The Story of Work - Part 2

Genesis 2:15 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

I’m happy to see you all came back. We began a new teaching series called the Gospel and work last Sunday.

So, what have we learned about work thus far?

Well, we’ve learned that the current state of work in the world is bad. Nearly everyone in the world hates their job.

And we shouldn’t, we should not hate our jobs. I mean, God the Creative Genius was the first worker and He loved His work! He found delight in everything that He did.

What did He do? Work defined is that which brings order and beauty for the sake of others. So, how do we fix America’s work force problem? We tell them, “Hey, you’re doing it wrong. Work is something you can enjoy if you understand that God has not only created you to work, but designed you to be a worker like he is, bringing order and beauty for the sake of others.”

That should change the world, right? Just do what you were created to do and you’ll love your job! You know what. It would. But it would only change your perspective temporarily. And that’s why more than half of the work force is looking for a new job. They don’t have the WHOLE story do we? No, we don’t have the whole story. So let’s keep going.

Something happens to this beautifully designed vision of work as bringing order and beauty for the benefit of others. Most people are familiar with this story, but we don’t often know how it makes any difference for us in our relationship to work.

Who Created the garden? God. But this little insight reveals that even though God is the ultimate creative designer, He finds joy in partnering with His created beings to bring out the hidden potential that is in the land and care for what He made.

What type of work (that God did) is gardening? What we call manual labor.This little story helps us to understand that dignity is not found in the amount of money you make, the grandeur of the building you work in, or whether or not your company hit Forbes Magazine top 500 companies.

Dignity is given to every worker that mirrors the bringing of order and beauty that benefits others.You can have great dignity in being a barista, or an architect, or a police officer regardless of the way your job description reads. Because what God shows us is that good work in any environment can be dignified work.

And this carries another reason why we should be the front runners against evil works in the world. Because if someone is abusing someone else to gain benefit they ultimately are stripping away the dignified and God-like nature of good work.

Look at how God instructs Adam. I love how this plays out in verse 19 - the Creator finds delight in partnering with the human and we see this generous God giving up what is his (naming the animals) and willingly hands it over to the human. A beautiful picture of leadership.

Now, Up to this point, who has been the sole provider of humans? Remember, he designed the plants to bear residual fruit for the humans. And, who has been the sole speaker up to this point? The Creator. He has instructed the humans that they are to follow His design inside of the Garden of Eden.

How many decisions has Adam had to make up to this point? Probably none.

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

In other words, “I have provided everything that you need to enjoy life, food, (in a moment) a relationship with another human, work (where you can take the potential I have packed in this garden and bring about order and beauty to benefit the offspring you will give life to) but I’m also presenting you with an opportunity for moral maturity. Will you go on trusting me as your good and caring Creator or will you seek to be your own god?

Think about this: The Creator did not just Create everything and say, “Make sure nothing dies or breaks and I’ll be back to make sure you’re doing it right.” No, the Creator said, “Here are all the creatures, whatever you name them is what they will be named. What does that mean? It means that God not only made humans to “work” in the utilitarian sense of the word. He designed humans to work with raw material to make things to bring forth culture. And in doing so be truly the image bearers of God.

I wonder what types of things humans will bring forth? Well in just the fourth chapter, they’re cultivating a garden and bringing out the fruit of it, they’re tending sheep, after Cain’s incident, he’s building and naming a city, they’re making instruments of wood and medal to play music, in the next chapter they’re keeping track of the generations in a book.

So, on along this journey of working (building culture) we’re confronted with the moral choice of will I go about working while submitting myself to the care and conditions of the Creator, or will I seize the opportunity to decide what is good and evil.

Every day we wake up and we have a moral choice; will we do our work and rely upon the good and caring Creator or will we be the type of worker that believes they must define good and evil in order to find fulfillment and success?And we all know the choices that we’re faced daily to trust God or try to play god. To seize the opportunity to define good and evil?

Deuteronomy 19:14 ESV

“You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

The people of Israel were given specific instructions that reflected this moral choice. Will you trust the amount of land that the King is giving you? Or will you try to justify and say, hey I’ve got a really good thing going, this guy is not using this land at all, so I’m going to just move the landmark… no harm, no foul.

Every morning we’re given this opportunity for moral maturity: will I go on trusting the good Creator or will I take what is not mine? Will I step in and manipulate the deal, so it goes my way? Will I lie on the application so there is no awkward questions?

We don’t have time to delve in to how bizarre this talking snake that has this power to convince human beings to ignore the good and generous Creator’s command, and that’s not the point of the story...The story is keeping our focus on the Creator and what he is going to do about this serpent and what he’s going to do about the disobedience of Adam and Eve.So the serpent nonchalantly misquotes the Creator’s instructions, “So you can’t eat anything in the garden?” See what he’s trying to do? Yes, he’s twisting the Creator’s words, but he’s also developing a case for his rebellion.Eve, a good theologian, corrects the serpent, “No, we MAY eat of the fruit trees, we just can’t eat of that tree...”Do you see the serpents case for joining his rebellion?Oh, I see… the Creator is holding out on you. How good can a Creator be if he doesn’t give you everything???I can almost hear that slimy snake, “You shall not surely die...” making another point for his caseAnd then he goes for the jugular, here’s the truth, humans: as soon as you eat of that tree, you’re going to have your eyes opened and you’ll be able to decide what is good and evil, just like God.I don’t know if Adam and Eve huddled and talked it throughBut they came to the ultimate decision that this creature’s rebellion doesn’t really sound too badWhat was the serpent doing? He was taking the “TOV” and trying to send it back to “TOHU VAVOHU” And what happened as soon as they ate of that tree? God’s design for not only work, but relationships (towards God and towards each other) was ruined. Sin was now in the hearts of the humans.Adam and Eve started working on something… but it wasn’t what they had been called to doThey realized that they were naked. And they left their work of bringing beauty and order for the benefit of others, so that they could cover up their shame.Their relationship with their good and generous God was fragmented as we see God coming to see them in the “cool of the day” only to find that they’re playing hide and seek.And then the wheels start to fall off in their marriage as the blame game begins… Adam, what happened? It was the woman that YOU gave me > Eve, what happened? It was the snake> We don’t generally see this story in light of the physical, but the spiritual, but the response of the Creator is to add hardship to their real relationships (verse 16) and their real work (verse 17)

Well, we all know the choice that Adam and his wife Eve made, but let’s take a moment to read through it.

Genesis 3:1–3 ESV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

We don’t have time to delve in to how bizarre this talking snake that has this power to convince human beings to ignore the good and generous Creator’s command, and that’s not the point of the story...The story is keeping our focus on the Creator and what he is going to do about this serpent and what he’s going to do about the disobedience of Adam and Eve.So the serpent nonchalantly misquotes the Creator’s instructions, “So you can’t eat anything in the garden?” See what he’s trying to do? Yes, he’s twisting the Creator’s words, but he’s also developing a case for his rebellion.Eve, a good theologian, corrects the serpent, “No, we MAY eat of the fruit trees, we just can’t eat of that tree...”Do you see the serpents case for joining his rebellion?Oh, I see… the Creator is holding out on you. How good can a Creator be if he doesn’t give you everything???I can almost hear that slimy snake, “You shall not surely die...” making another point for his caseAnd then he goes for the jugular, here’s the truth, humans: as soon as you eat of that tree, you’re going to have your eyes opened and you’ll be able to decide what is good and evil, just like God.I don’t know if Adam and Eve huddled and talked it throughBut they came to the ultimate decision that this creature’s rebellion doesn’t really sound too badWhat was the serpent doing? He was taking the “TOV” and trying to send it back to “TOHU VAVOHU” And what happened as soon as they ate of that tree? God’s design for not only work, but relationships (towards God and towards each other) was ruined. Sin was now in the hearts of the humans.Adam and Eve started working on something… but it wasn’t what they had been called to doThey realized that they were naked. And they left their work of bringing beauty and order for the benefit of others, so that they could cover up their shame.Their relationship with their good and generous God was fragmented as we see God coming to see them in the “cool of the day” only to find that they’re playing hide and seek.And then the wheels start to fall off in their marriage as the blame game begins… Adam, what happened? It was the woman that YOU gave me > Eve, what happened? It was the snake> We don’t generally see this story in light of the physical, but the spiritual, but the response of the Creator is to add hardship to their real relationships (verse 16) and their real work (verse 17)

We don’t have time to delve in to how bizarre this talking snake that has this power to convince human beings to ignore the good and generous Creator’s command, and that’s not the point of the story...

The story is keeping our focus on the Creator and what he is going to do about this serpent and what he’s going to do about the disobedience of Adam and Eve.

So the serpent nonchalantly misquotes the Creator’s instructions, “So you can’t eat anything in the garden?” See what he’s trying to do? Yes, he’s twisting the Creator’s words, but he’s also developing a case for his rebellion.

Eve, a good theologian, corrects the serpent, “No, we MAY eat of the fruit trees, we just can’t eat of that tree...”Do you see the serpents case for joining his rebellion? “Oh, I see… the Creator is holding out on you. How good can a Creator be if he doesn’t give you everything?”

Oh, I see… the Creator is holding out on you. How good can a Creator be if he doesn’t give you everything?

I can almost hear that slimy snake, “You shall not surely die...” making another point for his case

And then he goes for the jugular, here’s the truth, humans: as soon as you eat of that tree, you’re going to have your eyes opened and you’ll be able to decide what is good and evil, just like God.

I don’t know if Adam and Eve huddled and talked it through but they came to the ultimate decision that this creature’s rebellion doesn’t really sound too bad.

What was the serpent doing? He was taking the “TOV” and trying to send it back to “TOHU VAVOHU” And what happened as soon as they ate of that tree? God’s design for not only work, but relationships (towards God and towards each other) was fractured.

Sin was now in the hearts of the humans. Adam and Eve started working on something… but it wasn’t what they had been called to do; they realized that they were naked. And they left their work of bringing beauty and order for the benefit of others, so that they could cover up their shame.

They realized that they were naked. And they left their work of bringing beauty and order for the benefit of others, so that they could cover up their shame.

Their relationship with their good and generous God was fragmented as we see God coming to see them in the “cool of the day” only to find that they’re playing hide and seek.

And then the wheels start to fall off in their marriage as the blame game begins… Adam, what happened? It was the woman that YOU gave me > Eve, what happened? It was the snake>

We don’t generally see this story in light of the physical, but the spiritual, but the response of the Creator is to add hardship to their real relationships (verse 16) and their real work (verse 17)

ESVAnd to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

If you’re reading along, this is the fourth poem found in the first three chapters.Poems are an important piece of biblical literature and you can’t attempt to interpret them without at least acknowledging that it was the Spirit’s intention to draw us in to this pinnacle point of the story with a poem.You need to ask a lot of questions when you are interpreting the meaning of the poem, like why does the poet (in this case God) repeat that they will not stop from eating, even though they disobeyed? What is he making sure they know?But what is going to happen is that these new evil rope-like creatures called thorns and thistles are going to start popping up from the cursed ground.Again, we can overlook the poetic nature of the piece here, or we can acknowledge the fact that what God is communicating is that the enemy is going to keep perpetually popping up all over your places of work.He doesn’t altar his design of work - we still work to bring order and beauty for the benefit of others, but now, NOW the enemy is there bringing resistance and hardship.Not only from the ground, but from the “sweat of our own face” - this doesn’t necessarily mean that work before the fall wasn’t difficult, but rather it carries this image that from our own minds we’ll experience this resistance.Sometimes I tell my wife, “I’m struggling with something having to do with work, and I’ll say, I’m just SO in my own head.” And what I mean is that even if it’s quiet outside there are an innumerable amount of thoughts and voices sounding off in my head.Others will face resistance from not having the abilities to do what they’re assigned to do. There will be a constant resistance to work. Both on the inside and on the outside.So the full picture of this poem is that there will be resistance from all over the place for our work. Sin has fractured the design of work.So, God’s design holds out an absolutely beautiful picture of work - but sin corrupts that picture and what we’re drawn to do is to hold them both in balance.Some of us see work as just thorns and thistles (and some of us work in that environment)Others are somewhat disillusioned when work is hard and people that we work with are difficult. We think, hey, I thought we were supposed to bring order and beauty for the benefit of others and then they respond with gratitude and then they start working to bring… that’s not always how it goes, is it?No. We need to hold both in tension. Sometimes we’ll have spent hours on a project or assignment that we’re passionate about, but then the timing is not right, or someone throws cold water on the idea. We hold them in balance by refreshing ourselves with (the good news) while remembering that for every two weeds you pull, ten will return with a vengeance. In the story thus far we’ve seen God’s design for work, and man’s ruin of God’s design, but now we turn to some really good news...

Genesis 3:17–19 ESV

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

If you’re reading along, this is the fourth poem found in the first three chapters.Poems are an important piece of biblical literature and you can’t attempt to interpret them without at least acknowledging that it was the Spirit’s intention to draw us in to this pinnacle point of the story with a poem.You need to ask a lot of questions when you are interpreting the meaning of the poem, like why does the poet (in this case God) repeat that they will not stop from eating, even though they disobeyed? What is he making sure they know?But what is going to happen is that these new evil rope-like creatures called thorns and thistles are going to start popping up from the cursed ground.Again, we can overlook the poetic nature of the piece here, or we can acknowledge the fact that what God is communicating is that the enemy is going to keep perpetually popping up all over your places of work.He doesn’t altar his design of work - we still work to bring order and beauty for the benefit of others, but now, NOW the enemy is there bringing resistance and hardship.Not only from the ground, but from the “sweat of our own face” - this doesn’t necessarily mean that work before the fall wasn’t difficult, but rather it carries this image that from our own minds we’ll experience this resistance.Sometimes I tell my wife, “I’m struggling with something having to do with work, and I’ll say, I’m just SO in my own head.” And what I mean is that even if it’s quiet outside there are an innumerable amount of thoughts and voices sounding off in my head.Others will face resistance from not having the abilities to do what they’re assigned to do. There will be a constant resistance to work. Both on the inside and on the outside.So the full picture of this poem is that there will be resistance from all over the place for our work. Sin has fractured the design of work.So, God’s design holds out an absolutely beautiful picture of work - but sin corrupts that picture and what we’re drawn to do is to hold them both in balance.Some of us see work as just thorns and thistles (and some of us work in that environment)Others are somewhat disillusioned when work is hard and people that we work with are difficult. We think, hey, I thought we were supposed to bring order and beauty for the benefit of others and then they respond with gratitude and then they start working to bring… that’s not always how it goes, is it?No. We need to hold both in tension. Sometimes we’ll have spent hours on a project or assignment that we’re passionate about, but then the timing is not right, or someone throws cold water on the idea. We hold them in balance by refreshing ourselves with (the good news) while remembering that for every two weeds you pull, ten will return with a vengeance. In the story thus far we’ve seen God’s design for work, and man’s ruin of God’s design, but now we turn to some really good news...

If you’re reading along, this is the fourth poem found in the first three chapters.

Poems are an important piece of biblical literature and you can’t attempt to interpret them without at least acknowledging that it was the Spirit’s intention to draw us in to this pinnacle point of the story with a poem.

You need to ask a lot of questions when you are interpreting the meaning of the poem, like why does the poet (in this case God) repeat that they will not stop from eating, even though they disobeyed? What is he making sure they know?

But what is going to happen is that these new evil rope-like pests called thorns and thistles are going to start popping up from the cursed ground. Again, we can overlook the poetic nature of the piece here, or we can acknowledge the fact that what God is communicating is that the enemy is going to keep perpetually popping up all over your places of work.

He doesn’t altar his design of work - we still work to bring order and beauty for the benefit of others, but now, NOW sin in the heart has become a part of the equation—and because of this sin, there is a resistance to that beautiful design of work.

Not only from the ground, but from the “sweat of our own face” - this doesn’t necessarily mean that work before the fall didn’t cause sweat, but rather it carries this image that from our own heads and minds we’ll experience this resistance.

Sometimes I tell my wife, “I’m struggling with something having to do with work, and I’ll say, I’m just SO in my own head.” And what I mean is that even if it’s quiet outside there are an innumerable amount of thoughts and voices sounding off in my head.

Others will face resistance from not having the abilities to do what they’re assigned to do. There will be a constant resistance to work. Both on the inside and on the outside.

So the full picture of this poem is that there will be resistance from all over the place for our work. Sin has fractured the design of work.

So, God’s design holds out an absolutely beautiful picture of work - but sin corrupts that picture and what we’re drawn to do is to hold them both in balance.

Some of us see work as just thorns and thistles (and some of us work in that environment) Others are somewhat disillusioned when work is hard and people that we work with are difficult. We think, “hey, I thought we were supposed to bring order and beauty for the benefit of others and then they respond with gratitude and then they start working to bring…” that’s not always how it goes, is it?

If we’re going to see

No. We need to hold both in tension. Sometimes we’ll have spent hours on a project or assignment that we’re passionate about, but then the timing is not right, or someone throws cold water on the idea. We hold them in balance by refreshing ourselves with (the good news) while remembering that for every two weeds you pull, ten will return with a vengeance.

ESVThe Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

This is why just telling people that work should be fun because God had fun doing his work isn’t helpful. Work will not (no matter what you’re doing) always be fun because we will be confronted with that perfect design being fractured, we will be confronted by the resistance to our work that sin brings.

In the story thus far we’ve seen God’s design for work, and man’s choice that fractured God’s design for work, but now we turn to some really good news...

Genesis 3:14 ESV

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

You’re doomed for defeat and shame

ESVI will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

God, speaking in poetry, to the snake tells him that He is going to plant this enmity between not snakes and humans, (although) but between the offspring of this evil and the offspring of whom? Eve.

So, there are these two lineages that derive from this story. Those who will ultimately join the rebellion of the serpent and the offspring of the woman. Who is this? It says, “He” so this should paint a picture in your mind of this Redeemer and what is this Redeemer going to do?

Does it say, “He will crush all the baby snakes?” No. It says, He shall crush or bruise YOUR head. Who is your? The snake or the source of all of the evil offspring.

But something happens during this Hero Redeemer’s victorious crushing of the source of evil, what happens? Somehow while the Redeemer is crushing the head of the serpent, the serpent deals a bruise or a wound to the Redeemer’s heal.

That is to say, that the means of this victorious battle is the bite of the serpent. And the Redeemer is absorbing all of the venom into himself in order to defeat the source of evil

The cross of Christ is the Redemption of God’s design. Jesus did absorb all of the venom of evil upon himself and suffered and died in the place of humans who deserved to suffer for the choices we’ve made to join the rebellion of the serpent. And we have ALL joined the rebellion.

What is amazing is that there is nowhere in Scripture where God tells his created beings that they had better get their act together or he was going to get them.

What’s amazing is that this is a promise. And God’s promise did not come with any strings attached. What God wants from us is the same thing he wanted from Adam and Eve from the beginning; he wants us to submit to Him to trust that he is the final word when it comes to good and evil and not us.

This is really good news. What does this mean for work?

If you take away the sin that entered into the world at the fall of the humans, what do you have?

You have “TOV” you have goodness. You have humans (who are under the gracious and generous rule of the Creator-King) working to bring order and beauty and benefit to others without the resistance of evil.

So there is this way in which Christians living on this side of the cross of Christ are living in a completely different age of everything, work included.

God’s people living on the other side of the Cross of Christ were to live as a community that was anticipating the Redemption of the snake killer. What did that look like?

Since we don’t have the time to read the entire story, let me trace it with you:

From the time God made a covenant with Abraham () God said, through you all of the families of the earth will be blessed

Joseph was perhaps the first sign of this blessing as God used the work of Joseph to preserve the known world by designing a plan for order for the benefit of others

And then we have the people of God, the family of Abraham (at this time maybe 1 million) gathered at the base of Mt. Sinai with the instructions that they would be a kingdom of priests (priests by description are the liaison between God and man) and that they were to bring blessing to the nations

And because the moral choice to do good to neighbor through work had historically been completely abandoned, God established laws explaining how to do this:

Leviticus 19:9–10 ESV

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:9–18 ESV

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God. “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

In God’s Kingdom, the poor and the immigrant are taken care of by God’s people trusting the provision of YHWH, instead of feeling the need to squeeze their land dry...

Lev 19:9-18

In fact, in a similar passage in Deuteronomy God says, if you forget a tool in the land, leave it there so that the poor (fatherless and widow) and the immigrant will have tools to use when they do their work

As we continue to follow the story we learn the sad truth that the serpent has convinced even God’s called out people to join the rebellion. So what happens? The Israelites (like Adam and Eve) become an exilic people.

Jeremiah 29:4-

But even in their exile, God still calls them to be rulers and priests-his workers, bringing order and beauty and benefit to others

Jeremiah 29:4–7 ESV

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Sounds very Eden-esk - God says, build culture (houses and gardens, be fruitful and multiply, benefit others) seek the welfare of the city, pray for the city.

Fast forward several hundred years when Christ was born. Jesus was the true Israelite, the true human, actually bringing order and beauty and benefit to others wherever he went. Is it a coincidence that Jesus worked a physical job as a carpenter?

For the first time in human history, the world saw a human acting in a truly human way (meaning the way that the Creator intended for humans to live), yet within a context of great brokenness. Jesus did not do His work in an Eden-like environment. The Gospels reveal that Jesus faced resistance everywhere he went even though all of His work was done the way God intended for it to be done.

Jesus did not teach his followers that God’s design was too difficult and that they’d face too much resistance, so they should fend for themselves and hope that things got better.

No. In fact, one of Jesus’s closest follower, Peter, wrote this:

1 Peter 2:5 ESV

you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Are we talking about joining in on the camp of dominionism? No.

1 Peter 2:

To understand what it would mean to be priests and rulers (The call given to human in , , , and here) we simply need to keep reading

1 Peter 2:11–12 ESV

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

1 Peter 2:11

Vocationally, we all have the same calling. We’re rulers and priests where we are (stay at home mom, and salesman, and nurse) so what do we do?

We work to bring order and beauty and benefit to others.

We pray for God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

As priests and rulers we pursue holiness and justice where we are.

IT’s within that context that we can start walking along the path of the other instructions we see in the NT, like:

Colossians 3:23 ESV

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Ephesians 4:28 ESV

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.

How you spend the majority of your waking hours (your work) is not a mystery. Do what is in front of you. Don’t overthink the WHAT, but the HOW.

And by the power of the Holy Spirit, through prayer, and holiness, you will show the world around you the GLORY of God — You will show the nature and character of God.

That is what work looks like on this side of the cross and this side of eternity.

We can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, get up in the morning and work (bringing order and beauty for the benefit of others).

Colossians 3:23 ESV

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Colossians 3:23

But what happens when (and we will) we experience sin in our hearts and in our coworkers hearts and resistance on our projects? We remind each other of the hope of the return of the King.

I want to encourage our Gospel Fellowships to choose a place in this area where there is “wild and waste” and work together to bring order and beauty and benefit.

And lastly, for those who are here today and you are just hearing some of this about submitting to God’s rule and reign and sin and the Redemption of Christ, I invite you today while people come in a few minutes for communion to talk with me.

The Story of Work - Part 2

Welcome:

Review:

The Design is Fractured

The Opportunity for Moral Maturity

The Serpent attempts to Sway the Humans

Sin Brings Resistance to Work

The Redeemer is Promised

The Redemption of Work’s Design

The Story between the Fall and the Cross

What does being priests and rulers actually mean?

How can I bring order, how can I bring beauty, how can I bring benefit?

Application:

The Story of Work - Part 2

​

Welcome:

Review:

The Design is Fractured

The Opportunity for Moral Maturity

The Serpent attempts to Sway the Humans

Sin Brings Resistance to Work

The Redeemer is Promised

The Redemption of Work’s Design

The Story between the Fall and the Cross

What does being priests and rulers actually mean?

How can I bring order, how can I bring beauty, how can I bring benefit?

Application: