Two Kinds of Work

Before Church:

Today we are going live for the whole service

We are switching up where the sermon goes in the service why? Still half or so of our regular attenders are attending online

Revelation & Response

Start coming early!!!!!!

Please turn the ring off on your phone

And react! Sing! One of the things that you can do for the people at home is help them to feel like they are here live with us.

Special Announcement

We are back, but we have our eye on the numbers

If you come and later find out that you have covid, please let us know. We will respect your medical information and not share who had it, but we will let the rest of our congregation know

Should there be another surge where hospitals can not contain the numbers we would shut down again.

We have done as full review of our cleaning procedures

We have even made all of our renter congregations participate in a cleaning training

We are confidant that with our reduced attendance, regular cleaning and masks that we will all be safe here

Recap

Last week we started our series on Sabbath.

And the reason why we are doing this series right now is that this year has challenged all of our Rhythms…We have totally changed routines as a result of COVID

We are calling all of the families in our church to begin a new and intentional Rhythm.

I think we can agree that our Rhythm’s have all gotten a bit out of wack during COVID...So I want to call you to Sabbath:

Pick a day, Put your phones and electronics away. Have a meal with your family. Ask God what he wants your family to be about.

And its not just a day to relax, this is a day to remind your family of your mission, what you are all about.

Every night at dinner I pray with my kids, “Lord, Help us to be the type of family, who makes others happy that you made this world and put us in it!”

Every night for each child I pray, Lord: Help my kids to be the type of kids who make others happy you made this world and put them in it.

So literally my kids know their mission in life

Their job is to make others happy that God made this world and put them in it. This is their mission...

In other words, their lives should lead others to worship Jesus...

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.

To begin to form your family into a family on mission. Listen, I can not do that for you. It wont accidentally happen. You have to intentionally form your family into being a family on mission.

Transformation 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:

Last week, the point was that woven into the first 7 days of creation is a Rhythm of worship…There is a daily pattern, a weekly pattern and a monthly pattern. God created it this way

And finally, 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 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 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

English Standard Version Chapter 2

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 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.”

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

This literally just happened with Jake and his valentines candy…We had a drive by pickup…His teacher handed us a bag of candy from all the other kids in the class…and when we got home

he ran up to me and dumped it out and asked me if I wanted to sort his candy with him...

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?

Work Sucks

Work is hard. It is draining and sometimes all consuming

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

English Standard Version Chapter 3

17 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;

18  thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;

and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19  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.”

Work 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

English Standard Version Chapter 11

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 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?

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…the way you serve your boss…The way you 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

English Standard Version Chapter 4

17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

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

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

English Standard Version Chapter 5

5 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so 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 Ernie Reyes Brother, Richard Reyes

We just laid him to rest a couple of weeks ago.

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.

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

As the band comes....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 give your work life over to Jesus!

Let’s Pray

Father, Help us to take your yoke upon ourselves

To walk with you in our own work.

To surrender to you