where everybody in a manufacturing environment quit their job to work at a church.  That's not a world I want to live in. 

I've been in sales before.  For 10 years, I worked in Christian retail.  I actually worked at a Christian bookstore inside of a church.  Every day I had to manage employees, manage stock, keep track of sales, and please the people that owned the store.  I loved selling people things they needed.  I sold lots of Bibles.  I sold lots of books.  I sold lots of gifts.  I sold a lot of music.  I saw the joy of matching the right product with the right customer.  I knew I wasn't just a salesperson.  I knew I wasn't just a bookstore manager.  I knew that I was in full-time ministry in a Christian bookstore.  I knew that what I did every day was making a difference.  Imagine a world where all the salespeople quit to go into full-time ministry.  That's not a world I want to live in. 

You might say, All I ever do is clean up after people.  As a janitor, I'm sweeping floors day in and day out.  I clean them, and other people get them dirty.  I clean the bathrooms, and they get dirty again.  I just want a job that matters.  I'm gonna quit my job and go into full-time ministry.  STOP.  You are not just a janitor.  You have a unique set of gifts, talents, and abilities that God has given you to see dirt and know how to clean.  You see a mess and know how to bring order.  You know how to fix things.  You know how to clean things.  You know how to make things safe.  All of that stuff is very important.  You are gifted, and you are called.  Just imagine a world where everyone who is a janitor quits their job to go into full-time ministry.  That's not a world I want to live in. 

I had a conversation the other day with a friend of mine.  She said to me “ I'm a really good accountant but I'm thinking about quitting my job and going to work in a church. I just want my work to make a difference.  I want my work to matter to God.” So I said, “ You are not just an accountant.  You are someone uniquely gifted by God to work with numbers.  You organize those numbers so they make sense.  Without your set of unique gifts, talents, and abilities to work with numbers, the entire world would collapse.  God designed you right from the start to love working with numbers.  Embrace it.”  Now just imagine a world where everybody who's an accountant quit their jobs so they could go work in a church.  That's not a world I want to live in. 

If I hear one more person say that their job doesn't make a difference so they’re going to quit their job and go work in full time ministry - I'm gonna explode.  You're not just a plumber.  You're a plumber who loves Jesus and who's really good at keeping people's water flowing, their toilets flushing, their drains draining and their hot water hot.  You're a blessing to everybody you serve because they depend on you for reliable plumbing.  And when you do an excellent job, God is glorified and you have an opportunity to tell people why you do things with excellence.  So you're not just a plumber, you're a Jesus follower who is a plumber.  You are gifted and you are called.  Just imagine a world where everybody who's a plumber quits their job and goes to work in a church.  That's not a world I wanna live in.