Talking about God’s MORAL LAWS
- Put into His creation
- Revealed through the person and teachings of Jesus
These laws are not argued about as being good…
We are asking WHY THEY ARE GOOD
Today is about…
WORK AS A CALLING
Research shows that we need meaningful work to THRIVE
Those who work for ONLY MONEY tend to become unsatisfied
But if work is seen as a calling that matches our values it:
- Connects us to people
- Fits us within a larger vision
- Experience more joy
While we know this to be true, there is a HUGE GAP in how we view different kinds of work
- Want to CELEBRATE the CEO
- But overlook the janitor
This is a mistake…
We have a poor understanding of work and the place God designed it within His creation
To better understand God’s design of work, let’s start with heaven…
Heaven will NOT be boring
Heaven is not the end anyway, the NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH are
“We’ll also have work to do, satisfying and enriching work that we can’t wait to get back to, work that’ll never be drudgery” ~ Randy Alcorn
But why would there be work in heaven?
1: We are MADE to work
Genesis 2:15
The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.
The Fall (sin) changed all that…
Genesis 3
7 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”
Work went from being something we were CREATED FOR to something that crushes us to do
This is something the Bible communicates over and over again..
Things that God made for our GOOD that have been TARNISHED by sin
Things like:
- Relationships
- Love
- Childbirth
- Sex
- Happiness
- Peace
And certainly WORK
So what has work become?
Something that Crushes us
- It grinds us into dust
- It takes away our energy
Something we HAVE to do, instead of something we GET to do
Often have little choice in what we have to do
And in our culture is has become something dangerous…
OUR IDENTITY…
But…
2: Our work is NOT our identity
Our culture has attached our identity to our work in TWO ways:
1: You are defined by what you do
2: You are defined by how successful you are in doing it
Defined by WHAT YOU DO
A question we ask when meeting someone new
It helps us CATEGORIZE people
- How important they are
- How wealthy they may be
- If they can help you or not
Define by HOW SUCCESSFUL you are
- Are you the top in your field
- How far have you made it?
- Made a lot of money?
ACHIEVEMENTS and IDENTITY are two DIFFERENT THINGS
Matthew 6:24
24 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
You may say…
“Jesus is talking about money…”
Yeah, but how do we judge how successful someone is?
The Christian way is this…
Our identity is not IN our work but rather is revealed THROUGH our work
- We do things different
- We act Differing
- We respond differently
- We have different values and expectations for ourselves and out work
What is your Identity in Christ Jesus?
Our identity is how GOD sees us, not how we see each other or ourselves
In Christ, we are:
- Loved
- Adopted
- Made new
- Purchased from death for a great price
- Chosen
- Called
- Anointed
- Blessed and Highly favored
Ephesians 2:10
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
Our identity cannot be based on something that can be easily taken away.
- Your job/success can change in a moment
- That’s not who you are in God’s eyes
Because of this…We work differently because we follow Jesus
- Jesus people should just work different
- We don’t need it for our identity
- But we know we are made for work
3: Work done in service to Jesus is HOLY work
One of the most incredible things Christianity has done is bring tremendous value to both culturally MEANINGLESS PEOPLE and TASKS
In the New Testament, most people did not CHOOSE their occupation
- Born into it
- Slaves
- Limited options
- Working class vs Wealthy
Paul taught that even the work of a Christian slave could be a calling
Colossians 3:23–24
23 Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, 24 knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.
A study observed:
- Hospital Janitors who saw their work as calling
- They enjoyed it far more than those working for a paycheck only
How does God feed the people? Through the farmers
- How does he educate his people? Through the teachers
- How does God house his people? The construction workers
- Etc...
Christianity has ALWAYS taught that No one is above anything
We are to copy the example of Jesus…
Jesus washing the disciples’ feet
The God of creation, acting like a servant
It’s not what you do that defines you, but why you do what you do
- What you do does not lessen your value, why you do it does
- It’s not what’s on the outside, but what is on the inside
- The CEO can be chasing death, but the janitor is full of Christian life
Key question: