The Biblical View of Work

Genesis 1, we'll pick up the reading in verse 26 and read through chapter 2 and verse 15. Then God said, And over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

Then God said, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground, everything that has the breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food.

And it was so. God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

By the seventh day God had finished the work He had begun, He had been doing. So on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. The Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprung up.

For the Lord had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground. But streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. The Lord formed a man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

And the man became a living being. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden. And there He put the man He had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.

In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden. From there it was separated into four headwaters.

The name of the first is the Pishon. It winds through the entire land of Havala, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good. Aromatic resin and onyx are also there.

The name of the second river is the Gihon. It winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris. It runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it. And to take and take care of it. Just a word of explanation for coming late and leaving early today.

It's my intention to give you my sermon and not my sickness. My wife was ill earlier in the week. And being the generous woman that she is, she shared it with me.

And I'm just wanting you to know that you will not be the loser for not having me share this with you. But may the Lord help us to focus upon his word this morning and upon him who is our great redeemer.

Well, kids, you'll not be going to school tomorrow, will you? But do you know why? Why is that?

115 years ago, Congress declared that the first Monday in September is a national holiday for the workforce of our country.

And ever since, Labor Day has been set apart to honor American workers for their contribution to the well-being of our nation. So tomorrow, all across our land, factories and schools will be closed.

And workers will be given the day off. No labor on Labor Day. Now, work and the lack of it is a hot topic in the news these days.

And when we turn to the Bible, we find that work is an important topic to God as well. There are over 600 references to work and to labor in the word of God.

Clearly, your work matters to the Lord. And so it must matter to you as well. We know that the whole of the Christian life is to be lived for the glory of God.

First Corinthians 1031. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

He starts with eating and drinking. Those things don't take up much time. And yet they are to be done. So that God is glorified.

But this verse is all inclusive. It says, whatever you do, whatever you do. So next to sleeping, what is it that you do? What is it that you do more than anything else in your life?

Well, that's right. You work. You work. Most of you give around half of your waking hours to work. Some of you even more than that.

That's a huge chunk of your life. Work takes up more of your time than any other thing you do. So if even in the little things such as eating and drinking, we are to do them so that God is glorified.

How much more in this area of work are we to be concerned with God's glory in it? This takes up the largest slice of our life.

Surely it must be redeemed to the glory of God. Now, kids, I'm not assuming that your moms and dads give you eight hours of chores every day. But that doesn't mean this sermon is not for you.

You do spend a lot of time at school, don't you? And what do you do at school if it's not school work? And when you get home, you have further homework.

And you come to realize why it's called work, because it feels a whole lot like work. Indeed, it is a form of work. It's mental work.

And so work is a huge part of your lives as well, students. And so what we say about work, we say to you as well this morning.

So since God says so much about it and since we give so much time to it for the next few weeks, we will consider the biblical view of work. If we're to actually work to the glory of God, then we've got to think biblically about work.

So today we'll follow work through three phases. Work at creation. Work after the fall. And work after redemption.

First of all, then work at creation. Let's go back to the beginning and see work at its birth.

So we step into the Garden of Eden just after God has created the man. And we find him bent over some plants in the garden. And we ask him, excuse me, but what are you doing there?

And with a smile, he looks up and says, I am working. I am working. And that's the first thing we notice. The first lesson man was made to work.

The Bible's telling of creation story makes this so clear. First, the Lord plants a garden. And then he creates man.

And in Genesis 2 and verse 15, he says, it says, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

He didn't put him into the Garden to sip lemonade under the trees all day. He didn't put him there to be entertained by the monkeys all day or to play with his iPod all day.

He put him there to work the land, to work the garden. Even in paradise, the ground was to be worked. Man's calling was not to play, but to work.

So we see from the outset that work is not a punishment because of sin. Work is not an afterthought of God.

It is rather the original design of God's purpose for man. God made man to work. It's a creation ordinance from the very creation.

We were created to work. The birds were created to fly. The fish were created to swim. And man was created to work. So let's consider his work in the garden.

Contrary to what radical environmentalists would tell us, the garden was not meant to be left untouched by man. To be left in its pristine condition as it came from the hands of the creator.

No, man was to do something to the creation. He was to do something to the garden. He was to make changes. He was to leave his positive mark on it by working it.

By cultivating it, taking care of it. And there was room for him in this work to exercise his creativity. How would he arrange the grass and the flowers?

How would he prune the trees and the shrubs? Changes that would reflect his own personality and creativity. Just like God, who in his six days work of creation showed forth his creativity, his personality.

And then the Lord said in chapter one that he gave to Adam the plants for food. There were plants here in the garden to provide food for his family.

Chapter one in verse 30. But these two needed his cultivation, his arrangement, his planting, his fertilizing, his harvesting and his preparation. It would be by work that plants would become food for them.

Now, with the multiplication and spreading out of mankind across the face of the globe, as was God's plan. This whole process of food getting to the table has become quite elaborate.

Kids, before you bow and before you eat your food, you bow and thank God for your food. And that is right that you do so. But think how many workers God employs to get the food to your table.

It's work that brings food to the table from the ground to your table. There's the farmer who plants the wheat or the fruit trees or raises the dairy cows.

There's the scientists who develop fertilizers and better seeds. There's the bankers who arrange the financing. There's the farm implement dealers to sell tractors and combines.

There's factory workers who assemble the farm equipment. There's secretaries and bookkeepers and managers keeping things straight in the office and flowing in production.

There's workers in the processing plant preparing the food. There's loggers who harvest trees to make cartons and containers. There's miners of aluminum and metals to make into cans.

There's truck drivers that transport the food to the processors and to the stores. There's truck stop operators to feed and fuel the truckers. There's mechanics to keep the trucks rolling.

There's construction workers to lay miles of paved highway on which the food travels. Supermarket employees to stock the shelves. Telecommunications people to keep the flow of information in this process open.

And we could go on and on. And last but not least, there's mom who goes to the store, purchases the food, comes home and prepares it. And oh, yes, there's usually dad behind the scenes making money.

So mom has the wherewithal to buy the food. And you see, all these jobs, all this work is involved in doing what God wants in his world.

And that's for the creation to bring food to the creature. But it will only get done in God's wise plan as people work.

That's his intention for man. Jobs are created to provide useful goods and services to others.

And then man's work was to rule over and subdue the earth. You see that at the end of chapter one of Genesis? He was to rule over and subdue the earth.

He's to press the bountiful raw materials into the service of mankind. God created the world with with an untold amount of natural resources.

But those resources will take labor to be harnessed and brought to serve man's well doing, to meet his needs, his conveniences, his enjoyments for which they were given.

Work to subdue and bring the earth to serve mankind. It's all part of God's plan. And so the garden was to be better off because of Adam's labor in it and was to reflect something of himself, even as God in his work reflects his character.

And so the world of mankind is to be better off because of your job and what you are doing. And your work reflects something of your character as you go about it.

So work is not a curse, but a blessing. It's at the very center of why we exist, why we're here.

We're here to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And the opening chapters of our Bible tell us that that will be done in the main through our work. We glorify God and enjoy him through our work.

But there's another lesson here at creation, and we see that work is part of our identity as made in the image of God. We've already made some reference to this. Chapter one and verse 26.

Then God said, let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and birds of the air, over the livestock, over the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

So God created the male and female. He created them in his image and he gave him the earth to subdue and to rule over and the green plants for food and so on.

And so their work in ruling over and subduing the earth and bringing it into the service of mankind is part of what it means to be made in the image of God.

God is a working God. And man made in his image is a working creature as well. These two points are being made in the first two chapters of the Bible.

We see God's work in creation. That's first. And then we see man made in God's image, also made to work, put to work in the garden that God had created in the earth to subdue and rule it and press it into service to mankind.

So we're to be imitators of God in our work. Indeed, Paul says, be imitators of God and live a life of love. We're to imitate God in love. But the opening chapters of the Bible say we're to imitate God in his work.

And that's reflected in chapter two and verses one through three. Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

By this by the seventh day, God had finished the work that he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested from all his work and God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.

He set it apart because on it, he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. And even in this principle of creation and rest, work and rest, man is to follow the likeness of his creator.

He's to image his creator. He is to imitate his creator. And so the fourth commandment is six days you shall labor and do all your work.

But the seventh is a Sabbath and work. Work is commanded, you see, as well as labor. Six days you shall labor. You were made to labor. Now work. And yet on the seventh day, you are to rest.

For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them. But he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

And Jesus says he did it for man. For man's good. It's good that he set us to work six days. And it's good that he gave us a day of rest.

But in this, we're imaging God, our creator. Part of what it means to be man, mankind made in the image of God is to reflect God in our work.

We've been created to work. We've been hardwired to work. We've been designed to work. We've been bred to work. And when we're not working, we feel instinctively that something is wrong.

This is not the way it's supposed to be. That's why people who retire early and just sit around recreating. I'm not saying that all who do do that. But those that do and just stop their activity and sit often lose their zest for life.

They weren't made to sit. They were made to work. And we see that we're hardwired to work. That's part of who we are, our manishness. And that's why after being laid off for six months, people who may earlier have been complaining about work are now wishing that they could get back to work.

Because we were made that way. And it's part of our very image of God that we are to reflect his work. Now, we do that in several ways.

Of course, there's limits. He creates out of nothing. We don't do that. But in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formless and empty.

And then the Lord. Went to his further work and day by day, his work was to was to go from the formless and empty to the form and order and fullness of creation.

So there's the empty waters after he creates it and he fills them with fish. There's the empty sky and he fills them with birds, the empty land and he fills them with creatures and mankind is crowning creation.

But God worked from formless to established form, from chaos to established order. Think of that a chaotic.

Earth as he first created it. And then he he whips it into such delicate, intricate order, as you see in a flower. Or in the hind leg of a grasshopper or in the human body.

Order out of chaos. And man's work mirrors his maker and does something similar. Kids, this is what you do when you work at cleaning your room.

You move from chaos to order. Just as God does. This is the same thing that you do, moms, when you work over that growing and never ending pile of laundry.

It's a formless mass. And you put it through the washer and dryer and then you fold it and and put it in it in the drawers. You're working from disorder to order.

From formless to form. Dads, it's what you do. Some of you with the cars that come into the shop and they're they're out of order and you put them back in order.

Teachers, you do this with your the minds of your students. You work to fill the voids between their ears. That's from the emptiness. You seek to fill it and fill it with good things.

This is God filled the sky with good birds. We start with the raw material and we work to bring it into some serviceable good to man.

And in doing that, we are reflecting our creator. So from creation. We see that work.

Man was made to work from the beginning. And work is stamped upon our very makeup as image of God. This is not something that we endured.

It was not a pain to work. In the garden. It was something that Adam did to enjoy God, the creator. And he got God crowned Adam and man with glory and honor by being God's vice ruler over the earth.

Psalm chapter eight. So that's the first word on work. But it's far from the last word, isn't it? Something happened. Man fell into sin and work has never been the same since.

So we come to work after the fall. So sometime later, we come across a man outside the garden now and he's working the ground.

And as he straightens up to greet us, we notice it's Adam. Only now he's sweating profusely. And as he wipes the sweat off of his brow, the blood on his hands mingles with the sweat and the tears.

And the dirt. He's only got a few beans and some bug infested tomatoes to show for his work.

And he's clearly frustrated at all the effort he's put in for such a pitiful harvest. He pulls back the bean plants and shows us the matted mess of thistles and thorns.

And we say, wow, it almost looks like the earth has been cursed. And he says it has. It has. God cursed the earth because of me and my sin.

He said to me, because you listen to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat of it. Cursed is the ground. Chapter three, verse 17.

Cursed is the ground because of you through painful toil. You will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground. Since from it you were taken for dust, you are into dust. You will return.

In chapter three and verse 23, so the Lord God banished him from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. At the beginning, he was to work the ground in the garden.

And after he's chased from the garden, he is still to work the ground of the earth from which he is taken. Only now. There is a great difference. Concerning his work.

Man's work environment was cursed. Making work now painful and frustrating. And Eve, too, didn't escape the painful work herself.

To the woman, God said, 316, I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing. With pain, you will give birth to children. And by the way, we and the Bible refers to them as labor pains, doesn't it?

Labor pain. She has work as well. And this work has become marked by pain. And her labor in childbirth would now be painful.

And as with the entire process of bringing up fallen children alongside of fallen husbands. There would now be additional pains to deal with.

So the curse is not that man must now work. No, he worked from the beginning. But man's fall into sin both added and subtracted something from his work.

First of all, let's look at what it added. It added a curse. A curse on his work environment. Thorns and thistles that added sweat and painful toil to his work.

It also added frustration. Romans 8 and verses 20 and 21 tell us that the creation was subjected to frustration.

And bondage was in bondage to decay. It's it's frustrated. It's not producing its full potential. It is in bondage to decay.

And these thorns and thistles of the curse have found their way from Adam's field into every factory, into every business and every place of employment.

They are the things that make work more of a burden than a joy. And it's due to the curse that God has placed upon man. Man is a worker.

And the punishment for his sin against God is that he must feel it in the place where he's called to work. In the very essence of what he is as a human being, a worker.

And there he feels additional pain and frustration. The fall not only added a curse and hardship to work, it also subtracted something.

Sin separates us from our creator. And in doing so, we lost the great purpose for work, which is to glorify God and enjoy him at our work.

We lost that. We're the fellowship's been broken. And the Godward focus to work has been cut off.

Lost by the fall. And so man now works for his own glory. For lesser purposes than the glory of God.

And that is no small loss. And it leads to a sense of futility and meaninglessness. The writer of Ecclesiastes says a lot about work.

And he speaks much of the felt vanity of work. The frustration, the purposelessness, the meaninglessness. Work is chasing after the wind without God in the picture.

He talks about the meaningless cycle of work. You get up. You go to work. You put in your hard eight hours. To make money.

To come home. To buy food. To pay the bills. For what end? So that you can go back to work. And work another eight hours.

And come home. And pay the bills. And eat. And sleep. And go back. And this meaningless cycle of labor. That the world is caught up in without God.

They're without God at the center. They've spun out. And their work is no longer orbiting around God at the center. And so now all it does is orbits around puny little me.

And mine. And that's not what we were made for. And it leads to frustration. The very purpose has been subtracted from our work. To glorify and enjoy God in it.

So you see how the Bible explains the realities of life. On the one hand, work is a good thing. And can be deeply satisfying. And yet, it's also hard.

And can be very frustrating. And creation and the fall make sense of both of these. Very real experiences of work.

Well, we don't end with creation, fall. We move on to redemption. Redemption. And now we see a man working in a carpenter shop in Nazareth.

Strong hands. Working the hand tools of a saw. A chisel and hammer and playing. And people are bringing him all sorts of broken down yokes.

And wagons and plows. And he's fixing them. And he's making new ones.

And furniture. And perhaps even building houses. People are always impressed with the quality of his work. It's nothing shabby. Always done right.

He always charges them a fair wage. Not like some of the other merchants in Nazareth. And he's using his earnings to support his widowed mother and his family.

And often he refuses payment from the poor who cannot afford it. And we ask this man, what are you doing?

And with a smile he says, I am working. I am bringing glory to God. I am being a carpenter. Treating others as I would want to be treated.

And doing it all for the glory of my Father in heaven. Jesus' earthly stepfather, Joseph, had been a carpenter, hadn't he?

And Jesus had picked up the trade from him. And when he died, he carried on the family business in Nazareth. Probably until around the 30th year of his life.

When he started his public ministry. Indeed, the people knew him as the carpenter. The carpenter of Nazareth. This is our Redeemer.

This is the eternal Son of God become man. And as man, he worked. And he teaches us the dignity of hard work.

He teaches us how to glorify God in our callings. Not many realize that those same hands, figuratively, had hung the stars in their place.

The heavens are the work of his fingers. This is the Redeemer. And he's on earth as a man. And he's working now with his hands. And he who sweated his workbench in Nazareth.

Also worked hard for our salvation. For we find him sweating as it were great drops of blood. As he received the cup of God's wrath.

Which he was to drink on our account. For this was his greater work. That the Father had given him to do. He said at one point to his disciples, My food is to do the will of him who sent me.

And to finish his work. And his work was to destroy the works of the devil. Remember that creation. As it came from the hand of God. Sinless and all directed to the glory of God.

The devil came and destroyed God's work. And introduced sin. And blaspheming God. And slandering God. And now Jesus Christ is here to destroy the devil's work.

And to do the work of his Father. Which is to save his people from their sins. By suffering their punishments for them. So now we see the carpenter.

And he's carrying a wooden beam. Of a cross. And now he's hanging on that cross. And we ask him, what are you doing now?

And he would say, I am doing. I am bringing God's God glory on earth. By completing the work he gave me to do. John 17 for.

I'm glorifying God. By finishing the work he gave me to do. Suffering God's wrath in the place of a multitude of sinners.

To take away their sins and make them right with God. For Christ died for sins. Once for all. The righteous one for the unrighteous.

That he might bring us to God. That's redemption. And in redeeming us to God. He redeemed work from its curse. Now that doesn't mean that the Christian's garden.

Has any less thorns and thistles and weeds. To pull than anyone else's garden. It doesn't mean that there are no more frustrations. And no painful toil in our work.

We have them. Only when Christ returns. Will the whole creation enjoy. The liberty. That belongs to the sons of God.

When it will be set free from the frustration. And bondage to decay. That the curse placed upon it. And it will be then in the new heavens. And the new earth.

That there will be no more curse. For the old order of things has passed. Behold I am making all things. New. And then instead of the thorn bush.

Will grow the pine tree. Instead of the briars. The myrtle will grow. And then his servants will serve him. With unmixed delight.

Yes that's coming. That's not yet. But that doesn't mean that. That Christ's redemption has done nothing. To redeem our work here and now. Though already.

Redemption. Redemption. Has. Caused the situation. That there is now much about our work. That is transformed back into its great joy. And blessedness. Redemption in Christ.

Restores the great purpose. For our work. It takes away the meaninglessness. Of that endless cycle of work. We have a reason to go to work.

We have a God to glorify. In our work. And that makes a huge difference. In our attitude. Our motivations. In the way. We tend to our work.

As God's enemies. We live for self. Not God. We worked for self. Not God. But now. In Christ. We live and work for God. And we work in fellowship.

With God. And that makes a difference. As most of you here know. I simply remind you of it. And the tremendous privilege that is ours.

Not only being redeemed from sin. And eternal damnation. One day to enjoy Christ's presence forever and ever. But even in this life. All ready to taste the sweetness of his fellowship.

As we head into work. As we go about our task. To be working for him. To be working for him. Listen.

To what the apostle. We'll turn there. Colossians 3. Colossians 3. And verses 22. And following. Paul.

Has addressed. Husbands and wives. Parents. Children. He now turns to domestic slaves. And he says. Slaves. Obey your earthly masters. In everything. And do it.

Not only when their eye is on you. And to win their favor. But with sincerity of heart. And reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do. Work at it.

With all your heart. As working for the Lord. Not for men. Since you know. That you will receive. An inheritance. From the Lord. As a.

As a reward. It. Is. The Lord Christ. You are serving. And we see in this text. That redemption in Christ. Gives us a new boss.

I don't know who your boss is at work. But I know that there's one above him. And it's the Lord Christ. And you now work for him. We're serving the Lord.

We're working for the Lord. And what a difference that makes. He notices the work that I do. And how I do it. It's not meaningless labor.

It's not I owe. I owe. It's off to work. I go. Just another endless round of this cycle. No. I'm going to work for the Lord. And he's pleased with wholehearted work.

That is done to him. And he will reward it. It is the Lord Christ. You are serving. Now Paul. Is not here speaking. To missionaries.

And pastors. But to domestic slaves. He's not talking about some Christian service. He's not talking about. When you teach Sunday school. Or do some work in the church.

The Lord will reward you for your work. There are other places where he says that. He's telling domestic slaves. That in their work.

They are serving the Lord. And he will reward them. If they do it unto him. With all their heart. As she sweeps the floor. And does the laundry.

And takes care of her mistress's children. She's working for the Lord. As he harvests the crops. And spreads the manure on his master's field.

He is serving the Lord. And you. Whatever you are doing. And whatever you are calling in life. If you are doing it unto the Lord. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

And he notices it. He's pleased with it. And he rewards it. As it's done unto him. What a privilege. To work for the Lord. You see this dignifies even slave labor.

It lifts it to an entirely different plane. And the Lord will reward him. You know slaves probably weren't. Rewarded well. They probably weren't paid well.

Were they? They probably didn't get what they had coming. For a hard day's work. But you know. Paul is saying there's one. Your boss in heaven notices that. He'll make it all up to you. One day.

So labor on. Work with all your might. You don't say. Well he's only paying me really. For half hearted effort. So I'll give him half heart. No.

You work with all your heart. And I will reward you for it. Ephesians 6. 7 and 8. Serve wholeheartedly. The Lord will reward everyone. For whatever good he does. Whether he is slave or free.

Believer. Do you do your work. As a way to serve and glorify God. As a way to enjoy God. You go to work with that in mind. William Perkins says.

The main end of our lives. Is to serve God. In the serving. Of men. In the works. Of our callings. Our main end in life.

Is to serve God. But we do it by serving men. In the works of our callings. So me as a minister. And you as a mechanic. And you in whatever you do.

You are serving God. By serving men in your callings. That's the way God meant it to be. We lost that in the fall. We've gained it.

Back in Christ. Shame on us. If we don't live like that. And if we don't work like that. Believers. It was the blood of Jesus. That bought this privilege for us.

Should we not count it dear. And when you work with all your heart. As unto the Lord. You're serving him. No less than the preacher is.

Sometimes 21st century Christians. Get it wrong on work. And they make such a division. Between what they call secular work. And spiritual work. And oh the preacher.

And the Sunday school teacher. And yes the church cleaners. They do spiritual work. For the Lord. That the carpenter. The tradesman.

The office worker. They do secular work for man. They're serving man. And so we hear a carpenter say. That he's going to quit his job. And go into full time. Christian work.

So he can serve the Lord. It's more of an idea of Gnosticism. From Gnosticism. Than it is from Christianity. Now Paul says. Domestic slaves.

As they do their domestic. Housework. Are serving the Lord. William Tyndale says. There is a difference. Between washing dishes. And preaching the word.

Of God. But as to pleasing God. No difference. At all. You need to hear that again. There is a difference. Between washing dishes.

And preaching the word of God. But as to pleasing God. No difference. At all. If God calls you to preach. He will take great delight.

In your preaching. As you do it unto him. And if God has called you. To wash dishes. And you do that. As unto the Lord. He will take great delight. In your washing of dishes.

Martin Luther said. In making shoes. The cobbler serves God. And obeys his calling from God. Quite as much. As the preacher. Of the word. You see. The reformation. Gave us back. Some of this.

The nonsense. Tense of the Roman church. That said. Well. When you go off. Into a monastery. And you quit. The secular business. And you get down. To spiritual work. That's really pleasing. To God. And the reformation.

Said no. There is the teaching. Of a man's calling. God is giving you assignments. You work here. You work there. You do that now. Serving him. Serving him.

By serving men. In your particular. Calling. All Christians. Are to be serving the Lord. Full time. At their vocation. So.

There is a redeemed. Son of Adam. Going out the door. With his lunch pail. Under his arm. And he is. Off to work. For eight hour shift.

At the factory. What are you doing? And with a smile. He says to us. I am going to work. I am serving the Lord.

Another day. That's the spirit brother. Keep it up. I wonder if we need. To think differently. About our work. Do we need.

To go out the door. With a different spirit. In the morning. Do we need. To remind ourselves. Of just the things. That we've seen. Briefly this morning. Why we're here.

Why God has created us. As. As men. In the image of God. Been made to work. What a privilege. That. That we're called. In our work. To glorify him.

And enjoy him. And oh. We had forfeited. Such a pleasure. By our sins. We said. God's not worth. Working for. And we went off. On our own way. And we lived.

And worked for ourselves. And then. Bless God. In Jesus Christ. He redeemed us. And he saved us. And in Christ. All things.

Became new. And we start. To think differently. About work. And we. We now see. We work. Not for ourselves. But for the Lord. He puts us here.

And. And I get to serve him. In my job. We'll see. What a difference. That should make. In our work. In subsequent studies. But let's just.

Remind ourselves. Of it. Each morning. As we go to work. Privilege. Of knowing God. Serving him. Working for him.

Your work. Matters to God. Dear brothers. And sisters. He's assigned you to it. Go work. It's no wasteful. Expenditure. Dispenditure. Of time. And energy. He sees it.

He receives it. As done to him. And will. Reward you. For it. And one other thing. Would it be wrong. For a preacher.

To go into his study. And just to dive into. A sermon preparation. Without praying. And asking God. For help. And illumination. And light. Upon the text. Of course it would.

I'm not to do my work. Without God's help. But neither are you. Are you to live. Independently of God. And just think that. Well I've got this skill.

And I can do this. For God. And so. I don't need help. Or should you not. Also. On your way to work. Pause.

And. Thank God. For the privilege. Of working. For him. And ask him. For help. He knows how to do your job. Much better.

Than you do. Remember Gordon Hawkins. Was with us. And he met with the man. In one of the little rooms. On a Wednesday night. He told us about. A. A jet fighter.

Or a man that. That flew. A jet fighter plane. There in the. The British. Air force. That was. Worshipping with them. And.

And he told the man. He called him by name. And he says. The Lord Jesus. Can fly that jet. Better than you can. Blessed is the people. Whose. Whose help.

Is in the. The Lord. So. Seek him. You got frustrations. At your work. Seek this God. You need his help. Seek him.

Honor him. And so may the Lord. Be glorified. As we. Enjoy. Him. In our work. Amen. About the time.

You start feeling. That your work. Is. Is beneath you. Think back. Of that. Carpenter shop. In Nazareth. And see the Lord.

Jesus. In your mind's eye. Working with his hands. For years. On end. I only read. Of three. And. A few months.

Work. That he worked. In his public. Preaching. And healing. Ministry. But we see years. Poured into that. Carpentry shop. And what was he doing.

But glorifying God. May the Lord. Encourage. And help you. Let's pray. Lord. We confess. That we live in a world.

That does not live for you. And so they do not work for you. And they do not think of work. In a right way. And our thoughts.

Have all too often. Conformed to this world. And we have sunk into the same. Meaningless cycles. That. The man without Christ. Has.

In this life. Forgive us. When you have sent your son. Our savior. To redeem us from sin. And to redeem us from this futile way of living.

And to bring us into fellowship with God. In whatever it is that you have called us to do. While we are here. So lift our eyes upon Jesus. And send.

Each of my brothers and sisters. Into their. Their places of work. With. You on their eyes. To be looking unto Jesus.

To be working unto him. Lord. For those who are still living for themselves. Stop them. Show them the wickedness that it is. To not live and work for Jesus.

And show them the. The wonder of Jesus love. That he would die. And suffer the punishment. That we deserve for such self-centeredness. And bring some sinner this morning.

To cast themselves entirely upon the savior. And ask. For his mercy. Show the wonders of your mercy. In forgiving. In making them a child of God.

We ask in Jesus name. Amen.