Genesis 1-3; Colossians 3:22-4:1
1. when I was 14, 15 years old I spent my summers moving irrigation pipe on an alfalfa farm owned by Basil Aldecoa. He was Basque, from Spain, worked smart & hard, amassed 2 large farms & thousands of acres & once was written up in National Geographic.
2. work started at 7am. 33 sections to each quarter mile long irrigation line. After the alfalfa was cut I could move a line in 20-25 minutes. Before cutting, when the alfalfa was 2-3 feet high, it took up to 45 minutes. $1.25 a line, 8 each morning, $10 a morning, 7 days a week. That was good money back then. Gas was 24 cents a gallon. I learned to work on Basil Aldecoa’s farm.
3. tomorrow is Labor Day. A day to recognize the value of our work. A day to rest. A day to be thankful. A day to eat barbecued hamburgers.
4. most of us spend the largest portion of our waking hours each week working – 30,40,50,60 hours. Work is a major part of our lives.
5. the Tipping Point I want to talk about today is – the challenge of work & the necessity of doing it God’s way. What does our work have to do with Jesus?
6. I have 4 points I want to share with you:
- God is a worker
- By virtue of creation we are workers
- By virtue of the fall we work under imperfect conditions
- God has set kingdom expectations for our work
7. I hope you leave today with a renewed sense of excitement & vision for what your job, work can become.
God is a worker (Genesis 2:2
1. part of God’s nature is that he is a worker. He created, worked for 6 days. God is a worker!
2. and his work continues. Colossians 1 tells us that in Christ all things hold together. Hebrews 1:3 says of Christ, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
3. it is Christ who keeps the world running, spinning, rotating in sync. Rain & sun. Heat & cold. Day & night. Fall, winter, spring, summer. People & things, animals & atoms all working together in vibrant harmonies. Christ holds his creation together, sustains his creation.
4. and as the working God he saw the need for rest. 6 days of work, 1 day of rest. Sabbath rest which was Tipping Point #3.
by virtue of creation we are workers (Genesis 1:26-27)
1. part of God’s nature is work. And as people made in his image & likeness part of our nature is work. To be a human made in God’s likeness is to be a worker.
2. in the church we talk a lot about being transformed, changed to become more more like Christ. Part of that change & transformation entails our work. The marketplace is just as important to God as this place of worship.
3. we often overlook or forget the 1st commission given us by God – be fruitful & increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground (Genesis 1:28).
4. the job description God-given to each one of us is this – subdue the earth; rule over every living creature. God has given creation to us. We are to be stewards of it – the fish of the sea & the birds of the air & the very ground we live & walk upon.
5. our stewardship of creation is for the sake of God whose earth it is. To be God-like is to be a caretaker of his creation. This is really the origin of work. We are to live & sustain our lives from the fruit of God’s
Creation.
6. business, commerce, the economy arise from this. The selling & buying of goods & services in order to live, to survive & to prosper.
7. work is honorable in the eyes of God. Work is the very first thing we are called to in creation. Work is a central part of our God-given identity & DNA.
8. as a sidebar, this is why unemployment is such a curse to our society. When women & men can’t find work, they feel less than human, incomplete, fragmented. Why? Because God created us to flourish by means of labor.
by virtue of the fall we work under imperfect conditions (Genesis 3:17-19)
1. Genesis 3 changes everything, including work. God’s perfect creation is spoiled. Every single part of it. Not just the human part but the inanimate part as well.
2. the ground is cursed. Work becomes toilsome. Thorns & thistles are symbols of a fragmented, broken, fallen creation. Food comes by sweat.
3. as if to say, before the fall work was not toilsome. Thorns & thistles were non-existent. Work produced joy & fulfillment not sweat & pain.
4. don’t miss this – work was front & center in God’s original creation. It predates the fall rather than being a result of the fall.
5. Romans 8:18-21 comes into play at this point – the fall has subjected creation to frustration. Creation is waiting to be liberated from its bondage to decay. Creation is waiting to be brought into the glorious freedom that we as the children of God will experience.
6. here we see the unity that exists in God’s eyes between his animate & inanimate creation. Rocks, hills, trees, stars & suns are just as eager as we are to be liberated from sin & restored to our Genesis 1-2 Eden-like existence.
7. this is unmistakable proof of God’s love & value for his material creation. Mt. Hood, Detroit Lake, Cannon Beach. Coho salmon, rainbow trout, salt water catfish (Guinea). Weeping Willow, Red Leaf Maple, Giant Sequoia trees. Brown bears, white-tail deer, Ricky Mountain Goat. Dahlias, tulips, Dutch iris. Lodge pole pin, California Redwood, western hemlock. I could go on & on – all created by God; all affected by humanity’s fall into sin; all waiting the final day of redemption.
8. sidebar – MSN.com led their news stories this morning with this. Loreto, Italy – Pope Benedict, leading the Catholic Church’s first ‘eco-friendly’ youth rally, on Sunday told up to half a million people that world leaders must make courageous decisions to save the planet before it’s too late. A decisive yet is needed in decisions to safeguard creation as well as a strong commitment to reverse tendencies that risk leading to irreversible situations of degradation. Courageous choices that can Closer to home, the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church in Boise is sponsoring a conference in 3 weeks: tending the garden: rediscovering the church’s responsibility to lead by example in creation care. The environment is important because God makes it important. We as evangelicals have been slow to realize this. It’s time to play catch-up!
God has set kingdom expectations for our work (Colossians 3:22-4:1)
1. God is a worker. By virtue of creation we are workers.
By virtue of the fall we work under imperfect conditions
God has set kingdom expectations for our work.
2. when our work is carried out according to the values of the kingdom of God, the workplace experiences the in-breaking of God’s reign. We fulfill the Lord’s Prayer – thy kingdom come, thy will be done – as we live & work by the values of God’s kingdom = fairness, justice, compassion, truth-keeping, selfless love, peace-making & servanthood.
3. Paul’s word to slaves & masters is directly applicable to each one of us in our jobs. To slaves –
à obey masters in everything
à work with sincerity of heart
à reverence for the Lord
à we serve the Lord through our work
4. to masters –
à provide workers with what is right & fair
à are accountable to God
5. our great need is the clear-sightedness to see Jesus & to set him before us in our work. For teachers to teach, carpenters to build, doctors to doctor, accountants to audit books, farmers to farm & secretaries to type letters AS IF THEY WERE ACTUALLY SERVING JESUS CHRIST because they are!
6. we not only offer our worship to God on Sundays, but our jobs to God Monday through Saturday. We not only serve God in the context of the church, we serve him in the context of our jobs. In fact, the workplace just might be the venue of our greatest transformation as the people of God. It’s fairly easy to live out our faith here at church; but what about at work? Jesus desires to be Lord of ALL OF OUR LIVES not just our Sunday, faith-keeping lives.
Wrap-up
1. God is a worker
By virtue of creation we are workers
By virtue of the fall we work under imperfect conditions
God has set Kingdom expectations for our work
2. I want to close in prayer. I want to help me. I want many of you to simply pray out I thank God for my job of being an electrician, a school teacher, clerk, a manager….
3. we are a blessed people!
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