Talk

INTRODUCTION BRO. BO SANCHEZ:

 MY FRIENDS, we live only now. We don’t know what will happen one hour from now. You live now. I want you to greet that person beside you — if a family member, or a friend– just greet that person with a handshake, a hug — just tell that person: “Live now!”

We live only now.

To the fathers, Happy Father’s Day!

This morning, I met a woman… You know, her two sons are already adults. They brought their mother to me and said, “Bro. Bo, meet our father.” Single mom. But she’s their father.

To all the fathers and father-figures in this place: Happy Father’s Day! You’re amazing.

I want to welcome you to our brand-new series. For five weeks, we are going to talk about work, about your job.

How many of you want God to bless your job– your career, your business? You want that? Everybody, say: “I want that!.”

Tell somebody beside you: “God bless your work.”

“Ay, Bro. Bo, I’m a housewife. Are those five weeks for me?”

My dear Housewife, you have and you hold the most important job in the world.

Who are students here? That’s your work, that’s your job: being a student. And you want to do it well. And you want to prepare yourself well for the future.

Retirees, raise your hands. Your job is important. You do so many tasks in the house.

Maybe you do apostolate (taking care of grandchildren)… Huwag ninyong i-lang-lang ‘yan. Don’t take that for granted. That is very important. You’re shaping the next generation.

Very important.

So, one more time: How many of you want God to bless your job, your career, your profession, your business?

Everybody, say: “Amen.”

What I want to share is this: You know why your work matters? Because most of our waking hours are devoted to our work. Yes or no? Your job affects your financial health.

Say: “Amen.”

It also affects your physical health. Yes? It affects your mental health. It also affects your relationship health– in your family.

Your work matters to you. I want you to know that it matters to God. Because you matter to God.

Put your hand over your chest and say: “I matter to God. And, therefore, my job matters to God.”

I’m going to ask you this question: Does your relationship with God affect your relationship with your work?

And so, for five weeks, we’re going to work on that statement.

I have three prayers for you. I am going to ask three blessings from God to give you, in the  next five weeks:

Sounds odd, right? Absurd.

You might be surprised by this blessing: Your secular job, your work, will start bringing you closer to God.

“Bro. Bo, I’m a BPO agent. How can my work bring me closer to God?” “Bro. Bo, I’m a technician.”

“Bro. Bo, I’m a teacher. It’s so difficult to teach in a public school. What are you talking about?”

Yes. This is the beauty of our message for the next five weeks– First Blessing: We want your secular work to bring you closer to God.

My Friends, put your hand over your chest and say: “I’m a preacher.”

Your pulpit is not here. your pulpit is your profession. And in your job, you display who God is, and you will bless others.

That’s going to be my prayer: That God will prosper you in your job, and God will allow you to prosper others through your job.

But maybe, we need to clarify something that a lot of people believe.

You see, a lot of people think that work is a curse from God.

There was this friend of mine, he came to me and said: “Bro. Bo, isn’t that in the Bible: that work is a curse? I remember that my Grade 6 Religion teacher told us that when Adam and Eve ate the apple, God told them: “Work is the punishment for you.”

I told him: “There is no apple in Genesis. It says fruit. So, we don’t know what fruit that is.” But to clarify: Work is not a curse.

Extend your hands towards Scripture today:

Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet And a Light unto my path.

We’re going to read a passage where a lot of people get the idea that work is a curse.

It’s wrong. But let’s read it together and let’s find out what this means:

“Bro. Bo, it sounds like a curse.” No, it’s not.

I want you to know that before man fell, and ate the fruit, work already existed in Paradise– in the Garden of Eden.

Let’s read Genesis 2:15:

Work Is Wonderful

Are there people here who are card-carrying, true blooded, official plantitos and plantitas?

If you are, be proud and raise your hands and wave at me.

Those who wave at me, question: Is it difficult to take care of plants? Yes! Oh, my gosh, it is difficult– under the sun, watering, especially if you have a big garden. It is difficult.

But I have another question for you: Is it enjoyable? Oh, my gosh, is it refreshing? Is it the way you relax? That is work.

Work was designed by God to make you feel good and wonderful. Everybody, say: “Work is wonderful.”

Everybody, say: “Work is refreshing.” Everybody, say: “Work is fulfilling.” That was the design of God.

What happened? Because of the fall, because of our disobedience, because of sin, work becomes disappointing, frustrating, painful.

And this is what God wants us to do. He wants to bring us back into the Garden.

My Friends, work already happened in Paradise. In that beautiful, beautiful place, work was there. And so, this is what God wants you to do: Man’s work in the Garden isn’t about punishment but a promotion.

Raise your hand if you have a job. Raise your hand if you have work. If you’re a student, you should raise your hand because studying is work. Retirees, you’re taking care of your apo, grandchild, that’s work. Housewives, you should raise your hand.

Do you have work? You’re promoted. It is not a punishment. You’re promoted. Why?

Because God wants you to be like Him: a co-Creator.

And so, this is my message to you:

There are two kinds of work: Work inside the Garden. But when Adam fell, he had to work outside the Garden.

So, the two kinds of work: 1. Work in the Garden with God. 2. Work Outside the Garden without God.

What kind of work do you want to do: 1 or 2?

I don’t care if you are a traffic enforcer, or a mechanic, or a manager, or an editor, or a photographer. I don’t care if you are a pharmacist, or a doctor, or a nurse, architect, contractor, or carpenter. Any work that you do, you can do it In the Garden, or you can do it Outside the Garden. It’s your choice.

And if you want God to bless you in your job, please work In the Garden. Put your hand over your chest. Everybody, say:

Jesus, help me. Bless my job, my career, my business. Anoint me. I want my work to be wonderful. Help me, empower me, equip me, guide me. Promote me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

If you believe God will answer your prayer, give Him a big hand. I want you to Hi-5 seven persons beside you and tell that person:

“God will answer that prayer.”

Everybody, say: “My job will be blessed.”

In five weeks, every single week, God will bless your job more and more, and more. Amen.

Hallelujah!

We are now going to listen to God’s Word through our leader, our preacher, and our Feast Builder, the one and only Audee Villaraza.

BRO. AUDEE VILLARAZA:

Everybody, give a big hand to Bro. Bo, and shout: “Thank you, Bro. Bo!”

I want to start my part by asking you a real and honest question. And I want you to be a savage and as genuine in answering this question I’m going to ask you to share your answer to the person sitting next to you.

I want you to answer this: On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest, and 10 being the highest: What is your stress level at work right now?

How many of you, your stress level is No. 1? Wow, quite a number.

No.2? There are some.

No. 3? Those are not so stressed. Relaxed. No. 4? There are a couple of persons.

How about No. 5– 50-50? Sometimes stressed, sometimes blessed. How about those in the 6^th level? There are some.

Level 7?

Level 8? Growing number…

Level 9?

All those in Level 10, raise your hands and make some noise.

Ha-Ha. That’s all of us, right?

Top 10 Signs That You Are Stressed from Work

I want to share with you, right now, the Top 10 Signs That You Are Stressed from Work.

Level 10: You’d rather struggle through the EDSA traffic than stay in your office, your workplace.

Level 9: You always dream your reports are already finished– done. Not really true. Just a dream. J

Level 8: You’re thankful when a meeting is cancelled– even if you were the one who set the meeting.

Level 7: What used to be fine lines on your forehead are now deadlines.

Level 6: This one all of you can relate to: You are so stressed that there are 73 open files on your laptop, but not one is related to your work.

Level 5: Your phone is on speed dial, but on block all calls.

Level 4: Your office plants look healthier than you. The plants have no stress.

Level 3: This one is my favorite. Your office hours are supposed to end at 5:00 p.m., but as early as 4:30 p.m. you’ve already gathered your belongings and you’re ready to go out.

Level 2: You’re out is 5:00 p.m. but at 4:30, you have already booked your Grab ride.

Top 1 sign that you are stressed from work: You’re looking for a sign to quit from your job so, you saw all these signs…

Tell the person right next to you: “Stress is real.” Then tell the other person, “Burnout is real.”

It real is. And one of the most common sources of stress is our work. Isn’t it?

Common Prayer Petitions About Work

My goal for the rest of time we’re together here is to change your paradigm when it comes to work.

Just like what Bro. Bo said, “Work is not a curse. It’s a blessing.”

But the sad truth, my dear Friends, a lot of people are stressed from work. They’re burnout.

Let me share this: People would come up to me and say, “Brother, may you pray for me?”

And they would usually ask for three common concerns– all work related;

1. “Brother, I am tired of my ”
2. “Brother, I have so many tasks in my ”
3. “Brother, I have no ”

Always about work. The truth is, work is very hard– when you’re not thinking the way God does. And I hope we can correct that.

But let’s be real. How many of you here dream that one day you will no longer have to work?

I think the attraction to a lot of people is that whenever we think of Paradise, whenever we think of the Afterlife, we think of Heaven, some of us might be excited. But of course, may not be excited.

But we are excited to be in that place someday because it means that there’s no more work. No more boss to report to. No more client to chase. No more monthly quotas to meet every week. No more bills to pay.

Are you excited for that time when your life will be like that and you’re just sitting around on a beach, sipping your favorite drink?

Let me be the first to pop your bubble today. Genesis is teaching us that in Paradise, there is work but not the work that you imagine. The work will be different in Paradise.

Here is the truth: Eden is the Garden that the Lord created for His lovely human beings. But Eden was not just the place of rest. It was also a place of responsibility.

Two Powerful Truths

Let me teach you Two Powerful Truths About Work.

1.   There is no retirement from responsibility.

This is the paradigm of life.

When you’re young, you have more energy so you work hard because you have responsibilities…

As you get older, you will have less energy but you will still have responsibility. The one thing that does not change whether you’re young or older, is that responsibility never ends.

When you’re young, you’re building on your work. You’re building your little kingdom.

Now that you’re older and retired, you’re building God’s Kingdom. You’re ministering to other people. You will always have a responsibility because in God’s Kingdom, the mission never ends. There’s always going to be a soul that needs to be saved. There’s always going to be some new territory that needs to be conquered. There’s always going to be a heart that needs to be healed. It never ends, and that’s a beautiful thing. It should not stress you out because if it does, you’re still thinking of worldly work.

Now, I’m going to challenge you to think that when the Lord blessed us with work, it wasn’t how work we imagined it.

The thing that you call your career, the Lord calls it a calling. For all of us, the calling never ends. Even if you’re retired, the calling to make disciples is still in your heart and that should always burn you and push you to achieve the purpose of God. Whether you are working or resting, never do it without God.

2. You have a responsibility to rest.

While it is true that there is no retirement from responsibility, it’s also true that you have a responsibility to rest.

Honestly, Feast Builders are busy but we’re not that busy. We still have time to have coffee with people. We still have time to watch Netflix. We still have time to go out with our family.

I think it’s a great disservice to tell yourself that you’re too busy. It’s a great disservice to the Lord. It’s a great disservice to people because you can never be too busy. You know there’s a problem when you’re always busy.

You’re like Martha in the kitchen. Don’t be like Martha who was so stressed out in the kitchen preparing meal for Jesus.

Jesus actually commended Mary who sat at His feet and said, “Mary chose what is better and I will not take it away from her.”

Have time to rest. The Lord worked for six days to build the world but He rested for one day. Did the Lord rest because He was tired? No. I don’t think that the Lord gets tired. But why did He rest? To show you and me that you also need to rest.

That’s the secret of life. If you’re burdened with many things, have a fresh restart because that’s what the Lord taught us. Even though He wasn’t tired, He rested because that’s a biblical principle: That we need to rest.

The reason we treat work as something that’s so burdensome is it’s a lie that was perpetuated by the enemy since the very beginning.

When the Devil convinced Adam and Eve to take the forbidden fruit, he was already telling them a lie in advance. The Devil was convincing them that they could do what they want on their own and that they don’t need God in the Garden. The lie was that they could actually take matters into their own hands. They could define good and evil according to their own terms because they could become like God.

That lie is in our head.

When you started your business, isn’t it true that you were the one who did all the leg work? You were like a one-stop shop. That’s great. Praise God!

But the problem with that is it works in your head and you start thinking that you’re the sole owner of the company because it’s a sole proprietorship.

Let me tell you the good news: “You’re not the owner.”

It’s God. God is the CEO of your life. Who gave you the business idea? It’s God.

Who inspired you to work on that business? It’s God. Who gives you the oxygen every day to breathe in and out? It’s God.

So, report to God every day when you work on your business.

4 Words To Set You Free

I’ll teach you four words that will set you free every day to put you in this perspective that your business is not only yours but it’s also God’s.

Say these four words every morning when you wake up. This is going to liberate you.

The moment you wake up and start thinking of work, simply say: “Lord, let’s do this.”

It teaches our mind to remember and to reflect that we’re not the only one that’s supposed to handle all those problems that we’re having in our business. Give them to God! The reason you get so stressed out is not the work that you do– but doing it all by yourself.

Learn how to give the problems to the Lord.

It’s a liberating feeling when you know that the Lord is working with you in that Garden that He gave you in the very first place. It sets you free.

You can relax at the end of the day. Why? Because you know that the Lord is working on your business while you’re asleep. He’s working on those things

that you’re so worried about because God is your partner. It’s a beautiful reminder that work in the Garden only becomes stressful when you’re all doing it by yourself. Whenever there’s a problem, we all have that tendency to solve it on our own strength. God only becomes the last option.

Here’s the solution: Involve the Lord in the process. While the problem is not even a problem yet, involve God in Level 1 before it reaches Level 10.

The first worker in the whole universe was not Adam. It wasn’t even Eve. It was God:

God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, He rested from all the work that He had been doing in creation. The Lord understands the stress that you’re going through in your work because He was the First Worker. He worked on creating the world in six days.

Give the stress that you carry to God. He can handle it. I realized that it’s not an accident that the profession that Jesus chose was to be a carpenter. It required manual labor. It required creating, reshaping, and rebuilding something from His hands. I came to tell that Jesus is still in the business of recreating and reshaping lives. He’s still in the business of retransforming what is broken into what is complete. Even Jesus knew what work was. He’s Somebody who got His hands dirty. Instead of asking people to serve Him.

A Different Creation Story

I want to show you something really cool for all the Bible nerds.

There’s a Creation story that’s as old as Genesis

but it’s not from Genesis.

It’s a Babylonian myth called Enuma Elish of how the world was created and how you and I were created.

This is similar to a Filipino folklore. We have a legend of how we were created. We studied this in grade school.

This is how the Enuma Elish story goes:

In Enuma Elish, there are many gods. The name of the elder God is Tiamat.

She is a female god. She has tentacles. She rules the galaxy.

There are, however, younger gods who want to rebel against her. And one of them is Marduk. He is the strongest among their kind. He tells the gods that he can defeat Tiamat on one condition: he will be the boss of all the other gods.

Finally, Marduk fights Tiamat and he defeats her.

After defeating her, Marduk slices and chops her body into pieces. This is a very much like the Macabre and Gory story. He then distributes the various parts of Tiamat. Thus, from there, different parts of the world are created.

Now that they’re gods and they’re mighty, they have a problem. All the gods want to do is rest and party again and again. There’s no one to do the dirty jobs. What’s the solution?

They decide: “Let’s create human beings so that we will have servants. We will have slaves and we will be their masters. All we will do is just rest and party.”

That’s the story of Enuma Elish.

Now, if I put the Enuma Elish Creation story side by side with the Genesis Creation story. Do you see that little pattern where the world was created and then human beings were created? But there’s a huge difference when it comes to the intention.

When you’re confused about work and what the Lord really intended for work, go back to the Genesis story of Creation.

The Lord created you in His image and likeness. God is a worker.

If God is a worker, you’re also a worker.

What is your garden? We all have our own gardens. It can be your career, your relationships, or your skills. Garden is basically anything that you care for and cultivate.

Here’s the principle: Whatever your garden is, don’t neglect it. Tend that garden.

Grow the gifts that the Lord gave you.

I’m praying that this message is changing the way you see work– through the eyes of the Lord.

Between Enuma Elish, where Marduk is the god, and the Creation story in Genesis, where the God is our Lord God, Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is our God –Three in One–who do you prefer to be your boss? The one who will treat you as a slave or the one who really loves and cares for you?

I want to go deeper on that thought. God is not just the boss but God is Somebody who partners with us. What we’re learning here today is that the Lord is not just the First Worker. The Lord is also Somebody who works for you.

Have you ever had a master like that? Somebody who will partner with you and treat you worthy of dignity. That’s God.

Whatever your garden is– whether you’re a student, a housewife, you’re retired, you’re unemployed– you still have a responsibility.

That’s a calling that will never end.

Cultivate Your Garden

I want to point out something that’s so glaring to me that I found in the New Testament.

The reason we get so stressed about the work that we do is simply we’re doing it on our own. We’re not involving God in the process.

That’s what happened with Adam. He thought that he could do the work by himself. But then he left the garden and everything turned upside down.

This beautiful place was intended for purpose, abundance, and God’s Presence.

Suddenly, it changed forever. We now have to feel burdened because work has now become a curse. It’s a lie that the enemy has perpetuated.

I’m praying that this is going to minister to you.

Because there’s a story in the New Testament where John talks about

Mary Magdalene walking inside the tomb and she was crying because her Master was dead. (John 20:1-18)

The Savior of the world had been buried in the tomb. All of a sudden, Jesus shows up in risen form.

And He says to Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?”

Mary thought that it was the gardener. It’s kind of curious that John would insert this little adjective of how Mary thought that it was the gardener. Why is there a gardener in a graveyard? Then, it hit me. Jesus was buried in a garden tomb.

Whenever you choose to work outside of the Garden or outside the Lord’s sovereignty, you will get burned out. You will get stressed. You will get anxious.

That’s exactly what happened to Adam. God created Adam to be the first gardener in the Garden of Eden but sadly, he failed to do his job.

So, God sent another Gardener who would redeem the lie that work is a curse — because it’s not. Work is a privilege and an honor. It’s an opportunity to exercise the divine right, to care, and to cultivate the Garden that the Lord put you in.

From Grave to Garden

When Jesus was raised to life, people said that Jesus robbed the grave. He defeated death and He robbed the grave. But that’s not all that Jesus did.

Jesus turned the grave back into a garden.

What once was dead because of sin, Jesus said: “Let me work on this garden. Let me use my life as a tapestry.

Let me put it back to its original design.”

Today, the Lord is inviting you to involve Him in your 9 to 5 work. Invite the Lord. Involve Him. Because Jesus can be the one to resurrect what have been dead in your life — dead dreams, dead passions, and dead purposes.

Allow Jesus to raise them into a new level of grace and a new level of strength. That’s what He does. He turns graves into beautiful gardens.

I can imagine the kind of graves turning right now because Jesus is here.

Put your hand over your chest. Let’s pray:

Father, in Your Presence, there is power, purpose, and peace. Father, look at all Your children who bear the work on their hands, in their minds, and in their hearts. Even now, we’re thinking about work and all the tasks that we have      to accomplish this week and this month. Father, we know that You are the First Worker and that You did Your work in six days. We’re giving our work to You because You can handle it. We’re done working by ourselves and doing it all alone. We want You to be our hands, to be our feet, and to be our voice.

Come, we invite You to bless the work of our hands. Bless our heart.

Give us the right intentions so we do our work not just for ourselves in our little kingdom but for this Kingdom that You’re building here on earth.

We pray that whatever has died in our lives, we declare that through the power of Jesus, You are turning that grave into a garden once more. Thank You, Lord, for Your Presence. We worship You in spirit and in truth. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

This story was first published in the Feast Family Online News Magazine
Published by THE FEAST (June 22, 2025)