Good morning everyone.
You've done well to come out on a morning like this morning,
but it's great to be here and a tremendous amount of encouragement in Christ
to be his people together.
When Wendy was... I chose the Bible reading,
but when she was reading that Isaiah reading,
25 years ago I was a student minister at Currajong
and I was in the old church with wooden floors like this
and being a student felt like I needed to colour my sermon even more
than what the ministers would normally do.
So I brought my axe into church and at the moment when you raise the axe,
you know, the king of Assyria is just an instrument in my hand,
I put it down on the pulpit, slipped off and went bang on the floor.
And I don't think they remember anything else about the sermon
except what happened with the axe that morning.
Anyway, let's pray.
Thank you, Father, for bringing us together.
Father, please warm our hearts, strengthen our hearts
from your word this morning.
Grow us in Christ and grow us in a mindset
that helps us in thinking who we are as believers,
especially in the work that we do.
And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
One of our church family spoke to me a few weeks ago
about their employment
and they told me what life was like in their workplace
as a believer.
And you'd have to say their work for them is like,
is probably like a love-hate relationship
with the emphasis being more on hate.
They work with a persecuting boss
who has a particular set of prejudices towards Christians.
Their boss has been exposed to pretty terrible hypocrisy
of churches
as their boss has gone about their work.
They've seen it and had to bear with it.
And because of that,
his boss's attitude towards our brother
may well affect his ability to progress
in his workplace
because they've summed him up
and applied their mind to what they think about him
in the light of their experience of Christians.
And yet at the same time
before his boss became his boss,
he had been given great responsibility in his work.
He has oversight of a number of people.
He told me about two women in particular
that were causing grief and dysfunction in the office.
They literally hated one another.
He picked his moment.
He'd been praying about it.
He went to one of the women
and he said,
I want to ask you to do something
that I think you'll find very difficult.
You aren't too busy at present.
That woman over there,
she's quite overloaded.
Not now, but later when I'm not looking.
Would you go to her
and ask her
if there's anything that you can do
to help her and ease her load?
Short story.
Later on, he saw from a distance
her do what he'd asked
to go to that woman.
They shared the work.
A friendship has grown to the point now
where they meet each other for coffee and for lunch.
Our brother exercised a reconciling influence for good in his workplace.
And he wasn't trying to blow his own trumpet.
But for him,
that was a moment of deep satisfaction
in an otherwise difficult job.
And I think it's all there
in that story in his workplace,
in his experience.
Work is toilsome.
It is burdensome.
It gets distorted.
He works hard against trying to make it into an idol.
And yet there are moments of triumph
and joy
and satisfaction
which are the consequence
of the profound influence of Jesus Christ.
The writer of Ecclesiastes was correct
when he said in chapter 5, verse 18,
I realised that it is good and proper
for a man to eat and drink
and to find satisfaction
in his toilsome labour
under the sun
during the few days of life
that God's given him
because that's his lot.
And moreover,
when God gives any man wealth and possessions
and enables him to enjoy them,
to accept his lot
and be happy in his work,
this is a gift of God.
He seldom reflects on the days of his life
because God keeps him occupied
with gladness of heart.
Now the last few weeks
while we've been preaching this series,
we've seen a number of things
about work.
We have seen that work has dignity
because it is part of God's creative purposes for us.
We've seen that work is different from employment.
It may include employment
but it certainly includes the work of life
such as raising families,
nurturing grandchildren,
serving our community.
It's vocational
and when we use the word vocational,
we've been saying
we are called to work by someone
or for someone.
So work is not about us
and a means to our own ends.
For a believer,
work is service of God
and also service of the person
who calls us to work for them.
We've also seen that work has become toilsome
as a direct result of God's judgment
in Genesis 3.
We've seen that it is easily distorted
when we make an idol of it.
The things that we idolise
can be good of themselves.
We're not saying that wealth is wrong
or children are wrong
or esteem is wrong
or opportunity is wrong.
But we're saying that these things become idols
when we allow them
to displace Jesus Christ as Lord in our life
when they become the ultimate purpose of our work.
And so work in a fallen world
can look pretty hopeless
and what I want to do today
is preach about finding contentment in our work.
How can we experience work as God's good gift?
How do we cope with the difficulty
and the toilsome nature of work?
How do we work without distorting it
into an idol that we give our life to?
Tim Keller's book,
which is Every Good Endeavour.
We've got a couple more copies there in the foyer.
They've been disappearing off the resource stand.
There's two there if you want to get one.
I want to follow his book this morning
in two directions in particular.
I want to look at the world
with a gospel set of glasses.
And secondly,
I want us to see the world
as a place where God continually
impacts the lives of everyone
whether they are a believer or an unbeliever.
Whether we recognise it or not,
everybody has a world view,
a lens through which we look at the world
and make sense of what is happening around us.
And most of us are full of logical inconsistencies.
So the scientific naturalist
who views the world as a mechanism
and sees people as animals,
they will argue for
and they will marvel at concepts
like the survival of the fittest
and natural selection
where the strong do away with the weak.
and then they will be aggrieved
when somebody murders the professor
in their faculty
or their wife or their child.
They will be outraged
that someone of high value to them
is done away with
by someone of lower value
in terms of their own ethical framework.
their value system
is in conflict
with their mechanistic understanding of life.
And their value system
just does not add up.
You see,
if there's no moral
ultimate accountability
then why wouldn't I sleep with your wife,
murder you,
take your estate,
I'd just be,
I'd need to be stronger of course,
but I'd just be asserting myself
as stronger
and fitter than you
and there would be no moral consequences
to my action.
But the Bible
has an entirely different lens
through which we view life.
So when King David
slept with Uriah's wife,
murdered Uriah,
then took Bathsheba
to be his own wife,
he soon discovered
that the God of his forefathers
was displeased
with what he had done
and God brought justice
and accountability
to bear on David.
So I want to say
that the Bible presents
a very coherent world view.
It's built around the reality
that there is a creator
God of the universe.
Jesus is Lord of the universe.
Colossians chapter 1 says
that all things were created
by him and for him.
So even today,
this morning in Sydney,
Jesus continues his work
intervening in his creation
as he sees fit.
And that truth
echoes to the very core
of our being
whether we believe
in God or not.
Psalm 19,
where Sam was
a little while ago
with the kids,
declared,
Psalm 19 says,
the heavens declare
the glory of God,
the skies proclaim
the work of his hands.
This stupendously intricate
and marvellous universe
points to something
even more glorious
beyond it,
its creator
who spoke it
into being
in the first place.
Romans holds
everyone culpable
for what we do know
about God.
Not what we don't know
about God,
but what we do know
about God.
So verse 18 says,
the wrath of God
is being revealed
from heaven
against all the godlessness
and wickedness
of men
who suppress the truth
by their wickedness.
Since what may be known
about God
is plain to them
because God has made it
plain to them.
For since the creation
of the world,
God's invisible qualities,
his eternal power,
his divine nature,
have been clearly seen,
being understood
from what has been made
so that people
are without excuse.
You get a great example
of this when you look
at Isaiah 10.
The Assyrian emperor
thinks that he is
king of the world
and from the world's
point of view he is.
He is the unchallenged
superpower of the world
2,500 years ago.
He doesn't believe in God.
He helps himself
to one country
after another.
He conquers all before him.
And he's a haughty
boaster about his work.
So verses 13, 14.
By the strength
of my hand
I've done this.
By my wisdom
because I have understanding
I removed the boundaries
of nations.
I plundered their treasures.
Like a mighty one
I subdued their kings.
As one reaches
into a nest
so my hand reached
for the wealth
of the nations.
As men gather
abandoned eggs
so I gathered
all the countries
not one flapped a wing
or opened its mouth
to church.
Isn't he the greatest?
He thinks so.
So for the king
it's all about him
his desires
his achievements
he does a big work
as a king
and his world view
does not include
God at all
he doesn't believe
in him.
And the problem
for him
and for you
and for me
is a very
inconvenient truth
that just because
you don't believe
in God
doesn't mean
he tucks his tail
between his legs
and goes away
rejected and shamefaced.
And in Isaiah 10
God answers
the king of Assyria's
boast
and he says
woe to him
I send him
I dispatch him
I have purposes
for him
Verse 15
does the axe
raise itself
above him
who swings it
He might be
the greatest king
with the most
modern army
but he does not
operate outside
of God's purposes
for his creation
the king of Assyria
is a tool
in God's hands
and he had better
recognise it.
And so a Bible
worldview
is that it doesn't
matter how big
or important
you are in your
life's work
or your field
of endeavour
we are accountable
to God
and our work
our achievements
only occur
with God's
permission
and for his
pleasure.
A gospel
worldview
also recognises
the lordship
of Jesus Christ
The apostle
puts it very
succinctly
in 1 Corinthians
15
By this gospel
you are saved
if you hold
firmly to the
word I preach
to you
otherwise
you have
believed in
vain
For what I
received I
passed on to
you as of
first importance
that Christ
died for our
sins according
to the
scriptures
that he was
buried
that he was
raised on the
third day
according to
the scriptures
and that he
appeared to
Peter and
then to the
twelve and
on and on
it goes
so it's a
word which is
preached
we participate
in this
preached word
through belief
it's received
and then we
are able to
pass it on
so Christ
died according
to the
scriptures
he was
buried
he was
raised on
the third
day according
to the
scriptures
and then he
appeared to
witnesses
including me
and we've got
this great
picture of God
taking the
initiative
we're spectators
to what God
has done
we participate
by belief
and then becoming
part of the
process of
transmission
passing it
on
but when we
believe the
gospel
we take on
this new set
of glasses
for viewing
the world
for looking
at God's
world
we begin
to see the
world through
God's eyes
and we see
our place
in his
purposes
so Philippians
chapter 2
therefore God
God exalted
Jesus to the
highest place
and gave him
the name that
is above every
name that at
the name of
Jesus every
knee should
bow in
heaven and
on earth and
under the
earth and
every tongue
confess that
Jesus Christ
is Lord to
the glory of
God the
Father
we come to
understand that
the risen Lord
Jesus Christ
the risen Jesus
Christ is Lord
of the universe
and everybody
is ultimately
accountable to
him and it
matters it
does matter how
we live and
how we go about
our life's work
Jesus spoke to
believers his
disciples in the
sermon on the
mount he said
you are the salt
of the earth you
are the light of
the world in my
community group
the other night
one of the group
members described
standing with
dignity and
saying nothing
when they were
ridiculed by a
co-worker in
front of others
in the middle of
their workplace
for what they
believed just
stood there and
took it
another person
spoke about how
God began to
trust them with
very personal
confidences because
of the way that
they went about
their work and
you've got this
picture you've got
toil you've got
toil trouble
distortion and
you've also got
these glorious
moments as well
it's not helpful
to draw lines
between word and
deed living under
the lordship of
Christ will be
noticed people
will notice when
we live lives
accountable to
Christ people
will see us
refuse to take
ethical shortcuts
they observe how
we speak about
other people
they watch how
we work under
pressure they
see what we do
when we make
mistakes they're
affected when they
see us take
responsibility for
things that we
do wrong people
watch and they
test to see if
our actions are
consistent with
our words and
that will often
lead to opportunities
to speak about
our faith and
your work
environment might
be very tough
for you at
present sleepless
looking after sick
children pressured
unfairly in your
workplace crushed
by people's
expectations of
your performance
or perhaps a
real mistake by
you has led to
very significant
consequences
gospel glasses
help us to see
the lordship of
Christ transcending
every place of
work or profession
to see our
accountability to
him to hold on to
his promises of
providential care for
us to understand
that we live and
breathe under his
undeserved grace
Timothy Keller gives
an example in his
book of a gospel
glasses change he
says this is a quote
in higher education in
the United States
today is the
modern idea of
meritocracy and
the belief that
those who get into
the best universities
deserve to be there
because they are the
best and the
brightest and I
suspect that that
sort of thinking
resonates up and
down the north shore
of Sydney we don't
like acknowledging
wealth and
privilege we think
in terms of what
we deserve we rate
ourselves or our
children or our
grandchildren in
accordance with
UAIs even if we
have paid tens of
thousands of dollars
on schooling and
coaching for the
result that we
want
and Keller
contrasts that with
the thinking of the
Protestant forefathers
who established the
leading universities in
the United States the
Ivy League universities
he says the founders of
those universities were
strident Protestants
who believed that the
mark of salvation was
not high self-esteem
but humbling awareness of
one's lowliness in the
eyes of God
and those whom God
favours are granted
grace not for any
worthiness of their own
but because of God's
unmerited mercy
our profession of faith
is Jesus Christ is
Lord
and it must be
accompanied by a
humility of heart in
the lives of his
people
humble
authenticity
is a very
high value
for us
at St.
Paul's
because it is an
absolutely
necessary response
to the lordship
of the risen
Lord Jesus Christ
but it's a confusing
world isn't it
not everyone
acknowledges the true
ultimate reality
which is the
lordship of Christ
the world's not
short of unbelievers
believers and
unbelievers both
experience the common
grace of Christ
rain falls on the
farms of both
believers and
unbelievers
when I lived in
Weewa trouble
didn't discriminate
either
floods went
through the farms
of believers
and unbelievers
it didn't sort of
think oh hang on
he's been in church
and he's really
active
we'll go that way
went straight
through
and insects
don't stay on one
property they cross
the fence to the
neighbour as well
they don't have this
special sign saying
protected by God
farming is hard
work
for some it
becomes an idol
and then sometimes
there are the most
enjoyable moments
when rain falls at
just the right time
you get a rest from
irrigation
you get extra
yield in your crop
it's good to live
out in the bush
you see it
believers and
unbelievers live
under the common
grace of God
in a fallen
world
and the impacts
can look really
confusing
an unbelieving
mother can be
a deeply
loving and
capable
carer
of her
children
a believing
mother can get
postnatal depression
and be quite
neglectful
an unbelieving
scientist can use
his God
given ability
and unravel
the marvels
of DNA
the man
or the woman
who serves you
in the coffee
shop may be
living a
notoriously
immoral
life
and they
may make
the best
coffee
you get
anywhere
and in
your
workplace
you do
your work
to the best
of your
ability
and it's
just the
truth that
many of
the unbelievers
around you
are more
capable
than you
are
one of
my
relatives
who wasn't
expressing
faith in
Christ
was much
quicker
at turning
the television
off than
me
when something
inappropriate
was showing
you see
unbelievers
can do
good things
they can
be considerate
they can
be loving
they can
be selfless
they can
make
brilliant
discoveries
they can
be blown
away by
a majestic
sunrise
they can
marvel at
the photographs
of the
universe
that the
Hubble
telescope
beams
back
they can
be generous
in helping
a neighbour
with cancer
they can
mind
their children
they can
make them
a meal
they can
treat you
with complete
integrity
when they
ask you
out on
a date
they can
excel
at HSC
and
university
exams
they can
be good
carpenters
and electricians
and childcare
workers
who wouldn't
even think
to molest
a child
you see
you can
be all
those
good
things
you can
love
and serve
other people
without
confessing
Jesus
Christ
as
Lord
and it's
confusing
when I
was at
Moore
College
I did
a hospital
orientation
course
at
Royal
Prince
Alfred
Hospital
for a
week
and one
afternoon
we as a
group
were
introduced
to a
lovely
man
in his
70s
a
professor
of
psychiatry
an
active
salvation
army
officer
a
very
firm
Christian
and so
it was
great
to ask
him
one
of my
many
questions
and in
particular
if you
need
psychiatric
help
do you
look for
a
Christian
one
and he
instantly
replied
you
look for
a
good
one
you
need
a
good
one
you
see
believers
do not
have a
monopoly
on
truth
God
has
given
us
gospel
glasses
which
help
us
to
make
sense
of
God's
creation
when
unbelievers
discover
anything
which is
true
about
this
world
they
are
discovering
God's
truth
they
are
unravelling
a little
bit more
of his
mind
and the
intricacies
of our
maker
they're not
giving him
the glory
but they
are
discovering
truth
and friends
I think
that leads
us to a
few
places
we
should be
especially
guarded
against
our
own
arrogance
to
presume
that
Christians
know
more
or
better
about
a
field
of
endeavour
is
arrogant
and
foolish
gospel
glasses
help us
to see
the gifts
and insights
that God
has given
even
to
unbelievers
and to
learn
from
them
we
should
be
quick
to
express
gratitude
when
gratitude
is
deserved
the
man
who
serves
you
at
Bunnings
and
goes
out
of
his
way
to
show
you
another
way
to
do
the
job
he
is
worthy
of
our
thanks
our
cleaners
at
church
aren't
just
the
paid
help
they
work
hard
to
clean
up
after
our
mess
be
grateful
thank
God
that he
allows
men
and
women
to
serve
one
another
with
their
talents
and their
gifts
and
service
which
ultimately
come
from
his
hand
I
listen
to
Catherine
some
of
you
won't
even
know
what
I'm
talking
about
I'll
just
try
I
listen
to
Catherine
Jenkins
sing
with
the
Mormon
Tabernacle
Choir
on the
internet
as I
prepared
this
message
somebody
sent
me
the
link
and
you
know
my
first
question
is
I'm
not
sure
I want
to
listen
to
that
I
don't
like
what
they
teach
about
Christ
but
as I
listen
to
the
music
I
have
it
is
stunningly
beautiful
believers
and
unbelievers
live in
God's
world
under
his
ordinary
providential
care
for
believers
and
unbelievers
our
work
is
toilsome
distorted
and
occasionally
a joy
that
brings
wonderful
contentment
and
when
it
does
it
is
God's
gift
we
differ
in
our
acknowledgement
of
God
believers
humbly
confess
Jesus
Christ
as
Lord
Ecclesiastes
5
again
when
God
gives
any
person
wealth
and
possessions
and
enables
him
to
enjoy
them
to
accept
his
lot
and
to
be
happy
in
his
work
this
is
a
gift
of
God
he
seldom
reflects
on
the
days
of
his
life
because
God
keeps
him
occupied
with
gladness
of
heart
see
believers
hold
what we
have
from
God's
hand
with
gratitude
and
contentment
and hope
grateful
to him
for what
he has
given
us
to do
gratitude
but
also
grateful
to
God
for
the
people
around
us
believers
and
unbelievers
who
use
their
God
given
gifts
and
talents
to
serve
us
so
live
like
that
with
gratitude
I
actually
think
if we
live
like that
with
gratitude
to
those
around
us
that
we
will
have
many
opportunities
to
speak
and
declare
the
hope
that
we
have
in
our
wonderful
risen
Lord
Jesus
Christ
so
I want
to say
this
morning
go
from
here
full
of
humble
authenticity
full
of
gratitude
to
God
for
the
work
that
he
has
given
us
and
make
it a
mark
of
this
week
to
be
grateful
to
God
for
those
who
serve
you
and
make
sure
that
you
express
gratitude
to
them
as
well
Amen