Kingdom Stewardship of Work and Vocation
Various Passages
Chances are that until now most of us have not heard much from the pulpit or church concerning the topic of work. But that’s a problem…
as author Dorothy Sayers writes…
If Christianity does not speak to our work lives, then it has nothing to say about what we do with the vast majority of our time--and no wonder people say religion is irrelevant! “How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?”
A vast amount of our time and therefore…life…is spent at work (by work I don’t just mean paid positions..jobs...parents, housework). It is a radically significant part of our life and therefore our work matters to greatly to God. How we spend that portion of our life…our work life….matters greatly to God. So our hope to today is that God would give us a Biblical view of work…that we would see its purpose and its joy.
So, let’s begin by stating how we should NOT view work:
r
A Curseo
Some of us may feel like it’s hard to see any good in our work…maybe it just feels like a punishment…it’s just a curse…it makes want to curse…every Monday morning (you should come to my work for a day…meet my boss/co-workers)o
Genesis 3:17-19 tells us that work has been cursed so that it is more difficult and we all experience this (by thorns and thistles and the sweat of your brow).o
But work existed before the Fall—Gen. 1:28 will get to later but..Gen. 2:15 “The Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.o
Gen. 3:15 speaks of the seed of the woman, Christ who will reverse the curse of sin. Christ came to redeem all Creation…this includes work…and God’s desire is to restore work to it’s proper place—that work was meant to have dignity and joy.r
It’s something I just have to do in order to live…who else is going to pay the bills? (Necessary Evil)o
Matt. 6 (we heard this last week)…tells us ‘don't worry about what you will eat, drink or wear’…seek first His Kingdom and all will be added…but some may ask…yeah but will the bills really get paid?o
Illus. Regarding Christ’s teaching in Matthew 6: But some say, “Yes, rely upon that, take no thought and see if a roasted chicken will fly into your mouth.” I do not say that a man shall not labor and seek a living, but he shall not worry, not be greedy, not despair, thinking that he will not have enough.o
God has willed that he would feed us and care for us as we work…but the danger of making work, SOLELY about making a living is two fold:§
Ignoring God as your Chief Provider: It’s not only offensive to Him, it will destroy you because if you have to be the Chief Provider…for you and your family…you will live in a baseline state of worry and anxiousness (when am I going to lose my job). BUT…God gives REST to those He loves…those who trust Him can sleep well at night instead of becoming a workaholic.§
The other mistake is to make provisions the goal of your life…to just make sure you have food to eat, a roof, clothes…BUT you were created for so much more than just…it strips you of your true humanity…that’s how animals live. Provisions are important but they are not the end…Enjoying God and glorifying Him are…that’s why He says “Seek first my KINGDOM and RIGHTEOUSNESS…and all these things…”r
Something I have to do b/c it makes my lifestyle possibleo
I hate work but at least it gets me what I want, earthly comforts.o
This view of work is self-serving and idolatrous. Ultimately, as we heard last week…your living as a Keeper. You’re investing in things of earth and looking to things of earth to give you satisfaction and joy when ultimately we know that TRUE satisfaction of the SOUL is found in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.o
Keeping up with the Jones never ends…Phil. 3:8 “…Consider all things rubbish compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus…”o
Your missing out on all that God wanted your life and WORK to be about…it’s selling yourself shortr
It gives me a sense of SIGNIFICANCE and WORTHo
In our culture, in our circles…people introduce themselves…first by name and second by occupation. This goes to show, people look to work as part of their identity. Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with that…the Problem is when we look to work as our CHIEF IDENTITY…rather than finding our identity in Christ…and being His child. Our significance and worth come by being loved and belonging to God (Eph. 1)o
Society has created certain categories and the unspoken message is that the more you make and the more prestigious your job is (the more letters you have behind your name)…you’re more important. And we begin to buy into this in the Church as well. In Christ, we’re all the same…we all have equal dignity and worth before God (and all kinds of work are equal before God…we’ll unpack that in a second)…but your value does not lie in how many figures you make or what society says…your value lies in the fact that though we made ourselves worthless God gave us His Son b/c he valued you.o
The Gospel frees us from pressure to make Work a place where we try and become a SOMEBODY…and rather than ending at our sense of worth…how loved we are…our greatest joy is found in glorifying God and declaring His Worth…how loving and WORTHY he is.Having the wrong view of Work will inevitably result in misery, a squandering of our work lives and therefore a squander of a significant chunk of life. We want to spend the rest of our time moving towards a Biblical view of work….How should I view work?
WORK is something God HAS CALLED US TO.
The term we use today to refer to work…Vocation comes from the Latin word for CALLING. We need to recognize that our Vocation or Work is something God has called us to. God has given us a work to do in this world:
Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
In the Gospel, we are not called from work but to work. The only work we stop…is working for our salvation…Christ did that WORK. We are called to WORK—it’s a stewardship issue.
Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
We are to live and WORK Corum Deo…in the face of God.
What exactly are we called to do in OUR WORK?
1. WORK IS A CALL TO ‘IMAGE’ HIM:
God is a God who works. (Gen. 1) He created all things and then he rested from His work. After the Fall of man, he was at work to redeem the Creation that had fallen into sin. The Father’s work was to send the Son, the Son’s work was to lay down his life and the Spirit is at work now applying the work of the Son. God is a working God. He did not wind the cosmic clock and walk away.
Man is created in God’s image (Gen. 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”) and because we are created in his image, we were created to work.
When we work...you image God. When you create a computer program or software…you are imaging God. When you bring order out of chaos at work…you are imaging God. When you improve someone’s quality of life…you are imaging God. When you create something of beauty that people enjoy because it’s beautiful…you are imaging God.
God delights in this…
-illus. I find great delight when I see ways in which Aiden takes after me (his toes, hands, we’re waiting on the eyebrows)…there’s a deep wonder and joy when you know that your child is the way they are…because they come from you…their made in your image.
Likewise, when you WORK…you image God and he finds great delight and honor in that….creativity, executor…that’s from ME!!!
-Because we’re made in the image of God, we have certain gifts and abilities that we’re called to put to use in our service to Him but we’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks.
2. WORK IS A CALL TO PARTICIPATE WITH HIM IN HIS WORK:
In Genesis 1:28—God calls Adam and Eve to work but this passage is also referred to as the Cultural Mandate—Nancy Pearcey in Total Truth writes:
“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. The first phrase, “be fruitful and multiply,” means to develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws. The second phrase, “subdue the earth,” means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, compose music. This passage is sometimes called the Cultural Mandate because it tells us that our original purpose was to create cultures, build civilizations—nothing less.
From the beginning God’s desire was that through man, all Creation would be subdued and harnessed for His glory—Bible starts in a Garden, ends in a City…you see advancement.
All legitimate forms of work do this. Anything that brings order from dis-order, Injustice to justice, sickness to health, polluted to clean, ignorance to knowledge, chaos to harmony, organized to disorganized, ugliness to beauty, fixing what is broken, etc. You’re participating in the development of God’s kingdom.
-Some of us may be thinking…non-Christians do this too! There’s no explicit way to do Christian plumming…
-That’s true…God is working HIS WILL through men inspite of their blindness to Him.
-For the Christian however, with hearts and minds transformed by the Gospel…we becoming a RENEWING AGENT…showing the fullness of God’s design for whatever career we’re in...that the WORK and the WORKER are both submitted to God’s will
-illus. Dad’s stroke…this is not how medicine should be practiced…in our work, we’re able to demonstrate how work should look when all things are finally renewed….It’s VERY SPIRITUAL.
Nancy Pearcy
This means that our vocation or professional work is not a second-class activity, something we do just to put food on the table. It is a high calling for which we were originally created. The way we serve a Creator God is by being creative with the talents and gifts He has given us. We could even say that we are called to continue God’s creative work…In cultivating creation, we not only recover our original purpose but also bring a redemptive force to reverse the evil and corruption introduced by the Fall. We offer our gifts to God to participate in making His Kingdom come, His will be done. With hearts and minds renewed, our work can now be inspired by love for God and delight in His service.
It’s not just church work that glorifies God and serves his kingdom
-Gospel doesn’t make everyone church workers…it makes every kind of work sacred.
Martin Luther understood this when he wrote, "The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays -- not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship."
Perhaps until now…you felt that the only spiritual good that came from your work was that you could tithe, demonstrate Christian morality…and be a witness at work. But there’s so much more! Your work itself…is sacred and no matter how mundane you can participate in God’s work in renewing and cultivating Creation for God’s glory.
3. WORK IS A CALL TO SERVE OTHERS
All (legitimate forms of work) are a way of serving people
Eph. 4:28-
Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
As we heard last week, we are not to steal…but it’s not enough to just NOT steal...our work is done in order to serve others. Part of the design of our work is for the good of humanity. How does God care for humanity? Through human beings?
-Luther says our vocations are God’s masks, through which he cares for people
-How does God feed people? Through people…the guy who stocked the shelf and drove the truck
-We made it to worship today b/c we drove here in a car someone built…one guys job is to just put the windshield on...but his work benefited you so that you don’t have smashed gnats all over your face
-your sitting in a chair that someone made…we’re hearing God’s work through speakers someone designed
Through work we care and minister to one another. When you do your work well you serve humanity as God intended. KEEP THIS IN MIND AS YOU WORK…Lord, benefit someone in some way through this work (design a program, building etc.)
4. GOD CALLS US TO BEAR THE CROSS, IN OUR WORK
There may be times…God may call us to be in a certain position OR type of work we don't like. We can’t always do all the things we would like to do or feel we should do. Futhermore…b/c of the curse of work…sometimes we have to endure the pain of failure and perhaps our labor seeing fruitless.
But staying put…in a place where God called us to be…is stewardship. Is my master’s calling more important to me than my desires. He calls us to die to self in many areas including our career but this is where God receives most glory…to say more important than doing what I want, is doing what You want…and in so doing…we mirror Christ:
Luke 22:42-
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Yet not my will but yours be done."
Christ had the most difficult job in the history of the world…to bear the weight of sin..the shame, the pain of all humanity…and yet he did it obediently. And because He did…you and I can be sure that OUR LABOR…the WORK we do…is not in vain…but it honors God and he in it…and he says…stay put until I say so…b/c the work your doing is serving others…and subduing Creation to my will.