REC Two Kinds of Work

Thank you love offering

Fires

Al Chew

multiply closure

Three years ago we started something called Multiply 2025

So many of you are new that you have not heard me talk about this, but for the next couple of weeks I want to share where we are with this.

I started this new vision and campaign basically when I moved here

What REC was facing at that time was a beloved long term pastor had transitioned out

The church lost a few other long term pastors

Then not to mention, a little something called COVID…

REC was in a big Plateau…The numbers were not making sense for this place…There was hundreds of thousands of dollars of deferred maintenance and updating to do and we didn’t even have a budget to have a worship leader…

So we started a three year campaign to raise funds for a worship leader, facilities and ultimately a church plant

Now we were able to hire a worship leader and we though that this would be in the budget for 3 years but God did something amazing and we began to grow. Our worship leader was only paid out of our multiply funds for a few months then we were able to transition that to our general operating budget

With multiply we have spent , $100,000 on new roofs that were an absolute necessity

We have painted indoors and out nearly everything

We got a new logo with new signage and we are still working on a few signs

We have updated the foyer

The family quiet room

the nursery

Repaved portions of the parking lot

Now the reason why we are raising money for all of these things is that deferred maintenance can kill organizations I have seen churches get millions of dollars of loans for deferred maintenance and it is absolutely punishing on their budget

Our value here and the board’s value here is to do everything with cash. We do not have any debt as a church and we want to remain that way

So over these last three years we have seen some amazing growth here at REC and if you are here and you dont know what multiply is then you are part of that growth

See as people have started to tithe normally we are able to grow our budget to now we are able to do some larger projects just out of our facilities budget…This is massive!

I started communicating this vision in February 3 years ago and I said I this will take three years…Now we still have money in the multiply funds and we are still saving for our last few projects.

Those are: A remodel in our children's center: Our kids building is packed…and if you have been in there you might have realize that we need to take a few walls down, it needs paint and carpet and just a general overhaul…I’d like to do windows and doors too but we just dont have the money for that.

Inside here we need new bathrooms and a new Foyer floor

These two projects will likely be what we can do with multiply

Just like all of you we have had to deal with inflation, so everything has cost more than we have expected

So if you have given what you have pledged then thank you! You have made a huge difference…

If you are still giving then thank you

and if you would like to help us meet our goal of 300,000 in three years, its pretty amazing, we are only 50,000 away from doing that…I know it sounds like a lot of money but is 200 people giving one time of $250…Its doable.

We are going to leave the multiply line item open through 2025 because we have had many people begin their pledges well after February

About 43K on hand

Recap

Last week we started our series on Sabbath.

In this series we are hoping that as a church we can start 2025 with a new Rhythm…

Remember one of the keys to any transformation is a change in Rhythm

Last week we talked about the tyranny of hurry…Our world is designed to speed us up and to go, go, go until oblivon

Our world is so hurried that it becomes oppressive at a certain point

So what I am asking you to do is Pick a day, Personally what works for me is the Friday night Saturday, Jewish Sabbath, its worked from them for five thousand years it can work for you too, Friday night till Saturday Sundown,

Put everything away…Laugh with family..>Rest Enjoy the Lord

So we are doing this series:

To intentionally interrupt your week by stopping from your work…The Sabbath is a massive interruption, and to keep it is hard. It is actually work to keep it.

Transformation: and that takes new habits…and new habits are so hard, new habits means breaking old habits…And the Sabbath is an abrupt stop…So we want to ask you to set one day aside in the week to stop! And focus you and your family on God.

So where we left off last week:

Life is more hurried than God intends

Jesus offers the ultimate Sabbath, when he says, come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.

As we go through this series you are going to see this pattern a lot, God creates it in Genesis and the ultimate fulfillment is in Jesus.

So last week I challenged you, God designed a Rhythm of rest and worship into creation, do you have one?

So let’s get into it today

Rest from What?

We can not talk about rest without talking about work. The very first reason why we rest is because God rested.

We have to also understand something called the “Eden Ideal” Based on all of the rest of the scriptures, Eden is the ideal for all of humanity, it is like the template.

When Jesus is pulled into a Rabbinical debate on marriage (Matthew 19) What he does is to not point them back to Moses or the years of Rabbinical debate or writings, but he takes them back to the garden and says, this isn't the way it was from the beginning!

And the reason why I go back to Genesis 1 & 2 so much is because of this…It is God’s Template of what God intended for all of humanity

So last week we talked about the 7th Day, it had no beginning and no end.

So it is a symbol of eternity and also, it is also traditionally the day that God entered the garden and dwelt with man.

So the garden ideal is that God and Man are in the garden together, ruling over all of creation together

Now flip with me to Genesis 2:15-17

Genesis 2:15–17 (NIV)

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

So God worked in 6 days, creating the world and then he rested.

And now the human function in the garden is to work, but not like the work you do, at the job that you hate

This is work with God.

So imagine God and man working together in a garden.

This is not hard work, but meaningful work of stewarding all of creation. Making sure all the creatures are cared for.

Working with God in the garden is characterized by abundance. Everything was fruitful and multiplying in the garden.

And when man was at rest with God, the work that Man did was good and easy

This type of easy work, we will call the “Sabbath Ideal” When Man lives and rests with God it is easy

The Sabbath ideal is ruling with him, which means to oversee and enjoy it, which requires a kind of work,

but also that the garden ideal is that God provides it for you by growing it up out of the ground for you.

So your work is really just to kind of oversee this abundance that you don't have any power over that's a gift from God

The greatest analogy I have ever heard about about work in the garden of Eden is that the closest parallel to today is like the work of a child organizing their Halloween candy

After we go trick or treating ever year the kids dump the bag and begin sorting….I dont really know why it all goes in a big bowl

But this is work and it is an easy joyful work

This is what kids do with Halloween candy

They walk around the neighborhood, Candy just falls out of people’s doors …Kids are just swimming in candy...

And they go home, dump it all out…They organize it…They pour it all back into the bowl and they just enjoy it.

What if work was like Halloween for you every day?

But we know the reality right?

My Very first job I had I got when I was 15years old…I looked way older thats how I got the job…and my job was to work at our city’s teen center & Skatepark

Work was never hard…I literally got paid to play video games and football

It was the easiest most slacker job I have ever had

But!

Real Work is hard

It is draining and sometimes all consuming

Sometimes you come home from your job only to have to mow the lawn and fix the sink

Your boss is a jerk, your coworker is a gossip

I am sure we have all had the feeling of coming home and just feeling like our minds our melted

You don’t come home and when your asked, How was your day, I doubt if any of you are like.

Work was like organizing my Halloween candy today…Or work was like Christmas morning

Why? There is a sense of missing abundance

It is not like Halloween every day. It would be cool if it was but see the problem like everything else is sin.

Look what happens to work as a result of the sin

Genesis 3:17–19 NIV

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from 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 and to dust you will return.”

Work after the curse becomes an endless quest for survival.

It becomes hard, it is toilsome.

This abundance and easy work of like organizing creation that was just teaming with life all of the sudden became very hard

Why is that? It’s very simple: God created work & our sin separates us from God

But what if we could live in the sabbath ideal right here and now. Not just on the 7th day, but 7 days a week.

Last week we talked about this saying of Jesus that we will look at from multiple angles during this series

Matthew 11:28–30 NIV

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

What is amazing to me about this is that Jesus is talking about work! He is talking about all who labor and who are heavy laden...

This is Genesis 3, curse language...

Its like, hey anyone who is living under the curse of hard work…Come to me...

And what is so spectacular about this verse is that Jesus doesn't offer to take your work away, He offers to walk along side you in your work. Did you catch that?

Jesus doesn’t offer to remove my work but to walk with me though it. (Matthew 11:28-30)

When you come to follow Jesus, he isn't going to magically take away or transform your terrible boss…

he is going to transform the way you look at your boss…

He is going to give you a new heart to serve your boss…to pray for your boss.

Being Yoked with Jesus will absolutely transform your work!

And what is even more spectacular is that he offers to make your work restful and easy...

But we have to learn from Him...

Now what does that sound like to you?

It sounds like Halloween candy to me!

It is the sabbath ideal, The Eden ideal...

Jesus offers to walk along side you again, just as God walked along side man in the garden!

So how do we work like that?

Transform your work

It is the good news of Jesus

Matthew 4:17 NIV

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

This little 9 word call of Jesus in English is the call back to Eden.

Repent: Change your mind and your life.

Repenting is the acknowledgment that they way you are doing life isn't working

Change your mind about who is really in charge

Stop trying to be in charge of everything

Stop trying to be the god of your own life.

What Jesus is preaching is the availability of God’s reign and rule

Just the way it was available in the garden

The gospel is that the Eden ideal is available to you now (Matthew 4:17)

What would change in your work life if you had God present with you?

And in the Gospel of Luke we have an amazing picture at how this all turns out

Luke 5:1–7 NIV

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

Do you see what is happening here?

What is happening in this text is more than a simple miracle.

It is a call to Peter to come into the kingdom, to return to a place of living in God’s abundance

This miracle is a glimpse of Eden that Peter gets…Working with abundance!

Just look at the text verse 5: Simon Peter says: Master, we have toiled all night for nothing!

Peter here is a picture of working under the curse of Genesis 3! Work has now become hard.

But living in Obedience to Jesus reverses the cures, it is a picture of abundance! Verse 6 says that it was such a large number of fish that their next were breaking and their boat was sinking

This is work in the seventh day ideal!

And what is even more amazing is that boat that Peter is on, very early in the story becomes a pulpit.

Jesus puts out this regular work object and turns it into an object to reach the world...

See God wants to transform your work!

He wants to invite you to walk alongside him in your work

Whether you’re retired or you are just starting out in your work career…You still have work that you do

And it all starts with Surrendering to Jesus....

There is this Rabbi named Matitahu Tseva

Challenge

"One day out of seven the Israelite is to renounce dominion over his own time and recognize God's dominion over it. Simply put: Every seventh day the Israelite renounces his autonomy and affirms God's dominion over him in the conclusion that every seventh day the Israelite is to renounces dominion over time, renounces autonomy, and recognizes God's dominion over time and thus over himself." ..."Keeping the Sabbath is acceptance of the kingdom and sovereignty of God."

-Matitiahu Tseva

In our work, we train ourselves to believe that we are masters of our own time.

For 6 days we train ourselves to believe that we have dominion!

But I love what this Rabbi says, when we keep the sabbath, it is actually a declaration that we are not in control

that we are not in charge

It is a declaration that there is another kingdom at play that is more dominant than our own

The best example I have ever seen of this is is a funeral I did for a guy named Richard Reyes…The brother of my friend Ernie

Richard was Saved! I mean…You know those people who are saved and everyone knows it? That was richard!

He worked construction and a number of years ago a water main broke and took his leg off.

When his brother went to see him in the hospital, he was being wheeled into surgery and his brother saw him and said, “Richard, are you OK?”

Richard responded, “Praise God, I’ve got my foot in the door.” (Of heaven)

Richard worked hard in construction all of his life, but every day in construction work, it was as if Jesus was right there along side of him!

he lived in a crazy abundance of Joy, because he submitted to God’s own rule in his life

So there is two kinds of work

The work of abundance with Jesus

Or the work of the curse.

Which one do you want.

Resting with Jesus will transform your work!

But it is in working with Jesus, that we achieve the 7th day ideal.

As the band comes....

It struck me as I was writing this sermon, that to live in the tyrany of hury is to live in a kingdom that is not Jesus’s

What kingdom do you give allegiance to?

Whose sovereignty do you celebrate? Your own or God’s

Today as we go to worship, I want to invite you to take Jesus at his word…To come to him with the wiriness of work to bring your hard work to him

Let’s Pray

Father, Help us to take your yoke upon ourselves

To walk with you in our own work.

To surrender to you